[dmellieon]

[hubblegleeflower]

This is so good. Makes me feel like I'm really helping.

Which I need, because this kind of sucks.

[redwoodforestwiki]

Voters: dont vote for bernie bc they dont like his policies

Bernie stans: its a deep government conspiracy that bernie isnt winning

[thefourteenthdoctor]

This is the most stupid fucking thing.

A majority of literally every. Single. State. So Far. Likes Sanders’ policies. 

[redwoodforestwiki]

What does this even mean...are you saying the majority of people in every state agree with all of sanders policy ideas? Thats just not true

[thefourteenthdoctor]

Among Democrats overall single-payer health care receives 58%+ support, the Green New Deal gets 86%, a $15 minimum wage gets 84%, tuition-free college gets 76%, student-loan forgiveness gets 79%, breaking up big banks gets 60%, and paid family leave gets 94%. 

They did exit polling asking about support for Sanders’ health care plan in all of the states that have so far voted. 

For/Against:

IA: 57%/38% NH: 58%/37% NV: 62%/35%  SC: 50%/44%  VT: 73%/23% ME: 69%/28% TX: 63%/33% MN: 62%/35% CO: 57%/36% CA: 57%/36% NC: 55%/41% OK: 53%/43% TN: 52%/44% AL: 51%/43% VA: 52%/45% MA: 50%/45% 

Now, given health care is the lowest supported of his policies by Democrats, and in every state so far there’s a majority for his health care policies, I think it’s fair to say that every state so far is going to broadly support his policies with a majority.

To say that voters don’t like his policies is just factually incorrect. 

#also why is this scottish man all riled about another countrys politics um

Um maybe because the US’ politics will literally affect my country’s politics? Maybe because who the Democratic nominee is will affect whether the rest of the world has to suffer another four years of Donald Trump? Because international relations are a thing? Maybe because you don’t live in some isolated country whose decisions affect only yourselves? Maybe that’s why.

[redwoodforestwiki]

Voters: dont vote for bernie bc they dont like his policies

Bernie stans: its a deep government conspiracy that bernie isnt winning

[thefourteenthdoctor]

This is the most stupid fucking thing.

A majority of literally every. Single. State. So Far. Likes Sanders’ policies. 

[probablyangypolitics]

If anyone on the left feels like pushing conspiracy theories of the DNC committing massive widespread and large-scale full-on electoral fraud to screw Bernie Sanders over specifically, maybe take a moment and just ask yourself this question:

Why do you think it is that Trump, his idiot sons and a lot of Republicans just so happen to be pushing the exact same theories as you?

That should be giving you pause for thought.

[thefourteenthdoctor]

If Trump said that the sky was blue, would you argue that it wasn’t? 

I despise the man. I don’t want him in power. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong about everything. 

[dappercyborg]

Steward Peterson suming up the current state of the Tory party rather nicely, the amount of lying on question time tonight was insulting

[0hpartyb1]

[rosalui]

‘the avengers wrecked the city!!!’

i think i’ve narrowed down what annoys me so much about the in-universe ‘avengers wrecked the city!!!’ narrative and it’s: what exactly could they have done better in that moment?

like the annoying thing about man of steel was that these dudes are 1) superhuman, go fight on the fucking ice caps or something, and 2) superman seemed to actively and purposely be shoving people through buildings full of civilians

the avengers are mostly squishy humans and there are literally only like a half dozen of them and they mostly operate as like an emergency response team? so

we see them desperately trying to keep civilians off the streets and evacuate them

we see them trying to take out as many aliens/robots/whatever as physically possible

we see them trying to fix the root of the problem, whatever it is, ie close the portal/stop sokovia from becoming a planet-ending meteorite

usually with no time to plan and no warning and sure as hell no protocol for a situation like this

and they basically never cause the major damage in a fight themselves?? like no thats the bad guys??? hi??

there’s two other really interesting factors to talk about here, and that’s scarlet witch and the hulk

we see in the videos in civil war that the hulk like personally rained debris down on some civilians, and i liked that inclusion because it’s realistic! the hulk is a big green rage monster, he’s out of control, he is a loose canon who shouldnt be on the field anywhere near civilians to begin with

but theyd have lost the battle of new york without him. like theyd all have been eaten by space whales and/or loki would have gotten away

scarlet witch is almost in the same position? like maybe she shouldn’t have been there to begin with because she’s still in training, her control over her magic is clearly not fully stable because she couldn’t suppress the explosion and couldn’t get it far enough fast enough

but also she was TRYING to contain a bomb that would have detonated in the middle of the street and killed a bunch of civilians there instead

if theres concerns about training, about transparency, about jurisdiction - eg. they should never have been in lagos to begin with - i get all of that. if the complaint is that the events of the chitauri invasion, the helicarriers, and age of ultron were spawned from the actions of shield or asgard or tony and bruce messing around i totally get all of that but like

chitauri are suddenly pouring through a hole in the sky and literally like six people and their desperate last-minute defense plan are standing between the aliens and the population of planet earth

octopus nazis on the helicarriers are getting ready to murder literally a million innocent people and they had minutes to stop it and minutes to destroy the very dangerous framework it had been built upon and there was no one to trust because everywhere had been infiltrated

a robot supervillian is trying to cause an extinction event with a floating city

what precisely could these dudes have done better given the time and the resources that they had

[thefourteenthdoctor]

When reading this it sounds like an out-of-universe ‘I don’t believe this is realistic’ discussion of the narrative presented, so if I’m wrong about that please feel free to let me know! However, if it is from an out-of-universe point of view, then I don’t think it is unrealistic. 

I do not disagree with the points you make about the choices the characters have made and the actions they have taken - I completely agree on all of those - but the reaction of the media and politicians in-universe parallels our world rather accurately, I find. 

Both the media and politicians need someone to blame. They always do. In the US, Trump always blames the Democrats and Obama. In the UK, the Tories always blame the last Labour government, or the current Labour opposition. During the Brexit campaign, a lot of blame was placed on the EU for issues which the UK government had control over. 

Blame happens constantly. 

Politicians use blame to enact their own policies. The media spreads that message, and makes people afraid of that ‘other’ they tend to vilify. And we can see that in results like the 2016 US election, or the 2016 Brexit referendum. As Ross said, “people are afraid”. 

Now, that does not necessarily mean that they are right to be afraid, God knows in the real world that a number of the ‘reasons’ they are ‘afraid’ is absolute bullshit... but the realism of that narrative in the Avengers was a pretty solid one. 

It’s easy to blame the people that are trying to make things better. That’s what people do, and that’s what politicians use for their own gain.

[impossibletruths]

“Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of by the folk.”

— Henry Jenkins (Director of media studies at MIT)

LOVE THIS.

(via flootzavut)

[tanoraqui]

#tell me more about the reparative potential of the sharing economy #then let me KISS UR FACE

[thefourteenthdoctor]

If you ever read any scholar about media, you want to read Henry Jenkins. 

“Fandom, after all, is born of a balance between fascination and frustration: if media content didn't fascinate us, there would be no desire to engage with it; but if it didn't frustrate us on some level, there would be no drive to rewrite or remake it.”

[andthwip-deactivated20220219]

She’s blue, she’s dramatic, and she’s angry.

[geekybibliophile]

@zombeesknees

[counterpunches]

#i sometimes forget that’s kazza under there #living her best blue life

[bramblepatch]

Nicholas J Fury spent one weekend in the 90s hanging out with a cool lesbian and then spent the next twenty years trying and failing to find another superhero with her general degree of competence or emotional maturity

[blogdeactivated1028]

New fun personality game: search up “Florida man” and your birthday and see what headline you get (year is not nessecary)

[lunacatriona]

An observation:

I was watching Question Time tonight and Ian Blackford made a good and valid point: the problem at Westminster is a fundamental one, and it can be traced right down to how MPs are elected.

At Holyrood, in the Scottish Parliament, MSPs are elected by proportional representation. It usually prevents any one party from having the numbers to have an outright majority. It encourages cross-party communication. It demands communication if anything at all is to be achieved. And so MSPs are used to communicating with one another. They’re used to sharing views in a constructive way, and compromising to get the support of other parties if anything is to be passed. Communication is part of their job description.

At Westminster, we use first past the post to elect MPs. This usually results in a majority government. It removes the need for cross-party compromise and communication because in normal circumstances, well, the party in Government outnumbers the MPs who don’t agree with them. They don’t communicate because there’s no need to. They don’t compromise because they can steamroll ahead, whether the Opposition agrees or not.

But now we’ve hit a thoroughly abnormal situation. The Government doesn’t have the numbers to crush the Opposition like they’re used to doing. Both the Government and the Opposition are at odds within their own parties and have no way forwards. They need to have cross-party discussions. They need to communicate with each other. They need to compromise with each other. But because they’re not used to doing it, neither side has the skills to actually stand up and talk to one another. The few MPs who do have that ability and the motivation to use it have broken away from their parties to do so. The rest simply don’t know where to start. This is uncharted territory to them.

If we’re to move forwards when (if) this Brexit shambles ends, we need to rethink our antiquated system in the UK. It is glaringly obvious when you compare the two that Westminster is extremely old and Holyrood is extremely modern. When an MP is asked to do what, in Scotland, is considered an MSP’s job, they’re entirely out of their depth.

Everything has to change. It’s time to move into the twenty-first century. Westminster does not get a free pass on that.

[thefourteenthdoctor]

Whilst I agree that the system used in Holyrood is better, the cross party communication is a difficult one to justify in Westminster.

How does one have discussions with someone like Theresa May? Her own people have said that if there is any sort of dissent or alternative opinion from her own people, she shuts them down. 

It’s fine if the people you’re discussing with have similar values - positive values - but that’s not really the case there. The two main parties are at complete odds with each other. 

As for those MPs you’ve mentioned having broken away from their parties to have some form of cross-communication... I don’t see that as a good thing. Now, this is more than likely my own political bias, but working with and supporting people who, for the last eight years, have put this country through hell? That’s not a good thing. It’s a justification of those horrible things - saying that it’s alright to do those things if you’re willing to compromise on others. 

[paradoxymora]

Important PSA to con-attending Doctor Who fans:

You may have seen this post of mine. I’ve decided to just go ahead and publicly name the offending party:

John Leeson.

I know of several incidences already, and his inappropriate behavior ranges from getting just a little too “friendly,” to groping, to persistently (and honestly really grossly) trying to get you to go to bed with him and giving you a spare key to his room (even if you’ve made it clear you’re not interested).

Reblog, spread the word, warn your friends. At the very least maybe I can help prevent this from happening to others.

And if you’ve experienced anything like this from him, please get in touch with me if you feel comfortable doing so.

[circular-time]

I witnessed a little of his hanging all over @paradoxymora and someone with her in the hotel bar one night – I think I tried to deflect him towards me because I’m used to him getting handsy when he’s had a few drinks – but I’m afraid I didn’t realize what I saw was only the tip of the iceberg, or how bad it was, or that he’d persisted after they’d rebuffed him, or that he’d propositioned anybody.

I’m one of the recipients of John Leeson being “just a little too friendly.” over the past several LI Who/Regen/Gally cons. I was 90% amused/charmed and 10% weirded out. I feel guilty talking about specific incidents on Tumblr when I haven’t reported them to con staff, but I can confirm he has an odd habit of giving out room keys. (Although in my case it simply accompanied an invitation to dinner, which I turned down. But in retrospect – why on earth was he giving me a room key?!)

So yeah, I have personally experienced some of the type of behavior @paradoxymora is describing, and I absolutely believe her. It is difficult to talk about, because I like him when he’s not being skeevy, but… it happened. It’s happened at more than one con. :( And I can’t keep it to myself if he’s harassing other people, because that’s not fair to you.

[beccaland]

This is so saddening to read. I’ve never met him, but I love K-9 so much as a character, and in BTS interviews, Leeson seems like such a kindly, gentle man. That said, I believe these reports.

The most important thing–far more important than preserving a constructed image of a minor celebrity–is protecting potential future victims and helping past victims to heal.

I try not to know too much about actors’ lives because it seems like inevitably they’re going to be disappointing compared to my idea of them, and it’s not always easy to separate the person from the art. That’s something we all increasingly need to work out how (and whether) to do as more of this kind of behavior comes to light. I don’t know that there is a good answer. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the answers will need to vary from case to case and person to person.

I wish this report weren’t true, because I’m afraid it might change my ability to enjoy K-9 as a character (I don’t think I’ll be listening to his BTS stuff anymore for sure). But I do believe it. And I’m grateful to paradoxymora, circular-time, and others who’ve come forward. It’s so important that we know he is not safe, especially if we go to cons.

[jimothyshalpert-deactivated2017]

#a masterpiece

[thranduils]

things the tolkien biopic needs to include:

tolkien being such a bad driver edith refused to ride in the car with him driving

young tolkien and edith dropping sugar cubes on the heads of passerby from the second story of a tea room

tolkien and lewis going to a non-costume party dressed as polar bears

tolkien almost ending his friendship with lewis because he hated santa claus making an appearance in narnia so much

tolkien’s entire writing group except for lewis fucking hating his writing because of all the elves

literally everyone hating going for walks with tolkien because he would stop and stare at every tree he passed for like 20 minutes

tolkien owning a goblet with the black speech (that he made up) on it and refusing to drink out of it because it’s an “accursed language”

tolkien inventing the “one ring to rule them all” verse while in the bathtub and jumping out

tolkien dressing up as an anglo saxon warrior and chasing his neighbors down the street with an axe

tolkien entering the room shouting beowulf in old english at his students the first day of classes

tolkien convincing his class that leprechauns were real

tolkien stealing a city bus while attending oxford and taking his friends for a joy ride

tolkien being a savage replying to a letter from the nazis

tolkien hating the beatles with a passion and refusing to let them make a lotr movie

tolkien hating his crazy american fans and calling them his “deplorable cultus”

“jirt”

[nimium-amatrix-ingenii-sui]

Not just the autobus hijack but ALSO the impassioned speech to the crowd at the Martyr’s Memorial that followed afterwards (FËANOR IS THAT YOU?)

Tolkien performing Sheridan’s The Rivals with his buddies in school, with Tolkien playing Mrs Malaprop, “excellent in every way and not least so in make-up“ according to the school newspaper

Tolkien debuting at his school’s Debating Society with a motion “supporting the objects and tactics of the suffragettes“

Tolkien being a brutal rugby player because he made up for his lack of size and strength with absolute ruthlessness

Tolkien doing a “fair imitation of a frenzied Bacchic dance” while wearing nothing but a sheet and sandals after his graduation ceremony at King Edward’s School

Tolkien getting arrested when the police got involved in a town-vs-gown scuffle because he was small and scrawny

Tolkien being invited to do a special lecture at the Essay Club in 1920 but then not knowing what to talk about so he talked about the Fall of Gondolin, with the poor minute-keeper spending a week in the Bodleian to find out what the heck Gondolin was

In general, Tolkien’s awful procrastination habits

Tolkien attempting to put the Silmarillion together for publication but playing round after round of Patience/ Solitaire instead

[thefourteenthdoctor]

I think if Peter Jackson was directing the film and he put out an extended edition then you’d be able to fit all this into it.

[catchymemes]

Via @iamdylancurran (Twitter)

[frosty-the-snowden]

not even apologizing for the longpost

[systlin]

But seriously, if alien PLANTS ever show up, citrus and oaks are going to be trying to breed with them IMMEDIATELY. 

We make fun of ourselves for being willing to fuck aliens, but I guarantee you that citrus and oaks are right there with us, aggressively trying to cross-pollinate with any new and interesting conquests. 

[tygermama]

this has weird implications of the intelligent aliens are plant-based

[blueelectricangels]

“Yes, my great-grandfather is a terran bur oak. We don’t like to talk about it, it was very awkward for everyone involved. Except, presumably, the bur oak.”

[elodieunderglass]

“There were an alarming amount of whole-genome duplication events on Earth and frankly, I’m not comfortable going into it. They’re resilient as fuck, they grow in all kinds of conditions, and they have terrifying vocabulary like ‘allopolyploidy’. Do you KNOW what that IS? It’s something you don’t bring up around seedlings, that’s for…. that’s for fuckin sure.”

[thefourteenthdoctor]