#or hijack my taxes

[meanbossart]

Well, now I'm so curious! Baahlist Drow, does he have plans for Astarion besides keeping him around? Is it sort of a cat and mouse thing, where he's waiting for the mouse to start to struggle and make the kill fun? Or is he content to keep Astarion on his arm to trot out at murder parties, and, in his mind, be freaks together?

Oh definitely not cat and mouse situation. DU drow is as hopelessly in love with him in that scenario as he usually is, and Astarion has essentially replaced Orin as the new object of his very, very intense affections. He hijacks the ascension not to harm him, or even to "keep him in line", but because in his mind Astarion shouldn't need any power for as long as he has him - and will only love him for as long as he is weak and needs his protection.

His plans include taking Astarion with him all the way to the very end as Bhaal takes over every land they step foot on, assuming his plan continues to go accordingly. So yes - lots of murder parties, some sprinkling of political games and strategy, eventual total world annihilation, the works.

In-game, Sceleritas also suggests that with a partner by your side you ARE able to procreate regardless of gender. No clue if that is anything worth looking into or just a slight oversight by Larian (I kinda doubt it, though - this is wizard-land, if i can banish a dude off to the netherealms for two turns I don't see why I couldn't find a way to smash two dicks together and make a guy, somehow) but it's DEFINITELY something DU drow thinks about a length regardless. He wasn't interested in children before, but there is something almost prophetic now about spawning a child out of a murder demi-god and the undead creature he loves - definitely something he mental-gynastics into becoming a part of Bhaal's plan, not to mention pesters Sceleritas tiredlessly about. THRALL! Have you progressed in your task of finding a way for me to concoct a baby out of my dead beloved's seed and mine yet? Well then why the fuck are you wasting time filing in my taxes!

It almost doesn't sound too bad until you remember that Astarion has absolutely no way out of this relationship now (DU drow would rather keep him unwilling than let him go, he's not committing the same mistake as he did with Orin), no say over what they do, and that DU drow is in no way whatsoever the quiet, charming, loving weirdo he fell for. He talks over him, shows him off like a prized possession, talks about Astarion like he wouldn't last a minute on his own and requires him to constantly look content about his situation lest he becomes altered and puts him down further.

[spook-central]

Fellow GB fans we must have a little chat pls

I get that a lot of you love Egon Spengler, I do too, but I see a lot of you going onto posts that aren’t about him and trying to MAKE THEM about him in the comments or reblogs or something when the post is specifically about Ray or Winston and it is GENUINELY getting old.

Ray already gets overlooked and so does Winston (part of me thinks that stems from fatphobia and racism but that’s a different conversation) and there are already PLENTY of spaces to talk about Egon with the other Egon girlies. Don’t get me wrong, I love Egon! I do! But when I wanna praise Ray or Winston or any other character the way they deserve that is not your chance to overtake the space and make it about Egon!!

Maybe this is a silly niche complaint for me to have but I’ve had SO many of my posts about Ray hijacked and everyone seems to give Egon all the credit for everything and dumb Ray down to “oh sweet autistic baby uwu!!” when he’s just as competent and brilliant as Egon was, same with Winston being basically totally forgotten. Don’t be that person!! Please!!! Janine gif for tax cause we love her too!

[1americanconservative]

Democrats Are Claiming Donald Trump Is Lying About Illegal Migrants Drawing Social Security Benefits Here’s a Town Hall held in Chicago by US Rep Jonathan Jackson confirming illegals are being put on Social Security “They come into this country and get a stipend, link, a free roaming board, free child care, and some of them are getting Social Security, and when my ancestors were released from slavery, they got their clothes on their back. But yet, they were told to be happy. So why am I and everyone in this country footing the bill for people who are non-Americans, who don't vote? ‌ Who don't fight in any of our wars, who've never paid a tax. And we're told that if we say anything, we're xenophobic. Tell me why. Tell us all why. I wanna know. I think it's wrong. I mean, it shouldn't happen, but this is a U.S. immigration. Transparency, that's my brother. That's my brother. We disagree, but that's my brother. I just wanna say anyway, what the sister said, I don't give a damn about no Joe Biden. So... ‌ If that lady wanna pass out something about that, that's her free will. Y'all can't be forcing democracy on people. She got the right, just like you got the right to say vote for Joe Biden. I got the right as somebody who represent formerly incarcerated person to say Joe Biden and Clinton 94 crime bill created that and we haven't recovered from that. ‌ The only asylum seekers that's perpetually discriminated against in this country by everybody is formerly incarcerated people. They have 18,000 homeless ex-cons, yet they're around here talking about public safety. You don't even know where these men are. Then you let more ex-convicts in here in the name of migrants. But they want to tell you... ‌ That is the low, this own the state, its own, its own, uh, the, the, I mean the Republicans, all politicians local. Every in this state don't let them fool you. From the top, from, from the Lieutenant Governor, to Tony Pratt Winkle, to the Mayor, to the Police Chief, to the State's Attorney, to, to the Aldermen, to the Congress person, to the state reps, all are black. ‌ You got 150 elected black positions and our communities look the way they look. And if I say something, if I say something, if it's not with my brother, he just got there. They want to legislate for us without ever bringing us at the table. I did 21 years in the prison. What they gonna tell me about what we need? ‌ They ain't never spend one day in the cell but they legislate for your nephew, cousin, and son. Furthermore, ain't no kids in here. Ain't no teenagers in here. Over 150 murdered young men from ages 16 to 24, and ain't no kids in here? That's the problem. You old people, y'all keep voting the same way, hook, line, and sinker, without ever holding them account. And the very babies go kill y'all ass. ‌ These kids are little wolves. Hey, ain't nothing that's nobody saying no more important than this. Hey, hey, wrap your ass. Ain't nothing nobody's saying more important than this. I'm tired of y'all playing games with these babies. These babies gonna start driving y'all, but they already doing it. They gonna kill you. I think y'all getting hijacked now. 60% unemployment rate for 18 to 24 and you got money for migrants?”

[usafphantom2]

SAC Crew Dogs: The Elephant Walk, The Wing Commander, and the Boom

T Campbell

@tcamp202

·

4h

… as the crew pulled up to the Alert shack, they could see the Wing Commander’s Chrysler Reliant K-Car parked right at the main entrance to the shack. The Air Force blue car was still smoking a bit, and most of the paint had been burned away… somebody was gonna get a chuck taken, that much was sure…

This is the retelling of a story I heard as an A1C (Airmen First Class) while pulling SAC Alert at Loring AFB when I was a Boom Operator in the KC-135 A model. It was probably embellished when it was told, and I might embellish it even more… cause you know, that’s how Alert Stories go. I do hope that I do it justice in my retelling.

In order to understand the humor in this small fairy tale, I first need to explain a couple of technical details about KC-135 operations. It’s a lot of background to tell a silly old story, but please bear with me… the story is funny (or at least I think it is.)

Engine Start: The KC-135A was equipped with the Pratt and Whitney JP-57-P/F-43W, good solid engines, but they required a lot of tender loving care, and if they didn’t get it, they let you know in a hurry. There were a few different ways to start the engines.

The most common was to have an air cart connected to the aircraft. It would supply air to the bleed air manifold and would be used to start all four engines.

Another way we could start the engines was often called a Cart Start. Using a Cartridge, a canister about the size of a large coffee can, filled with a slow burning explosive, which could create enough air to turn the starter long enough to start the engine. All four engines could use Cartridges.

If you had any single engine running, you could use bleed air from that engine to start the others, however, you had to push up the power a bit to generate enough air pressure in the bleed air manifold.

Image

Gases escaping after turning the engine starter during a Cartridge Start on a KC-135A.

Photo from https://www.airliners.net/photo/USA-Air-Force/Boeing-KC-135A-Stratotanker-717-148/666058/L

Hot Starts: One thing that these engines did not like at all was being started with an insufficient amount of bleed air, whether from a ground cart, or the other engines. Failure to get the engine turning fast enough when adding fuel often resulted in hot starts with flames shooting out the back of the engine, kind of like an afterburner, but these flames weren’t blue… they were a reddish yellow, like fire and could reach out to the tail of the aircraft. Sometimes flames would even shoot out the front. They were dangerous. Fire bottles were always on hand for engine starts, just in case.

Engine Shutdown: After landing, the pilots would stow the spoilers, retract the flaps (otherwise, tower might think we’d been hijacked) and shut down two of the engines, usually the inboards to avoid accidentally sucking up anything from the taxiways into the engines, and also, so that when the ground crew chocked the tires, they wouldn’t have to walk closely to a running engine.

However, on Alert, we always shut down the outboard engines first, so the ground crew could install a new Cartridge in the #1 engine (furthest to the left.) The cartridges were dangerous, and the last thing the crew chief wanted was a running engine behind him and no escape route if there were any problems. Once the cartridge was installed, the other engines could be shut down because we had the ability to restart the jet if required.

Ok… if you’re still with me… great! Last thing you need to know is about Elephants walks on Alert. An elephant walk is where a group of airplanes get all configured for a mission, start engines and taxi out, but instead of taking off, they just taxi down the runway. Kind of like a parade.

For elephant walks on Alert, this process is started with the Klaxon going off and the brass inspect the aircraft as they are taxing to ensure they are all properly configured for takeoff. Think of it as your typical military inspection… you know, “Trim those nose hairs” type of affair, but with airplanes.

Last thing to remember… SAC took Alert VERY seriously. Everything had to be done by the book, and if it wasn’t, there’d be hell to pay. The aircraft always had to be ready to launch on the nuclear mission to refuel B-52s. As they say, failure was not an option.

So… now that you are armed with some knowledge on how the KC-135 normally operates, it’s time to tell our story.

Image

An Elephant Walk. KC-135 R models (bigger engines), not A models... but it gives you the idea... imagine a car driving between the aircraft to inspect them. Our ill fated crew was somewhere in the middle of the line.

Once upon a time, there was a crew… we’ll call them R-113 with Captain William Bligh as the commander, the co-pilot and nav shall remain nameless, but the Boom Operator was SSgt Fletcher Christian. They were on Alert, spending another seven days cooped up in the Alert facility, and serving their country. Breakfast started the day followed by a mandatory briefing at oh eight hundred. After this, maybe some ground training or bon bons and the Price is Right, and then it’s lunch time. A combat nap would take up most of the afternoon, followed by dinner around five. All the while, waiting for the Klaxon to sound off. Not exactly riveting stuff, let me tell you.

“FOR ALERT FORCE, FOR ALERT FORCE, KLAXON KLAXON KLAXON”

One day, our fateful day, the Klaxon went off and the crew sprinted out to their aircraft. This is a hectic event. Get the covers off the engines, get the door opened, rush up into the cockpit, check all is clear, and fire up those Cartridges to start the engines. Black smoke is billowing everywhere and it’s hard to see, but the engines get started, the crew chief makes his way up the ladder into the aircraft, and they button up to the aircraft, ready to taxi.

On the sidelines, the Wing Commander is proudly watching his KC-135s do what they do best. He watches the rolling clouds of thick black, toxic smoke as the engines start.

“FOR ALERT FORCE, FOR ALERT FORCE, MESSAGE FOLLOWS… SIERA NOVEMBER ALPHA FOXTROT UNIFORM…”

The message from command post… it’s an elephant walk exercise. The aircraft will taxi out of the Cage, the Alert pad for the KC-135s, and out to the runway. There, they will taxi about halfway down the runway, turn off and line up, nose to tail, on the returning taxiway waiting to be inspected by the Wing Commander.

While sitting in line, with a tanker just in front of him, and another just behind, Captain Blight decides to save some fuel, he’s going to shut down two of the engines. This is normal. However, instead of shutting down the outboard engines, as was normal in this situation, he shuts down the inboard engines as if he’d just finished a normal flight.

As soon as the throttles were in the cut off position, he realizes his mistake, but there’s nothing he can do. He announces his dilemma over the crew’s intercom… so the boom, SSgt Christian says, “Hey, just restart them, what’s the big deal?”

Meanwhile, at the end of this line of KC-135s, the Wing Commander starts inspecting the aircraft. He drives by each jet, taking a zig zag route through the jets, looking to ensure the flaps are set correctly, the stabilizer trim (the horizontal portion of the tail) is trimmed to the correct position for takeoff. He’s quite proud of his jets… maybe he’ll get another promotion and get the h*ll out of this sh*t hole base.

Captain Bligh says, “In order to start the engines, I’m gonna have to push up the outboards a bit to get enough bleed air, but I don’t want to FOD (foreign object damage) out the jet behind us, but ok, let’s do it.” He pushes up the outboard throttles as much as he dares and starts the engine start sequence for the number two engine (left inboard). He turns on the ignition, and then after the engine has just barely enough rpms, the turns on the fuel.

Right about this time, the Wing Commander has finished looking at the jet behind our ill fated crew, and he is crossing behind Captain Bligh’s number two engine, when a huge flame, at least forty feet long come shooting out of the back of the engine, right onto the hood of his car.

As you might be able to imagine… the radios come to life and the Wing Commander starts screaming about the jet with the flames coming out of it… followed by “Everybody report to the briefing room (at the Alert shack) after re-cocking the aircraft.”

It was pretty quite for the next thirty minutes or so, while Captain Bligh and crew got their aircraft re-cocked for Alert. After they wrap things up, they get in their Alert truck and head back. There was a little discussion though, they had to get their story straight.

As the crew pulled up to the Alert shack, they could see the Wing Commander’s Chrysler Reliant K-Car (remember, we bailed out Chrysler) parked right at the main entrance to the shack. Oh sh*t… this wasn’t going to be good. The Air Force blue car was still smoking a bit, and most of the paint had been burned away from the front fender and hood. There was no doubt, the briefing room was not going to be a pleasant place to be.

As the last crew sat down, somebody called “Attention”, and everybody stood up at attention. The Wing Commander walked down the center isle and up to the podium. “Crew 113… get up here!”

The Wing Commander addressing Captain Bligh asked, “Why on earth were you restarting your engines?”

Captain Bligh responded, “My Boom Operator said to.”

Lesson learned… if you are the lowest ranking guy, always look be on the look out for sh*t rolling downhill.

@tcamp202 via X

[braveclementine]

General Ross

Warnings: None

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OC Elizabeth Lightwood. I do not condone any copying of this.

"Try to remember the kind of September When grass was green. . .

"Wake up dear, and say goodbye to your father." Tony's mothers voice stopped singing to say. Her fingers played flawlessly against the piano as Tony watched his white haired, much older father lift the blanket off of young Tony's face, who was sleeping on the couch.

"Whose the homeless person on the couch?" Howard Stark asked, buttoning his suit jacket. Tony smiled, watching young Tony sit up with a santa hat upon his head.

"This is why I love coming home for Christmas," Young Tony said. "right before you leave town."

"Be nice, dear, he's been studying abroad."

"Really? Which broad? What's her name?"

"Candice." Young Tony said while Howard plucked the Santa hat off of his head.

"Do me a favour? Try not to burn the house down before Monday."

"Okay, so it's Monday? That is good to know. I will plan my toga party accordingly. Where you going?"

"Your father's flying us to the Bahamas for a little getaway."

"We might have to make a quick stop." Howard said.

"At the pentagon. Right." Young Tony replied. "Don't worry, you're going to love the holiday menu at the commissary." Young Tony replied to his mother.

"They say sarcasm is a metric for potential." Howard replied. "If that's true, you'll be a great man someday." And then to his wife, "I'll get the bags."

"He does miss you when you're not here." Mrs. Stark said as Howard left the room. "And frankly, you're going to miss us." She said, getting up off the bench. "Because this is the last time we're all going to be together. You know what's about to happen." She said, slinging her purse onto her shoulder.

Young Tony nodded as his mother ran her hand up his arm. "Say something." Howard entered the room. "If you don't, you'll regret it."

"I love you Dad." Young Tony said. "And I know you did the best you could." He said to his mother. She kissed his cheek and then Young Tony was left, watching his two parents walk off the set.

"That's how I wished it happened." Tony said, addressing the crowd that he was standing in front of now. A group of college students, all in the engineering field. "Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing or BARF. God, I gotta work on that acronym. An extremely costly method of hijacking the hippocampus to clear traumatic memories."

He pretended to blow out the candle, but that couldn't happen because it wasn't a reality and he let out a small laugh, "It doesn't change the fact that they never made it to the airport or all the things I did to avoid processing my grief, but,"

He took off the glasses and the entire, familiar home scene around him started to dissolve, "Plus, Six hundred and eleven million for my little therapeutic experiment? No one in their right mind would've ever funded it. Help me out, what's the MIT mission statement?"

"To generate, disseminate, and preserve knowledge." Tony said as the college students chanted it with him at the same time. "And work with others to bring it to bear on the world's great challenges. Well, you are the others. And, quiet as its kept the challenges facing you are the greatest mankinds ever known. Plus, most of you are broke."

He got laughter from the crowd on that one. Didn't stop it from being true either.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Rather, you were. As of this moment, every student has been made an equal recipient of the inaugural September Foundation Grant." Students started to murmur, talking to each other in whispers, "As in, all of your projects have just been approved and funded."

The crowd broke into slight screams, cheering, and whispers.

"No strings, no taxes, just reframe the future! Starting now," He paused when he saw that he was supposed to introduce Pepper Hogan. His heart clenched because she hadn't been talking to him recently.

"Go break some eggs." He said quickly and then turned, dazedly walking off the stage. Fuck he'd forgotten all about the horrible fight with Pepper until that moment.

"Wow! Wow! That took my breath away." He was aware of one of the college head of departments touching him, trying to get his attention. "Oh, Tony! So generous. So much money! Wow!" He laughed awkwardly. "Out of curiosity, will any portion of that grant be made available to faculty? I know, 'Ooh gross,' but hear me out. I have got this killer idea for a self-cooking hot dog. Basically, chemical detonator embedded-"

"Restrooms this way, yeah?" Tony interrupted, pointing.

"Yeah. Embedded in the meat shaft."

A blond lady stepped in front of him, "Mr. Stark I am so sorry about the teleprompter. I didn't know Mrs. Hogan had canceled. They didn't have time to fix it."

He stopped walking as she was trying to walk backwards and talk to him face on at the same time. He gently touched her arm in reassurance and said, "It's fine. I'll be right back."

He walked out and into the hallway where the bathrooms and elevator were. He stood in front of the men's bathroom door for a moment, before checking behind him to make sure the weird faculty member hadn't followed him. He walked down to where the elevators were, the hallway empty except for one African American women who seemed to already be waiting on the elevator.

"That was nice, what you did for those young people." She said, speaking first. He had his back against the wall, feeling awkward again. The only people he was comfortable around anymore was Bruce, Y/N, and the rest of the Avengers although Wanda still scared him.

"Ah, they deserve it." He said nonchalantly. "Plus, it helps ease my conscience."

"They say there's a correlation between generosity and guilt." Well, she seemed like a smart woman. "But if you've got the money. . . break as many eggs as you like." Tony looked at her then, "Right?"

Tony turned to face the elevator, not wanting to look at her face on anymore, and noticed peculiarly, that the elevator button had never been pressed. He grew wary now. Was she going to pull out some Natasha like moves on him and try and slit his throat? Or was he just getting paranoid? But why would she stand here and not press the button? He reached forward slowly, pressing the up button.

"Are you going up?" He asked. Rumlow had tried to kill Steve and Y/N in an elevator. Maybe he should think about taking the stairs.

"I'm right where I want to be." She said.

Yep, she was totally going to kill him.

She reached into her bag and he said, "Okay. Hey!" He grabbed her wrist quickly. She glared at him. "Sorry, it's an occupational hazard."

"I work for the State Department. Human Resources. I know its boring but it enabled me to raise a son. I'm very proud of what he grew up to be." She slapped a picture right against his chest where his heart was. "His name was Charlie Spencer. You murdered him. In Sokovia. Not that that matters in the least to you. You think you fight for us? You just fight for yourself. Who's going to avenge my son, Stark? He's dead and I blame you."

She turned and marched away.

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"Eleven Wakandans were among those killed during a confrontation between the Avengers and a group of mercenaries in Lagos, Nigeria last month. The traditionally reclusive Wakandans were on an outreach mission in Lagos, when the attack occurred."

"Our people's blood is spilled on foreign soil, not only because of the actions of criminals, but by the indifference of those pledged to stop them." King T'Chaka said on the news channel now. "Victory at the expense of the innocent is no victory at all."

You turned off the TV and Steve looked over his shoulder. "You need to stop watching that stuff Steve. The news isn't a healthy place."

Both of you heard more news coming from another room and the two of you went and found Wanda watching another news channel, which was bashing her. Steve was the one to turn the TV off this time.

"It's my fault." Wanda said softly. Pietro was on the bed next to her, rubbing her shoulders.

"That's not true." Steve said softly.

"Turn the TV back on." Wanda said. "They're being very specific."

"I should've clocked that bomb vest long before you had to deal with it." Steve countered. "Rumlow said 'Bucky' and all of a sudden I was a sixteen year old kid again, in Brooklyn." He walked over to sit next to her. You caught Pietro's eye and jerked your head, the two of you leaving the room.

"She'll be okay." You said as the two of you hit the kitchen. "It just. . . we all find something to blame ourselves on the missions. I don't know, maybe our team just wasn't ready."

"Steve is a good trainer." Pietro countered. "The circumstances were just. . . unfortunate."

"That they were." You sighed, checking the time for the MIT convention. You hoped Tony would be home soon.

Vision suddenly came in through the wall of the kitchen. Both you and Pietro jumped.

Vision was, naturally, Wanda's soulmate. However, Vision being a robot somehow defeated the physics of Wanda turning into any animal. She did however, now have a butterfly tattoo on her back. It was strange. You were sure if Bruce ever found out, he would want to research it. . . but Bruce hadn't been heard from in forever.

"Vision! Doors!" You shouted.

"My apologies." Vision replied. "Mr. Stark is back and he's brought the Secretary of State with him."

You and Pietro exchanged a look. "Secretary of State?" You repeated.

This could not be good.

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"Five years ago, I had a heart attack and dropped right in the middle of my backswing." General Ross said. He was standing at the front of the table, addressing the rest of you.

Wanda, Vision, Sam, and Pietro sat on one side of the long table. Rhodey, Natasha, and Steve sat on the other. You sat in the middle, right across from General Ross, frowning. Tony was sitting to the side in the corner, looking uncomfortable.

"Turned out it was the best round of my life because after thirteen hours of surgery and a triple bypass, I found something forty years in the Army had never taught me. Perspective. The world owes the Avengers an unpayable debt. You have fought for us, protected us, risked your lives, but while a great many people see you as heroes, there are some, who would prefer the word 'vigilantes'."

"And what word would you use, Mr Secretary?" Natasha asked.

"How about 'dangerous'? What would you call a group of US- based, enhanced individuals, who routinely ignore sovereign borders, and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned about what they leave behind?"

You opened your mouth to retort when he stepped to the side and a flat world of the map appeared.

"New York."

A video of one of the huge flying Centipede like Chitauri, with Hulk leaping from building to building.

"Washington D.C."

This one showed the helicarriers that were disappearing into the lake. The ones that you, Sam, and Steve took down.

"Sokovia."

Wanda and Pietro both shifted in their seats as a video of part of the land rising, buildings crumbling and crashing.

"Lagos."

Wanda looked away and Steve said, "Okay. That's enough."

"For the past four years, you've operated with unlimited power and no supervision. That's an arrangement the governments of the world can no longer tolerate. But I think we have a solution."

The man that had come with General Ross handed him a large booklet, which Ross placed on the table, handing it straight to Wanda. "The Sokovia Accords. Approved by 117 countries, it states that the Avengers shall no longer be a private organization. Instead, they'll operate under supervision of a United States panel only when and if that panel deems it necessary."

You started to laugh and everyone looked at you. "Sorry," You chuckled, and then stopped because it wasn't funny. "The Government is going to control superheroes? You see, that's funny."

"Y/N." Tony muttered as you stood up angrily.

"Sorry but, does no one remember when the Vice President colluded with The Mandarin to kill the President of the United States? Does no one remember how Senators were bought off by HYDRA? You want the Government, which is corrupt as something can be, to tell the good people when they want something to be saved? What if we save the wrong thing? What if, a Senator who has been bought off by HYDRA, tells us to kill the good guys instead, making us think they're bad, huh?"

"Y/N" Tony said again.

"No!" You shouted, "The Avengers are guided by themselves because our leader, our Captain, has the best moral compass. So no. I don't accept these Sokovia accords. You think I would ever trust the Government after my past with them? In your fucking dreams. The Avengers were formed to make the world a safer place and we've done that."

"Tell me, Mrs. Stark, do you know where Thor and Banner are right now?" General Ross asked you. You sucked in your lips. "If I misplaced a couple of thirty megaton nukes, you can bet there'd be consequences."

"Thor and Banner aren't weapons, General." You retorted. "And I think you've forgotten Thor is the King of another planet. And Bruce happens to be Thor's soulmate. They are both either on Asgard or traveling space together. Who knows what Thor's Kingly duties are."

"Compromise. Reassurance. That's how the world works." General Ross sighed. "Believe me, this is middle ground."

"So, there are contingences."

"Three days from now, the UN meets in Vienna to ratify the Accords."

Steve turned in his chair to look at Tony. Tony looked up at him and then back down at his hands.

"Talk it over."

"And if we come to a decision you don't like?" You and Natasha asked at the same time.

"Then you retire."

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"Secretary Ross has a Congressional Medal of Honor." Rhodey said to Sam while Steve sat on the chair in front of them, reading through the entire Accords. You were also reading the Accords. So far, it didn't look very promising. "Which is one more than you have."

"Means jack shit to me." You snapped.

Steve gave you the look and you ignored him. When you were in a bad mood, you just happened to cuss more. That's how it worked and Steve would just have to accept that.

"So let's say we agree to this thing." Sam said angrily. "How long is it gonna be before they LoJack us like a bunch of common criminals?"

"One hundred and seventeen countries want to sign this." Rhodey argued.

"So what?" You complained. "So what? If you look at the statistics, the factual numbers, we have a 93.764% approval rates as Avengers. Which means, that these one hundred and seventeen countries are rolling belly up and surrendering to make only 6.236% of the world's population happy. They're in the minority, the Government is only giving in because they're weak and want to be elected again. That's it."

"How long are you going to play both sides?" Sam asked.

"I have an equation." Vision said suddenly.

"Oh, this will clear it up." Sam rolled his eyes.

"In the eight years since Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially. And, during the same period of time, the number of potentially world-ending events has risen at a commensurate rate."

"Are you saying its our fault?" Steve asked, paused from turning the page he was on.

"I'm saying there may be a causality. Our very strength invites challenge. Challenge inflicts conflict. And conflict. . . breeds catastrophe. Oversight- Oversight is not an idea that can be dismissed out of hand."

"Right." You declared. "So, the next time we have someone like Loki using aliens to invade the world, we should just kick back and relax, drink some lemonade and hope the U.S. army can do better since they're already under a Government contract. Well I'm all fucking for that, we should move to Japan and live quiet lives."

"Tony." Natasha said in a warning voice. "You are being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal."

"It's because he's already made up his mind." You and Steve said together.

"Boy, you know me so well." Tony retorted. He sat up from where he was laying down on the couch. "Actually, I'm nursing an electromagnetic headache. That's what's going on Cap. It's just pain." He walked over to the kitchen, grabbing himself a cup. "It's discomfort. Who's putting coffee grounds in the disposal? Am I running a bed and breakfast for a biker gang?"

He placed a tablet down and a picture of a young African American boy popped up on a holograph. "Oh, that's Charles Spencer by the way. He's a great kid. Computer engineering degree, 3.6 GPA, had a floor-level gig at Intel planned for the fall. But first, he wanted to put a few miles on his soul, before he parked it behind a desk. See the world."

You closed your eyes, knowing where this was going, what this was leading up to. Charles face now burned in your mind.

"Maybe be of service. Charlie didn't want to go to Vegas or Fort Lauderdale, which is what I would do. He didn't go to Paris or Amsterdam, which sounds fun. He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor. Guess where? Sokovia. He wanted to make a difference, I suppose. I mean we won't know because we dropped a building on him while we were kicking ass."

"What should we have done?" You asked with a scoff, "Should we have. . . oh I don't know. . . not gone to Sokovia at all? Decided not to fight Ultron? Should we have let Ultron lift the island into the sky while we kicked back at Avengers Tower watching Vampire Diaries? I mean what were we supposed to do? Magically stop the buildings from falling over the side of the island while Thor and Steve are already trying to grab people as their cars are falling in mid-air? Tell me what we were supposed to do in that situation Tony?"

Tony slammed his coffee cup down on the table, "There's no decision making process here. We need to be put in check! Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, if we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys."

"Tony, when someone dies on your watch, you don't give up." Steve said.

"Who said we're giving up?"

"We are if we're not taking responsibility for our actions. This document just shifts the blame."

"I'm sorry, Steve. That- That is dangerously arrogant. This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not S.H.I.E.L.D., it's not HYDRA."

"No, but it's run by people with agendas and agendas change."

"That's good. That's why I'm here. When I realized what my weapons were capable of in the wrong hands, I shut it down and stopped manufacturing."

"Tony, you chose to do that." Steve argued. "If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don't think we should go? Y/N's right. What if someone gets blackmailed or gets an incentive and they send us to kill their enemies and not ours? What if there is somewhere we need to go and they don't let us? We may not be perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

"Here, here." Pietro said unexpectedly.

"If we don't do this now, it's going to be done to us later. That's the fact. That won't be pretty." Tony said.

"You're saying they'll come for me." Wanda said and Pietro shot to her side immediately to sit down next to her.

"We would protect you." Vision said softly.

"Maybe Tony's right." Natasha said unexpectedly. "If we have one hand on the wheel, we can still steer. If we take it off-"

"I prefer having both hands on the wheel, thanks." You retorted.

"Aren't you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?" Sam asked in amazement.

"I'm just reading the terrain." Natasha sighed. "We have made, some very public mistakes. We need to win their trust back."

"Focus up. I'm sorry. Did I just mishear you, or did you agree with me?"

"I want to take it back now." Nat muttered.

"No, no, no you can't retract it." Tony said. You and Pietro rolled your eyes. "Thank you. Unprecedented."

Steve's phone started to ring.

"Okay. Case Closed. I win." Tony said.

"I have to go." Steve said, getting to his feet.

Everyone watched him walk out and you stood up as well.

You looked at Tony. "I will not go against you Tony. But I will not sign this either. I'm an American and I always fight for my freedom. I don't surrender it. So," You tossed your handgun onto the table. "I retire. And I will see all of you later."

And with that, you left the room.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

#15yrsago Got a cell-phone? FCC claims the right to search your house https://www.wired.com/2009/05/fcc-raid/

#15yrsago Infinite Typewriters: Goats webcomic collection is transcendantly silly without being forced https://memex.craphound.com/2009/05/20/infinite-typewriters-goats-webcomic-collection-is-transcendantly-silly-without-being-forced/

#15yrsago Fight terrorism by arresting terrorists, not by looking at our genitals at airports https://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/05/18/airport.security.body.scans/

#15yrsago Lessig reviews Helprin’s embarrassing infinite copyright, bloggers-are-stupid, Creative Commons is evil book https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-solipsist-and-the-int_b_206021

#10yrsago Podcast: Firefox’s adoption of closed-source DRM breaks my heart https://ia802206.us.archive.org/30/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_273_fixed/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_273_Firefoxs_adoption_of_closed-source_DRM_breaks_my_heart.mp3

#10yrsago Interviews with & portraits of sex-machine makers https://web.archive.org/web/20140903013303/http://designyoutrust.com/2011/08/sex-machines-photographs-and-interviews-by-timothy-archibald/

#10yrsago Steve Wozniak explains Net Neutrality to the FCC https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/steve-wozniak-to-the-fcc-keep-the-internet-free/68294/

#10yrsago Disneyland’s original prospectus revealed! https://memex.craphound.com/2014/05/20/disneylands-original-prospectus-revealed/

#10yrsago Jo Walton’s “My Real Children”: infinitely wise, sad and uplifting novel https://memex.craphound.com/2014/05/20/jo-waltons-my-real-children-infinitely-wise-sad-and-uplifting-novel/

#5yrsago That billionaire who paid off a graduating class’s student loans also supports the hedge-fundie’s favorite tax loophole https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/a-private-equity-titan-with-a-narrow-focus-and-broad-aims/

#5yrsago TOSsed out: EFF catalogs the perverse ways that platform moderation policies hurt the people they’re supposed to protect https://www.eff.org/tossedout

#5yrsago How Warner Chappell was able to steal revenues from 25% of a popular Minecraft vlogger’s channels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZplh8rd-I4

#5yrsago Notorious forum for account-thieves hacked, login and messages stolen and dumped https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/05/account-hijacking-forum-ogusers-hacked/

#5yrsago A look back at the sales training for Radio Shack’s Model 100, a groundbreaking early laptop https://www.fastcompany.com/90349201/heres-how-radioshack-sold-its-breakthrough-laptop-circa-1983

#5yrsago DRM and terms-of-service have ended true ownership, turning us into “tenants of our own devices” https://www.wired.com/story/right-to-repair-tenants-on-our-own-devices/

#5yrsago Research shows that 2FA and other basic measures are incredibly effective at preventing account hijacking https://security.googleblog.com/2019/05/new-research-how-effective-is-basic.html

#5yrsago A deep dive into the internal politics, personalities and social significance of the Googler Uprising https://fortune.com/longform/inside-googles-civil-war/

#1yrago Dumping links like Galileo dumped the orange https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/20/the-missing-links/#plunderphonics

[ccrowsiie]

Since I know you're reading this: Adding my own tag is not hijacking your post you lunatic. You can lace your bitching with as many buzzwords as you want. I didn't breach anyone's consent. You chose to engage with something you didn't agree with. If you're that sensitive about another person's opinion I suggest turning off replies or reblogs. But we both know you're not gonna do that because it's not enough for like-minded people to just see it and agree. You need external validation as well. None of the icky, "consent-breaking" opinions. If it really bothers you, petition the 3 people running this website. Maybe they'll add in a special feature just for you.

Trying to control the actions of strangers is very narc of you. Your impotent attempt to drag age into it when you yourself are several years my senior is immature of you. Stealth blogging what you want to say but won't say directly to me is very middle-schooler of you. You're not weaving the best tapestry of yourself rn.

You made it thirty-whatever years to this very point and you're letting a non-threatening tumblr post throw you off. Coming from a very typical cluster B: Start herding those spiders inside your head. You'll feel way better.

If you want to keep going, by all means. Like I said, I got the time today. Won't be the most productive use of my time, but maybe I'll be able to write this off as charity on our taxes.

[rose-arwen-padme]

Suppression

The forbidden tale of Anakin and Padmé's AOTC courtship. A detailed expansion covering the movie, known deleted scenes, and many new scenes. If George showed 20% of their screen time, this is the other 80%. Told in Padmé's POV with ROTS awareness. Written for the enduring fans of Anidala.

Prologue

I don't possess the Force ability to influence minds, but my time as Queen, as Senator, and as Anakin's obsession has taught me there is power to be found in the consequence of my words.

Scrutinizing outsiders have judged my relationship with Anakin from the beginning. Our tale is like a misunderstood creature in a zoo, the spectators pressing their noses up at us on the glass. They gape with their pointed fingers. They're vocal with their opinions and privileged hindsight of how they would've handled the twists and turns differently.

They're unaware, or uncaring, of the elevated audience rows they hurl their uninvited speeches from.

Such detractors single out the warning signs as bombastic, obvious signs of doom. How resourceful they are at finding fuel for the fires they burn us in. As if blinded by these flames of their own creation, they do not pause to view their kindling as the moments they were as we lived them. What to us was one rough conversation in an endless day— our bodies and minds perhaps taxed from duties, unending travel, or even grief, mixed with natural hindrances like hunger, lack of sleep, etc— or a passing disagreement which was returned to after we'd had a chance to process and re-frame… to them, all of it only became chopped and isolated historical fodder. I imagine it's quite effortless to throw sentiments like stones at these events when you know they are events and understand their future importance.

How nice it must be, to absorb and contextualize simultaneously with the big picture... As the great Master Yoda might say, we had not that luxury.

Stand and judge me. Stand and judge Anakin. Force knows we both deserve it, to various degrees. It's easy to pass down the verdict when you weren't caught up in the wave yourself, hijacked in body and mind by forces beyond your control. We were all of us— and I include Obi-Wan in this— just trying to navigate each day as it came, doing the best we could with the information we had at the time. And so, I'll charge you to remember: Even the combined insight of the mighty Jedi Council never saw this coming. How could I be expected to?

{Are you an angel?}

No one knows the full story— our true story.

In terms of emotional presentation, what is the opposite of a highlight reel?

We were inexperienced, the both of us, and it handicapped us in precarious ways. Regardless, the cliché old adage stands frightfully true— when you know, you know, and Fate does not make allowances for how unprepared you are when It comes. We're told in romantic holomovies and wispy fables that such sudden, deep knowledge of finding your soul's intended sweeps you off your feet, making you dizzy with the butterflies and happy certainty of love.

We lacked such rapturous fortune.

Our recognition of fate came dosed in fear. It was absolute certainty wrapped tightly in nothing but the uncertain on all sides, with no air to breathe. It was the sudden lurch from familiar, solid ground to standing on the edge of a wet precipice, the wind ready to push us over at any moment. So we fought it. I swear it on the barren wasteland of all I hold dear— we did try. We fought it, until we… we couldn't. Until we had no choice but to either forfeit our sanity and suppress, or to give in to the abyss and hope we came out the other side whole.

We chose to hope.

Hope has always moved this galaxy forward. Always will. But in its progression, some get crushed beneath the wheel.

I would never separate my fate from my husband's. However, if I am allowed to speak in my own defense, he was far more prepared than I when destiny reunited us on Coruscant. He'd had a decade to process, to accept, to plan, to commit. I was late to the game. Popular thought seems to be that Anakin was the rash one— the unmanageable wild bull— and I the level-headed stoic. But I can never say enough how much I regret the pain I caused him, and the precious time wasted, as he struggled to stabilize me in the chaos alongside him. He knew we were inevitable from the first moment I stepped foot in Watto's shop. For a man infamously known for his lack of it, his patience as he waited for me to catch up to him was nothing short of astonishing. Albeit, that patience was far from perfect.

This realization of fate for a pair when thrust upon individuals in two very different stages of acceptance of it does not make for an easy-breezy love story. There were milestone moments that didn't play out like the glossy holomovies. Mutual inexperience coupled with raw intensity, making for clumsy actions and unpolished words.

But then there were those magical instances, which, unrestrained from knowing any better and ignited by our hungry want to experience, actually far surpassed possibility.

Those that would label us a toxic cocktail of abruptly rushed feelings and dramatic declarations knew scraps of the story. The closest people around us— the select few who knew— barely understood us, what we were to each other. The Jedi didn't even want to try.

So much has happened to him. To me. To us. I shoulder my share of blame without contest.

But I draw the line at any who would reduce us to shallow caricatures.

We were playful. We teased. We laughed. Oh, how Anakin could make me laugh. We bonded over losses, helping each other through grief. We fought— furiously. We made sacred amends. We peeled back sides of ourselves we hadn't yet shared with another soul. And we desired. Gods, Anakin and I desired like we'd invented it. We burned for each other like two stars going nova under our very skins, a touch both acting as the curative relief and as the explosive trigger for craving more. Professionals in the Red District of Coruscant practice for years to do with their entire bodies what we could do to each other with a single look. 'Boring' was not a word in our relationship's vocabulary.

I've been accused of falling for him too fast, before I really knew him. Such a charge is wrong on two counts. First, I knew exactly who Anakin Skywalker was when I married him. I saw firsthand glimpses of the wraith that would consume him long before most others did— even Obi-Wan. But, just as clearly, I likewise saw the good, the exorbitant amount of light in him that others failed to see. Even Obi-Wan.

And second, I did not fall for Anakin. One does not meet with the life-altering experience which made me feel more alive than anything ever had before and call it a fall. It will be difficult for the hindsight spectators with their superiority complexes to believe, but Anakin brought more excitement, passion, and joy into my life than anything I had ever known. Whether running a planet or a blockade, the nervous energy of addressing the Galactic Senate, or being surrounded in a war zone, it was all paltry compared to the rush I'd feel when his gaze simply met mine across a room. One does not fall for a man, a lover, a— forgive me, but— born pilot like Anakin Skywalker. I flew.

I acutely know this because the fall did come, only much, much later. By that point, the glorious height to which we'd soared became fatal once the descent began.

There are plenty who would have my Ani suffer eternally in hell for his crimes. I am not here to invalidate their reasons, nor to silence their cries for justice. I know what he has done. If they get their wish, my only request is this— let his same flames engulf me as well.

For this angel will gladly burn in hell by his side.

Continued at AO3 Link and Fanfiction.Net Link

[streetkid-named-desire]

@seraphfighter and @glitchinginthegarden tagged me for the 15 lines game and I've done it already so we're gonna do an exclusively wip/unpublished version

Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture their character/personality/vibe. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you’re free to include those as well. I'm hijacking this addition because it's really fun -> if you wanna you can send me one of these and i will give you context/ a snipped of what it is from! (you could also guess the context if you like!)

"He has this for tax purposes, said I could use it whenever."

"You were always the only girl in the room."

"The way she talked about you. The way she looked when she talked about you, man. That's love in its purest form. I've got my closure. We're nova, V."

"Oh look at me, I'm V and my modified joints work perfectly fine unlike my girlfriend's recalled modification."

"I just want you to be happy. How can I believe you're happy when you can't even tell the poor schmuck you love him?"

"I know in the way you look at me. The way you talk to me. The way you touch me. They're just words, Batsheva."

"Bea, don't freak out."

"Do you know how boring it is watching you play housewife to Bea?"

"I can't believe you fell for a fucking gonk like me."

"Oh, this doesn't mean I think you're worthy of her and I will kill you without a second thought if I have to. I just don't want you to look like a fucking schmendrick on Batty's big day."

"When we kill people together, it feels like we share the same brain and body, like we're part of a single organism. That's how I feel even when we're not killing people together."

"Vincent fucking Guerra, you are the gonkest, most annoying, insufferable shithead I have ever had the pleasure of knowing."

"Aw come on! That's pure Indonesian synthleather!"

"Wow, hear that Bea? You're a supersoldier!"

"It's always important, you're the fucking President."

1, 14 and 15 answered here

[tawneybee]

A couple facts about C.C/Nicky in my Trial & Error AU.

Pre-Death

- Elizabeth and Mike are twins, both 15, while Nicky (C.C) is 3.

-Nicky is nonverbal autistic. It is selective, so they know how to talk, they just choose not to. Sometimes they'll speak in eerie whispers (on purpose to creep ppl out) to people they don't like specifically. And since they love their siblings, the twins have hardly ever heard them speak. Nicky mostly communicates in body language and a yes/no/unsure button toy. Sometimes they'll even babble incoherently if they're feeling excited/stressed.

-Adding on to the whispering to people they don't like, if either of their siblings has said or done something to make them upset (as caring as the twins usually are, they're still siblings and still assholes) they'd go in the culprit's room at night and freak them out by talking to them in the dark. And since the twins have never seen Nick talk, they always think they're going crazy.

-Nicky has an oral fixation. They have a pacifier that they use most of the time, but without it there's quite a bit of biting. When they're feeling underwhelmed and need stimulation they'll just find something to chew on, and it doesn't help that biting is their love language and their teeth are quite sharp. You'll see the twins or Cassidy with a lot of indents and scars on their skin from this habit. Only real way to make them stop is to find their pacifier.

-Intersex because I said so

-Would you believe me if I said they've committed tax fraud before

-Elizabeth taught them to cry their way out of consequences and they accidentally got someone arrested through this

-Sees William as the man who pays for their stuff, nothing more

-They go to a babysitter when the twins are in school, and this babysitter is Jeremy Fitzgerald's adult sister, Autumn Fitzgerald.

-They're really smart and really well-developed mentally, so they were gonna be put in school early the year they turned 4.

-Though they died a mere week before their first day so- whoops 🤷.

-Fredbear's was built and shut down a few years before Nick's birth, so the most Nick saw of Fredbear was through the Fredbear & Friends TV show and old VHS tapes. It was still their favorite animatronic.

Post Death

-Due to Fredbear's being shut down before Nick was born, Nick didn't die due to the prank. Though their death was somewhat similar.

-Nick shares Fredbear with 5 other souls; Cassidy, Michael Brooks (TSE), Andrew (various FF books), Kelsey (FF: The New Kid), and Devon (FF: The New Kid).

-The Nightmares have a similar purpose here to canon, but long after Nick died, they found the old remains and managed to hijack the robots, so they're now able to use what William built against him.

-Elizabeth has had to fight them for the key to the explosives cabinet in Mike's office once.

-Even when in the massive form of Fredbear they always want to sit in the shopping cart.

-The pacifier followed them to the afterlife, and so did that goddamn oral fixation.

[a-libra-writes]

hi! i was planning to do some gang kinda like inspired by Marigold!

im trying to find like roles or maybe ranks if thats what they are called?? ( examples : triggerman...hitman..hijacker..) but somehow. I cant find like more ranks or. Something- (yes i researched—) i dunno if you can help me out—

thank you!!!

Oh theres not really official "ranks" and names unless youre going mafia or yakuza. So here's my suggestions on writing a general 1920's gang, and kinda what I followed for my gang in Devil's Moon:

So first decide what kind of illicit business they're in. This can be multiple things. Is it bootlegging, illegal imports, gambling, drugs, robbery, prostitution, etc? From there you can decide how large the operation is, and from the size you can figure the size of the gang.

You'll need a leader. The idea guy, the charismatic one, the one who keeps it all together.

Then the leader's number two - this can be a more violent enforcer type, or a more analytical type who fudges the numbers. Your leader could even have both, with one person handling numbers/"legitimate" business and the other being in charge of the violence or transportation of goods.

Triggermen, torpedos, gangsters, etc are the ones with the guns. They threaten and kill and dispose of bodies. Not all gangsters will be straight murderers, but they'll certainly help rough someone up and/or dispose of evidence.

A bootlegger is simply someone who transports illegal booze. They can also be a triggerman, or at least carry a gun just in case. They can operate on their own, with a partner, or with a whole caravan of trucks.

(Hitmen tend to fall under two categories: specialized and expensive career killers or a schmuck dumb enough to agree to the hit and will probably get caught/killed soon after)

Then you've got people in charge of numbers - book keeping to hide dirty money, evading taxes, keeping up with those who owe money, etc. And the people who help run fronts - fake businesses to hide dirty money and gang activity- if your gang has a cover like that.

The gang can be small, medium or large. The members can take on multiple roles, esp if it's small. The gang's territory can encompass just a few neighborhoods, a chunk of the city, etc. Lots of local speakeasies were everywhere in the 1920's, and organized crime exploded in all directions. You have a lot to work with.

Anyhoo, hope this makes sense!

You can also decide what brings them together: being family is an easy way to do this, but non-blood related gangmembers can be even closer than family. It cant be just money and intimidation, there has to be a little more to tie a person to a life of crime. There should be desperation there, no alternative. Bonds forged in blood and "well, we're both in the shit now". It's about money, territory and pride.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) went on a bizarre tangent after she was called out for lying about her past comments suggesting the Parkland, Florida, school shooting was staged.

During an interview with CBS News’ Lesley Stahl broadcast Sunday on “60 Minutes,” Greene was asked for her stance on the 2018 massacre, which left 17 students and staff dead. Two years before she was elected to Congress, Greene responded to a comment on Facebook calling the shooting a “false flag” operation.

But when asked about it by Stahl, Greene tried to rewrite history.

“I never said Parkland was a false flag,” Greene said. “No, I’ve never said that. School shootings are horrible. I don’t think it’s anything to joke about.”

As she was speaking, “60 Minutes” showed a screengrab of Greene’s now-deleted 2018 Facebook comment.

“We fact-checked,” Stahl replied. “Before I got to this interview.”

Greene offered a word-salad comeback, derailing the discussion.

“Have you fact-checked all my statements from kindergarten through 12th grade and in college? And as I’ve paid my taxes and never broken a law, and the only, I got a few speeding tickets, do we need to talk about those too?” she said. “Because I think where you’re going down is the same attacks that people have attacked me with over and over.”

Stahl didn’t challenge Greene further.

Greene, a Trump-supporting firebrand who was the first open supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory to be elected to Congress, has on multiple occasions endorsed conspiratorial nonsense about school shootings and was filmed in 2019 harassing a Parkland victim who advocates for gun control.

In another 2018 Facebook comment section unearthed by the Media Matters for America watchdog, Greene responded “this is all true” to a user who said that “none of the School shootings were real or done by the ones who were supposedly arrested for them.”

Greene, during her “60 Minutes” interview, tried to shift blame for her past social media activity, suggesting that “other people also ran my social media” when she liked a 2019 comment suggesting Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should get a bullet to the head. (Greene was not a member of Congress in 2019.)

Even if that were the case, Greene has publicly alluded to her belief that school shootings are staged. Last year, Greene suggested in a video that the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, was orchestrated “to persuade Republicans to go along with more gun control.”

CBS News faced significant backlash over the weekend for interviewing Greene and giving a platform to her dangerous rhetoric. Following the release of the sit-down, Stahl was criticized for allowing Greene to hijack the conversation, failing to adequately call out the lawmaker’s false claims, and normalizing the extremist’s unhinged behavior.

“I have known Lesley Stahl for more than 40 years, worked alongside her for many election weeks. She has been a great journalist, but this is a disgraceful, cringeworthy performance. Shameful to the max,” tweeted Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

“This is even worse than I thought it would be,” wrote The Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols. “Imagine getting outflanked by MTG, whose answer was ‘what, are you going to go back to everything I’ve said and done since kindergarten’ and Stahl just took it.”

[gracehosborn]

Past/Current/Next WIP Tag Game

Thanks to the lovely @kaylinalexanderbooks for the tag!

Rules: share a past work-in-progress, your current work-in-progress, and the work-in-progress you want to work on next.

Past

I have so many abandoned WIPs lol. The one that got the most development though was a science fiction series titled The Earths Beyond. Essentially, the daughter of a NASA employee who’s on an internship discovers this strange hidden file on a computer while helping clean up. The file, titled The Earths Beyond, contained information on mission logs from centuries’ past of these six planets that colonies were founded on. After centuries, the humans on each planet adapted to their environments and created their own societies. Confused as to why the government would hide such a feat from the public for centuries, our protagonist with a band of friends would hijack the next planned mission and steal a spacecraft to go find these worlds at war thanks to neglect. And then be on the run from the U.S. government.

I only got to part of the world building stage for TEB, but I’ve considered touching it again.

Current

My current project that has most of my attention is of course The American Icarus. Following the life of Alexander Hamilton, but written in the style of a posthumous memoir. I’ve spent absolutely forever writing just book one (of five somehow), but so far I’m making steady progress. Super excited to tackle Hamilton’s time as a New York artillery captain. Even if most of the fun will be writing things going boom and some bloodshed sprinkled with badassary.

Next

To be completely honest, I don’t know what’s next after TAI. I do have that Aaron Burr post-duel idea, and my Hamilton Quasi-War alternate history idea (and even more Hamilton adjacent ideas similarly styled to TAI), but at the moment with how taxing TAI is proving to be with the amount of research I’m doing, I’d like to take a break from something rooted in lots of real history. So probably something akin to my fantasy/alternate history novel, Ink of Destruction, that’s less serious with itself while still unique and chaotic. I’d love to mess with time travel for instance, but right now I can’t figure out how I would put a fresh spin on it and not just write another time travel story. A common feature among all my projects is proving to be that history plays a notable role though, and honestly this is very fitting.

Leaving this as an open tag for anyone who wants to play!

[misalpav]

the kerala story is copied caliphate netflix series and you dont understand. you support bjp?

did you miss the part where i said that TKS is a MOVIE. and artists and writers take creative liberties??? i couldn't give a flying fuck which netflix series it's similar to bc in the end I see it as a movie and in the larger scheme, media, and every 10 yr old child I know knows not to believe everything they see on a big screen, but apparently you didn't get the memo. the isis fucking exists in India and with it they bring salafi jihadist culture and conversion because that's literally who they are and that's the bottom line. if you're in support of covering up their terrorism then please just stop reading and get the fuck off my blog. again why the fuck are people making such a big deal out of it oh my god. movies such as PK have shown offensive versions of Hindu gods, and in Canada, they made some play about the goddess Kali smoking and shit. I saw absolutely none of you say anything then so why the fuck do you "secular" people care now.

if you denied terrorism in India from middle easterners you'd be an idiot. ranging from pilgrim taxes, iconoclasm, and to forced conversions in Mathura and Kashmir among other places, the native Hindu-Indian population has seen everything over the years. I don't deny that islamophobia is real, but oh my god, the existence of islamophobia and hinduphobia is not mutually exclusive, this is so fucking basic. I can agree that islamophobia exists in many parts of the world and even in India, but this movie has nothing to do with that. again, it's a movie about ISIS and i will see it as such. If you see it as a movie about Islam, then maybe you're the one under the flawed assumption that all Muslims fall under the bracket of ISIS, which says more about you than me in any case.

if we get into politics then, no, i have no strong affiliation with any indian political party and, as someone who can't vote, i have no good reason to go out of my way to pick a side when i like neither anyways. i'm the kind of person that reads everything and figures out what makes sense. from that point of view i can say, IF kerala is a secular state, then they should have no problem with this movie, something backed by the Kerala High Court ruling as well. i also mentioned earlier that this is an issue of ISIS vs anti-ISIS, not hindu v muslim. that being said, if you were a secularist I'd continue to question why you care so much about the government handling religion in media when your entire argument should be separating state and religion entirely. movies and entertainment isn't a branch of the government so you're not allowed to give a fuck what they do as they try and gain viewers.

your bullshit "secularism" only goes to the extent that the agendas of islam and apparently also isis are supported in the public sphere and it fucking shows. secular countries around the world make movies with religion in the center and nobody gives a shit but you guys don't get those memos do you. movies such as priest and the 1972 movie adaptation of the canterbury tales exist show christianity in a skewed negative angle and were screened all over the west. but nope, just ignore that and blame some right wing party for a writer making a story because it inconveniences you and your little anti-hindu agenda.

in terms of this other ask,

again with the word fanaticism. either you're accepting you're a blatant hinduphobe in which case get the fuck off my blog, I said very specifically that bigots are not welcome, or you just didn't read my last post properly in which case read that and then get the fuck off my blog. God, this whole post is so redundant and such a waste of my time. saying ISIS and the BJP are the same is such a flawed undertaking. I also can't think of a single example of a BJP member specifically targetting "muslims whose loved ones were lured into ISIS" and even a quick google and jstor search renders nothing.

The ISIS hijacked 4 Boeing 747s worth billions of dollars total and sent their members on a suicide mission halfway across the globe killing around 3000 people. They've run similar attacks all over the globe in areas including europe, africa, asia, or in other words anywhere they can fucking get to and their hate doesn't even stop at religion, and extends instead to anyone who rejects sharia law. the bjp has run nothing to the scale of the mass-murder and terrorism of isis and i can't decide if your desperation to prove me wrong with the most exaggerated arguments of the century are funny or if your ignorance is just sad. if conserving islam in the middle east with islamic republics and dictatorships is deemed ok, then maintaining hindu culture in a democracy where such members are elected is also ok.

[collapsedsquid]

Although many surprises undoubtedly lurk down river, it is already clear that the advent of ‘catastrophic terrorism’ in tandem with what may likely be the worst recession since 1938 will produce major mutations in the American city. There is little doubt, for instance, that bin Laden et al have put a silver stake in the heart of the ‘downtown revival’ in New York and elsewhere. The traditional central city where buildings and land values soar toward the sky is not yet dead, but the pulse is weakening. The current globalization of fear will accelerate the high-tech dispersal of centralized organizations, including banks, securities firms, government offices, and telecommunications centres, into regional multi-site networks. Terror, in effect, has become the business partner of technology providers like Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems, who have long argued that distributed processing (sprawling PC networks) mandates a ‘distributed workplace’. In this spatial model (of which the Al-Qaeda network might be an exemplar), satellite offices, telecommuting and, if the need be, comfortable bunkers will replace most of the functions of that obsolete behemoth, the skyscraper. Very tall buildings have long been fundamentally uneconomical; indeed the absurdly overbuilt World Trade Centre—a classic Rockefeller boondoggle—was massively subsidized by public-sector tenants.footnote23 (Will the hijacked airliners someday be seen as having played the same role in the extinction of skyscrapers as the Chixulub asteroid in the demise of dinosaurs?)

[...]

Despite massive plans for ‘hardening’ and ‘terror-proofing’ downtown public spaces and monumental buildings, however, most white-collar workers and managers will prefer to consume enhanced security closer to their suburban homes.footnote24 Physical security retrofits—the reinforcement of building structures, vapour-and-trace detection systems, bollards and traffic barricades, bomb mitigation containers, smart doors, metal detectors, bomb-proof trash cans, biometric surveillance portals, reduced surface and underground parking, and so on—will impose huge and unavoidable expenses for cities trying to shore up their downtown economies, but they are unlikely to stem the new exodus of jobs and tax resources. Massive public-sector subsidies to developers and corporate tenants likewise may slow but probably won’t reverse the trend toward deconcentration. In addition, as self-advertised ‘world cities’ hunker down for the long siege, urban economists and fiscal analysts must wrestle with the new demon of ‘de-globalization’: the portion of global service production and international tourism that may be lost forever.

I sometimes think back on the “fortress suburbia“ vision of ~2000 where locked-up suburban subdivisions would be opposite total urban blight that seemed like the inevitable future, instead we got “gentrification” as the major issue of ~2010.  Seemed like that might happen with covid too, although that’s still up in the air it seems like I’m not gonna get lucky enough to have my area blighted and get a goddamn rent reduction.

[callmearcturus]

My first day of vacation got solidly hijacked by my aunt who is a jerk, but day two I wrote the outline for the next chapter of KTOWL and went to the dentist and finished P3P. Day three, I opened my pile of mail and did my taxes and picked up stuff for dinner.

Tomorrow, job hunt and writing? I hope?