#taiwan cost of living
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Ken and Din's home is so full of their love 😭❤️😭
#chains of heart#ken x din#din x ken#the toothbrush shot?#one used and one not#heartbreaking#must've cost so much money to have all those photos printed#that's where they lived together#the two of them#because they're in love and they're a family#😭😭😭#he's been paying the rent on this place all the time he was in Taiwan?#some of this is his dream#so maybe some is not real#but in his heart this is what their place looks like#there were a lot of dreams this episode so i'm not sure#ken did tell his dad he was staying at a hotel#not sure if he was lying?#but anyway!#i'm obsessed with all these pictures#did they have two big furry dogs?
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✨My Favourite Moments of 2024!✨
uk prime minister keir starmer resigns in disgrace after accidentally referring to a trans woman by her correct pronouns
elon musk attempts to prove the safety of the tesla truck by letting mitch mcconnell drive. both men die within seconds of entering the vehicle
in response to worldwide famine, the World Food Programme appoints taylor swift as its director-for-life
the IDF continues carpetbombing occupied gaza after the ghosts of hamas are spotted. all gazans are required to evacuate into a shallow grave
the conclave repeatedly fails to elect a new pope, causing a schism. one conclave elects some italian bishop you’ve never heard of while the other conclave elects agent Q
the IMF buys pakistan
donald trump wins the republican primary carrying 60 states, 14 countries, and 8 circles of hell. during his victory broadcast from prison he suffers what it clinically described as a MegaStroke, removing his ability to move and speak. he declares one of his busty nurses to be his running mate and leads biden by 30 points
following the death of musk twitter is divided by gavelkind amongst multiple rival warlords
joe biden finally finishes his 13th genocide, winning a bet he made with obama
after it retreats from ukraine and georgia, putin personally murders every single member of the russian army. he is reelected in a landslide
his holiness the ayatollah ali khamenei dies peacefully of old age surrounded by his loving family and a grieving nation. days later he is found in a disused oil pipeline hiding from protesters while off his tits on heroin, and is dragged through the streets and beaten to death
the largest war in human history erupts in africa, costing dozens of millions of lives. it is a slow news day at the UN
president millei attaches argentina to the dollar. the us economy immediately crashes and undergoes apocalyptic hyperinflation, the dollar becoming the first currency to have a negative value. the only surviving american industry is joe biden ‘i did that’ stickers
the PLA begins its amphibious invasion of taiwan. the war claims the lives of one million PLA soldiers, ending within 20 minutes when the generals learn that tanks can’t swim
donald trump wins the us presidential election carrying all 100 states. during his victory broadcast from the intensive care unit, he suffers what is clinically described as a Heart Apocalypse, rupturing every single artery in his body and leaving him as pile of blood and gore. the supreme court rules that despite being, quote, “the most dead person ever recorded”, he is still eligible to be president. he and vp-elect Busty Nurse will be inaugurated on 20 january
due to a weird loophole, elon musk’s trans daughter inherits his entire estate. she immediately uses all her wealth to found a mutually-owned food distribution network, ending world hunger
the switch 2 still doesn’t have fucking analogue triggers
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Five pick ups and one drop off (Pick up 4)
Pick up 1 | Pick up 2 | Pick up 3 | Pick up 4
Scott is tired and a little pissed off, so watch for language. Again, kinda crack just for fun.
I hope you enjoy.
-o-o-o-
Scott Tracy needed to re-apply his deodorant.
He was beginning to get a bit whiffy. But that’s what happens went you cut halfway across the planet after pulling a dozen people out from under a building in Taiwan.
As it was, he’d had to leave Virgil to liaise with local services to make it in time.
Thunderbird One wasn’t known for her shower facilities, but he had foreseen that in the past and his office in New York was set up with all the amenities including a spare business suit or two.
But that was a good five hours ago. If there was one advantage of crossing the dateline, it was the preservation of sunlight. He had the great pleasure of living the same day over again. With less concrete dust.
But more numbers and more annoying people.
One thing about rescue sites, bar the occasional asshole, was that the people there were usually very, very happy to see Scott and his brothers.
Here in the board room he received the distinct impression that at least several of the members would be much happier with his absence so they could do exactly what they wanted.
Which was what had been happening and why he was here.
“Sir, why the higher expenditure? Their employees are not our responsibility.”
Scott grit his teeth and his blood pressure sung in his ears. “We are saving the company and its employees. I believe with the correct financial support, they can become a solid division of Tracy Industries. We are not in the business of destroying lives.”
“This is not a rescue site, Tracy, this is business!”
Scott straightened from where he had been bent over the conference table, glaring at Martin at the far end, and pulled himself up to his full height before turning to glare at Landers on his left. “Not the way we conduct it.” His tone turned acid. “Do you think caring makes us soft, Landers?”
“Yes, it does. You are destroying our profit margin.”
Scott could not give a fuck about this particular profit margin. They were absorbing a large manufacturing business with its heart in country USA. If they didn’t handle the situation carefully, a good hundred thousand employees looked to lose lifetime jobs. The impact on the people and society would be massive. Not to mention a foolish move as TI’s most important asset was its talent. And there was good talent out there. The business had been struggling, but only to out compete TI, which it could no longer.
Its product was excellent. Brains and Virgil had done an assessment and agreed that the teams had potential. All they needed to do was absorb them into TI and then manage them into a better working culture in order to support that talent.
But it was obvious certain members of the board did not see things the same way as the Tracy brothers. Yes, the profit margin would suffer, may even go into cost in the short term, but it was the long term Scott Tracy was interested in and not lining his pockets at the cost of other people’s lives.
Tracy Industries was big and stable enough to take a hit for the common good.
“Landers…” Scott really wished his head wasn’t hurting so much. “…just go.”
“What? Go where?”
“Out.” Scott waved an irritated hand at the door. “Get out!”
“You can’t-“
“GO!”
The whole room jumped.
Landers glared everything at Scott, swore under his breath, and made a scene of gathering his tablet and collection of paraphernalia off the table and stomping towards the exit.
The moment he left, murmured protests rumbled around the room.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Carly, his EA, talking into her headset. A moment later Jeremy, his personal security guard, stepped into the room and took up a position quite casually just inside the door.
Great.
Not the best politic move, Tracy. But Landers was a dick and he had had it coming for a long time.
Scott had just needed to be irritated enough to follow through.
He leant over the table again. “Do we have any further objections?”
Martin at the far end was noting furiously on his tablet. Yeah, more trouble would come from that direction.
Scott sighed. He really wasn’t at his best. He needed sleep. The Virgil at the back of his head was jumping up and down on his neurons demanding he stop growling at staff and come home.
There was a knock at the door and that same brother, still dressed in his IR uniform, stuck his head through. “Hey, excuse me, I need to borrow the President for a moment.”
The room was still rumbling and didn’t really respond. Scott strode over to his brother. “What is it?”
“Come out here for a sec.”
“I can’t leave right now.”
“Yes, you can.” A heavy lifting arm reached in and yanked him out into the hall.
“Virgil, what the hell?”
But his brother was busy staring at him, dark eyes assessing him as if he was capable of medically scanning him with the melanin in his eyeballs. “You’re coming with me.” And before Scott could react - a definite sign of exhaustion if there was one - Virgil lifted him in one quick move and threw him over his shoulder.
“Virgil, what the fuck?!” He struggled, but Virgil was known for his iron grip and even in Scott’s worst moments, he couldn’t hurt his brother.
“We are going home.”
“It’s an important meeting!” The view of the floor and his brother’s butt was infuriating.
“I know. Which is why we let you go initially. However, that was hours ago, and before you disassemble the board one by one, we are intervening.”
“We?”
“Hi, Scott.”
He cranked his head up just in time to see John walk past in a crisp turquoise-grey suit. “What? John? Virgil, put me down!”
“Nope.” They entered an elevator…going up, no doubt to the roof.
“Virgil, please. John will eviscerate them.”
“Yep.” They stepped out into sunlight.
“Aww, c’mon. They’re scared of him.”
“Yep.” A big green shadow loomed over them and Virgil stepped onto her elevator, giving Scott a fantastic view of checkerplate and nothing else. “It will do them good.”
“Virg-“
“Nope. Bed.”
“Please?”
His brother kicked the wall of the cockpit and folded down one of the stretchers. He rolled Scott gently off his shoulder, carefully catching his head and neck and let him sink into the soft medical support.
Every muscle cheered in gratitude.
“Virg…” God, he was tired.
His brother responded by brushing a hair out of his eyes, his gloved hand pushing Scott’s mess of hair back from his forehead. Kind eyes looked down at him. “You need rest, big brother.”
Sure fingers darted over his body, doing up safety straps and securing him in place, and for some reason Scott did not have the energy to protest.
He fell asleep halfway across the Pacific lulled to rest by the comforting roar of his brother’s ‘bird.
-o-o-o-
Next
#thunderbirds are go#thunderbirds#thunderbirds fanfiction#scott tracy#virgil tracy#nuttyfic#scott is pissed off#Virgil is determined#and John is scary
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Safe Skies for Ukraine
Let's do what our elected officials are failing to do
TIMOTHY SNYDER
JAN 26
It's a frustrating time for Americans who support Ukraine. Congressional Republicans said that they support Ukraine, but want to connect it to the border. Then, when given the chance to address the border, they decline.
During these gaslit shenanigans, good people who are fighting a defensive war of tremendous historic significance are being killed when they might have lived.
It is sad to recite all the ways that Ukrainian resistance serves US interests. Sad because not enough people in Congress care about US interests. And sad because one shouldn't even have to refer to them.
It is rare to have a chance to halt a war of aggression and prevent a genocidal occupation at zero risk and with the loss of zero soldiers. That level of moral clarity, available once in any political lifetime, ought to be reason enough to act.
Even if they do not care for others, Americans ought to at least care for themselves.
They should care that they do well from an international order in which it is not normal for countries to invade one another. Ukrainians defend that. Americans should care that the risk of nuclear war has been reduced. Ukrainians achieve that by resisting Putin's nuclear blackmail. Americans should care that the chance of war in Europe has been drastically reduced. Ukraine is fulfilling by itself the entire NATO mission, absorbing and blunting a Russian attack. Americans should care that China is being deterred. So long as Ukraine resists, it is much less likely that Taiwan will be threatened and America will be drawn into a war in the Pacific.
The money in question has not been significant. It is a nickel on the defense department dollar. Much of that nickel remains in the United States. The weapons we send have been used extraordinarily efficiently. The Ukrainians, with symbolic numbers of American weapons, have used them withe extraordinary skill and to great effect.
We can hope that these arguments will matter at some point! And perhaps they will.
In the meantime, we can at least act as civil society. Please help me finish my Safe Skies project. It funds a passive drone detection system, one that is already protecting four Ukrainian regions and is now being extended to another four. It allows Ukrainians to find Iranian-made or -modelled drones and shoot them down before they cause harm. It also works on cruise missiles. I have seen the system’s components when I was in Ukraine, and I know how it works. Like so much that the Ukrainians do, the system is very cost effective. $1.8 million was the total amount to be raised, and we are about 90% there.
Amidst all the ill will, it would be good to have something to celebrate. Thanks to all of you who have contributed. Most drone attacks are now halted, and in this way critical infrastructure is protected and people are kept alive.
America as a country can do much more, and should. But as Americans this is one thing we can achieve now. We are almost there.
PS: In saying all this, I don't at all want to leave out all of you from beyond the United States, and it is a very significant number, who have contributed to this campaign! Thank you. This is just a particular moment when Americans might want to take the matter in hand.
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“I am opposed to war, unless in self-defense.” This was the most-liked comment on Douyin—the Chinese counterpart to TikTok—in reaction to a speech delivered by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Jan. 9. In his address, Wang previewed China’s top diplomatic goals for 2024 and emphasized “the unwavering resolve of all 1.4 billion Chinese citizens to achieve reunification with Taiwan,” a statement made just days prior to the island’s general elections.
The broader reaction to Wang’s remarks likely wasn’t what the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hoped for: Tens of thousands of Chinese social media users responded, many of them with grievances, sarcasm, and defiance, widely questioning the costs of a potential war.
One man from Shanghai complained, “Who is going to fight the war? If I die, who is going to pay my mortgage or my car loan?” Wang’s speech framed “national unification” as one of “China’s core interests,” but as one user from Hunan rebutted, “[China’s] core interests are that every Chinese can be treated equally and have access to elderly care and health care.” The pushback went beyond economic and social grievances. Some posters were even bolder, suggesting that Taiwan’s democracy may demonstrate a political alternative to mainland China: “The fact that Taiwanese choose their own way of life,” said one commentator from Shandong, “might show that Chinese people can take a different route.”
The mood among social media users is a sharp departure from past elections. After almost every Taiwanese general election since 2016, a wave of pro-war fever has swept the Chinese internet. After Taiwan’s 2020 elections, for example, upbeat war enthusiasts in China produced oil paintings that illustrated wild fantasies of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) capturing Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen alive after landing in Taiwan and forcing her to sign an official surrender document onboard a Chinese aircraft carrier—a scene reminiscent of the 1945 Japanese surrender that ended World War II.
In 2021, one of the most popular songs to go viral on Chinese social media was “Take A Bullet Train to Taiwan in 2035.” Its allusion to a high-speed rail line connecting Beijing and Taipei was a dog whistle to nationalist masses who hoped that unification was on the horizon—by force, if necessary.
Absent from these fantasies, however, was the blood and violence that accompanies real war. At the time, China’s star was rising on the international stage, and public confidence was riding high on China’s success in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic within its borders. As such, the sentiments surrounding unification and the use of military force were quite romantic; many people believed that victory over Taiwan would be easy, that the Taiwanese would surrender voluntarily if the PLA simply blockaded the island.
In 2024, however, things have changed. The most recent Taiwanese presidential election—in which the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a repeat victory—served as an uncomfortable reminder to the Chinese public that neither Taiwanese politicians nor voters are interested in Beijing’s plans for political unification. Although the forceful unification narrative still exists, any push from nationalists to reignite war fever has now run into a wall of skepticism following the DPP victory.
“Wake up,” one Weibo user wrote in opposition to the broader online calls for forceful unification. “Stop dreaming,” another echoed. The defiant voices are becoming a common reaction to the suggested use of military force to an extent rarely seen, given the massive culture of censorship on Chinese social media.
A clear reason for this change is China’s economic slowdown. While Taiwan went to the polls in 2024, China was grappling with a youth unemployment rate above 20 percent, a housing market crisis with sales down by 45 percent, and a stock market in free fall that lost $6 trillion in just three years, the likes of which haven’t been seen in almost a decade. News about Taiwanese elections failed to arouse the same nationalistic reactions among the preoccupied Chinese public that had occurred in the previous two contests.
Instead, the 2024 elections triggered a flood of complaints: “Sort out our own economy, what a mess.” a Shanghai resident said angrily. “Look at our stock market,” an apparently frustrated investor from Hunan grieved, “It’d be better to keep the status quo, and leave Taiwanese alone.” The gloomy economy has made some commenters question the underlying justification for war: “With low-income people making less than 1,000 yuan a month ($140), and the national insurance tax going up, huge medical bills, and unaffordable apartments, why do you want forceful unification? I don’t get it.”
“It is the economy that really matters,” another person from Tianjin pointed out. “[Taiwan] being independent or not has nothing to do with ordinary people.”
The changing attitudes toward Taiwan’s elections reflect a broader shift in public sentiment in China’s online space. Discontent about the country’s poor economic reality has been growing louder, drowning out calls for a military takeover.
Ironically, the CCP’s own past propaganda efforts contributed to this cooling effect. Right before Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August 2022, official and semiofficial rhetoric in mainland China was so belligerent that it led many Chinese to believe that the day of unification had finally arrived and that the military would shoot down her plane and launch its attack on Taiwan imminently.
This was the peak of forceful unification hysteria, but it only left its crusaders disappointed. In the end, there was not only no shootdown of Pelosi’s plane, but there also weren’t even military exercises conducted before she left Taiwan. Many Chinese, especially forceful unification advocates, felt betrayed and disillusioned by their government’s failure to follow through on its belligerent rhetoric, and the after-effects of this letdown are still being felt today.
During Taiwan’s 2024 elections, war enthusiasts were continuously reminded of Beijing’s military inaction following Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. “Have you guys forgotten Pelosi?” one said. One commonly repeated joke, observing the lack of military action, scoffed that the only thing that was fired up when Pelosi visited was the stove in her hotel. The kinds of threats that once resonated with nationalists now drew widespread ridicule online: “delusion,” “talking a big game,” “an unrealistic fantasy,” and “all hat, no cattle.”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the Chinese political spectrum, the 2024 election prompted the resurgence of the view among many liberals that Taiwan’s democracy represents a desirable political model. In the early 2010s, many Chinese saw Taiwan as a beacon of hope for Chinese society—a liberal, civic, and democratic alternative to the one-party state. The liberal Chinese writer Han Han coined a popular phrase—“The most beautiful scenery of Taiwan is its people.”—that encapsulated the view of how trustworthy and free a people can become under democracy.
But after the crackdown on liberal intellectuals and online speech under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the honeymoon did not last long and was gradually replaced by a climate of xenophobia, jingoism, war euphoria, and a longing for unification by force. Making matters worse, a growing nationalist mood in Taiwan led many to believe that Taiwanese looked down on mainlanders.
The 2024 elections, however, prompted a renewed interest from the Chinese public about their neighbor, home to the world’s only Chinese-speaking democracy. News about Taiwanese elections aroused great curiosity on Weibo about the nuts and bolts of the electoral process—what a ballot looks like, how many ballots one can cast, how votes are counted, and how candidates are selected. When a few Taiwanese Weibo users answered these questions, they were liked and retweeted by thousands of Chinese accounts, drawing genuine admiration and blessings from many.
“Are we going to see one day like this?” one user from Gansu wondered with a crying emoji. “Maybe this is accumulating experience for our own future: giving speeches, holding debates, and counting votes,” commented another, from Tianjin.
China’s shifting public sentiment is bound to have repercussions for cross-strait relations, but it would probably be a bridge too far to infer that the Chinese public will fiercely oppose a war in the Taiwan Strait. Ultimately, the nationalist base remains. At present, the euphoria about forceful unification is quieting down, mainly because the party’s over-the-top propaganda failed to meet the expectations of its most ardent supporters. But if aggressive rhetoric were followed by military action in the future, war fever could be easily fanned again.
Despite the prevalence of extreme nationalism, Chinese public opinion is more divided on Taiwan than it seems, and these divisions are only likely to increase. What concerns most ordinary Chinese are decent jobs, good income, accumulating savings for retirement, and getting affordable access to health care and housing.
So long as the economy is struggling and people’s livelihoods are threatened, there is no guarantee that the CCP’s attempts to exploit nationalism will work; quite the opposite, it could be faced with plenty of pushback.
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Road safety in Taiwan is notoriously bad, which cost thousands of lives annually. Dense population, bad driving habits, and poor road design worsen the problems. The map shows the traffic accidents that happened in 2021.
by @yanchen00
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This Week in BL - Ending the Year FINE & simple
Dec 2022 Wk 4
Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying the most.
Ongoing Series - Thai
Never Let Me Go (Tues YT) 3 of 12 - Butler Dad (v.2) is going to be a problem, I can tell. Chimon is a cute, if suspicious, flirt. Palm, on the other hand, is the gentlest flirt imaginable. He wants spoiled prince + attack dog dynamic so bad. As, indeed, do I.
Between Us (Sun iQIYI) 8 of 12 - still enjoying it very much, annoyed by filler couples, WATCH ALONG HERE.
609 Bedtime Story (Fri WeTV) 6 of 11 - Oh, I see! The Mint storyline is to give more characters motivation to murder Dew. It’s all set up. How clumsy. Meanwhile, we got a confession right on schedule, classic romance beats.
I Will Knock You (Fri Gaga) 7 of 12 - Whatever.
Remember Me (Sun Gaga) 12 of 14 - Honestly? I’d DNF this show but its almost done and I've watched 12 already. Sunk cost fallacy in action. I’m not going to make this mistake with this production house again. JaFirst cry well, but I’m vetting and binging these in future.
My School President (Fri YT) 5 of 10 - no ep this week, resumes Jan 6
Ongoing Series - Not Thai
The New Employee (Korea Weds Viki) 2 of 8 - It’s giving me life, this one. Pining boss. Drunk lesbian bestie of awesome. Plus gay player (former college heartthrob) is a fun background for the faen fatal, not to mention rainbow rice cakes. COME ON. RAINBOW RICE CAKES!
HIStory 5: Love in the Future (Taiwan Thurs Viki) 1 of 20 - A cheerful kid from 1999 travels to 2022, works as a deliveryman, and meets an heir with a domineering personality. Directed by Nancy Chen (HIStory 4, Papa & Daddy). The time travel premise is interesting, the leads are giving me whipping boy vibes, but I don’t like seme’s stalker energy. It feels very HIStory franchise which means it could go any direction but sensible and I’m expecting problematic tropes. However! The sides are GREAT - they’re an office romance boss/intern relationship. And this is 20 full episodes so we will get plenty of them. Also, is that Taiwan I see giving us a femme character? I am all amazement. I think I like this show, actually. (Note; will be referring to this as H5 going forward.)
The Director Who Buys Me Dinner (Korea Thurs iQIYI) 5-6 of 10 - Is there a not very small part of me that wishes this were a love story between the earnest assistant baby boi, and the older anxiety-riddled rockstar? Yes. Although I did not expect Korea to go there with the lipstick mark AND an actually gay idol. What alternate reality are we currently living in? Also, is every character in this show slightly insane? Yes. Is every actor in this show slightly too pretty for my emotional well-being? Also, yes. Bring it on 2023.
Candy Color Paradox AKA Ameiro Paradox (Japan Fri Gaga) 3 of 8 - I think I just don’t like the photographer character much (although he’s very typically Japanese tsundere seme). Really quite a good kiss though, for Japan. On the flip side, it was nice to see the reporter being good at his job (competency porn is a very underused trope in BL). Then we get confession, immediate retraction, and a disbelief counter attack. Then more kisses. Huh. This isn’t progressing how I expect. And that’s kinda nice too. Oh Japan, you so cute & trixie.
It’s Airing But I’m Not Watching It
Love Bill (Vietnam Sat YT) - Bah Vinh is back but I’m too distracted. Also there’s a lot of fund raising stuff going on with them. I’ll wait and binge.
The Star Always Follow You (Vietnam YT) - same Team RL peeps we have seen before (Sunshine, Stupid)
Till the World Ends (Thai YT) 10 eps - it seems to be good but I don’t know about the ending with that kind of title, so I’m waiting.
Moonlight Chicken GMMTV’s Midnight series (Weds YT) 1 of 8 eventually - first segment has begun bit it’s not the EarthMix messy gays. Sorry all, I’m so not interested in messy hets, so I’m waiting until they grace my screen.
In Case You Missed It
Coffee Melody special feat TitNuea & Jean like it’s counterpart was rather dull, but I find this a more appealing couple than the mains so I liked it better.
Moments Of Love - featuring SmartJames AKA LeonPhob from Don't Say No) from Foremorfilm Production supposedly aired Dec 24 directed by Golf Tanwarin (609 Bedtime Story and The Eclipse). But it has no rating on MDL so I guess not?
Next Week Looks Like This:
2023 forthcoming BL master post is in the works... wait for it... I’m doing all the 2022 wrap ups first. Also waiting for the last of the studio announcements.
THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS
Mujigae-tteok (Korean rainbow rice cake) - a new item has entered my never ending food quest list.
OhmFluke do domesticity well, gotta give them that.
Quick end of year thoughts on 2022 BL & the future of these weekly posts:
Honestly? Overall it’s been a fine year for BL with some good shows & and some ho shows, and also a lot of dross. But the most notable aspect was the overwhelming quantity to keep up with. My work world is opening back up with tons of travel. This plus my recent revelation that I actually prefer binge watching (especially the lower quality stuff) means that I can’t keep up with BL if it keeps up this insane pace.
So in 2023 you can expect me to try to keep these weeklies updated with what’s airing, of course, but also pull back on how many I personally watch and summate.
In 2022, BL sort of became my 2nd job, and it doesn't pay well enough for that.
All that said I think...
2023 is going to be GOOD for BL. Happy new year!
(last week)
Current Kpop earworm? I’ve been in a “beastly” mood recently so it’s Lee Gikwang’s (Beast, Highlight) Don’t Close Your Eyes. I forgot how fucking banging that opening rift is. Thank you Kpop gods for putting the 2nd gens through the ever eternal slut phase.
Now just put them all though a BL phase and we’re golden. Yes, I am thinking of Unintentional Love Story (Gongchan B1A4), why do you ask?
#this week in BL#BL news#BL gossip#upcoming BL#best BL#new BL#BL reviews#Thai BL#Korean BL#Taiwanese BL#Japanese BL#live action yaoi#Rakutan Viki#gagaoolala#GMMTV#Unintentional Love Story#Gongchan#B1A4#Gikwang#Don’t Close Your Eyes#Kpop#OhmFluke#Mujigae-tteok#Coffee Melody special#Never Let Me Go#Between Us#winteam#609 Bedtime Story#I Will Knock You#The New Employee
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You Run
Vladimir Putin, flanked by airline cabin crew (reportedly Aeroflot trainees), shortly before ordering the invasion of Ukraine.
Two recent quotes stick in my mind. The first one was by an American woman who escaped from a mass shooting incident after the US Super Bowl in Kansas City. (One dead, twenty-two injured.) Interviewed minutes later on TV, she said: In this day and age, you run.
I forget where I saw the second quote but I thought of it after Donald Trump's threat to pull the plug on NATO, should he be re-elected this year: It's as if the devil had changed sides.
Near panic broke out across Europe. Trump was willing to throw European countries, previously known as America's allies, to the wolves.
Vladimir Putin, do as you please. Ukraine, prepare to be sacrificed. And by extension, Taiwan, your time is up.
I keep coming back to this: the West isn't what it used to be. I think of myself as fortunate to have grown up in a 'eurocentric' world order, or the outcome of the second world war if you prefer. It may have been delusional but it was printed on perfume bottles: PARIS - LONDON - NEW YORK.
In reality, eurocentrism and the colonial empires that created it were already faltering by the time I came into this world. It took, however, a long time to see and accept it. As for the 'American century', it ended in 2001 with the apocalyptic scenes of 9/11 in New York City. As the towers collapsed, the world pivoted into a new era. To put it differently, the world was changing hands.
---------------
On February 24 2022 I woke up in a small, no-nonsense hotel south of Granada and went downstairs to have coffee at the bar. I flipped open my tablet and there it was:
RUSSIA ATTACKS UKRAINE
Until then I - we - had assumed there existed a fundamental contract with European history, immovably rooted in postwar reality: never again, no more major wars in Europe. No one in their right mind would want to mess with that contract.
Except that Vladimir Putin had just ordered his army across the border into Ukraine.
Now I wake up every day and want to hit my head against the wall as the Russian war of aggression grinds on.
Grind,
meat grinder,
human waves,
trench warfare.
The words are all desperately wrong.
After two years of daily annihilation, hundreds of thousands of lives casually erased or ruined, it goes on and on. Both sides, it has been reported, are running short of young men to waste at the front.
We do not know exactly what goes on on those front lines. We hear about Russian soldiers dispatched to their deaths as a matter of course. But we do not get to see that, nor do we get any real casualty numbers. At the beginning of the war, things were more graphic, the bodies photographed where they had fallen. Two years on, we don't know. But the broken, blasted cities tell the story, as they do in Gaza: not many people walk away alive.
And now no one seems quite sure what to do about Ukraine. The war looks unwinnable because Putin does not care about the cost in human lives.
Why fight if you can't win? Is a negotiated settlement still possible? Land for peace would mean the partition of Ukraine accepted as a fait accompli. But can there be peace without justice for Ukraine, which would effectively be sacrificed in the hope of keeping Putin's Russia in check? Putin, however, cannot be trusted, nor can Trump for that matter.
Should Trump return to the White House, a new world order might emerge overwhelmingly inimical to the west or what would be left of it. It might not even be clear where the USA would position itself. As for the loss of Ukraine, in whole or in part, it would be like small change.
You can go on like this, endlessly turning over the options and arguments in your head, none of them acceptable: Ukraine's outright surrender? Or an indefinite ceasefire that would humiliate Kyiv but leave it attached to Europe?
Faced with a historic opportunity to rewrite everything, a moment of dizzying recalculation of how the planet works and who's boss, it is hard to imagine that China would hesitate to seize the moment. Others would follow, like India, Indonesia, Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, eventually lining up with Russia in an historic act of opportunism and Schadenfreude.
In this day and age, you run.
A lot is at stake in 2024.
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* * * *
Tonight, Senator Angus King (I-ME) spoke on the Senate floor about what U.S. refusal to aid Ukraine would mean.
King harked back to the failure of European allies to stop Hitler when it would have been relatively easy. “Whenever people write to my office” asking why we are supporting Ukraine, he said, “I answer, Google Sudetenland, 1938.” “We could have stopped a murderous dictator who was bent on geographic expansion…at a relatively low cost. The result of not doing so was 55 million deaths.”
The upcoming vote on whether to support “the people of Ukraine as they fight for our values,” King said, “will echo throughout the history of this country and the history of the world for generations…. If we back away, walk away, pull out and leave the Ukrainians without the resources to defend themselves, it will compromise the interests of this country for 50 years. It will be viewed as one of the greatest geopolitical mistakes of the 21st century.”
Abandoning Ukraine would embolden Russian president Vladimir Putin, King said. Putin “told us in 2005 that he felt that the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century was the dissolution of the Soviet Union. He has…pursued the remedy to that catastrophe in his eyes ever since…. In 2008 he gobbled up part of what had been an independent country of Georgia. In 2014…Crimea and eastern Ukraine. [In] 2022, he tried for the rest of Ukraine.”
People say Putin will stop with Ukraine, King said, but “the Finns don't think so. The Swedes don't think so. The Baltic countries don't think so, and the Finns and the Swedes know Russia.”
“Maya Angelou once said if someone tells you who they are, you should believe them,” King said. “Putin has told us who he is. He’s an autocrat. He’s an authoritarian. And he wants to rebuild the Soviet Union. And I believe he wouldn't stop there…. We have to take him at his word…. He despises the west. He thinks NATO is an aggressive alliance, somehow designed to invade or otherwise threaten Russia. NATO doesn't want to invade Russia. NATO wants to keep the lines where they are.” King noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “the first crossing of a border of this nature since World War II.”
“[W]hat we're looking at here,” King said, “is…the struggle between the idea of democracy and the rule of law and authoritarianism and totalitarianism…. Ukraine is the opening wedge in that…conflict.” Turning away from Ukraine would embolden Putin, King said, but not only Putin. “[I]f we cut and run in Ukraine, that will change Xi Jinping's calculus about Taiwan. He's going to say well, the Americans aren't going to stick. We don't have to worry too much about them helping the Taiwanese defend themselves.”
King, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, identified the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy and warned what is at stake if the U.S. abandons Ukraine. “Our asymmetric advantage in the world right now is allies,” King said. “China has customers. We have allies…. But our allies are going to say well, wait a minute. You’re with us now but when the going gets tough and you have to maybe have a budget supplemental to stick with us, you're going to walk away. It's going to undermine the confidence of our allies, and in places like Japan and South Korea, they may say we can't count on the Americans to defend us.”
If we abandon Ukraine, he said, we will have destroyed “our ability to negotiate and make deals in the future. Who the heck is going to deal with us if they know we can't be trusted?.... What an…incredible…self-inflicted wound on this country.” King recalled that in the 1780s, France had stood with the fledgling U.S. even as the Revolutionary War dragged on, and noted that “[t]here’s a reasonable chance we wouldn't be the United States of America today, if our ally had walked away…. The whole idea of an alliance is that you can count on somebody when the times are tough. We're sending ammunition. They're sending lives.”
Addressing right-wing talking points about aid to Ukraine, King said that U.S. aid to Ukraine is “one of the best and strongest and most closely accounted for provisions of aid ever” and that “the idea that nobody else is contributing and Europe isn't doing its part is just bunk.” Europe has given far more to Ukraine than the U.S. as a percentage of the wealth each country produces, he said, and other countries have also taken in millions of refugees.
“[D]emocracy matters,” King said. “Values matter. Freedom of expression, the rule of law matter, and that’s what’s at stake…. This is a historic struggle between authoritarianism, arbitrariness, surveillance, and the radical idea that people can govern themselves. That's what this is all about. This is a battle for the soul of our democracy in the world…. It's worth fighting for. And in this case we don't even have to do the fighting. We just have to supply the arms and ammunition.”
“I have a question for my colleagues,” King said. “When the history of this day is written, as it surely will be, do you really want to be recorded as being on the side of Vladimir Putin?... Or on the side of China, as they contemplate the invasion of Taiwan…. [H]istory's going to record this vote as one of the most important votes that any of us have ever made.”
For his part, King said, “I want to stand on the side of resisting authoritarianism, on the side of democracy, on the side of the values that the country has stood for and that people have been fighting for 250 years.”
[LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN :: HEATHER COX RICHARSON]
#Putin#aid to Ukraine#war in Ukraine#history#Angus King#democracy#defense of democracy#authoritarianism#Letters From An American#Heather Cox Richardson
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Random-Mailbox's Favorite Sailor Moon Fics - Week 26 - Amnesia Fics
March 11-17 is International Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Week - you can read more about that HERE. So to mark it and use this platform for some education, as as well as entertainment - please follow links for each of the following countries to resources about symptoms of head injury and how to care for those with one (or to donate in some cases) - USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Finland, Austria, Taiwan.
Below stories, with a couple of exceptions, deal with effects of falls, and associated Amnesia, and how our favorite duo handle them. Thank you @riverlethe , @sinjazz, @nightofgales and @iwrestledavongonce for helping me find/double check resources and to @goddessalthena for making this GIF for me ❤️
As always, my apologies in advance for spoiling some of these for you (Fic Titles are linked to either FFN or AO3 entries).
The Answer - @ladyloveandjustice
Since this story most closely ties into the gif, I thought I would start with it. Mamoru wakes up alone in a hospital room with no recollection of how he got there and starts to panic, because it reminded him too much of his childhood. That is until Usagi bursts in and makes sure he is ok.
Don't Forget Me - Serenity-hime
Mamoru slips on some black ice while watching Usagi spin around in the freshly falling snow and hits his head, forgetting who he is. With Usagi feeling responsible for him, she tries to help out the best she can, noticing the effect he has on her when he is not hurling insults her way, and hoping that it won't change once he remembers.
Snowy Memories - Le_Serenity
Usagi remembers their past lives and their connection, but has to silently watch while Mamoru goes through his life without her in it and hope for the best.
Forget-me-not - @idesofnovember
This is the most light-hearted story in today's post. After finishing purifying a spirit, Sailor Moon gets hit with its dying curse that promises to take something precious from her.
Nocturne For A Queen / Mercy - @floraone
This is probably one of the best written yet saddest story-sets Flora has. When senshi had to awaken because of a threat, they avoided getting Usagi involved once again because she made a wish to be a normal girl. Even once she was fighting as part of the team, her memories of Mamoru and Endymion were locked away. Except that Mamoru loved her all this time and did his best to shield her from himself, at the cost of his own happiness.
Say You'll Remember Me - @wishwars
This is technically a start of a story that might one day get written in full, but also works as a one-shot. While waiting for Mamoru to show up to their impromptu picnic date, Usagi gets into an accident, causing her to forget whole years of her life.
Just Say Bubbles - @ninjettetwitch
While arguing with Rei, Usagi decides to test the Luna pen to turn herself into the Moon Princess. And then proceeds to break it by accident, getting stuck in her new look. Read on what happens when she tries to protect others from a Youma and gets hurt in the process, losing her memories of who she is while still in disguise.
UsaxMamo Writing Diet: Chapter 7: Hugs - @billyjbradshaw
After one of their worst arguments to date, Motoki makes Usagi go apologize to Mamoru for her insults regarding his upbringing.
Moonshine: Chapter 2: Memories on a Page - @queenrisa14
Mamoru runs into Usagi, who is clearly feeling down, and eventually convinces her to show him the rest of her drawings during the Doom Tree arc, with an expected effect.
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Next Week, we will cover bar / drinking related stories for 🍀St Patrick's Day🍀as our next Holiday themed post of the series.
Here are the links to the previous Tumblr posts in these series to explore more amazing works based on different themes - make sure to check them out if you haven't had a chance! (Click on title name to go to the post) - I will keep updating the list every week as new posts come up:
Week 1 - Groundhog Day
Week 2 - Established Relationships
Week 3 - Sex Positivity
Week 4 - Unfinished Stories
Week 5 - Darker Stories
Week 6 - Potions 🧪
Week 7 - Reveals
Week 8 - 👻Halloween🎃
Week 9 - Wrong Perceptions
Week 10 - Non-Senshi AU
Week 11 - In-Progress Fics
Week 12 - Mutual Pining
Week 13 - Enemies to Lovers
Week 14 - Slow Burn
Week 15 - Christmas Part 1 - Ugly Christmas Sweaters and Santa!
Week 16 - Christmas Part 2
Week 17 - New Years
Week 18 - High School AU
Week 19 - Slice of Life
Week 20 - Coffee shop AU
Week 21 - Huddle for Warmth
Week 22 - Friends to Lovers
Week 23 - Valentines Day
Week 24 - Do a Grouch a Favour Day (or Cheer Up Fics)
Week 25 - Soulmate AU
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My book series Love is in Small Thing Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 in new English editions, are currently available on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/s?me=A2FK9CAAEGNND9
I've always wanted my books to be more accessible for fans all over the world, and the long journey to make that happen is finally over. I'm really happy. It's a very tearful moment for me. You won't know how many challenges I've had.
Since the publication of my first book in South Korea in 2016, it has also been published in various countries, including Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Turkey, Japan, Brazil, China, Philippines, and Russia in their respective languages. 🇰🇷 🇮🇩 🇹🇼 🇻🇳 🇹🇷 🇯🇵 🇧🇷 🇨🇳 🇵🇭 🇷🇺 Although unofficial, I made a small number of books by myself and sold them to small fans in 2014. I also opened crowdfunding on Kickstarter in 2015, and thankfully, 1,800 fans participated, so I was able to make limited edition books and send them to fans around the world.
However, I had one concern – continuous inquiries from overseas fans looking for English versions of the books. At the time, I felt helpless, but I decided to approach the Korean publishing company that had published my books and asked if they could add English translations to the captions in the book's illustrations. Fortunately, they agreed, and this resolved my initial concern. Eventually, in April 2020, revised editions with English translations were released.
However, at the end of 2019, when the decision to release revised editions was made, my second concern began. It was to find a way to sell my books to fans all around the world. Creating an online store was not an easy task, but I managed to resolve it using an e-commerce platform called Shopify. The real challenge was international shipping. Shipping costs from Korea to many countries abroad were prohibitively expensive, and I had no prior experience with international shipping. I worried about whether fans would be willing to pay such high shipping costs. Despite my concerns, I had no alternative. I diligently searched for a trustworthy shipping company, opened an official website in February 2020, and began preparing to sell my books.
Although I had hoped that this would resolve my concerns, a much larger problem arose, affecting not only me but the entire world: the COVID-19 pandemic. I couldn't have imagined that the pandemic's impact would be so severe. In April 2020, I started selling my books with great aspirations, but the pandemic brought global logistics to a standstill. Immediately after opening the website, I received orders from a lot of people around the world. I had packed all the orders and was ready to ship them, but I received notifications from the shipping company stating that they couldn't deliver to most countries. It was a moment of utter frustration after all the hard work. Orders continued to come in, but there was no way to send them. All I could do was apologize to the customers via email. Fortunately, everyone was understanding, but it took nearly a year to finally ship my books to all the customers. I had no idea that selling something to people living in other countries would be so challenging. Over the course of a year, I faced many trials and tribulations and finally overcame the obstacles.
The concerns, however, did not end there. Over time, I continued to receive comments and emails saying, "I want to buy your books, but the shipping costs are too high." I searched for ways to reduce shipping costs but couldn't find a solution. Since I wasn't a large-scale retailer sending out many international shipments, I couldn't negotiate significant discounts. So, I started looking for other alternatives.
There were two potential solutions. The first was to sell my book on Amazon using Amazon KDP – a print-on-demand model. The second was to sell my books on Amazon by producing my books in bulk and stocking them in Amazon FBA. However, I couldn't bring myself to produce the books in bulk and stock them in Amazon FBA, so I chose Amazon KDP and began selling my books in August 2020.
Has my journey reached its conclusion? Selling my books on Amazon and reading customer reviews, I found a new issue – the quality of the books. Print-on-demand is a method where books are produced and sent out as soon as an order comes in, primarily focusing on text-based books, which led to less-than-ideal paper and print quality for illustration-heavy books in terms of cost. Now, the final solution I'm going to attempt is to produce my books, stock them in Amazon FBA, and sell them. And it took a whopping three years. The long journey to make my books accessible to fans worldwide at reasonable prices and shipping fees has finally come to an end.
My books are now available on Amazon, and you can purchase the new English editions. I am extremely pleased to offer you high-quality English editions at an affordable price with reasonable shipping fees than before. Especially in these new editions, 25 additional unreleased illustrations are divided into two books. I hope this is good news for those who wanted my books but couldn't purchase them until now. I am deeply thankful for your ongoing love and support for my work.
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two and a half weeks before Easter I had to fly to Taipei from Lower Matecumbe through Key West and San Francisco for family reasons. because of a key lime pie, some very aggressive desire to not impose, and a sword shaped key chain, along with a whole bunch of other mistakes, I didn't get to the airport far enough ahead of time and missed my flight. I then had to be driven from Key West to Fort Lauderdale, spend the night in tht brightest and noisiest airport on the face of the fucking planet,
slept face down on my backpack on some chairs and woke up with the zipper pressed into my face.
I flew to San Francisco from Fort Lauderdale and wandered into a Sunglasses Hut, thinking,
"I wear my sunglasses all the time now, living in the Keys. I haven't had much money because of my shit, absolutely garbage job that doesn't pay me, plus missing this flight cost me a lot, and it's kind of expensive to have to fly to Taipei, better just try on."
I walk in and don't like any of the ones the saleswoman is giving me to try on. I want mirrored aviators. Ray-Bans. she clearly disagrees with the ones I want but reminds me that the second pair is $60 off with their current promotion. I tell her,
"hey thanks for showing me around I'm just going to order these online by myself"
and she hands me an ipad. "you want custom ones right?"
I don't see a way out and I think I've actually forgotten I was trying to escape? or probably I forgot I was trying to escape in order to save money. I remembered I wanted to leave and it seemed like the fastest way to get to leave the store was to just buy some sunglasses?
I don't remember why but she said some kind of customization wasn't available on the frames I chose but! the second pair is $60 off! so I could get a SECOND pair with a different frame but that customization it would be perfect. I remember tapping through the customization screen. I remember there was a couple in there looking at Gucci sunglasses with the other attendant. I remember waving my phone over the credit card reader? and almost leaving without my receipt.
I walk all the way to the curb and was ordering a Lyft home when I get a phone call? from the sunglasses hut. dazed, I pick up,
"hello?"
"hey this is Brenda from Sunglasses hut, ummm you live in San Francisco right, maybe I could ship your luggage to you?"
"oh, no, I'm still at the airport. I'm just outside, let me head towards the security gate so you can hand it to me"
"what?"
"you can just bring my suitcase to me, I'm still at the airport"
"oh okay good, you didn't leave because you knew you left your luggage right?"
"uh actually no, I didn't know at all"
"what the heck. you. you didn't know?
okay where are you? oh I see you I'll bring it out"
I'm like standing on the other side of the glass waving at her store and the security guy already glared at me once and barked, "hey no reentry"
she brought out my luggage and was so confused why I wasn't panicking or super grateful or anything. mostly I was tired as hell. at this point it had been well over 24 hours since I had left my bed in Lower Matecumbe.
I wandered around the underground parking garage for a little while, with my suitcase. frustrated that I couldn't find the designated share ride pickup area. turns out I went down instead of up at one point and ended up at the right place but four floors down.
The driver tries to make small talk with me and I decline. I tell my discord friends I may have accidentally spent $435 on two pairs of sunglasses that will arrive in my house in the Bay Area when I am still in Taipei.
the lyft takes over an hour to get to my house from the airport, I don't live in San Fransisco. I spend one nice day at home and then I take another Lyft back to the airport, and after a 12 hour flight, I have to deal with my family in Taiwan.
I don't want to talk about that part much. it was pretty harrowing. it was Good to see family I haven't seen in a really really long time. I was going to go back in 2021 but there was a travel restriction for Americans because we were handling the pandemic so badly.
I wasn't there for good reasons, really. but it was good to get a chance to say hi. I leave my electric toothbrush at the resort we stayed at. I call them and my aunt gives them her phone number and address so that she can mail it to California when they find it.
after 9 days it is a 10 hour flight home, and then one night sleeping at home, (I retrieve my sunglasses from the porch) and then a 4 hour flight to Houston. My flight to Key West gets delayed. I buy Starbucks for breakfast. its an hour late. the Starbucks at the airport is full of teenagers. there must be a field trip. they are out of oat milk and I settle for almond. 2 and a half hour flight to Key West. my friend finds me and then it's a 1 hour drive to the camp where my they work. I can cook and eat dinner, and another hour drive from there to where I work and sleep.
the guy who can drive me to where we work is still working so I hang around waiting for him to finish working and then he drives me back and on the way back, I realize that oh fuck the full moon isn't on Easter. it's tonight! I'm tired as hell but I've got to do it, I've got the wine and the candle and a lighter. I've never been to that beach at night but I can do it today.
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For all my American friends
Consider this: Trump is +40% in the GOP primary. 78% approval rating with GOP voters, 29% of whom are ride-or-die-Trump. Barring an accident with choking on a well-done steak, he will be the GOP nominee, making this platform *the GOP platform.*
Then consider this: winning presidential candidates tend to lift House and Senate candidates of the same party. The current House speaker is a Christian nationalist who was one of the primary architects of Trump's attempt to undo his 2020 presidential loss. The 2024 Senate map has Dems defending most of its remaining seats in red states, with only 2 seats to give, net. You think "MAGA Mike" Johnson and Mitch freakin' McConnell will be a check on a Trump power grab? If so, I have some lofts in Trump Tower to sell you.
The likelihood of a Trump win is the likelihood of 2-4 years of unified government under Trump who does not face re-election, a go-along very conservative legislative branch, and a hard right Supreme Court, which means:
* Abortion outlawed nationally.
* Free speech rights abridged - particularly freedoms of protest and freedoms of the press (see: Thomas' desire to revisit libel laws vs. the media)
* Books banned, nationally.
* Muslim bans and family separation policy, reinstated.
* Military action against Mexico over the border, authorized (it's terrifying how popular this idea is in GOP circles)
* LGBTQ protections, particularly marriage and trans rights, overturned.
* Tax cuts for the ultra-rich expanded and made permanent.
* Union organizing cracked down upon.
* Green energy and environmental protections of the IRA, reversed and the EPA either crippled or dissolved.
* Ukraine, Taiwan, Gaza, all abandoned to their fates.
* and of course, all 91 felony charges against Trump are dropped.
And that's just year one.
This is not scare-mongering: these are the *public, stated policy positions* taken by MAGA and the GOP right now. The Heritage Foundation's innocuous-sounding "Project 2025" is a roadmap white paper on dismantling the federal government under a second Trump term, and you can look it up anytime.
I get Joe Biden is old, and things are not improving quickly enough - maybe you don't feel anything is improving at all. Maybe you disagree with some, or a lot, of the administration's policies. Maybe you want someone younger or more progressive or more willing to fight the system that's failing too many people.
BUT.
Short of some miracle in the primaries, that wishlist just isn't on the table. If you are naive enough to make the perfect the enemy of the good, you'll get neither. You have one simple, stark, choice:
Anything except voting for the Dem candidate -- and that includes abstaining because you think the candidates are just as bad as each other -- is a vote for Trump, and the naked unalloyed evil he brings with him.
That is it, folks. That's the whole game.
The costs of failure here are far too high, for you, your children, your neighbors, your country, and the world the rest of us live in. You CANNOT allow these fascists to win, and that means we must do everything - and anything - it takes to stop them from getting hold of the reins of power. You CANNOT allow a revenge-obsessed narcissist and his fascist little cronies to take hold of the government, where they will absolutely pull the the ladder after them, as they always try to when they gain power. Because as we all know, things that are done in the USA are very hard to un-do, by design. And if you fail here, there's not really much of a USA left anymore.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for House Republicans to get behind a supplemental spending bill that would send $60 billion to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. He warned that opposing it would play into “Putin’s hands.”
“Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin, Opposing it is playing into Putin’s hands,” Biden said. “History is watching.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate early Tuesday passed a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, pushing ahead after months of difficult negotiations and growing political divisions in the Republican Party over the role of the United States abroad.
The vote came after a small group of Republicans opposed to the $60 billion for Ukraine held the Senate floor through the night, using the final hours of debate to argue that the U.S. should focus on its own problems before sending more money overseas. But 22 Republicans voted with nearly all Democrats to pass the package 70-29, with supporters arguing that abandoning Ukraine could embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin and threaten national security across the globe.
“With this bill, the Senate declares that American leadership will not waver, will not falter, will not fail,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who worked closely with Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on the legislation.
The bill’s passage through the Senate with a flourish of GOP support was a welcome sign for Ukraine amid critical shortages on the battlefield.
Yet the package faces a deeply uncertain future in the House, where hardline Republicans aligned with former President Donald Trump — the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, and a critic of support for Ukraine — oppose the legislation.
Speaker Mike Johnson cast new doubt on the package in a statement Monday evening, making clear that it could be weeks or months before Congress sends the legislation to President Joe Biden’s desk — if at all.
Biden in a statement urged the House to urgently act: “We cannot afford to wait any longer. The costs of inaction are rising every day, especially in Ukraine.”
“Already, we are seeing reports of Ukrainian troops running out of ammunition on the front lines as Russian forces continue to attack and Putin continues to dream of subjugating the Ukrainian people,” the president said.
Schumer said the strong bipartisan support should pressure Johnson to advance the bill. McConnell has made Ukraine his top priority in recent months, and was resolute in the face of considerable pushback from his own GOP conference.
Speaking directly to his detractors, the longtime Republican leader said in a statement, “History settles every account. And today, on the value of American leadership and strength, history will record that the Senate did not blink.”
Dollars provided by the legislation would purchase U.S.-made defense equipment, including munitions and air defense systems that authorities say are desperately needed as Russia batters the country. It also includes $8 billion for the government in Kyiv and other assistance.
“For us in Ukraine, continued US assistance helps to save human lives from Russian terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media. “It means that life will continue in our cities and will triumph over war.”
In addition, the legislation would provide $14 billion for Israel’s war with Hamas, $8 billion for Taiwan and partners in the Indo-Pacific to counter China, and $9.1 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza and the West Bank, Ukraine, and other populations caught in conflict zones across the globe.
Progressive lawmakers have objected to sending offensive weaponry to Israel, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, as well as two Democrats, Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Peter Welch of Vermont, voted against it.
“I cannot in good conscience support sending billions of additional taxpayer dollars for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s military campaign in Gaza,” Welch said. “It’s a campaign that has killed and wounded a shocking number of civilians. It’s created a massive humanitarian crisis.”
The bill’s passage followed almost five months of torturous negotiations over an expansive bill that would have paired the foreign aid with an overhaul of border and asylum policies. Republicans demanded the trade-off, saying the surge of migration into the United States had to be addressed alongside the security of allies.
But a bipartisan deal on border security fell apart just days after its unveiling, a head-spinning development that left negotiators deeply frustrated. Republicans declared the bill insufficient and blocked it on the Senate floor.
After the deal collapsed, the two leaders abandoned the border provisions and pushed forward with passing the foreign aid package alone — as Democrats had originally intended.
While the slimmed-down foreign aid bill eventually won a healthy showing of GOP support, several Republicans who had previously expressed support for Ukraine voted against it. The episode further exposed divisions in the party, made more public as Trump dug in and a handful of lawmakers openly called for McConnell to step down.
Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican, argued that the U.S. should step back from the conflict and help broker an end to it with Russia’s Putin. He questioned the wisdom of continuing to fuel Ukraine’s defense when Putin appears committed to fighting for years.
“I think it deals with the reality that we’re living in, which is they’re a more powerful country, and it’s their region of the world,” he said.
Vance, along with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and other opponents, spent several hours on the floor railing against the aid and complaining about Senate process. They dug in their heels to delay a final vote, speaking on the floor until daybreak.
Supporters of the aid pushed back, warning that bowing to Russia would be a historic mistake with devastating consequences. They pointed out that if Putin were to attack a NATO member in Europe, the U.S. would be bound by treaty to become directly involved in the conflict — a commitment that Trump has called into question as he seeks another term in the White House.
In the House, many Republicans have opposed the aid and are unlikely to cross Trump, but some key GOP lawmakers have signaled they will push to get it passed.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, traveled to Ukraine last week with a bipartisan delegation and met with Zelenskyy. Turner posted on X, formerly Twitter, after the trip that “I reiterated America’s commitment to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia.”
But Speaker Johnson is in a tough position. A majority of his conference opposes the aid, and he is trying to lead the narrowest of majorities and avoid the fate of his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted in October.
Johnson, R-La., said in a statement Monday that because the foreign aid package lacks border security provisions, it is “silent on the most pressing issue facing our country.” It was the latest — and potentially most consequential — sign of opposition to the Ukraine aid from House GOP leadership, who had rejected the bipartisan border compromise as a “non-starter,” contributing to its rapid demise.
“Now, in the absence of having received any single border policy change from the Senate, the House will have to continue to work its own will on these important matters,” Johnson said. “America deserves better than the Senate’s status quo.”
The Republican speaker has repeatedly pointed to a sweeping set of hardline immigration measures passed by the House last year. But that legislation has gained no Democratic support — essentially dooming it in the politically-split Congress.
Schumer at a news conference called on Johnson to put the foreign aid package on the House floor, saying it would pass with “strong bipartisan support.”
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How is it like living in Taiwan?
I am surprised that you ask me this :) This photo is a night market closest to where I live. The food in Taipei is good (but more expensive than the rest of the country), the metro is insane, I don't need a car. Convenient stores are 7/24; they sell everything from eggs to soaps and ready-made meals, and can handle credit card bills, phone bills and online shopping packages; best thing is that these stores are literally everywhere. We have an universal health care so doctor visits cost next to nothing. Very democratic so we see hilarious dramas whenever there's an election. I know I cannot survive outside Taiwan.
The only down side is we have a neighbor who claims ownership over us and ready to kill everybody and turn us into Ukraine no.2 or even much worse.
Definitely would not recommend that you move here.
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Sup. xD
No, but really. Hi guys! Long time no see.
I see that Tumblr's changed, and believe me I'm re-learning how to use it. xD
So, um...usual life update I guess, you don't have to read this but I have to get this out of my system or I'll go crazy xD.
Honestly I really miss blogging and talking about fandoms, hobbies and whatnot. It's literally been over a year since I last blogged and there's a reason for that: literally no work-life balance at my old job. I say 'old' because I finally quit this year!! I'm really glad to be out of that soul-sucking hellhole xD For reference, I used to work at one of the Big Four accounting firms as an auditor, think hard before going in haha. The pay may be good...but at what cost?
For a while even when I left I couldn't stop thinking about work, I would always worry that there's something that hasn't been finished yet, and believe me at that kind of job the workload is endless Orz. On the plus side I did get experience, but I'm waaayyyy more glad to be out than in, believe me guys, work-life balance is something that everyone should have, I don't know what it's like in other countries (do feel free to share, I'm quite curious) but there's a reason so many foreign professionals choose not to work in Taiwan:
The pay is low. Especially compared to Japan and South Korea. As of now minimum wage is NTD 26,400 (USD 836) per month, and NTD 176 (USD) per hour, the thing is it's seriously not keeping up with inflation here. Bento used to cost NTD 60~70 when I was in college! Now it's NTD 90~100 on average.
Hours are long. Not all jobs are like this, but you are expected to do overtime without additional pay in most.
A lot of bosses here just...don't know leadership skills? Like they know how to work, but are awful at teaching and leading subordinates. Both Mom and I complain that the EQ of some locals is quite low ^^" No seriously, you do something well and somehow it's always your fault xD People here can be too materialistic sometimes and don't spend enough time on enriching themselves and others. It's really the fault of long work hours as well as the cram school culture here.
So yeah..welp.
My new job (accounting staff at a SME) may be lower pay but at least I get to come home earlier now, which honestly is a relief. Also weekends off. You'd be extremely lucky to get a weekend off at the old job xD
In a way, my Dad spoiled our family xD Because he was too nice we got really used to this rosy portrait of Taiwan and the locals xD But yeah, Mom, Bro and I will find ways to carry on.
Well enough about that! I hope everyone's getting on well with their lives, even when it's tough, there are always ways to carry on. ╰(*´︶`*)╯
I haven't been 100% offline actually xD Just a lot of lurking xD
Some things I've been up to:
You are now looking at a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fan xD JJBA lives in my head rent-free and I don't regret it at all, I want to slap past me for not following JoJo sooner, especially as an avid fan of music and fashion. My brother’s pestering of me to watch it finally came to. I don't read manga, have watched Parts 1~6 (and made my Mom watch it with me ha xD she practically got almost all the music references xD) and am excited for a Part 7 anime!! Which could take forever sadly :( Along with Arcane Season 2, it’s been a while since there’s a show that I really look forward to watching, what with the current state of TV and movies nowadays. Too much on content and not enough on quality or well, basic storytelling even.
But I'm sad that I can't go to JOJO WORLD. QQ I really have a knack for getting into things too late.
My personal ranking: 2>5>3>4>1>6. This is just personal favoritism xD Each part has their own strengths and weaknesses and the writing in later parts is better as Araki has really matured as a mangaka and writer. But Part 2 is amazing. Period. I will not have it any other way. Special mention goes to this guy for simultaneously stealing my heart and *ahem* crushing (sorry) it, I have only cried for him:
He and Joseph should kiss.
2. I got into gaming again! Thank Steam really for letting lots of players save money on not having to buy separate consoles xD I got my brother to help me invest in a good gaming laptop, and it's just lovely. Some of my favorite games:
METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE
I got to experience Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and my god it's a MASTERPIECE. The OST also is just *chef's kiss*. The composer really did a great job with the music. The animation that plays every time Raiden uses Zandatsu is an absolute joy to watch xD My brother introduced this game to me through the memes, and he immediately regretted it when it was all I could talk about for a while xD But god slicing a Metal Gear in two while Rules of Nature plays in the background, how can you not squee?! xD
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Mind you this is the tutorial boss xD I highly recommend this game, pure unadulterated adrenaline rush xD It’s so over-the-top and unapologetic, and just damn cool.
SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE
I also beat Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. And as of now, it's still the best sense of achievement that I got from a game, it's the most difficult game I've ever played and let me tell you guys I'm good friends with the death screen xD
The adrenaline rush I got from beating Genichiro for the first time (and throwing the lightning back at him!!) as well as beating Sword Saint Isshin was unreal. At some point, the gameplay for me clicked, and it was immensely satisfying being able to perfectly parry the enemy's attacks. The clanging of swords is a sound that I absolutely love.
Though fuck Demon of Hatred xD. Joke I love the Sculptor character who I affectionately call 'Sculptor Dad' but come on you had to unlearn the game's combat system just to beat him. I agree that he's more of a Dark Souls boss than a Sekiro one.
Well deserving of 2019 Game of the Year 👏
DEVIL MAY CRY V
So you can probably see by now that I love action and hack and slash games xD I used to play Devil May Cry 3 when I was a teenager and even watched the Madhouse anime, the over-the-top-ness and Dante's quips won me over. Dante’s even the whole reason why I tried strawberries and now I love them xD So! It was only natural that I wanted to play DMCV, and I wasn't disappointed.
There’s a total of 4 characters you can play as, each with their own SSStylish gameplay, and I had lots of fun just sending the demons into the air while the extremely enthusiastic cast cheers me on xD
Also V is that Edgy Guy who’s a hit with the ladies xD My brother hates him but I adore him. He even said that I’m a sucker for the “starving artist” types xD Well…
HOW CAN I NOT BE A SUCKER QQ That smirk, dear god.
HADES
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0:34 sold me haha 😂
You play as this really sexy Prince of Hell with daddy issues.
While Sekiro would frustrate me sometimes with constantly dying, every time I died in Hades it encouraged me to keep on playing, as whenever you die it actually advances the plot and unlocks new dialogue with the various characters, who are based on Greek mythology. If anything the game encourages you to die xD There was a time I was so determined to make it to the surface and when I did it was the next morning already xD
The art by Jen Zee is also just extremely gorgeous, and the OST by Darren Korb (who also voices Zagreus) is amazing. I also recommend Supergiant’s other games Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre. They are one of the best indie game developers out there. They put a lot of heart into their games, which is something a lot of AAA games lack nowadays.
Also I headcanon that Zagreus listens to Coldrain while hacking and slashing through hell. It just seems like a band he would listen to xD
And not to forget, but thank Supergiant for giving the option to romance this really sexy grim reaper xD I'm a sucker for the 'tsundere' types too, and let me tell you every bottle of gifted nectar and ambrosia was worth it. When he finally realized his feelings weren't unnecessary I squeeed.
DISCO ELYSIUM
Last but not least, an underrated gem.
Disco Elysium is one of those games that shouldn’t exist, and boy am I glad that it does.
It’s a choose your adventure game in which you play as a detective trying to solve a murder case with your partner, all the while getting to know the seaside town of Martinaise. Which once you get to explore it, isn't really that big and yet somehow feels huge, there's a whole fictional history that was created for it and for places outside Martinaise even, the worldbuilding for this game is insane. It also seems very real and similar to our own and yet it's all fictional, I really admire that level of detail.
I actually first heard of this game through an artist I follow on Tumblr, who draws True Detective and Disco Elysium fanart. I adore the first season of True Detective and never knew that MartyxRust does things to me. Read reviews about this so-called "True Detective/The Wire-inspired" game and was sold.
Also the developers really hit it out of the park with Kim Kitsuragi, god I love Kim 😭 One of the best companions that you can have out there. Whenever I felt bad and by extension made my player character feel bad (the game is choice-based, there's even an achievement called 'World's Sorriest Cop' xD), Kim would always be helpful and encouraging and god just the sweetest.
The humor in the game is also something I just found so charming, and the voice acting is perfect for every character, I find myself having fun mimicking the voices a lot. I kept pestering my brother to play this game, and his Evrart Claire impression is so spot-on, I myself like to impersonate the Fritte clerk with my 'm'kays' xD
Oh, and you can start a nightclub at a church. And believe me when you experience this scene in the game, it is glorious.
3. I had one of those 'happiest days in your life' moments: I went to see the GazettE's MASS final concert in Japan!! And the crazy thing is I specifically flew in just to see them, I was there in Japan for the concert and went home the next day. At the time I had booked my airline ticket thinking I would still be clocking in to my old job on Monday and well, I never thought I would quit xD
And silly me never thought that even Japanese trains could be late (the local trains at least), I was almost late to the 05:30 PM assembly time xD
By the time I got to the Budokan I was confused by the lack of banners and signs at the entrance at first, then I saw this procession of people in black heading to MASS (ha) and just knew. xD
And I thought I was the only one silly enough to fly to another country for a concert, then I heard Mandarin, English, Spanish in the crowd and thought: 'ah, music really brings people together'. It was beautiful.
Seeing the bouquet with the 'From overseas fans (Overseas fans より)' made me all warm and fuzzy inside.
Too shy to take my own picture xD But glad to know I'm not the only one extremely happy to be there.
I tried to take a picture of this Uruha banner and it just kept flapping in the wind like Uruha during the heavier songs, so I just gave up xD
The setlist for that night, when they played Miseinen (未成年) I think I started tearing up QQ Frankly the whole night was so surreal I couldn't stop thinking about what I experienced on my way back to the hotel. And I stayed at a capsule hotel for the first time! Specifically this one.
The song they played after the concert was an instrumental version of Knockin' On Heaven's Door, and it was absolutely lovely. They even teased a trailer for a new release next year(!!) and a trailer for their Christmas concert A HYMN OF THE CRUCIFIXION ver.2
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Their trailers are needless to say, cinematic. I'm sad that they removed all their older trailers off YouTube though :(
As of writing this, there are still stuff I want to share and fangirl about, but unfortunately I have to wake up to a job tomorrow xD If I could, I'd spend my days just doing what I love and not having to deal with stupidity at work. I just want to say I'm glad that there are things in life to enjoy and make going through the daily grind even just a bit easier :)
#personal stuff#jjba#jojo's bizarre adventure#mgr#metal gear rising#sekiro#sekiro shadows die twice#dmcv#devil may cry v#hades#disco elysium#the gazette#life is better now especially with the job change#even when my boss can be unreasonable sometimes xD - I now think that any treats to lunch are obligatory for the work I put in hah#seriously guys no shame in clocking off work on time#I truly hope that Taiwan starts looking out for its employees and students more#when Steel Ball Run the anime gets announced let me know asap#I already know I will love Gyro QQ#and if anyone has any JoseCae/CaeJose fanfic recs let me know too xD#I've been devouring that ship in an unhealthy amount#then again when have I been healthy with shipping xD#curse Joseph for being so god darn charming#and Caesar for being the Spongebob to his Patrick
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