#meanwhile they have circulation issues

[unsuspectingfish]

I don’t know, man, I think it’s kind of fucked up that I have to constantly live with the fact that not even my own home is safe, because my roommate stopped caring about COVID like 5 months after they moved in, and they’re dating someone who never cared, so the one place I should be able to relax unmasked is the place most likely to kill me, but I’ll also never be able to afford to live on my own because a studio cost almost as much as our 2-bedroom.

But freedom and whatnot, I guess.

[inf3ct3dd]

streamer!ellie pt.2

summary: i hated the other one of this that i made, so REMAKE TIEM!!!

warnings: miiinor sexual content, shit talking, gay people 😒

authors note: heheheh ples don’t flop this time..

- during her faceless days, she opened up a po box so ppl could send her things, and she made an amazon wishlist and she unboxed stuff on stream 😍😍

- one day she was unboxing a giant box of cat toys. string, those little feather stick things, even that weird automatic flapping fish thing (that she secretly loves and taped to her back one time)

- she was playing with this one toy that was a little fishing reel, and it had string and a little fish on the bottom. she went on and onnn about how shes a self proclaimed “fishing master” while garf chased it around, letting out little meows and growls of frustration.

- eventually, she lost her grip and let go of the pole. she bent down to pick it up, forgetting that her face would be in view. thus, the chat started blowing up.

ewwwbruh: FACE REVEAL

ewwife: EW WE CAN SEE UR FACE

ewwife: JUST THE SIDE BUT WE CAN SEE YOUU

ewssidechick: her nose looks so rideable…

- she got distracted petting garfield, and didn’t realize anything until she stood up. she was getting tagged over and over again on twitter, blurry pictures of her face (curtesy of the shitty webcam) circulating through her subreddit.

- “guys. im gonna erase this from ur memory…” and she literally held up this goofy ass hypnotizer pendelum and started fake hypnotizing everyone like “that never happenedddd” “you don’t know what i look likeeee” “that was fakeeee” “chat that was not reallll”

- and everyone literally js went along with it and pretended it never happened. like ppl were tweeting about it and everyone was like “huh??? what are u talking about bruh??”

- she did the same thing after falling off her rainbow unicorn scooter 😞

- one time she revealed that the “ew” in her username stood for her initials, and everyone was making the most horrendous guesses. elliam willace being the favorite one.

- “guys, my name is not edward wilson??? i am…not a man”

- shes gotten into so much drama…multiple notes app apologies have been issued via her instagram story.

- people would ask her opinions on other streamers, and she’d literally just be like “…i have no idea who that is.” and people would get so MADDDD but homegirl is literally just blatantly unaware

- or she would know , and would literally be like “they’re honestly super annoying and i would rather kill myself than watch them but whatever floats ur boat ig!”

- she played that “womp womp womp womppp” sound effect on her soundboard afterwards.

- SPEAKING OF. she abuses that soundboard sooo much. its so obnoxious and annoying like I SWEARRR!!! she’ll tell a horrible pun and play the crowd laughing and cheering sound effects while literally no one laughed.

“guys. whats the best way to watch a fly fishing tournament??”

“…live streaming.”

(crowd cheering sound effect)

“nooo thank you thank you, you’re all too kind, really!!”

- meanwhile chat was dead silent.

- every time she gets to choose her own name on a game its some dumb shit like "jizzmaster" or "chris fucker"

- “it appears you have entered innapropriate content.” “OHHH LOOK AT EPISODE LOOK AT THESE CORPORATE BIGWIGS TRYING TO CONTROL THE LITTLE MAN???”

- she just ended up naming him “chris phucker”

- like when she played episode on stream and made up really annoying voices for all the characters and made her character look like an elderly man, and made the love interest look like you 😍😍

- she messes up sm on games when she streams normally, but when you're there? she is LOCKED THE FUCK IN. sitting there so focused the entire time just to show off

- whenever she randomly goes silent she just starts SINGING. it's either nicki minaj or some fucking fnaf song

"IS THIS THE THANKS THAT I GET FOR PUTTING U BITCHES ON???"

- speaking of, her favorite fnaf song is def “stay calm” cuz she loves saying “hey kids. Nice to eat ya.”

- bought one of those "i paused my game to be here" tshirts…ironically. you refuse to let her wear it in public

- beefs w kids on fortnite sm... she has definitely gotten banned for saying she was gonna bomb a kids house or fuck their mom 😞

- every time she plays a game, she'll literally sit there and watch an 8 hour long video about the lore. she'll plop down on the couch and watch it like a movie

"did you know everyone actually thought that fnaf one took place in 1993, but it was actually 1992?"

- she definitely had you sit next to her when she played through fnaf because she was lowk scared the entire time whenever she heard you walking around the house while she was playing she'd hear footsteps in the hallway and be like. WHAT THE FUCKKK

-she'd have you right next to her, laying your head on her shoulder and messing with her free hand. if you fell asleep, she would be sitting there slapping her hand over her mouth whenever she gets jumpscared bc she doesn't want you to wake up 😞

- sometimes, while she streams , she plays one handed games and lets you sit and draw on her arm for fun. even got you a whole set of those skin markers so u could go ABSOLUTELY HAM. she got one drawing you did that said “r + e 4eva” tattooed in ur handwriting…such a sap

- she loves watching fan edits of herself...AND OF YOU. she'll be on her burner account with a whole collection on tiktok of edits of you.

ewwsbiggestfan: shes so bad i want her to hit me w her car...

- speaking of. imagine her using that account to make shitty capcut edits of you like

- shes ur biggest fan ongod

-WHILE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC OF “fans”…what if i made a completely new origin story for streamer!ellie and reader. what if they were both streamers….

- OKAY SO BASICALLY.

- you had started streaming about a year before ellie did. butttt, you two did very different types of streaming.

- you weren’t very into like, SERIOUS video games. sure, you played some stuff, like animal crossing and roblox and the sims, but nothing more than that.

- that wasn’t what you were streaming though.

- ever since you were younger, you had been wayyyy into…literature.

-by literature i mean fanfiction. heaps of it.

- actors, anime characters, BOOK CHARACTERS, you were in DEEP

- sometimes, for fun, you used to read them out loud in stupid voices. when you were alone, or with your friends, it was very entertaining

- that’s when you got the idea to start streaming it. if it could entertain your friends, and you, whos to say it wouldn’t entertain other people.

- well, it definitely did. in your first year, you hit 10k followers. people loved you. theyd make edits of you, send in requests of fics for you to read, everything.

- a while later, ellie started gaining more and more popularity. out of all the incomes of fame, fanfiction was the most. abundant!

- one day, you got a request to read an ellie x reader fic. at the time, you barely had any idea who she was, but you decided to just go with it 🤞🏽

- “who the fuck is elliam willace???”

- the fanfic was definitely very…graphic!

- “your hips rolled onto her thigh, her slender, tattooed hand palming at your waist. ‘you’re doing so good babe, fuck.’-“ “GUYS. ISN’T SHE NOT ON MUTE RIGHT NOW???”

- you couldn’t help but giggle the rest of the fic, feeling a nagging heat in your core. you didn’t even know who the girl was, but if this fic was accurate, someone would have to sedate you.

-“im actually. gnawing at the iron bars of my enclosure. GUYS. who is this woman…is she real… if she is. things are about to get WICKED.”

- not very thankful to you at the moment, she was very real. apparently, you and her were streaming at the same time, and your followers raided her stream telling her she was reading about you. her curiosity was obviously piqued, and why would she NOT join the stream?

- creeperewman: im definitely real!

- the text on your screen literally made your stomach fall into your ass. you stood up and legit just walked out of the room, camera still on. was she there the whole time???

- creeperewman: aww 😞 where’d she go she’s so badddd

- you eventually returned after a minute of calming yourself down, and low and behold, she gifted you 100 subs and followed you on instagram.

- she was definitely very real!! and that fanfic was…lore accurate. to say the least 😊

- after you two started dating, the two of you would often show up on eachothers streams. ellie, teaching you how to play cod, and you, reading with her.

- she secretly loves reading the fics people write about her and making fun of them, and every time you stream with her shes “subtly” hinting that you should read about her

sitting there pulling on her collar, looking away like “gee, wonder who you’re gonna pick today” with the worst fake laugh ever.

- “ellie can barely ride a scooter, idk why she’s in the mafia rn…” “you fall off ONE TIME and all of a sudden you cant ride a scooter. bullshit.”

- she makes fun of all the dumb pet names like “babygirl” and “darling” and randomly calls you them and bursts out laughing

- you still read those fics when you’re bored sometimes. and ellie MERCILESSLY makes fun of you for it

“yknow, if you missed me that bad, you should’ve just told me.”

[rapeculturerealities]

It’s not just Taylor Swift: AI-generated porn is targeting women and kids all over the world | CNN Business

The circulation of explicit and pornographic pictures of megastar Taylor Swift this week shined a light on artificial intelligence’s ability to create convincingly real, damaging – and fake – images.

But the concept is far from new: People have weaponized this type of technology against women and girls for years. And with the rise and increased access to AI tools, experts say it’s about to get a whole lot worse, for everyone from school-age children to adults.

Already, some high schools students across the world, from New Jersey to Spain, have reported their faces were manipulated by AI and shared online by classmates. Meanwhile, a young well-known female Twitch streamer discovered her likeness was being used in a fake, explicit pornographic video that spread quickly throughout the gaming community.

“It’s not just celebrities [targeted],” said Danielle Citron, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. “It’s everyday people. It’s nurses, art and law students, teachers and journalists. We’ve seen stories about how this impacts high school students and people in the military. It affects everybody.”

But while the practice isn’t new, Swift being targeted could bring more attention to the growing issues around AI-generated imagery. Her enormous contingent of loyal “Swifties” expressed their outrage on social media this week, bringing the issue to the forefront. In 2022, a Ticketmaster meltdown ahead of her Eras Tour concert sparked rage online, leading to several legislative efforts to crack down on consumer-unfriendly ticketing policies.

[deusvervewrites]

Ask Game: Overhaul starts mass producing the permanent Quirk erasing bullets sooner and starts Dequirking people

So keep in mind that this first point is running somewhat parallel with what will follow--I don't have a good way to sort it chronologically. Togata becomes the Ninth Holder of One For All. Nighteye stops paying attention to the yakuza to train him. All Might never really bonds with Togata because it was Nighteye's choice, and All Might dies at Kamino. Togata himself will not survive the Eight Precepts raid. Shigaraki puts up no resistance to his body being stolen, and the procedure is completed without issue.

Overhaul's plan goes into effect: selling the Quirk-Destroying Bullets on the black market while simultaneously selling the cure to the bullets to the Heroes (after waiting long enough to ensure a demand). There are, however, a few complications that perhaps he did not consider. Like the MLA. Or the HPSC. Or All For One.

All For One and the HPSC both want to independently monopolize the drug, while the MLA want it destroyed at any cost. Overhauls' yakuza organization, comprised of nine decent fighters including himself, is unable to withstand that pressure. The Bullets drop one by one, and eventually even Overhaul himself is killed. However, the drug has by this point circulated quite a bit. If Garaki was canonically able to replicate it, I doubt he was the only one who could.

So to recap, the HPSC now has the ability to determine who gets Quirks at all, All For One has the drug, and if I cared enough to bring them up, Humarise would have the drug for their bombs. Meanwhile the MLA are super fucking annoyed about all of this, and since somehow the HPSC completely fucking missed that they exist before Hawks warned them in canon, that's a problem. So the HPSC crumples like the house of cards that it is, All For One shows up to beat up the MLA, and from there I think the next step is feudal warlords again?

Ten years into the collapse of society, Eri, now fifteen, is really fucking sick of AFO's bullshit. The only thing keeping him contained is the threat of New Order since he never got a chance to take OFA, but who knows how long that will last. So Eri decides to remove the competition, being a warlord herself by this point. She sends herself back in time using Rewind. What she doesn't realize is that in doing so, she throws a massive wrench into her own plans that she never could have foreseen: ensuring that All Might will meet a young boy named Midoriya Izuku. And god help her if she tries to resist his friend-making instincts.

+1. Eri is extremely surprised when Uraraka passes the UA Entrance Exam, as she had been one of her greatest lieutenants in the original timeline

+2. Eri has mastered Rewind to the point that she can remove someone's Quirk at will, something Overhaul learned the hard way. Her younger self thinks she's the coolest.

[frameacloud]

September 2024

[Originally posted to Orion Scribner's Patreon blog on September 16, 2024.]

I've been thinking for a long time that I need to get back into posting regular updates to my Patreon about what I'm doing instead of assuming you all are following me on other sites where those things are happening. Here are some of those things, which are mostly writings from my original research about otherkin, therianthropes, and other alterhumans.

I have a store on itch.io now! My creations that I've put on it, available to read for free:

A Simple Introduction to Otherkin and Therianthropes, version 2.4.8. My two page long essay explains what we are, in a way that the average person can understand. Written in the limited vocabulary of Simple English, it doesn't use any special words. If you read this essay many years ago and found it sounded rather stilted, don't worry, I completely rewrote this version! It also cites primary sources for each idea. I'm working with volunteers to translate it into many languages. Thanks to them, it's in German, Dutch, Estonian, and Polish. Chinese, Croatian, and Spanish are in progress. On the page, I give links to the ko-fi accounts of the translators so you can tip them, if they chose to allow that.

The Otherkin Timeline. This is my community history book that helped make it possible for other researchers to write about us, so most academic papers on otherkin cite it. Version 2.1 is mostly the version that has been in circulation for more than a decade, plus a few small additions and corrections. The next update of the book will change and expand it considerably, because it will be a collaboration between my fellow community historian and partner system, the House of Chimeras.

I also curated and reviewed collections of other people's creations about alterhumans. Find out where you can play tabletop role-playing games where each of you are members of a plural system on a magical adventure; read 1990s-style punk zines about therianthropy; take your time with literature anthologies of otherkin; or play video games with animal protagonists.

Presentations that I've given in this past year:

While I was staff at this summer's OtherCon 2024, I presented the panel Phantom Limbs and Phantom Sensations, Human and Otherwise. (To watch the video, you need to be signed into Youtube so that you can say you're at least 18. It's an 18+ topic because of some health issues it talks about.) The first half of this is a review of the medical literature on phantom limb phenomena, plus some etiquette tips about how to be respectful of people who have limb differences. The second half summarizes my original research project, the results of my survey, with tons of help from my partner and statistical expert, Page Shepard. This inquired about people who feel sensations of nonhuman body parts, for example, of wings or tails. It was open to people whether or not they call themselves otherkin, therians, or some other sort of alterhuman. It received more than a thousand usable responses, making it the largest recorded survey focused on otherkin or therians. My presentation ended up being overambitious for the time slot, so sometime I want to re-record it with better pacing.

In March, I was staff at the first Centaurus Festival. Together with my partner systems Chimeras and Page, we did a presentation there: How to Run Surveys of the Alterhuman Communities.

Articles I've written for the Otherkin News blog:

I've been covering "anti-furry" bills in the US. These are laws that Republicans have been proposing against students who behave or identify as non-humans. The bills aren't based on based on anything that students are doing in real life. They're based on an urban legend that Republicans made up to satirize transgender students asking for gender-appropriate restrooms by claiming that children who identify as cats ask for litter boxes in classrooms.

Meanwhile, children in real life have been getting into a fad popularized on TikTok in which they exercise on all fours (quadrobics) and craft animal masks. Some of these self-described therians are familiar with therianthropy as a serious integral part of one's identity, whereas others of them only know it as a hobby. I collected a bunch of recent news articles about that from Finland: Therian quadrobics popular for children in Finland; two schools ban animal masks.

[alpaca-clouds]

Democratizing Media

Alright, one thing first: When politicians speak about "democratizing media" they usually mean something else then what scientist say, when they use those words. Politicians mostly mean something along the lines of "media should say what I want instead being controlled by some coorporation, because like I am elected, right?" Meanwhile scientist mean something else.

You see, before the internet became easily accessible for most people, the only way to access media was through certain outlets. TV stations, the cinema, some publishers and some record lables.

Yes, sure. Technically self-publishing was a thing even back then, but without the ease of the internet... How were you to market your own book or comic? And self-made music usually just circulated on copied and copied again casette tapes.

Usually, if you wanted to create media that actually people would see, you had to go through a big company. And those companies could very much decide who got to make movies and tv, who got to publish music or books or comics. Not only where those decisions controlled by capitalist interest, but also by nepotism and cultural biases, given that a lot of the people making those decisions where (and still are to these days) white, cis, abled men.

But when the internet came around things changed. Because suddenly everyone had a way easier time in getting their stuff out there. Pretty early on there were websites where people could just publish their stories and comics online. Either free and hosted by some other website or paid on their own site. Which was pretty revolutionary, especially as suddenly ideas that had been ignored could reach a new audience.

Voices, that by news media and such had been ignored so far - voices of women and marginalized folks - could suddenly broadcast over all sorts of channels.

And yes, you could also just publish your music and what not online, could also do your own research and offer it to the world and could actually get heard.

Now, we all know that this came with ups and downs. Because while finally marginalized people were heard like this, it also gave a bigger platform to some fringe conspiracy groups and the like. But at least there was a chance to get your stuff out there.

Social media websites and the like played a big role in this. Especially Youtube, of course, but other sites, too........ which of course brings me to the problem. Or rather to the question: "Is media democratized right now?"

Because it isn't, of course.

Right now we have these chokepoints, where you kinda are forced to push whatever you create through a channel. Sure, you can upload your videos on your own server, but probably nobody will see them. They need to be on youtube. Just like your music now needs to be on spotify and itunes. And if you self-publish a book, it kinda needs to be available on amazon or you won't sell shit. And if you have your own little blog and do not promote it on social media (or have it not integrated on a blogging platform such as tumblr) it will not be seen.

And this brings two issues with it (well, actually three). For one, as private companies those sides are able to censor you in any way they want to. They decide you cannot say the word "queer" anymore? Welp, no more talking about queer issues for you. And because they are a private company nobody can do much against it. Like with the tumblr purge. No more "female presenting nipples" for you.

The next issue is closely related: The companies in question want to make money. This they do mostly through advertisement and maybe subscriptions. Hence their goal is to keep you interacting with their website for a long while. And thus they have algorithms that decide what content you see - and hence if the content decides that something you do is not worth it or will get the wrong kind of attention... Well, nobody will get it shown. On a lot of social media we see, for example, that the negative content gets shown to more people. So writing about positive stuff does often not get you seen. (Which is why algorithms are bad. Don't fucking build your social media websites around a fucking algorithm.)

And lastly: A lot of media additionally to all of that also uses a system of partly manual currated. This is true for Netflix, who obviously want to make sure that the front page does show the stuff they either paid a lot of money for or that they produced themselves. Like, there is an infinity of great indie movies on Netflix, but if you do not know it is there, you will not see it. Same goes for a lot of Indie Games on Steam, that just go unnoticed, because they do not appear anywhere near the front page and just happen to go overlooked by folks. And in the end the big studios obviously have the money to get their games on the front page. Same with books on amazon, where just the difference in marketing budget makes sure, that certain books will end up front.

So, why am I telling all of that?

Because we still do have the tool. We can make a free, democratic internet like that. Where we do not have censorship (please note: banning people for saying hateful shit is actually not censorship, so yeah, ban them nazis). Where we do not have fucking algorithms. And where just everything has the same chance of getting seen.

Like, does not mean that there cannot be any currated lists. Like, those currator pages on steam? Those are fucking great. Lists where everyone just can make those and you can subscribe to their lists. That is amazing. But... you know. Not for the baseline experience, but for what everyone wants their experience to be like.

Just... a thing that bothers me. Based on the stuff I spoke about yesterday.

[mariacallous]

The humble school meal is having a moment. With the nomination of Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, as Kamala Harris’s running mate, many voters and pundits are suddenly talking about school meals. And that’s good, because the stakes are high for the national school lunch and school breakfast programs since the campaigns and their parties have very different records and plans.

Since Walz became the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, an image of him has frequently circulated. In the photograph, he’s surrounded by smiling children hugging him after he signed a 2023 bill making school meals universally free for all Minnesota children. His was the fourth state to commit to feeding all children at school; now nine states have done so, and more are considering similar measures. No more forms to fill out to prove your income, which busy parents can forget or that get crumpled in a backpack. No more penalizing children when their parents fall behind on lunch accounts. Every kid gets fed, powering them up for their day’s work learning and growing.

By most measures, the Minnesota program has been successful and popular. Participation in the meals program soared, increasing 15% at lunch and 37% at breakfast compared with the previous year. Due to those increases, the economies of scale improved, and some districts have been able to invest more in scratch cooking with ingredients from local farmers. It turns out that relieving cafeteria staff of the duty to go after parents who fall behind on lunch payments leaves them more time to focus on food quality.

Minnesota’s registered voters are overwhelmingly happy with the program, too. A KSTP/SurveyUSA poll showed that 72% agreed with the legislation, including 90% of liberals and 57% of conservatives. Even 59% of Trump voters in 2020 agreed. In online forums, Minnesota commenters tend to be remarkably supportive of feeding all children, even if they don’t have any themselves or if they think the food could be better. Parents rave about the convenience and savings.

Minnesota’s success isn’t an outlier, but a consistent feature of free meals for all. A 2022 study of the national Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which provides universally free meals nationwide in districts that have a poverty rate of 25% or more, found that more kids eat when the meal is free. That’s true even among kids who were already eligible for free or reduced-price meals, suggesting that stigma is keeping many from accepting assistance. Even more helpful, families with children in schools that provide meals tend to spend less at the grocery store while still improving the quality of their diets. And, perhaps most important, research consistently shows that school meals improve students’ academic performance, behavior and health outcomes.

It’s not assured that a Harris-Walz administration would push such legislation nationally. Harris has mentioned school meal programs at least twice, once in a 2017 Facebook post deploring lunch shaming and recently on X, when she touted Walz’s school lunch program as a sign of support for the middle class. But if the Democratic ticket does put the issue on its platform or list of priorities, school meals would at least have a knowledgable champion in Walz. He has seen it work on the ground, and he knows the benefits that it brings to the vast majority of families with children in his state.

Meanwhile, Minnesota Republican lawmakers have criticized the free meals program. State representative Kristin Robbins’s complaint is typical: “All the low-income students who need – and we want to provide, make sure no one goes hungry – they were getting [meals] through the free and reduced lunch program. This [new legislation] gave free lunch to all the wealthy families … Is that really a priority?” Walz’s reply to this argument dripped with irony: “Isn’t that rich? Our Republican colleagues were concerned this would be a tax cut for the wealthiest.” The year before, the Minnesota GOP proposed a $3.5bn tax cut that largely would have benefited the wealthiest 20%. Feeding all the state’s schoolchildren, even after going over budget because it was so popular, costs only about one-seventh of that.

Republicans at the national level, too, disdain expanding access to free meals and improving nutrition standards. In March, the Republican Study Committee, a caucus to which roughly three-quarters of all Republican House members belong, released its 2025 budget proposal. It called for ending the CEP for high-poverty districts. Doing so would snatch school meals from millions of children currently receiving them, shifting that cost back to their families. It would also probably increase the bureaucracy for schools, though Republicans claim that this administrative system is rife with “fraud and abuse”. While there have been high-profile cases of fraud in the school meals programs (for instance, a Chicago area nutrition director was recently convicted of stealing $1.5m, largely in chicken wings), most identified “abuse” entails clerical errors like giving wrongly categorized meals (free or reduced-price) to kids very near the income cutoffs or ringing up a meal without one of the required components on the tray, like enough vegetables. I would also point out that, if all children got the meals free, there would be no “fraud” in giving a hungry child a school meal, and we could save the labor and cost of all that paperwork.

Reducing access to free school meals is also a priority of the now-infamous Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for the next administration. Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but his ties to it are indisputable and a second Trump White House would probably be well populated with its adherents.

Regarding school meals, Project 2025 repeats the willful deception that the federal lunch and breakfast programs are “specifically for children in poverty”. In truth, from their beginnings, these programs were meant for all children. But they always made allowances for impoverished children’s access – not only poor children, but inclusive of poor children. The authors of Project 2025 argue that any expansion of free meals is against the “original intent” and creates “an entitlement for students from middle- and upper-income homes”. (I wonder what they think of all those wealthy children getting free textbooks?) Their stated policy goals are to “work with lawmakers to eliminate CEP” and to “reject efforts to create universal free school meals”.

While Trump himself may know little about school meals policy (I have never found an instance of him directly talking about it), his first administration set out immediately to relax nutrition standards set under President Obama. The very first policy announcement from Sonny Perdue, Trump’s secretary of agriculture, was that his department would seek to bring back higher-fat chocolate milk, reduce whole grain requirements and stop sodium reductions. And despite the US Department of Agriculture’s own research findings that Obama-era rules had made school meals significantly healthier and debunking claims that plate waste was increasing, one of the last acts of the Trump USDA was to propose a further weakening of nutrition standards to require fewer fruits and allow yet more usually high-salt items such as pizza and hash browns. But the clock ran out on that proposal, and the Biden-Harris administration then increased school meals’ nutrition standards.

Given the Republicans’ legislative goals and the direction of one of the GOP’s leading thinktanks, a second Trump administration would almost surely unravel access to school meals and gut hard-won, incremental gains that have made them healthier. All this despite nationwide polls that indicate a majority of US voters agree that all kids should get universally free school meals.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

Over the last week, conservative influencer accounts have ignited a firestorm over cisgender boxer Imane Khelif, alleging that she is actually a “man” and suggesting she might be transgender. This is despite officials confirming that Khelif was assigned female at birth and has competed as a woman her entire life. The controversy has led to statements from Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and anti-transgender influencers, who are using the boxer’s participation to target transgender athletes. Now, the Boston Globe, a major American paper, has published and circulated into print the false claim that Khelif is transgender. The title reads, “Transgender Boxer Advances.” The headline was placed on an AP article written by sports journalist Greg Beachem, who asserts, “That's not my headline. That word isn't in my story. My stories are syndicated worldwide, and customers are allowed to write their own headlines.” The use of alternate headlines is a common practice for wire services. The word “transgender” does not appear once in the story, which was printed on August 2, 2024.

There is no evidence that Khelif is a transgender woman. Although transgender women are allowed to compete in the Olympics, there are no openly transgender women competing this year. Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has confirmed that Khelif is a cisgender boxer, calling disinformation about her gender “totally unacceptable.” Khelif’s family shared pictures of her as a child, as well as identity documents showing her assigned sex at birth. Notably, gender transition is criminalized in Algeria, making it extremely unlikely that transgender people would be allowed to transition in the country.

The original claim about Khelif’s sex eligibility arose when the scandal-plagued International Boxing Association (IBA) ruled her out of competition, alleging she failed an unspecified gender test after defeating an undefeated Russian boxer. Notably, the IBA is presided over by Umar Kremlev of Russia, an associate of President Putin. In 2023, the International Olympic Committee voted to derecognize the IBA due to concerns about corruption, governance, and judging controversies.

[...] Update: The paper has issued a correction and apologized. “A significant error was made in a headline on a story in Friday’s print sports section about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif incorrectly describing her as transgender. She is not. Additionally, our initial correction of this error neglected to note that she was born female. We recognize the magnitude of this mistake and have corrected it in the epaper, the electronic version of the printed Globe. This editing lapse is regretful and unacceptable and we apologize to Khelif, to Associated Press writer Greg Beacham, and to you, our readers.”

The Boston Globe should be ashamed of themselves for inaccurately describing Imane Khelif as “transgender”. The paper did later, apologize for the insensitively bigoted headline but not the trans community as a whole.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Is This the Last Dance Before the Lights Go Out?

I hate to say it, because it’s not very solarpunk, but it feels a bit fin de siècle here right now. Like we’re in the last days of normality before we fall off the cliff. Every time we have a nice moment—in the late spring splendor of the garden, for instance, or even just when walking the dog through the fields—we stop, Spouse and I, and tell one another to enjoy it. Because feels like that in the midst of the cataclysms that are about to strike us, we’re going to look back at these little things and wonder how we could have taken them for granted.

And it’s not just us who’s feeling this way. Lately, when we have dinner with friends or chat with our neighbors, at some point, the group converges suddenly upon such thoughts. Be grateful for these moments, we murmur to each other, where we can relax together on our backyard patio, drinking cold white wine, and watch the sunset. Understand that they’re a luxury. Such days are numbered and once they’re gone, not all of us, and maybe not even any of us, will see their likes again.

Who can blame us for seeping in this bittersweet gloom? A perfect storm doesn’t just seem to be looming, it feels like it’s adding elements to itself all the time.

At first it was just the global warming we are still failing to address. But now it’s clear that this global warming is not just bringing deadly heatwaves, droughts, bigger and more frequent storms, sea level rise, and flooding, it’s also threatening to collapse patterns of ocean circulation within the next decade or two such that northern European temperatures will drop to resemble those in Anchorage, Alaska, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and Kamchatka, Russia. On top of all the other disastrous effects this would have—including sudden massive heating of lower latitude areas along the Atlantic—just imagine what would happen if farming were no longer possible in such heavily populated places like Britain, Ireland, northern Germany (where I live now!), Poland, and all of Scandinavia. Food prices soaring all over the world, anyone? Plus widespread famine (and not just in Europe) and the collapse of major economies? If we were young enough to start over again and had the money to move, I’d say we decamp back to my home state of California before climate change turns us into actual refugees. I’m sure I’ll kick myself in five, ten, or fifteen years when saying our garden full of potatoes and the neighbor’s Muscovy ducks and alpacas will be what gets us through the winter here without starving is not just a matter of gallows humor.

Meanwhile, we’re balking at getting the renewable energy revolution going fast enough soon enough to avoid environmental disaster. And why are we balking? Because it’s “too expensive” or because we just don’t want to change anything about the way we live, although these arguments are ridiculous because the cost of doing nothing is astronomically higher and the changes are coming anyway.

We’re also refusing to reverse the widening wealth gap that’s ultimately what’s driving people into voting for the far right, neo–Nazis, and other politicians with authoritarian urges and the desire to destroy democracy… even though these people and political parties will only add fuel to the fires that need to be put out.

Then there is all that misinformation and all the conspiracy theories that seem so perfectly constructed to stop us from working sensibly together to tackle the existential environmental, economic, and social problems that are making it increasingly harder for us to thrive, or often, even to survive.

On top of all that, here in Europe, we have the added issue of the political failures of the post–Cold War period that have had us sleepwalking into a dangerous situation with a resurgently imperialistically hungry Russia. After the Wall came down and the Iron Curtain opened, European politicians thought we could just be friends and trading partners with Russia. Because Russia’s interest in selling us natural gas and crude oil would weave them into our economic world and make them value our markets enough for them never to want to wage war on us ever again. Thus would we lull them into peaceful capitalist prosperity and democracy.

Cozy in that lazy thinking, Europe dropped its guard, domesticating itself rather than its enemy. Its armies grew thin and its stocks of weapons and military machinery thinner. Today, countries like Germany would need the greater part of a decade to build up enough weapons, equipment, and trained manpower to wage even a strictly defensive war. It’s not much different for any other country in Europe. Which is not the position you want to be in when one of your neighbors starts dreaming of their glorious imperialistic past.

To hear politicians and analysts tell it, unless some political miracle convinces Putin to remove crush western democracy from his bucket list, we have three to five years to prepare for war. Such a miracle might be as simple as a heart attack. More likely it involves a sudden splurge in funding to beef up European defenses ASAP plus upcoming elections handing power over neither to the far right in Europe nor to the raging danger that is Donald Trump nor to the Republicans party that has been taken over by people who’ve lost their tether to common sense, compassion, and reality. In other words, yes, we really are talking about a miracle.

I’m no professional, but from my little perch here in Northern Germany, having as long as three to five years feels optimistic. Ukraine is all that is standing between Putin and the massive expansion of his war. If Trump and the Republicans roll into the White House, that’s got to bump up the war is coming to us timeline to... sometime next year or the one thereafter. Seems to me, anyway, because Trump & Co will pull US support out from under Ukraine faster than you can say God damn the electoral college and then she will fall.

Won’t that be the start of the wider war, for the next stops will be Baltic states, like Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, and Poland, plus neighboring countries like Moldova? Or maybe it won’t even wait that long. Knowing this danger for Estonia, Estonia’s current leader has already more or less said that, in order to save Estonia, they’ll give everything the country has, in terms of funding and military support, to stop Russia from taking Ukraine. And since Estonia is a member of NATO, as soon as they do more than send funding and equipment, doesn’t that drag a huge chunk of Europe straight into the war, even before Ukraine falls entirely to Russian aggression?

Again, I’m no professional on this front, I just live here. But likewise, it’s also hard to see how it will be as long as three to five years before we’re all at war, given how zealously Russia is working to undermine peace, prosperity, and political stability in the West and how feebly we’re counteracting this. Russia takes a mile for every inch we give them, spreading misinformation, causing destabilizing political problems, and committing not even terribly covert acts of sabotage. This sowing of dissent aims to weaken western countries and coalitions ahead of the overt war Russia plans to wage on us. We totally know this! But our politicians are too frightened to retaliate against this hybrid war against us , lest it trigger a real war between us. You can all but hear Putin laughing into our timid faces. Real war is coming anyway!

All of that (plus a bunch of other equally dismal stuff that I haven’t had room to mention) is why living in Europe right now feels like the last dance before the lights go out.

Is it any wonder my thoughts have also recently frequently turned to how such a war would unfold?

Will tanks speed down the little lane we live on? (Honestly, actually, I’ve seen that already, because I think back in summer of 2022, they were training Ukrainian soldiers to drive Marder armored vehicles around here. There was a week when every time I looked out the window, one was zipping by… and let me tell you, it’s amazing how fast these things can race by.)

Will bombs flatten our house?

What can I do to prepare for what is coming? I live in Germany, a couple of hours from the Polish border. So, there is somewhat of a buffer there, but not a huge one. It isn’t inconceivable that there might be fighting here, or that we’d be the target of drones.

I don’t mean to be self–centered about this. There’s a whole lot of destruction and carnage that has to happen to other people and other countries before battles happen here. But it’s not right to just shrug this looming war off by thinking oh, well, it won’t happen here.

I feel like, at my age, I’d make a terrible solider. Never mind that I’ve never been great at blindly following orders, I’m small, middle aged, out of shape, and full of asthma and allergies and chronic injuries, the battle scars from too much fun and soccer playing in my twenties, too much swilling of diet soda, and too much stress in my career. Yet, wouldn’t it make more sense for me to go and fight than it would for someone in their late teens or twenties (or even thirties), who has so much more of life in front of them? Spouse says, well, it would be our jobs to do all the jobs that wouldn’t be getting done if a good chunk of the young men were off fighting. We’d be farming, or helping out in hospitals, or riding around in garbage trucks. I don’t know if that would really feel like doing enough. Part of me thinks he’d be among the first to sign up if Germany gets invaded, even the current work that he’s doing would be critical to maintaining Germany’s renewable energy infrastructure.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how we live about 100 miles from the nearest city that would likely be hit by nuclear weapons, should things get that bad. I think that means we’d be the ones to die of radiation sickness, unless we could stay in a fallout shelter for the couple of weeks it takes the most acutely dangerous radionuclides to decay away. But, of course, like everyone else here, we haven’t got one in our backyard. We don’t even have a cellar. And I don’t want to die in an old abandoned local potato cellar or in one of the dank cubbyholes that passes for a cellar under some of the neighboring houses.

So, I haven’t just started thinking, whelp, even though I finally let us work down the supplies of toilet paper and canned goods I began hoarding in February 2020, it’s time to build up the collection again. I’ve started wondering how I could maybe turn our downstairs guest bedroom into a fallout shelter. It’s already got brick walls and a concrete ceiling. They’re not thick enough, but it’s a good start. What if I bricked up the window and then lined all the walls with another layer of bricks? Would that do, so long as I solved the issue of the flimsy wooden door? Also, could we rejig our solar panels to use them as an island, isolated from the grid, so that we’d have lights and could run a pump a few hours a day to bring air in through a Hepa filter? We could pee into buckets and poop into ziploc baggies, but how would we deal with the dog? With paper, pens, pencils, and maybe even our laptops, and maybe even something as decadent as an exercise bike, at least we wouldn’t die of boredom. Oh… a radio! And batteries. I’d better add that to my mental list.

Then, the dilemma. We have our anniversary coming up. Should I buy him a Geiger counter? Or would it be better to wait until Christmas? Or his birthday early next year? Or can I put it off even longer than that? I don’t want to buy one if I don’t need to buy one, but I don’t want to wait until it’s too late and be unable to get one and then die because we left the fallout shelter too soon, or didn’t realize we had a leak that was letting in dusty radioactive fallout.

But, honestly, argh! I have never in my life been afraid of the future. I even made it through the entire 1980s without having more than the occasional flicker of anxiety about dying in a nuclear war. But now thoughts like these are tying my stomach in knots and keeping me awake deep into the night.

As much as I love solarpunk, and as much as I believe in solarpunk’s vision of a great future that doesn’t require that we go through an apocalypse first, it’s hard to be optimistic about that right now. I cannot shake this feeling that our systems have been so broken and the changes we need to make to the way we do everything are so great that the only way forward is for it all to fall apart. It is hard to shake the feeling that we truly are about to go over that cliff.

That doesn’t mean I won’t stop fighting for the changes we need to make to avoid catastrophe on our way to a sustainable future. But I’m still stuck with the melancholy of these very possibly being the last nice days I will see for either a while or the entire rest of my life.

[militantinremission]

American Geopolitics: Corporations over Citizens

So 'Jim Crow Joe' Biden signed a $95.3B Foreign Aid Bill for Ukraine, Israel, & Taiwan. Most Americans think that Border Security is a higher priority, but as expected, Congressional Democrats were in lock step w/ Biden's Warmonger Agenda. Members of the CBC & Progressive Party played a major role, providing overwhelming support for this measure. $1B in Military Aid is slated to go to Ukraine WITHIN HOURS of signing this Bill, but a Military Package estimated at $300M was secretly shipped and was already being used last Week. The $61B 'Foreign Aid Package' for Ukraine includes:

$23.2B slated to replenish U.S. Defense stockpiles

$11.3B for current Ukrainian Defense operations

$13.8B for future Ukrainian Defense measures

This is on top of the $113B in American Aid already sent. The Package also includes $26B for Israeli Defense, w/ $1B set aside for 'Aid Relief' in Gaza, & $8B going to Taiwan. This sounds like a good thing for Defense Contractors, Lobbyists, & Commercial Banks (The Industrial Military Complex), but there is No Mention of funding for America's porous Southern Border.

Volodomyr Zelenskyy's Government has received over $300B in Global Aid for his War, but all he has to show for it are 500,000+ slain Ukrainian Soldiers, devasted Cities, & Tens of Millions of displaced Citizens. Accounts of WHERE these resources have gone are murky at best. Reports of American Weapons & Relief Materials appearing on the Ukrainian Black Market have persisted since shipments began. It's apparent that the situation is Critical. Ukraine has recently issued a Draft, calling ALL Ukrainian Men of fighting age to return Home to join the Theater of Battle; failure to do so, will lead to being labeled a 'Draft Dodger'. Meanwhile, rumors have circulated that 1,000- 2,000 French Infantrymen (possibly French Foreign Legionaries) have joined Ukrainian Soldiers on the Battlefield; discarding their French Uniforms & donning Ukrainian ones.

Taking ALL of these factors into account, why is The Biden Administration throwing more Money at Ukraine? Why isn't NATO trying to negotiate a Truce between Putin & Zelenskyy (i.e. Istanbul Summit Communique)? A recent Summit in Switzerland showed that Volodomyr Zelenskyy is sticking to his guns. He is demanding the Same Terms that he offered at the Beginning of the Conflict. Vladimir Putin obviously has momentum, so why is NATO & Ukraine refusing to hear his Terms? The effort by Western Powers & the WEF to humiliate Putin publicly & topple his government has been a dismal failure. The Sanctions placed on Russia have not worked; in fact, it has galvanized the Russian Public & made Vladimir Putin something of a Super Star in the Global South.

Despite U.S. imposed Sanctions, Russia continues to have robust trade w/ several Western European Nations. Germany & France alone have spent Billions on Russian Fertilizer & Timber. Billions more in Natural Resources like Coal, Cobalt, Copper, Tungsten, & Zinc are also being sold throughout Europe. China & North Korea are purchasing the Natural Gas & Oil that once flowed through the Nord Stream Pipeline, & Global South Nations are purchasing Russian Armaments. To be clear, Russia isn't starving. In fact, The Russian Ruble is stronger than it was Last Year. Julius Malema recently stated that Russia's & South Afrika's Gold & Platinum wealth will be the backbone of a BRICS Currency. Saudi Arabia has already began accepting Rubles over American Petrodollars. All of this may explain The Biden Administration's determination to press on in Ukraine.

Military Minds like Scott Ritter & Col. Douglas MacGregor have been talking about Russian dominance over NATO in Ukraine since The War began. They both point out how the diplomatic moves being made by Vladimir Putin are well thought out, & Geopolitical Minds like John Mearsheimer agree. Putin is playing a Long Game, & his actions have aroused 'Russian Patriots'. Since the 'Special Operation' in Ukraine began, the Russian Army has grown from 900,000 Soldiers to over 1.4 Million. Even Men over 40 are seeking Enlistment. Roughly 1,400 Men/Day are volunteering to join the Battle in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Soldiers are SERIOUSLY depleted, & American Armed Forces Enlistment numbers are down; THIS may explain the number of Young Male Illegal Immigrants being allowed into the Country. The Roman Empire also faced an Enlistment problem; They hired Visigoth Mercenaries to beef up their numbers. History shows how THAT worked out for the Romans.

The Role of Multinational Corporations in all of this has to be considered. Black Rock is buying up large tracts of land in Ukraine, while Defense Contractors rake in 10s of Billions from U.S. Military Aid Packages. The Pentagon says that We have to replenish the stocks that are being shipped to Ukraine & Israel, but neither Front has an 'End Game'. Volodomyr Zelenskyy is fighting a losing battle. He doesn't have enough Soldiers to confront a growing Russian Army; he doesn't even have enough Experienced Soldiers to operate the equipment that Biden intends to ship. As for Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has been very successful in devastating the Gaza Strip, but he hasn't done any real damage to Hamas. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is forcing Israeli Settlers South, & the Houthis have hurt Israel economically... Now Iran has SERVED NOTICE on Israel that their vaunted Air/ Missle Defense Systems (& America's) cannot stop a [bonafide] Iranian assault.

Back in America, Detroit, Flint, & Jackson Ms. STILL need clean drinking water! The Gulf States STILL suffer from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, & Our Roads, Bridges, & Tunnels continue to deteriorate. $200B would go a long way to solving some of these Home Grown problems. Corporations can make their money HERE; improving Trade Routes & increasing the incomes of American Workers. Why isn't this a priority? 'Jim Crow Joe' likes to tout Job Growth numbers, but these are mostly 'Gig Economy' Jobs, or Jobs that offer 30hrs/ Week, w/ NO BENEFITS. Then there's the Border Crisis. Improving the Southern Border IS a National Security Issue, but it's been put on the back burner- Why is that? Why are MILLIONS of unvetted Young Men not just being allowed into America, but also being subsidized?

Why are struggling Black Communities being forced to compete w/ these Men for resources meant for Us? Why are Black Politicians ignoring their Constituents & lending their support to these people, along w/ 2 Wars that have NOTHING to do w/ Us? The 'Fix' is obviously In, but We WILL have the Last Laugh on Election Day.

-Best believe That!

[steponmeinejghafa]

After Hours

Summary: After a long day of being the queens of ravka, you and Zoya desperately need to unwind, which you help each other with.

Warnings: None <3

wife!Zoya Nazyalensky X wife!reader

Note: While you are the queen of ravka with your wife, you additionally go to a school near the palace to teach when you're not handling any royal duties. (I'm frankly obsessed with the teacher wife aesthetic, ngl-)

-----

The room was far too quiet without you beside her, Zoya had to admit. While she stood and mapped out intricate strategies with the Second Army, she missed your quiet but bubbly presence gently adding in details to or pointing out flaws in her strategies. She hated paperwork without you joking and laughing with her.

Case in point, she missed you terribly whenever you left the palace.

Her day was, frankly, extremely stressful. There was way too much court to hold, far too many issues to discuss, one too many papers to sign, and definitely a lot more policies to make and handle than her threshold allowed.

However, Zoya knew that if she told you how stressful things were, you'd immediately feel guilty for leaving on such a busy day. She absolutely did not want that to happen, and additionally knew you would murder her if she told you that she was taking more load upon herself than she could manage.

Meanwhile, your day was going the exact opposite how your wife's was. Where she was stressing out far too much, you were enjoying yourself with the younger grade's children. While she filled out mind-numbingly boring papers, you were assisting adorable youngsters with their spelling and speaking.

Despite having an absolutely wonderful day, you desperately wished to go home to your wife. However lovely the children were, you did wish to have her by your side as the one who balanced you out perfectly.

Naturally for the both of you, as the day slowly came to an end, as the schoolbells rang out through the corridors to dismiss everyone, and as the courtiers and dukes cleared out of the throne room, a sense of relief was clearly felt.

You hugged the students and said your goodbyes, waiting till the last child had hurried out of the gates, before you hoisted yourself up into the carriage, strictly but politely telling the guards to not help you with your bag.

Sadly, where your day had ended, Zoya's was still going on. She stood near a massive map of Ravka, where tiny red pins signified where which guards were stationed, her brows furrowed while she tried hard to decide which troop needs to circle where the next week when the duty rotation would occur.

You walked in soundlessly like your good friend Inej, startling your wife as you slid your arms around her waist, pressing soft, affectionate kisses to her neck in greeting.

"Why hello there," she chuckled, a smile breaking through her frown, causing her face to light up. She leaned into your embrace, sighing contentedly at the feeling of your lips on her skin. Innocent as it was, the gesture felt familiar and comforting.

"Good evening, my love," you giggled, resting your chin on her shoulder to look at what she was doing. "Far too many strategies, I see. Playing the part of General tonight?"

"No," she sighed. "I'm just thinking about the guards stationed in the main marketplace."

"How come? I thought rotation was to occur as usual next week," you replied, your brows furrowing as hers did a few moments ago as you stood beside her, arms crossed.

She shook her head, and pointed at a place on the map. "Brekker tipped me off about some illegal trade of parem around there, and we need to double on security plus increase the intensity as well as frequency of checks on the pharmacies and traders. We cannot have that-that stuff circulating on the market again."

"I have an idea," you replied. "How about we take a few soldiers from Tsibeya here," you took out one of the three red pins on that side, "and place them with the guards at the market here." You placed it between two blue pins on the map.

"That's...a good idea, thank you darling," she chuckled softly. "Tsibeya has been pretty quiet these last few months. Atleast, that's what the scouts report." She quickly wrote down a letter, and asked a guard to deliver it to the Commanding Officer of the Tsibeya troops.

"Lovely," you grinned, taking her arm. "Now that the boring part of our job is over, let's go down to dinner and then go to sleep."

"But I've got to finish-" She began, but you immediately interrupted her.

"I am taking no arguments here, Nazyalensky."

Sighing ruefully at her obvious defeat, she gave in and agreed. Delighted, you pulled her to the dining hall, where the servants immediately served both of you a lavish dinner.

The table was wide enough, that two people could sit at the head of it, however discouraged it was. You often slit your chair next to her before guests came in, solely to annoy the nobles and to stay by her side. So, while you both ate, it wasn't easy to stare at you, but she did.

Her gaze was fixed on your lips every time you sipped some wine from your glass, so she instantly leaned over to wipe some of it off your bottom lip when it remained after a particularly long drag of it. She constantly felt her breath catch in her throat when you ate something with your hand and licked your fingers clean.

"I can hear you staring, love," You chuckled softly as dessert came in. Truth be told, you, too, were stealing small glances in her direction as she licked her fingers clean after finishing her rice and gravy. She did have a habit of eating with her hand sometimes, when the portions got too small to eat with a spoon or fork.

"I can hear you as well," she chuckled, nudging your shoulder with hers. "Can't get enough of me, can you, my darling?"

"Zoya," you said mock-forcefully as a blush reddened your cheeks. "We have been married for two years. You cannot flirt with me like a teenager would!"

"I have the same energy I did as a teenager, you know that personally," replied your wife with a smirk. "I think that gives me leeway to flirt like one."

"Go fuck yourself," you mumbled, ears red as you devoured your piece of cake with ravenous fervour, as if you could eat your gay panic away.

She leaned over and whispered in your ear, "Do it yourself, you coward."

Inhaling deeply, you buried your head in your hand, kicking her under the table and gently hitting her shoulder with the other hand as you whined, "You know I am a hopeless bottom, Zoya-"

All she did was laugh a bit and let the matter go.

After dinner, you both went to your room to change and go to bed. Your room was connected to the study, which was strewn with maps, books, and documents. They littered every surface, from the large circular table, to the shelves, to the floor.

She went to the bathroom to take a quick soak in the tub, while you respected her private time and sat on the large sofa.

“Y/n, my love,” she called out to you from the bathroom, “Can you come in here and help me, please?”

You smiled and called back, “Of course, my dear,” and hurried into the bathroom to where she stood before the full-length mirror, struggling with her corset.

“Unlace me,” she demanded playfully. “That’s an order.”

“Saints, you could’ve been more subtle about the fact that you want my hands all over you,” you chuckled, earning a gentle elbow to the ribs.

“How dare you!” She protested as you began working away at the laces.

“Why do you always insist on having such complicated knots done for your corset, Zoya?” You grumbled, pulling at a particularly trying knot which refused to come undone.

She was about to reply when a knock on the bedroom door interrupted her.

“Who is it?” You called out.

“Erik, your Majesty,” a voice replied, muffled through the door.

Zoya pushed past you and opened the door, glaring daggers at the poor guard. He looked genuinely terrified as she asked him, “This better be urgent Erik, or I will not be very forgiving about this interruption.”

You placed a hand on the small of her back, moving next to her. The guard relaxed upon meeting your less-deathly gaze, and you asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Um, the Zemeni minister of agriculture has requested your presence, Queen Zoya,” he replied nervously.

Zoya frowned and snapped, “Tell him I can schedule a meeting tomorrow!”

“That’s- that’s the problem, your Highness,” he stammered, sweat beading on his forehead. “He’s sitting in the parlor right now…”

You felt her hands clench into fists in pure frustration, and immediately took charge. You slowly pried one fist of hers open and slipped your hand in hers. “May I converse with him?”

“I’m afraid he has asked for only her Highness, your Majesty,” he shook his head.

“Ah,” you said, “Well then, Zoya, do go on down. I’ll be here waiting. Thank you Erik.” He bowed in acknowledgment, bade you both a good night and hurried away.

“A queen’s work is never done,” you chuckled, unlacing your fingers from hers as you pulled her towards you by the waist, pressing a soft, loving kiss to her lips. Zoya felt warmth blossom on her cheeks, as your eyes wandered her face.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” she replied, taking your head in her hands and pressing a kiss to your forehead. You allowed a deep red blush to coat your cheeks after she left, and as she turned, she missed the way your gaze skirted quite shamelessly down her entire body, without an ounce of innocence in it.

You decided to go into the study and check for any unsigned documents, and just to be busy while she was gone. You found a mountain of paperwork she or you had forgotten to sign, and luckily, none of them were overdue.

While you worked, a long and heated discussion took place between your wife and the agriculture minister. It slowly made her more and more agitated, and the familiarly unpleasant sensation of stress built up in her body as she struggled to keep her voice level.

“I need those finances, your Highness,” the minister finally said. “There cannot be a lack of money and funding towards the agriculture sector of Novyi Zem.”

“I’ll fix up a meeting between us, the finance minister, as well as chief of the Merchant Council. We can discuss this matter as a group, just to ensure there is no conflict or confusion amongst us on this. Fundings are particularly trying between two ministers, I have noticed,” she sighed. “Will that be all?”

“Here is a list of grievances we have been facing,” he handed her a paper with an official stamp. “Do look into them. It is imperative that they get resolved.”

Lovely, Zoya thought. Another thing to add on my plate.

Zoya nodded. “Do you have a place to stay for the night?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Don’t worry about that. I have my lodging all set. I leave for Novyi Zem tomorrow afternoon.”

“Thank you for coming to me with your concerns,” she stood up, prompting him to do the same. “Goodnight, my good sir.”

He bowed deeply. “Goodnight, your highness.”

The second he left, Zoya stormed up the stairs to the pair of yours’ room, already too wound-up to manage anything.

You stood over a map of Ravka which had pins on it identical to the ones in the throne room. You were leaning on your palms which were rested atop the table, trying to work out another, more efficient way, to help Zoya with her problem.

You were far too engrossed in that work to hear her enter, so when she wrapped her arms around you, kissing your neck, you let out a startled yelp.

“Saints, Zoya, you frightened the life out of me!” You gasped, leaning into her.

She hummed and mumbled against your skin, “Who’s playing the part of General now?”

“Shut up,” you chuckled. “I’m only helping!”

She turned you around and rested her palms on the table’s edge, trapping you between it and her. She leaned closer and smiled, “Well, I need your help in something else.”

You blushed and replied, “What will that be, my queen?”

She suddenly pulled you into a hug, inhaling your sent. You let loose a small gasp of surprise. It wasn’t often that she showed such large amounts of affection. It usually extended to soft kisses and short hugs.

“Someone seems a little shocked,” she laughed, as you hesitantly wrapped your arms around her waist, hugging her back.

“Forgive me if I’m surprised that my minimalistically affectionate wife suddenly decides to tackle me in a hug,” you scoffed, running your hands through her hair. “How about I run you a warm bath, and ask for some warm chamomile tea?”

She pulled away and hummed, “That sounds like an extremely appealing offer…I will most certainly take you up on it.”

“I know you inside and out, Zoya Nazyalensky,” you chuckled. You took her by the arm and led her to the bathroom, helping her take her corset off after hearing her complain about the long hours she’d had to endure the pain of it.

You quickly ran her a bath and left her to soak in it, fetching her a nice cup of tea as promised. While she bathed, you entered the bathroom and handed the tea to her.

“Be careful, my love,” you said, kissing her forehead. “The tea’s still a bit hot.”

She took a long sip and sighed contentedly, before looking up at you quizzically. “Aren’t you going to join me?” She gestured at the tub where she’d reclined.

You shook your head, blushing. “No, I’ve still got some work to finish. But don’t you worry about me, my darling. You need to unwind.”

“So do you!” She protested. “Let someone take care of you for once, Y/n.”

You dismissed her statement with a gentle wave of your hand, and gave her a quick kiss before leaving her to her own devices. It was true, you needed to unwind, but you hated being looked after. It often made you feel uncomfortable, for you thought it would burden the other person far too much.

Heading back into the study, your eyes landed on a mountain of letters which sat on a small table near the end of the room, all of them unopened. Deciding to kill some time, you wore your reading glasses, and sat down there, opening them to get through their contents.

Zoya’s voice startled you, as she said, “I thought your work was finished, dear.”

You shook your head and stood up, “I was just trying to kill some time.”

“Well, you’re killing three things,” she counted off her fingers. “One is your back because your posture while you sit is pathetic, two is your sanity, and three is your ability to take a break.”

“You’re one to talk,” you scoffed as she dragged you to your dressing table to brush out you hair.

“Shut up and let me take care of you, idiot,” she replied, leaning down and pressing a kiss to your head.

You sighed and put your hands up in defeat, looking at her through the mirror. She brushed your hair gently, slowly getting out any knots instead of aggressively ripping them out of your skull, like most people would do. A soft sigh escaped your lips, and she immediately looked up at you smugly.

“Someone’s feeling relaxed, I see,” she smirked, putting the brush away and dividing your hair into sections so she could braid it.

“Oh shush, you,” you blushed, putting a hand back and hitting her on the hip gently. “How dare you bully me this way.”

She deftly braided your hair and laughed, “Oh my goodness, Y/n Nazyalensky has finally allowed someone to take care of her! This is a true miracle!”

You facepalmed and shook your head as much as she would allow.

She tied your hair up properly, and rested her hands on your shoulders, leaning down to press another kiss to your head. You looked up, feeling lighter as you smiled at her. It was almost as if you’d gotten so used to being stressed that you didn’t even know you had it in you. Like how, after a point, you don’t realise a noise was there until it’s gone.

“Come to bed,” she said softly, her hands gently massaging your tense shoulders. “You’ll feel better.”

You hummed softly, and let her take you by the hand and lead you towards the bed. Sleep pulled you towards the covers almost magnetically, and you collapsed into your wife’s arms the second you felt the soft sheets caress your skin.

Turning around to face her, you wrapped your arms around her waist, pulling her closer and burying your face in her chest as she rested her chin atop your head, her arms enclosing you in her loving embrace while the soft caress of her hands in your hair lulled you to sleep slowly.

“I love you,” you mumbled into her skin. Her scent of cinnamon and honey was familiar to you, as even when you both were young teenagers in love, almost every evening was spent this way, with her trapping you in her arms so you couldn’t escape or attempt to get back to work.

“I love you to, she replied, pressing a long kiss to your head again. You looked up at her and leaned up quickly to kiss her, smiling against her lips before nestling back into her embrace.

And thus you both fell asleep, your duties forgotten temporarily in the sweetness of the moment.

———

Lmk if you want more Zoya ones!

[lifeofroos]

Okay, since I saw a post about americanisation circulating again-

Another problem with everything becoming America is that we, as European countries, forget our own problems with racism in favour of those of the USA.

As an example, I will take my own university class in Interculturality and my classes as a whole. Because, without fail, these classes will have a segment on the systemic racism African-Americans face. In detail. Meanwhile, there will be a small bit on our own terrible history with Indonesia and maybe zwarte piet (something which gets discussed by the media for three months every year and at this point the whole country has an opinion on it).

But there are no mentions of Suriname. Barely anything about Indonesia that scratches the surface. Nothing about the current racism Maroccan immigrants face, or even the trouble with the mixing cultures. No mention of immigrants from China or Poland, nothing about the Molukkers. Not even any discussion on the caribeans, where we have some islands that are still part of the kingdom- by choice! That’s something interesting to discuss! Not even any mention about how we went to the USA and were not any better then the french or british there!

Instead of looking at our own problems, we get a detailed, in-depth look at problems that are more those of someone else’s country. Partly, this will be because our government is still being very uncomfortable about these issues (shame on them), partly it’s the univeristy’s fault for allowing American problems to become our problems instead of letting students look at the intercultural mixing ánd wrongdoings in their own country.

I am not saying we should completely scrap the problems of the USA from our curriculum- the USA is too all-consuming for that at the moment. But at the same time, BECAUSE it is so all-consuming, there should be focus on our own, domestic problems and victories when they want to give a class concerning interculturality.

[golden-eye-ramblings]

Renatus x Agito Headcanons Part 1

HAHA SURPRISE SHIP HEADCANONS BET YOU TOTALLY DIDN’T SEE THIS COMING. Unless you did.

Semi-suggestive content warning! Nothing too explicit or spicy(this is Agito and Renatus we’re talking about here after all), but keep it in mind!

————

Height Difference: 4 inches/8cm

Age Difference: 4 years

Sign Compatibility: Sign Compatible!

Big Spoon: Renatus

Little Spoon: Agito

Most Likely to Use Petnames: Renatus

Most Protective: Renatus

Most Clingy: Agito(this man is so touch starved pls help him-)

Most Likely to Get Jealous: Renatus and Agito

Most Responsible With Money: Agito

Who Cooks: Agito

Who Cleans: Agito

Who Does The Talking: Renatus

First to Start an Argument: Renatus

First to Apologize: Renatus

Most Willing to Compromise: Agito

Who Confessed First: Renatus by technicality

• The two aren’t exactly sure when the feeling first surfaced. They worked closely together for a while, having a natural synergy whenever on cases together. With Agito able to pick up on Renatus’ signals and Renatus able to understand Agito’s next move and intentions.

• Renatus doesn’t remember who made the first move. The lingering gazes, brushing of hands, the small talk, how he started being able to actually understand Agito’s mumbling. It’s just been a thing that’s been happening for all Renatus’ can recall. He’s become a little more organized as of late too, he wonders if Agito had something to do with it.

• Agito meanwhile is feeling all sorts of new emotions and contradictions. He admired Renatus’ perspective and philosophy on death, how his immortality changed his perception to something that just happens. Comparatively to how the dragon cane remembers every life that was claimed and mourns them every day, Agito wanted to understand more, try and wrap his head around the idea of inevitability rather than predetermined consequence. Yet there was a part of him that was scared and angry. Regardless of what his lingering feelings told him, he persisted. Wanting to explore further, dig deeper, feel the discomfort of it all.

• Renatus knows of Agito’s masochism, and he doesn’t judge him for it. He’s not exactly one to talk since he’s a bit of a sadist, something something two sides same coin or however the quote went. Agito is taken aback by this, usually he’s met with scorn or disgust. Renatus left him feeling… Odd, at that time.

• A key point that happened in their… Relationship. Both leaning against a tree, resting after having dealt with a case of some idiot aspiring necromancer that ended up screwing with the local beetle population. Renatus felt something brush against his hand, momentarily recoiling thinking it was another freaky bug only to realize it was Agito reaching out to touch his pinky with his own. Renatus sighs, though he meets the touch. Pulling their hands away when they hear others approaching. Despite it just being the faintest of contact, the loss ached so painfully. Renatus grimaced while Agito fisted his hand in the grass and dirt. ‘How annoying’, they both thought in that moment.

• They wanted to pursue this relationship further, but the expectations, pressures and posturing of the public left them with this awful tension. Renatus found it tiring and Agito discovered a new pain, one he couldn’t derive pleasure from.

• When rumors eventually started circulating, both were met with the uncomfortable tension of attempting to keep this hidden and private. Neither wanted to put the other in this sort of ugly position. Renatus didn’t want to add more pressure onto whatever was going on inside Agito’s head, he already had enough emotional issues to deal with and like hell he was gonna add more to that. And Agito was frightened at the idea of divine consequence, how if he were to pursue this truly he would be punished and Renatus hurt. Agito didn’t mind if he suffered, but the thought of it happening to someone else? He feared he’d truly die.

• Sophina suspects something is up with the two, as well as the idle chatter going around the bureau. She’s the first to figure it out, but remains quiet out of respect for the two wanting to keep the matter private.

Don’t want this to be Too Long™️, expect a part 2 coming eventually soon _(:3 」∠)_

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Anonymous

Published: Jan 9, 2024

I’m a school librarian in a major UK city and I wanted to write to you about what is going on inside education at the moment. The final straw for me came when I received an email from the (US) School Library Journal about their trans and NB spotlight with the line ���J.K. Rowling’s recent transphobic tirades on social media”. And check out the line-up on the Zoom panel!

Enough is enough.

I will admit that several years ago I was pretty full-on with my alphabet-soup allyship and then I got peaked by Mumsnet when I had my children. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. 

My issue is with how the indoctrination has seeped into books and materials unchecked. Last year I read the book “Nothing Ever Happens Here” written from the POV of a young girl about her father transitioning and it was utterly awful. The ending was the family all happy with two “mums”. It was a Stonewall pamphlet in disguise. Any possibility that the child would be upset by what was happening at home was quickly brushed aside. It turns out that its author, Sarah Hagger-Holt, is a Stonewall employee.

There are so many books like this finding their way into libraries and the library staff do not appear to be questioning the content or even the quality of the writing as long as the books tick the “inclusivity” box. For example, “If I Was Your Girl” is an award-winning story about a trans girl who gets surgery and hormones and “passes” in her new school. It’s written by Meredith Russo, a trans-identified male, who has a history of sexual and emotional abuse, but no matter! It reads like a TRA wet dream: the pretty young teen smoothly transitions and gets the life she wants, which includes getting a gorgeous, straight boyfriend. A young person reading this may not realise that this is simply wish-fulfillment wrapped up in Young Adult (YA) fiction and nothing in it is remotely feasible.

Recently I was being nosy on a secondary school’s website and discovered their library’s LGBT section was made up of “Some Girls Bind”, “Being Jazz”, and “The Trans Teen Survival Guide”. That was it. Nothing else for the LGB kids. “The Trans Teen Guide” explains to young people how easy it is to legally change your name, and signposts websites where you can buy binders. Mermaids are listed as a place to find support, of course. 

Meanwhile, JKR is Satan for standing up for women and girls. It is painful reading discussion board threads written by librarians questioning what they should do about the “problematic author.” Facebook groups are particularly interesting as I’ve witnessed the group moderators remove the comments that support JKR because they were repeatedly reported by other members of the group. Some say they won’t buy her books, or they will remove them from circulation or stock them but not promote them.

No more Harry Potter events, no more displays of her work. It’s not all librarians, but there are plenty of vocal ones who have bought into the idea that JKR is literally murdering trans kids with her words. Last year I unsubscribed from a favourite Young Adult podcast for their segment on what to promote as an alternative to Harry Potter. It’s madness. 

I think the thing I really object to in libraries overall is the lack of questioning going on. I know you have covered the Drag Story Time in public libraries, but I’m really shocked by the lack of research and critical thinking from information professionals who are supposed to be champions of these skills. I’m sure that many of them believe they are doing the right thing. I know I did. 

The School Library Association made Juno Dawson one of their Patrons at the end of 2020. I met Dawson many years years ago at a library event and I really appreciated hearing an honest and frankly, painful story of a young gay boy being bullied and how much of a lifeline the school library was. Dawson struck me as a very kind and deeply sad person at that point. School libraries are a safe space for the vulnerable, and it’s no coincidence that often you will find the LGBT students seek it as a place of sanctuary. We do need someone popular and well-known to speak up for us as patron. Let’s be honest though; Dawson has made a tremendous career from being trans. From speaking to packed-out auditoriums of young readers to writing non-fiction books educating us as “she knows everything about gender because she’s been both.” A few years ago, over 300 copies of Dawson’s book “What’s the T” were bought and donated to schools by well-meaning people on Twitter. So heart-warming and kind. Nobody seems to be questioning this. 

I’ve been a huge supporter of my LGBT students for the whole of my twenty-plus year career. It hurts to see these brilliant young girls telling me they’re non-binary or trans. The vast majority of our female students in this ever-growing group are on the autistic spectrum or have mental health issues. I don’t understand why this isn’t being questioned more vocally. I’m worried that I’ve made this much, much worse by promoting this propaganda dressed up as YA fiction for years. LGBT History Month? Here, have this book telling you being a lesbian is bad and you’re probably trans. 

I’m scared that at some point the trans ideology train is going to come for the “forbidden” books in my library.  Will my Head tell me I need to remove all the Harry Potter books? What about the non-fiction books that tell these girls the biological truth about periods and puberty? Cancel culture is coming for school librarians in the UK; how long before we become like the US school system where books are regularly banned for being offensive to individual, captured parents?

Librarians were struggling to keep our jobs before Covid-19 and now it is even harder. We are being made redundant to save money. Lots of school libraries were closed and became temporary classrooms, COVID testing centres, or spill-over staff rooms in 2020. Some of us haven’t recovered. Are librarians really going to poke their heads above the parapet if it means they might be marked as “transphobic” and made unable to get a job in a school again? Or maybe have to move sectors and end up working at university libraries which are even more indoctrinated?

For the moment I’m concentrating on trying to undo some of the damage I’ve done. Last year I purchased a pile of Young Adult books featuring happy, gender non-conforming girls. I’ve researched YA love stories about positive LGB relationships. I want our girls to realise they are perfect just the way they are. 

To parents I would say, try to talk to your children about what they are reading. Honest, open communication is key. 

Please remember that there are people in schools who are trying to make a difference. We just can’t say it openly.

(Author’s name has been witheld on her request. If you have a story on how gender ideology is affecting your place of work, please write to thewhistleblowermailbox@gmail.com)

==

Reminder, Juno Dawson is the same self-hating gay man who said:

"There are a lot of gay men out there who are gay men as a consolation prize because they couldn't be women. That was certainly true of me."

He has no business giving any advice to anyone, least of all gay kids.

[emeraldspiral]

So on Twitter I remember a while ago someone posed the question who would win the science fair between Dib Membrane, Dexter or Mandark from Dexter's Lab, Jimmy Neutron, Numbah 2 from KND, or Phineas and Ferb and I think most people agreed that Dib would be the biggest loser out of all of them.

And I don't know if anybody knew this cause I didn't see anyone bring it up, and I didn't know the first time I saw it circulating, but in the comics Dib actually does lose a science competition, but not for the reasons you'd think. Like, I think everyone was saying Zim would sabotage him or he'd sabotage himself by letting Zim distract him or something would just go wrong for him because of bad luck. I don't know that anybody was actually arguing that he's not as smart or that anything he invents is as prone to oversight as the stuff Jimmy or Dexter make. But what actually gets Dib in the comics is just cracking under pressure. Unlike when he's dealing with Zim, he doesn't have a specific goal to focus on with what he's making. The competition is just to make a product that a corporation could make a lot of money off of (without compensating the creator). So with carte blanche to make anything he wants he just can't come up with anything and ends up spending all night putting a bunch of stuff together with no purpose other than to be more impressive than whatever Zim's making and forgets what it was even supposed to do when it's time to give his presentation. Meanwhile GIR wins by sticking a face on a hotdog.

Dib is literally this meme:

But IDK, I kinda love that that's the thing that got Dib instead of Zim sabotaging him or something going wrong with the invention because it's so real. Like, I wonder if the writer of that issue wasn't thinking of all the times they've stared at a blank document for hours not knowing what to do with an open-ended creative assignment, because that's definitely a feel I've had and I know a lot of other writers and artists deal with too.

[mariacallous]

(JTA) — As dawn broke in Israel Sunday, the government officially declared war and confirmed that 100 of its citizens were being held captive in Gaza as fighting in the country’s south continued.

The country is also preparing to evacuate civilians from the north, in preparation for a possible attack by the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

The contours of the previous 24 hours of violence following a broad attack by Hamas were still coming into devastating focus. The estimated death toll leapt from 300 to 700 on Sunday, and the names and horrifying stories of those who had been murdered in their homes and communities are beginning to emerge. More than 2,200 people were wounded, and 100 have been taken hostage to Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has received reports of Americans that have been killed, wounded and taken hostage, which it is trying to verify. Blinken also announced that the United States would provide new military aid to Israel, an on Sunday the Department of Defense announced that it would “rapidly” provide Israel with military aid and move an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean, near Israel. It will also bolster aircraft squadrons in the region.

In Gaza, more than 350 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli airstrikes as of Sunday afternoon, according to Hamas figures. Israel’s government issued an official declaration of war, enabling it to carry out “significant military activities.”

Some military breakthroughs were announced overnight, including the freeing of dozens hostages who had been held at Kibbutz Beeri, and of hostages held in a home in the city of Ofakim. But Hamas fighters remained in Israel as of Sunday morning, with fighting ongoing in an untold number of communities. One small town said 15 of its residents had been killed.

Schools in Israel were closed and violence against Israelis is spreading beyond the country’s borders. In Egypt, a gunman shot and killed two Israeli tourists, whose bodies are being flown home. Israel has advised its citizens to leave the country.

Videos from Israel showed Israeli civilians held hostage, both in Israel and in Gaza, the Palestinian territory that Hamas controls. Some showed parents trying to comfort their small children despite their circumstances. At least one video circulating appeared to show an Israeli child being held captive.

Anguished parents and relatives posted on social media seeking information about loved ones who remain missing. And on Sunday, parents and family members of missing Israelis held a press conference demanding answers from the government.

A widely circulating collage showed dozens of young adults who had been attending an outdoor party in the desert near Gaza that was attacked early; many are presumed dead. Relatives of the missing were being asked to provide DNA samples that could be used in identification.

The names of soldiers who had fallen in combat were also starting to emerge, even as what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised would be a “prolonged and powerful campaign” was just getting underway. The commander of a major infantry brigade was killed, as were an undisclosed number of other soldiers.

Two centrist opponents of Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, have both publicly floated forming a broad-based emergency government for the duration of the war.

Meanwhile, fears were roiling that a second front could open in the north, where Hezbollah, which like Hamas is understood to be a proxy of Iran, operates in Lebanon. Amir Tibon, a Haaretz journalist whose own family was rescued late Saturday from their besieged kibbutz by a battalion including his father, a retired general, cautioned on X that Israelis in the north should prepare themselves for conflict. “We were not prepared properly,” he wrote. “Don’t make this mistake.”