#there was A LOT of debate about my final official candidate

[girlgenius1111]

Hi! If you don’t mind me asking more questions, I have more! (Too many more actually, don’t feel obliged to answer them all).

Following up on my previous question (if you’ve changed your mind on voting), I know that Harris wasn’t many people’s first choice for nominee — although seeing the newfound momentum in the campaign Biden’s resignation and the official ticket announcement is inspiring — who would you have wanted to run instead?

I know that time is obviously a factor, and whether or not it was strategy or the Dems’ last-ditch attempt to run a close race, who do you think would’ve been viable alternatives?

Aside from entertainment value, do you think that debates are viable options to actually sway voters considering the lack of policy discussions as the candidates get side-tracked? How did you think the debate for Harris — considering she was the one with everything to lose tonight.

Finally, now that it is a Harris/Walz ticket, how do you feel the election will go? There is the obvious up-tick in Democratic popularity and a renewed vigour in the campaign, but everything is still indicating its going to be tight, and Harris has the distinct disadvantage of running as a woman of colour against an extremely right-wing Republican opponent/party.

oh fuck yeah let’s go

re your questions on who else to run… i genuinely have no idea! there is a severe lack of viable dem candidates, but at the same time… it felt like wallz came out of nowhere and he is very viable. so i don’t really have specific people in mind, but i know it should be more people like him. teachers, regular people. not career politicians.

as far as debates being something that could swing a vote…. i would say yes, but not on a large scale. it seems to me that if you’re with trump up until this point, there isn’t much he could say to turn you off him. as for harris, though, i think having a person who isn’t half dead running is really encouraging and exciting, and that will swing people who weren’t for joe, but def weren’t for trump. generally, i think it’s less about proposed policy discussed and more about the general… vibes? who went off on a tangent? who interrupted? who showed up with micro bangs? who replied to regular questions with insane answers?

i hesitate to say this because i don’t want to jinx it but im going to knock on wood. okay good. i think harris wins. the data points to her winning, a lot of different factors point to her winning. i think her pick of walz as VP will help her a lot. i think the more trump talks, the better things are for her. i think she wins the popular vote and the electoral college, though that by a smaller margin.

i think america rejected trumpism in 2020, and they’re ready to do it again.

[birbs-in-space]

hey fellow californians, we've our primary elections due in a month's time, and given how important the upcoming presidential election can stand to be for the everyday realities of people globally, it's a good idea to know what your options are and what you can do heading into the voting cycle.

(also if you're against electoralism, please remember that we will be voting for more local positions/that one proposition as well and these things can have a profound impact of peoples' day to day material well-being. it really doesn't take a lot of effort to vote in the grand scheme of things.)

for those interested in voting in the presidential primaries, if you are registered with a party, you will receive a ballot for that party's primary. I believe you can only vote in one party's primary.

if you're registered NPP (no party preference) you will not receive a ballot with presidential candidates, but you can request a ballot for a party with an open primary

these are the parties:

american independent (far right party that many people are mis-registered under) (open)

democratic (open)

green (closed)

libertarian (open)

peace and freedom (closed)

republican (closed)

source

you have until Feb 20 to change what party you're registered with. depending on what county you're in, your ballot might have been sent out if you vote by mail. if you re-register to vote after your ballot has been sent, it should be fairly easy to contact your local registrar of voters to request a different party ballot by phone or email.

you can register to vote here

—

the PFP (peace and freedom party) is a california-only party, but it often works with the PSL (party for socialism and liberation) which is active nationally. in california, there's a significant overlap in membership between the two. the PSL has nominated claudia de la cruz for the PFP california primary. you can learn more about her, her vice president (karina garcia) and their platform on their website here.

(for the record, I'm not a member of the PSL, and as a political anarchist* i don't agree with all of their policies, so this isn't like an official endorsement of everything they believe in. however, the purpose of their campaign is both to run and also to try to raise awareness for and educate people on leftist politics.)

I know less about jasmine sherman, but their website here has a detailed and comprehensive breakdown of a lot of their policies. i'm not the best person to speak on this, but I found their disability policies to be promising, especially since disability advocacy is often left out of presidential electoral discussions, and they have a lot to say on the matter.

(I'm not going to tell you who to vote for or what to do, but I figured I could pass on what's been passed on to me so that you all can make your own decisions, especially since information about this is somewhat sparse in the mainstream. I wouldn't know all this if someone hadn't told it to me directly. remember, this post is specifically about the primary. voting in the November presidential election will be more divisive, but we're not there yet.)

—

finally, I've found the PFP's voter guide to be really helpful, especially when it comes to breaking down information about propositions. you can get a perspective outside of the two included in the official voter guide. you can find it here and a slightly longer writeup on Prop 1 here. voters guide posts are generally collected under this tag.

please do not take this post as a voters guide or an endorsement of anything.

*I don't talk a lot about this specifically online because I don't think it's helpful or productive nor do I think I'm particularly well suited to debate. I usually try to express my politics through my actions where I can, and if I waited for people who I agreed with 100% of the time, then I'd never actually get to help make any sort of meaningful positive change. that comment is supposed to be more of like a disclaimer.

for instance, I'm a prison abolitionist, and neither of the two candidates I mentioned are.

this post is strictly meant to be informative. I'm registered PFP so I'll be voting in that primary. I didn't know before this year how requesting a different ballot even worked and spent a lot of time registered NPP so I wasn't voting in any primaries. before that I was in misinformed american independent limbo. so. knowledge is power

if you somehow made it all the way down here and have specific questions, i guess you can dm me ? idk if I'm the right person to ask but awareness of things is not an inconsiderable amount of the battle. I don't see a lot of DM notifs right away though. also I genuinely don't expect anyone to see this though so if you're reading this and you're like haha this fool thinks people are going to see this. well. no. this post isn't even well formatted and I typed it up on mobile. but it doesn't hurt to cover my ass lmao even if I'm sure it won't leave. like. my blog.

[lovelyirony]

Maybe 60 and 46, Pepper / Natasha? (Based off our conversation from the other day :P )

“Dance with me.”/“You look like you could use a hug.” introducing: evil businesswoman pepper and her lovely assistant, natasha 

Pepper didn’t like dealing with other businesses early in the morning. In fact, she usually didn’t. She did her worst in the mornings, and it was clear to see. 

There was a man still lying in his chair when she comes out of the meeting room, and asks for a clean-up crew. 

She hates tech start-ups. 

Her assistant didn’t last. They never did, although this one had shown promise: he was with the company for five months. 

She was sad to see him go, in shock at another mess she had made. 

“Maybe you could stop killing other businesses,” Tony tells her while they’re eating lunch. It’s a nice place, where they’re at. They have a good balsamic vinaigrette.  

“I could, but then where would the company be?” Pepper asks. “They need to know that I like to be impressed. I want success. That’s how you get what you want.” 

Tony makes a face. 

He wants to say something, but he can’t. Not when he signed the company over to her, and she’s improved it, been allowed to make her own choices, bring everything up to her standards. She’s put everyone at her heel, and by god has it been satisfying. 

But she still needs a new assistant. 

- 

Natasha Romanoff is not liking the current assignment. Then again, she doesn’t like a lot of SHIELD’s assignments. 

She likes the company, really. They’re altruistic as hell and like going through the proper channels to get the proper work done. 

But she misses the feeling of getting yourself immersed, getting your hands stained beyond belief. 

An assistant. 

They want her to be a damned assistant for Stark Industries. Investigate the CEO, figure out what kind of dirt they can dig up and get out. 

It’s insufferable. She should be doing high-speed car chases and seducing oil barons to make sure their finances get drained. 

She shouldn’t be asking what kind of creamer goes in coffee and what kind of pens they want to be ordered. 

But here she is for the interview process, and she’s wearing her best office dress, which is still a bit risky for what an office job is, but she pays everyone else no mind. She taps her heel on the floor. 

- 

Pepper hates interviewing candidates. But she has to observe who is going to be working with her, who can handle what they’re going to throw at her. 

There’s a woman in the middle of it: Natalie Rushman. 

She’s been abroad with various companies, used to do some amateur modeling, and is wearing a dress that would probably get her in trouble with HR if Pepper didn’t appreciate it so damn much. 

She’s interesting. 

Her eyes flash when Pepper asks her how comfortable she is in slightly dangerous situations. 

“What, like copy paper being out?” she asks. Pepper laughs. 

“Something a touch more dangerous than that, Miss Rushman.” 

The interview ends. 

Pepper thinks about her through the whole thing.

- 

Natasha is excited. 

Finally a job where she can use her skills. Where she can do what she needs to do, and it will be wonderful. 

Natasha shouldn’t be excited. 

But she can’t help herself as she buys four new pairs of shoes and debates on a skirt that she should bring. 

After all, she will be getting the job if Ms. Potts’ posture gave any indication. 

- 

Miss Rushman starts officially on a Wednesday after two days of training. Usually it would take anywhere from one to two weeks. But she’s scarily efficient and has apparently worked with the same kind of things. 

Pepper finds that she’s the best assistant she’s ever had. She’s already taken notes on what Pepper does throughout the day, knows when she needs to take a break for a headache, and also knows the extremely specific coffee creamer that she uses. 

It would almost terrify her, if she could still get terrified at the mundane details that people could know about you. 

But Miss Rushman makes it seem easy, and so she lets it slide. After all, it’s not like Natalie can just leave. She’s signed four different sets of paperwork that basically say if she so much as breathes wrong, Stark Industries gets her soul for eternity. 

She’ll be trapped. 

Natasha finds that aspect exciting. 

She shouldn’t find the act of Pepper Potts holding a letter-opener to a business associate’s neck hot. 

It shouldn’t be. 

But Pepper got a lovely crimson-red manicure, and she’s smiling so sweetly as she discusses what they agreed upon versus what’s happening. 

It takes Natalie Rushman a moment to process. 

“Miss Potts?” she interrupts. 

Pepper’s head slowly turns. Her strawberry-blonde hair moves smoothly over the letter-opener, over the hand clutched, trying to hold onto a way to live. 

“Yes, Miss Rushman?” 

“I have some paperwork for you to sign. Regarding the new hospital tech installment.” 

“Set them on my right. I’m finishing up some...loose ends.” 

Natalie doesn’t react to the loud noise other than a displeased hum and asking the other members in the room if they want lemon-water. 

It’s refreshing in the afternoon, and she needs to clean the cabinet behind them anyways. 

- 

Pepper gets adjusted to her assistant. And Natalie gets adjusted to her life. 

She’s comfortable with it. It’s easy, to lean on who she had to be. 

It’s a rude wake-up call when she gets lunch with Clint, and he asks how the mission is going. 

“You any closer to taking her down?” 

She blinks for a moment. Pokes at her cake. 

“Nat, come on. You know she can’t keep getting away with this, right?” 

“Why does the world need more businessmen?” Natasha murmurs. 

Clint stares at her. 

“Come on. You told me when I brought you over here that you didn’t want to turn into who they made you into again. Just because it’s easier doesn’t mean it’s worth it.” 

He’s right. 

Of course he is. Clint usually is about this type of thing. 

Pepper Potts is...well. Natasha can admire the dedication she takes with her success. 

But usual bosses don’t really kill the competition. 

Literally. 

- 

Pepper’s noticed a change in Natalie Rushman. 

She doesn’t like it. 

She doesn’t watch for as long, doesn’t talk as easily with her anymore. 

Tony says maybe all of this terrible shit is catching up with her, her conscience finally clueing her in on the situation. 

No, that’s not it. That can’t be it. Not after how she stared at Pepper, not after her smile, not after those nights where they stayed late and both gazed but never said anything. 

Natalie is in the breakroom, staring into a coffee mug that has nothing in it. 

“You look like you could use a hug,” Pepper says dryly, sidling up to her. She takes a step away. 

Hm. 

“I’m fine, just a busy day,” Natalie says. 

God, she’s not even trying to lie. That’s infuriating. 

“Your days are about to get a little bit busier,” she starts in. “I’ve decided to host a little celebration for all of the companies we’ve worked with over this past year. We’re going to have a real ball of a time, and I want you to help plan it. And attend.” 

Natasha looks at her. Really looks at her. 

Shit. 

Pepper’s onto her. She knows something is different, something is off. 

And if Natasha’s to get away, she’s still going to have fun toying with her. She’s going to make life hell. 

The saying goes that if you can’t handle the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen. 

Natasha’s been cooking for a much longer time than Pepper, and she’s known her way around more kitchens than most. 

Bring it. 

- 

Putting together an honest-to-god ball for an eccentric, threatening CEO is fun. It shouldn’t be fun, but it is. 

The caterers are scared into arriving early, the invitations are embossed with actual gold, and the music costs way more than it should. 

Natasha is having so much fun with it that she completely forgets about her dress. 

She’s cursing as she’s tearing through her closet, looking for something that would be remotely appropriate for a ball for a sadistic CEO that she kind of has a crush on.) 

There’s a knock at the door. 

She rips it open, expecting it to be Clint or Maria to make fun of her, but it’s not. 

“Um. Delivery for Miss Rushman?” 

Oh. 

It’s a midnight blue ballgown, long-sleeved. She never would have chosen it for herself. 

The notecard attached said: 

Wear this one. I know you best. -Potts

A shiver runs up her spine. 

She’s not sure for what reason she’ll assign it to. 

But she puts it on, and it fits perfectly. She doesn’t want to think about how much it will cost. 

- 

Pepper, of course, looks like a dream. Or a nightmare. A terrifyingly beautiful nightmare. 

Her dress is burgundy, her lipstick matches. Her hair is loose, not kept in the high ponytail that is customary. 

Her eyes are a brilliant blue. They see right through her. 

“You look gorgeous, Miss Rushman,” she says, looking her up and down. “As to be expected, of course.” 

“Of course,” Natasha murmurs. 

The night will be long. 

They mingle. Natasha dutifully informs Pepper of who the lesser players on the field are, and fetches drinks. 

It’s...odd. 

It feels like something big is going to happen. And maybe it will, maybe it won’t. 

-

“Dance with me,” Pepper asks her. “Please.” 

She’s adding the last part in so that it sounds nice. But it’s a demand all the same. 

Natasha takes her hand, and maybe she should be more reserved about it, but she can’t help it. 

It’s captivating. It’s dangerous. But she accepts all the same. 

“You look beautiful tonight,” Pepper murmurs. “You far outshine every other woman here.” 

“Even you?” Natasha asks. 

Pepper rolls her eyes, but smiles. 

“Obviously, Natasha. Who else would?” 

She doesn’t notice that slip-up. Maybe it’s because she’s blown away at their close proximity, maybe it’s because Miss Potts’ perfume is absolutely intoxicating. But she doesn’t notice. 

They dance and they talk. 

“I’m happy you wore the dress.” 

“It’s not like I had anything like it in my closet,” Natasha says as Pepper smiles. 

“I figured. Not many host balls anymore.” 

“You’re a different sort.” 

“I am, aren’t I? But I think you and I are one and the same.” 

They’re isolated. 

And Natasha realizes it too late. She was a fool. 

“You haven’t quit after a year, after everything we’ve been through. Everything that I put you through. A regular person couldn’t do that, could they?” 

“You’d be surprised at what people can handle,” Natasha says. 

Pepper smiles. 

“You and I both know you’re far from an average person...Romanoff.” 

She tenses. 

“You knew?” 

“It’s a relativity new tidbit of knowledge, but having a tech genius as a colleague is...nice.” 

“What are you going to do to me?” 

“Reveal you,” Pepper says. “You’re a spy. You make your bread and butter off the fact that no one knows you for very long. And me? Well, you can’t kill me. The only thing that could possibly have an effect on me is if you killed the business. Which you don’t have the infrastructure for.” 

“And if I don’t want that? What do I have to do?” Natasha asks. 

Secrecy is her safe spot. It’s the only place where she’s ever been secure. 

“Stay. Leave that Strategic-Homeland-Whatever, and come with me. Stay with me.” 

“I don’t think I can do that,” Natasha says. “Your life and mine are too similar for that.” 

“But think of all we could do together,” she says. She brushes a hair back from Natasha’s cheek. 

It’s unbearable, that feeling. It’s a feeling that Natasha will spend all her life denying that she’ll chase. 

“I can’t.” 

Pepper looks at her. It’s a look that’s chilling. 

“Very well, Miss Romanoff. Then that will be all.” 

Pepper won’t fight her physically. She would lose that way, especially with how well-tailored the dress is on her body. 

But she has other ways of fighting. 

And god help Natasha, she knows she’s doomed. 

The worst part? 

She doesn’t exactly mind. 

[choco-mark]

if you’re still open for the reactions and mtls, could you do ‘what they would get/do for you for your 1st anniversary’ please? i was debating whether or not to send in a second post but i ended up convincing myself to do it anyways bc i know writers block is just so annoying and if this is a way to help you out then i’ll gladly do so 💛

this is definitely a way to help my writer’s block so go ahead!!

mark

remembers it’s y’all’s anniversary the day before because jaemin jokingly said something along the lines of ‘you guys have been dating for too long’

kind of internally freaks because he has absolutely no clue what to do, and doesn’t know if you want to do fancy or casual like he’s going full mental breakdown

ends up taking to you to a local carnival because last minute plans, but y’all both love the energy so it was fun and a way for y’all to spend time together

had no clue what to get you and also didn’t have the time to get anything for you, so he ended up giving you one of his sweatshirts for long term (not like you steal them anyway or anything) but you didn’t really care because he was a gift himself :((

wins you one of those huge plushy stuffed animals from a water gun game and feels like a whole boss

has another mental breakdown when he sees you jumping up and down with that stuffed toy and cannot process that you are actually his girlfriend of an official year :(

tells you he loves you on the top of the ferris wheel while the fireworks are going off like ‘boom, i love you y/n, happy anniversary’ and then gets all shy because he usually doesn’t say things like that

y’all have a fun night after that ;)

renjun

was away on tour during y’alls first anniversary and feels like absolute shit because he wants to be with you so he flies over, yeah, fans are a lil confused but you were first priority

what was ten times worse was that you were sick and you didn’t tell him so there was like a mini argument that eventually ended up with him cuddling you for like three hours

you guys don’t even go anywhere, it’s just a cozy day at the (empty) dorm and y’all just made a lil meal together and it was just the two of you

took his time to make a polaroid collection of just you, there’re just a buncha candid pictures of you that you don’t really remember him taking at...all but there’s a little message at the end that puts all of junnie’s feelings into words and it’s just :( 

has to fly back literally the next morning but he blows your mind that night hehe ;)

jeno

was a nervous pup for about a week prior to the anniversary date because he was just afraid nothing would go right :(

planned a whole picnic and even got renjun to cook for the two of you (also because he didn’t want to end up blowing up the dorm), and stresses over what he’s gonna wear like ‘will y/n like this??’ ‘nah, i look like shit’ and couldn’t sleep the night before because of it

but when he sees you all smiley when y’all walk down the street to the little field he had set up just for you, that’s when he finally relaxes and falls in love with you all over again

filled a jar full of candies and paper hearts that he cut out himself and has you go through them and read through the little messages he has on them, and then gets all shy from the way you find it really cute

makes love to you for the entire night and it’s just such soft sex because he’s so in love with you omg :(

donghyuck

went insane almost a week before trying to find you the perfect gift but feels like you wouldn’t like his gift and kinda gets frustrated

you guys already live together, so it’s not a surprise when you come home and see him laying draped across the bed with rose petals all over the floor and himself, while he’s just watching you get all shocked

you thought he was gonna propose to you from the way he was looking at you, but gives you a promise ring with his initials engraved in them and you cry because omg that’s :( even i’m upset while writing this, it’s just so pretty and the way he looks at you and promises to marry you in the future :(((

he didn’t really have a plan to do anything because he knows how tired you already are from your day and runs a bath for the two of you

yeah you guys end up fucking after that, but it’s slower than usual and he takes his time to make sure you’re properly pleasured ;)

jaemin

you already know jaem’s is a romantic lil shit, so he shows up at your house wearing the hottest suit you had ever seen on him, like ever, and is like, ‘get ready baby, we’ve got a long night ahead of us’

you guys end up missing your dinner reservation because he offers to help you get ready but he just ends up eating you out on the couch and doesn’t regret shit because he needed that

he takes you there anyway (and has to pay extra for his horny ass) and y’all are fine dining outside with the moonlight as your view, and there’s a nice lil river flowing underneath the bridge y’all on, yes he paid money for this, rich nana am i right?!

gives you a 24k gold necklace as a gift and you are about to explode from the way he’s fastening that shit around your neck when it’s literally worth more than you and you feel like a broke bitch for your gift to him

kisses on your way home :( and him just whispering to you every three seconds that he loves you, holding your hand, running his hand through your hair :(

and he eats you out for like two hours after that since the meal wasn’t enough ;)

chenle

cannot process that it’s been a year since the two of you started dating and isn’t sure if he should buy you a phone or a house, but opts out of both when renjun tells him not to objectify the gift too much 

thinks about what to get you for so long and even searches up ideas (it’s his first anniversary ever, okay?!), and then thinks about your and his relationship deeply and then BOOM he knows exactly what to do

has mark help him write you a song, though he does most of the writing reminiscing on the whole year you guys had together and mark is shedding fake tears of ‘my son grew up’

you spend the night with him the day before and you wake up to him singing for you while watching you with the most love-struck eyes, and plays the whole song he wrote for you off his phone, while you’re like, bawling your eyes out from the way he sang your name

you guys don’t actually do anything except cuddle in his bed for hours after that, just softly talking to each other and stealing little kisses every now and then

jisung

has gone into cardiac arrest too many times for it to happen again, so he’s definitely not letting it happen on y’all’s anniversary!! right?! that’s right, confident jisungie in the house now!

thought about what he wanted to get you for so long, but his surprise is kind of ruined when he accidentally leaves it out when you’re over one day, and gets a lil flustered and upset but you didn’t see that much!!

bought you a huge hoodie, since you’re constantly wearing ones that are way too big for you or his own, but decided to go all artist jisung™ and stitches his name like in really baby font on the front :( and it comes out a lot better than he expected

overthinks it on the actual day and wonders if you think it’d be weird that he wrote his...name on your clothes, decides that it is weird, goes to discard of it but turns around and sits down because he had nothing else anyway

you love it anyway :( and you give him the phattest kiss after you put it on and yeah, his heart stopped beating for a lil watching you smile and giggle and all

his heart is doing flips everywhere in his body watching you and kinda just hugs you thigh like you’re his world (you are), and doesn’t let go of you until you give him another very requested kiss 

[jesusintheleast]

The Fight For Affordable Housing

THE FIGHT FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING…And whatever

happened to “We the People….”

Some say “affordable housing for those that need it… Sure, why

not? But we do have to think about the cost and the ROI.”

(Return on Investment) Just don’t build it by me, you know,

NIMBY (Not in my backyard.)

But many others say, “Hey, we live here. We’ve been here for

decades. Don’t we deserve a place we can afford? And isn’t

housing a human right…in this day and age?”

And then are still others who are saying, “You know, there’s

something terribly wrong with our society’s priorities. And they

are confronting the sticky contention of those who question the

practicality of engaging in the building of affordable housing:

Those who say, “Sure, we’re for “affordable housing,” but not

at the cost it would demand.”

And the response of these “still others” to this point of view

would be: “How can we not “afford” to build this much-

needed housing for the “human beings” who are left out in the

streets or “stacked up” in studios and one-bedroom apts.?”

And finally, do you ever wonder about the phrase “We the

people” as stated in the Preamble to our Constitution? And

what, if any, connection does that simple statement have to do

with the subject of “affordable housing” today?

Yeah, it’s real. It’s real���this fight for affordable housing here

in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago… and in so many other

neighborhoods across America.

Back on June 10th we attended a housing rally to halt the

building of more condos in the parking lot of Uptown’s Weiss

hospital. A few dedicated activists got together to stage a rally

regarding the vote to approve or not approve a proposal for a

zoning change that would permit developers to build more

condos at this site.

The rally was sponsored by the “Chicago Union of the

Homeless,” One Northside, and Northside Action For Justice.”

Here are the reasons for opposing the Weiss hospital parking

lot zoning change as stated by these sponsors:

*In Uptown, over 50% of renters are rent burdened

*The median rent has increased by 50% in the last ten years

*Many Uptown residents (present and former) are living in

tents or doubling up with other relatives or friends

*Lack of low and mid-range housing options is threatening the

diversity of Uptown

And now, please listen to Angela Clay, a long-time activist, and

a recent candidate in the last Alderman’s election here in

Uptown. Just listen to her passion for these exasperating issues

that the low-income folks of Uptown have been facing for the

past few decades…and continue to face.

So you see and hear… this really is serious business. And Angela continued to remind us all, exactly, what’s at stake. “We are not just at the tipping point of gentrification for Uptown , but the tipping point for the entire city of Chicago,” she said. “If you think it’s not coming to your doorstep, you are a blind bat.”

And Bonnie, the President of the Chicago Union of the homeless, told how she was always raised to believe that this country ought to live up to its promises when our Constitution’s Preamble states: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility , provide for the common defense. promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

But what does that really mean, and in particular, how does this apply to the debate over “affordable housing?”

It’s simple, really. But it’s also difficult.

We’re talking about how this “democracy” we all share works best. And it works best when all “voices” are heard, and then the majority of voters…“not partisan manipulation, determines the outcome of elections” (Governing newsletter, Sept. 22, 2020).

And so, “the common people” need to be listened to and respected, if true democracy is to have a fighting chance.

“When public officials forget about “We the People,” they fail to “promote the general Welfare” of the nation, “insure domestic Tranquility” or “establish Justice”---all preconditions for securing what the framers described as the blessings of liberty” (Governing newsletter, 9/22/2020).

And here’s the cardinal point. It all boils down to this: “When it says “We the People,” continues Bonnie from the Coalition, “ we need to remember…WE ARE THE PEOPLE… and we shouldn’t have to fight for our housing.”

Angela further pointed out that the proposed development would “offer” 8 units of affordable housing… out of the 300+ units. “We are fighting… just to have a place to be safe,” she said. “We are talking about lives. And we are fighting for everyone. We are even fighting for those who can afford these rents. We don’t want you to be “priced out” either. We just feel that we should have all the affordable housing that we need.”

Sounds reasonable? Does it not?

But take a look at some very real examples of what’s happening all around us… here in Uptown. Check out these two pics of current “spots“ that soon will boast some really “big complexes”….with a token bit of “living quarters” apportioned to what could be labelled as affordable to many of Uptown’s current residents.

And so, what does all this mean for you and I?

I’d say it means that I whenever you or I get a good night’s sleep, well, it’s not just something that we ought to take for granted. Especially since we know that there‘s so many, right now, right in my backyard and yours, who haven’t had a good night’s sleep for a while.

And oh yeah, I guess we could also fight right alongside those who are crying out to not only be heard, but also “housed.”

And how about simply showing some compassion towards those who live this “struggle” each and every day. That might mean, doing some advocacy work for these folks when you can. It might mean volunteering at a shelter, or joining a group that aligns with your convictions. It might mean helping out however God’s leads you as your paths cross with the folks on the bottom… the least in our society.

And I think (no I’m sure of) that we all can pray for God’s hand to move in hearts of all of us who call ourselves a part of this “human race…” to do the right thing. And in those prayers, we need to ask for mercy for all of us who have a roof over our heads… that we can afford.

Thanks for stopping by, Chris.

[writingwitheli]

GrandMech

Most mechs were hard to function, even with experienced pilots.

They didn't move like people do, the mechanics don't really allow for that. You have to know the engineering intimately to clearly envision how the thing was going to react to your direction. Most pilots spend months learning their piece before going into the field. There were simulators, and for a while the board argued for mechs to be built in a uniform manner for faster learning.

But technology went a bit too fast for that. And the things were way too expensive to mass produce.

Grandma Katersfield knew this well. It was her life's work.

I mean she wasn't my grandma. But she kinda was. She was everyone's grandma, in a way. Most mechs these days still have her work in them, even if there were scraps rebuild around it. Some people called it practical. Pilots called it good luck. The engineers called it "Finally someone who knows what they're fucking doing."

When she passed away, in her garage (had she ever existed anywhere else?), the military held a funeral. Most of the planets held a funeral. The board, somewhere in their core-planet bunkers, held a meeting.

The war wasn't over, and we weren't winning. And we'd just lost our best engineer. It was a big fucking hit for morale. There were losses everywhere.

Presumably after sending a swarm of government drones through the property, the board very quickly touted "Katersfield's Final Work", and "The culmination of everything she's ever done". Some people pointed out the public images that showed how the thing was half-done. But enough people wanted hope that everyone gradually bought into the idea.

The board appointed Katersfield's daughter to lead the finalization of the thing. Ann wasn't exactly an engineer, but they knew how the public would read it. They gave her a team of their best to work with.

When construction was nearly done, the board officially announced that Katersfield's son-in-law would be piloting it. Everyone expected it; he was the only striped pilot in the family. But it hit the top of everyone's news anyways.

The public test run was expected to be simple, and broadcasted live as far as the outer-space colonies.

It… didn't go so well.

Okay, it went very badly.

I mean.

Bad.

What followed was a lot of media confusion. The board hastily tried to put the blame on over-eagerness. People were fired. We lost four moons while our squadrons re-evaluated their lives.

Mark and his husband, Will Katersfield, had a very public divorce. Some people argue it was the media pressure. Some people suspect that the board forced them apart. I think it was a long time coming.

For a while the board pushed forward other candidates. They ran competitions for new mech designers and engineers and electricians. Offered an absurd amount of money and resources. A lot of cool stuff came out of it, but nothing really compares to Katersfield's work.

It was three years after that when media went into a frenzy over a low-grade video of the mech doing cartwheels over the family farm. Fucking cartwheels, man. I can't even do those in my own body most days.

Every news ship went down there as quick as they could. A bunch of civilians, too. Granny says a board member actually showed up in person.

Everyone was immediately on Ann about it. She was the only one that really stayed on the farm. She knew the machinery well enough. And maybe she'd inherited the pilot skills of one of Katersfield's late spouses.

To the dismay of the board, Ann insisted that the pilot was Thoma, one of Will's children. The media went ballistic. Kids weren't even supposed to be piloting mechs in the first place.

Thoma gave an interview to their school teacher and described the sensation of piloting upside down as "even better than going all the way around the bar on a swing and then having Grandma's cookies with two scoops of ice cream!" Their wide grin with missing teeth was eventually made into metal-cards for soldiers to attach under their breast plates and remind them of home.

At some point, Ann made the mistake of admitting that she'd taken it out for a test-run while she was tuning up some joints (she hadn't been an engineer when this started. But things change).

The board came down hard. They publicly announced that Ann was the cartwheeling pilot, and further that she'd accepted a high raking military title with absurd honors and enough pay to buy a moon. They posted a date with a public countdown clock for her departure to the front lines.

Now the way Granny tells it; Ann didn't know about any of this until her neighbor came by with the milk and a congratulations. Granny would probably piss on the board if she still could. Don't let her try it.

Ann did go. She didn't have many options, really. Her bio-logs phrase the situation as "the board made a decision. I complied."

We pushed back the front by two whole planets. Ann wasn't much of a pilot; she spent too much time thinking, but the war pushed around her. Most of the time it only took a three second clip of her unnaturally smooth landing and quick gravity adjustment to a new planet. My old mech would take two minutes to land and readjust. A lot can happen in two minutes.

The official report says Ann died on Mitas 9. The board will probably censor this whole damn thing if I try to explain what happened, but just remember that official reports are. Well. Official.

The mech was commandeered immediately. They cleaned it up, threw on a new coat of paint, and put their highest ranking pilot in the hotseat.

Everyone was in a hurry to get back to it and have a plan ready before Ann's death was publicly announced. Yeru knew the schematics by heart and spent one month living with the mech every hour of every day to make up for lost time. The board went as far as making them legally exempt from standard reports. Yeru's bios were never made public, but you can pull them from the military archives in Section B. They clearly knew their way around a mech, and honestly seemed to be a good person as far as I can tell.

The board had seemingly learned from prior incidents. The Generals hosted a secluded military showing of the first test-run. Those archives are probably deleted, but all you really need to know is that Yeru never made it off the ground.

For a few months, the military looked into sabotage. Yeru's bio-post about the joints being "just plain creaky no matter how much I oil the thing" convinced a bunch of higher-ups that the mech had been swapped out or something.

I know. Creating a whole fake mech to replace it with? Somehow managing to swap the thing out with as much board, military, and media surveillance as it has? Absurd.

Also I'm sure you're well aware that plenty of good mechs have creaky joints. I hear you ran Sacrifice 2 for a while there. Lt. Jen complained about how loud that thing was for months after he shared a hangar with it near Osylus. Not sure if that was your time or not. I'm going to tell him it was, so he'll have something to complain to you about. When he does, ask him about the wardrobe cloning incident. I'm sure he'll know what you're talking about.

Anyways.

The news about Ann went public, and the board pushed it down the feeds with reports about a new Stealth Carrier that would move faster than a pilot-ship. It did. Everyone loved it. I'm sure it's shit compared to the last carrier you were on.

Thoma, meanwhile, had grown up and gotten their way through military school. It might seem strange to you now, but Thoma actually didn't touch a mech the first decade of their service. They had a few friends and plenty worshipers, but still hadn't officially earned enough stripes to be a pilot. The Generals wanted to make sure Thoma was knocked down enough to keep from getting big-headed about it. But Thoma didn't really care.

Thoma fought hard and studied harder. They proved themselves again and again. You can look up the public records of their medal-acceptance speeches. Every damn time they would say "This is a great honor. Can I trade it in for a mech?"

Pissed a lot of people off, but it was fucking hilarious if you ask me.

Eventually Thoma led a fairly large squadron and took a half a continent in a week. When I asked them about it, they said they had sent a text message to the Generals saying "I could've gotten all of it, if I had my own mech :,(". I know them well enough to know they probably actually sent a frowny-face emoji to the Generals. Don't do that. It's hilarious. But, Don't.

Probably.

For now, anyways.

The board reluctantly let Thoma break the mech out of some museum somewhere as a reward for their service. They weren't intending for Thoma to actually run as a pilot since Thoma had already gotten to be in charge of things. It would be a media mess, at best, a military loss at worst.

Thoma did a fucking backflip over live media.

Anyways the board and the Generals argued about it for a week, but eventually did the only thing they could do. They made Thoma a pilot. There were lots of assurances that Thoma would still be holding their responsibilities as Planetary Sergeant. No one cared. Thoma had done a fucking backflip; the Katersfields were at it again.

I'm told that week of debate consisted of at least fifteen other pilots trying the mech out and reporting up failures of various kinds. Don't worry about that, you'll do fine.

I'm sure you know most of the story from there. Thoma took Belet 5 through Belet 11, and some other smaller planets along the way. Majestic. War hero. Idol. Etc etc.

The board immediately pushed Thoma’s son, Madene, into the military and straight into pilot's school. They make a lot of dumb decisions, but even the board could see the pattern here.

You might not have read this about me, but I used to be an electrician. I worked on Thoma's team for a while. The Generals gave Madene special permission to visit us sometimes so he could learn the mech hands-on. He'd always wanted to be an artist or a planetary refurbisher. That was clear from the first day we met.

I'll tell you this now, it's not part of public record: Madene ran the mech just fine when it was just us around. Thoma would give some long drawn-out speech about minding your manners and being careful with her. It was their Grandmother's soul in that machine, after all. Madene didn't really listen, but the mech ran just fine anyways.

When Madene was nearing graduation, the Generals sent their scouts around to see how things were going. The mech ran straight into their drones and fell convulsing onto the ground.

It was a hard time for a while, Thoma was upset with Madene and Madene was embarrassed. There were lots of arguments, and the Generals tried to pretend Madene just didn't have enough experience as a pilot. The idea that Madene did it on purpose didn't get recorded, but it's what a lot of people assumed. I don't think that's what happened, anyways.

Madene tried really hard after that. He pushed himself in school, and as a result they let him try out a bunch of other mechs. He proved he could handle it just as well as some of our better pilots. He took Entrapment marching around the school-system planet four times.

Thoma tore their knee in a pretty brutal fight, and since they were nearing retirement anyways the board arranged for a public hand-off of the mech.

I used to talk to her when I worked. My old pilot - the one I worked electricity for before Thoma - had always been superstitious about this sort've thing. She used to spend a good half-hour reassuring it before she's let me do any work on it. I guess I'd picked up the habit. You might want to pick it up, too, if you haven't already.

I'd asked her to help Madene out. He'd worked so hard and I could tell Thoma was slowing down.

You might have seen the media of that. Afterward Madene was particularly… verbal. Even if you didn't see that, I'm sure you heard about what happened to him after. Don't be too harsh on him, it's really not his fault. We were all too hard on him.

All the media says the Generals did a lot of research and realized I was better suited as a pilot and they shifted me over. How that actually happened was… well. A little boring.

One of their scouts had caught me helping her move over so I could get a better angle at the spinal wiring.

Blah blah blah. I'm sure you know the highlights from there.

So here's where we get to the advice that was the whole point of this message:

I admit the public eye is a little difficult to get used to. Honestly I recommend you just ignore it. They'll say shit no matter what you do.

Don't call her by the name the board gave her. I know that's what you learned in school and in training. Don't do it.

Don't piss her off.

Be patient - her memory isn't what it used to be.

Don't tell her what to do. I read your file, you have a lot of experience. I know this will be the hard part.

If the mediacom switches to one of those awful family gameshows. Just. Let it happen. No, they do not get less annoying to listen to. Yes, she knows they're all the same.

The internal heating will be On when you're on any below-regulation temperature planet. I know you're from the outer colonies. I know that will be too warm for you. Get over it and try not to dress down too much; she's easier to maneuver when you're in layers.

The one exception to the above is her tune-ups and maintenance. She doesn't like it. She never does. We have four crews to make it easier and I still do it myself sometimes to help her get over it. You're going to have to get good at negotiating.

If you leave a battle with a sudden craving in your neurons for hot and hearty soup, go get some hot and hearty soup. She'll get stubborn with you next time if you don't.

Granny will take care of you from there.

-Captain Layfar

[uweiy]

Thank you for sending it in !

94. "I want you. All of you. And not just half heartedly, wholly. And maybe that's selfish but I don't care."

"Thanks for the tea. I shall see myself out"

Jiang Cheng stands up from the pillow he was, admittedly slouched on.

It's already night time, and raindrops are drumming against the windows of the Hanshi continuously.

"Sect Leader Jiang, you're going to catch a cold if you go out like this."

"Phah. What's a little rainwater compared to drenching oneself in Yunmeng's lakes."

Xichen chuckles and hands him an umbrella. "Even you are not immune to illness, oh so great Sect Leader Jiang."

Jiang Cheng opens it as he steps on the porch. The rain really is pouring. He feels a hand softly settle on his elbow.

"You're leaving tomorrow, If I'm not mistaken ?" the other asks, but Jiang Cheng hears the unspoken question.

"I'll drop by before we leave. My useless nephew is thrilled to spend time with his friends so we'll probably be leaving in the afternoon. Plus," he adds "I have to bring this back to you" he raises his eyes to the umbrella.

"I see. It will be my pleasure." Xichen smiles a little.

He drops his arm and Jiang Cheng turns to face him fully. For a moment, Jiang Cheng debates whether to kiss him good night or not.

He doesn't know if Xichen notices his intention, but the other seems to draw closer, before he retreats swiftly into his chamber. "Good night Sect leader Jiang."

Okay then.

"See you around"

___

Between Sect meetings, Jin ling wanting to spend time with Shizui, Shizui wanting to spend time with Jin Ling, Jiang Cheng finds himself around Xichen a LOT. They talk even more, If you count their numerous written exchanges.

Even now, he's sitting at his father's desk, his family's residence almost empty save for the domestics and he's, like ever so often writing Xichen a letter.

" ....As for the matter you asked me to look into... I have taken care of it.

Once the official business is out of the way, Jiang Cheng answers the more personal questions.

It's rain season here too and it tones out the bustle of the streets a little. It almost feels like it can wash away the atrocities of the past doesn't it ?

But I can still see them. Sometimes I come across marks the Wens have left during their stay here and it makes me want to burn the whole place to the ground and rebuild it anew.

The palace is empty, and yet it feels suffocating.

This was too gloomy an answer to "how are you doing". But he didn't have it in him to lie anymore, to himself, or to Xichen.

I really don't understand what you find so fascinating about me.

"You're fascinating." Xichen had said to him once

At least the food is still better than in your cloud recess. I SWEAR If there is another rule added on that goddamn wall about restricting SPICE I won't visit you with Jin Ling anymore.

That's a lie. For one, Jin Ling does not need him to go to cloud recess but it gives Jiang Cheng a good reason to go. Secondly even if a thousand rules were added he'd still drop by.

He wants to drop by sometime in the coming months by the way.

Jiang Cheng writes, because it's a question Xichen never fails to ask

How's your painting coming along ?

Don't forget to eat or I'll really find someone to watch over you. And since there are no nannies available, you'd have to deal with my brother or that Jingyi kid eight hours a day.

Look at the rain and think of me, as I do of you.

love you

Xichen wrote stuff like that too sometimes. But when it came from Jiang Cheng, he mostly deflected.

Jiang Cheng had once tried writing about how he felt calmer when Xichen was around, if he recalled correctly and it really hadn't been easy for him.

Xichen had simply replied something along the lines of "oh yeah, the weather in cloud recess does wonders for the mind". The weather.

Jiang Cheng doesn't want to be ignored if he asks the questions burning in his mind. "what exactly is it that you want from me ?" "who am I to you ?"

(You know who this is but still, I'll sign)

Jiang Cheng

He writes instead.

Despite that, He wishes there was a way he could recieve the answers to his letters immediately. Xichen's replies are often insightful but... well, they answer to a state of mind he's had days, weeks ago when he receives them.

If they could talk in person, that would be nice, too.

___

The next time he goes to Gusu it's spring. He's accompanying Xichen outside on one of the rare occasions he leaves the Hanshi.

Their brothers' wedding is right around the corner so they get talking about that topic.

"it is customary to end the ceremony with a dance. It looks like this– "

Xichen takes Jiang Chengs's hand in his. He takes one step backwards, and Jiang Cheng follows, led by the gentle pressure of his hand.

He exectues the next steps quite poorly, but Xichen doesn't seem to mind. Then Xichen detaches from him, light as a feather, his arm loosely stretched towards where their fingertips were touching a minute ago.

He executes graceful bows on his own, his blue clothes moving along like air, before he captures Jiang Cheng's hand again and draws him nearer.

Their foreheads are almost touching. Xichen looks directly at him with that clear gaze of his and Jiang Cheng feels completely exposed.

"What about you ?" Jiang Cheng chokes out "You probably have a lot of candidates right under your nose–" he tries

"Sect leader Jiang."Xichen cuts in. He smiles sweetly but it doesn't reach his eyes "I don't think I'd be suitable for anyone. Please excuse me"

It's always like this. Everytime he thinks they might finally, finally do something about the tension between them, Xichen weasels his way out, slipping through Jiang Cheng's fingers like water.

Not this time.

He catches Xichen's wrist as the other already strides away from him.

It's not like he doesn't understand putting his trust in the wrong people, and then protecting whatever is left of your heart by any means possible. Jiang Cheng chose anger, Xichen chose avoidance. But Jiang Cheng isn't "wrong people". Well, he hopes he isn't, this time.

"Okay listen. You want me to stay but push me away when I get too close. I write a sincere letter and you answer about the WEATHER. We only talk about business once in a blue moon and yet you call me Sect Leader Jiang. " He almost shrieks.

He knows he's pushing but he's tired or half saids and empty hopes. He's had enough of these for one liftime.

"I know you look at me when you think I can't see you. You're hurting and you think you have to deal with your pain and...and hopelessness alone but you don't."

Maybe Jiang Cheng should have stopped trying to be more than friends ages ago. Maybe Xichen just enjoys the comforting presence. But then he seems to want more and then again he doesn't and it drives Jiang Cheng crazy.

But he can't be SURE so the only thing he can do is lay his own heart on the table and have Xichen decide what to do with it, once and for all.

"I want you. All of you. And not just half heartedly, wholly. And maybe that's selfish but I can't help it."

He probably should give Xichen another option. Tell him " I understand. We can remain friends, take the time you need to heal your scars." But he doesn't want to. He knows he can shoulder them too, if Xichen lets him.

"If my words aren't clear enough i'll rephrase. I love you. I love you. I lo-"

"Please stop" Xichen catches hold of the folds in Jiang Cheng's clothes.

His voice is hoarse, barely a whisper and he sounds so broken. "I don't deserve it."

"Tell me you don't feel the same and I'll stop bothering you."

Xichen just stares at him.

"Say it !"

" I can't ! " He's still clutching Jiang Cheng desperately. His head thuds against Jiang Cheng's chest, and he starts sobbing, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably.

Jiang Cheng lets him, holding him there.

When Xichen finally calms down he answers without looking up "I can't say it because it's not true. I am just, terribly, terribly afraid. My apologies."

Relief floods over Jiang Cheng. He forgets to breathe.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I promise"

___

Not much changes afterwards. Neither of them magically get better. Jiang Cheng still has his own thoughts sect to manage, they still write each other letters and he still visits Lan Xichen in seclusion. Some days are better than others though, and they help each other through the bad ones.

"Thanks for the tea" Jiang Cheng says. It's one of their rituals when he visits the Hanshi now.

Xichen–sprawled against him reading a book–doesn't budge.

"Move. I have to go" he nudges Xichen with his shoulder, since he can't use his arms too busy holding them both upright.

"You're mean Sect leader Jiang."

Jiang Cheng shoves him off this time.

"Fine Fine." Xichen lets himself roll on the floor before he gets up and helps Jiang Cheng to his feet. Jiang Cheng still can't feel his arms.

He steps out on the porch. It's a clear night and the crescent of the moon shines among the stars. He turns his head to bid Xichen good night.

He barely has time to register what's happening when two hands grab him by the collar and suddenly Xichen kisses him. Xichen kisses him and it's everything and more than Jiang Cheng has ever dared to dream of.

"Good night Wanyin" Xichen smiles when they part, a bit breathless.

"See you around" Jiang Cheng smiles too.

They'll be alright.

A.N : maybe you were expecting fluff but ... Oh well lmao

It was Soo hard to write ?? Like I had the core down pretty Soon but I kept changing stuff.

I wanted to make it clear that Xichen kinda wanted that too, and not just a friend but ugh it wasn't easy

[fallenhero-rebirth]

Hi! :-) I'm pretty bad at reading between the lines and understanding subtext, especially since English isn't my first language, so I thought it'd be easier to ask: when did The Big One happen? Was the world previous to that 'normal' (similar to ours)? What exactly did they do to MC at the farm? What, exactly, is a regene? Sorry for so many Q's, lol. I really love Fallen Hero but I feel like I'm missing a lot of information, or maybe not all of it has been published yet. Gr8 work! 🖤

The world before that was not entirely like ours, it diverged around 1900 or so. If our world focused a lot on the space race, atomic power, atomic bombs, getting to the moon, flight, satellites and things like that, the FH world focused a lot more on medical tech and what we would call cyborg tech. It’s behind on things like cellphones and the internet (think mid nineties for that) and we never went to the moon. Putting the new and updated timeline below.

A ReGene is a vat-grown body implanted with an artificial intelligence mind. They tend to be boosted in various ways, and subject to intense modifications since they have no rights, they tend to be used for experimental new technologies. If they die, they just grow more.

What the MC did at the Farm is spoilers.

History of the Fallen Hero world.

1945: World War II ends, but the technological arms race continues. The United States and the Soviet Union both 'recruit' available German and Japanese scientists, taking full advantage of what they learned from the more unconscionable experiments during the war.

1951: The Korean War very nearly turns nuclear when the first Chinese Type 52 bipedal tanks help push the UN forces out of the mountains and nearly out of the country. Though clumsy and slow, they prove to be useful in the mountainous terrain, leading to an upswing in the power armor industry.

1955: The Soviet Union announces that it has successfully created the first functional, cybernetic limb replacement. This is widely considered the start of the Cyber Race.

1957: The Soviet Union manages to successfully interface man and machine, leading to a quantum leap in power armor technology as bipedal movement patterns become a lot more organic.

1960's: The US repeatedly releases new versions of its power armor suits as the Vietnam war rages, the lighter, more maneuverable armors being more suitable for the terrain. Various upgrades for soldiers are becoming more and more common, and the nickname 'Mods' is coined for those changed by the cybernetic implants.

1968: The first so-called 'Masked Heroes' appear in public, Modded veterans from the Vietnam war angered by their treatment at the hands of the government and the public. Very soon afterwards, new villains also take to the stage, and the police find it increasingly difficult to deal with disturbed people who have military training and equipment.

1971: A metabolic diet pill launched without proper product testing turns out to have uncommon and dangerous side effects. Though most users die or are crippled, a certain lucky few develop powers hitherto unseen in humans. The pill is quickly nicknamed the 'Hero Drug' and though it is pulled off the market, use and research continues. People who have gained powers are nicknamed 'Boosts' in the media.

1976: The Hero Drug is declared an illegal narcotic, banned after causing the deaths of untold thousands of people. Still, the lure is too strong, and research moves underground and behind securely-locked corporate doors.

1979: Wei Chen, who will later be known to the public as Marshal Steel, is born.

1980: The Year of Hell. The Big One hits the West Coast, and the San Andreas fault causes a massive earthquake to strike Los Angeles, which triggers the Cascadia subduction zone a few days later. The massive earthquake and resulting tsunami throws the whole West Coast into disarray with more than 150,000 estimated dead and missing. As if this was not enough, three months later the Mammoth Lake volcanic system reawakens, and the resulting eruption destroys any hope of quickly salvaging the west.

1980-1990: Aftershocks ravage the West Coast, halting any rebuilding effort. Little by little rebuilding turns to evacuation, all efforts being put into getting the Midwest back on its feet to regain a stable food supply. Food riots are common and several armed uprisings against the increasingly-authoritarian government are struck down by the military.

1981: The US government is nearly paralyzed by refugees as well as the rain of ash covering most of the Midwest. President Clark declares martial law.

1982: ${ortega_name} Ortega, also known as Charge, is born.

1984: Los Angeles is renamed 'Los Diablos' in 'The Angels of Los Diablos,' a famous documentary about the rescue efforts.

1986: The GeniTech corporation patents the creation of lab-grown stem cell organs, revolutionizing the transplant industry.

Late 80s: Estimated birth of ${name} ${surname}, later known as Sidestep.

Early 90s: Fed up with the suffocating yoke of the federal government and martial law, more and more people start moving back into the ruins of the west, starting the recolonization. A disproportionate amount of these people are Enhanced heroes and villains, both Mods and Boosts fleeing government control.

1992: In an effort to increase private industry investments, the West Coast is declared a free economic zone, where there will only be the bare minimum of federal government oversight. No taxes. No regulations.

1992: The GeniTech corporation patents whole-body stem cell clones, allowing for large-scale harvesting of replacement organs. Following a tumultuous debate about the ethics involved, GeniTech is one of the first companies to move their corporate headquarters to Los Diablos to escape regulation.

1993: The Re-Gene project is first revealed in a New York Times article, claiming it dates back to the seventies with the goal of making androids for use in war. The author, Tim Mazetti, was killed in a traffic accident soon afterwards. The future Ranger, Lady Argent, is born.

1996: Los Diablos is up and running: the first Mayor is elected, and it is starting to look more and more like a functional city. With the huge changes to the coastline, large tracts of the South Bay are abandoned and the city shuffles inland. The future Ranger, Herald, is born. Chen drops out of high school.

1997: Appalled at the lack of law and order in the free economic zone, or the FEZ as people call it, the newly-elected President Ross creates the Marshal system. Recruiting some of the most famous masked heroes of the region, he funds the 'Rangers' initiative in order to stem the worst excesses of the Enhanced populace. Chen joins the army, gets a boyfriend. Mount Hood is one of the founding members of the Los Diablos Rangers, as is Sentinel.

1998: Chen is deployed overseas, SE Asia. Sentinel joins the Rangers.

1999: A breakthrough in energy technology leads to the first plasma reactors, leading to ever more compact cybernetics. Hollow Ground self-declares as the kingpin of Los Diablos. Chen's boyfriend is killed. Chen has an accident with an IED and loses his hands. His body proves to handle mods well, so apart from his hands the army invests in an access port for armor interface as well. Ortega has their accident and is used as a test subject for their cutting edge electrical mods and spinal column. Chen and Ortega meet in the hospital during rehab. Mount Hood becomes Marshal Hood of the Rangers.

2000: Intent on regaining lost influence, the US flexes its muscles in the Middle East. This leads to a series of proxy wars with the ailing Soviet Union. Chen gets deployed there, now piloting an armored suit instead of a helicopter. The first known sighting of a Re-Gene on the battlefield. Chen sees Re-Genes on the battlefield. Ortega debuts as Charge, sponsored by a military subcontractor because they want to see how the mods perform.

2001: Steel is sick of the army and what they are doing abroad. He has racked up enough commendations that he's considered a suitable candidate for the Rangers, equipped with a new, shiny armor. Meets up with Ortega again when they are both in for surgery upgrades, and Chen talks him into signing up for the Rangers. Ortega's father dies.

2002: Ortega joins the Rangers. Sentinel officially starts to transition, there's a lot of controversy that Hood shuts down. Sentinel is not fired.

2004: A huge scandal rocks the Re-Gene project after its operatives are suspected of human rights abuses in another proxy war in Panama. It is never brought to court as the Re-Genes themselves are androids with artificial minds, but the scandal moves the project back underground where it has remained ever since.

2005: The Special Directive is formed, rumored to be a black-ops strike team of Re-Genes, deployed against anyone deemed dangerous enough by the government.

2006: Anathema joins the Rangers. The Rangers team up with the Special Directive for a mission. It does not go frictionless.

2007: Ortega is promoted to Marshal after the death of Marshal Hood at the hands of Hollow Ground. Sunstream joins the Rangers.

2008: Sidestep debuts as a vigilante. Charge and Sidestep meet for the first time.

2009: Psychopathor is the villain headliner of that year until finally put to a stop by the Rangers and Sidestep. Dr. Mortum and the Vitruvian are active as villains, but not high key threats enough to be a target for the Rangers.

2010: The Catastrofiend goes on a year long rampage, tearing through the Marshal before disappearing again, a pattern that will be repeated over the years. Ashfall works closely with the Rangers, becoming another associate.

2011: Los Diablos is hit by the Nanosurge, a runaway nano-weapon devouring all flesh before it is contained by an alliance of heroes led by the Rangers. Sidestep plays a vital part in its defeat. Herald takes the hero drug and survives the boosting process. Psychopathor escapes. Sunstream quits the Rangers and disappears soon afterwards.

2012: The Void is looking to expand their Santa Ana territory into Los Diablos, and the Rangers strike back, leading to a final showdown in the southeast deserts.  Herald moves to Los Diablos. Dr. Mortum retires from active villain life, focusing on research.

2013: The Heartbreak incident occurs. Sidestep and Anathema are believed to be killed in action. Ortega retires as Marshal and hero, replaced by Steel. Sentinel and Herald meet.

2014: Ortega returns from retirement, joining the Rangers once more as Charge. Steel loses both his legs when he's nearly crushed under a building in the battle against the Catastrofiend that has resurfaced. The Catastrofiend gets securely locked up. Herald gets his first sponsorship (and name) as a corporate hero. Herald debits as a vigilante under a different name.

2015: Lady Argent debuts as a vigilante in San Francisco. Herald gets hired as a corporate hero, and gets his hero name.

2016: Lady Argent joins the Rangers. Steel nearly gets assassinated, losing an arm in the process. Sentinel retires. The Catastrofiend escapes, but disappears after a mercifully short rampage.

2017: The MC returns to Los Diablos under an assumed identity.

2018: Herald joins the Rangers.

2020: The events of Rebirth.

2021: The events of Retribution (the next book)

[a-really-big-cat]

So this is apparently my mother’s opinion on what is going on in the election. I don’t want to read it rn because I figure it’s going to make me angry and think my own mother is a gullible idiot. And I’m already frustrated and angry and I feel uncharitable so feel free to read it on my behalf.

November 4, 2020 (Wednesday)

Counting continues in the 2020 presidential race. There is a lot I’d like to say about what this election looks like, but I will wait until we have a final count. Remember: the fact that polling officials are taking time to count the ballots is a good thing, not a bad one. And there is no reason to think election officials are being anything but careful.

Apart from the vote tallies, there have been some important indicators in the past two days about our political system.

First of all, much of Trump’s power during his term has come from his ability to dominate the public narrative through threats or rumors. From his insistence that he had hired detectives to investigate President Obama’s birth certificate, through Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails and Hunter Biden’s laptop, he has gathered power by warning that something untoward was looming just over the horizon. But yesterday, after all the hype about expected violence at the polls, there was remarkably little trouble.

Trump's attempt to control politics by controlling the narrative continued early this morning, as the Department of Justice sent an email to federal prosecutors telling them that, while the law prohibits sending armed federal officers to polling places, it did authorize them to monitor “voting fraud” by sending armed federal officers to the places where election officials were counting ballots. About a half hour later, Trump called a press conference in which he declared victory and claimed that the ongoing counting of legally cast ballots must be stopped. Counting the ballots, he said, was the Democrats’ attempt to “steal the election.”

But Trump’s power is wavering, and he can no longer control the narrative. As he spoke, NBC News and MSNBC cut in to note that he was lying. After he finished, other media outlets also pushed back. On ABC News, Terry Moran said: “This isn’t law, this isn’t politics, this is theater,” Moran said. “And let’s be blunt: it’s the theater of authoritarianism.” Throughout the day, Trump tweeted angrily about the on-going counting of ballots; Twitter hid many of the tweets behind warnings that they were spreading disinformation.

Republican leaders have been surprisingly quick to turn on the president. Last night, the Fox News Channel was the first to call the state of Arizona for Democratic candidate Joe Biden which, according to Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair, led Trump to call Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Fox News Channel, to demand a retraction. Murdoch, who has said for months that Trump would lose the election, refused.

Today, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters that “claiming you’ve won the election is different from finishing the counting.” Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who caught the coronavirus when he helped to prepare Trump for the first presidential debate, told ABC News, “There’s just no basis to make that argument…. There just isn’t. All these votes have to be counted that are in now.” Among others, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, Republicans all, echoed McConnell and Christie.

Still, last night Trump’s campaign sent out an estimated 9 million texts to his followers claiming the election had been stolen and asking for money for lawsuits to fight the apparent outcome. Today, Trump and his supporters flooded Twitter and Facebook attacking election results, prompting critics to urge the social media outlets either to take down the posts or to shut down the accounts spreading the disinformation.

The Trump team’s tactic appears to have worked, though. Today, Trump supporters gathered outside the TCF Center in Detroit, a city that is 79% Black, to complain that there aren’t enough Republican poll watchers to oversee the ballot counting, which they think is tilting artificially toward Biden. Tonight, supporters gathered outside Arizona's Maricopa County Elections Office, where election officials are counting ballots, yelling “count those votes!”

The officials are, indeed, counting the votes. And U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., is following up on the failure of the United States Postal Service to comply with his order to make sure no ballot was left in a USPS plant on Tuesday. Sullivan made the order after civil rights groups learned that 300,000 ballots had been scanned into processing facilities but not out of them. After 5:00 on Tuesday, an attorney for the Justice Department told Sullivan that the USPS had its own system and thus would not comply with the order.

Today, Sullivan brought USPS officials into a hearing to explain their actions. The official in charge of handling ballot processing, Kevin Bray, told Sullivan that the lack of an outgoing scan on the ballots likely meant they had been removed by hand for faster delivery. He could not tell Sullivan how many ballots are still in the system. Sullivan ordered him to provide that data by 9:00 tomorrow morning. The hearing will resume at 11:00.

For his part, Biden, along with running mate Senator Kamala Harris, gave a brief statement today celebrating yesterday's demonstration of American democracy and praising the 150 million people who voted in the election despite the pandemic. "Here," he said, "the people rule." He explained that he was not claiming victory- yet- but that he and Harris expected that when the votes were counted, they would win. He called for Americans to lower the temperature and come together as a nation. "We are not enemies," he said, and "the presidency itself is not a partisan institution. It's the one office, in this nation, that represents everyone." He reminded listeners that counting ballots was at the heart of our democracy. "We the people will not be silenced. We the people will not be bullied."

Another news story dropped quietly yesterday while people were distracted with the election. The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security issued a report challenging Acting Director Chad Wolf’s actions this summer when he sent law enforcement officers from the department to Portland, Oregon. The report challenged the deployments’ legality on a number of fronts, and concluded that the issue is open, unresolved, and urgent. The Department of Homeland Security’s top attorney, Chad Mizelle, an ally of senior White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, rejects the inspector general’s findings.

Trump insisted in his campaign rallies that stories about coronavirus were simply attacks on his candidacy, and on November 4 we would no longer hear about the pandemic. Sadly, today brought us not to silence, but to a new record: the U.S. had more than 100,000 new infections today. At slightly before 7 pm EST tonight, the number was 104,004 cases. Infections are spiking, and public health officials expect the rise will continue unless we address it.

[anexplanationofunfortunateevents]

a post about the Democratic primary, which I did not enjoy writing

I haven’t talked about the Democratic primary here for a couple of reasons. I think that wrapping our minds about what Trump is doing in power – and what he and his backers did to get him that power – is a lot more important than any campaign tactic his eventual Democratic opponent can use, or even who the Democratic candidate is. I don’t even know who I’ll be voting for myself.

What I do know is that above all other issues, I’ll be voting on democratic values. That includes more conventional voting rights and election integrity issues that we’re used to discussing in American politics. It’s also about pounding the brakes on democratic backsliding at home, and giving institutional and moral support to people around the world who want the same. If we make enough progress on this issue, we can make enormous strides on other progressive priorities. If we don’t turn back this authoritarian tide, we will lose on everything else.  

And on my #1 issue, I’ve developed serious concerns about Senator Bernie Sanders.

This is a long post because it’s an attempt to articulate an uncomfortable pattern which requires a lot of context, but I hope you’ll take the time to read it, so let me assure you of a few things it’s not:

Concerns about Sanders seem to be collapsed into “is he as extreme and irrational a leftist as Trump is a right-winger” or “is he too kooky to win an election.” I’m not doing either of those. There is an argument out there that Sanders is too far to the left on policy. I’m … really not the person to do that argument justice. There’s an argument that, whether or not you like his policies, he would have a harder time winning a national election in a year that Democrats cannot afford any more disadvantages. I think this election really is going to be won or lost by the voters choosing to accept or reject Trumpistani autocracy, but it’s entirely responsible to consider that kind of thing. I have a substantive concern about Bernie Sanders, not because I oppose progressives but because I am a progressive, and I don’t pretend to have any insight into how it might affect his chances of winning a general election.

I don’t care a whole lot about what Senator Sanders feels in his heart or whatever. I tend to think this is more about being misguided than malicious, but that’s not make or break for the pattern I’m trying to describe.

I’m not trying to endorse someone else by process of elimination; like I said, I haven’t decided yet who I’m voting for myself.

I’m old enough to remember four years ago when only a few nerds had ever heard of superdelegates. Superdelegates, or unpledged delegates, are party activists and officials who get to vote at the convention along with the pledged delegates who are assigned in the state primary contests. They’re the backup plan put in place after the clusterfuck of 1968. We also got better at avoiding clusterfucks after 1968, so they weren’t an issue. Until 2016, when Sanders decided they were an issue for him because he was going to lose the old-fashioned way, and “superdelegates” were a convenient boogeyman he could use to turn progressives against the Democratic party. Then his campaign successfully talked itself into believing that this conspiracy theory about superdelegates going against the voters, so they started arguing that the superdelegates should take the nomination away from the winner and give it to him. This was always a pipe dream, but it did inspire Sanders supporters to dox a bunch of counterrevolutionary elected officials and progressive activists. Remember, he’s a member of the Senate Democratic caucus, so he’s talking all this shit as a superdelegate.

The sore losering only helped Donald Trump and his Russian backers, but it was delegitimizing enough that the Democratic National Committee felt pressured to revamp the presidential nomination process. Thus, a “unity” committee was formed to placate the feelings of those who were implacably infuriated that the person with the most votes had won the nomination. (The Republicans, whose party processes had allowed an unqualified, unstable, ideologically unreliable foreign asset to take over, made no such alterations.) The big concession on superdelegates is that they don’t vote on the first ballot. If someone wins a majority, then they win the nomination. If nobody gets a majority, then there’s a second vote where the pledged delegates are released and the superdelegates also get a say.

Presumably because pro-Sanders activists were so instrumental in drafting the new rules, they were all set to start gaming those rules before voting began. In early January, when it was assumed that former Vice President Biden would win more delegates than anyone else but come up short of a majority, groups supporting Sanders floated the idea that Warren’s delegates should be ready to join Sanders, or vice versa. The reasoning was that a vote for Warren or Sanders should be considered a vote for what they considered the relatively progressive wing of the Democratic party, and therefore pooling the two candidate’s votes together would represent the will of the electorate. Six weeks later, with Sanders having eked out a plurality in a few early states – more delegates than anyone else, but nowhere near a majority, and losing the popular vote – he’s out here warning that it would be very, very bad for everybody if the person who wins the plurality isn’t guaranteed to win the nomination. If 66% of voters split between two “establishment” candidates, well, that 34% who voted for the “anti-establishment” Sanders better get their way, or the party gets it!1

Sanders representatives also insisted states be allowed to keep holding undemocratic caucuses – until he was outplayed in the Iowa delegate count, at which point they realized the establishment $hills had been right about voter suppression being bad.

Look, real talk, small-d democracy is about trying to do what the voters want. If Sanders stays exactly where he is in the polls – winning a plurality of delegates with only about 1/3 of the voters – he will be getting a lot less support than he did in 2016. When he lost by a whopping 12-point margin, despite being propped up by the Kremlin, the Koch brothers, and thousands of years of patriarchy. If these trends hold (and they might not!) Democratic voters, who are the voters most likely to support his policies, do not want him. So – and I’m editorializing a little bit in this final assessment – spare me.

America is a big country and the Democratic Party is a broad coalition. There are going to be good arguments for and against a lot of different ways to pick a presidential nominee, but a key part of doing it as fairly as possible is to choose the rules beforehand and then stick to them. Campaigns making the best case for their candidate isn’t a bad thing, and a politician being able to change their mind is a good thing. But Sanders whips his supporters up with sweeping claims about the legitimacy of the process – until the opposite claim looks like it might be advantageous to him, at which point his campaign completely reverses itself on whether or not the rules of the election are fair. This is not acceptable. We cannot be playing this game when we are trying to defend the legitimacy of democracy itself against the most powerful person in the world.

On its own, I’d find that frustrating. But once a frustration starts overlapping with a genuine national security issue, it stops being a frustration and starts being a serious concern.

Senator Sanders was informed a month before the Nevada caucuses that the Russian government was supporting his campaign. Again. We still don’t know what kind of support they were giving him, though it’s probably more or less what they were doing in 2016 – pushing propaganda and making it harder for people to have productive discussions about the primary. He didn’t say anything about it, except to obliquely reference Russian trolls when he was challenged on the debate stage about some of his supporters being abusive online. (We’ll come back to that one.)

When this story broke, as it clearly would, Sanders reacted by attacking the newspaper. He claimed that the briefing his campaign received was classified, which a) it is unlikely to have been properly classified, which he would’ve known if he’d tried to work out a way to go public and b) didn’t stop him from using some of that information to his advantage during a debate. His campaign went around crowing about these great victories where he squeaked out pluralities knowing that those victories were tainted by a foreign government helping him and/or sabotaging his competitors. (Meanwhile, these competitors were not even told that they were at risk.)

He responded similarly to the Russian support he received in 2016. He failed to educate his supporters about the seriousness of the attack as it was happening. When asked later, he begrudgingly admitted to having known about it, falsely claimed to have tried to alert the Clinton campaign, and attempted to deflect criticism by literally blaming the victim. Admitting that he lost despite benefiting from the criminal sabotage of his opponent, rather than because he was the victim of some nefarious party establishment conspiracy, would have damaged the story he tells voters and been a blow to his ego.

Because he chose to deflect rather than face the issue, he has never dealt with the ways that the ways that the Russian attack probably did poison his movement. Nobody else has really wanted to deal with it either, so I’ll stipulate that this is my opinion, but I think it makes sense.

There is a qualitative difference between what Sanders tries to communicate to people and what his supporters do in response. I do not believe that Sanders wanted his supporters to vote for Trump, stay home, or discourage others from voting in 2016. I do not believe he wanted progressive organizers to be inundated with death threats. I do not think he wants people like anti-racist filmmaker Ava DuVernay or Parkland parent Fred Guttenberg to be swarmed with abuse online. I sincerely believe that if you hooked Sanders up to a lie detector, he would say that’s bad stuff and he doesn’t want any of it, and I am not inclined to be overly generous to Senator Sanders.

And yet it keeps happening, and it can’t just be blamed on Russian bots. Real people physically showed up in Philadelphia to heckle speakers at the convention in 2016. Abusive phone calls to perceived establishment enemies of Sanders really do slow down after he explicitly says he doesn’t want people to do that – which means that he dissuaded real people, who started down that ugly path because they thought it was what he wanted. There is an observable mismatch between what is being said and what is being heard. Something is jamming the signal.

Jamming the signal, incidentally, requires exactly the kind of stuff that troll farms do best. Post “edgy” guillotine memes and see who bites. Flood brutal criticism of mainstream Democrats with applause. When ostensible leftists use their independent platforms to spread disinformation or even just nastiness, toss a few coins in their Patreon – they don’t have to know they’re working for you, they just have to learn that pushing the envelope is profitable. Shout down even mild criticism by spamming it with garbage, so that skeptics withdraw or become defensive, while supporters internalize the idea that abuse is an acceptable response to dissent. Work hard enough to desensitize a campaign to that kind of behavior, and you might even get it to put a bunch of spiteful trolls in charge.

This is a theory, but I think it is the most likely theory. I certainly think it’s more persuasive than the alternatives, which are “those intelligence and disinformation professionals have spent the last few years shouting into the void and having no discernible effects on target populations, and also, all these people who say they’ve been hit with the exact type of toxicity that disinformation effort seems designed to provoke are actually all hallucinating and/or lying because the unbelievers of The Establishment(TM) are all conspiring to take Bernie down” and “this Russia thing is a fake news Democrat deep state witch hunt.”

I’m not saying I think Bernie Sanders is a Russian asset. I’m saying that the Russians seem to think he’s an asset to them.

The Sanders campaign has a complicated problem on its hands, and I don’t know what they should do about it. But it isn’t enough for Sanders to say “I don’t care who Putin is supporting.” It is his job as a United States senator who swore an oath to protect and defend the constitution to care about who Putin is supporting. It is his job as a presidential candidate to care enough to ask why Putin is supporting him. Even if he doesn’t care morally, he has to care politically, because plenty of voters care, and if he can’t give us an explanation we’re going to start trying to figure it out for ourselves.

Which makes it time to stop ducking the ugly question: why is Senator Sanders useful to people who are against everything he stands for?

Maybe, as the press and the Bloomberg campaign seem to think, whoever’s designing this strategy thinks Sanders is the most likely to lose to Trump, so of course they prefer him over the stronger competition. I hope they’re right. It would certainly be comforting to think that Trump’s Russian backers think we’re going to have a free and fair election based on how voters feel about the nominees, because it would mean they’re not relying on their ability to hack state boards of elections. And it would be comforting because the other possibilities get pretty depressing. Unfortunately, the Kremlin whisperers putting out this comforting explanation were also quite certain that the Russian government was just trying to cause chaos and didn’t have a preferred candidate in 2016 (they did), the Russian government only supported Trump because they hated Hillary Clinton (she’s not running and they’re still at it), that the propaganda campaign couldn’t have had an impact (it did), that the Russian government would never have attacked actual voting infrastructure because norms or whatever (lol) …. the mind-readers turn out to be big on the wishful thinking, is what I’m saying here.

Maybe it’s just a narrow convergence of policy. Sanders was one of only a small handful of legislators who voted against the Magnitsky sanctions that the Russian government is desperate to overturn. He failed to support further sanctions on Russia for the 2016 election interference – again, interference which helped his campaign. He’s called for neutralizing NATO against Russian aggression by letting Russia join. From the Russian government’s perspective, that’s as good as destroying it like Trump has been trying to help them do. Maybe those things are enough. I think those are bad positions and he should have to explain them. But he seems less committed to those things than Trump, who’s spent three years failing to deliver.

If four years of the Trump show have taught us anything, it’s that you can’t just write off the tinfoil hat conspiracy stuff; you have to acknowledge it and explain why it’s unlikely. So yes, it is theoretically possible that Russian intelligence believes they have some leverage over Sanders, either to manipulate him or to kneecap him at a moment they think is most advantageous to Trump. That doesn’t mean Senator Sanders has done anything wrong. It just means that there’s a bit of footage from when he visited the Soviet Union back in the day, and they might think they can use it to make a damaging deep fake. Personally, I think that’s pretty unlikely to be the motive here, because the cost-benefit analysis seems pretty thin, but we’re just trying to take a clear-eyed inventory about what’s possible.

A few hours after the Post broke the news about the Russian efforts to help him, his official Twitter account posted this:

I've got news for the Republican establishment. I've got news for the Democratic establishment. They can't stop us.

If you’ve been paying a bit of attention to Sanders you’re probably not too startled by that comment, which is exactly the problem. In a few short words, it boosts some of the most insidious narratives that pro-Trump propagandists have also been pushing over the past few years. It’s framed as a belligerent defiance of “party establishments” - AKA, those same American institutions that we know our adversaries want to destroy. It sets up a nihilistic false equivalence between the Democratic and Republican parties. In this little story, it’s Sanders up against shadowy forces and their conspiracy against him – he’s the real victim here, but also the center of the universe. (Sound like anyone else the Russian troll farms like?)

This tweet may or may not have been in direct response to the Washington Post’s breaking the story about Russian intelligence helping his campaign again, but the timing sure looks like a great American newspaper was being lumped in with the big, spooky “establishment” trying to “stop” Sanders. (A week and a half later, he’s still sore at the Post about something.) That, too, would fit a disturbing pattern of Sanders world’s relationship with critical press, or even with criticism in general. While all this was going on, there was a Daily Beast story about the kind of alarming behavior that seems to keep happening in pro-Sanders circles. A low-level staffer was running a gross Twitter feed that reflected badly on the campaign. The campaign responded to the story by taking out the trash, but supporters responded to the story by swarming the reporter and sharing pictures of his home address. This wasn’t surprising. If you dip into Democratic-leaning podcasts or cable news shows, it’s really common to hear people preface any criticism of Sanders with a semi-jokey “don’t yell at me on Twitter, guys!” or respond to someone else’s criticism with a rueful “RIP your menchies [Twitter inbox].” Journalists and political commentators know to expect disproportionate retribution when they criticize the Dear Leader. (Sound like anyone else the Russian troll farms like?)

Maybe you’re the kind of person who likes to give the benefit of the doubt. Couldn’t all that be  #ActuallyAboutEthicsInJournalism? I suppose a good test would be: what’s the response to negative feedback from a group of people, not just an individual who can be intimidated? And the answer is: conspiracy! Paid Protesters! Fake news, folks! That is not progressive, it is not healthy for our politics, and it’s exactly the kind of behavior that autocratic regimes around the world are always trying to normalize. Democrats, and all other small-d democrats, cannot start rewarding it.

That’s the context for this: Sanders has a long track record of defending authoritarian governments which call themselves socialist, communist, or otherwise leftist. Of course, authoritarian governments are more like gangster kleptocracies than “socialism” as Sanders sees it, but he just keeps rejecting opportunities to walk it back.

Too many progressive commentators with platforms have shrugged this off as some kooky Cold War thing that the media is blowing out of proportion, but it’s not just uptight Wall Street Journal opinion writers pushing back. A lot of Americans are Americans because their families ran for their lives from exactly these regimes. Five years of Latin American immigrants being Donald Trump’s favorite target, now we’re going to make people who fled Castro’s Cuba or Chavez’s Venezuela eat this shit sandwich? Mayor Pete Buttigieg was the first openly gay person running for the US presidency; was he supposed to add a bit in his stump speech about whether a dubious “literacy program” would help him in a concentration camp? The world is a complicated place where American leaders have to make hard decisions and don’t always get to work with nice people. That’s no excuse to be casual about rubbing salt in raw wounds.

I haven’t spent the past three years angry that Donald Trump fluffs up dictators because I’m looking for excuses to hate Donald Trump. Really, I’m good there. I’m angry about it because democracies are good and dictatorships are bad. When the American president is clear on that point, it really can make the lift just a little bit lighter for activists and freedom fighters and oppressed people doing the hard work of citizenship all over the world; when the American president fails to speak that truth, their work gets a little bit harder. I think their work is hard enough already.

You know that cliché about “Mussolini made the trains run on time”? It’s fascist propaganda. “Sure he locked up dissidents and inspired Hitler, but Infrastructure Week was a real success!” And he fucking didn’t even, because of course he didn’t, he was busy murdering everyone who could burst his narcissistic bubble. The Italian fascist regime polished up a few tourist-friendly routes and boasted to privileged visitors about how the trains were running on time. Then those visitors would go home with an innocuous sound bite to sanitize a brutal regime. Look, Prince Mohammad is letting women drive [and imprisoning the activists who made that a winning issue for him]! Sure, Putin is a heavy-handed old KGB guy, but he’s cracking down on corruption [as an excuse to imprison critics]. I’m not defending Castro, but hey, literacy program. Look, I’ve been to the Soviet Union, the bread lines didn’t look too bad on my guided tour!

Maybe the big money donors behind this Russian intelligence super PAC think Sanders will be susceptible to manipulation by their authoritarian regime because he keeps saying that he’s susceptible to manipulation by authoritarian regimes.

When someone seeking the United States presidency says that? Believe them.

I’m not saying Sanders is an aspiring dictator like Trump. I mean, I could be wrong, but that’s not my concern. A lot of politics is made up of civic habits. If we validate these tactics, we make bad habits that soften us up for a smart, focused Trump to come along in four or eight years. We can’t afford leadership that doesn’t understand, on a gut level, why those bad habits are dangerous.2

I’m not saying he’s the only flawed candidate on this issue, but he troubles me more than any candidate with even a slim path to the nomination. Representative Tulsi Gabbard is an exponentially more dangerous character – or at least she would be, if she somehow pulled ahead of “none of the above.” I have serious issues with former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg; I’m less concerned about those issues because people can criticize Bloomberg without anyone mocking them for having been raped.

Because I think democracy is the most important issue on the ballot, I’m not going to mislead you with false equivalence. Sanders would not be as bad on Trump on these issues. He would not be stacking the courts with right-wing judges who are overtly hostile to voting rights, he doesn’t stand to rake in cash by cozying up to autocratic regimes, and an administration which pays lip service to democratic values is preferable to an administration which is overtly hostile to them. A vote to reduce harm can be cast with a clear conscience. It’s still the primary, though, so we have the chance to cast a general election vote for real improvement rather than damage control.

If I haven’t convinced you of anything, fair enough. If I have convinced you that this pattern is serious enough to consider as you’re voting in this primary … this isn’t one of those posts where I try to wrap up with a concrete suggestion about something you can do, for obvious reasons. I have a suggestion about voting tactically, though. Primary delegates are awarded proportionately to every candidate who makes it over what’s called a viability threshold. Basically, a candidate who gets 15% of the vote wins something like 15% of the state’s delegates, while a candidate who gets 14% gets zero. A vote for someone with 3% support is a vote for whoever wins the state, whether you like that person or not. Check FiveThirtyEight to see which candidates are polling above 15% (preferably above 20% to get outside the margin of error) and then choose your favorite of those candidates.

1A good argument for this particular system is that it gives candidates two chances to prove that they can build a coalition, because that is something Democratic presidents need to do. You can win an outright majority going into the convention, which requires satisfying a lot of diverse groups of people. If nobody can do that, then the convention gives you another shot to show you can win people over. If you have a plurality then you have a head start. If you can’t get from a plurality to a majority, you probably shouldn’t be nominated, because you would be a shitty president.

2The topic of this post is democracy, not politics, so I don’t want to go too far into it, but I do want to shoot down the bullshit counterargument: “oh, blah blah, knife to a gun fight, Democrats are wimpy little girly-men who always play by the rules, Republicans are big strong daddies who understand power, blah blah.” Guys? Guys. You’re not going to out-shitpost the Republicans; they have unlimited money flowing into sophisticated propaganda machines. You’re not going to out-bully the fascists as a means to an end; bullying is the end for them and they have a lot more practice at it than we do. You don’t get into a pissing match with a drunk. IDGAF about sinking to their level, it’s about refusing to fight on their turf. We’re not going to win their game on their terms.

[carnal-agony]

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔊𝔬𝔡𝔡𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔬𝔣 𝔖𝔲𝔠𝔠𝔲𝔟𝔦, 𝔄𝔯𝔞𝔪𝔞𝔱𝔥 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔗𝔲𝔧𝔄𝔯𝔞

"𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚖, 𝙼𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚜, 𝙱𝚘𝚠 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚀𝚞𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐."

In light of my blog being revamped officially I am creating a Muse sheet for all of my mutual followers and silent worshipers. I won’t be going into immense detail about my Muse’s past/creation as I have had multiple threads that dissected every ounce of it including a few AU’s where her history was either less enticing or she was mortal. Stick around until the end for a special ‘shout-out’ for my partners who have helped shape my blog in one way or many. 

Bɾιҽϝ Hιʂƚσɾყ

Aramath and TüjArä are one of the same, they share a body, heart, and mind but not a soul. The Queen was not always split between good and evil, however, she was created as one being- a part from each Ancient that attended her Creation. With her being ‘born’ the mortal world was introduced to the power and weakness of Lust, the Goddess of Succubi, TüjArä. Although in the beginning of her history she was a cruel ruler who only wished for her children to divulge in the tasteful wants of the lesser species as well as going on massacres by their mother’s word.

Her world changed when the Goddess found what was at the root of all her lust- that being love. Don’t start smiling now, this isn’t a typical love story, matter of fact I wouldn’t consider it a love story at all. TüjArä fell in love with a viking and bared a half mortal child with this man- against every ruling of the Ancients that stated it was forbidden for a woman of pure lust to pursue. Knowing this, TüjArä stepped from her throne and above into the mortal world, hiding from those who wished to put her back into place. For six years she lived with those she loved, learning what it meant to have humility and compassion as a mortal would.

Aρρҽαɾαɳƈҽ; Vαɾιαɳƚʂ

In the original story I write Aramath rocks a crimson hairstyle, usually quite lengthy and wavy in previous cycles that was her iconic look. However after a long debate I had wrote her into isolation from those she learned to care for and in this she became immensely ill- the red of her hair fading until it became a ghastly platinum. It is very important to note that the original Aramath and the current one I am writing for both possess their own personality differences as well as differing internal conflict with TüjArä. 

Her body is covered head to toe in an array of stories about her existence as well as other oddities that come alive upon the command of her Oracle. Aramath is usually seen in black leather of all sorts, her style has toned down over the years but she is a rocker at heart, which is seen in various band tees and skull based clothing and jewelry. A few things stay the same however- the rings she wears each possess their own special abilities, ranging from her own internal power to the unique array of her kind, Oracle, and lovers. 

Wԋαƚ Gɾιɳԃʂ Hҽɾ Gҽαɾʂ

Aramath is a very tedious creature to write for, she is hot headed yet well tempered, childish at heart yet cold and stern mentally, and while she does not wish to end humanity anymore- that does not mean she is in love with humans. Most she can barely stand so she approaches with a bitter tongue and sharp wit, however when a very special few come to make her acquaintance they are met with soft smiles and the exposure of what a monster looks like when they are tamed. Humans are meat sacks to her, ones that have ruined the Earth they all inhabit due to their selfish ways and this mindset finds her at crossroads- she wishes to rid Mother Earth of the plaque that is humanity but that seems like a waste of good talent. Isn’t that a blessing in itself? 

Creatures on the other hand; God or grunt they always amuse Aramath as she sees them full of themselves- no exclusion to her dear friends either. Being around for most species creation has come with clear visions of what the creatures are, humanized or not they all have a sense of higher being in this world dominated by meat sacks. However depending on your class and how you act, Aramath might just consider you something worthy.

Wԋαƚ Tσ Exρҽƈƚ

Well for starters, expect the unexpected my dear children of the night. Aramath as tamed as she is has a thirst for violence and agony, it gives her a sense of life just seeing the simple fear of women when she snatches the attention of their partners. Although she tends to keep the violence to more of a sexual nature she isn’t hesitant to rip off a man’s crotch or sew a demon’s lips shut, all while taking her sweet time. Don’t be mistaken just because she is a succubus that she will sleep with anyone- that is far, far from the truth.

Aramath does not ‘sleep around’, she goes through a very emotional process to choose who enters her bed. This isn’t just for the sake of morality however, to take a succubus use to be a very primal and romantic thing as their kind does not necessarily need to lay with someone to feed. Those who are chosen as special tend to experience hallucinations, feelings of true ecstasy, and in some cases Aramath shares her life experiences with them through touch. With this being said, it is important to understand pushing yourself upon this Goddess- will end with your head mantled on her fireplace. You’ve been warned.

EʂƚαႦʅιʂԋҽԃ Rҽʅαƚισɳʂԋιρʂ; Tԋҽ Mυʅƚιʋҽɾʂҽ

Through the years I have been writing Aramath one thing is clear, once you have a place in her heart you will forever have that spot. This is no different for myself as I wouldn’t have lore if it weren’t for those who helped grow with me. These characters may be an OC or in their own universe- either way they are all loved equally. Here are a few of the characters I most frequently interact and/or click with during threads, some Aramath is very possessive over and others she views as equals. Please do not be discouraged if your muse is not on this list, it does not mean I love you any less my dears.

Henry Pearl, Sunset Peach, the Oracle of the Goddess.

@henry-pearl-battlecreek​

Roman Godfrey, a White Tower Dragon in Prince skin.

Eddie Brock, Snarky Reporter, Kingsman In Training.

@venom-inside-you​

Venom, Parasitic Terrestrial, Unknown Limits, Enjoys Flesh.

Pan, Horseman of Death, Man of Knowledge.

@thedarklibraryworld​

Michael Langdon, Son of Satan, Your Dark Lord, Puppeteer of the Apocalypse.

Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, A Pair of Laughs, Equally Charismatic and Deadly.

Kai Anderson, Terrifying Candidate, Godlike Ego, Could Make Me Drink the Kool-Aid.

Iɳƚҽɳƚισɳʂ

If you want angst, joy, or death Aramath is the girl to go with. She is very versatile in every aspect that I write her, if you wish to have a particular plot please invade my inbox so we can discuss what you’d like. If not, I frequently post open threads with an already settled plot, starter calls, and interactive dialogues. Never be afraid to send a meme or random prompts into my inbox, I love interacting with my followers! 

Mυɳɳҽԃ

Now as we get to the end of this long, long sheet I just want to take a moment and say a few things as a Mun. I- am so terrible about timely responses, between working, streaming, and studying for my degree I do not find a lot of time for my writing passion. However, if you bare with me through the odd times of night when my responses flow I promise you we will have amazing threads together. Now that you know a little about my existence let’s get my blog rules out of the way;

ℝ𝕌𝕃𝔼𝕊

No persons under the age of 18 allowed- period. This blog has intense scenes and NSFW threads, I will not be held responsible for the corruption of children so turn away now or blocking will occur.

As much as I preach love and acceptance, absolutely NO threads will occur with me that involve animals or characters under the age of 18. I do not condone the act of pretending to be an underage child, nor will I bring children in as extras to my thread. 

Unless your character is an actual God of some sort, do not attempt to God-mod our threads, I will not allow it to happen and it will terminated immediately. Clarification: Yes you can toss my Muse, but no you cannot kill them (unless discussed or of course- you’re Pennywise.)

Sexual themed threads must be discussed with Mun prior to the beginning of it, if not my character will act as normal- and your muse will lose a hand or two. Discussing is a key point when it comes to certain topics in writing, and as everyone says, Consent is Key.

Remember, we’re all here to enjoy ourselves with our characters, even if the thread is violent and hateful please remember. I am not my Muse and my Muse is not me, you are allowed to spit and curse them but do not dare step past that line and spew venom at me. I have a zero tolerance for drama, hate, or sheer stupidity. 

Fιɳαʅ Cσɱɱҽɳƚʂ

Well my loves we’re at the end, it is time to say my final goodbyes as I finish off this sheet on a good note. I will always be open to new partners, new ideas, new universes so please again- never feel scared to shoot me random things. With this revamp I am turning my engines over and putting the pedal to the metal- and it’s only just beginning. With all love, and secret lust- Shalom and Blessed Be.

{Will be updating frequently throughout these next few weeks, stay tuned!}

[steeltoss]

Pre Naruto — Naruto Headcanons. Ages 9-15.

I have nothing better to do while my phone is dying.

Age 9

We're starting here since I'm working on something already. Okay so the day her whole clan was obliborated and sent straight to Jesus, Hokkaido was taken from Konoha under the Third's order. From there, she went to an orphanage in Amegakure.

The orphanage wasn't too bad, but Hokkaido couldn't help missing Konohagakure. She wanted to leave the orphange and debated running away.

However, she didn't get to run away as a couple who never had children together spotted this lonely dark haired girl and wanted to adopt her. This led to confusion. Someone genuinely wanted to adopt her, a broken child?

They did adopt her. But she was quiet, confused even.

The lady was one of the most beautiful ladies she had ever seen, complete with Auburn hair and deep green eyes and a pallor complexion. Her new mother's name was Emi Suzuki of the Hidden Rain.

The man was strong, and he looked very mean, but he wasn't. Hokkaido just didn't know that yet. He had short, messy Sandy blonde hair and cocoa colored eyes. This was Shindou Suzuki, a very strong Shinobi of the Hidden Rain.

Upon going to her new home, things were very different. This family was patient with her learning and never pushed her too much, they had accepted her as if she really were their own child. But she didn't want to call them mom or dad because she only ever had one mom and one dad.

Hokkaido was given a nice room with a twin sized bed and a desk for schoolwork, Emi enjoyed buying her stuffed animals, her favorite was her stuffed panda that somehow made her think of Shisui. She slept with it every single night.

Entering the academy, she made two friends that she held close to her heart.

Aito Fugikame, a small and dark haired girl with violet eyes who reminded her of Hinata Hyūga from Konoha, maybe that's why she enjoyed her company so much.

Eiji Yamada, a brunette make who seemed a little idiotic but super friendly and was outcasted for being such a loveable idiot. This was in ways, her Naruto of Amegakure.

She began to adjust to her new life, the pain seemingly subsiding as she always came home to a hot meal and was called Yua, (and it literally means binding love and affection) by Emi.

Things were starting to go great, and for once after the massacre, Hokkaido Uchiha was smiling as she came home. But she missed her brother, Sasuke. She wondered how he was doing in Konoha.

Age 10

Having a good birthday, she blew the candles out on her cake before hiding her face in her hands. She was crying but didn't know why. Sure, she was happy, but how long would it last without her only other blood relative?

The trio [Hokkaido, Aito and Eiji] often roamed the village together and practiced their skills together, she finally perfected her Fireball Jutsu.

That's when people began looking at her all weird, she was an outsider, and they knew just how strong the Uchiha clan was.

Aito's mother wouldn't let her visit nor talk to Hokkaido anymore. This was the downfall.

Hokkaido shut herself off, she barely exited her room unless it was to eat or go to school.

Age 11

Emi had conceived her first daughter this year and she seemed rather focused upon the new baby that was due to arrive in July. Hokkaido was conflicted on how to feel, she was once her foster parents primary focus, and it seemed they had less and less time for her now. She never brought it up. She was still grateful she was given a family.

In July, Emi gave birth to a healthy little girl named Ichika. Hokkaido wanted eagerly on the front steps of their house, but was only met with a sullen faced Shindou and a baby in his arms. Emi was no where around.

Later that evening, Shindou had explained that Emi had passed on, and that Hokkaido was now rightfully the woman of the house.

Even though Emi wasn't her biological mother, Hokkaido was broken again. She had lost two mother's in her life. This was the very first time she cried over someone who wasn't related to her in any way.

But Ichika reminded her so much of Emi. She had beautiful Auburn hair and a buttoned nose, just like Emi. And Hokkaido would constantly talk to the growing child about how amazing their mother was.

At the time, she hadn't even realized she reffered to Emi as her own mother. She just knew she missed her more than anything.

Age 12

Celebrating Ichika's first birthday wasn't how she ever imagined it to be. Emi wasn't there to see her daughter grow up, she hadn't even gotten to see Hokkaido graduate from the Academy and become a genin.

Hokkaido was put in a squad with Aito and Eiji, but things were still tense with herself and Aito. Hokkaido never knew how to process her emotions. She used to go to Itachi or Shisui for things like that. But Shisui had died a year before the massacre.

This year also happens to be the year Hokkaido got her menstrual cycle. She went into a panic, thinking she was dying and bleeding out. After all, she really didn't have a grown female figure to turn to about this.

She was embarassed to even tell Shindou, but he was very calming and understanding. He explained she was becoming a woman and even gave her the birds and bees talk. She was disgusted.

Sasuke is now ten, and she wonders how he's doing. She debated on writing him a letter, but out of nervousness, she doesn't.

Age 13

Hokkaido spent a lot of her time doing activities as she was now co sidered am elder sibling by Ichika. Ichika was walking and talking and every day passing, looked more like Emi.

Hokkaido began training for her chunin exams, which, were coming up very shortly. She spent many hours training with her squad a day and had often had to be retrieved by Shindou.

Shindou often scolded her for overworking herself as he forced her to drink plenty of water and eat her greens. He was only looking out for his eldest after all.

Upon the day of the exams, Hokkaido finds out all three of her squad had to sign up. And they had. They are now officially beginning their journey as chunin.

The first exam, she nearly crapped a brick. The written test was hard and she knew nothing. But she still tried her hardest, hearing and seeing others being disqualified for cheating. Her heart was hammering in her chest.

Afterwards, when she found out the objective was to cheat without being caught, she literally facepalms herself because she hadn't even thought of cheating. And then that damned question was asked.

Back at the exam, the proctor states that the candidates are free to choose whether or not they want to try and solve the tenth question. If they opt out, the entire team will fail. If they choose to answer the question but get it wrong, they will be barred from taking the Chūnin Exams forever.

Hokkaido's heart hit her guts. She was afraid of never becoming a chunin. But she pressed forward, only to find out the tenth question was already asked. The question was to test their determination and bravery.

Since I'm a lazy bastard and ive worked on this almost all damn day, I'm moving forward.

During the one on one fights, Hokkaido was matched against Kabuto Yakushi. [you know. Cuz this mf kept taking the exams cuz he a spying little-]

She lost.

She lost.

She didn't become a chunin on her first try, but congratulated Aito and Eiji upon becoming Chunin.

Age 14

Sasuke was finally old enough to take his own chunin exams and they were being hosted in Konohagakure! Hokkaido was estatic, she was finally going home to Konohagakure, even if it was just for the exams.

The exams started the same, and she passes. She couldn't help but keep glancing toward her brother however, a tugging on her heart. He hadn't even looked her way.

She wondered if he forgot her. He hadnt.

After the written exams, they prepared for the second part. Hokkaido was paired with two Amegakure genin.

However, a red haired sand ninja with a foul attitude caught her eye. Gaara.

Another skip, I'm half dead.

Anyway,, she became a chunin because of the circumstances and after the fight with Gaara and Naruto, Hokkaido goes home back to Amegakure.

Sasuke had changed so much, her little brother was growing up.

Age 15

Hokkaido had been caring for Ichika and tried being a great big sister to the four year old who somehow ended up looking up to her like she had to Itachi. It left her heart hurting a little.

Still, she would sometimes think back to that red haired boy.

She often ignored it because she didn't want to even tell Shindou about a possible boy she liked, let alone one that was so damn destructive.

Things were going well, and she was being sent on a mission to Konohagakure soon. This mission, however, required her to move away for six months. She would be aiding the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade.

She wondered why she was chosen for such a thing...

Okay. That's rushed but there. Heres her OG Naruto Headcanons. Shippuden comes next. Feedback is much appreciated. Nah this isn't proofread either.

[cantillat-moved]

@lunaetis​ 💕 [ rin & archer ! also maybe any muses of your interest with mine from interest checker ? u vu ]

𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝐶ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑘!

Have we discussed shipping before?: yes || no

My interest level overall: I’ve wanted this for so long || can’t wait || I think it’ll be fun || kinda feeling it || maybe with a lot of plotting || I need to think about it || not interested, sorry

How we should do this: jump right in || slow burn || pre-established || build up to it in a thread || anything goes

Dynamics I want to try out with our ship: friends to lovers || rivals to lovers || enemies to lovers || mutual pining || battle couple || childhood friends || high school sweethearts || star crossed lovers || long time lovers || old married couple || newlyweds || sickeningly sweet couple || secret lovers || fake dating/marriage || best friends hiding their feelings || arranged marriage || soulmates || other

This is valid for both Rin and Archer or Shirou (although a ot3 would end up with 2/3 of the relationship trying to kill each other...)

I was also meaning to ask you if you would be inclined to have our thread pending to the ship side, or the platonic side.

With Misaya, I think I’d want to check how they interact before planning anything. I also have Soma Cruz from Castlevania, who is Dracula’s reincarnation. A Nasuverse AU could also be interesting. I also have a dragonboy muse from a less known fandom that could do very well in a Fire Emblem or Tales of Berseria setting (Velvet is queen) and, tbh, I have been debating about picking up a Final Fantasy muse and Noctis is one of the candidates, along with Rufus (yuuup)

Also, my muses are always up to befriend the best sun goddess.

Now, if you excuse me, I’m going to rave a bit about Rin, Shirou, Archer, UBW and that that jazz

I don’t remember if it is a hc or canon, I remember it is part of the UBW route, but I hc that in all routes Shirou had a crush on Rin. She is so smart, beautiful, helping people with their homework, always so elegant. Once he got to know her, especially in the UBW, his admiration only grew exponentially, loving all of her cute quirks and eccentricity. When he got the invitation to join the Clock Tower officially, he was really considering giving up on his objectives or postponing it to stay with her. Or, if she somehow found out (because he would never underestimate her intelligence) and tell him to go, he’d find his way back to her. He would never hope that she would drop everything to go with him.

After the UBW route, Archer too was changed by Rin. He would remember the childish love he had during his middle and high school years. How he, as a Servant, broke her heart into a million pieces and stepped on her, but she still wanted to save him. He is never going to forgive that he caused her so much pain in his path of self-hatred. But her smile...Her smile renewed his hope. This is why he became softer, at least in my FGO verse and during HF: if he can protect a world in Rin is able to live, or a world which her memory carry on, he will do it.

[mashitandsmashit]

America’s Got Talent: Season 15 - Auditions 3

10: David Rush. Well this was a real RUSH to beat the clock, huh? ...Eh? ...Eh? Well, I can't exactly say it made for the best show, but if he's promising to do all of those crazy things for future performances...Huh? What's that? He didn't go through because apparently Howie and Sofia aren't interested in seeing those things? Well then, I guess this was a complete waste of time...Congratulations on the record though...Let's get to the REAL passing acts...

9: Amanda LaCount. It seems almost cruel that supermodel Heidi of all people buzzed this girl. I guess it was nothing great, but I've seen weaker overweight dancers, so I'm willing to let her have her moment for now...

8: Celina. I'm not QUITE as desensitized towards singers as FrankDoc is, but I am definitely getting there...At this point I'm just desperately grasping for ANY kind of uniqueness in this ever-expanding category of talent...I'm just looking to get some kind of new experience...But as we go on, it's just getting harder and harder to care anymore...It's all the same kinda fluff by now...How was this lady? ...Good...I might have appreciated her more a few years ago...The tragedy is that singing makes up about half the talent that competes on this show, and there always should have been significantly less! Maybe then I would actually still have a level of appreciation for a good voice...

7: Daneliya Tuleshova. I wasn't super-impressed by this performance either, but I put her over Celina because I actually see some nice potential (and apparently, so do her fans from “The Voice Kids”). The song choice wasn't the best display of her abilities, but I could still see them. Overall, this was the most memorable American performance from a Kazakh since Borat sang the national anthem! (And I promise that I will end the Borat jokes there! ...Not! ...Nah, seriously, that's as far as I'll go...)

6: Marty Ross. I'll admit, during that first minute, seeing what little enthusiasm everyone was showing, I was afraid for this guy...And then he got into the kinds of dirty jokes you expect from elder comedians like him by now, and he settled comfortably into likably amusing territory...It is all becoming gimmicky in that all of these comedians keep having to joke about “first impressions”, like “Yeah, I'm X, but I'm funny because Y!” That said, I'll give him a chance and see how he develops in the coming rounds...But so far, the guy from last week has the most potential as this year's comedian to not quite get that win...

5: The Demented Brothers. It seems that an increasing number of magicians know that they'll never reach Shin Lim's level, so they just goof around and perform what I can only describe as “mock magic” (see Lioz Shem Tov from Season 13). I ALMOST considered giving these two the top spot on the list as sort of a poetic “Take that!” to this episode for its heavy focus on sentimental singing acts, but like Lioz before them, the comedy never quite reached true brilliance...Perhaps they will have a chance to do that for future rounds, but Simon's gonna make that difficult for them...It sucks being the funny guy in a room full of sad people, doesn't it?

4: Resound. I think I would say that these people are EXACTLY EQUALLY talented as Voices of Service...at least based on what we've seen so far...That's a good thing, but it is hard to get super-invested in them when they feel like such a similar act to one we've seen the previous year...Sometimes I just want to see something different...I think I've been saying that for a while now...

3: Cristina Rae. Aaaannnnd, we're back to the predictable formula...Not just the Golden Buzzer being saved for the very end of the show, but also Simon stopping a singer and letting them pick a second song...Which is a pity, because by that point we ALL knew she was going to get it anyway (not to mention how much of her we saw in the promos), so the commercial break did nothing but try my patience...All I gotta say is, this lady's lucky that her second song was so much better than her first! So is THIS the Golden Buzzer that will win this season? Well, let's compare her with last week's selection...Roberta's definitely the more typical candidate, because as I usually point out, adults tend to be favored over kids in the MALE singer category, whereas kids almost ALWAYS outperform adults in the FEMALE singer category...That being said, Roberta still lacks that unique aspect to her that other winners had in the past, whereas we surprisingly haven't had any soul singers win the show yet, albeit one that sings rock songs (though Cristina certainly isn't the first). And of course, I'm still waiting to see an adult woman win this show after seeing several young girls (and plenty of adult men) pull it off...So I would definitely say I'm rooting for Cristina more...But Roberta has better odds going for her...Though at the end of the day, I'd probably say that it will be neither of them...And NEXT week (I was wrong before, but it is DEFINITELY next week), Simon will be giving out HIS Golden Buzzer! Naturally, we should wait and see who it will be, but I have no doubt that the man won't rest until at least one GB of his finally wins...

2: Shakir & Rihan. It's official: V.Unbeatable has paved the way for Indian acrobatic dancers! Not sure if they stack up with BAD Salsa, but I do see a LOT of promise so far! Lord knows, India doesn't have ENOUGH of a problem with youths tossing young boys in the air...

1: Emerald Gordon Wulf. I've been debating with myself all night who should get the top spot in this list, and I ultimately picked this kid, because aside from some impressive contortions (a step or two past what we've seen from girl contortionists in the past), she put on a show! What's more, she didn't have to rely on making it intense like Sofie Dossi, or shocking like Frenchie Babyy (though I hear she was on “Toddlers & Tiaras”, so I guess that's a little shocking...) All she needed to do was entertain with a creative set and an equally creative entrance (a nice logical step forward after that guy in the suitcase last year). I look forward to seeing what she brings for later rounds!

I will admit, my hunger for unique, new talent that we haven't seen on this show before is getting the best of me...Does anyone else like to make up fantasy acts in their head? I've done it since I started watching this show, and sadly, a lot of them are far more interesting than a lot of the acts we've gotten this season so far...I guess there were one or two acts this season that I might consider “Golden Buzzer worthy”, and I might even end up giving my imagined Golden Buzzer for the season to one of them...But otherwise, nobody's really blowing me away so far...I hope that changes soon, but it gets harder the longer I watch this show...

Anyway, I already talked about the Golden Buzzer for next week, so I guess I'll just leave it there for now...Stay safe and stay healthy!

[sidelinesbysam]

I’m a Senior Again...I think

Back in the day I remember what it was like to become a senior. It was June of 1977 and it was a glorious day! We were just wrapping up our Junior year at Proviso West High School and as the final days of junior year ticked away, we all became filled with the anticipation of what was about to take place. Well almost all of us. There were a few dudes hanging out behind the auto shop that may not have had quite the excitement and focus as the rest of the Class of 78. But nonetheless, it was here...the day my friends and I were waiting for. As the last final exam was completed and that final bell rang, just like that, I was a senior! When you go to a huge high school like Proviso West, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. Now I certainly wasn’t one of the cool kids but I do have to admit, I had some really cool friends heading into that senior year. And they were all awesome and cool in their own way  

Even though during those years I never eclipsed the 5’6” mark on the wall, I had some good friendships with some really big dudes at PWHS. I mean they were big...tall...vertically unchallenged as it were. Brett seemed to be 7’ and so did Ron. Pat O was a monster too. Looking back I’m going to guess they were in the mid 6 foot range but to me they were giants. We were friends all four years but this year, senior year was different. We were on top of the mountain of high school life and those guys were the coolest of cool. Being a high school athlete had to be the pinnacle. Especially becoming a senior.

 Somehow I had also forged a close friendship with one of the prettiest girls in a school of thousands. Carolyn was the captain of the dance and pom pom squad and her and I used to meet in the halls between classes and we chatted almost everyday. And she hung out with the greatest collection of friends that made an adolescent guy like me crazy. 

I may not have been a cool kid but when I became a senior I did some things that I thought were pretty cool at the time, and maybe still.  I was there editor of the Mural in 1978 which was the high school yearbook. Everyday for months the staff and I met to build that 300+ page yearbook that holds the memories of turning into a senior for so many of my classmates. Along with Mike, my still best friend ever, we took nearly every one of the candid photos for that book and when the first copy was delivered, maybe for the first time in my life, I felt really accomplished and pretty cool. I was also the sports editor of the Profile, the school newspaper. I had my own column and I wrote stories about all the different sporting events that entire senior year too. I wrote some stories that were really good and insightful and a few others that got me threatened with a meeting in the parking lot after school. Such is the life of a journalist! At the time I was sure that those experiences were going to launch me into a career of journalism. Looking at the media today, maybe it’s a blessing my life took another direction. After all these years, turning a senior at PWHS is mostly a clouded memory. I recall bits and pieces. I was the dude at basketball games that got hoisted up on someone's shoulders and shouted out, “Give me a P…” I remember being the first person to put on the new Panther mascot costume Coach Lucas and Mr. Skul had bought and I remember being a faithful part time team manager for the basketball team that senior year. I remember after the last loss of the season I sat in the locker room with those cool giants and I cried. “Coach Luke” came over and consoled me and told me thanks for everything. That moment really meant the world to me and it was probably the first time I considered being a senior was coming to a close. 

I even met my first wife my senior year. She wasn't a Panther but she did live close by in Elmhurst. We met at Dominick's and that eventually led directly to two great kids and three grandkids. Wow! All in all, being a senior was pretty cool.

And here I am today. Once again, I’ve become a senior. But let me tell you, it came without the same anticipation or excitement. Now to be completely clear, there is some debate as to when a person officially becomes a senior. Some say it’s 65. The Social Security Administration, in some cases, says it’s 62. For some reason, me personally always had the number 60 attached to it. Maybe now that I’m 60, I should rethink the connection. But you know what, it’s just a number and just a word. Some people say that in the context of growing old, the word senior has a negative connotation. The PC word to be used should be “elderly.” Really, elderly? I don’t like that at all. I may not be old but I am definitely not elderly. Am I? But for the sake of argument, let’s just say 60 is seniorly. What sort of cool things come with becoming a senior this go around? It appears that the gallbladder is a right of senior passage. That thing must not like being housed in a senior because half of everyone I know had to have it removed. And remember, as a senior, people like to tell you it’s not surgery...it’s just a procedure. Another thrill of being a senior is the eyesight. It appears as you progress through the years you go from readers to prescription glasses to bi-focals to trifocals and then “progressives.” The pinnacle (I hope) of a never ending battle with blurry vision. Another treasure of seniordum is that first 30 minutes or more of every single morning for the rest of ever I guess. Back in the day my alarm would go off, I would spin out of bed, get ready for school or work and take off. Now there is a strategic series of snoozes, slow turns over the edge of the bed, an occasional reach for the wall and a very deliberate walk to the first destination in the morning. Sorry dogs, your business has to wait for my business. And what do seniors do while doing their business? I, for one, look at The Facebook. And what do I see when I look at The Facebook? It appears people my age look a lot older than I think I look. Must be part of that whole “blurry vision” issue. If I am in fact a senior again, it sure looks a lot different than it did 42 years ago. But ironically, there are the benefits.

Back in 1978, as a senior, we thought we could do anything. We had a closed campus at PWHS but at lunchtime I still left to go to McDonald’s for a burger or Ne’Joes for an Italian sub. Once the truant officer stopped me at the gate before I got out of the south lot and asked me where I thought I was going. I chose what I thought was the best route and told him to get some lunch. He handed me a 5 and asked if I would grab him something. Being a senior had it’s privilege. And being a senior still does today. I find that as a senior, if that’s what I am, I can get away with saying things I couldn’t when I was younger. Now for the record, subtlety helps, but having the same filter as a younger man is not required. I notice that beating around the bush is a much shorter process. 

Me: “Can I have just a large iced tea? That's it.” 

The other person: “Anything else with that?” 

Me again: “Did you NOT hear the words JUST and THAT'S IT tucked into that sentence?”

The disgruntled other person: “(grumble...mumble...old fart)”

But in reality, landing at 60 and looking at life in perspective ain’t such a bad thing. There are some real blessings to this senior stuff and I’m not talking about AARP discounts. This is more about life in general. I have four great kids that are moving through life at breakneck speed sometimes, and I love them very much and I’m so proud of them all. I wish we connected more often but modern day electronics makes it easier to fill the gaps. A quick text or a social media “like” or thumbs up will never be a substitute for a call or a visit, but it lets us know that we’re all still out there. And I have the blessing of three grandkids that fill my life with joy and happiness. The 12 year old lives in south central IL so we need to use our devices to connect and talking to grandpa isn’t much of a priority to a video game playing, pre-teen but we do our best. The 8 and 6 year old live close by and I get to see them frequently. My granddaughter who is the youngest, observes my senior status by asking, “grandpa, why do you sit in your chair and watch those cooking shows all the time?” I want to load up one of those unfiltered replies but she’s so darn cute I just tell her, “Because I can’t find the remote to change the channel.” The fun part about my middle grandson is that at 8 years old he’s starting to let his hair grow out. And in senior fashion I asked him if he was trying to look like one of the Beatles. That got me the most puzzled look and after a pause, “who’s that?” 

And as a senior today, I look back to when I was a senior back then. I fondly remember those giants that I was friends with. Sadly Brett lost his life several years ago but I still think of him from those days and I can’t help but smile. Even though he was a massive dude in my eyes, I’ll always remember that he had a giant heart too. He always treated me like I was part of his circle even though I existed on the edge of that circle at best. And that pretty dance team captain that befriended me way back when, well she is still a BFF and not only one of the most beautiful women I know inside and out, she’s a successful business woman, an author, a proud momma and a loving, devoted wife. And I can gladly say, even though we’re a couple of hundred miles apart, we stay connected and chat often. My best friend forever Mike and I connect almost daily. Sometimes it’s a call or a text. Maybe a dad joke or a backhanded jab. We even have laughs about being seniors. Sometimes remembering 1978 and other times trying to remember stuff from 2020. 

Through the miracle of social media, even though I live over 200 miles from where I lived the first time I was a senior, I am still connected to dozens and dozens of friends from those great days at Proviso West and even earlier at MacArthur and Jefferson. For example, at our last class reunion, Tom and his band played for a couple of hours and it’s hard to believe he and I met in 1971. That guy is a rocking, surfing, boating senior and a really cool dude (does that sound seniorish?) now living in Florida. Steve and Mark and others live in Cali, Donna lives in Texas, Bill lives in Michigan, Diane has traveled all over Europe and also lived in Germany. Rich has lived in Colorado for years. My cousin Pat and his wife Patty who are also 78ers have been in Oregon for as long as I can remember. And hundreds of others are scattered all across the land and sadly, several others have gone before us. But for those that remain, there is a line of commonality that we all share and have shared before. At one time we were all seniors before life really got going. And here we all are, seniors (maybe) again. It really doesn’t matter about our life perspectives or where we stand in today’s climate of world views, we cannot separate ourselves from the fact that we were seniors together back in 1978 and we may or may not be seniors together again now. In a few years, many of us will meet again or for the first time at a class reunion. We will have happy memories about those first senior days and share a lot of laughs and a few tears. And surely the conversation will turn to current senior days and all of our own transition to being a modern day senior.