#always just been obsessed w this moment figured its time to start documenting my obsession lmao | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fill-me-with-your-memes-daddy · 3 years

Text

Watching the Rise of the Titans movie and I'll be documenting all of my thoughts/reactions here. [Spoiler Warning]

So instead of reblogging every new update, I'm just going to have this post up on my phone as I watch and type my reactions in a bullet list format.

Nari's human disguise is so cute. As someone who does have a cottagecore aesthetic, I want to cosplay her so bad

Are Skrael and/or Belroc non-binary coded? Regardless, I'm also obsessed and I want to fuck Skrael and be Belroc.

STEVE CARING ABOUT JIM BEING HURT YESSSS!!! My god his redemption has probably been one of the greatest there is because he doesn't just suddenly go from being a bully to a completely good person. You can see the gradual shift in learning better throughout the shows which is awesome.

IN NEW YOOOOOOORRRRRRRK!!!!!! CONCRETE JUNGLE WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE OFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!

The mugshot montage reminded me of season 1 of trollhunters when toby and Jim were arrested at the museum.

STRICKLER PUT A RING ON IT??? HE'S THE ONLY DILF IVE EVER ACTUALLY AGREED WAS HOT WYM I CAN'T HAVE HIM??? well I'm still really happy about his arc over the series probably one of my favorite character growths.

Eli my guy got his growth spurt!!! As an 18 year old who is still 5'0", I'm happy but envious for him

So I went into this movie without watching any trailers or promo, but I doubt anything could have prepared me for the existence of mpreg. In fact, I wasn't going to document my reactions until I saw that.

NAMURA!!!!!!!!! MY BELOVED!!!!!! I CAN STILL THIRST FOR YOU WITHOUT GUILT

The coach teacher just called the kids zoomers so I have to dock one point from my final rating just because of that. Unforgivable

Those husky animation models suck lmao

Oh fuck the titans got power ranger zords!!

God why did they include the mpreg??? This movie would have been perfect without it.... After that plot point being revisited only one time I'm already beyond done with it

Like it's bringing me back to the v*ltron days where they're was a suspiciously high amount of klance omegaverse and mpreg fics and art created and it physically hurts because Steve and Keith's voice actor is the same person meaning this is especially cursed to me since I was unfortunately in the v*ltron fandom and remember all of that

But like on another note, how old are these characters again??? I haven't checked any wikis because of spoilers but is Steve an adult??? I know aja might be technically a lot older than 18 because alien but is whatever age she is equivalent to an adult as far as emotionally and physically in Akaridion development??? IS THIS A TEEN (M)PREGNANCY IN A KIDS SHOW????

Like bruh I saw a singular post on here before going into the movie that was like "rott spoilers without context" and there was a pregnant belly but I was absolutely not expecting the actual context of it. I'll find the post after I finish and edit this post to tag the creator right here: @makoden

This entire post is just gonna be me ranting about mpreg huh

Anyway I love the whole roundtable allusion to the legends of king arthur (not the toa version but the one he's based off)

THERE'S 3 TO 5 BABIES????? I need to take a break bruh this is just too much

Alright I've taken a 30 minute break got some food and did some things i love (decompressed by tactile stimming with some owl plushies and watched some videos on my favorite owl, Garu. He lives in Japan with his owner and is a domesticated eagle owl who basically just acts like a sky cat. If anyone else needs some eye bleach, here is their YouTube channel)

Blinky and ARRRGHHH!!! saying their "if one of us doesn't make it" talk my god one of them is going to die I can see it and I will be utterly crushed. Jim can't lose another father figure and Toby can't lose his wingman again I will riot if this happens

On a similar but unrelated to the movie note, can we just talk about how toa started with Jim having 0 dads and (if strickler and blinky live to the end) will end with 2 dads? Like I just really feel happy for him that he has two dads who actually figured out how to put the past behind them to not have any infighting between them so that both of them are healthy father figures. Jim has already been through literal hell and back losing his actual humanity in the process so if he loses one of them, I'm going to be really pissed because at this point, this is just Jim torture porn. Y'all know how as SpongeBob SquarePants went on, the show just became Squidward torture porn? It's starting to feel that way for toa and I really hope they cut the shit by the ending

Jlaire is such a good ship but like I feel like it's too perfect they never disagree with each other

YESSSSSSS Someone finally doesn't treat toby like a fat waste of space who messes stuff up!!! I think out of all the characters that would have been most deserving of a rewrite, it's Toby. Sometimes I just feel he's only comic relief and any heartfelt moments he's had in the series was also born of stupidity (ie his flour baby project being unharmed was seen by him as divine intervention from his parents but was actually just Eli and Steve behind the scenes).

Ohhhhh yesssssss Archie's father!!! I was hoping I'd see him again because we got so little of him last

Ooooooooooh Asian trollmarket!!!!!

Oh never mind slavery trollmarket

Bruh titanic camelot

I feel like we're not seeing enough of the villains because I completely forgot about the power ranger zord things

NAMORA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY LAST CRUSHHHH

STRICKLER NO NOT YOU TOO PLEASE

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE ONLY TWO CHARACTERS I SIMP FOR ON THIS SHOW DIED WITHIN FIVE MINUTES OF EACH OTHER

THAT WHOLE ASS RANT I WROTE IS COMING TRUE FUCK THIS MOVIE THIS SERIES IS JUST JIM TORTURE PORN

WAIT JIM'S SPERM DONOR INFO?

Oh thank God I don't want to know anything about that person

For the record, I call that man Jim's sperm donor because he has no business being called a father to him. All he did was donate some swimmers to the creation of him and give him abandonment issues

Oh another blind troll elder???? This fucker is just if vendel was a bad guy

Bruh I was grieving

PACIFIC RIM WITH GUN ROBOT VEX AND THE BELROCZORD? I've never seen that movie but I know the reference

Bruh Blinky doesn't read horoscopes? Does he realize conspiracy theories are just the manly version of horoscopes?

NO DON'T KILL VEX STOP KO-ING FOUND FAMILY MEMBERS

Oh thank God he's okay

NO NOT ARCHIE AND CHARLEMAGNE OH MY GOD

oh never mind they're just gonna coup de tat I believe in them :))

But I want to see him again

But I'm glad to see vex

Yay they're in arcadia!

But yeah I wondered why the trolls and Merlin didn't keep the whole "daylight doesn't hurt trolls" feature from the eternal night but now Guillermo del Toro I see you were playing the long con in that just to kill my girl Namora :(((

Oooooh I love the animation of the Narizord over Chihuahua!! It looks very good and realistic (if only they could have put some of that into those huskies from before smh)

Bruh the character designs of the arcane order are so good I want to be them

Nari making sure the Skraelzord doesn't crush the bus

DAMN DOUBLE HOMICIDE

Bruh I'm just glad we finally have an answer on why arcadia had everything going on as opposed to literally anywhere else!! I always found that as a weird coincidence for plot convince.

BRUH WERE BACK TO THE MPREG IM SO JEALOUS I FORGOT ABOUT THAT EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BECAUSE I WAS GRIEVING THE LOSS OF MY LOVELIES.

Oh that's real convenient that the ninth configuration meant all of them. Way to not decide which character gets more attention. Though it probably was a smart way to not have any infighting in the fandom between each character's stan group.

Bruh I just realized where is Barbera did they just ditch her on the Camelot ship???

And where are the other trolls that migrated at the end of trollhunters s3? They said something about new jersey but obviously Jim and the other main characters got on Camelot instead.... This feels like a plot hole

And we never learned the process of how changelings are made and bonded to humans and stuff. We just know it's super painful but I'm curious ffs!!!!

THE DONT THINK BECOME HERO SPEECH ALL SAID TOGETHER!!!

BRUH THEY REALLY HAD TO SHOW HIM GIVING BIRTH??????? WAS THAT AN ABSOLUTE MUST??????

Plus the main audience for this series is little children (the rating for the movie is literally TV-Y7) so even though my adult ass is not in the target audience, I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND WHY WOULD MPREG AND ANAL BIRTH WOULD BE AN IMPORTANT THING TO 7 YEAR OLDS???? THIS IS A LITERAL FETISH HIDDEN IN KIDS CONTENT ITS ELSAGATE ALL OVER AGAIN Y'ALL 😭😭😭😭😭

Though it's probably hypocritical of me to think fetishes don't belong in kids tv when I've openly admitted to thirsting for strickler and namora

HUZZAH

NEW AMULET WAZ GOOD????

STAB THAT BITCH JIM

WAIT NO I SAID STAB NOT GET STABBED

Alright good job just missed the directions at first but you fixed it

SEVEN KIDS?????????

T O B Y ????????????

W A I T NO

N O

IS HE ACTUALLY

OH MY GOD THERE'S HOPE

NO THERE ISN'T

F U C K THIS SHIT THEY REALLY JUST HAD HIM TO BE BULLIED THEN KILLED

Y'ALL IM ACTUALLY CRYING THIS NEVER HAPPENS

I NEVER ACTUALLY GET SO EMOTIONAL OVER MEDIA THAT I CRY IT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE AT THE END OF VOLTRON BUT AHHHHHHHH

W A I T

HE'S GONNA BE BROUGHT BACK?????

HOLD UP THEY'RE JUST GONNA BRING ALL THOSE DEAD PEOPLE BACK??????

WAIT IS HE

BLINKY CALLED HIM A SON

HOLD ON IS THIS GOING TO BE A CLIFFHANGER???????????

BRUH THEY REALLY JUST CAN'T END THE SERIES WITHOUT CLIFFHANGERS like there's always an open ending

TROLLHUNTER TOBY????? You know what forget the whole rants I had on how toby was written they just redeemed it all

And that's all! I'd rate it a 6.5/10 because it's definitely the weakest of all the sequels but still had amazing animation and some good plot points. It's just really hard to look over the bad stuff enough to rate it any higher.

#tales of arcadia #rise of the titans #trollhunters #rott #rise of the titans spoilers #rott spoilers #toa #3 below #athena's own original post!#jim lake jr #claire nuñez #toby domzalski

139 notes · View notes

luminary-gremlin · 5 years

Text

The Jesting Host (Part 4)

A/N: Welcome back to part 4 of the Jesting Host! I don’t really have any comments but once again this fic was fun to write! Let me know how you feel about this fic!

Word Count:1913

Now that the Jims have been taken care of, it was time for Host to check up on their little star of the documentation, Bim Trimmer. He flexed his wrists and fingers before taking a deep breath, this next recreation will require him to create quite a large object. He felt a surge of energy rush through him at his plans for the optimistic gentle soul.

Bim was currently touching up his make up for the next show, everything had to be absolutely perfect before he dare show his handsome face to the world. He extra polished his spectacles in such a way were any smudge was eradicated off the crystal surface. He fixed his beautiful raven hair until it was perfect without a signal stand out of place. It often took the man such a long time to perfect every single detail that his show wouldn’t start until another hour! Not to mention helping Wilford and trying to keep calm and then fix himself again.

Host perceived his form with his mind eye, now…how on earth was going to play this out WITHOUT possessing the man. As he brainstormed millions upon millions of possibilities, he picked up with how frantic Bim would check his schedule…he only did that if something different was planned…perhaps he may not need to order Bim to do his bidding, thank god, but rather persuade him.

Bim squinted at the mirror closely, did he use “MAC Powder Blush – Mocha” or “MAC Powder Blush – Blushbaby”? Yes this was very important, one was just a smidge to dark for his paling skin, evidence from the lack of staying outside. Maybe he should take it off and start all over again.

He sighed as he grasped the make up remover and wiped down his face before splashing himself with cold water to refresh his face. Okay no big deal you can do this Bim. He looked at the folded paper that laid on his make up dresser. He was for sure he knew what was coming up…but one more glance couldn’t hurt. He fixed his crystal spectacles and muttered the list out loud before gasping dramatically.

“A MAGIC SHOW PARTICIPANT?! IN 10 MINUTES?! Oh god how did I miss this?!”

That was the Host’s cue to lightly knock on the door, disguising as a magician that Marvin would be jealous of. The showman flinched before screeching out,

“I’M NOT READY DON’T COME IN!”

The Host came in anyways and Bim hurringly covered his clean baby face, muttering swears into the towel.

“Ahem, I apologize for the sudden intrusion sir, but perhaps you would be interested in possibly quickly practicing for our small act. I would prefer preventing any chance of actually cutting you in half.”

Oh my, Bim didn’t think about that. He had never done this before! How could he get so absorbed in his facial features. He hesitantly dropped the towel and discarded it before facing the masked stranger.

“Yes yes of course. Apologies for the naked look, I was just trying to fix up and something went wrong. What exactly is your name?”

“...Ganjileom. But please, call me Gan for short.”

Bim blinked at the name and held out a hand, in which the man named Gan firmly shook. It ease Bim’s nerves with how friendly and patient he was, almost as if it was a familiar feeling he’s had before. He clapped his hands readily as if he was about to announce something.

“So! What was that about cutting me in half? Oh that was always my favorite trick in magician shows!”

“Yes yes, I have brought the box with me for practice. Please step in. This act often is a people pleaser with the illusion of someone cut in half and surviving as well as put together.”

Bim gulped nervously…yeah, that was why it was his favorite act. He slid off his Gucci dress shoes and lied down on his back in the silk covered box and pushed his feet through the holes, in which “Gan” had locked them in with a devilish grin.

“Now to begin, you will come on stage as my assistant after I have announced my act. You will climb into the box and I will lock you in. I will announce to the crowd that the box is all one piece and spin you around and then just to show the people these are indeed your feet, I will give them a little tickle. Are you ticklish perchance Mr. Trimmer?”

Oh god Bim blushed…this was the reason. Just the way how a magician would teasingly tickle the assistant’s feet just to prove they were real, even if it was just for a second, made him feel all bashful. He began to cover one socked foot with the other in a shy manner before speaking.

“A-ah yes, just a little.”

The Host’s evil smirk grew in to a toothy grin and lightly scratched one of his exposed soles to test the waters. As he suspected, the gameshow host squealed outloud and wiggled his sensitive foot around. It was worse that he couldn’t see and therefore unable to predict what would happen next.

“Excellent. Now after that I will get my saw out and place it inside the box. This blade will absolutely NOT touch you. I wanna tell you this because it may get close, but I will not let anyone get hurt under my watch. Do you feel that slight vulnerability around your ah…buttock?”

To be honest Bim was feeling a much more different vulnerability around his feet, but the moment Gan pulled the box in half he felt his butt almost…sag down a bit. Ah so that’s how it’s done. He arched his back to let the box slide back in. He felt quite confident now with the current situation.

“Wow, it’s that easy? I never thought magic could be that simple!!! Now ah, shall you undo the stocks?”

“Possibly, but first…I am awfully curious about your feet and their sensitivity. This sort of thing cannot go unnoticed. Most of the time I hear a giggle or so, but you…you’re different. Different in a good way of course!”

Bim flushed a beautiful bright pink at that and rubbed his feet together bashfully. It embarrassed the heck out of him whenever people commented on his ticklishness. He felt dread pool into his stomach at the realization…he was stocked, he couldn’t see, his trapped feetsies were going to be tickled! Not that he minded of course.

The Host grinned at his flustered silence, sensing the emotion Bim felt at the realization, and then began. He slowly peeled off his socks to expose the soft, well taken care of skin of Bim trapped soles.

“My my, it seems your facial features aren’t the only thing you take care of Bim~”

The Host purred. He then dragged a single finger up and down his soles greedily, enjoying the squeaks and sweet laughter of Bim. It was almost amusing how one little finger already got the poor man to unwravel.

“CEHEhehhHEHEHEase AHAHahhahAHHAt OHohohOHonce FihihIHiHiHend!”

“…Fiend? You call such a simple, gentle gesture…fiendish? Well, well, well…it seems someone needs to be reeducated about what such a word ACTUALLY means!”

The Host sneered before snapping his fingers, causing Bim’s toes to uncurl and spread open as far as the could comfortably before freezing in that position. Bim couldn’t move an inch and now his toes where completely open under the “magician’s” mercy. Oh how he wish he could take it all back. If he had just kept his mouth shut. Before he could apologize, he was cut off with hysterical laughter at the feeling of something super, feathery soft like a make-up brush teasing the ball of his left foot along with 5 blunt, scratching nails traversing up and down his sole.

“BWAHAHHAHAHAHHA ANOHOHOHHOH PLEHEHEHEHHEHEHASE!!!! GEHEHEHEHHEHT AWAHAHHAHAHAY FROHOHOHOHM MIHIHIHIHIHY FEEHEHEHHEHET! IHIHIHIHI’LL SUHUHUHUHUE YOU WHEHEHEHHEN I GEHEHEHEHT OUT!!!!”

He howled with laughter. He banged his fists against the box for a way to open it. He shook his head wildly as red blush burned his delicate skin. It was blissful ticklish agony. The two wildly different techniques on different areas of his feet was driving him mad. Meanwhile the Host was having a blast of a time. He had made sure to check in on his levels as to not go too far.

“Now tell me Bim, which tickles more? The make-up brush or my nails~?”

Oh god don’t make me choose, he thought to himself. There was nothing worse than having to focus on what was the worse than the two evils. The scratchy, suuuuper tickly claws of this magician…or the feather soft brush teasing such a sensitive spot. The choice was horrible as it was about equal, but he knew he’d have to give an answer quickly for fear of upsetting his captor.

“THEHEHEHHEH MAHAHHAHAHAKE UP!!!!! THEHEHHEHE BRUSH THEHEHHE BRUHUHHUHUHUSH!!!!! THHEHEHEH BRUSH IHHIHIHS WOHOHOHOHOHOHRSE!!!!”

He cried out in hysteria. The Host continued to keep an eye on his limit, figuring that despite the man having excellent stamina, he would prefer not to push him to his limit. He was such an innocent one after all.

“Excellent. The H- Ii-i-I mean…the great Ganjileom is delighted that you willingly answered his question. You are granted freedom from the box.”

The Host unlocked him out from the split box, lifting him up and setting him in the chair while fetching a cold bottle of water. Bim’s lungs were on fire, sweat dripping from his skin, his hair was a mess as tears stained his adorable cheeks. Once he was given the water, he greedily guzzled it down thankful for its refreshing coolness. The Host then placed a cool rag over his head as well as cleaning up Bim.

“Ah it’s impossible. There’s no way to fix this and the show is about to begin! I can’t go out there!”

“Perhaps Bim, you are focusing too much on your perfect complexion. Yes a bit of foundation may help with making you appear correctly skin colored. But is perfection really necessary? The crowd loves you for your personality. You’re able to wow a group using a pinecone and a crunchy leaf!”

Bim…hadn’t thought of it that way. He’s been so obsessed with how he appeared to others, that he had forgotten his talented skills of show business!

“W-wow…you really think so? W-why thank you…I guess…I HAVE been obsessed…but is it possible to at least quickly fix up?”

The Host chuckled fondly at him and nodded.

“Well of course, you don’t think I’d actually expect to leave you like this did you?”

With a snap of his fingers, Bim’s features were all fixed up. He wore a brand new tailored suit, clean, combed hair, as well as clear, fixed spectacle. His eyes glistened and hugged the Host happily.

“HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU DO THAT?!”

“A magician never tells his secrets~”

“T-thank you! I swear I owe you one! Anything! Let’s knock this event out of the park!”

“Yes indeed let us…and by the way… ‘Blushbaby’ appeals more to your skin than ‘Mocha’.”

And so the two men set out on their performance together, receiving quite amount of applause and cheers for their act. Bim was able to crack some jokes and wow the crowd with his own commentary as well as assure the crowd their favorite showman was quite fine after being cut in half.

4 down, 9 to go

#Lee Bim #Ler Host #The Jesting Host #part 4 #tickle #tickling #magician's box #masterpost

14 notes · View notes

thisdaynews · 5 years

Text

The Mueller report? Haven’t read it.

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-mueller-report-havent-read-it/

The Mueller report? Haven’t read it.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report has hardly been ignored — but getting lawmakers to read beyond its executive summary, media reports or their own staffers’ notes is no simple task. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Mueller Investigation

Time for a Mueller report reality check: Only a small segment of America’s most powerful have read it.

President Donald Trump can’t give a straight answer about the subject. More than a dozen members of Congress readily admitted to POLITICO that they too have skipped around rather than studying every one of the special counsel report’s 448 pages. And despite the report technically ranking as a best-seller, only a tiny fraction of the American public has actually cracked the cover and really dived in.

Story Continued Below

“What’s the point?” said Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who like many other lawmakers recently interviewed in the Capitol acknowledged they hadn’t completed their own comprehensive read.

The result, say lawmakers, historians and cultural critics, is a giant literacy gap in the country when it comes to the most authoritative examination into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump obstructed that investigation. And closing that gap could determine whether Democrats feel they have public backing to launch impeachment proceedings against the president. That’s why numerous Democrats, activists and pro-impeachment advocates say it’s up to them to teach Americans what the Mueller report says, even if there’s already considerable public fatigue with the issue.

The education campaign runs the gamut, from celebrities staging a dramatic Broadway reading of Mueller’s most juicy findings on obstruction of justice, to House Democrats pulling Robert Mueller back from retirement next week to publicly testify, hoping that live television cameras can illuminate what the dense government report cannot.

“You can’t expect people to read lengthy documents in large numbers. They have their own lives to lead,” said House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, the powerful New York congressman who has described his decision on whether to launch impeachment proceedings as hinging in no small part on public opinion.

The challenge in getting anyone to study the Mueller report is an uphill one, especially after Trump and his GOP allies made their own early play in mid-April to cement the “no collusion, no obstruction” mantra. And getting lawmakers to read beyond the Mueller report’s executive summary, media reports or their own staffers’ notes is no simple task.

“It’s tedious,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who has a copy of Mueller’s work in a large stack of things she turns to for her daily reading. She said she started right away on the report’s first volume detailing the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russians while on a trip to Vietnam, and as of late June she was still plugging along. “In fairness, I haven’t picked it up in at least two weeks.”

“I’ve got a lot on my reading list,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said as he explained why he’s avoided one of the most highly anticipated reports in recent American history.

Republicans aren’t alone. “I’d be pretty reckless to say I have a full comprehension,” said Rep. David Price (D-N.C.). “I need to spend some more time with it.”

Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) also said he hadn’t read the whole report. “It is what it is,” he said when asked why.

“I didn’t have to read it. I lived it,” offered Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was Hillary Clinton’s 2016 vice presidential running mate. “I intended to read cover to cover, but there was nothing in it that was a surprise to me.”

The Mueller report has of course hardly been ignored. The Washington Post’s version — published with an introduction written by its Mueller beat reporters — has held a spot on The New York Times’ best-seller list for 10 consecutive weeks. More than 357,000 copies of the report released by three publishers had been sold as of late June, according to NPD Bookscan.

It’s also been a subject of fascination and obsession for cable news and provided days of comedic fodder for late night hosts.

Yet a CNN poll conducted in late April found only 3 percent of respondents saying they had gotten all the way through the report. Several House Democrats interviewed in recent weeks have taken that figure and extrapolated it out to suggest an estimated 9 million people have read all of the report, which some say seems suspiciously overstated.

“I think that’s really high,” Murkowski said. “I think they’re lying to you.”

But reading all the way through Mueller’s findings — SPOILER ALERT: Mueller shows how Trump may have obstructed justice — has helped many reach their own conclusions about what should happen next.

Breaking out first from the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign pack, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during an early May speech on the Senate floor explained how she went “cover to cover, every page” within about 24 hours of the report’s release, and then decided that Congress should impeach Trump.

Similar stories have come from the likes of Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a freshman Democrat from South Florida who said she decided to back impeachment proceedings after she “spent countless hours” reading the report, studying the special counsel’s evidence and listening to recent testimony from legal experts.

J.W. Verret, a George Mason University law school professor who worked on the Trump transition, had a similar conversion. He called for Congress to start impeachment proceedings after poring over the report. “I mean, I read it twice. That was my impression the first 10 pages in, and I think we have to take it seriously,” he said in a recent CNN interview.

Others said reading the Mueller report brought them to different conclusions. Rep. John Ratcliffe R-Texas), a former federal prosecutor, recalled in a late April interview on Fox News that after going through the report, his main thought was “that the one person that was always being truthful about [a potential Trump-Russia conspiracy] was Donald Trump.”

Reading the Mueller report — or not— has even become its own political cudgel among Democrats.

Briana Urbina, a Democrat running against Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) in 2020, criticized the House majority leader for declaring impeachment was “not worthwhile at this point” soon after the redacted version of the Mueller report had been published. In a Baltimore Sun letter to the editor, Urbina wrote that Hoyer had “jumped the gun with a public statement denouncing impeachment without even having read the Mueller report, within hours after it was released.” A Hoyer spokesperson responded that the congressman has read “significant portions” of the report and had discussed the special counsel’s findings with other members and staff.

MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough, meantime, unloaded on Mueller last month for acting like he was “above coming to Capitol Hill and testifying for Americans” and instead directing Americans to read the report.

“It’s outrageous,” Scarborough vented.

Trump has hardly been consistent with his own answer about whether he’s read the report. “Yes, I did, and you should read it too,” the president replied when ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked last month. But he was less categorical a few days later: “Let me tell you, I read much of it. I read the conclusion,” he told NBC’s Chuck Todd.

The Mueller report has its share of promoters. House Democrats dedicated more than 13 hours to a public reading in mid-May. PBS packed the report’s key findings into a 30-minute special. A small theater troupe in Bangor, Maine, tried last month reading it aloud to an audience that a local columnist reported “never grew beyond a handful.”

Journalists are making pleas to the public. “At nearly 450 pages, it’s a bit of a lift. But it’s a fast read,” Tribune News Service columnist John Crisp wrote in late April. “Read it yourself,” Scott McGrew, an NBC anchor in San Francisco, said during an on-air segment that ran the night after the report’s release.

Celebrities have gotten in on the act, too. Tom Steyer’s pro-impeachment group cut a two-minute video of actors pretending they were auditioning for a Mueller movie by reading lines from the report. Another video directed by Rob Reiner promoting the report closes with Martin Sheen imploring viewers, “Please just read it for yourself.” And the reading on Broadway last month staged the report’s obstruction section in 10 acts, divvying out parts to well-known actors like John Lithgow as Trump, Kevin Kline as Mueller and Jason Alexander as Chris Christie.

More attempts to keep the Mueller report alive are coming. There’s an 11-hour reading of the obstruction section scheduled to start at noon on Thursday in Washington, D.C. A graphic novel version of the report is coming in April 2020. The Mueller Book Club, a group that includes Public Citizen, Common Cause and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, are pushing for more public readings across the country.

These attempts to turn the report into something beyond a staid government document can help with public understanding. “It’s an easier way to make the medicine go down,” said Kurt Andersen, host of Public Radio International’s Studio 360.

Don Ritchie, the retired Senate historian, likened recent attempts to dramatize the report to a humorous parlor game associated with one of the key moments from Watergate. “I recall it was popular at parties in the ’70s to read the Nixon tape volume aloud and guess the ‘expletives deleted,’” he said. “A dedicated minority will read every word and the rest will rely on news headlines at best.”

Mueller’s report will have a chance to come to life next Wednesday when the former special counsel treks to Capitol Hill for a day of public testimony. Some key Republicans and Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have even said they are rereading the report ahead of the occasion.

Even though Mueller has vowed to stick to the confines of the report during his hearings, many argue that his appearance will educate millions of people who never plan to crack open the report.

Steve Benen, a producer on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” argued in a recent blog post that “millions” of Americans can still learn about the Mueller report’s findings even if the former special counsel sticks to a tight script during his testimony.

“Much of the country would benefit, even if he did nothing more than read from the darned thing,” Benen wrote. He recounted how one pro-Trump voter told a network reporter that she learned of the Mueller report’s damaging information only after attending a town hall event in Michigan for Rep. Justin Amash, the only non-Democrat to back impeachment.

Because of the way most people learn about complex subjects, the emphasis on actually reading the report may be a bit misplaced from a political perspective, said Elaine Kamarck, a longtime Democratic operative who worked in the Clinton White House and Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign.

“Frankly, the damage has been done,” said Kamarck, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “I don’t think it’s a waste. I do think it’s good to put this together in a coherent narrative. That is useful. But will it move the needle on Republican voters? I don’t think so.”

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are split on whether it’s worth it to keep on reading.

“I haven’t thought about it, to be honest with you,” said Sen. Scott, who explained he’d read “lots” of the report on his electronic device when it came out.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said he didn’t read the report and had no plans to start now. “We’ve been a little bit busy,” he said.

Murkowski said she’s still working on it because of a personal vow to hold back in weighing in until she was done.

“I think most will read like the Reader’s Digest condensed version,” she said. “Um, I do think it’s important to read it, and that’s why I’m poring through it. I just don’t have 18 hours that I can just sit down and give it a read. So, I get 15 minutes here and 25 minutes there. But I do think it’s important to read and that’s why I’m going to commit to it.”

Several lawmakers said they didn’t need to read all of Mueller’s findings because their own work on Capitol Hill had also involved investigating the 2016 election.

“I would tell you, have I read every single page? No. Have I gone though it? Yes. Some sections more so than others,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who noted as a member of the Intelligence Committee during the last Congress, some of it was “old news” and he could “flip through quickly.”

“I could get to sections saying, ‘Know that, know that,’” he said.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) didn’t hide from the question. “I knew there’d have to be a time that I’d be asked. So I wish I had read it before you asked. But in all honesty, I haven’t.”

He explained that he didn’t dig in because “there’s no drive and push in my district specifically for impeachment.” And he questioned why Trump could even be investigated for obstruction of justice when he wasn’t accused of an underlying crime.

About two hours later, a Shimkus spokesman emailed with a message from the congressman: “He asked me to let you know that he’s reading the Mueller Report.”

#Foreign #Haven #Politics #report

0 notes

gabrielcollignon · 7 years

Text

LinkedIn Leader Shares How to Build a High-Performance Content Marketing Team

The content marketing industry is flooded with “rock stars,” and this has led many to think a content marketing strategy is about individual prowess. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Peek behind great content marketing efforts and you’ll nearly always find a driven, well-organized team.

Jolie Miller, content strategy and acquisitions leader at LinkedIn, has spent much of her career leading the quiet, disciplined work of high-performance content teams. Here are her practical tips for what it takes to build, manage, and drive them.

CCO: Can you paint a picture of your personal content journey? When did you first take the creation of content seriously, and what about the process did you find (and do you still find) interesting?

Miller: I started in the content business over 10 years ago in the publishing world, where our product was educational content. One of the things I was most excited about then and have only grown more passionate about now at LinkedIn is the idea of over-delivering on value with the content you share. It’s content that truly exceeds users’ expectations that creates those moments of delight with a brand.

What I love about content is it has the power to change people’s lives for a second or for a day or forever. Great content creates space for people to pause and reflect, and that space is where transformation happens.

Great #content creates space to pause & reflect, & that is where transformation happens. @joliemiller Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Using Content Marketing to Drive Customer Delight

CCO: Not all teams are high-performance teams. In your mind, what’s the difference?

Miller: A high-performance team has members that show up for each other because everyone wants to work together to deliver value. People do the small, little extra thing and the big, hard, amazing thing, and obsess about the details because they’re creating relationships and outcomes they’re willing to own. I’ve been fortunate to be on many teams like this.

In my experience, a team that’s not high-performing is a team that’s in it for the transaction – one project or one piece of content or one interaction, not the longer play of strong, healthy relationships, open communication, trust, and creating a better company together. It’s more about how quickly can I cross this off my list or get through that conversation and back into my day; it’s not about building something together with and for people. Needless to say, these teams quickly get toxic for people and can benefit from a fresh start and some turnaround leadership.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Play Marketball: Turn Disconnected Teams Into High Performers

CCO: You’ve built high-performance content teams at all stages of a company’s growth. Can you walk us through the crucial first steps a leader of any company size should take to begin building a world-class content team?

Miller: It really starts with knowing what markets you want to win and what kind of content, delivered in the right way, will help you win those markets. What the business is aiming to do and do well is at the heart of starting your team. Then you’ve got to find people who want to join the cause with you. I often tell candidates that this isn’t a job, it’s a calling, and we’re looking for people who want to own and share that vision with us – people for whom it’s not going to feel like work. Creating good content is about passion.

Creating good content is about passion, says @joliemiller. Click To Tweet

I also often tell candidates that it comes through in the content you make if you had fun making it – the company’s culture bleeds through, and it has to be solid. So you’ve got to find folks who want to have fun growing a business with you.

Look for the people who you know will challenge what exists and what could be, and always seek out folks who will want your job. They’ll drive hard toward company wins with you.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Content Talent Crunch: Time to Change How We Train, Hire, Nurture

CCO: Once the core team is in place, what are some simple project management strategies that will help the team keep driving forward?

Miller: The first project management strategy for any team is communication. Notice people. Notice things that are going right. Say something about those things, often. Have the tough conversations with candor and empathy, and have them earlier than you think you need to.

I’m also a big fan of documentation and detail to stay on top of projects – over-document if you need to get in the habit. You don’t need a fancy CMS or tool to do this; it can be done in Google Sheets if that’s what you’ve got. But keep track of all the little niggling things.

Next, it matters what you measure – so keep detailed records and monitor performance. I like to monitor the daily stuff: engagement and viewership, but also hunt for wild-card information that might start with a random question, take you down a rabbit hole, and then kick you back out with some new insights.

Finally, have review meetings or postmortems on a frequency that works for you. Stop to ask yourself: What’s going well? What have we learned? What do we want to do next? This is key.

CCO: Where do you see most content marketing strategies faltering?

Miller: Content that misses the mark usually does so first by failing to know its audience, and second by failing to connect meaningfully with that audience, either with the wrong tone or wrong type of content or a combination. The miss often occurs long before the content is made.

Content that misses the mark is usually done so by failing to connect meaningfully w/ audience. @joliemiller Click To Tweet

The other mistake I see is applying a one-size-fits-all approach to all of your content without stopping to consider audience differences, such as: “This two-minute clip worked well over here for this audience so we should obviously only do this for everyone going forward.” Not so!

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Build a Smart Yet Simple Social Media Marketing Plan [Template]

CCO: When do you know it’s the right time to hire, and can you give us a glimpse into how you recruit the best-fit talent?

Miller: In my experience, the right time to hire is when you’re in over your head with too much on your plate but still have the energy and passion to do it all – it’s still early enough that you’re not burned out but it’s late enough that you hopefully have traction and cash flow to attract the kind of people to help you get to the next level.

Hire when you have too much on your plate but still have energy and passion to do it all, says @joliemiller. Click To Tweet

Then, and this is the key thing, you have to fire yourself from your old job of doing it all. Hire someone who’s amazing, train them really well and thoroughly, and then let them run, coach them, and remove all the roadblocks they need cleared out of their way.

If you give me $100 to spend on hiring, I’m going to spend half of it finding the right person and the other half making sure my training documentation is compelling and setting the person up for success. Without both of these, neither one will work.

Practical hiring advice

Jolie explains why these five steps are essential to creating a high-performance team.

1. Seek out passive job candidates

I’m a big fan of passive candidate recruiting – going out and finding the voices that should be shaping the content of tomorrow. See what’s new and fresh on social and who’s doing unique and game-changing things, the people who are thought highly of. Talk to those people. Network. Find the best and go to them, even if they’re not looking and wouldn’t consider leaving where they are. Start talking to these people before you have roles open so you can quickly hire when it’s time.

2. Let interviewees lead the conversation

I’ve often interviewed people by letting them ask me questions rather than throwing a bunch of questions at them. This lets me see how their mind works, how curious they are, if they’re prepared, and the way they’d think about working with me and the team.

Their approach also lets me observe their analytical and emotional-intelligence skills up close and personal – how are they reading what I’m asking, and are they catching how I’m responding to their answers and adjusting on the fly? It also ensures that candidates are getting the full scoop on the job – they have ample opportunities to learn everything they want to know, and in the best circumstances, and also sell me on their big ideas that would let them hit the ground running.

Of course, I do throw in some questions of my own, but the goal is to get to know the candidates – are they nervous to fill the time with questions and their own thoughts, or are they eager to take charge? Do they use the time to try to get ideas for how to answer the next interviewer’s questions or do they use the time as a blank canvas to brand themselves?

3. Don’t hide from the tough stuff

Explain the job in real talk, the good and the bad. Remember, you want people for whom this is a calling and a purpose, not just a paycheck. Let them know the obstacles and the upside. For example, I’ll say things like, “This is a very intra-preneurial role where you’re going to be able to write the rules, but with that comes a lot of question marks you’re going to have to be comfortable playing with. If you see question marks as a challenge and like figuring out what they’ll turn into, you’ll love it; if they frustrate you, it’s going to frustrate you.”

Explain a job in real talk, the good & bad, to get people who want more than a paycheck. @joliemiller Click To Tweet

4. Hire people who delight you

Whether it’s their humor, their brilliance, their grasp of numbers, or whatever it might be, you want a delight factor that they can bring to the team and the business. This is a daily relationship you’re committing to, and it needs to work well and be able to drive results.

5. Document the hiring process

Set up clear onboarding plans for the first 60 days, including goals for the quarter or the year, and documentation on how to do what. No one remembers what they do in their first week, so have a document they can peruse at their leisure any time to refresh their memory.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

How to Build a Content Marketing Practice in a Year: Lessons From Monster

What’s Next in Your Content Marketing Career Evolution?

A version of this article originally appeared in the April issue of Chief Content Officer. Sign up to receive your free subscription to our bimonthly, print magazine.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post LinkedIn Leader Shares How to Build a High-Performance Content Marketing Team appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

#Business

0 notes

lucyariablog · 7 years