#Vietnam war bashing

[bimbobaggins69]

first time for everything…

virgin eddie munson x experienced best friend reader

summary: Eddie has been in love with you since middle school. But he’d never admit it, no way, he’d never ruin what you two have… once he turns 18 he’s unwillingly drafted into the war while you go off to college in New York. Once the war is over Eddie is sent back to his mundane life in Hawkins and you move back when your grandmother gets sick. As fate has it, you and Eddie find your way back to each other.

warnings: smut ahead, mdni 18+, angst, late 60s—mid 70s au, fem reader, no y/n, pet names (princess, sweetheart etc.), mentions of slut shaming, reader is looking for love in all the wrong places, jealous!eddie, mentions of war, mentions of dying, Eddie has ptsd, mentions of a loved one having only months to live, loss of a family member, loss of virginity, unprotected p in v sex, cream pie, fluff fluff fluff.

authors note: thank you so much to the nonnie that requested this, I’m sure it’s so different from what you had in mind but I got very inspired after watching Forrest Gump. (this has a happy ending) Also, the timeline here vs the actual Vietnam war barely coincide… so ignore that please. Thank you to my loves @take-everything-you-can & @corrodedcorpses for beta reading! <3

wc: 8.1k

1966

“Hey, what are you doing sitting over here all alone?” A boyish voice calls out from behind where you’re seated; up against an old oak tree with just enough shade to allow you to read the words in your book.

Middle school was rough and you kept to yourself, being the new kid and all. Making friends in Bumsville, Indiana turns out was way harder than making friends in Phoenix. This town was far too small and with the way you’d dress and carry yourself, well… that was clarification enough that you didn’t belong. But that was okay, you didn’t want to belong in a place like this, anyway.

“Just reading.” Your small bashful voice is such a stark contrast to how you are at home, in a place of comfortability.

“Yeah, I see that… whatcha reading?” The mystery voice now no longer a mystery as he steps out from behind the tree, his worn and tattered converse step closer, causing you to look up, meeting a familiar set of brown doe eyes.

He wasn’t in your class but you had seen him a bunch, throughout the halls and at lunch.

He seemed to be the only interesting person in this hick town.

You pick your pink book up, allowing him to read the title, which he does out loud to himself.

“Valley of the dolls.” He says curiously. “What’s that about?”

The book looked far too girly for his taste, but as long as it gave him more reason to stand here and talk to you, he’d indulge.

“Wait, let me guess… something about dolls?” He smirks, while taking a seat on the fluffy grass, beside you.

“No actually, it’s about three best friends who live in New York, they’re struggling to get by so they decide to make their mark in show business, but shit just kind of spirals for them and well it’s not a very happy ending.” You fix your bookmark in place before closing it and placing it into your backpack.

“Oh, also ‘dolls’ is just another word for drugs.” You say with a shrug of your shoulders.

Eddie stays silent for a moment, before he looks over to you, hands nervously picking at the grass below him.

“Mmm, sounds interesting… guess it’s true what they say, not to judge a book by its cover.” He says with a shy smile.

1968

“Would you scoot over!” You screech, while shoving your elbow into the frizzy haired boy, practically sitting in your lap.

You and Eddie had been inseparable best friends, since that very interaction under the big oak tree. You were both immediately drawn to each other like a moth to a flame. He agreed, you seemed to be the only interesting thing in this hick town.

“It’s my couch, woman!” He screeches back, playfully pushing your head out of the way.

“Fine, I’ll just sit on the floor.” you scoff before scooting your butt down from the couch, plopping onto the scratchy brown carpet. You roll your eyes when Eddie decides to dramatically fling himself across the whole couch, as if he’s been waiting for you to move your ass this whole time, the jerk.

“Hey, did I tell you Billy asked me to go to the drive-in with him?” You say as your eyes remain on the television set, hand mindlessly grabbing for the popcorn bowl placed on the coffee table.

You miss the way Eddie visibly swallows, and the way his fists tighten on the material of his jeans.

“Um, no you didn’t.” He mumbles, as his longing eyes burn holes into the back of your head.

“Yeah, well he did.” You take a sip of your Pepsi, washing down the kernels of popcorn stuck to your tongue. “Do you think he’ll wanna go all the way?” You ask Eddie before taking another sip.

His eyes widen into saucers before he begins wiping his clammy palms against his clothed thighs.

You’d never talked about sex with Eddie, maybe about some girls he thought were cute and vice versa, but never sex.

Ahem, he clears his throat before he speaks. “I don’t know, but he’s a guy so I wouldn’t put it past him.” His doe eyes, usually so full of light now droop like one of those precious moments dolls.

He begs the universe for you not to look back at him, he knows as soon as you do you’ll be able to read him like a book.

You’ll know you’re breaking his heart.

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m ready though.” You say, before grabbing another handful of buttery popcorn.

“Then you shouldn’t do something you’re not ready for.” Eddie says with a deep breath of relief.

“But I mean, I kind of want to just get it over with, I don’t buy into the bullshit of ‘waiting for the right one’ it’s such horse shit, and is only a thing because of the patriarchy.”

Eddie so badly wants to say: I’m the right one, lose it to me.

But he could never put his heart out there like that, to inevitably be stomped on. He knows you’d never purposely break his heart, but he also knows he’s in love with someone that couldn’t possibly feel the same way for him, and that’s just something he has to live with.

Even if that means sitting on the sidelines while boys come and go. He knows he’ll always be your number one…well until you fall for some douchebag after high school and realize Eddie’s just your friend, and is eventually replaced when you decide to get married and have said douchebags, douchebag offspring.

But he’ll place that in a box in his mind to deal with later.

1970

You lost your virginity to Billy the night he took you to the drive in.

Those feelings of being wanted and loved, although just for that night sent you on a high you thought you’d never come down from.

Your freshman year, you went on lots of dates, slept with lots of undeserving guys and although those feelings never followed you home, you felt as though it was worth it to just feel them if even for 5 minutes.

You were playing a dangerous game, especially in a small town where word of your promiscuity would travel faster than a forest fire.

And although Eddie had begrudgingly heard the rumors in the locker room and in some of his classes, he never looked at you differently, never judged you.

He’d stick up for you every time, although that led to plenty instances of him getting the shit kicked out of him. He already had a target on his back, being the freak and all, but he didn’t care, no one was going to disrespect you, not in his presence, anyway.

His feelings never seemed to fade, his heart still beat for you no matter who you gave yourself to.

Of course Eddie wanted to be your first, but you were right, it is a social construct in order to make women more subservient to men, Eddie was a feminist afterall.

“Aw, did you wait here for me?” You ask as your hands clutch your trapper keeper to your chest.

Eddie was leant up against the brick wall of the school, the right sole of his shoe was flush against it, knee bent as his skin protruded from the hole in his jeans. A lit cigarette dangled from between his lips, a habit he had just picked up from an older boy that lived in the trailer across from him.

“Well duh, now that that asshole you were seeing isn’t driving you anymore, I thought we could walk together.” He mumbles before taking a puff of his spliff.

“You’re so sweet to me.” You smile before snatching the cigarette that now blazed between his ringed fingers, you take a quick inexperienced puff before passing it back.

He smirks while taking one last hit of his cigarette before tossing it to the floor and stomping it out for good measure under his beaten and written on converse. He’s glad the action has given him a chance to get a good look at you as you walk ahead of him, it was his favorite thing to do when you’d both go on mindless strolls.

“You look pretty today.” The compliment slipped so easily from his lips.

You turn around to meet his eye, walking backwards rather uncoordinatedly.

“You look pretty, too.” You say with a wink, before turning back around.

Eddie was none the wiser that day, when your face flushed for him the very first time.

1971

“Eddie! Put me down!” You shriek as you kick and flail, the water from the pool splashing around and creating tiny waves for the other swimmers.

“Never!” He says ironically before throwing you into the far end, his maniacal laugh can be heard from under water.

“You’re such a dick sometimes, Munson.” You say as you swim to the steps, hoisting yourself up and out of the community pool.

You’re in a little red bikini and the way your hips sway has Eddie mesmerized.

You sit on one of the lawn chairs, drying off under the beaming sun.

“Hey, is this seat taken?” Your eyes shoot open, falling on two round pools of honey.

“Um no, not at all.” You say as you give the boy a shy smile.

“I’m Steve.” He says as he takes a seat in the chair closest to you.

“Hi, Steve.” His name felt like sex on your tongue.

Eddie watched from the pool as you and Steve got acquainted, he wanted to punch himself for practically pushing you into the arms of another guy.

He couldn’t sit here and watch you laugh at this asshole's jokes, he had to get out of here.

1972

“Why am I so hard to love?” You cry out, mascara running down your face, as your head is placed in your best friend's lap.

“You’re not hard to love!” He says before tucking a piece of stray hair behind your ear, and thumbing a tear off the side of your cheek. “You just keep picking the worst douche canoes available.” He says with a small chuckle.

“I thought Steve was different, he really acted like he cared about me, ya know?” You sniffle as your manicured fingers play with the fringe of Eddie’s jeans.

“Yeah well, those jock assholes will tell you anything to get in your pants.” Eddie says with a tick of his jaw.

“You’re right, I should become celibate or something… I’m just so tired of letting these assholes take from me, without getting anything in return.” You murmur with another sniffle.

Eddie liked that idea, you being celibate.

For your own good, of course.

1973

“Oh my god! Can you believe we’ll be out of this shithole soon?” You eagerly say, as you walk up to your best friend's locker.

The glum look in his eyes does not go unnoticed by you.

“Hey Eddie, what's wrong?” Your eyes examine the slump of his shoulders and the bloodshot red in his eyes, although that could be from him smoking during lunch, but the puffiness underneath tells you otherwise.

He slammed his locker before making his way towards the double door exit, not even stopping to take a second look at your stunned face.

You run after him, launching yourself between Eddie and the door of his van.

“Eddie, talk to me, what happened?” The urgency in your voice makes his eyes begin to water, again.

“I got my draft letter yesterday after school, they’re sending me to fucking Vietnam.” His eyes don’t meet yours, they can’t or it’ll make this all so much worse.

“Eddie, I’m so sorry.” Your lip begins to quiver at the thought of Eddie in a foreign place, getting bombed and shot at. “Ed’s, I-I…” you’re not even sure what to say, how to make him feel better, you couldn’t even if you tried. For the first time since you’ve known him, you were unable to comfort him.

“I gotta go.” He says before smoothly stepping around you and getting into his van, his wheels peel off leaving tire tracks on the tarmac.

You knew Eddie wasn’t mad at you specifically, he was mad at the situation. You and him had talked about running off together and getting out of this podunk town so much it had become a common topic when you two would hang out. You had agreed to get an apartment, you’d go to college while he got a good paying job with his diploma. But that dream quickly went down the drain when he got his draft letter in the mail.

All he wanted was to be with you, wherever you both decided to fuck off to, but now you’d be going alone, and he’d be sent off to a war he could potentially die in.

Class of 73’

“Give it up for the class of 73’!” Principle Higgins shouted into the mic, sat on top of the wooden podium.

You and Eddie's eyes had met a handful of times during the ceremony and every time they did, a lump would form in your throat at the idea of this being it for you two.

Everyone clapped and whistled as you threw your green tasseled hat into the air with Eddie and the rest of your classmates.

You make your way into the crowd of parents and friends ready to congratulate their new graduates.

“Congratulations sweetheart.” Uncle Wayne says, while wrapping you up into a grizzly bear of a hug.

“Thanks Wayne.” You say with a bashful smile. “Where’s eddie?” Your eyes scan the crowd as you look for your favorite curly headed freak.

“Oh he’s around here somewhere.” Wayne softly smiles as he gives your back a small pat. “I'm gonna go talk to Ms. Duvall right over there. I’ll see you later, kid.” He says with one last heartfelt smile.

You nod your head in understanding before you go right back to scanning over the herd of people.

“Hey you.” The same voice from that day under the oak tree, calls out from behind you, well you had to admit it was a little more manly now.

You turn around quickly on your heel, eyes meeting your favorite pair.

“Hey.” You say with a bright smile, your heart begins beating a mile a minute, with feelings settling into your stomach that you weren’t quite ready to assess.

“We did it!” Eddie says before grabbing the back of your head, fingers sliding through your hair as he pulls you into a warm hug. The side of your face resting on his chest makes your stomach flutter so hard you think you might puke from the nervousness he’s is stirring within you.

These feelings were too new and they scared the shit out of you.

“So you ready for New York?” He asks with a melancholy smile.

“Honestly? No, not really.” You say muffled into his chest before you pull away to look at him.

You weren’t ready to start a life without your best friend.

“When do you leave?” His hand continues to slide through your hair, making your stomach flip upside down.

“In a couple days.” You murmur before swallowing hard, now unable to meet his eyes.

“You’ll have a good time, meet some cool people.” He’s trying to pretend his heart isn’t breaking but the look in his eyes is not lost on you, your heart is breaking too.

“I couldn’t ever meet anyone as cool as you.” You whisper as your glassy eyes now meet his.

He smiles albeit a weak one, but he wishes those words were true.

“You staying celibate through college?” He joked, giving your arm a little nudge.

“That’s the plan, but who knows.”

The implications set Eddie’s stomach ablaze in the most painful way.

If I don’t find someone, fall in love and replace you.

Fuck the government for choosing him to fight in a war he didn’t even believe in. He could’ve been getting ready to leave with you, maybe even get the chance to finally tell you how much he’s been in love with you ever since he sparked up a conversation under that big oak tree.

There was no way he could tell you that now, he’d hate himself forever if he knew there was any chance you could’ve been his for all these years. It’s too late for him now.

You had stayed with Eddie that night, your stomach was in absolute knots just thinking about leaving him, you needed one more night with him, if this was the last chance you’d get to ever see each other again, you needed it. Just for tonight.

You spent most of it in each other's arms, crying and replaying your favorite memories and then crying some more.

He had confided in you, told you that if he died while overseas he’d die a virgin.

Eddie was never open with you about girls that he was seeing, you had assumed he’d had sex with at least one. The shock on your face was enough to make him want to cower away in embarrassment.

You’d both thought about making love to each other that night. You so badly wanted to be his first, get to have him in that way before life ran its course, but you just couldn’t. You knew it would make leaving each other that much harder, and fuck was it already so hard.

1974

College in New York was chaotic to say the least, life was so fast paced, it had taken so long to get accustomed.

And with your new fast paced, busy life, it left it close to impossible to sit down and write letters.

You and Eddie hadn’t spoken in almost a year.

Then there was Brendon, a guy you had met in your economics class. He was nice, he treated you better than you’d ever been treated but it just never felt right. It was almost as if there was a wedge, something in between you two making it impossible for you to fall in love. Someone.

August of 75’

You had gotten a rather urgent call from your grandpa, glumly notifying you that your grandma was sick and only had months to live.

You’d taken the first flight out back to Hawkins.

Your grandparents were all you had, you couldn’t stay in New York knowing you’d never get to see your gram gram again.

You had worked so hard these past two years, but in the end you had decided family came first. You would take a year off from college if it was required, just to help your papa after gram passed.

Walking out of the airport and into the warm summer sun of Hawkins was bittersweet.

This is the first time you’d be here while Eddie wasn’t. There wasn’t a moment that passed where you didn’t think about him. You questioned whether he’d be mad that he didn’t hear from you after all this time, or even care at all.

More than anything you hoped he was okay.

You never kept up with the news and what was going on over there. It was too much, too real.

September of 75’

Your gram had passed three weeks after your arrival back in Hawkins, you had done your best to stay by her bedside as your papa got things arranged for her eventual funeral.

You were numb for the first couple days until you had eventually broken down and sobbed for a good hour and a half.

The thought of losing Eddie made the tears fall even harder. You loved your gram but you were in love with Eddie, you knew that now. If he didn’t make it, you didn’t know how you’d handle it. How you’d ever move on.

You could kick yourself for not writing to him, at least to ask if he was okay.

What if he thinks you don’t care about him now? You’d hope he’d understand that college was so busy for you.

21st of September 1975

Grams funeral had been lovely, a celebration of her life with her closest friends and loved ones.

The funeral house was a quaint little tudor style home. Her pictures had been displayed beautifully among a table of red roses.

You cried when the funeral director had closed her casket for good.

25th of September 1975

You had spent your morning and afternoon cleaning your grandparents house. Your papa left on a fishing trip, said he couldn’t be in this house any longer.

You understood how he must be feeling, stuck in a place that holds so many memories of you and the love of your life, that would be hard for anyone.

You decide to order a pizza and watch a movie after your warm shower.

You slip into a pink nightgown that sat just above your knees before making your way towards the bathroom to brush your hair and teeth. Just as you were flipping the light switch off and walking out into the hall the doorbell echoed throughout the house.

They sure do deliver pizza fast

You thought to yourself as you counted the money in your purse that had been sitting on the entry table.

“Wow, I just placed my order ten minutes—” the words die on your tongue as you swing the door open. Standing there on the front porch in a Black Sabbath shirt, blue jeans and shorter hair than you were used to, was Eddie.

Your Eddie.

He looked almost as stunned to see you, as you were to see him.

“Hey, I thought you’d be back in New York by now.” Eddie assumed as his eyes took in the expanse of your body.

“No, I uh I decided to stay.” You utter as you nervously play with the hem of your pink gown.

Your action pulls the dress up higher on your leg, exposing more of your upper thigh.

Eddie’s eyes shoot down to the area before looking back up at you.

“I came by to give my condolences to your grandfather.” He says with a sad smile.

“Oh yeah, he won’t be back for a couple days.” You respond, finally dropping your gown before smoothing it out with nervous hands.

“Well, my condolences to you.” He says with a far off look in his eyes.

This man standing here is so different from the Eddie you once knew. His posture is immaculate, his arm and legs stiff as stone and the brightness of his eyes now dull and almost nonexistent.

“Do you wanna come in? I ordered pizza and I was gonna watch a film.” You say with a hint of desperation.

“I uh, I shouldn’t. I should go.” Eddie says before he begins to walk away, he stops in his tracks and shoots a glance back at you.

“Why didn’t you write to me?” Eddie’s face is so stoic you can’t tell if he’s sad or just curious.

“I wanted to, Eddie. I was just so busy—” you begin but Eddie doesn’t want to hear anymore.

His black boots carry him back to his van. He can’t stand there and listen to how you’ve moved on, or had the time of your life in college and forgot about him.

2 days later

You had been beating yourself up for what felt like days.

He had every right to feel the way he did, to be mad and angry. You couldn’t blame him for that.

But you’d be damned if he didn’t at least know these feelings you’d been harboring for him.

You were both home now, nothing was holding you back from finally confessing to Eddie that he’s who you want.

You decide to bake a cherry pie, before getting ready and heading over to forest hills.

You would get on your knees and grovel if it meant Eddie would forgive you. Just because you didn’t write to him didn’t mean you didn’t think about him everyday. You couldn’t count how many nights you’d lay in bed touching yourself to thoughts of him, you hadn’t even gone all the way with Brendan, you couldn’t. Not with Eddie at the forefront of every thought you had.

You pull up to the familiar trailer, not much has changed aside from far less beer cans littering the ground.

You walk up the steps, pie in hand as you knock one, two, three times on the dingy white door.

“One sec.” A familiar voice calls out from the other side.

The door swings open, Eddie is standing there shirtless. The only article of clothing on his very toned and muscular body were his old Hawkins high gym shorts. You were pretty sure he’d never actually worn them in high school.

His face looks even more stunned than when he showed up on your doorstep a couple days ago.

“What are you doing here?” The look on his face was hard and impossible to read.

“Eddie, please just let me explain myself. Can I please come in and talk?” You held the pie out to him as if some kind of peace offering.

“Is it cherry?” He says with absolutely no emotion.

“It is.” You confirm

There’s a long pause before his voice gruffly retorts

“Fine.” He moves out of the doorway allowing you to walk through, your bodies barely rub together as you pass but shockwaves are sent throughout, you could feel them all the way down to your toes.

You set the pie down on the yellowing countertop.

Eddie digs in the cabinets for a knife, two plates and two forks.

The gesture makes you smile to yourself as you sit in the little two seater kitchenette.

Eddie cuts the pie, setting your plate in front of you, while he takes the seat closest to the telephone hanging on the wall.

“So go ahead…” Eddie says with a mouthful of your cherry pie.

“I’m so sorry Ed… I had almost no time for anything, New York is so fast paced and chaotic, I really had no time… but I thought about you constantly.” You admit as you lightly stab your pie with your fork.

“I thought about you, too.” Eddie whispers, your eyes find eachothers before he looks away, taking another bite of the pie. “This is really good, thank you.” He says with another mouthful.

Usually you would be disgusted by a man talking with his mouth full of food, but with Eddie you couldn’t help but find it endearing and cute.

“Yeah, it’s the least I could do.” You say before finally taking a bite of your own.

“So how have you been?” You were almost afraid to ask such a question, after everything he’s gone through, everything he’s had to see.

“I’ve been good, just getting back into the groove of being home, ya know.” He says with a smile that has yet to reach his eyes.

“Yeah, I do.” You murmur before standing up and walking to the sink to wash your crumb filled dish.

Once it’s dried and put away and you’ve repeatedly gone over the spiel in your head about how you want to confess your undying love to the man seated a couple feet away, you turn around, eyes meeting him as you realize his chocolate browns have been on you this whole time.

“Eddie, I need to tell you something…”

He stands from his seat, bringing his plate to the sink, carelessly dropping it in before he turns back to face you.

It’s like he’d grown a whole foot, he was towering over you now, looking down at you with those doe eyes you’d so often thought about.

“What do you need to tell me?” He whispers as he steps closer to you, his black boots kissing your brown wooden clogs.

The words almost die in your throat at his close proximity and how fast your heart is hammering in your chest. You wonder if it could be heard from his place in front of you, surely if he stepped any closer it would be.

“I’m in love with you, Eddie.” Your eyes dart across his handsome face meanwhile biting at your lip out of nervousness as you wait for him to say something, anything.

He exhales a deep breath as his shoulders drop into a relaxed state.

“Fuck,” he huffs before pulling you into a tight hug. “I’ve been in love with you since I met you, sweetheart.” His voice is muffled by your neck as he rests his head on your shoulder.

You pull away, grabbing his face with your small hands. You look him in the eyes before you begin speaking—

“I’m so sorry Eddie, I’m so sorry for everything. I should’ve known that you were it for me. It just took me a little longer, but I promise I’m here now.” Your foreheads meet as tears run down your cheek, “I’m here now.” You repeat.

“I love you so much, princess.” He whispers before he’s pulling you into a tender kiss, that soon grows more and more needy.

He slips his tongue into your mouth and they simultaneously glide together. You can taste the salt from the tears that have fallen onto both of your lips. It makes the kiss that more meaningful.

“You still celibate?” Eddie asks after breaking the kiss. His smirk tells you he’s joking, but you don’t care, you need him. You’ve waited too long for this.

“I didn’t have sex in college, not even once.” You admitted before kissing his lips again, “I’ve been waiting for you.” The longing look in Eddie’s eyes flash to something that could only be described as hunger.

Without another word, he’s picking you up by the back of your thighs, your legs instinctively wrap around his muscular hips. He’s so strong, the throbbing between your legs gets even worst at the thought of him fucking you just like this.

Eddie made his way down the hall to his old room, you took a glance around noticing most of his things in boxes meanwhile more of Wayne’s things have moved in.

“Are you moving?” You ask curiously.

“Yeah, I got my own place. I’m moving in tomorrow.” He says before softly throwing you on his mattress. “Wayne sorted it out for me while I was…away.” You notice the stiffening of his body immediately, as if even thinking about where he’d been causes such inner turmoil.

“C’mere baby.” You murmur with a saccharine grin, his eyes light up at the pet name, causing your insides to flutter.

He slots himself between your legs, his muscular arms now fisting the bed while your head lays caged between them.

You can feel the way his body slightly trembles.

“It’s okay Ed’s, it’s just me.” You whisper into his ear sending shivers down his spine.

“Just you is a big deal to me, sweetheart.” He smiles before rubbing the tip of his nose against yours.

“I want you to make love to me, Eddie.” You say as you push his shorter hair back to get a better look at the face you've missed for far too long.

He groans before dropping his head to your shoulder.

“Fuck, I want to baby, I really do. But I-I have no idea what I’m doing and you’re you, ya know? I’m gonna make a fool out of myself, and I just can’t do that, not with you.” He lifts his head up to study your face before he begins gently rubbing his nose on your cheek, he places light kisses to the area before he places a sweet kiss to your lips.

“I don’t care, I want you… you don’t even have to do anything, I’ll do it all.” You say before placing kisses of your own across his face. “I need you, Eddie… I’m so wet for you, baby.”

“Jesus, you tryna kill me, woman?” He playfully snarks before blowing a raspberry into the side of your neck making you giggle and squirm away. “Okay yeah, I'm ready.” He admits as his beautiful doe eyes meet yours, he holds your chin between two fingers before sweetly kissing you, again. “I’m so glad it’s with you, sweet girl.” He whispers into your lips.

“I love you.” You whisper back

“I love you.” He feels like he’s in a dream, like one wrong move and you’ll slip through his finger, again.

“Lay on your back.” You bashfully demand, you weren’t used to being the one in charge when having sex, but for Eddie you’d do anything.

Eddie gives you a pointed look as his eyebrows raise high on his half concealed forehead.

Your feet hit the brown scratchy carpet before you’re turning around to give Eddie a little show.

Maybe stripping for him will give him a little more confidence, or it’ll probably just make him really horny… either way was fine with you.

Eddie continues gawking at you in wonder, still a little clueless as to what you were doing.

Such an innocent boy.

You begin to remove your blue jean button up vest, slowly unhooking each one by one.

Eddie catches on after the first button, a devious smirk slowly forms onto his face as he lays back with his head on the pillow. He dramatically swings his hands behind his head and crosses his legs as he enjoys the show.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this, sweetheart.” He beams with a wink.

You finally get down to the fifth button before slowly opening it and exposing your bare breast to him.

His eyes widen with shock and his body stiffens along with the member in his gym shorts.

“Holy shit.” He whispers before sitting up to get a better view. “You weren’t wearing a bra this whole time?” His cheeks burn with excitement and nervousness. He flicks his tongue out to wet his pink plump lips before beckoning you closer to him.

You step between his spread legs and look down as Eddie is now eye level with your tits.

He’s only seen boobs in magazines and movies but yours are by far the best. He had a feeling when he used to watch you in that red bikini when you both would hit the community pool during the scorching summers that they were nice. He remembers the way your nipples would poke through the fabric and the way they’d bounce when you’d run away from him.

“Can I touch you?” Eddie asks as if you didn’t just beg him to fuck you.

“Of course.” You purr back.

Eddie quickly brings both hands to your tits gently massaging them before running a calloused thumb over the hardening bud. The action forces a moan from between your lips making Eddie’s eyes shoot up to yours. He wants to pull that noise from you as much as he can.

“That feel good?” He breathily asks as if he can’t believe you’re letting him touch you like this.

“Feels really good, ed.” you whimper before he’s grazing his other thumb across your peaked nipple making an even more erotic moan leave you.

Your body slightly jerks when you feel Eddie’s wet lips encapsulate your nipple, you look down to see he is already looking at you, looking at your reaction to the way he’s making you feel.

Your eyebrows furrow as you vigorously bite at your lip. The sight in front of you is a scene straight out of your wet dreams, the wet dreams that would play on an instant loop in your twin size bed in your muggy dorm room across from your god fearing roommate.

Eddie continues to lick and suck as his confidence grows, every thrash of his tongue sends a searing shock of electricity to your cunt.

You need him now.

“Lay back for me Eddie baby, let me finish the show.” You whisper as your nails softly scrape against his scalp making him groan with his mouth full, he pulls off with a pop leaving your nipples peaked and cold from the wetness.

“Yes ma’am.” He snickers before scooting back to lay in his previous position.

You completely remove the vest from your body, throwing it towards the end of the bed but it slips off and onto the floor.

You’ll worry about that later.

You begin making work at removing your matching blue jean bell bottoms, slowly inching them down your legs as teasingly as possible for the flustered man who lays just inches from you.

Once your jeans are around your ankles, you make hasty work at removing them before kicking them off somewhere to be dealt with later.

You stand there in your pink cotton panties as Eddie’s eyes travel along your body. He adjusts himself in his shorts before his eyes fall to your last garment of clothing and then back up to meet yours. You know exactly what he’s asking.

So you shove your thumbs in the cotton fabric and remove them albeit much faster than your jeans.

You stand upright before kicking your panties towards where your jeans haphazardly lay.

Once you’re fully exposed to Eddie he darts up on his elbows as his eyes take in every inch; from the patch of hair between your thighs to the soft skin of your legs to the way your hips curve. His aloof disposition is such a stark contrast to the way he’s losing his fucking mind on the inside; he’s on cloud nine, he’s thanking a god he doesn’t even believe in for allowing him to be here and alive for this moment, a moment he’s thought about way too often.

You slowly saunter up to the foot of the bed, ready to straddle Eddie’s lap before he’s placing his hand out to stop you. “There’s no fucking way I’m lasting more than thirty second if you’re on top.” He huffs with a self deprecating smile.

“That’s okay, we can go again later…you’ll eventually learn how to hold it, it’s really not a big deal plus this is about you anyway.” You smile reassuringly before he nods his head for you to continue.

The way you said ‘we can go again later’ alone almost made him cum, so he knows he doesn’t have a fighting chance in hell to last while you're bouncing all pretty on his cock.

Nevertheless, you straddle his waist, the hardness in his shorts already hitting your exposed clit so nicely, you couldn’t help but whine.

“Fuck, this is almost too much.” Eddie whispers before his hands shoot down to your waist as you give his lap an experimental drag of your core, along the soft cotton of his shorts.

“Are you sure about that?” You smirk before your hands fall to his painfully hard cock that is far too clothed for your liking.

You sit back on his thighs, dragging the material down his legs. He begins thrashing around trying to kick them off so desperately, you can’t help but to giggle.

“Oh is that funny?” He says in a stern voice that has you clenching around nothing. You definitely want to dive into that Eddie in the future.

Or right now.

“No, sir. I’m sorry.” You pout with a swift bat of your lashes.

Eddie’s jaw tightens at your words, he doesn’t know why that is turning him on so much but Jesus Christ, is it.

Finally, you look down to where Eddie’s cock lays against his lower stomach. He’s way bigger than you expected and so pretty, the prettiest one you’ve ever seen.

It twitches before your hand slowly moves in to grab it.

“Do you think you could last if I got a little taste of this perfect cock?” You whisper into Eddie’s ear, making the skin there tinge a reddish pink.

“I can barely last with your hand wrapped around me, baby.” He groans in pleasure.

“Okay, we’ll save that for later, too.” You wink, before you spit in the palm of your hand bringing the glob to Eddie’s cock as you stroke him, getting him nice and wet to easily slip inside of you.

“Oh my fuck-” Eddie grits before his eyes snap shut, the skin around them wrinkling as he tries to think of anything but your spit on his dick, as you rub him so expertly.

“I’m gonna put it in now, Ed…you ready?” You ask before he’s rapidly nodding his head, his eyes still held tightly shut.

You lift up, rubbing his wet tip against your already soaked pussy before it begins to breach your hole.

“Oooh fuck.” Eddie whimpers.

You begin to inch your way down slowly so as not to overwhelm him. You’re trying not to go too fast, too soon.

Eddie brings the back of his hand to his mouth and begins biting on the skin as a distraction to what’s going on in his lap. He still can’t look down, or it’ll all be over before it begins.

You finally sink all the way down to the hilt, which has Eddie whimpering and cursing below you.

You study his face and how in pain he looks.

“Hey, do you need me to stop?” His eyes shoot open at your question.

“Don’t you dare fucking stop.” Eddie huffs as if he’s out of breath. “Please baby, please keep going…you just feel so fucking amazing and I’m trying here, I’m really fucking trying.” His eyes quickly shut, again.

“Ed’s, open your eyes for me…you’re doing so good, just look at me please?” You murmur as you move closer to his face, rubbing at his scalp like you know he likes.

“I can’t.” He whispers.

“Yes, you can.. just look at me, wanna see you when you cum.” That pulls a growl from the back of his throat.

His eyes slowly open as he takes in the sight of you stuffed full of his cock. You begin to move, slowly grinding before you’re bouncing your hips up and down on him. Your tits jiggle with every move and now it’s like he can’t take his eyes off of you.

Your movements get even faster as you lean down to capture his lips with yours. It’s so sloppy and spit filled, making you clench around him. He gasps into the kiss before his hands are moving down to grab at the soft flesh of your ass.

He begins snapping his hips up to meet your movements, making him hit that spot so perfectly.

“Oh my god…right there.” You moan as your face falls in between his neck and jaw.

You begin to whimper as your unexpected orgasm washes over your body. Eddie doesn’t quite know what’s happening but he physically cannot hold on any longer.

“Oh shit, shit- I’m gonna cum.” His head falls back into his stain filled pillow, he bites his lip so hard he’s almost positive he’s breaking skin, before a groan so deep it almost scares him, leaves his mouth. He wonders if he should feel embarrassed but the proud look in your eyes tells him otherwise.

He didn’t even get a chance to ask you where he could cum, he just filled you up without even thinking. That thought made his dick twitch even though it was beginning to soften.

“You did so good, baby.” You coo before allowing him to slowly slide out of you.

Some of his cum falls out of you and onto his spent cock, making his cheeks redden in what you could only assume is embarrassment.

“It’s okay, I’m doing this new trial of this birth control pill that just came out. It's supposed to lessen cramps during that time of the month but it also helps to prevent pregnancy… so we should be good.” You say before giving him a peck on his bruised lips.

You make your way to the bathroom to clean yourself up before bringing a wet washcloth to clean Eddie, too.

His hips jerk when the rag touches him, making you giggle as he tries and fails to hide his bashful face from you.

You find it so cute how shy he’s being. You’ve never seen shy Eddie before, so this is a nice contrast.

He scoots over, making room for you to lay next to him, which you do after setting the cum filled rag on his night stand to be disposed of later.

“You’re fucking incredible, did you know that?” He asks before scooping you up in his arms and moving you closer to him. His arms wrap around your waist as his head burrows into your chest.

“Are you sure you're okay, Eddie?” You softly ask, not sure you want to breach the topic after you two have finally consummated your relationship.

“Of course I’m okay, why do you ask?” He looks up at you curiously, as if he’s surprised you’ve been able to read him so well. Although you always have been good at that.

“You just seem…different.” You whisper the last part before you feel him slightly tense.

“I’m-I just seen some shit, ya know? And it’s kind of hard to go back to your everyday life after witnessing some of the most horrific shit imaginable.” He can’t look you in your eyes when he speaks, he doesn’t want to see the pity that so often lies beneath the sympathy people have recently given him.

“I get that baby, I do…and I’m here, every step of the way, okay? Whatever you need, we'll do it.” You purr as your nails gently graze his back.

“I’m not going anywhere.” You whisper into his hair before you’re both falling into a post sex sleep haze.

October 1977

“Eddie, slow down.” You snort as your boyfriend eagerly speeds down Cherry lane, too excited to get to his mystery destination.

“Where are you taking me?” You ask, studying his face for any clues.

“You’ll see, just have some patience, baby.” He knowingly smirks, amused by your uncertainty.

Soon enough, you're pulling up to a light yellow single story house. It’s quite cute, with pink trim on the windows and flower boxes that sit on each window seal.

The grass looks like it’s been very taken care of, it’s almost too green.

Eddie flies to your side, opening your door for you.

You hesitantly step out, your black flats crunching on the orange and brown leaf riddled sidewalk. You’re still wondering where the hell he’s taking you or to who?

“Do you like it?” He asks with a beaming smile as his hand runs through his freshly grown out mane.

“I mean yeah… it’s nice.” You scoff, “who lives here?” You study the house again before looking over to Eddie for an answer.

“We do, sweetheart.” He gleams as he dangles a set of keys in his right hand, a huge satisfied smile adorns his face at your shocked expression.

“This is ours?” You blink at him as if maybe you’ve misunderstood. “Like, you bought it?” Eddie’s face just gets more and more excited with every fleeting moment you stand there in shock.

“Yes, we bought it.” He laughs before throwing the keys towards you. “Go check it out, baby.” You quickly catch the keys and make your way inside, body moving on autopilot as you’re still in shock.

As you look around you notice it’s a charming 1960’s styled, three bedroom house.

You stand in the doorway of the smallest room.

‘It’s perfect’ you whisper to yourself.

“That’ll be the nursery for babygirl.” Eddie says, sauntering up behind you to rub at your growing belly. “Do you like it?” He asks with a proud smile.

“I love it Ed’s, you did so good.” You fervidly muse.

“Let’s check out the backyard, I have another surprise for you out there.” He says before intertwining his fingers with yours and walking you through the house to the beautiful twin doors that lead you to an even more beautiful backyard.

Your eyes take in everything as you stand on the deck, this place is almost too perfect. You’re ready to pinch yourself cause you’re so sure you’re dreaming.

You look around and see a vegetable garden, next to that are gorgeous flower bushes. Whoever lived here before really loved this place as it was treated with the utmost care.

Your eyes continue to scan the yard before it catches on something that causes your eyes to water and your breath to hitch, it’s a big oak tree identical to the one you and Eddie met under.

But that’s not all, Eddie is underneath it on one knee, with a red box in his hand. The tears fall as you walk closer. Yes, this has to be a dream, there is no way this is my life, it’s too perfect.

Once you’re standing in front of your weeping future husband, you realize the ring he’s holding was your gram’s, a beautiful vintage opal.

You remember holding her hand as a kid and playing with it. You’d tell her how much you wanted one just like it, so you could be twins. You sob into your hand at the memory.

“Will you marry me, sweetheart?”

#divider by @v6que #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson angst #eddie x reader #eddie munson smut #eddie x fem!reader #eddie munson x female reader #eddie munson fic #eddie munson x you #eddie stranger things #eddie munson #eddie munson comfort #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson fandom #eddie munson x female character #eddie munson x reader #eddie x you

[theculturedmarxist]

The contradictions of China-bashing in the United States begin with how often it is flat-out untrue.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the “Chinese spy” balloon that President Joe Biden shot down with immense patriotic fanfare in February did not in fact transmit pictures or anything else to China.

White House economists have been trying to excuse persistent US inflation saying it is a global problem and inflation is worse elsewhere in the world. China’s inflation rate is 0.7% year on year.

Financial media outlets stress how China’s GDP growth rate is lower than it used to be. China now estimates that its 2023 GDP growth will be 5-5.5%. Estimates for the US GDP growth rate in 2023, meanwhile, vacillate around 1-2%.

China-bashing has intensified into denial and self-delusion – it is akin to pretending that the United States did not lose wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and more.

The BRICS coalition (China and its allies) now has a significantly larger global economic footprint (higher total GDP) than the Group of Seven (the United States and its allies).

China is outgrowing the rest of the world in research and development expenditures.

The American empire (like its foundation, American capitalism) is not the dominating global force it once was right after World War II. The empire and the economy have shrunk in size, power and influence considerably since then. And they continue to do so.

Putting that genie back into the bottle is a battle against history that the United States is not likely to win.

The Russia delusion

Denial and self-delusion about the changing world economy have led to major strategic mistakes. US leaders predicted before and shortly after February 2022, when the Ukraine war began, for example, that Russia’s economy would crash from the effects of the “greatest of all sanctions,” led by the United States. Some US leaders still believe that the crash will take place (publicly, if not privately) despite there being no such indication.

Such predictions badly miscalculated the economic strength and potential of Russia’s allies in the BRICS. Led by China and India, the BRICS nations responded to Russia’s need for buyers of its oil and gas.

The United States made its European allies cut off purchasing Russian oil and gas as part of the sanctions war against the Kremlin over Ukraine. However, US pressure tactics used on China, India, and many other nations (inside and outside BRICS) likewise to stop buying Russian exports failed. They not only purchased oil and gas from Russia but then also re-exported some of it to European nations.

World power configurations had followed the changes in the world economy at the expense of the US position.

The military delusion

War games with allies, threats from US officials, and US warships off China’s coast may delude some to imagine that these moves intimidate China. The reality is that the military disparity between China and the United States is smaller now than it has ever been in modern China’s history.

China’s military alliances are the strongest they have ever been. Intimidation that did not work from the time of the Korean War and since then will certainly not be effective now.

Former president Donald Trump’s tariff and trade wars were meang, US officials said, to persuade China to change its “authoritarian” economic system. If so, that aim was not achieved. The United States simply lacks the power to force the matter.

American polls suggest that media outlets have been successful in a) portraying China’s advances economically and technologically as a threat, and b) using that threat to lobby against regulations of US high-tech industries.

The tech delusion

Of course, business opposition to government regulation predates China’s emergence. However, encouraging hostility toward China provides convenient additional cover for all sorts of business interests.

China’s technological challenge flows from and depends on a massive educational effort based on training far more STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students than the United States does. Yet US business does not support paying taxes to fund education equivalently.

The reporting by the media on this issue rarely covers that obvious contradiction and politicians mostly avoid it as dangerous to their electoral prospects.

Scapegoating China joins with scapegoating immigrants, BIPOCs (black and Indigenous people of color), and many of the other usual targets.

The broader decline of the US empire and capitalist economic system confronts the nation with the stark question: Whose standard of living will bear the burden of the impact of this decline? The answer to that question has been crystal clear: The US government will pursue austerity policies (cut vital public services) and will allow price inflation and then rising interest rates that reduce living standards and jobs.

Coming on top of 2020’s combined economic crash and Covid-19 pandemic, the middle- and-lower-income majority have so far borne most of the cost of the United States’ decline. That has been the pattern followed by declining empires throughout human history: Those who control wealth and power are best positioned to offload the costs of decline on to the general population.

The real sufferings of that population cause vulnerability to the political agendas of demagogues. They offer scapegoats to offset popular upset, bitterness and anger.

Leading capitalists and the politicians they own welcome or tolerate scapegoating as a distraction from those leaders’ responsibilities for mass suffering. Demagogic leaders scapegoat old and new targets: immigrants, BIPOCs, women, socialists, liberals, minorities of various kinds, and foreign threats.

The scapegoating usually does little more than hurt its intended victims. Its failure to solve any real problem keeps that problem alive and available for demagogues to exploit at a later stage (at least until scapegoating’s victims resist enough to end it).

The contradictions of scapegoating include the dangerous risk that it overflows its original purposes and causes capitalism more problems than it relieves.

If anti-immigrant agitation actually slows or stops immigration (as has happened recently in the United States), domestic labor shortages may appear or worsen, which may drive up wages, and thereby hurt profits.

If racism similarly leads to disruptive civil disturbances (as has happened recently in France), profits may be depressed.

If China-bashing leads the United States and Beijing to move further against US businesses investing in and trading with China, that could prove very costly to the US economy. That this may happen now is a dangerous consequence of China-bashing.

Working together (briefly)

Because they believed it would be in the US interest, then-president Richard Nixon resumed diplomatic and other relations with Beijing during his 1972 trip to the country. Chinese chairman Mao Zedong, premier Zhou Enlai, and Nixon started a period of economic growth, trade, investment and prosperity for both China and the United States.

The success of that period prompted China to seek to continue it. That same success prompted the United States in recent years to change its attitude and policies. More accurately, that success prompted US political leaders like Trump and Biden to now perceive China as the enemy whose economic development represents a threat. They demonize the Beijing leadership accordingly.

The majority of US mega-corporations disagree. They profited mightily from their access to the Chinese labor force and the rapidly growing Chinese market since the 1980s. That was a large part of what they meant when they celebrated “neoliberal globalization.” A significant part of the US business community, however, wants continued access to China.

The fight inside the United States now pits major parts of the US business community against Biden and his equally “neoconservative” foreign-policy advisers. The outcome of that fight depends on domestic economic conditions, the presidential election campaign, and the political fallout of the Ukraine war as well the ongoing twists and turns of the China-US relations.

The outcome also depends on how the masses of Chinese and US people understand and intervene in relations between these two countries. Will they see through the contradictions of China-bashing to prevent war, seek mutual accommodation, and thereby rebuild a new version of the joint prosperity that existed before Trump and Biden?

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute, which provided it to Asia Times.

#chinese us relations #globalization #sinophobia

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 29, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAR 30, 2024

On Wednesday the nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute for the Study of War published a long essay explaining that Russia’s only strategy for success in Ukraine is to win the disinformation war in which it is engaged. While the piece by Nataliya Bugayova and Frederick W. Kagan, with Katryna Stepanenko, focused on Russia’s war against Ukraine, the point it makes about Russia’s information operation against Western countries applies more widely.

The authors note that the countries allied behind Ukraine dwarf Russia, with relative gross domestic products of $63 trillion and $1.9 trillion, respectively, while those countries allied with Russia are not mobilizing to help Russian president Vladimir Putin. Russia cannot defeat Ukraine or the West, they write, if the West mobilizes its resources.

This means that the strategy that matters most for the Kremlin is not the military strategy, but rather the spread of disinformation that causes the West to back away and allow Russia to win. That disinformation operation echoes the Russian practice of getting a population to believe in a false reality so that voters will cast their ballots for the party of oligarchs. In this case, in addition to seeding the idea that Ukraine cannot win and that the Russian invasion was justified, the Kremlin is exploiting divisions already roiling U.S. politics. 

It is, for example, playing on the American opposition to sending our troops to fight “forever” wars, a dislike ingrained in the population since the Vietnam War. But the U.S. is not fighting in Ukraine. Ukrainians are asking only for money and matériel, and their war is not a proxy war—they are fighting for their own reasons—although their victory could well prevent U.S. engagement elsewhere in the future. The Kremlin is also playing on the idea that aid to Ukraine is too expensive as the U.S. faces large budget deficits, but the U.S. contribution to Ukraine’s war effort in 2023 was less than 0.5% of the defense budget. 

Russian propaganda is also changing key Western concepts of war, suggesting, for example, that Ukrainian surrender will bring peace when, in fact, the end of fighting will simply take away Ukrainians’ ability to protect themselves against Russian violence. The authors note that Russia is using Americans’ regard for peace, life, American interests, freedom of debate, and responsible foreign relations against the U.S.

The authors’ argument parallels that of political observers in the U.S. and elsewhere: Russian actors have amplified the power of a relatively small, aggressive country by leveraging disinformation. 

The European Union will hold parliamentary elections in June, and on Wednesday the Czech government sanctioned a news site called Voice of Europe, saying it was part of a pro-Russian propaganda operation. It also sanctioned the man running the site, Artyom Marchevsky, as well as Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian oligarch, saying Medvedchuk was running a “Russian influence operation” through Voice of Europe.

The far right has been rising in Europe, and Nicholas Vinocur, Pieter Haeck, and Eddy Wax of Politico noted that “Voice of Europe’s YouTube page throws up a parade of EU lawmakers, many of them belonging to far-right, Euroskeptic parties, who line up to bash the Green Deal, predict the Union’s imminent collapse, or attack Ukraine.”

Belgian security services were in on the investigation, and on Thursday, Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo added that Russian operatives had paid European Union lawmakers to parrot Russian propaganda. Intelligence sources told Czech media that Voice of Europe paid politicians from Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Poland to influence the upcoming E.U. elections. Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper said the money was paid in cash or cryptocurrency. 

Czech prime minister Petr Fiala wrote on social media: “We have uncovered a pro-Russian network that was developing an operation to spread Russian influence and undermine security across Europe.” "This shows how great the risk of foreign influence is," Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte told journalists. "It's a threat to our democracy, to our free elections, to our freedom of speech, to everything."

There are reasons to think the same disinformation process is underway in the United States. Not only do MAGA Republicans, including House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), parrot Russian talking points about Ukraine, but Russian disinformation has also been a key part of the House Republicans’ attempt to impeach President Joe Biden. 

Republicans spent months touting Alexander Smirnov’s allegation that Biden had accepted foreign bribes, with Representative James Comer (R-KY) and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) calling his evidence “verifiable” and “valuable.” In February the Department of Justice indicted Smirnov for creating a false record, days before revealing that he was in close contact with “Russian intelligence agencies” and was “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections.”  

On March 19, former Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas testified about the investigation into Biden’s alleged corruption before the House Oversight Committee at the request of the Democrats. Parnas was part of the attempt to create dirt on Biden before the 2020 election, and he explained how the process worked.  

“The only information ever pushed about the Bidens and Ukraine has come from Russia and Russian agents,” Parnas said, and was part of “a much larger plan for Russia to crush Ukraine by infiltrating the United States.” Politicians and right-wing media figures, including then-representative Devin Nunes (R-CA), Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), The Hill reporter John Solomon, Fox News Channel personality Sean Hannity, and other FNC hosts, knew the narrative was false, Parnas said, even as they echoed it. He suggested that they were permitting “Russia to use our government for malicious purposes, and to reward selfish people with ill-gotten gains.” 

The attempt to create a false reality—whether by foreign operatives or homegrown ones—seems increasingly obvious in perceptions of the 2024 election. There has been much chatter, for example, about polls showing Trump ahead of Biden. But the 2022 polls were badly skewed rightward by partisan actors, and Democrat Marilyn Lands’s overwhelming victory over her Republican opponent in an Alabama House election this week suggests those errors have not yet been fully addressed.

Real measures of political enthusiasm appear to favor Biden and the Democrats. On Wednesday, Molly Cook Escobar, Albert Sun, and Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times reported that since leaving office, Trump has spent more than $100 million on legal fees alone. He is badly in need of money, and his reordering of the funding priorities of the Republican National Committee to put himself first means that the party is badly in need of money, too.

Donors’ awareness that their cash will go to Trump before funding other Republican candidates might well slow fundraising. Certainly, small-donor contributions to Trump have dropped off significantly: Brian Schwartz of CNBC reported last week that “[i]n 2023, Trump’s reelection campaign raised 62.5% less money from small-dollar donors than it did in 2019, the year before the last presidential election.”  

Billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein have recently said they will back Trump, and Alexandra Ulmer of Reuters reported on Tuesday that other billionaires had pooled the money to back Trump’s then–$454 million appeal bond before an appeals court reduced it. But Ulmer also noted that there might be a limit to such gifts, as they “could draw scrutiny from election regulators or federal prosecutors if the benefactors were to give Trump amounts exceeding campaign contribution limits. While the payment would not be a direct donation to Trump's campaign, federal laws broadly define political contributions as ‘anything of value’ provided to a campaign.”

Meanwhile, the fundraising of Biden and the Democrats is breaking records. Last night, in New York City, former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama joined Biden onstage with television personality Stephen Colbert, along with event host Mindy Kaling and musical guests Queen Latifah, Lizzo, and Ben Platt. The 5,000-person event raised an eye-popping amount—more than $25 million—and the campaign noted that, unlike donations to Trump, every dollar raised would go to the campaign.

In his remarks, Biden said that the grassroots nature of the Democrats’ support showed in the number of people who have contributed so far to his campaign: 1.5 million in all, including 550,000 “brand-new contributors in the last couple of weeks.” Ninety-seven percent of the donations have been less than $200. 

Tonight, Adrienne Watson, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, the president’s primary forum for national security and foreign policy, pointed to Russia’s devastating recent attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid and called again for Speaker Johnson to bring up the bipartisan national security supplemental bill providing aid to Ukraine that the Senate passed in February. She warned: “Ukraine’s need is urgent, and we cannot afford any further delays.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#War in Ukraine #Russian disinformation #Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From An American #Russia #Putin #Mike Luckovich #National Security #propaganda wars #Right Wing propaganda

[the-bad-batch-baroness]

Does anyone else want a gritty version of The Bad Batch or is it just me?

Don't get me wrong, I love The Bad Batch series exactly as it is. Found-family is my weakness. But I really want to see these guys covered in blood and sweat; rated R and primal.

More thoughts under the cut.

(cw: blood mention, graphic descriptions, PTSD mention)

The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch are both war-centric television shows marketed towards an adolescent audience. Even though some themes are mature, they censor the graphic nature of the base subject material, war.

War is ugly. War is gruesome. War is difficult. War is painful. War is bloody. War is stressful. War is emotional. War is psychological. War is disturbing. War is morally ambiguous. War is winning. War is losing. War is everything and also nothing.

I think back to war media I've seen for World War II, Vietnam, and Korea, and they unequivocally show war's true nature. Even war-comedies, like MASH, had downright upsetting and heartbreaking episodes that put the comedy in its place when needed to bring things back to reality.

I think a MASH-type treatment of The Bad Batch would be a fascinating watch. You get the found-family, you get the comedy, and you get the nitty-gritty painful realities of war as well.

Realities like you can't fall down an entire mountain and not break something or get shot point-blank and keep moving (looking at you, Hunter)

Realities like seeing your femur poking out of your skin with blood dripping down your pants while using a stick to limp away and trying desperately not to scream (looking at you, Tech)

Realities like having a plasma engine melt a part of your face off, and your skin literally boils and drips onto the ground (looking at you, Crosshair)

Realities like ripping your arms out of their sockets as you desperately try to hold onto someone(s)/something(s) to keep them from falling (looking at you, Wrecker)

Realities like having your skull bashed in by a blaster and not being able to wake up because you're stuck in a coma (looking at you, Echo)

Realities like watching real people die in front of you, for the first time, and living with the nightmares of replaying what happened in your head (looking at you, Omega)

There can be arguments to all of these, of course:

"They're genetically breed clones!"

"They're specially enhanced clones!"

"They're breed to only be soldiers!"

"They have special armor!"

"Echo is part machine!"

"Hunter has amazing reflexes!"

"Crosshair has great spacial awareness!"

"Tech has a fortified mind!"

"Wrecker is super strong!"

"Omega is a clone, too!"

But in reality, no matter how much technology you have, you can't breed the human part out of a human. They are still made from the human species. Yes, they are enhanced in certain aspects to help in the battlefield, but they are NOT invincible. They have limits to their enhancements.

They do not have enhanced healing capabilities. They do not have enhanced bone durability. They do not have enhanced emotional capacities. They may be enhanced clones, but at their core, they are still human. They can die in the cold, and they can die in the heat. They can have broken bones and they can have broken hearts.

As Tech pointed out in season 2, just because he doesn't process things like everyone else, doesn't mean he doesn't feel things any less. They still feel. They are NOT machines. They feel everything. They don't express it because they are soldiers, and that's why PTSD is so lethal.

I want to see more of the reality of war and its effects on them as individuals and as a group. I want to see the blood, the sweat, the bruises, the scars, the broken bones, the mental breakdowns, and the tears (physically or metaphorically).

They didn't get a 100% mission success rate by playing it nice or safe. They're the Bad Batch for a reason. They do whatever it takes for the mission to succeed. They will scrap, and tumble, and kick, and bite, and fight dirty to the bitter end. Relinquishing nothing.

How terrifying would it be to see Hunter stabbing someone in the neck with his knife? Or Wrecker squeezing someone until all their bones were broken? Or Crosshair sniping someone's head clean off? Or Tech brutally torturing someone to get information? Or Echo stabbing someone in the chest with his droid hand and tossing their lifeless body aside? All the while, Omega is getting splattered with the blood of their enemies.

Imagine all those horrendous things are just normal. A part of their daily grind. There is nothing to talk about, nothing to mull over, nothing to bat an eye at because it's what they do. The mission was a success. Then, coming back to the Marauder, changing out of their bloody clothes, and having a family dinner. It would be an eerie dichotomy.

Again, don't misunderstand me. I love space dad and mom, and their kids. I love domestic Bad Batch fluff. I love the series as is. Moreover, some of those episodes were hard to watch and ripped my heart to shreds, leaving me absolutely gutted.

However, I want to see the R rated version that would put it on the same level as real-life war media. I want to love it and hate it at the same time.

#the bad batch thoughts #the bad batch #bad batch #tbb #tbb hunter #tbb echo #tbb tech #tbb crosshair #tbb wrecker #tbb omega #tbbb speaks

[vi-sigoth]

Please rant. (I may or may not have watched it, too)

Okay so if nobody wants to read this, here’s the TL;DR of how I felt about the entire series at the close of the show:

If you do, I just:

First off, I see a lot of people bash GRRM as an author, and while I think a lot of it is warranted, a lot of it I think, is unfair. GRRM, like every single other fantasy author who’s penned anything after 1970, has to live under the massive shadow of Tolkien, which is not a very easy shadow to get away from, develop a distinctive style from, or not borrow heavily from, particularly if your flavor of fantasy is high fantasy. But despite my qualms with Martin (how have the Wildlings been separated from the rest of Westeros for 6,000-8,000 years and not developed a separate language at this point? Why is the Faith of the Seven and the Faith of the Old Gods SO fucking lazily constructed? Why can’t Martin keep his numbers straight when he talks about his battles? Why did I have to read a sex scene in which a guy who is still somehow massively obese despite living in a frozen wasteland for a year and a half fucks a girl on a ship and drinks her breastmilk? Jolkien Rolkien Tolkien would have never done this to me) I still love his writing. Because Martin has always set out to explore “the human heart at war with itself” in a fantasy setting, and despite all the problems I have with him, I think he’s done a tremendous job of it.

You see, there are SO many things I could bitch about with this show, so, so many (ask me later why I hate all the blue dresses Emilia Clarke wears) But honestly? None of them really matter as much as what I view as the Main Problem of the show, and actually, a good portion of them stem from the Main Problem. What’s the Main Problem? The Main Problem is that despite George’s pussyfooting lapsed Catholic views (which is why we don’t get, in my opinion, in-universe religions that are fleshed out very well) despite his absolute weeny “war is so mean and bad :(“ Vietnam draft dodger takes, George Raymond Richard Martin is a Romantic at heart, and he loves his readers, he loves fantasy, and he loves putting his characters through horrendous, disgusting, grimy, hopeless situations, because when they come through, beaten, nearly torn to shreds—but alive, he is right there celebrating the unbreakable endurance of the human spirit with his readers. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are nihilists who hate their audience and who love shoving their faces into mud and filth for no reason other than they take a sick pleasure in the pain and disgust of the people who’s faces they’re shoving into mud and filth.

I don’t remember the exact quote or interview, or which of them said it, but one of the D&D’s said that they were first inspired to develop the Song of Ice and Fire book series into a show when they read the Red Wedding scene. This is already a horrendous start. They were salivating the thought of bringing a scene that was supposed to be so horrible, so disgusting and unspeakably repulsive and wrong that it reverberates around the world and even is witnessed by characters who aren’t emotionally involved nor even geographically near (recall that Danaerys has a vision of it in the House of the Undying long before it happens). But GRRM didn’t write that scene, nor any other awful scene to rub his reader’s face in misery and horror. Recall how the death of Eddard Stark is written. He suffers in a hallucinatory fever for days before his execution, agonizing about the wrong he’s committed in his life. His death is witnessed by his two daughters. From a Watsonian standpoint, our hearts are meant to break, just as Sansa and Arya’s hearts broke when they are made to look on the death of their father. From a Doyalistic standpoint, the death of Ned Stark was nearly inevitable, just as the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi and so many other mentors had to happen, because the death of the mentor is an integral part of the hero’s journey. Ned’s death sets his widow and all of his children upon their paths to their own inevitable triumphs and ends. Furthermore, in any comedy, that is, in any story that ends happily, the hero or heros must travel in gyre. That is, they must travel on a crooked, twisting path to reach the end. If they don’t endure trials before they end, there’s no catharsis for them. Othello travels in a straight line towards Desdemona to place his hands around her neck to strangle her, without stopping. Without thinking that maybe he might check to really see if she’s been unfaithful. As a rule, straight lines end in tragedy, twisted roads end in comedy. The point of what I’m trying to say is that: GRRM didn’t kill Ned Stark to be malicious or to purposely cause pain to his readers. He killed him because the plot needed it. But D&D? Dipfuck and Duckfucker killed Ned, and Ros, and Sandor Clegane, and Theon, and all the people they killed because they think it’s funny when people die and they revel in filth and misery and they hate when things are good. Look at the way GRRM writes Ned’s arrival in King’s Landing versus the way D&D write it. BookNed rides up, and is immediately summoned to the Small Council meeting. He tells the messenger to wait while he changes into nicer clothes, knowing that appearances are important, knowing full well that he’s walking into a den of vipers. ShowNed? He walks right into the Small Council meeting in his travel clothes, brusquely brushing off the messenger’s protestations that he change into something nicer in a thick Scottish accent. Why does he do this? Because Ned Stark is so stupid and so dumb and he doesn’t play the Game of Thrones.why does Show Ned Stark trust people like Maester Pycelle and Littlefinger? Well BookNed doesn’t trust Pycelle, and has no reason at all to distrust Littlefinger or any way to know that he’s going to be betrayed by him. But again, ShowNed is a fucking stupid, dumbfuck hick, and he doesn’t know how to blay the GAMBE of Thrones!!! Why does BookNed inform Cersei that he’s going to tell Robert about the incest, and give her a chance to leave? Because he’s one of the ONLY people who has a kind, honorable, and true heart, and he doesn’t t want to see a woman and children be killed. And again, he has NO possible way of knowing that Petyr Baelish is going to betray him. But ShowNed? Well he does this because he’s STUPID and he doesn’t know how to play the gAmE oF tHrOnEs and only STUPID people are nice,,,,IDIOT!!!!!and this is the problem. (Continued in reblogs)

[todaysdocument]

Speech given by college student Raymond Anthony Mungo at the Boston Common for an anti-Vietnam draft rally, 10/16/1967: 

“I'm here today, and this is a very historic day, to go with you . . .I say again, I have nothing more to do with the Selective Service System.”

File Unit: Boston Common, 1928 - 1976

Series: Precedent Case Files, 1928 - 1976

Record Group 118: Records of U.S. Attorneys, 1821 - 1994

Transcription:

RAY MUNGO:  I am going to talk very briefly.  I'm not exactly sure why I'm here to speak to you because I can't speak as elegantly as either of the two gentlemen who preceded me, and I'm not black, and I'm embarrassed by the fact that nobody black is up here; and I'm not working class, even though my parents are working class, because I obviously went to college, you know.  But I have learned a few things since I started going to college.

When I started going to college, the Civil Rights movement was the big thing and I thought that was great because there were these people down South pounding people and beating people and I assumed that was very un-American.  The American character was to be peaceful, to be non-violent, to be just and I assumed that south was the festering sore in American society.  That is why I started going to college.

In 1964, three men died in Philadelphia, Mississippi.  Their trials were just coming up this week in Mississippi.  Their murderers will no doubt be acquitted.  In 1965, I was aware of the war in Vietnam.  [following underlined in red ink:] I burned my draft card on the 20th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.  In 1967, I'm here today, and this is a very historic day, to go with you to the Arlington Street Church to say that I have nothing more to do against, and I say again, I have nothing more to do with the Selective Service System. [end underlining]  Now I think this country is getting very close to being a fascist state and I'm afraid, I'm deeply afraid, and I'm afraid of the draft too and you know you are too because it affects all of our lives.  I am eligible for the draft and so are you, even though I am in college.  It affects people's career positions.  It affects the way you look at things.  I do not believe, for example, that it's a coincidence that the United States Army, that the same United States Army that is destroying people in Vietnam, can be destroying people in Detroit.  I think that it's connected.  I think people who go to fight and kill people find it easier to come back here and kill people, and I think killing

[page 2]

29.

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people is wrong, categorically in any situation, because people are all that we have.  People are it, man.  You know!

For the fascism that we have in the United States of America is not like the German fascism.  It is not like World War II or the Atomic.  It is the fascism of the $100-a-plate diners in San Antonio, Texas, who can sit and mildly, smugly, applaud the President on his (word inaudible) when he makes statements that indicate that he's mad, that he is out of touch with reality, and it is the fascism of - yes, it is the fascism of BU student and Harvard University student and Brandeis University students who will not stand up and say anything about the war.  It is the fascism of people who continue to pay the taxes, and people who continue to register for the draft because they do not want to stir up any trouble.

I was in (place inaudible) with NICK EGGLESTON  (Phonetic).  I met a girl that was 23 years old.  She had 200 shrapnel wounds in her body because she was teaching in elementary school when it was bombed again and again.  I saw pictures of women whose children were born with metal pieces of lead in their faces that went through the woman's womb before birth.  I saw people that had their skin seared off by this war in Vietnam, and I've seen black guys in the United States that had their heads bashed in, and I think we’re all going to end up in the can sooner or later if we take a moral stand on this issue, so I'm willing to do it now.

I might be crazy.  Why am I subjecting myself to the possibility of jail?  Why do I not sit and accept the arguments that may political activists have offered me, that it is more effective to stay out of jail and play along with the system?  Because you can't revolutionize the system and you can't change a country that is rotten to the core unless you make a complete break.  I cannot object to American materialism if I depend on American affluence and if I'm afraid of jail.  I am not afraid of jail.  I'm afraid of killing people and being killed and I am afraid that this whole planet is going up in smoke if we don't do something about it immediately.  Jail is not to be feared.  Jail is an honorable alternative to this war in Vietnam.

[page 3]

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I feel - Eugene Bent (Phonetic) said in 1918, "I am accused of being against the war. I admit it.  I am happy to be against the war.  I will be against all wars".  And then HENRY DAVID THOREAU said, considerably before that when he was in jail, somebody came up to him and said, "Why are you in there".  He turns around and says, "Why are you out there, baby?"

Because a society - in a society which is (word inaudible) unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.  EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY said in the closing lines of a poem "Am I a spy in the land of the living that I should deliver men to death.  Though the password and plans of our city are safe with me, never through me shall you be overcome."  [following underlined in red:] If resisting the Government in the United States of America, which is killing people abroad and killing people at home, black people and yellow people and poor people, if that is treason, I want to be a traitor.  I want to be nothing but a traitor.  It's the only honorable thing to be, and I want as many of you as are ready to take this step today to come with me and a lot of other people down to the Arlington Street Church to tell the United States Government together, today, that you are men, and not tools, that you have rights and you have dignity and you belong to the human race.  That's all I'm asking you to do.

If you believe in killing people, it is crazy to register with the - if you don't believe in killing people, it's crazy to pay your taxes.  It's crazy!  Don't give them a nickel!  If you don't believe in killing people, it's crazy to register for the draft.  You've got to make a break now.  Please come with us today. [end underlining]

#archivesgov #October 15 #1967 #1960s #Vietnam War #the draft #conscription #Raymond Anthony Mungo #cw: violence

[pennyserenade]

aries birthday bash 2023 : gregory peck & pedro pascal

pedro pascal has proved himself to be quite the exceptional human. though his career has started to take off later than many people’s in hollywood, it is no less impressive because of it. in fact, i’m certain that it is more impressive because of it. pascal has done so much with his short time in the spotlight, it is hard to figure out just where to start. starring as javier peña in netflix’s narcos, pascal helped open the door to bilingual projects on a mass scale. not only that, but pascal himself has spoken openly and proudly of his ethnicity and nationality, aligning himself with his beloved chile in a way that has made it all too easy to want to root for him. he has proved himself, like gregory peck before him, to be exceptionally compassionate and kind individual, taking to using his platform to spread resources and speak out against injustices that have polluted our planet. apart from being an exceptional human, pedro is also a magnificently talented actor who has went above & beyond in every role they’ve allowed him to fill. from the memorable oberyn martell to the world-weary joel miller, pedro has time & time again proven himself to be an actor to watch. i’m incredibly proud to see his career blossom before my eyes, but even prouder as latina to witness him do it so proudly as a latino. to him i say, “feliz cumpleaños, pedrito. te amo mucho.”

i am under the impression that it is an exceptional thing to be remembered for your warmth and your compassion. for gregory peck to have been immortalized in the form of a gentle man named atticus finch is so fitting a destiny for someone of his nature. he was such a incredibly talented individual who spearheaded projects he believed wholeheartedly in, even if the public as a whole wasn’t ready to digest the message. in a time when keeping up with one’s squeaky clean, white public image was paramount in hollywood, gregory peck took on roles that dared to challenge society’s view as a whole - sometimes to the chagrin of many individuals. he starred in films such as gentleman’s agreement, to kill a mockingbird, and on the beach, films with messages that he felt needed to be said, and he supported them completely, not just as an actor, but a member of a society he wanted to see bettered. he always took on the role of the compassionate human, even when it wasn’t easy. he protested the vietnam war, earning him a spot on president nixon’s enemy list; he spoke openly about his belief that women should have access to birth control and abortion, despite his own catholicism and their stance on it; and he often took time to speak out against the injustices he saw happening, from reagan’s trying to elect corrupt supreme justices, to congress’s failure to ban teenagers from obtaining firearms, to merely advocating for a younger and more diverse hollywood eons before we started to see it. peck time and time again proved not only to be an exceptional actor in his decades long career, but an exceptional human too. i am so happy to be wishing him a happy heavenly birthday this week.

both of these men have filled my life and many others lives with lots of warmth, and i am forever grateful to be able to witness what they have done. in celebration of them both i have compiled a list of foundations & organizations that they both support/have supported. i think there is no better way to honor and celebrate two men such as these ones than giving and helping those around us. under the cut you will find the links & some information about them.

gregory peck:

la jolla playhouse is one of gregory peck’s creations. peck grew up in la jolla and the la jolla playhouse was a product of his wanting to bring theater to his community. you can read more about la jolla playhouse’s beginnings in this article called, “the curtain rises” by virginia butterfield. here is the link to donate to the theater itself, which is still operating today. 

the american cancer association is an organization that peck found himself to be the national chairman of in 1966. you can support them by donating here.

gregory peck was on the national committee for handgun control incorporated, which was later renamed the brady center to prevent gun violence, and then just brandy. gregory peck was very vocal about his desire to see gun control take place, especially after the columbine shooting of 1999. brandy’s goal is to find a solution to the gun violence epidemic that consumes america and that has for many decades now. you can read about brandy, brandy’s plans, and make a donation to the organization here. 

peck created a noted reading series at the central library in los angeles, where celebrities would get together and read their chosen material for library donors. peck himself was the honorary chair of the los angeles library foundation and greatly enjoyed taking hold of this project in his older years. you can learn more about peck’s reading series here, you can learn more about the library in general here, and you can donate here. 

pedro pascal:

todo por mi familia is a foundation that pascal has supported in the past. this foundation supports families that have been separated at the us border. you can donate here.

pedro pascal did the community table read in 2020 in order to help raise money for the world central kitchen. you can donate to that foundation here. 

pedro pascal has long been a supporter of women’s rights and a wonderful place to donate in order to honor him on this day is planned parenthood. you can donate here.

pedro pascal posted an instagram post about the robin hood relief fund in 2020. the fund helps new yorkers affected by COVID-19. you can donate to it here

#gregory peck #pedro pascal #jose pedro balmaceda pascal #josé pedro balmaceda pascal #to kill a mockingbird #narcos #eldred gregory peck #old hollywood #the last of us #game of thrones #on the beach #i'm filled with so much love for them both aHHHH #this has been in my drafts for MONTHS

[blackberrywars]

🔀 P'Li and Zaheer

Well, I lucked the hell out. Thanks, spotify.

So, Bill Withers is synonymous with the revival of soul and 1970s Harlem in my mind, and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that P'li and Zaheer would be all up in the protest era. That said.....

Zaheer is a queer draft-dodger from the Vietnam War, and he basically lives protest-to-protest, crashing on couches when he can. He carries nothing on his person but the essentials: tape to wrap his fists, a lighter to spark his joints, and a hardcover copy of local legal statues and regulations so he can quote them back to any bitch who wants to try it. One night, like a million others, he finds himself in a hole-in-the-wall bar, watching his kind of people mingle and dance.

There's a woman standing across the bar, and her head nearly brushes the sagging ceiling of the shitty little place. The woman's already imposing, but with the go-go boots peaking out under her long, red, floral flared pants, the kind that could make any girl's legs look long, her every hair flip cleans the beams. He watches her and can barely hear the music stop around him, cutting of Withers' sunshine.

The cops raid the place, and as he's trying to get other people out, they get him on the ground and into cuffs, bashing his skull against the linoleum. Throw him in the back of the wagon, and he's pleased to find himself alone, until 2 cops throw the same woman in with him, one with a nasty black eye forming. It matches the size and shape of the woman's strong left hand, already turning pink.

They get acquainted. P'li is the name the woman chose for herself, casting off her old one like a shed skin, and Zaheer wants to tell her everything about him, except his name is on government forms and will definitely get bigger cops involved to ship him out.

At the jail, they throw P'li in the his cell instead of the women's, and Zaheer seethes, even as he's happy to not be separated from her. He doesn't eat a thing until two mornings later, when the police finally let him go on lack of evidence, and he scrapes up enough money to bail her out the very next day. He takes her to a bodega on the corner and they eat it in the park. It's then that the music filters back in.

Hey, I ought I leave the young thing alone, but ain't no sunshine when she's gone....

Thank you so much for the ask!

@hellinglasses

#legend of korra #zaheer #p'li

[lemonadesun]

And to those who keep bashing Ironwood bc he sent his students into war. Lemme explain for you. In WWII, US, France, Japan,... invaded Vietnam, they were the invaders with a higher technology/economy/military power, they chose, trained and sent grown healthy soldiers to the battlefield to invade the smaller countries. While Vietnam was a small, weak, low-tech/economy/population which had no chance to beat the invaders. So we did everything to fight for our freedom, our human rights, our independence, we did everything, we paid our blood, our lives for that. But the gap was too big that almost all grown young men, women(who voluntarily joined the military to defend our country)died, only old people, children had left. But we couldn’t give up like that, and then old people voluntarily joined the military, and they died and then the children who were just 12-18 yo volutarily join the military, they were literally CHILDREN and they joined the military to defend Vietnam. My granduncle who were also dead when he was 17. Do we look like we had choices? :) When you’re the invaders, you can bring your grown, strong soldiers to the battlefield, but do we have a choice to do the same?All we need to do is keep fighting to defend our country, age didn’t/doesn’t/won’t be matter.

#rwde #james ironwood

[lorephobic]

so should we bring all the dead guys that fought nazis back and ask their ghosts to talk about their hot takes on the us military in 2024 before we decide what jokes can and can’t be made at their expense? a great fuck ton of them didn’t live to see a post 9/11 world or even the vietnam war.

i don’t consider myself up the U.S. armed forces ass and think it’s an immoral organization in its current form. but bringing the current palestine bombardment into wanting people to not bash in the 100th bomb group members over being upset about a tv show is ridiculous. that’s a whole lot of projecting to cope with getting pushback over some distasteful jokes. you said insensitive shit and got pushback on it. the world still spins, no one is helping themselves by digging the hole here.

why r u people so obsessed with the real life soldiers. we are talking about the impact of a tv show that is being released in 2024. it does not matter that the events of the show take place in the past and it does not matter that these soldiers were the good guys. it is crazy that u are all sticking ur neck out for an apple-produced war show that insofar only pushes the narrative that it is noble to die for your country so long as we're in pursuit of destroying the bad guys. (the bad guys being whoever ur officers tell u to kill). if you don't see how that kind of messaging could be problematic in the present day then idk what to tell you.

i don't think it's projecting to point out and criticize military propaganda and i don't think it's deflecting to call attention to the lengths that people will go to defend that military propaganda.

#mota discourse #asks #also i've already explained my stance on the one (1) distasteful joke that i typed into the tags of a post that i thought nobody would see #and was stripped entirely from the context of my blog and my thoughts on the series as a whole #so i rly feel no need to defend myself there LOL #but god i hope u guys start seeing mota for what it is #which isn't to say that u can't still enjoy it #just. don't get so caught up in the story that you forget the context that it should be placed in. #(the modern united states military which is supporting and funding the genocide of palestinian people) #(yes we (RELUCTANTLY BTW) fought the bad guys once but please don't forget that now. when the show is coming out. we ARE the bad guys)

[rapha-reads]

@stelly38 asked me:

ooooh, that's going to be fun, thank you!!! Here we go. [Edit: this is going to be long]

Top 10 worst moments in American History

Alright, I'm French and Moroccan. American bashing is like, encoded in my DNA, lmao. Also I've studied History but I'm a Literature specialist, so.

10. the Kardashians. Why are you making us suffer these guys? Please stop. 9. Reagan's administration, how AIDs was handled. 8. the assassination of John Lennon. What the hell, USA? What did Lennon eve do to you? 7. the assassination of MLK. That one is unforgivable. And obviously, George Floyd, Emmett Till... Remember their names. 6. the imperialism in Middle East. That one is not just on you guys, but dammit, you are digging your own grave. And taking the rest of the arabo-muslim world with you. 5. creating Ben Ladden, the war in Irak. Do you guys realize that if Bush hadn't gone to Afghanistan and tried to imperialize it, we wouldn't have the so-called "war on terror" now? 4. the entire Vietnam war. Napalm and senseless violence and the constant glorification of war ever since. 3. bombing Japan. What the hell was that about, Truman? (aka you watched Oppenheimer this summer) 2. Trump. That was like. Globally traumatizing. The whole thing. The heck were you guys thinking? Macron is horrible but Trump was like, majorly nightmarish. 1. the colonization and genocide of the Natives. I know Colombus is not your fault, but everything that happened and keeps happening now. As another indigenous people (North Africa's original people, the Amazighs), I feel a great kinship with the Native Americans. Though to be fair my people has not been as exterminated and pushed back to the recesses of history like you. But yeah, I really think the most important conversation the US should be having today is about the Natives, their lands, their rights, their history, their culture, their justice... I think your country can only progress if it faces its own history and this history starts and ends with its native people.

Oof, let's get into something a bit more light-hearted!

Top 5 favorite songs ever

List changes all the time. Let's see the ones that stay always, the classic ones that almost never make the list because they've been with me for so long.

5. Renaud, Société tu m'auras pas. A classic from my childhood. Anarchist French angry song, anti-society, anti-capitalism... Used to jump and shout the chorus with my brother when I was under 6, visiting my paternal grandfather in the house my father grew up. 4. U2, Magnificent. There was a period in my early teenage years where my mother, my middle sister and I would often drive from the city to the village and back every other week-end, a sort of mini road-trip (60kms only), and we'd listen with my mother this U2 album. 3. Dire Straits, Romeo and Juliet. At this point, everyone who knows me a little knows of my huge obsession for R&J, that started when I was barely 10. This song is everything to me. Also Dire Straits is a shared taste with a part of my maternal family. 2. Manu Chao, Clandestino. My mother is a Spanish teacher, Spain is on the way between France and Morocco. Spanish's always been one of the languages spoken in my house, despite none of us being actually, you know, Spanish. Been hearing this song for as long as I can remember. 1. Anne Sylvestre, Les grands migrateurs. Anne Sylvestre is a French singer (she died this year) who did feminist songs in the 60s-80s, and also various tapes of nursery rhyme (kinda) for kids. This one is about migratory birds. I used to listen to these K7 all the time as a child.

Top 5 favorite desserts

I have a huge sweet tooth!

5. Lemon pie. 4. Red fruit cheesecake. 3. Apple pie. 2. Chocolat mousse. 1. Chocolate cake (marble cake, brownie, classic gâteau... If it's chocolate, it goes in).

#alright thank you for the list of asks that was actually helpful in getting me to stop freaking out #nervous breakdown avoided #replies #top 5 asks #rapha talks #us history #top 5 songs #top 5 desserts

[g0thics]

tempted to make danny approximately 6′2" tall specifically because he is a manipulative, pathological liar that would never reveal anything true about himself to “civilians” and potential targets. none of the information on his IDs and official documents are facts. (also because of this post lol) whenever he renews his ID and driver’s license at DMVs, he states that his height is 5′10, he has blue eyes (they’re color contacts that he wears while performing as jed olsen, his eyes are actually grey). etcetera. as jed olsen, he does not make himself memorable to people. he is just another face in the crowd. perfectly average. perfectly mundane. a workaholic. an introvert. an all-american boy-next-door type. keeps his head low, almost bashful. keeps his shoulders relaxed. the telltale posture of a desk-jockey, or a writer.  jed olsen wears thin, wrinkled clothes that are one or two sizes bigger. a shapeless windbreaker, for the rain. no glasses. harmless, by most people’s standards. trends and stylish clothing are not important for jed’s role. jed is a distraction. a venus fly trap. the clothes are primarily meant to conceal the athletic definition of his physique; daniel johnson senior, a ‘war hero’ of the vietnam war, had trained danny in unconventional warfare and DEVGRU military drills since he was eight years old. danny learned a dozen different ways to kill people, several dozen more ways to torture them. he learned how to use weapons of war before he learned to ride a bike (another lie, he does not know how to ride a bike). and danny understands that death… it takes work. a weak arm is hardly going to stab a man 64 times, after all. he trains and exercises regularly to maintain the peak physical condition required to hunt, take down, and kill grown men without working up a sweat. …usually. florida gets hot.

#character: danny. #hc. #murder cw #maybe hes tall maybe hes not!! you will never know because he will LIE

[belschine]

omg about an hour ago i witnessed the most cringe fail event ive ever heard resulting from a grocery store chain w its own radio station complete with djs. So theyre doing their "yaay 4th of july weekend!!" bash complete with track selections such as firework by katy perry, party in the usa by miley cyrus etc.

And then they play fucking. Born In The USA by Bruce Springsteen. They NEVER EVER play Springsteen btw hes dubbed Too Political for grocery store radio. And in particular obviously these days post 9/11 this particular song is often taken as anti america bc its anti war. So like extremely funny contradictory song choice I thought.

BUT they fucking cut out the entire song and just mixed it so the intro immediately fades into the last chorus/outro. So you miss like. The entire song about the vietnam war. Happy 4th of July I guess

[otnesse]

During Cannes 2005, George Lucas and Revenge of the Sith were part of the selected films. As one might remember, Cannes 2005 was particularly notorious for being primarily a bash-America fest over actual quality of filmmaking. Lucas was no exception ultimately, though to his credit, he does focus on the generalities of how democracy is given away rather than stolen rather than spending his time bashing America (not that he didn't do that, since he used Vietnam and especially Iraq for those tidbits, though he does admit Star Wars predated Iraq and any similarities were a coincidence). One part of his speech elaborating on this, one of his examples, really irked me especially recently:

"Why did the senate after killing Caesar turn around and give the government to his nephew? Why did France after they got rid of the king and that whole system turn around and give it to Napoleon? It's the same thing with Germany and Hitler."

The part in bold is the bit that really irked me. George Lucas, did you even pay attention in your history courses? There was an entire period of time between King Louis's dethroning and later execution and Napoleon's takeover, and a very bloody period as well. If we take into account "get rid of" as basically meaning King Louis XVI being placed under house arrest after being made to sign the treaty, aka 1791, we had the September Massacres occur shortly thereafter. Then when we get to 1793, the year King Louis XVI was actually killed, we had the reign of terror, which was composed of endless mob riots instigated by the Jacobins and other factions, even the so-called "moderate" faction, the Girondists, as well as Khmer Rouge-style massacres in various French towns at Robespierre's order, with Alsace being one place that was targeted for genocide largely because, of all things, the language it spoke (Alsace, while technically a French region at the time, was composed of people who spoke German), not to mention the Republican Marriages at the Loire River (which entailed two naked people tied to a pole and then tossed in a river to drown, either straight or, if there's not enough of either sex to do it that way, even same-sex coupling), and then we get into the Vendee massacres that was an explicit scorched earth operation at a bare minimum, if not actual genocide. And this was all BEFORE the Committee of Public Safety turned against the ringleader, Robespierre, and subjected HIM to the Guillotine, AFTER he failed to shoot himself. Heck, my High School Teacher, a pretty blatant leftist and anti-Christian bigot, fully acknowledged at least the generalities of the Reign of Terror, while Lucas at best seems to have either forgotten about that Reign of Terror by the Jacobins (which OBVIOUSLY was a major factor in WHY the populace got Napoleon in as a desperate attempt at regaining stability), or WORSE, seemed to actually THINK the Reign of Terror WAS the best part of France. And considering he clearly used Napoleon as an allegory for the Empire in this case, I'd like to point out that, if anything, Robespierre's France was far CLOSER to what the Empire was generally depicted as. Funny how leftists clearly forget about that or otherwise don't seem to actually care regarding applying that knowledge there. Sum it up, the way he used that example just made the Old Republic of Star Wars look even WORSE than what the prequel trilogy presented it (and it was less than stellar as it was, especially when its corrupt nature helped pave its way to the Empire).

I could understand how the Roman Republic->Roman Empire comparison would apply to the Old Republic->Empire bit (my only real correction to his point is that the senators DIDN'T give Octavian the title of Emperor, Marc Antony did. The senators if anything had to go into hiding after Antony basically whipped up a mob during Caesar's funeral while claiming he was there to "bury" him.), as the Roman Republic was a very corrupt governmental body run essentially by oligarchs, and Caesar took power initially by marching his men into the capital. I could even understand the Weimar Republic->Nazi Germany comparison due to it also being a corrupt and very weak republic that was literally FORCED into existence over the events of World War I, and barely kept aloft before the Great Depression worsened things. But using Robespierre's Republic as the basis for the Old Republic, much less how it transitioned into the Empire doesn't even work and if anything communicates the exact OPPOSITE message.

I think George Lucas REALLY needs to rethink how he says things, bare minimum.

#anti-George Lucas

[ramrodd]

Christians Don't Know This Jesus

COMEMNTARY”

The Total Depravity Gospel of the Pro-Life Calvinism of Evangelicals,, which is to say, all things Campus Crusade for Christs, is crap.

The Gospel of Matthew and Luke were written after the Counsel, The Gospel of Mark ends with the end of the Roman surveillance,  By that time, the Gospel of Mark was circulating throughout the Roman legions anywhere a  Mithra communion existed.

The Jews still get Jesus, The Hebrew Scripture from the Book of Job to Isiah is a rough draft, Judaism 5.1, Jesus came in with the final draft, which has become the Christian Judaism 13.9 of Pauline Theology,

John Dominic Crossan was a chaplain for the IRA, His agenda with the Jesus Seminar is trying to equate Judea under Caesar is equivalent to Ireland during under John bull during the Potato Famine., There is  some other inside baseball Jesuit bullshit to his particular ideology, but that has been his constant subtext since he left the Church,

This is all very much a part of the 70s revolutionary zeitgeist, The Beatles introduce British working class Marxism into the Boomer generation and the draft for Vietnam fueled the passions of revolutionaries like John Dominic Crossan, who is a charming Irish Fabian right out of the Plough and the Stars. He is opposed to Jesus on ideological and emotional grounds.

The difference Between Bart Ehrman and me and James Tabor is that Tabor and I were on campus from 1965 until Tet 1968 and he was anti-war Campus radical because he was scared shitless of going to Vietnam and I was an ROTC cadet, His academic career was based on avoiding the draft and he continues to be shill for the political insurgence of the Weather Underground, which is how he and Crossan became kindred spirits. They are both engaged in undermining  the moral moral authority of society.

Bart Ehrman was 10 years old when the drafts started in 1965 and 15 when the All Volunteer military put an end to the drafts, he became involved with Camus Crusade for Christ )or some similar Evangelical recruiting scheme) in high school when all the cool kinds in school were being born again, Being popular is a critical  valance of his personality, which is why he giggles all the time in his interviews, At Princeton, Dale Martin showed him how much more fun it was to be apostate and profitable, In the 60s, Evangelicals promised to provide divine extasy as an alternative to the drugs, sex and rock-and-roll of the liberal counter culture, but he discovered that a career of poverty and service wasn't nearly as much fun as satisfying a market for Jesus bashing and alternative history of the origins of the Gospel of Mark,

I don't care what his personal religious vies are: I  am offended by his impoverishment of the literature of the bible to his audiences. His textual bean counter assertions of textual corruption are total crap.   He is like an ant, floating down a river with an erection, shouting "Raise the bridge! Raise the bridge!

#youtube

[samprestonbigbadabruce]

Double Bill: Years Where A Director Made Multiple Movies - Part 1

It doesn’t happen very often, but every now and again, a film director releases multiple films in a singular year. Whilst sometimes it can be as simple as a film being held back for a period of time, other times it can be an example of a director having an amazingly productive year (yes, a slight sound of envy there). Curious about how often it happens, I decided to look back at some favourite directors and their release periods, quickly finding a surprising list of examples.

Because of that, I thought I’d do a couple of articles naming some examples, how both films performed and the comparisons between the two. They may also be a good opportunity for some unique movie marathon sessions?

One of the first I found was an Oliver Stone double bill from 1986, with James Woods starring in Salvador as an American photojournalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War, and Charlie Sheen in the classic Platoon, a near-autobiographical depiction of the Vietnam war as inspired by Stone’s own experiences. The two movies do have similarities in terms of focusing on an outsider trying to survive in a foreign war, Woods’ journalist more experienced in comparison to Sheen’s novice soldier. Interestingly, both films were a struggle to get made until Stone met British film producer John Daly, who agreed to finance both.

Salvador was commercially unsuccessful yet netted Woods an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and Best Screenplay for Stone and Richard Boyle, but paled in comparison to Platoon, where it was a critical and financial success, with Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay again (this time solo for Stone), and Best Supporting Actor for both Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger, and victories for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Sound. As a double bill, they offer fascinating depictions of introduction to foreign war, and are unflinching in the true horrors that exist.

Thirteen years later, Joel Schumacher was recovering from the critical bashing of Batman and Robin, and attempted a double bill comeback in 1999. The first was a Nicholas Cage-starring crime thriller called 8MM, and the second was a surprisingly smaller character based drama called Flawless, which featured Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

The interesting element was the realisation that despite the issues with Batman and Robin, Schumacher still had the ability to interest two of the bigger dramatically respected actors in the world at the time. Both films put the focus on the actors, with Cage a classic noir private investigator, while De Niro played a security guard dealing with a stroke, demonstrating his tough man style with a vulnerability from his conversations with drag queen Rusty, played by Hoffman.

These two films seem an interesting double bill to watch when taking into consideration Batman and Robin, as both films are scaled back in comparison and demonstrate Schumacher’s ability with actors. 

Finally, we have Sidney Lumet, one of the most respected film directors of the last hundred years and his work from 1973. That year, Lumet directed two films that focused on police officers but from two different perspectives. The first is the British-based The Offence, while the second is the American-based Serpico.

The latter is the better known of the films, focusing on the real life tale of New York city based undercover police officer Frank Serpico, played by Al Pacino and dealing with the corrupt actions of his colleagues, eventually testifying against them. A widescale Crime Drama, Serpico is remembered for over 100 speaking parts and locations, as well as encompassing eleven years during Serpico’s time with the police force.

In comparison, The Offence is a much smaller and more intimate piece, focusing on interviews / interrogations between Sean Connery’s detective Johnson and his wife Maureen, Detective Superintendent Cartwright, and suspected child molester Kenneth Baxter. Despite both films dealing with the main character struggling with the world they inhabit, The Offence focuses more on a character committing a crime whereas Serpico revolves around an incorruptible hero.

However, what both films achieve are some of the best performances from both actors. This was one of Connery’s first major roles after finishing with the James Bond role, demonstrating a depth he rarely got to exhibit, while Pacino won a Golden Globe for his subtly intense somberness. Lumet was regularly credited for bringing out some actors best performances, so this double bill offers a fascinating depiction of the complex emotions for police officers.

#Sam #Preston #Samuel Preston #BigBadaBruce #Double #Bill #Directors #Movie #Session #Oliver #Stone #Salvador #Civil #War #James #Woods #Charlie #Sheen #Platoon #Joel #Schumacher #Flawless #8mm #Nicholas #Cage #Robert #De #Niro #Philip #Seymour