#literally snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat

[mooseonabreak]

Oh to have a transcript of today’s final class roleplay session. So much happened. There was shouting. There were three assassination attempts. There was heartbreak. The class finally put their hearts into their roles.

[jq37]

You know I've been following dimension 20 for years, literally since I was in Highschool

And was not prepared for that tonal whiplash at the end of the episode. I do not know how to describe this emotion

This episode smacked me in the face TWICE.

First was midway through the ep when it really seemed like Ally had pulled out their clutch game over Nat 20 and the fight was in the bag, but then Fig's bad luck curse or whatever was like, "Nope!" and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the most Looney Tunes way possible. Everyone at the table was hysterical in disbelief and, might I say, same. In no world would I have ever anticipated that that was the sequence of events that I was about to see.

But THEN the fight ends on this unfinished, ominous note and it's all very unsettling but it's PARTY TIME and we have to do a SHRIMP JUMP and Ragh is BUTTERED UP and Fig his a NAT TWENTY.

So, to sum up, we have Nat 20 God Whispering followed by shrimp anaphylaxis and Nat 20 shrimp jump into a pool of tartar sauce.

Where do you even go from there? I guess we'll find out tonight!

[zigmenthotep]

One of the most ridiculous parts—okay, let's be honest, it was all ridiculous parts—of the Dark Universe debacle is that Universal literally already had a shared cinematic universe with their classic monsters in the 1940s.

It's one of the most amazing examples of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in cinema history. Like, they own some of the most widely recognized names in not just horror, but all movie history, but instead of focusing on those characters, and that history, they decided smart strategy was to make a series of vehicles for actors who were famous in the 90s... but not like, the actor who was famous in the 90s for literally being in a universally-loved Universal monster movie.

And that's another thing, they already did a successful reboot of The Mummy, but once gain instead of looking at what made their previous movies successful they seem to have just gone "Who can we hire for the most money, who will do the most intentional active damage to the film, and give us the smallest possible return," and then learned back assuming that Tom Cruise still had a name that prints money like it did in 1996.

Seriously, look at these two movie posters. One is a poster for a new Mummy movie, and the other is a poster for a new Tom Cruise movie.

[ac-liveblogs]

(1) Mualani drives me insane because she's a famed three-time-war-vet who can talk down armed robbers through sheer friendly intimidation, casually walks cross country to visit loner pals, and exudes so much confidence potential bullies wither away from her mere presence. She wears a swimsuit to the battlefield and throws bouncy balls as bullets. The game hypes her up, then ludonarratively follows through by giving you a trial version with 350k normals.

(2) In a better game, Mualani would be the kind of girl where half of Natlan adores her, but the other half of Natlan hates her and is too scared to say it to her face. She'd be wearing the swimsuits as an advertising ploy. She'd get into fights because she's a decorated-three-time-war-vet and you're literally nobody. But because this is genshin they somehow her boring. Whenever there's a fight, all she does is weakly bite back. (3) She can't even raise her voice at the Abyss order or the Archon she thinks might have killed her friend. Basically, every time her confidence could be abrasive, the game shoves her into a nice-girl-cookie-cutter-mold. By the end, she sounds like Erza Scarlet in a white wig. How did HYV fail that badly? It actually pisses me off to see a character who could so easily have some semblance of a personality be so painfully boring... sorry for my personal vent. Had to get that off my chest. lol.

No problem at all, I just finished the World Quest she's tied to myself and sat back like. Wow. You're right. Wow Genshin is screwing this girl so badly. Only HYV wouldn't commit to just… having her as the "protagonist" of the Natlan AQ, right? Or at least the focus point? After the "unity" thing... after showing her forsaking glory for her own personal definition of 'victory' that aligns with what her predecessors valued, tying into the themes of Natlan's people working together over time to protect what they consider important... after showing her as a protector time and time again...

Any other game would do it, especially if they didn't want to bother with Kachina's stuff post act 2 - it seemed like they were going to center Mualani instead. Unifying the 6 tribes on a larger scale like she did with Kinich and Kachina, per her Ancient Name.

But, uh oh sister, those line count leaks aren't looking good - we're seriously focusing on Mavuika? The least interesting link here? Miss "Yeah everyone's ancestors trusted the future generation to win this fight, except me apparently, I didn't trust the future Pyro Archon better be here myself?"

After they thoroughly shafted Kachina, who I'd stupidly thought would be becoming a hero/earning her name through the whole ~chosen one thing for her tribe, but apparently that's Xilonen!(??? why, if she does get acknowledged by her wayob it's not her as tribe's hero? it's just generic acknowledgment…?)

This all seemed pretty straightforward, right. Like, a pretty generically simple story that has existing templates that Genshin could easily pull off. Trust HYV to snatch defeat from the jaws of adequacy.

ghhh mualani could've been so cool why'd they do this to her (also why'd they cover her in fish i can't take her closeups seriously with those literal fish-eyes)

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

So you're saying they should remove same-sex marriage is because it isn't covered by the Constitution more specifically the 14th amendment?

I'm saying that I couldn't care less what happens to Obergefell. I think it's a dead issue to most people and reviving it and trying to get gay marriage overturned right now is the definition of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Even the far right doesn't care about Obergefell nearly as much as it cares about banning abortion, so it's not going to galvanize the base to go out and vote, and most other people just don't care. They see no reason why gay people shouldn't be able to get a slip of paper from the government that says they're married. If Trump suddenly came out and said "We're going to get gay marriage banned when I get back in" it would be a massive win for the Biden campaign for basically zero gain. So yeah, it should be overturned, just like every unconstitutional overreach by every branch of government should, but it's not an issue anyone should be bringing up on it's own and there's literally about a thousand things I care about more than I care about whether or not the federal government considers my marriage valid.

[fideidefenswhore]

I hope this isn't stupid, but did Henry really do the Great Matter the right way? I just feel if he'd used a normal argument instead of making it a religion problem it'd be easier for him. If he said "I have no son, so I want to make a new marriage and get one, to protect my people from war" then wasn't that a reason other kings had, and they got annulments? That would be just a fact and everyone at the time knew no son had problems. Sure Catherine would still fight but she couldn't really say he was wrong. But instead if he says it's all Leviticus and God's mad it gives her the out to say she never slept with Arthur so God's not counting that as a real marriage. Then Henry has to say she's lying and so she looks the injured party and right to be offended, and nobody knows what to believe so it just drags out hoping someone dies.

Precedentially and in hindsight, making it a "religion problem" might not have been the best course; but I think it was genuinely his belief and also he had been so highly respected as "Defender of the Faith" (literally) up to that point that he saw an opportunity for fame and acclaim in (what he believed to be) the "righteousness" of his case, and a way to shore up the image, power, and prestige of the English monarchy; even when it became clear it would be one from a position of defiance. We have to place his belief in the context of his acclaim as a scholar and theologian up through the 1520s...it was bold, but so was Henry, and while the common narrative is that his case was facile; after further reading I found that to be reductive:

"In Henry’s obsession with an idiosyncratic interpretation of natural law and his apparent indifference to the strength of his own case on Deuteronomy we may discern a litigant who seems determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of possible victory. Nevertheless it is hard to resist the conclusion that the biblical texts themselves support Henry’s claim that his marriage contravened divine law as expounded by Moses. [...] In the field of legal codes Henry’s view, whether treated as a matter of divine or human law, held a strong position. Among other examples the Council of Neo-Caesarea and the regional Council of Agde followed the Levitical injunction by forbidding the marriage of men to their brothers’ widows. Faced with such arguments, Bishop Fisher usually asserted that the prohibitions did not specifically forbid all dispensations – yet nor did they specifically allow any. As on the Leviticus/Deuteronomy dilemma, Fisher reasoned that in cases of ambiguity the pope should interpret the matter. Yet such a papal interpretation had been given by Innocent III in a rider to his judgement on the Livonian issue discussed below: that, whatever the validity of pagan marriages to which the Deuteronomical exception might apply, a man’s marriage to the widow of a deceased childless brother should not be permitted to baptised Christians." HADWIN JF. Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Henry VIII. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 2019

I don't think there's really anything he could've done to assure a 'secure' outcome, tbh (besides the possible counterfactual of applying for an annulment circa, say, 1520 rather than 1527, he did seem to have a better understanding and alliance with Leo X). The final judgement from Clement was that Henry had lived too long in matrimony with Catherine by principle of the dispensation granted to be able to legitimately protest the dispensation.

Precedent ran against Henry in the specific matter of Popes erasing former dispensations. That was not something they had done; but arguably Popes did reverse decisions of their predecessors in other matters, or sometimes reverse their own decisions-- there are many cases, for instance, of Popes granting annulments and then reversing them. This can make better sense of Henry's decision to reify the legitimacy of both his annulment with Catherine and his marriage with Anne via Parliament, even before the Pope has made declaration (because, even if he had made one in his favour, it might not have stuck...the sands were always shifting, too, even if, say, Clement had died without declaration and his successor had been an anti-Imperial candidate, like the later Paul IV, that did rule in his favour, was it not possible he himself would die and his successor reverse that decision? It is plausible to consider, also, a counterfactual where Henry made his application late 1525 or 1526, had it granted January 1527, and Imperial troops stormed as they did by May, pressurizing Clement to reverse...):

"And here it must be acknowledged that, while a substantial case could be built to support Henry’s challenge on the issue of the bull, the fact of that issue had significantly changed the situation and the canonical context within which it might be viewed. On the question of possible rescission of the bull the critics seem to have been right: on balance, precedent would appear to run against the king. Neither a dissolution nor an annulment would seem likely to have been granted. No previous marriage had been ended on the grounds that a pope had acted ultra vires; nor, as David d’Avray notes, ‘was any dispensation to my knowledge … ever revoked because the alleged political ills that it was meant to cure were later shown to be imaginary’. The application of the principle of dissimulatio – the turning of a blind eye to the legal weaknesses of a long-standing union in view of the greater good that would accrue by leaving well alone – could also have favoured the queen’s cause; a similar canonical rule held that ‘doubtful cases ought to be resolved in favour of the marriage’. Most significant of all might be the maxim asserted by Gilles Bellemère in the count of Armagnac’s case, that if the pope asks for advice before taking action, he should be told that the dispensation should not be granted; however, if he has already acted, then he should not be opposed. Thus, even if Henry had succeeded in convincing an impartial court of the impropriety of Julius II’s granting the dispensation, all [of his] lengthy campaign might well have gained him not that triumphant solution for which he had striven but merely the cold comfort of a Pyrrhic victory." HADWIN JF. Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Henry VIII. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 2019

And, that's actually a misconception; it was probably the predominant of his arguments/case, but hardly the only one or aspect:

"Like many other litigants, Henry adopted a ‘scatter-fire’ approach to his task of seeking an annulment, attacking a vast array of targets, hoping that at least one shot might reach its mark. His opponents tended to follow suit, thus a comprehensive analysis of each pellet might seem desirable to do the parties full justice. This has not been attempted in the present study. Instead it has seemed best to concentrate on three of the most serious and most often cited defences of the queen’s case, those based on the questions Henry asked of the universities in 1530-1, thus setting the agenda for the debate. The first of these was that, while forbidden by the texts of Leviticus, marriage to a brother’s widow was prohibited by the Church only if the previous marriage had been consummated, whereas Katherine insisted that she came to Henry 'virgo intacta'. Secondly, it was argued that the Levitical prohibition should be interpreted as being limited by the command in Deuteronomy requiring a man to marry a childless brother’s widow, exactly what Henry had done. Lastly, the king’s critics cited a number of what they considered relevant precdents for the dispensation granted to Henry and Katherine by papal bull in 1503.

Each [argument of the Queen's side] appears to have serious weaknesses. The strict application of canonical procedures in the case would appear to favour a verdict that Arthur and Katherine had indeed consummated their union. On Deuteronomy, not only had the Church generally regarded the command as obsolete and inapplicable to Christians but the contentious verse does not on close examination cover Henry’s case at all. Finally, none of the oft-cited papal dispensations involved a clear-cut breach of the Levitical injunctions: the bull really does seem to have broken new ground and might not have been issued had all the facts been known." HADWIN JF. Leviticus, Deuteronomy and Henry VIII. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History. 2019

Royals being anti or pro papal tended to be a matter of political timing, and this wasn't unique to Henry VIII. Hell, Mary I's spouse was excommunicated (not just threatened with excommunication, as her father had been circa the Great Matter era) by Paul IV because he had sent the Duke of Alva to occupy the papal states in retaliation for his alliance with France, and deprived her councilor and Archbishop of Cantebury, Reginald Pole, of his legateship and ordered him to return to Rome to answer charges of heresy ; and she chose to defend them rather than repudiate them in kind.

So, for the matter of claiming Catherine wasn't a virgin when he married her...I don't think he anticipated that she'd confess otherwise to Campeggio and unseal the confession; or use the trial of Blackfriars for the opportunity to repeat her own claim otherwise and then refuse to attend the rest of the hearing of evidence. For the hearing in Dunstable in 1533, she refused to attend, as well, and so did her supporters, so there's some revionism in the narrative that the Henrician side of the divide refused to hear her own evidence and supporters. They clearly did not regard it highly; arguably they gave it short shrift, but the political tactic of refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of any proceedings or hearings outside strict papal jurisdiction (not that all of Catherine's supporters adhered so strictly to that, when it suited them...see: Trial of Zaragoza) by Catherine and her supporters precludes the accusation, reified by Marian Parliament, that Henry and Cranmer "refused to hear evidence" from oppostion. This was a convenient fiction, underrating agency and choice and emphasizing a narrative of corruption vs "godly truth".

But at the same time, I think that aspect of it was a matter of principle for both of them and yet a nothingburger both legally and politically: it was impossible to prove or disprove. There was ambiguity on the matter because the dispensaton covered any possibility ("forsan"); even Clement's declaration did not really fully vindicate her side because he didn't comment on the matter of her virginity upon her marriage to Henry. It was, ultimately, a non sequitur. Henry pursued it because he vehemently believed it was true, and that the proof was in his deceased children by the marriage, that they had died because of the Levitical 'curse', for lack of better word...

And Henry had legal/canonical precedent on his side (see excerpt from JF Hadwin's excellent article on the case above, and this one: "[...] the canonical procedures for determining non-consummation suits would have worked against her. As in any such dispute, witnesses were questioned. Not surprisingly, their stories differed according to their nationality: like the decisions of the universities this was a case of what Hans Thieme delightfully described as cuius regio, eius opinio. English ones remembered a raunchy young prince boasting of his having ‘been this night in the midst of Spain’. Most of the interrogation records of the queen’s Spanish servants have been lost, but they seem to have agreed with the implications of the leading questions that they were fed by recollecting only an immature wimp. Canonical rules, however, held that in such controversies, the husband’s view was to be preferred to the wife’s. Furthermore, in the absence of sound evidence to the contrary, in any marriage that had lasted more than a few days, consummation [would] be presumed. This is why neither Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, nor his successor, Chapuys, was enthusiastic about Katherine’s claim and probably why Campeggio felt relief that the question was not to be argued at Rome. As Gardiner had warned the queen earlier, presumption would run against her: rightly or wrongly, in any court operating under standard canonical rules and procedures, she would probably have lost this argument."), but not circumstance.

My unpopular judgement is that Henry was actually far more judicious in his timing of the Great Matter than he's given credit for; as early as 1529 he's saying he's "about to undertake the annates", he delays the cessation of paying the annates until Easter 1533; he waits to pass the Act of Kings alone nominating Archbishops and consecrating bishops until Cranmer is elected Archbishop by the Pope (a fait accompli, because it does mean that Cranmer's annulment of his marriage can be viewed as an act of the papacy, by extension; and forces Clement's hand...arguably this backfired, but not fully, he did not excommunicate Cranmer, probably because doing that to someone he had so recently promoted would call his judgement into question); and he doesn't pass the Act in Absolute Restraint of Annates until 1534, after Clement declares for the validity of his marriage with Catherine. Was the timing different (annates are forbidden by law irrevocably, and then Clement declared for the marriage), one could argue otherwise (that Henry had been too hasty); but Clement could've secured annates from England for the rest of Henry's reign had he done the opposite, or possibly delayed their total annihilation had he just continued to not declare on the matter.

[one-winged-dreams]

@sosoftandsweet

I'M TORN BETWEEN LIKE??? CRYING AND LAUGHING? AT HOW BAD THEY FUMBLED?

They were SO FUCKING CLOSE and then they not only dropped the ball at the finish line but tripped and knocked over the partitions and crushed the crowd to death.

It's hilarious? But also oh my god???? Literal defeat snatched from the jaws of victory? I'm honestly in AWE from how badly they fucked up lmao.

BUT IT'S BLIZZARD, YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO PLAY WOW TO KNOW THAT THIS WAS INEVITABLE LMAO

seriously though, i miss my husband and son but they fucked THAT UP TOO, SO WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO?

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here my friend, only mildly hung over but still severely disappointed, just coming into your inbox to share my random finale complaints that have been stockpiling.

Already been said many times but why Marisol again?? Just why??

You know what the awkwardness of the daddy talk reminded me of?? Remember in RNM 3x01 when Alex came back and told Forest "a man has needs" or some shit and we all collectively cringed away from our screens?? Its was sooo weirdly out of place and character and that's exactly what the dinner scene is. Also notably written by a former showrunner who won't stop fucking up storylines at every opportunity.

How exactly is the Chris leaving BS supposed to last more than like, 1 week tops??? When Helena (and Ramon) tried to take him 7 years ago and get their redo he was just a kid, but now he's a teenager whose been raised by Eddie Diaz. Not saying he's ready for college or to make his own housing decisions or anything 🙄, but his personality and preferences are not going to change much. He's not the moldable little kid anymore, and the moment Helena realizes that and Chris realizes that's what they wanted him for wouldn't jump on the next flight?? I know there's so much about that arc that's utter nonsense but did the writers put any thought into the characters at all??

Anyway, I probably should do my job for a few hours before I go completely off the rails, hope your own recovery is going well!!

Hey bestie! If it seems like you haven't heard from me all day, that's because I girlbossed too close to the post limit sun reblogging every petty, irritated, frustrated, what-in-the-actual-fuck-was-that post. I scheduled a bunch too do drop after the doors open on the post limit jail cells, this one among them.

I'm sitting here with my twisted peach tea, fresh off of work and a trip to the store (it was awful and full of people and only one lane open that could sell alcohol, AND they didn't have the honeycomb ice cream I specifically went there to get and try out with my earl grey tea ice cream because the universe hates me), just still so SO frustrated that once again they let KR swoop in at the last minute and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the finale. Not even anything Buddie related, just in making literally ANY storyline all season have a good narrative payoff that felt like we went somewhere. Even the most watchable part of the episode (the Mara reunion) fell flat because we didn't see Hen and Karen putting up the fight they set up with the councilwoman, and Maddie and Chim had time all season to talk about maybe having another child, or fostering to make them able to swoop in at the last minute make sense but instead it just came out of the blue! (And don't get me started on the whole "this lesbian couple can't have a kid but the straight couple runs into no issues despite Chim being involved on scene in the death of the councilwoman's son).

ANYWAY. Let's talk about your bullet points please, because I have THOUGHTS.

1/3. Marisol was literally less than useless and if they HAD to avoid an off-screen hiatus breakup (they didn't need to, no one remembered her, it would have been fine) they easily could have ditched her in 7x05 and it would have affected absolutely nothing.

IMAGINE Buck is the one taking Chris to the movies and walks in on "Shannon" and Eddie? We get some Buddie angst with them having to talk out what happened because Buck was worried before but now he's WORRIED, and we could have gotten a more heartfelt resolution with Chris by allowing Eddie and Chris to have one single conversation this whole season, and maybe deciding together to go to therapy in a couple weeks when he gets back from his pre-planned summer vacation to Texas.

Then start s8 with Chris having delayed coming back all summer, and Ramon and Helena facilitating getting him into camps and stuff so he "couldn't" come back and Eddie starting to get fed up and maybe being ready to go to Texas himself to get Chris when whatever disaster the opening is strikes. Cue Chris seeing it on the news and panicking and demanding to go home and see his dad. It would be satisfying to watch, and would tug on the heartstrings without ripping them out for no good goddamn reason and punishing Eddie so severely while also NOT actually dealing with his issues about Shannon!! *screams into pillow* If we never see or hear about her again it will be too soon. They have drug this out past the point of any purpose and it needs to be put to fucking rest, 25ft down so it can't crawl back up. Doused in holy water just in case.

It really feels like they had a plan for Buck with the whole Natalia thing fizzling out and breaking up which I actually am glad we didn't see because as this season proved, it is LONG past time to leave Buck withering away in unfulfilling relationships he don't know how he got into in the first place, but once that was gone he got the coming out bit and....nothing much else all season and even that was one episode and then a couple minutes of screentime sprinkled throuout that used those precious seconds to show us how incredibly ill-matched they are. While Eddie, who was SUPPOSED to have the coming out arc (that was maybe more in-depth and planned to ACTUALLY deal with the Shannon of it all), was also left with a "well what do we do with him now" arc. Spoiler alert, it was NOT THIS. So no, I don't think they had the time in the shortened time frame they had to put literally ANY thought into what to do with these characters.

Point 2. My friend. Not only are you EXACTLY right about the tonal issue matching that cringe AF scene from RNM, but I will raise you that, AND everything about 2x06, including fandom swooping in to claim everyone who didn't fall all over themselves about that scene being amazing was a) homophobic and b) puritanical, pearl-cultching, and uneducated. Oh! and c) just needs to learn how to fucking multi-ship and be happy with whatever is on screen because it couldn't POSSIBLY be better, and you should just accept it now. 😒😒😒

It's gonna be a loooooong fucking hiatus but here's hoping Timmy got all the Lone Star brainworms out and can not just pack a punch in the disaster opening (RIP to everyone who didn't like the cruise ship disaster, I had a great time and it was the best opening in YEARS), but can actually follow through on storylines and emotional beats all season. And maybe get more calls??? On the weewoo show?? It was always and issue on LS too which I thought was Rob Lowe syndrome an all the "Owen things firefighting is boring" stuff but maybe it's budget constraints? Yo! ABC! Give us the cash for good emergencies! And of course, they need to get Kristen the FUCK out of the writers room. Please, literally ANY cop show out there, we are literally BEGGING you to take her off our hands!

Bright side, I have been working on my Countdowns fic (I posted a little bit last week and I want to try and work on it more now that all my shows are on hiatus), and while *I* may be the worlds slowest writer, I just know the Buddie fandom is going to come through with some BANGER canon-fix-it fics. So cheers to that, and lets pray the muse smiles on me astronaut!Buck/medic!Eddie so I can actually contribute something. I'm gonna go make a flatbread spinach and artichoke pizza, watch something, literally ANYTHING else, and oggle my d20 Bad Kids dice that arrived today, my Ayda pin, and my Jawbone quote mug and not think about 911 for a little bit. (until I'm allowed out of post-limit jail and can go back to being a petty bench on main).

Take a breath, we can get through this hiatus together! At least we know we have Oliver and Ryan on our side, so let's make some Buddie content for them to send to each other to help THEM through this rough time.

[nuge]

Made it. I do think I nearly died in the last 10 s however so you know there’s that

we literally snatched victory from the jaws of defeat!!!

[canis-rex-lupus]

ok everyone. splatoon headcanons for the psychonauts main cast. buckle up its gonna be Detailed.

RAZPUTIN AQUATO

raz would be an octoling i think. he'd start out playing one of the weapons he sees his idols use, but as he finds his own playstyle (i think he'd go for skirmisher personally, he'd like to be in the front lines with all the action) i think he'd play something that's more *him*, something snappy and fast with lots of opportunity for movement. i think dark tetra dualies would suit him. the rolling mechanic mirrors how he implements his circus upbringing in the way he uses his psychic powers and i think he'd be big on trying to do sick team wipeouts with the reefslider.

he'd focus on ranked battles and rank up REALLY fast - he'd be in X battle in no time. as for abilities i think he'd use a lot of offensive/movement based stuff like intensify action/swim or run speed up etc etc. when he first starts out he makes a lot of mistakes like tunneling when matches get heated but he'd be diligent about watching match replays and improving. he does a good job of synergizing and keeping the team in check when he gets the hang of things. he'd make a lot of gutsy moves that win the match in those very last few seconds, always snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. his favorite mode would be clam blitz. he'd decorate his locker with items you earn from playing like the big run statues or the stickers you get by weapon freshness, and he'd plaster it with a ton of stickers he thinks are cool. you think it would look bad but it turns out to nail the cluttercore look pretty well?

LILI ZANOTTO

lili would be an octoling, frontline slayer, and most DEFINITELY play a splatana wiper. she antagonizes people with the torpedoes and gets the SICKEST trick shot splats with charged splatana shots and well timed ultra stamp throws. she could hit you from a mile away without even trying. she'd run a comp that's just as cool and fun as it is killer. intensify action, drop roller, maybe something REALLY nasty like respawn punisher. ink resistance and sub defense so nothing gets in her way. she's really good but aggressive and tends to tilt a lot, throwing her off her groove and losing her a lot of matches, which i think she'd be a little too hard on herself about. despite this she'd be S+ rank having played pretty much her whole life and her favorite mode would be turf war or rainmaker. she'd have a pretty cool locker too - it would have hard to get stuff like the bear ears from the secret story mode level and a golden big run statue, but be put together in a more thoughtful way than raz with additional items just for style.

SASHA NEIN

sasha would be an inkling. since he values control i think he'd play a backliner - he'd have the patience for a charger like the e-liter, and the steadiest aim you've ever seen. he'd have a lot of sensible but boring abilities like ink savers and sub power and all that. overall prioritizes function over flashiness. he'd use his long range to keep control of the goal area and pick off enemies, keeping the rest of the team safe. he'd be very strategic about when and where he moves, when to shoot or when to hold back, when to use his special, etc etc. he pushes raz to do the same but he's far too impatient to really master it like sasha does. he's X rank and his favorite mode is splat zones. he doesn't decorate his locker much, but maybe he'd at least have a picture of him and milla in there or some cool scifi thingies with lights for the ambiance.

MILLA VODELLO

milla is an octoling and plays midliner support! she likes painting more than fighting, and likes playing fun weapons that can cover lots of ground like custom jr, inkbrush, or big swig roller - i think she switches it up instead of having one signature weapon. they're all just so much fun! she'd have ink recovery, sub saver, all that good stuff so she can paint the whole stage and earn her team the upper hand while the enemy's distracted fighting. definitely prioritizes the team win over getting the most splats or points or whatever - she'd be sure to emphasize the importance of being a team player to morry or lili, who might tend to be selfish in their playstyle without the reminder. morry definitely needs said reminder frequently. she's X rank and i think she'd like turf war the best. can't go wrong with the classics! her locker is THE cutest. she has the pink one obvy. her decorations are color coordinated and well placed, and she spends a lot of time trying out new layouts for it.

MORCEAU OLEANDER

he's an inkling. morry plays something big, heavy, and DEADLY. he could really get into the hydra splatling i think - he'd think booyah bomb is the best special of all time. he prioritizes getting splats over everything, even when he's the only one left alive and all four of the enemy team is on him. he just never thinks to retreat. he definitely doesn't make... the smartest plays. hence milla having to remind him to be more team oriented instead of constantly rushing to the other team to try to fight them on your own morry the hydra is a backliner we talked about this!!

hed be the type to not really internalize constructive criticism from teammates. yeah yeah whatever. he DOES get a lot of kills but at the expense of abandoning the actual goal of the game - it's probably resulted in a LOT of very close losses. he'd tilt a lot too, like lili. he's probably only A or S rank, and has league points waaayyy in the negative. his favorite mode is rainmaker, but he likes salmon run a lot too. it's fun to take down all those big nasty fish. he'd have no sense of design tbh his locker would be a little ugly LMAO

FORD CRULLER

ford would be an inkling, and a jack of all trades. him and each of his alters would have their own playstyle and favorite weapons. i'll just talk about agent cruller for now - i think he'd be a support but so practiced with his weapon he can and DOES use it like a slayer when the need arises - maybe undercover brella. he'd know all the best spots to put ink mines and he could show raz the best way to use his reefslider :) i think he'd use his ability slots to play to the strengths of his weapons and enhance them - for the brella, that would mean ink savers, special charge, and sub power. a lot of people would be confused that legendary psychonaut ford cruller would go with something as mid-tier as an undercover brella, but i think the way he uses it represents him well - it seems like it wouldn't get the job done but it's reliable if you give it a chance. sound familiar?

ford was the best player of the whole gang in his prime, and he's still a BEAST at it - he just slips up a little more often. he'd still have a lifetime's worth of knowledge and cool tricks though; i think he would've taught raz a lot of the important fundamental stuff as he was starting out, and if you really looked you could see echoes of ford in how raz plays. he's X rank of course, and his favorite mode is tower control. his locker would look disorganized to the uninitiated, but each section belongs to an alter so they all have a chance to decorate.

CALIGOSTO LOBOTO

cal is an octoling, and switches up his weapons ALL the time. i think he'd favor some really niche ones like bloblobber. he'd be pretty all over the place with his playstyle, having similar issues to morry in having no strategy. he probably doesn't think to practice much or familiarize himself with the limitations of his weapons, so when things get heated he either just throws caution to the wind and shoots without purpose. he doesn't think too hard about his ability comp - his outfit probably looks super silly, actually. silly in a cute way though. he'd wear something colorful, and maybe all the patterns wouldn't quite go together, but he's happy with it. he'd rely on stuff like ninja squid and quick respawn to make up for how flawed his strategy (or lack thereof) is. he'd shark a lot to get surprise splats.

he'd blame just about anything under the sun before he admits it's flawed though. this weapon is just no good, that other team was way higher level anyway, they weren't playing fair, so on and so forth. i think he'd get defensive at criticism -- he takes it very personally. in his eyes, being told about all the ways he could improve is the same as being told he's bad. it takes a lot of coaxing to get him to practice more and learn to admit his own mistakes. he might not even bother with competitive, but if he did he'd be pretty low rank. C or maybe B at best. both because he hasn't been playing for long and he's at a low-ish skill level. his favorite mode would be salmon run cause it's less competitive AND he loves to see the salmonids he thinks they're cool. his locker is a huge mess and has at least one of those furbies or the zapfish plush in it. i have a LOT more to say about cal but for the sake of post length i will save it for later.

this is all i will cover for now BUT..... i have so much more in me i could probably eventually cover the whole cast. for example how gristol malik would use the gold aerospray and be the most annoying player known to man. but i savr those foorrr... next time maybe this is already very very long. thank u for reading 😋

[doubleddenden]

I'm in the last few stretches of the game. I beat the main stories and I'm in post game territory, and then after I'm gonna hunt down a few peculiar Pokemon and explore.

I'll hold off on a full review until after I've beaten this little thingy (not that anyone really reads them, its just nice to organize my thoughts), but for the most part I did enjoy my time. Absolutely hated the technical issues, the bugs, and definitely think I need to be refunded at least $20 for playing a beta basically, but- and this is very important- I still had an incredible time playing. I do not excuse the flaming dumpster fire, but I will give praise where its due for all of the very many diamonds in the ruft.

A 6/10 for now, but when the eventual performance patch comes through (and they pretty much have to since this is the game we're stuck with for at least 2 to 3 years and especially for Worlds), I'd easily upgrade it to 8 or 9, depending on what else they do to compensate their very severe errors.

Anyway, below will be my team I used- I was mostly off by two or 3 Pokemon in terms of predictions, but I also kept a small amount of Pokemon in rotation for my journey and picked up some stragglers towards the end.

Be warned: Below are spoilers for some very special Pokemon.

I have not nicknamed anyone just yet (except Garganacl, who was jokingly named GarganaclBOI), but I plan to when I can eventually commit the Pokemon names to memory, like I did with my Sword team.

Ceruledge (Ghost/Fire): She (yes, I'm surprised it was a girl) was the main reason I chose Violet and is quite frankly my favorite Pokemon in the new generation. She's decent in a fight as well, and her signature move- Bitter Blade- not only fits my pessimistic ass to a T, but its also really heckin good. She quickly became my ace and won me many fights. She just... really hates pictures and baths. Keeps running away from me when I try to get them.

Meowscarada (Grass/Dark): He was my starter- sort of mid design tbh, but he quickly proved super powerful, although very frail. Despite Ceruledge being my fav, Meowscarada is probably the most loyal on my team, literally surviving the final champion fight by the skin of his teeth because of the extremely (and thankfully) nerfed Affection mechanic. He sleeps a lot but also likes to run with me a bunch. I think he and Ceruledge work really well together, especially in Rime's gym where they sweeped her ghosts with no effort, and I might ship the two? Unclear.

Wugtrio (Water): She's a surprise catch tbh. I really wasn't expecting Wigglet to be so early in game, nor that I'd actually use it given that I think convergent species are just a stupid rebranding of regional variants, but I do think I got attached to this one anyway and its come in clutch, plus her colors go well with the rest of my team. She's very shy I'm noticing, all three heads staying in the rocks most of the time unless we battle. Her Gooey ability has helped turn the tide of battle so often.

Pawmot (Electric/Fighting): Although I think Pawmo could just be erased and nothing could be lost from the line, I do really like the guy. He's a very strong fighter but goes down pretty quick, and we spent a lot of time together trying to reach the 1,000 steps to make it evolve (I swear it's closer to 10,000). Anyway, he's spunky! He's a Careful nature but also apparently likes pranks, so I think he's always pranking the others with very meticulous plans.

Clodsire (Poison/Ground): Although Ceruledge is my favorite, Clodsire I think is my second favorite of the gen, and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat so often, and won the final blow against the "Top" Champion as well. Its a poison machine, pretty much guaranteeing the enemy dies once she gets on the field. But I also just love her dumb stupid face, and I really love the back spike thingies too. I want a big pillow of a Clodsire so bad :)

Cetitan (Ice): He's mostly on rotation tbh, but he was on my team for the last bit of the league and... I dunno, I really like him a lot. As a Cetoddle, he was the only Pokemon that willingly came to me to not pick a fight, and did a little habby dance for me. He also went into his ball without a fuss or any damage at all- and somehow, I learned what its like to be James from Team Rocket. He's not all that strong tbh, but I like him enough as a friend and he helped with very important battles

Now, for my team members on rotation

Espathra (Psychic): I didn't plan on adding a Karen Ostrich, but he actually came in handy against the Team Star bases, especially against the Poison and Fighting one.

Tinkaton (Fairy/Steel): She didn't actually participate in many fights, but she did travel with us a fair bit anyway- And mainly left a strong impression because when I first encountered her in the desert, she kept Sweet Kissing Meowscarada as a Floragato when she was a Tinkatuff, so I imagine she's got a Panini crush to Meowscarada's Chowder, if that makes sense.

Iron Jugulis (Dark/Flying): The first of the Paradox Pokemon I caught, and I used it for the rest of Area Zero when I did. He's still fairly new, but I do like it a bunch. It's like a more compact Hydreigon- But not quite as strong, and also like, way more common than I thought possible for something like this. His face is all LED's though, which is cool af

Miraidon (Dragon/Electric): I LOVE MY MOTORCYCLE DRAGON DOG BOI!!!! I LOVE HIM!!! It's like Toothless is in my party constantly, and his moments in the story give him so much character, like a big ol dumb doggo. The ending where he saved our lives by standing up to his fears broke me, man, and I consider him the true 6th team member tbh. However, he's way more useful to ride on imo, so I just keep him on the sidelines. But I think that's okay, he seems to just like adventure anyway. I'm so glad we had a wonderful ending together where he gets to stay with us (although transferring to the future games will be... worrying, consider you cannot box him). I haven't cared about a legendary this much since Nebby. I love my big metal dog. AND I LOVE THAT I CAN KINDA DO THE AKIRA SLIDE!

Iron Thorns (Rock/Electric): I'm mainly raising it to try something different, but I think it might be my favorite of the Violet Paradoxes. My dream would be to have a shiny of it, though.

GarganaclBOI (Rock) (SHINY): He did nothing, he's relevant because he's my first natural full odds shiny of the game- and he came right after all the story was done lol. He's a golden kinda copper color, and looks pretty neat :)

anyways I got really attached to these guys. I'm kinda tempted to get Scarlet for its exclusives, but I'll wait to see how they address the bugs and stuff. Until then, I'm really looking forward to making more teams with transfer mons in the future.

[arpov-blog-blog]

..."Republican and Democratic senators who have worked for years with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are fuming over his decision to oppose a $95 billion defense and foreign aid package.

With Graham voting no, the bill fell short of that goal even with 22 GOP votes in favor, and now it is considered unlikely to pass the House.

Senators who thought Graham was on their side feel like he pulled the rug out from under them, especially after last year, when he railed on the Senate floor about a budget deal including “not a penny” for the war in Ukraine.

Some saw Graham as making a blatant effort to curry favor with former President Trump, who lobbied senators last week to oppose the package to deny President Biden a political win.

One Democratic senator who was involved in strategizing for the bill said Graham “was supposed to be the guy” who would work to double Republican support for the bill. The senator explained “the way this was supposed to work was they were going to have” 60 votes for the bill, including 10 Republicans, and “he was supposed to bring the second 10” GOP votes, “and then in the last week he became part of the 10 that you couldn’t even count” as possible yes votes.

“He got sucked into the Trump orbit, and he is so zealously about his own self-preservation in South Carolina that he literally would push his mother in front of a train to get to where he needs to be,” the senator added. “I hate to say it because I actually like him.”’

A Winthrop University Poll published in October showed only 30 percent of South Carolina voters approved of Graham’s performance, a rating only 1 percentage point higher than Biden had in the state.

“Not a penny in this bill to help Ukraine defeat [Russian President Vladimir Putin],” Graham thundered on the Senate floor. “We need to send a clear message to Putin that when it comes to your invasion of Ukraine, we’re going to support your loss. If we don’t do that, then we’re going to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.”

[talkingpointsusa]

Of Rubes and Rubins; Debunking the December 13th 2023 Episode of the Rubin Report.

After how furiously I reacted to Matt Walshes episode on Wednesday, I figured we should take a break from the current crop of talking heads we feature on this blog and talk about a new person, and that new person is Dave Rubin.

For those who don't know Dave Rubin, Dave was formerly a member of the Young Turks before leaving and starting his own show. Since then he has been a massive source of embarrassment to himself and others. From basically begging Ben Shapiro to go to the anniversary party for him and his husband and then being shocked when he realized that this new crowd he is hanging out with is deeply homophobic to giving us galaxy brained quotes like "Authoritarian's love authoritarianism." Dave is both a source of amusement and frustration to myself and others.

I truly believe that Dave Rubin is a pure grifter. While people like Matt Walsh and Charlie Kirk seem to be true believers, Dave here basically did a complete 180 on his political views overnight. Coincidentally that 180 happened to be when he got a truckload of money from the Koch Brothers (Source; The American Prospect, Why Should We Care About Faux Free-Speech Warriors? Because the Koch Brothers Are Paying Their Bills).

He tried his hand at making money off of the left but when that didn't work he decided to become a right-wing grifter. I don't like calling people liars and con-men but in Dave's case it is blatantly obvious.

On the 13th, Dave was also talking about Dana White saying the right should end the Bud Light boycott. There is no way his take could be worse than the dreck Matt Walsh was throwing up on the 13th....right?

I guess we shall see. Let's get into it, shall we?

Transphobia Warning. God, I hate how many times I have had to write that so far;

2:38: "But what you don't wanna do is snatch victory away, you don't wanna snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

Dave Rubin: Master orator. I'm sure he was quite proud of that one.

If you saw my right-wing figures tier list and wondered why I put Dave Rubin under "accidental comedy", this is why. This kind of thing happens a lot on Dave's show.

2:55: "As you guys know, a couple months back Dylan Mulvaney, this dude who puts on a dress and it's unclear if he or she had all the surgeries, doesn't even matter. Calls himself uhh, well wait. He's Dylan Mulvaney, he calls himself what? What's the girls name?"

Here we have Dave struggling to understand somebodies identity. Starting off strong here.

If you are transgender you don't legally have to change your name, that should be obvious. It's your identity and your body so it's your choice at the end of the day. Dylan has decided that she is keeping the name Dylan and that's perfectly fine, her choice at the end of the day and really as long as she's happy it's a good choice.

What I find hilarious about this clip is that I don't think Dave realizes how dumb this comment makes him long. The right has been talking about this person for months and you're just now realizing that Dylan kept her birth name?

Dave gives some more "backstory" for the boycott, don't care, we've talked about why it happened what feels like a million times. He then plays the Dana White/Tucker Carlson Bud Light clip. As said previously, this is fully because Dana was given so much money by the company that it would be unreasonable from a business standpoint for him to not take the deal. Anyway, all of that isn't important. What is important is Dave's hot take on the situation. Let's listen (or in your case read).

7:36: "Now look, regardless if you are a patriot, super patriot, or a regular patriot, or a half a patriot, nobody should be drinking gallons of Bud Light. You shouldn't be drinking a ton of beer in general."

Dana wasn't literally saying you should be drinking gallons of Bud Light, he was just saying you should be drinking it again if you are participating in the boycott.

Also, let's unpack the levels of "patriot" here. I guess half a patriot is someone who is a Trump supporter but isn't fully into the cult of Trump. But what I am confused about is how does one graduate from a regular patriot to a super patriot? I guess the guys who stormed the Capitol were super patriots in this hierarchy, I'm not sure.

Man, we're only seven minutes in and this is already really dumb.

8:16: "He keeps saying that Bud Light is more in line with your values but he never lays out what that means, how is Bud Light more in line with your values than these other companies?"

Well, as Dave later astutely points out, it's completely for the money. Golly, imagine changing all your values over money. I wonder who would do that, eh Dave?!

8:31: "But in essence what he's saying is 'Bud Light gave us a shit ton of money.'"

As I hinted at earlier, Dave Rubin has absolutely zero right to criticize somebody for selling out their beliefs for cash for the reasons I explained above. The absolute lack of self-awareness is astonishing.

Dave then plays another clip of Dana explaining why he went with Bud Light. Dana makes some claims about the charitable things Bud Light has done. It's absolutely still about the money but Dave decides to "engage with this argument" and gives what might be one of the dumbest takes of the year.

11:57: "Alright, so they employ 65,000 people and you don't want those people to suffer. Of course you don't. Actually, when the Bud Light boycott happened we played a video of a guy who was just like a local distributor in a store saying 'Hey, nobodies buying Bud Light anymore, my job is in trouble.' Of course you have sympathy for those people for sure but there's tons of other beer companies."

So what Dave is essentially saying here is that 65,000 people will be out of a job if Bud Light goes under because the right is throwing a tantrum over an Instagram post, but that's A-OK because "they'll just get a job somewhere else."

WHAT?!

Does Dave not realize how hard it is to get a job in todays market is, let alone the mental toll being laid off causes?! These employees have families to feed and bills to pay. The effects of being laid off can destroys somebodies life. They can lead to people not being able to afford healthcare and even basic things like food for your children. To just flippantly say that they should "just get a job somewhere else" is completely ignoring, well, reality!

12:37: "Also the idea that you shouldn't boycott a company because they have a lot of employees, the government has a lot of employees. So something is not good, inherently, because it has a lot of employees."

First of all, that's an apples to oranges comparison because you can't boycott the government! Comparing a private corporation to the government is insanely stupid!

Secondly, I am not anti-boycott but the boycott has to be for a good reason. "I didn't like an Instagram post because it had a trans person in it" isn't a good reason to boycott a company and put those jobs on the line. If the company is doing something objectively bad than you can boycott them.

13:51: "I mean, look at the stories that we've told you in the past couple of days about Harvard and Penn and what you see happening all over the whole world right now in terms of the wrong ideas getting into institutions and what that does."

Putting aside the Harvard and UPenn stuff, which we already touched on before and probably will again when it's more relevant, I would like to point out that Dave Rubin is gay.

I normally wouldn't point to somebodies sexuality and say that it should inform their political beliefs, but in this case I feel like it's justified because a couple decades ago people would have been saying that Dave marrying who he wants to marry was one of those "wrong ideas."

This, in my opinion, makes his lack of empathy towards transgender people more stunning and disgusting. Dave, of all people we have covered on this blog so far, should know the most about what it's like to be othered because of your sexuality. So the fact that he's willingly spouting hateful rhetoric against transgender people for money is all the more disgraceful.

14:10: "I was at Busch Gardens when I was a kid. Saw the clydesdales, great horses. I don't want them to suffer but that's not a reason to drink Bud Light."

If Dave wasn't talking out of his ass he would know that Anheuser-Busch hasn't had anything to do with Busch Gardens since 2009. It's currently owned by SeaWorld.

14:23: "Or perhaps what Dana could have done is say 'Ok, you know what? You guys are offer-' Like, they must have offered him a crazy amount of money, I have no idea. At one point it said they were gonna triple their marketing budget. Let's say they offered him 50 million bucks, I don't know what the number is, I'm completely making that out of thin air. He could have said to them 'Alright, you want me to put my reputation on the line. I'll take your cash, that's pretty good and I can do good things with that cash and build my brand and all that stuff and everything else. But your gonna have to apologize first.'"

Again, Dave Rubin; master orator.

If Dana did that, InBev realistically would have said no to the deal and found another sponsor who was more willing to play by their rules. Like I said when I covered Matt Walsh's response to this, InBev's best move is to ride this out and wait for these guys to get distracted by some new culture war related nonsense. If they apologize they will have pissed off the LGBTQ community, well everyone in that community except for Dave, and the left as a whole. They would have an even worse fallout to deal with.

15:19: "So I will remind you in just a moment about what Bud Light actually did and then we're gonna connect it to a bunch of wider stuff because this is much bigger than just about crappy beer that I used to drink upside-down from a keg when I was in college because I was a pretty cool dude."

You aren't anymore and I would pay to see you do a keg stand on your show.

And I'll say it again, it was one bloody Instagram post and it wasn't even on the Bud Light account, it was on Dylan's. The only broader issue that conservatives have with this is "I hate trans people."

17:06: "And I promise you people, if Gravity Defyer offers a sponsorship to Dylan Mulvaney I will not work for them. And if I came in here and suddenly I was like 'Oh, I like Dylan Mulvaney, isn't he and or she wonderful in her Gravity Defyer shoes?' And I was doing that, you might think 'Dave, how much did they pay you to say that?'"

Awww, look at you pretending to have principals. That would be almost as crazy as you being a relatively progressive commentator for most of your career and then all of a sudden, coincidentally around the time the Koch Brothers started paying you, you became a hardcore conservative. And you know what would be really dumb? If the only explanation you gave for this sudden dramatic change in ideals was "the left became too left-wing".

I personally think Michael Knowles is painfully disingenuous and smarmy which is part of why I really don't like listening to him, but Dave Rubin takes disingenuous to new extremes.

Dave then plays a clip of the VP of marketing at Bud Light explaining the decision for the ad.

19:05: "Frat guys drink beer. You know who doesn't really drink beer? Trans women!"

Dave is wrong yet again. As a matter of fact, alcohol abuse is pretty common among trans women specifically. This is an awful fact and it is probably in part due to the attitude of hatred around their sexuality that people like Dave Rubin have exploited for money and views. However, we are here to talk about the the claim being made here that "trans people don't drink" which is completely false.

Now let's look at the other group he's mentioned, people in college.

What he was saying was absolutely true back in the day, but not so much anymore. For the past two decades the trend (source, Cleveland Clinic) of alcohol consumption amongst young adults in college has been going downwards with 30% of college students saying they don't drink beer, wine, or spirits in 2018.

So from that standpoint, college students are starting to drink less and transwomen are starting to drink more.

19:13: "Trans women, whatever that is even, is such a tiny, a ridiculously tiny percentage of the population that to market to them would be insane."

They weren't just marketing to transwomen specifically. If the broader LGBTQ population, which when you factor all of them in becomes a way larger chunk of the population, were to see trans representation in an ad they might be more inclined to buy from that brand.

19:38: "When you're out on a date. If the girl, your sitting at the bar, you order something and then the girl, I mean before this whole Bud Light thing, if the girl said 'I'll have a Bud Light' what would you have thought of that girl? Red flag right?"

Or "Oh, she likes Bud Light. Ok."

Like, who cares what your partners drink of choice is? As long as they like it and it isn't a danger to themself and others it doesn't matter at all!

19:55: "But, like, it's not for girls."

This show is so dumb. Sure, females aren't Bud Lights target market, but who cares if a female likes Bud Light or not?

That's like a twelve year old telling his little sister that she can't play with his action figure because "It's not for girls". Man, this is so dumb.

20:03: "You see how I'm connecting this to everything else. Once woke gets into the system, whether it's Harvard (and) the next thing you know they're calling for genocide of Jews. Whether it's Bud Light and instead of marketing to frat guys they're trying to get chicks to drink their shitty beer. It destroys absolutely everything."

Protestors calling for an end to the war in the Middle East aren't calling for the genocide of Jews but that's beside the point. Also, I have asked this before but what the hell even is wokeness?!

What is important is that Dave Rubin thinks that a company *GASP* expanding their advertising to try and appeal to an untapped market will lead to the literal end of society! Even if we use his argument this is stupid for a massive reason. How is a company trying to expand to different markets even comparable to calling for genocide?!

Dave then plays the ad and the clip of Kid Rock shooting Bud Light cans. Once the clips end, it becomes time once again for more of Dave's ever so brilliant insights.

22:15: "But there's something interesting going on here. As Brock just mentioned, just what was it? Two weeks ago? When Trump walked out at a UFC event with Dana White and Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock was with him too. So there's this strange thing where these people are sort of taking every side of everything."

I feel like Dave is coming to terms with the fact that everyone else on the right is as much of a money hungry grifter as he is.

Dave decides to give us his take on the satanic statue in Iowa. Again, this was last week Wednesday so this was before the mural was decapitated. He plays the clip of Ron DeSantis saying that the Satanic Temple got their tax exemption during the Trump Administration. He doesn't really have a take on it, just boring crap of him saying so much without saying anything. Dave plays another clip of Ron DeSantis, he's apparently a DeSantis guy. Considering he lives in Florida, this makes sense. Considering that he's gay and DeSantis is a giant homophobe who claims that Trump was too sympathetic to LGBTQ+ people, this makes no sense. Then he delivers this gem.

30:09: "Everyone with their head on straight knows that Florida is now the model for whatever America can be if America's gonna succeed."

Bahahaha. If Florida is the model for an ideal America, that country is doomed. Florida has had 28 mass shootings this month and accounts for nearly 12% of all mass shootings in the states.

Florida is also the third most dangerous state for violent crime, with 2,087 homicides being reported so far this year.

Florida's track record with LGBTQ+ people and passing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is so bad that the Human Rights Campaign issued a travel advisory to Florida.

So yeah, if Florida is the model for a successful America you'd get an extremely bigoted nation with a shit-ton of violent crime...which to be fair is the trajectory that America is headed down.

Dave plays another DeSantis clip. Whatever.

32:13: "Intrinsically, telling the truth is the right thing to do."

I agree, too bad this is coming from a guy who is being paid to lie about everything.

Dave then talks about Ukraine funding and border security. There have been a record number of migrants heading into the US and the Republicans have refused to approve more foreign aid unless Biden does something about the border. Essentially, the Republicans want to make it harder for migrants and refugees to get in if they fear persecution in their home countries (New York Times).

34:18: "What does Ukraine funding have to do with defending our border?"

They are two entirely separate issues and the only reason they are being equated here is because the right is making that an issue. Nobody on the left is saying "defending Ukraine is defending our borders".

Also, for a guy who is super pro-Israel, Dave really shouldn't be defending this. The Republicans are withholding aid to Israel as well!

34:22: "If we cannot defend our border why should we be giving money to Ukraine?"

Same argument can be made for Israel. Also, because multiple innocent Ukrainians lives are on the line due to Russia's invasion. They need our help.

36:23: "We don't know who the good guys and bad guys are."

Hmmm, we've got the military superpower that is invading a tiny country and has committed multiple war crimes and the country that is being invaded. Man, it's so hard to figure out who the good guys and bad guys are.

36:31: "By the way, I would say that's starkly different than whats going on with Israel and Gaza because there's a very clear win there which is the toppling of Hamas."

There is also a very clear win in Ukraine and that is Russia stopping the invasion and withdrawing their troops from Ukrainian land.

38:15: "How about we deal with problems related to prices of food and things of that nature?"

Again, this appeals to Israel funding as well. Plus, Israel is a nation that is way more powerful than Ukraine without American funding so an argument can be made that funding should be slowed for Israel and more focused on Ukraine if you want money to deal with problems in America.

Also, the Republicans haven't provided an effective solution to inflation.

Dave then talks about the colleges a bit more, and then drops this gem.

42:08: "I'm just not hiring college grads anymore. If you do not go to college, if you have virtually no education, we want you here at the Rubin Report."

Can't make that up. I would imagine that college graduates aren't banging down Dave Rubin's door as most of them will realize within five minutes of a show how flimsy everything he says is.

And with that, the show ends. What a fitting note.

Conclusion:

So, what have we learnt today? Well, Dave Rubin thinks 65,000 people being fired over one ad is fine and he just generally doesn't have a clue what he is talking about. Since I wrote this on Sunday, the next episode will probably cover how one of these guys responded to the senate gay sex video, might even do multiple of these guys Monday shows just to get an idea of the full spectrum of reactionary's reacting.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one!

[megashadowdragon]

TIL: Zhu Youcheng is the only emperor in Chinese history, to be married to one wife and remain faithful to her, having no concubines. He was a hardworking emperor, lowering taxes, reducing spending, and demonstrating tolerance for Muslims. His son, however, had a haram so large, some starved.

Flares117 OP · 6 mo. ago He was regarded as one of the greatest emperors working hand and hand with officials. It was noted that there was almost no palace intrigue by the eunuchs or power struggles.

His son was given the best education and teaching on how to follow in his father's footsteps, but he loved brothels and hated his wife https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongzhi_Emperor

He was a party boy with "The Zhengde Emperor took up a luxurious and prodigal lifestyle and indulged himself in women. It was said that he liked to frequent brothels and even created palaces called "Bao Fang" (豹房; literally "The Leopards' Chamber") outside the Forbidden City in Beijing initially to house exotic animals such as tigers and leopards for his amusement and then later used to house beautiful women for his personal enjoyment.[3] He also met Wang Mantang, one of his favorite consorts at a Bao Fang. On one occasion he was badly mauled while hunting tigers, and could not appear in court audiences for a month.[2] On another occasion he burned down his palace by storing gunpowder in the courtyards during the lantern festival.[2] His harem was so overfilled that many women starved to death due to lack of supplies.[4]"

Imagine having a haram so large, you dont have enough food for all your waifus

The Mongols had a LOT of conquerors though. There was only one Alexander, but there were dozens of great Mongol generals.And to make things better, the Mongol Empire coalesced at precisely the time when the Number 1 breaker of steppe empires, China, was in no position to fight them thanks to a horrible civil war and the dumbest goddamned Dynasty to ever rule the country.It also helped that the other great horse riding empire, the Muslims, were basically in pieces at the time. So the Mongols could easily defeat them one at a time.They weren't quite as lucky when fighting empires that were perfectly fine tho. The Indians beat them so easily that they barely even remember fighting them at all. The Vietnamese utterly humiliated them, hilariously so.

Song Dynasty. Idiots literally funded the Mongols after Genghis Khan died, which should have led to the empire collapsing, and then got attacked once the Jin had been destroyed by the Mongols.

Their own military also sucked, because the entire court was basically working for the enemies, and the generals constantly had to relay each battle's strategy to the court even when the battles were days away, which mean they almost always lacked any initiative.

If it had been literally ANY other dynasty, they could have finished the Mongols off. It's not like Genghis Khan was the first steppe conqueror China had faced. But the Song constantly kept snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and ensured all of China got conquered by foreigners for the first time in history.

You have to be more specific. The basic story of China is about 6000 years of a cycle of a competent emperor coming to power, each successive emperor in the dynasty is worse than the last, it gets to a point where the emperor is a legendary assclown, horrible things happen to the Chinese people, and then a rebellion/coup happens and there’s a new emperor.

Those were not his accomplishments, those were just some of the tools he used to set up his accomplishments.I can't argue that if not for daddy dearest, Alex wouldn't have been able to start to become a great conqueror until he was in his 40s.

[robininthelabyrinth]

The unlikely duo of Jin Zixun and Su She end up in the past somehow. They end up making a better world completely by accident while arguing with each other and trying to make things better for themselves while sabotaging each other's plans. Double bonus points if they end up in a romantic relationship by the end of everything! V Anon

ao3

“He’s my friend,” Su She growled.

“So you say,” Jin Zixun sniffed. “How am I supposed to know if you’re telling the truth? From what I remember, you barely interacted – surely you don’t think a few polite smiles and a hello or two in public is enough to mean that you’re actually friends?”

Su She’s eye twitched.

“As I already told you,” he said through gritted teeth. “You were already dead by the point that we became good friends. We were friends for twenty years after you died.”

“I have only your word for that,” Jin Zixun pointed out. Quite reasonably, to his mind. “You have no proof. He certainly doesn’t seem to know who you are.”

“That’s because we’ve traveled in time!” Su She shouted. “He is literally fourteen years old! We won’t meet for another ten years! Of course he doesn’t remember me!”

“Well, then, I still think I have the better claim, in that case,” Jin Zixun said, and crossed his arms when Su She glared at him in disbelief. “I’m his cousin, aren’t I? You were only friends with him when you were older, but I’m still his cousin, right this moment.”

Another eye twitch.

Su She probably had a nervous disorder, Jin Zixun decided. It was undoubtedly highly unhealthy and would have probably led to an early death of apoplexy if he hadn’t been murdered first – which, upon questioning, Su She admitted he had been, so – hah! So there!

Jin Zixun wasn’t actually sure what exactly he thought he was winning, but he felt victorious, and that was basically good enough for him. He didn’t exactly have many opportunities for it back at home, not with the way people liked to whisper about him and even the servants who seemed to fawn on him looking at him with strange eyes when they thought he wasn’t looking. And, yes, maybe he took a little too much advantage of it whenever he was in a position of power, but you really couldn’t blame him for that; anyone would do the same if it were them and they were him.

Either way, it wasn’t actually important.

What was important, now that they were back in the past, was getting Jin Guangyao – well, he’d be still called Meng Yao at this point – on his side as soon as possible. Jin Zixun might not have ever liked Jin Guangyao, except maybe in the abstract sense that people were so horrified by the other man’s parentage that they completely forgot about any questions there might be about his own, but that didn’t mean he didn’t recognize how smart the man was. He’d fought his way up from nothing to become acknowledged as a direct heir of Lanling Jin, however far back in the inheritance list; he’d made his way as a spy in the Nightless City until he managed to assassinate Wen Ruohan in the midst of his glory; he’d even somehow managed to trick Chifeng-zun and Zewu-jun into swearing sworn brotherhood with a nobody like him, giving him exceptionally strong backing that was effective even in Lanling City.

He even managed to get both Jin Zixuan and Jin Zixun out of the way, based on the last few seconds of memory Jin Zixun had of his former life and what Su She had led slip in this one, and made his way to the very top of the heap, becoming Sect Leader Jin and even Chief Cultivator.

(And then he’d apparently managed to fuck it all right up, but that, Jin Zixun thought, was probably just his inheritance as a Jin – they were all exceptionally good at snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, even if they preferred to pretend that each and every instance of that was just a coincidence.)

Either way, a brain like that?

Jin Zixun wanted it on his side.

Which would be easier if it weren’t for fucking Su She, who was some absolute nobody who’d been picked up as a Lan sect disciple and who’d apparently developed the world’s largest probably one-sided crush on Jin Guangyao.

“You should leave,” he haughtily informed Su She.

“I’m going absolutely nowhere. You think I’m leaving him with an asshole like you?”

“I’m not going to do anything to him!”

“No? Really? You’re not planning on sweeping in and winning his gratitude with some half-assed gesture and then playing on that to use him as your little slave for the rest of his life?”

…huh.

Maybe this Su She guy was also smart.

After all, Jin Guangyao probably didn’t keep dumb lackeys hanging around, and twenty years (supposedly) was a pretty long time to keep someone. Plus, if Jin Guangyao had somehow managed to win Su She’s loyalty, it couldn’t have been hard. What had he done? Smiled at him a few times? Remembered his name? Something dumb like that?

A good lackey was hard to find.

Jin Zixun gave Su She a thoughtful look, which for some reason made Su She look rather alarmed and take a solid two steps back.

“No, don’t go,” he said, and yet for some reason Su She, who just moments ago had declared he wasn’t going anywhere, started looking around as if he wanted to find an escape route. “Wait a moment. Maybe we can work on this together –”

By this, Jin Zixun meant that he would give the orders and Su She would do all the work, and judging from the ugly expression on Su She’s face he knew it, too.

“I have a connection to him that you don’t,” Jin Zixun reminded him. “Plus money and other resources, which you also don’t have. You need me.”

“I don’t need shit from you!”

“No? You’d rather get it from the Lan sect, then?”

Su She grimaced.

Score one point for him, Jin Zixun thought smugly. He might not be good at most things, but he was damn good at figuring out people’s weak spots.

He crossed his arms again and waited, confident in his success.

“Fine,” Su She finally spat after visually struggling with himself for a while. “We can work together for now.”

“Good,” Jin Zixun said. “Now, for our next move –”

“Who said you got to decide that?! I’m the one who knows him!”

“I’m in charge!”

“You are not!”

“Yes I am –”

“Who are you people?!” a miniature version of Jin Guangyao, only with no Jin sect golds and vermilion mark, suddenly shouted out the window, glaring down at them. “And don’t you know it’s the middle of the night?! Even the brothels have closed up already! Get out of here before I get someone to kick you both out!”

[animebw]

Reading One Piece: Chapters 741-742

-God, this entire sequence is fucking wrenching. All the false hopes Usopp gave them, hearing their words rebound on him, all of them believing in him even as he’s leaving them to die, even as they’re quite literally being crushed underfoot... fucking hell, I’m not okay.

-”It’s your fault for believing me every single time!” FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

-”My name’s Usopp! And if I die, build me a statue next to Noland’s, because I’m about to become your legendary hero!” Oh. My. Fucking. God. I’M GONNA BAWL USOOOOOOOPP

-And now it’s time for Kyros’ backstory. An orphan taken off the streets, made to fight in the coliseum until fighting was all he ever knew. He was called a monster, and soon, he had no choice left but to become a monster if he wanted to survive. Even if he can no longer picture life outside the coliseum’s bloody walls.

-”You’ve spent nine years of your life trapping yourself in this cage. Come out into the sunlight!” So the reason King RIku fought in the coliseum in the first place was to knock some sense into Kyros? Damn, I knew I liked him.

-Hm. Parts of this backstory are really burning by quickly. We got no time at all to get a sense of Scarlet and Kyros falling in love and running away together, we just smash-cut right to Rebecca’s birth.

-MOTHERFUCKER CUT OFF HIS OWN LEG HOLY SHIT KYROS

-”Whoever you are... my daughter... is hungry and waiting...” I. Am. Not. Okay.

-Pfft, now Kinemon’s got them thinking the real Dofy is the imposter. Nice.

-”You eat it... and die.” FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

-...hah

hahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahhahahaha

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT WORKED

SNATCHING VICTORY FROM THE JAWS OF MOTHERFUCKING DEFEAT

THE TURNAROUND BEGINS NOW

LET’S

FUCKING

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO