I don’t know about you but I’m chomping at the bit to hear “Castles Crumbling.”

Reylo. Sorry, but it's not abusive

Star Wars is not selling abusive relationships to young girls nor conditioning them into aspiring to them. Reylo is not propaganda from disgruntled single middle aged woman. It wasn't promoting abusive relationships when Luke still found love for his father despite Darth Vader cutting off his hand. Luke fans, young and old, were not attacked as being dumb or needy for liking Luke or how he viewed his father. It damn sure wasn't considered abusive when Anakin choked Padme and she still held hope for him in her heart. Or, that Obi-Wan still held a love for Anakin despite everything Darth Vader had done. Then there was Reylo.

Being a Reylo is not something I feel I need to defend. Let me love what I love in peace. That's what I believe. I did not actually see any of the sequel trilogy until after it was concluded. I was not on any fandoms during the rollout and marketing for the films. Thank God. However, I have gathered enough to understand it was horrible how Reylos were being regarded. It was beyond patronizing. I'm not new to fandom, hell I've been on soap opera fandoms for quite some time and believe me that's a savage space, but wow.

I want to clarify some of the feedback against Reylo and reaffirm why it's such a compelling pairing. Further more, I regard it as an compelling attribute to the Star Wars universe that only added to the franchise.

Now I've seen the domination of woman twisted up and called romance (see Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray), but I don't think people understand WHY those relationship were as such. Rey, on her own, is one of the strongest and most badass female leads to ever appear on the big screen. Despite people thinking she doesn't have a personality she is a resourceful, tough, innocent, loyal, hopeful and strong. She has agency unlike Bella Swan. She is not sexualized by Kylo Ren unlike the 50 shades girl. Her gender is neither a hindrance nor an advantage. She has the agency to save herself, but she is also saved.

Which is really one of the main issues. There is the patronization of Rey as a character, the people who like her and the people who like the pairing. While those 50 shades of gray books didn't buy themselves rather than listening to why Reylos liked the pairing they were told why they did and then dismissed. Or, there's the men that wanted Rey to be with Finn because Finn was the "nice guy" who they identified with.

Rey doesn't need a love interest - not all heroines need love interests, but why does it imply she's weak if she does have a love interest? Heroes infamously have a female counterpart which helps make them viable. It doesn't make them any less interesting as an individual.

Kylo Ren and Rey are NOT a couple but instead representatives of opposing sides in a war. This is the most important part. From the get-go they have an intense dynamic. Both have had visions and dreams of the other and they recognize something in one another. Kylo Ren did kidnap Rey, however, if you consider fighting your enemies “abusive” or interrogating war prisoners as “domestic violence”.............well, that is odd.

As quotes about them

What if your soulmate in the Force was your enemy? Circumstance, pits them against each other, but the Force bonds them together. They understand each other almost from a point of view of fate. And yet, fate has made them enemies.

While Kylo Ren is fascinated by In the moments of the interrogation, gender and sexuality have nothing to do with Kylo’s actions. J.J. made the conscious choice to show us the same scene twice (Kylo Ren interrogating his enemies) so the audience can spot the differences between the two. Sorry J.J, you trusted people too much.

We're able to see very clear aggression and abuse come from Kylo Ren for Poe. He has zero interest in him personally. He needs information and he will get it. The force and his ability to read someone's mind is a tool within his disposal. Now why isn't Poe's interrogation considered sexual assault?

"You know I can take anything I want" HE CAN READ HER MIND! He's not talking about raping her for God's Sake! He asked her to freely provide information and she didn't want to. However, he has a tool to use against a girl adding his enemies - a tool he'll use if she doesn't want to snitch. She knows this he already read her mind - so why not give the information freely?!

Rey also invaded his mind, so did she mind-rape him too?

The line that fans almost never seem to talk about in The Force Awakens is when Kylo says to Rey “Don’t be afraid, I feel it too.” What did he feel? The best I'm able to understand is what they felt was their force dyad igniting or fulfilling.

Ren becomes personally invested in Rey. Not with her cause, or her affiliation with the Resistance, but with her and what he wants from her.

“Kylo chased Finn and Rey outside Starkiller Base to fight them! He threw Rey against a tree!” Well she was going to shoot him..... I would've thrown her against a tree to save myself. His issue in that moment was Finn. Finn was the "traitor" in questioned and his unfinished business. They fought, but really it was a dueling exercise. Kylo Ren wanted to test her skills and her powers. If he wanted her dead there was a convenient edge to push her over, hell he offered to teach her. Rey was the one to go ape and almost kill him.

Again, I'm not implying that they aren't messy - they are. For literary nerds this is why they are a compelling heroine/villain. Ultimately one will greatly affect the other. The tension in between them is why it's great.

Ben Solo, least we forget, is himself an abuse victim. This is canon. While Kylo Ren has learned abusive techniques, they are at war. Applying abusive characteristics to a fictional character in a war setting without any attempt to incorporate the story is bizarre. Why was he able for the first time to stand against his abuser? Rey. He couldn't stand up for himself but he stood up for her. Ultimately, Kylo Ren wanted to 'break the wheel" that's what he claimed. If he was honest, he'd admit he had no clue of how to do that.

Most abusers are charming and irresistible when you first meet them. Ben has NEVER dishonest with Rey about who he is. Rey is very aware of the horrible side of him and even refers to him as a monster. He affirms her accusation that he is a monster.

During their force bonds because of the nature of the bond Rey is in a position to hear him out and try to understand how he became the monster he is today. When she learns that he didn't become this on his own, that Luke, his parents and Snoke contributed to his downfall she had hope in him. It's also important to make the distinctions that when she has a vision of him, it's as Ben. It's like a bipolar personality. When Kylo Ren goes all Darcy marriage proposal - she reject him. She rightfully spurned him when he resorted to cruelty to sway her to his side. Rey turned down Kylo as long as he was the ’bad guy’, and only kissed him as Ben ’the good guy’.

“He only wants to use her for her power.” Oversimplification that Rey is actually guilty of. Kylo Ren is lonely and within Rey he finds not only an equal but the most intense emotional connection he's ever had. The most intense connection she's ever had. Let's not forget they are probably both virgins. Then they are in each other's head. That's intense. When Kylo makes his plea to Rey it's out of not only loneliness but truly wanting her for her.

Also, Kylo doesn’t say he wants them to rule together as “master and apprentice”. He wants Rey to be his empress, his queen which is what Rey means. He’s literally proposing by offering her the entire galaxy. Ultimately Reylos see them as two equally powerful archenemies dedicating themselves to defeating the other but also find themselves strangely drawn to each other in ways they might not want to admit. Then two soul mates on the other side of a conflict.

This is built on the idea that hate itself is a sort of twisted form of love. It is, or, rather hatred is born from things like fear, pain, betrayal and love. Their connection is complicated. One minutes they last out at one another and the next they lean into each other. People can regard this as toxic. Others, like myself, regard this as the gray side of love. Reylo represent the yin yang of the force. The light and the dark craving each other and finding themselves frustrated.

Notice how many hero/villains find themselves telling others that only they are allowed to kill/harm their nemesis, in a subconscious effort to protect their nemesis from others. And they may also get strangely jealous when their nemesis fights other people.

Other people give this argument because they believe the popularity of antiheroes in media is a sign of society’s moral decay. The First Order for all we know is not a fascist society. We have no idea the ideology of the First Order. We know their clothing was inspired by the Nazis.

Red String of Fate: the two connected by the red thread are destined lovers, regardless of place, time, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break

Kylo Ren and Rey BOTH want to be together, believe in the other, but are held back by their individual idea of what means. How is that abusive?! Maybe it's back to thinking little girls won't be able to understand the complexity of Reylo. Huh, well little boys can understand the complexity of Batman and Joker. If little boys are smart enough to realize the difference between fiction and reality and are able to watch a love/hate relationship between a good guy and a bad guy, I’m pretty sure the girls can handle it too. Rey has hope and belief that Kylo Ren can be good, she won't stay by his side while he's doing bad.

What is Reylo? In a way. Iconic

💭 Thoughts and Questions 💭

Content: My thoughts on the backlash to the JITB physical release. This is rather long.

It feels necessary to preface this with I LOVE Jung Hoseok. I’m a fan. His solo release may damn well be my favorite of Ch. 2 so far. None of my thoughts are a criticism of him, moreso criticisms of the backlash to the physical release…

So, I’m trying to keep up with the drama surrounding the JITB physical release but maybe I’m just too out of the loop to understand?

I don’t buy physical copies (of almost anything). It’s just not a part of my fandom experience for any fandom I belong to. Hasn’t been for years, since most of the world and my household went digital. So maybe that’s why I didn’t get the uproar originally when everyone wanted a physical album, but I mostly ignored it. Now I see a lot of people chastising those who wanted a physical album (and apparently caused enough of a ruckus to get one) and I’m not getting things again.

Perhaps it’s because I work for a B2C (business to consumer) corporation and I’ve been in marketing for a decade, but to me this seems like a normal occurrence? That is: 1) customers want/like something/ a feature they’ve come to expect. 2) business doesn’t quite realize or foresee how much their customers like said feature. 3) business releases a version of their product without said feature, to switch things up or for budgetary reasons or whatever. 4) customers go “hey what the hell, where’s that feature we like?!” and business is forced to 5) step back, reevaluate, and decide whether to stick with their original rollout or make a change to meet the demands and re-release the product with the feature that was missing.

Does that make sense? Idk… I guess I’m probably over-simplifying it, since one of the differences between the products released by a musician/idol and those released by a business is that there’s a lot of personal creativity and agency in the idol’s release. So criticism of it can come off like disrespect/distrust/hate for the artist themself. However, I would like to note that a great deal of creativity and passion goes into many, many products, and just because a large business produces them doesn’t mean that a lot of individual artists and creators and businesspeople weren’t behind the scenes, busting their asses only to be disappointed when they see the consumer reactions, which are oftentimes not as open to innovation and change as the artists were hoping. They experience that pain too, they’re just not precious, beloved idols so nobody really takes it upon themselves to defend them, and they pretty much only have their partners and work friends to mope to about it over drinks at happy hour.

And that brings up another interesting point; people seem to be defending Hobi on the basis that any ARMY who demanded a physical album are questioning his creativity/validity as an artist and making him feel bad and in general being shitty, entitled, ungrateful fans. In other words, they’re defending him as a creative person, not as a business person. Cause it could be argued that not releasing a physical album was, in hindsight, just not a great business decision. And he realized that later on, and, like his letter said, had to decide whether he wanted to stay the course or make a “better late than never” change.

[sidenote: I read the translation in its entirety, and I’m not seeing the agonizing heartbreak that others seem to be seeing? I’m seeing the honest explanation of a creative who made a bold move and is realizing — with some disappointment — that his audience wasn’t as appreciative as he hoped they’d be, and he’s making a course correction…? But maybe I’m too steeped in the corporate world to see this as the soul-wrenching sob story it apparently is??]

The reason I think it’s interesting that people are defending him primarily as a creative person and not a business person is that a few weeks back my timeline was FULL of ARMY’s mocking and side-eyeing you know who — Doja Cat.

She made waves (again…) for essentially saying she didn’t “love” her fans cause she doesn’t know them. And my TL was flooded with people smugly saying “it’s just a bad business decision to alienate your fans like that” while simultaneously sharing clips of BTS and their very demonstrative love for ARMY while gloating “can’t relate 😇”. Which begs the question — are BTS’s expressions of love for ARMY personal, or are they just good business?

I’m not saying that to be cynical, I’m saying it because Doja Cat (and I’m not an apologist for her by any means, but it’s a timely reference) was apparently a foolish businesswoman for making statements that made her fans mad. And Hobi is apparently a poor, wounded creative soul for making a decision that made his fans mad…?

Now, making inflammatory statements like “I don’t know those ppl” when referring to your loyal fans and not releasing a physical version of an album are two WILDLY different things and I understand that. I am not trying to conflate the two, more just noticing when and how we, as a fandom, choose to refer to famous musicians as “businesspeople” and when we don’t. When Doja spurns her fans, it’s a dumb business move. When BTS says they love their fans, it’s because they’re super duper sweethearts who love us forever. When Hobi makes a call for his album that a lot of fans disagree with, voicing that disagreement is suddenly hate and harassment for the artist you’re supposed to love, rather than consumer backlash.

I say this not having seen the harassment myself, but I also didn’t look for it. I saw people expressing disappointment, frustration, even that classic paranoia that all ARMY seem to have these days (“he’s being mistreated!”). So if there were genuine threats, hate, and vile behavior that crossed the line (and sadly, in this fandom, there probably was) then I think calling that out and saying “WTF is wrong with you people?!?!” is more than justified.

But when I see people scold, lecture, and attack others for clamoring for a physical album and being overjoyed when their cries were answered, I just think…. You must not work in the consumer goods industry. Cause this shit isn’t that unusual. 🤷‍♀️

Tell me how I’m wrong? I’m totally open to respectfully chatting. Just kinda had to get it out of my head.

7 + 1 twenty one pilots ask:

i was tagged by @pantaloonwarrior @dasloddl and @silverlininghills thank you guys! 💜

1. when/how did you discover them? + what was the first song you listened to?

i consider my 'official' discovery of twenty one pilots in january 2019 when the chlorine mv dropped and randomly got on my youtube homepage and blew my mind

though before that i had already heard stressed out/ride/heathens, i think the very first song i heard from them was ride

2. have you been on concert(s)?

sadly no... my dream is to go one of those small venue shows like they did during takeover tour

3. do you remember where you were when trench dropped (if you were a fan by then)?

i wasn't a yet fan back then but what i would give to be in the trench rollout dmaorg updates yellow everywhere era!!

4. favourite thing about the clique?

how we weren't just drawn to the music but the message behind it—and everyone on here is so nice i love y'all and also we have the best artists (drawing/writing/making music)

5. any memorable/funny/interesting quote (from interviews/bts footage/…) you especially like?

i learned the word plausible from the boys, also shoutout to will smith for being such a great friend and providing them places to shoot music videos in

6. what would you want to ask/tell them if you got the chance?

i would like to tell them they're not alone in their struggles either, they're always helping us with their music but it'd be nice that they were the ones being supported for once, i would ask tyler what were the nicher inspirations for the dema/trench world, i'd thank josh dun for overcoming his fear of public speaking because i'm the same look up to him so much

7. which tattoo would you like to know the meaning of (if you do)?

tyler's •|i|• Ø i+! ].[ tattoo, josh's sleeve

i have like three additional questions so here we go:

which album cover do you like best? (from dasloddl)

i love them all but if i had to choose, self titled. because it started as just a sketch drawn by a friend of the band, and nobody had expected it to mean so much to people years later. so i really love that authenticity and that how by looking at it you feel connected to tyler in 2009

I’d love to hear about some memorable moment you had because of this band, it can be anything, whatever you’re comfortable sharing <3 (from pantaloonwarrior)

around a month ago i found a random personalised mug at my school left by a past student and the drawings on the mug were a reference to neon gravestones... that moment of connection with someone in the same place but different times really moved and if i never discovered this band i would've never had this experience <3 (i made a post abt it here)

what do you think the genre/vibe of the next album is going to be? (from silverlininghills)

trench but ever better—gritty & eerie & crisp & euphoric & light & heavy

+1 for @vulture-who-feeds-on-pain @kaminokilljoy @lane-doubter @spookiestbandito: if the boys released a mashup of 2+ of their songs (think sai livestream version songs), which songs would you want to see mixed together?

Hello!! I'm the one who did the domain lookup. I was trying to figure out if it was H related or not, and right now, I am not sure. Usually a company is hired to block out a purchasers information of its someone that doesnt want to be known, which is where the markmonitor company comes in. As for origin, I first heard it was concertleaks on twitter that posted this website (they're an anti, its been larries finding things, but I digress..)

From what I have seen from the YAH rollout and looking back at the site.for Eroda, Sony has their info on the page with disclaimers and other information. Their website coding looks different as well and this new site is pretty bare bones without a tiktok traffic counter or anything embedded yet.

Other than the relatable menu items, I'm waiting to see any official hint that it is, in fact, Harry and team behind it. We may see movement on it tomorrow.

Honestly, if it is, the primary purpose of it for the video is likely to keep the Fandom distracted from My Policeman, in step with their overall blatant ignoring of the movie. (Where are my emails with a link to buy tickets? How will I ever survive?). I'm pretty irritated that they would drop MFASR on an important movie premiere day but for from unexpected from this awful team of his.

I guess just keep an eye on the site, stream #outofmysystem and go watch My Policeman on Friday until we know more!

Hi, there you are!! haha thank you so much for that, that's what I was looking for and I love your thoughts about it as well, thanks for sharing. This is interesting. I was just very confused because people were kind of sharing it like it was confirmed to be Harry's. But I always like to go slow and take a step back with these kinds of things, especially because after Eroda, trolls are literally everywhere and that's something I despise. Have you seen the amount of follows of these trolls on twitter and instagram? Ooof it's like people are begging to be fooled.

But anyway, as I was saying in tags, it doesn't seem like something fanmade to me. I think it has a good potential for it really to be a promotion for the new music video. But who the fuck knows. And I totally agree with you, a new website thing AGAIN bothers the shit out of me 🙄 First of all, because of MP and all the mess and everything you said (it's just unbelievable, omg) and then because it just feels like they're repeating the same formula over and over. It was fun and original with Eroda, but they let it die a horrible death and for what! With YAH was fun at first but it completely lost its purpose after a while. So like... ugh, really? Anyway, let's see how it goes and what this will turn out to be. Thanks again, love <3

In reference to this

Tbh I feel like she's just kinda trying to copy Shonda? She talked about Bridgerton while promoting Vampire Academy and now she's doing a romance adaptation with a diverse cast. Which in it of itself isn't that weird this is becoming the norm but it is interesting how she's basically the first one doing another high profile romance adaptation post Bridgerton. Unless I'm missing something obvious.

I see what you're saying, but... Idk, I don't really associate the move with Shonda. The projects really have nothing in common besides "romance" and "isn't entirely populated by white people". The Art of a Scandal also isn't casting white roles in a white story with a diverse cast--it's about people of color, and the book was marketed with that in mind. Very different audience potential, imo.

I think several other projects have tried to replicate Bridgerton a little bit, but they've steered away from being called "romance". The Buccaneers comes to mind. And other romance adaptations on TV do exist, they just also scale back the "romance first" identifier--a lot of people identify Virgin River as romance, which... I wouldn't, based on what I've heard about the show. But I know a lot of romance readers identify the books with the genre. I haven't read them.

But what really differentiates Julie from Shonda to me is that there is absolutely no way that this will get the kind of rollout, budget, etc a Shonda project gets. I don't think she can compete because she's just not on the level. A friend of mine has opined that Julie is doing this in part to shake the (many) racism allegations that have been following her around for years, and reinvent--and I think there's truth to that. Julie's last few projects she's been very attached to have kind of blown up in her face. Legacies basically killed this long-running franchise she'd been a part of for years and years. Vampire Academy was DOA. I think her rep has taken a hit, and she's trying to rebuild with something totally different and centering a Black woman, when Julie's treatment of Black female characters was one of the primary issues she got critiqued on.

We are three years into Choices VIP and honestly, it is an impressive roll-out. Obviously there has been lots of conflicting feelings and pushback about it (and there are aspects I hate) but looking at the business element, they have done a great job with it.

First, they did a seven month roll-out, a limited testing phase. I remember how salty this made me, because I wasn’t chosen, but it obviously accomplished what it was supposed to. It let them test the VIP books and try out different price points, it also generated interest amongst the fandom. I was just about desperate to give them money by the time it went wide release.

And then in July 2020, it went wide release. They settled on a price point and released it. At the time of release, VIP came with 3 completed books and one weekly book. Over the course of the next year, there would be a total of 4 weekly VIP books and the completed books were very, very slowly released to the general fandom.

While this had the side effect of killing the fandom, I think PB was using this period to gauge interest and see how many of their big spenders would switch over to VIP. In mobile app games, the majority of the money comes from a small amount of players and PB’s main goal was likely to try and keep these players and move them over to VIP.

That first year saw a VIP book (Wolf Bride) make the list of the top ten grossing* books. This meant that VIP books could perform well, even when limited to a small section of the fandom. I think this was a critical step for what came next.

Early Access. Instead of having VIP exclusive books that are withheld from the general fandom for a year or so and are pretty much impossible to make sequels for, release every book as VIP for a short period of time. It means books aren’t in limbo for a year, making it easier to produce sequels, it also gives VIPs more content at once. Instead of one exclusive VIP book updating for a few months there are usually 2 or 3 updating at any given time.

It also lets PB test their market. Early access saw a ton of different genres released, including several that were frequently asked for on various social media platforms such as murder mysteries, vampires, zombies and spy thrillers. Early Access meant they could see once and for all who was playing these books. Was it free players saving their diamonds or the heavy spenders? By releasing the first half of the book to VIPs, they could gauge interest and profit and adjust their decision accordingly.

And then after a year of that, they announced the third and final phase: that all books, including sequels, would be VIP and there would be no general release books. This means they don’t have to balance VIP and wide releases and make sure there are always enough VIP books at any time, but it also means they got the answers that they wanted and they are confident that they will retain their paying base with the move.

I don’t agree with the choice to lock content, but I do think that PB played it pretty smart with how they did the rollout. Which is why I also don’t think they are going to change their minds any time soon.

*PB has never confirmed the criteria of their top 10, but if you look at the list, it seems pretty clear that it is based on revenue.

Have you been following the recent talk about how an increasing number of artists have had to cancel tours both because of financial and wellbeing reasons? Vulture did a really good article about how the live music industry is in an existential crisis and more and more artists are also posting about how it’s getting harder and harder for them to make a living from touring, which is where they used to earn the majority of their money.

I still believe that Niall aims to tour as soon as it’s possible for him and he is obviously in a privileged position, but I also get it if he is hesitant to make any promises about touring next year before he is 100% sure that it will go ahead, especially after the difficult decisions he had to make with the last tour.

yeah and i think that's kind of been the thing for him the past couple of years as well? no point in really pushing to get music out quickly if major aspects of what he loves about it—touring, promoting, etc—weren't really viable options at the time. and like we've discussed around here plenty of times before, once it gets to a point where those DO start to become viable options and he IS looking at putting out music in the relatively near future, putting together the single/album rollout plan takes time, putting together a tour takes time, even putting an album on vinyl takes time, so there's always going to be a gap between the moment where they decide 'ok we can do this now' and actually doing it, and right now there's probably a much larger gap than there was pre-covid.

that article is interesting tho cause i feel like while it does maybe raise some interesting points, i don't feel like it really applies to niall all that much tbh? i'd assume that he's not really in a place where he's strapped for cash and would be struggling to justify the expenses of a tour like a lot of smaller artists might be yk? whether he's paying for it himself or the label pays or however it is that works, there IS money backing him so i'd assume that aspect isn't as much of an issue for him.

and then when it comes to these bigger artists that are cancelling shows and tours for personal wellbeing reasons, that feels to me more like an artist-specific issue rather than some sort of industry-wide problem? we've known for a while now that artists like shawn or justin or demi have struggled not just with the pressures of touring specifically, but also with the pressures of being in the public eye in general. and so because of where they might be at mentally, emotionally, physically, etc, touring might not be something that's for them, but i don't think that means touring is bad for everyone. touring IS an extremely hard lifestyle and it's definitely NOT for everyone, especially with the added pressure and struggles that "post-pandemic life" bring to it, but niall's always been someone that's been very vocal about how much he loves touring and being on the road and playing to different people in different places and all that. and i think especially if he takes what he learned from the flicker world tour in terms of giving himself plenty of downtime between shows and between legs, i don't see why he wouldn't enjoy it just as much as he always has yk?

I have the biggest smile on my face reading your old ask reposts BPP, esp in light of the last two months haha. Pls keep them coming. It's truly amazing how on the nose you are about so many BTS things. I remember just before you took a short break from Tumblr, you were getting all these asks about how BTS talk about Armys too much to the point that it's fake and people were saying it's stupid to think BTS cares about Army enough to talk about them that often. Then what happened? 2022 Festa Dinner!! Where, again, BTS spent so much time talking about... ARMY. And Jimin was the ring leader constantly inserting ARMY into every conversation because as you said BPP, there is indeed a meaningful relationship, and nobody cares whether or not antis or casual stans can relate. Since June 14th the boys have not slowed down in how they talk about ARMY constantly.

But I do wonder, do you think that relationship between BTS and Armys will change during their solo era? The support for Jack in the Box seems to be holding up a bit even though it seems most of the fandom has clocked out.

**

So, I received this ask last week and drafted the first part of this reply before attending Hobipalooza. After seeing the response to Hobi's performance last night I have a slightly different opinion now which I'll add to the end of this post, after the line break.

*

Hi Anon,

Lol I don't even know what to say to the first part of your ask. Guess I've said everything I needed to say in those series of posts. And as you point out Anon, BTS did just talk more about ARMY in the days following those series of posts. Just like we said they would. Lol. Of course they did.

I'll add some of those 'when BTS talks about ARMY it annoys me' asks to the reposts I'm doing eventually. And to other anons who've sent in repost requests, I'm working my way down your list of requested reposts - each repost requires a little bit of editing because the coding syntax for Tumblr needs to be adjusted before reposting.

Onto the second part of your ask which I find very interesting. Sometimes, some of the convos and topics here coincide with things I'm discussing with friends irl and in other spaces, and this is one of those topics.

"Will the relationship between BTS and ARMYs change during BTS's solo era?"

I think the obvious answer is yes. In fact I'd say that relationship has already changed.

But we won't see the full implosion of the status quo in the fandom until the maknae line begin their solo debuts imo. Right now, the feeling for Hob's release is for everyone to fully support him, but of course, that's not actually happening. Hobi is one of those central members that doesn't really pose a threat to anyone. He's like the Switzerland in Bangtan - a neutral sounding board that everyone wants to be on good terms with. So, if there was one member that could garner the most even support from all factions of the fandom, it would be Hobi and perhaps this is something that has contributed to how well his record has performed though most of the music on that record is distorted Boom Bap (which isn't exactly a popular genre...)

But like I said, not everyone is supporting him now and this is expected. The reasons why:

Despite all the 'discourse' on the topic of people being forced to do this or that, the reality is that most people in the fandom end up buying/doing what they personally want. And by that I mean, the choice of what to support is left entirely to people within the fandom. And since not everyone is inclined to support Hobi's kind of music atm, not everyone has.

I don't have the data to back this up, but I think there's a higher proportion of casual fans in ARMY fandom spaces now than before, and these are just not the sort of fans to concertedly support the group or members they don't bias. It is what it is.

The fandom (and company) has been inconsistent in how it supports solo works in the past, and this has created confusion as well as grievances.

The rollout itself was a bit unusual with HYBE/J-Hope excluding physical CDs from the physicals release, which discouraged some people from buying the record.

BTS themselves recognize that their solo careers will impact the relationship they've developed with ARMY. I mean, we heard Jimin basically acknowledge that during the Festa dinner and RM worry out loud in his Vlive some weeks later. Like I said though, we won't see the full repercussions of all of this until the maknae line begin their solo debuts imo. I suspect it'll be a rude awakening for some.

The next solo releases expected this year are RM's, Jungkook's, and Tae's - unit releases ofc include the Vocal Line with Snoop Dogg and Benny Blanco in early August. On some forums there's talk Jimin could release something this Fall as well, and Jin possibly just before December. Yoongi has enough unreleased music to release 2 albums tonight so he's the wild card.

The fandom in general is woefully unprepared to deal with BTS's solo era and there are several 'schools of thought' around what is most likely to happen. I subscribe to the idea that rather than try to force equal fandom participation for solo acts, the fandom should let chips fall where they may. I think that's the more healthy approach though of course the core of the fandom has not changed its approach to how it supports the guys, even now, so I think that will continue to be the case.

*

ARMYs turned out in full force to support Hobi and I'm still in shock by how many turned up here.

I still think we'll see more variable participation from the rest of the fandom for the other members, but I do think Hobipalooza has definitely helped calibrate expectations for the rest of the group.

Owners of Newellstown Diner Investigating Beer and Alcohol Sales

St. Clairsville’s Newellstown Diner has a certain feel and aesthetic to it that’s evident the moment you step inside. From the décor inside to the throng of regulars eagerly awaiting its opening each morning to grab some breakfast and chat about the news of the day, it can take you back. The owners, Terra Butler and T.J. Stewart, are looking to make a slight addition to that experience and are needing the approval of St. Clairsville residents to do it. The diner is looking to add beer and alcohol sales both during the week and on Sundays. That local option will require yes votes from its St. Clairsville patrons and city residents at large. But the owners want to express that this move is only meant to enhance to experience at Newellstown, not change the overall vibe that customers have come to know and love. “We are not a bar, and we’re not trying to be a bar,” Butler said. “We’re trying to add something, but we’re keeping the diner the diner. We just want to offer some people, whatever they may want to drink, that different option to go with their meal.” Butler noted it’s just a few minute drive to the Ohio Valley Mall and Plaza properties, where a large number of restaurants offer full-service bars late into the evening. That’s not the plan here. You’re not going to see intoxicated patrons stumbling out into the street in the wee hours of the night. This is geared more toward people who enjoy a beer with a meal, or perhaps mimosas for their Sunday brunch. “We’ve had lots of people ask us about having a beer with their burger, or just some kind of option for lunchtime,” Butler said. “We’ve been to other diner-style restaurants that offer options for mimosas, or Bloody Marys, or beer, but it doesn’t change the overall feel of the diner.” The diner isn't looking to become a bar, but if a customer comes in, say on a weekend, and would like a mimosa with their blueberry pancakes, owners Terra Butler and T.J. Stewart want to be able to offer that option. Initial Rollout Should the voters in St. Clairsville approve the local option, Butler said she and Stewart initially will plan a slow introduction. “We’re just going to feel it out and ease into it,” Butler said. “We have a small staff, so extending hours is going to take some planning. Right out of the gate, we’ll be serving beer, mimosas, or Bloody Marys, nothing too crazy. We’re not looking to change the entire dynamic, which is really important. “We’re looking at how to do it correctly. We’re not doing away with the diner, just trying to add to it.” Beer initially will be served from a cooler in either can or bottle form. Ideally, a tap system would be nice depending on the overall response, but installing said system requires a good bit of work so that won’t be included in the initial introduction. “You can’t put in a tap system without making some major changes,” Butler said. “It’s not hard, but it’d take some work, so to start off with, it’ll just be cans and bottles. Mimosas are just one option that will be served should the local options pass. “But that is something we’d look at down the line. It will just take some time.” Butler was equally non-specific about any expansion plans. There are plans. Butler and Stewart both would like to increase the overall size of the diner, and subsequently, its offerings while, again, keeping the current feel. There are options available, but nothing in the near future, and any option will require careful planning to make sure it’s the right fit; the right move. “As far as expanding goes, there are some available options but just not immediate so we’ll have to see how it goes,” Butler admitted. “We’re constantly open to expanding. We’d love that actually. It just has to be the right fit.” In terms of hours, Butler said initially there’s a potential to offer slightly extended hours a few days a week, depending on interest—say a Thursday through Saturday, or Friday through Sunday kind of option. But she’s talking more 7-9 p.m. and not late in the waning hours of the night. This could come in handy during football season when people could gather to enjoy a beer or two with their meals whilst watching the game. Options are available. The menu could also be tweaked to offer a targeted menu for that type of crowd. “We wouldn’t do a full menu. Some nights, we may just have snack foods—wings, fries, stuff like that,” Butler said. “And then, if we have a cook available, we could add one or two evening specials, dinner specials. We just have to kind of see how it works.” At most, the diner has two servers and one cook working during the workday, so any modifications will require some planning. Newellstown is currently searching for both part-time wait staff and a second cook, as advertised recently on its Facebook page. All plans naturally are dependent upon if the ballot measure passes. Butler is hoping for the community’s continued support and wants to assure them that the heart of what makes Newellstown a popular breakfast and lunchtime destination will not change. “There have been some misconceptions I feel, but there are plenty of other restaurants nearby that have alcohol and serve late into the night. We’re not trying to make this a bar or that type of establishment, and bring people in late hours,” Butler said. “It all goes with keeping the diner, the diner, and just adding an extra option, or element to that.” Read the full article

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening install#

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening upgrade#

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening windows 10#

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening pro#

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening windows#

(Side note: The pop-up also has a “Look for an app in the Microsoft Store” option, but if you click it, you won’t find Chrome, Firefox, Opera, or any other browser you’ve likely ever heard of. Select a different browser to be your default. Click the Microsoft Edge icon and you’ll see a pop-up with a list of your installed browsers. Near the bottom of the screen, you’ll see Microsoft Edge under the “Web browser” listing. Navigate to the "Default apps" screen and scroll down. To change the default browser, you’ll have to scroll down toward the bottom of your screen. It shows the default apps for email, maps, playing music and videos, viewing photos, and more. In the Settings app, select Apps > Default apps.

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening windows#

To change your default browser in Windows 10, start in the Settings app. (It looks like a little gear.) You can alternatively type settings into the search box and click the Settings result that appears at the top of the screen.

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening windows 10#

After that’s done, click the Windows 10 Start button and click the Settings icon that appears on the left-hand side of the screen.

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening install#

The first thing you need to do to switch to another browser as your default is to install the other browser on your system. How to designate another browser as your default If you want to use another browser as your default, here’s what to do. states without having to search the internet. Or you might like the way Chrome’s Omnibox (the place you type URLs and searches) can do things like perform math functions, convert currencies, or answer questions such as naming the capitals of U.S. You may, for example, like Firefox’s ability to alert you when a website covertly uses your computer’s processor to mine cryptocurrency in the background, without your knowledge. And it has some interesting features worth trying, such as the ability to launch a website as if it’s an app.Īll that said, you might not be interested in trying out the new Edge, or you might try it and decide you still prefer Chrome, Firefox, or another browser. In my tests, Edge also feels faster than Chrome and uses on average 14% less RAM. And unlike Chrome, Edge offers tracking prevention, which blocks ad providers from tracking you from website to website. The biggest drawback to the old Edge was its paltry selection of browser extensions, but because the new Edge uses the same rendering engine as Chrome, it can run Chrome extensions, which number in the thousands. The browser offers a clean design with intuitive features. It’s probably worth at least trying out the new Edge. If you’ve set another browser as your default, the new Edge won’t automatically override your preference - but like all browsers, it will ask if you want to make it the default. If you’ve been using the old Edge as your default browser, the new one will be your default as well. Enterprise users may or may not have it yet, depending on their IT departments’ rollout plans.

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening pro#

Why you might want to stick with Edgeīy now, the new Edge has most likely been automatically delivered to most Windows 10 Home and Pro users via Windows Update. If you haven’t installed it, the screens you see may vary somewhat from what you see here. The instructions in this article assume that you’ve installed the latest version of Windows 10 - version 20H2, a.k.a. As I’ll show you, it only takes a few minutes. Whatever the reason, if Edge is your default Windows 10 browser, it’s easy to switch to the browser of your choice.

Microsoft edge and google chrome not opening upgrade#

When there’s a major Windows 10 upgrade, the upgrade recommends switching to Edge, and you might have inadvertently made the switch. Note that even if you’ve previously set up another browser to be your default, it might have been changed since then. But you might still prefer to use Chrome, Firefox, or one of the many other browsers out there. The new Edge is a much better browser, and there are compelling reasons to use it. The original version of Edge was underpowered, had difficult-to-use features, and offered very few extensions compared to Chrome and Firefox.īut in January 2020, Microsoft launched a new version of Edge that’s based on the same technologies that drive Chrome. Even though the company made Edge the default browser in Windows 10, users left in droves, most of them flocking to Google Chrome - and with good reason. Microsoft has been struggling to get people to use its Edge browser for years.

So Jhonen Vasquez (of invader zim fame) recently tweeted this and my media analysis brain can't get enough of it because it points out Exactly my problem with Marvel films.

Disclaimer that I've never been a marvel fan, and this development will only minimize the chances of becoming one.

So multiverse of madness is currently in theatres and people can't get enough of it (that's fine, ill let people enjoy things). What this tweet points out, however, is that this film will probably signify marvel going in the direction of requiring having seen previous films to enjoy the next ones.

Of course, this is nothing new. Trilogies (or longer, but those are rare) have existed for a while now. What is different with the recent marvel films is how, where trilogies were tied together by a storyline or a character, marvel is tied together by a brand.

F.e. if we would use the logic of character names in the title, Harry Potter would make sense as a film series. Yet, if we would apply that to Doctor Strange it wouldn't work. Watching Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness after seeing Doctor Strange will not provide you with the necessary information to understand the new film.

And there are two ways to solve this: 1. Provide context/exposition with each film. 2. Require the audience to be dedicated to watching each addition to the marvel brand.

Naturally, Disney is interested in the latter part. See for example the rollout of spinoff series that is exclusively on Disney+ but are necessary to understand the films that are accessible to everyone. (F.e. you have to have seen Wandavision in order to understand Multiverse of Madness).

Is it daring to pull off a story spanning multiple films/series? Of course. Given the various directors, I'm surprised it managed to hold up. But don't think that this is solely for creative vision. Disney also wants you to pay them €9,~ a month on streaming and an additional €11,~ on tickets at the cinema

This is a good video that mentions bits of this more clearly at points

Hot Loki Take: Sylvie was Right

*Spoilers for all of Loki the series up to and including ep 6.

Sylvie was right to kill He Who Remains and free the timeline.

I’m deadass.

He Who Remains forced reality into an endless cycle between a time of Order (he rules as dictator) & a time of simulated and controlled "Chaos" (his Conqueror variants wage war). I say this “chaos” is simulated because when you think about it, it’s chaos that He Who Remains arranges himself by manipulating Lokis.

He Who Remains is so fucking sus but for some reason people are just tripping over their own feet to believe everything he says and vilify Sylvie for killing him. 

He literally tells them (and us) that his methods are deceptive and we know for a fact that he’s willing to murder trillions upon trillions of people, planets, and realities to get the outcome he wants. Yet some are still believing everything he says cuz he said maybe 4 things that were truthful, I guess, and cuz he’s cute. Some of us are so blinded by the fear/anticipation of Kang the Conqueror’s arrival, we are letting him bamboozle us.

He Who Remains perfectly and personally tailored the Ordered period of the timeline to produce this exact Sylvie and this exact Loki, had them meet/influence each other, and then had them travel to the end of time...to him.

Now Lokis by nature are agents of chaos and could suddenly swerve left, so to speak, for no reason. So let’s assume I believe that He Who Remains didn’t 100% know what they would choose once they crossed the Threshold (if the Threshold he described is even real, tbh). He also so carefully molded both of their entire lives for that moment in the Citadel. He may not have known 100% but he knew at least 90% of how they would react to everything he said and did when they were both pushed to this place/mindset.

Notice how he teed them up for the fight that ended in his death:

Manufacturing a scenario where they would meet via the TVA’s variant pursuit.

Manufacturing a scenario where they would travel to the Void and meet Alioth.

Kid Loki being in just the right place to give his sword to Loki.

Miss Minutes appearing to menacingly offer an obvious devil’s bargain.

Him slyly telling Sylvie that she can’t trust Loki, putting it into her head just before he gives them his ultimatum.

All of these thing practically gift wrapped that ending to the Loki on Sylvie fight.

Let’s elaborate.

What was even the point of Miss Minutes offering to re-insert them into the same Sacred Timeline with both getting their hearts’ desires there? 

Not more than ten minutes later He Who Remains told Loki and Sylvie to their faces that he manipulated all this for the sole purpose of making them choose between taking over as rulers of the TVA or killing him and ushering in a Multiversal War. Neither of those choices would result in re-inserting Loki and Sylvie back into the timeline.

So what is the truth? Why waste precious moments with a creepy Miss Minutes menacing them in that vestibule scene?

Notice how Miss Minutes’ words pushed Loki further onto his path of no longer wanting power or a throne but desiring to change his attitude about himself and the universe. Notice how her words conversely pushed Sylvie into balking at the idea of accepting another “fictional” life after a lifetime of being manipulated and made her double down on her mission to free the timeline and get revenge.

Sylvie has the ability to see memories but interesting how he kept her distracted by condescending to her and provoking her, just stoking the fire to make her react negatively. (Interesting how he was far more focused on Sylvie’s reactions than Loki’s, most likely because he needed her to kill him for his plans to work.)

Now I don’t want to completely shift responsibility for her choices away from Sylvie. In truth, if she had held in her vengeance for let’s say an hour and trusted Loki a bit more, they could’ve sat down to talk about things and maybe found a third solution other than starting a Multiversal War or ruling the TVA that still could’ve even allowed her to get revenge. (More on the ultimatum later.)

But I can’t blame her for losing her cool, either. He Who Remains made damn sure she would burn as hot as possible because he tailor made her life to give her the personality he wanted. And any other version of her out there who might have made a different choice would’ve already been pruned.

He Who Remains tells Loki and Sylvie straight up that he set them on their particular life paths because he needed them to be “changed by the journey” to ensure everyone in that room was in exactly the right mindset to do what was needed to “finish the quest” and presumably “slay the dragon,” aka Him. (Notice the parallels to the speaker narration just before episode 2′s fight at the Ren Fair.)

We don’t know! Sylvie never enchanted him to read his memories because she was so filled with rage and Loki was too busy trying to stop her, he didn’t think to do it either. And we’ve already established that He Who Remains trained them that way. Nothing that happened in that office was without He Who Remains’ influence and meddling.

Another nail in the coffin that convinces me that He Who Remains is a no good dirty liar is Renslayer.

If He Who Remains’ end goal was to either have the Lokis choose to rule the TVA or destroy it and thus end up with no memory of her previous TVA judge role/life, why did he send Miss Minutes to Ravonna with files that caused her to pack her bags and search for what she calls “free will,” AKA the one in charge?

I’d bet dollars to donuts that when the next season rolls around the only people who will know what’s going on and still have their memories will be Loki, Miss Minutes, Sylvie, and Ravonna. (Maybe Kang the Conqueror will know as well but I could see it going the other way too. I’m 50-50.)

He Who Remains was planning something by pushing Ravonna the way he did. Does he want her out of the TVA so she doesn’t lose her memories when everything resets? Does he want her to go find the Conqueror version of himself? I mean, at this point, practically everyone knows who she is to Kang in the comics, so let’s not pretend that’s not an option.

Another thing to think about...it’s super suspicious that he was so eager to make them believe he’s one of the “good versions” of Kang and all these others are much worse while giving absolutely no evidence of that outside of an interactive blob powerpoint, a quirky attitude, and a couple of sad, weary faces????

Who’s to say He Who Remains isn’t playing the long game and always manipulates his variants to eventually give him the chance to seize control of the multiverse?

Who’s to say he’s not one of the Kangs that wanted to conquer too? Funny how the “pure of heart” Kang is the one who still wrested control of all reality, killed off every other timeline with a weapon of mass destruction, installed a fascist time bureaucracy, and set himself up as the dictator. Sounds an awful lot like some conqueror shit to me, just saying.

Even wilder theory: what if this really is the same Kang the Conqueror but at the end of his life? We only have hhis word that he’s a variant. He Who Remains tells Loki that this fight is for the “young and hungry.” Maybe the “young and hungry” he’s referring to is not Loki and Sylvie at all but his literal younger self. Perhaps he set up this entire cycle of chaos and order so that he can perpetually live, conqueror, rule, die, and start all over again? Reincarnation, as he says...

But let’s set that wild theory aside for a moment. Let’s circle back to the Multiversal War debate and say it really is is caused by an infinite amount of his variants.

I think it’s hella sus that He Who Remains was so insistent that Loki and Sylvie only had two choices to resolve this riddle: Multiversal War or running the TVA almost exactly the way he did while maintaining only a single timeline. Those are definitely not the only two options they had. In fact, I could probably name 1-3 other options off the top of my head right now:

Keep He Who Remains alive while learning how he manipulated time and using those skills to slowly unleash the multiverse while killing every version of Kang to prevent him from existing as either conqueror or dictator.

Kill He Who Remains, take over the TVA, and slowly change it to something not horrific or even build a brand new system for governing time.

Kill or keep He Who Remains, still take over the TVA, slow rollout the Multiverse and kill or prevent every Kang along the way.

(I’m not saying these aren’t also morally questionable options, I’m just saying they are different from the two choices He Who Remains presented.)

But let’s say these options I suggested are not feasible. I just randomly came up with them ten minutes ago so it would be fair if they were picked apart logically. 

So let’s contemplate this, instead:

Why should we assume/believe that a Multiversal War is actually a bad thing again??? Why are we assuming that He Who Remains’ Sacred Timeline really saved reality from total collapse? 

Assuming he told the truth about his motives, maybe he was just...wrong about the end of reality. Maybe he saw what he thought was the conclusion to the Multiversal War coming and erroneously believed it to be the end of everything but actually it was the multiverse sorting itself out and everything would’ve been fine after.

We (and He Who Remains too) will never know because not only did he not show any evidence to back up his claim that reality was on the brink of collapse, but he himself never allowed things to play out naturally. Whenever the end of the war comes to the brink of something, he always panics, weaponizes Alioth, and traps the universe in his cage of Order with the TVA.

Even more controversial take...maybe the collapse of timelines and the end of everything should be allowed to happen. Maybe the natural cycle of reality is to build and build, splinter and splinter timelines, until it collapses and starts all over again from the void.

Nothing is created and nothing is destroyed, all things exist in a cycle so why should the multiverse be any different?

After all in all, in all three possibilities an infinite number of timelines is destined to suffer and die. Whether it be during the Kang-controlled Order period, Kang-controlled fake Chaos period, or the unrestrained natural Chaos that collapses in on itself...an untold amount of people are dying anyway. There’s only one of those scenarios that has actual unrestrained free will where those people get to exist how they want, make choices they want (even bad ones) for as long as they can.

(Personally, I’ll take that over what the Kangs have wrestled the multiverse into.)

I’ll just take this moment to re-iterate: trust nothing He Who Remains says. He’s a known liar and manipulator, and unlike Loki he has done absolutely nothing to actionably show he’s not still lying or to show that he’s trying to change outside of some sad looks. It’s all pantomime, bruh. Like, the pageantry of it all astounds me. 

Is he maybe telling some truths? Sure. But that doesn’t mean he’s not using the truth to manipulate everything. It’s an illusion, I’m telling y’all! He was up to no fucking good.

Sylvie was far more right to kill him than to not. Loki, Sylvie, & team (prolly also the latest Avengers lineup too) now just need to find a way to break this Kang cycle.

Okay, at the risk of asking about something that you've answered already, but a number of fans seem to think that the rumored possible/probable filming project in NYC the other week (per her "RED season" post, the "acorn" filming notice, etc.) is for a music video, for "WANEGBT" possibly? Have you heard/seen anything about what it could possibly be? I realize we treat rumors very suspiciously (rightfully so) before that can be confirmed.

Hi! Yes, that's been the ongoing top comment theme on the squirrel costume post on Instagram.

For those who may have missed it, last week (10/24) filming notices went up around/near Taylor's much-haunted NYC apartment. The project name on the notices was "Acorn" and with Taylor dressing up as a squirrel of all things for Halloween the dots are being connected between Project Acorn/woodland creatures/"WANEGBT" mv visuals.

[[ For additional context - it's the norm for film projects to have 'code' names on their filming notices to distinguish them from other notices that may be nearby for film/crew staff to identify them and also so as not to tip off the general public on what exactly is filming (keeping onlookers who may interfere with filming at bay). Speaking from personal experience living in a film-heavy city - Vancouver, Canada - project names very often are either words or even a series of letters and numbers. ]]

To that end, I've been consistently firm that I don't think music videos for the re-records are happening. The cost/benefit of the amount of work it takes to film something against how much monetarily mv's drive in revenue doesn't seem worth it to me. Imo, her focus for the re-records is on the music itself and getting things up to stream. But if her 21 day RED (TV) countdown is an indicator at all, she has been capturing a significant amount of footage for something relating to the project. What obviously is unclear (other guesses have included live performances like a RED "tour" video, re-record documentary, etc). And while this re-record rollout has differed wildly from its predecessor - so any precedent set by Fearless (TV) is perhaps not a lot to go on - I feel like the absence of music videos from that rollout will continue here.

Again - all these things are just my cautious and highly skeptical opinion. I am not and have never been the type of person who pounces on theories or likes treating them as gospel (my approach has always been "That's an interesting though. Let's see if it's true!") so all that to say that if I'm wrong I'll be absolutely delighted!

The political possibility of cities

The coming year feels like an important one. Democrats have the chance to pass the For the People Act, which will reverse decades of right-wing voter suppression, steering the US away from the baked-in antimajoritarian characteristics of its politics

At the same time, a successful vaccine rollout (assuming variants can be controlled) will mean widespread "re-openings," most notably in cities, where we find the highest concentrations of virus-incompatible stuff: mass transit, elevators, theaters and "cozy" cafes.

Cities are of huge political significance. The rise and rise of inequality has been attended by skyrocketing rents in cities, largely driven by money-launderers and speculators who turned housing stock into empty safe deposit boxes in the sky.

Cities were also key to delivering the 2020 election: Biden took major cities by 13m votes, inner suburbs by 4m votes, and midsized cities by 1.5m votes. 80% of Biden's votes came from these three categories.

As Ronald Brownstein writes in The Atlantic, "If you draw an imaginary beltway around almost any major metropolitan area, Democrats are growing stronger inside that circle, while Republicans are consolidating their position outside of it."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/03/how-biden-could-partner-big-cities-and-suburbs/618294/

Last summer's BLM uprising was a mostly urban affair, but even before then, the GOP was waging war on cities, with Mitch McConnell cutting maintenance and relief funds for cities, and Trump demanding quarter for ICE snatch-squads.

America's urbanization is an unbroken trend, and cities are semi-autonomous, wildly imperfect, young, diverse and economically powerful. They are also politically important, and many of the reddest states would be blue or very purple if cities were given due representation.

Brownstein's account of cities during the Trump years makes the case that a Biden focus on mayors, rather than the deadlocked Congress and Senate, or the fringe ideologues who were crammed onto the Supreme Court, is the key to making real political change.

The deadlocked legislature is not a new phenomenon. Several presidential administrations have focused on executive orders and regulations from the administrative branch to effect change, but these are flimsy political wins. What one exec order can create, another can undo.

Net Neutrality is here, then gone, then (maybe) here again. Without legislation, these policies aren't worth the Federal Register pages they're printed on. But there are methods to durably inscribe policy, and these are primarily urban.

Mostly, we remember the negative ways that this occurs: redlining, driving freeways through Black neighborhoods or skipping over parts of the city when it comes to subway access. Infrastructure is policy - and it's among the most permanent forms of policy we have.

As recent years have demonstrated, the future is a chaotic place, but as Charlie Stross has noted, the elements of the future that are indeed up for grabs are actually pretty narrow: 90% of the future is here today.

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2019/12/artificial-intelligence-threat.html

Most of the homes people will be living in in 10 years are on the road today. Most of the people who'll be alive then are living today. most of the cars that will be on the road are already in service today.

Even sharp discontinuities like the pandemic don't change those facts much (Stross and I did a conference presentation last week where he said that maybe all the chaos of the past five years has reduced the present's share of the future to 80%, still a commanding majority).

Cities are places where administrative policies can inscribe themselves indelibly upon the future. As LA Sustainability Czar Lauren Faber O'Connor told Brownstein, "Every building in the country is basically a shovel-ready project."

A fed solarize/winterize subsidy for buildings makes a difference for decades to come: not just the carbon footprint of the built environment, but also the baseline expectations for decent buildings. It permanently alters the balance between energy companies and the nation.

Every local government could take the feds up on this, but self-owning culture war foolishness predicts that the benefit will accrue predominantly to the large/mid-sized cities and inner burbs that delivered the election to Biden.

Vehicles don't last as long as buildings, but they are remarkably durable. Biden wants to replace the fed fleet with EVs - he could subsidize cities to do the same, creating huge efficiencies of scale for EV production and demand for permanent EV charging infrastructure.

Of course, the future is transit-based, not private-vehicle-based. Just do the math: multiply the number of people who need to go places by the amount of highway a private vehicle operates, and you'll find an inescapable Red Queen's Race.

The more road we need for those private vehicles, the further apart everything gets. The further apart everything gets, the more cars we need. The more cars we need, the more road we need. The more road we need, the further apart everything gets.

If building mass transit is "socialism" then geometry is a socialist plot (and no, you can't fix this by moving cars into tunnels; do the math). Transit permanently alters where people live and work, and what they expect from their cities. A transit subsidy is a no-brainer.

Biden can't force the states to switch to carbon neutral energy sources, but he can subsidize municipal energy facilities' voluntary switchover, again, permanently altering the economics of fossil-fuel power generation.

Red states aren't red: they are gerrymandered purple states that punish and starve their economic and population centers in the name of culture war nonsense and white supremacy. There are opportunities to permanently alter this situation.

For example, the Biden FCC could resinstate the rule banning states from limiting municipal fiber, and then subsidize 100GB/s muni networks, with emphasis on the urban broadband deserts in the majority-minority neighborhoods created by redlining.

Once cities are operating profitable muni networks that connect *everyone* to service that is 1,000-10,000x faster than the aging copper lines that cable monopolists refuse to upgrade, those networks will become permanent facts.

(as with many anti-monopoly interventions, these will do double-duty: the cable companies' lobbying ammo comes from the monopoly rents that they extract from poor people; deprive them of those rents and you cut the supply lines in the war they wage on the public interest)

There's reforms coming to the Affordable Care Act: if one of these is a change to the rule that cities can only get federal health-care subsidies if their states permit it, then cities could opt-in to health care even when their gerrymandered GOP statehouses block it.

America has 50 governors, 435 Congressional districts, 100 senators and 9 Supreme Court justices.

America has 19,000 cities and towns and 3,100 counties. These local governments are far more accountable to the people than the larger political entities.

Officials in cities, towns and counties who deliver tangible improvements to their residents' quality of life will be rewarded with high approval ratings and re-election. The Trump years left the largest of these starved for friendly federal coordination and partnership.

Biden's cabinet already includes three prominent former mayors - Buttigieg, Walsh and Fudge - and the historically intractable task of directly coordinating with thousands of local governments is made far more reasonable thanks to digital technology.

History teaches that presidents can defeat America's antimajoritarian institutions by simply bypassing them.

When the pro-slavery Supreme Court struck down Lincoln's anti-slavery laws, he passed them again...and again...and again: "Let's see whose legitimacy tanks first."

Biden could write humane, sustainable equitable future on the country in indelible ink. He could also make permanent changes in the lives and expectations of people: increasing subsidies to local schools and wiping out student debt is a change that lasts for a generation.

As exciting as this is, it's not enough. The circumstances of rural life are range from bad to terrible, and they're only worsening. Saving the cities will save the vast majority of Americans, but it will still leave nearly 60,000,000 people in desperate circumstances.

This is unacceptable. Good governments look after all people, not just the ones it expects to win re-election from.

Working with local governments is a tactic, not a strategy - a way to erode corporate power and present alternatives.

It's the beginning, not the end.

Image: The Fifth Element/Luc Besson

Kaylor Rises?

We’ll never know the mechanics or reasons for Joshlie going on a break (or even if they just decided to be more casual for a bit). Maybe it was Taylor related, maybe it was all the stuff with his family, maybe it was the spectre of differing religions, maybe it was the age gap, maybe he started to agree that a ‘lingerie model’ was unsuitable in the long run… But one fact we do know, from investigative journalism done on the Kushners and also from looking at contemporaneous gossip blogs is: Joshlie have taken breaks. We don’t know exactly exactly how many, or why. But we know that they did. Again, this is one of the biggest pieces of ‘evidence’ that they’re real because why bother faking problems and breaks? Why not present yourselves as head-over-heels? It doesn’t make sense, but it’s what happened. And it also opens the door to some romantic!Kaylor. And in March 2014, Josh disappears from the picture and Taylor is suddenly a massive presence - way beyond the fun, highkey promotion we saw up till now. 

1 March 2014 - We see Kaylor both attend a Pre-Oscar Party. I think a Joshlie break was what led Karlie to go to LA and stay with Taylor. At this stage, they’d known each other publicly for about five months but, if we factor in possible negotiations, they might have known each other for much longer. I really do think they were good friends by this stage, because Taylor is a terrible actress and they clearly really enjoyed each other’s company. It was as good a place as any for Karlie to go and lick wounds. 

2 March 2014 - Kaylor attend the Vanity Fair Oscar Party and the Vogue profile talks about this being where they connected and decided to do the road trip: “A few months later they saw each other again at an Oscars after-party, and Kloss suggested they do something spontaneous. “I’d been to Big Sur once before, and I was like, ‘We should just do it,’ ” says Swift.” I suspect this story is a bit of a lie - but I do think it is true that they hooked up around this time, and decided to take a road trip to Big Sur. Taylor had been there once before, with Jake Gyllenhaal. Karlie had never been. It’s interesting that for Taylor it was already a “romantic” place, at the very least publicly, and it’s where she decided to go with Karlie at this point. 

Also, in terms of the “lie” factor - they’re saying this is where they reconnected but they were partying together the literal night before. So they’re obviously blurring reality a bit in the interview. Which is okay, maybe they misremembered or misspoke. But when factored into a pattern, it seems an odd thing to get confused about. 

The road trip itself is ICONIC. Taylor allegedly plays Karlie the whole of 1989. They take a million gorgeous photos. The daisy thing happens. 

5 March 2014 - Karlie posts the ‘Karlie loves Taylor’ sand pic. Taylor likes.

5 March 2014 - Karlie posts the ‘best road trip ever’ daisy pic.

5 March 2014 - Karlie posts the ‘adventure of a lifetime with my girl’ cheek kiss selfie.

5 March 2014 - Karlie posts a pic of her and Taylor with the caption, ‘woah, what a view huh?’

5 March 2014 - Karlie posts the pic of her hugging Taylor from behind.

5 March 2014 - Karlie posts a picture of herself apparently taken by Taylor.

5 March 2014 - Karlie posts a picture of her and Taylor jumping with the caption ‘❤️’

5 March 2014 - Taylor posts a picture of them and captions it ‘On the Way Home’ - possibly a reference to YAIL. 

When they return, things still seem very, very good in Kaylor Land.

12 March 2014 - Karlie attends the Art Production Fund’s White Glove Gala without Josh.

24 March 2014 - Taylor diaries that she’s moved into her Tribeca apartment in the “last few weeks” which means they are in the same city and that, when Karlie was in LA, Tay was still permanently based there. 

1 April 2014 - Karlie attends The New Museum annual Spring Gala without Josh.

1 April 2014 - Josh attends a New York Observer event without Karlie. His family is out in full force - again, this is their family business. It’s actually really odd that he is there on his own. Oh, and by the way - Mikey Hess isn’t there either lmao. 

3 April 2014 - Kaylor go to the gym and then out for lunch at the Butcher’s Daughter (which, for the record, is very close to Josh’s apartment but since he and Karlie have not interacted publicly in well over a month that seems irrelevant). They are papped continuously on both halves of the date. 

14 April 2014 - Kaylor are papped in NYC.

21 April 2014 - Taylor is papped with Cara and the articles that follow are all about “gal pals”. I do not think Cara and Taylor were together at this point but it’s vital to see the rollout of the “Girl Squad” PR strategy. It was not just about Karlie. Karlie was meant to be the ‘main’ Squad girl, but there were others.

26 April 2014 - Kaylor are papped in NYC

2 May 2014 - Karlie brings Derek as her +1 to the memorial service for L’Wren Scott.

4 May 2014 - Karlie posts a photo of herself with Taylor and Kate Bosworth at The Jane Hotel for Harry Josh’s party.

5 May 2014 - Kaylor get ready together and then attend the Met together. Josh is also there with his brother and Ivanka. Kaylor interact with the Kushners because this photo gets taken. We also get this pic (peep Tay’s dress in the background). Karlie sits at a table with Josh, and Taylor sits very, very far away. (Here is a pic of them seated). Now, it’s possible the tickets were booked and the seating arrangements made well before Joshlie went on a break. Or it’s possible going there was just a stunt and Karlie and Josh were very much together.

If Josh was a beard contract, this would’ve been reversed. Karlie would have showed up and walked the red carpet with Josh and sat with Taylor once inside. Instead, Karlie was papped with Taylor on the outside, and sat in the cheap seats with Josh, on the other side of the room from Taylor, once inside. If Josh and Karlie both needed a beard, why would they allow Karlie to show up and walk the red carpet with her girlfriend when they both attended the event?

And here’s what’s interesting: Taylor references this evening extensively at the end of the Wildest Dreams MV. She closely replicates the outfits - Karlie’s, Josh’s and her own - and casts herself as the “other woman”. It’s a telling video because that twist in the end is not necessary for the song to make sense (at all), Tay’s character is hurt and surprised by the MV love interest having a partner, and in the end the love interest’s feelings seem genuine as he runs after her - but she’s already gone. It’s a pretty loud scene in all and I’m not sure how else to interpret it, really. It’s also interesting that Tay’s character in the video falls in love with her ‘onscreen’ partner - kind of how Kaylor probably started as somewhat scripted ‘Famous Friends’ but possibly grew feelings.

Taylor also references this evening in LWYMMD when a 2014 Met Taylor appears several times. A zombie Taylor wearing the dress she wore in the OOTW MV buries a Taylor wearing this 2014 Met Gala dress and later she appears again. Considering all the other “Taylors” are extremely iconic (for example Kanye interrupting dress), I’m not sure why 2014 Met Gala Tay is here. It’s not the best example of one of her princess dresses… It’s not indicative of an ‘era’...

Unless the evening was important to Taylor herself, and the most logical reason for that would be Joshlie. It seems that this was the night that Tay, like her character in the MV, found herself cast in the unfortunate role of “other woman” - a part she would have struggled with ever since. So, with that in mind, here are some photos of Kaylor from that night where Taylor looks miserable: x x x

12 May 2014 - Karlie attends the American Ballet Theatre Opening Night Spring Gala alone.

15 May 2014 - An article with People comes out where Taylor makes getting ready with Karlie sound like a fun pre-prom time, proving the earlier point that them showing up together was part of their PR relationship.

Early May 2014 - Kaylor go for dinner at Toni Garrn’s, further debunking Korlie rumors.

22 May 2014 - Karlie attends amfAR’s 21st Cinema Against AIDS Gala alone.

CONCLUSION: From late February/early March it seemed as though Kaylor were together and possibly exclusive or at least getting somewhat serious. However, in early May Josh and Karlie reconnected around the time of the Met Gala - that’s what the Wildest Dreams MV seems to suggest at least. The fact that they interacted and sat together despite not apparently going ‘together’ is very loud. 

However, Joshlie were not fully back together at this Met Gala stage. I believe they reunited proper only at the end of May, at which point the Kaylor dynamic shifted gears.

However… the contract for the publicity deal was still in place and they had to carry on carrying on. It’s telling that their respective close friends didn’t exactly warm up to one another - their personal friend groups never really meshed. This contradicts the het narrative of them being just extremely great friends. If they really were, why wouldn’t they be hanging out with each other’s main people (in very simple terms, people like Derek and Abigail)? And before you @me, a few likes are not great evidence of hangouts - Josh also liked a bunch of Tay’s posts, and it’s pretty clear they were never friends.

More likely, Karlie and Taylor hooked up… And, of course, Karlie was an important part of this era’s publicity rollout. And that’s where things got messy.