#former amish

[sysig]

Seán McCoin, Leprechaun-in-training (Patreon)

Bonus, do you recognize the bunny?

It’s Hayden!

#Doodles #Original #It's been a bit since the last new concept and this one came right outta nowhere #I promise you it's not timely at all lol #I was chatting with smol while searching for my coin purse (couldn't find it D:) and kept repeating it quickly #To the point where it sounded like M'coin purse - Hey that could be a name! Sounds like a name for a Leprechaun- #Everything was a lost cause after that lol #Gosh it feels like forever since I stretched my character creation muscles lol - I'm pleased with him! :D #I started with a more stereotypical Leprechaun look but still with the little ponytail and piercing haha #I think I'd like him to grow into a full Amish beard at some point but Not Yet - still a bit on the young side #He's like?? oddly Sans-esque in a way I can't quite pin down??? I didn't intend that lol #I was hoping to get something more like a young Bilbo Baggins but I'm not complaining haha #He's a bit on the rough side ♪ Green crop-cut leather jacket with pins and patches hehe #Really exerting myself on the colours this time as well haha - he's like halfway to full colour! Woah! #I actually used two (or three depending how you count it) different tools for his hair and eyes #Coloured pencils on the former and glitter pen for the latter - orange and red tandem (I know - self-blasphemy lol) and gold sparklies #It looks the same scanned lol #Still fun to draw his arm and leg fuzz haha #Also ft. a return/reintroduction/redesign of Hayden! This is just a cameo redesign I'm still keeping him in Zootopia lol #Anthro bunny bartender was just too fun to pass up as someone to bounce off haha #Maybe I'll bring back Phoenix and her uncle sometime - I never have over here so lol #Big bunny family - that is usually how it goes lol #Hayden needs more friends anyway he's a gregarious guy ♪

[txttletale]

ok i've been called a sex freak tranny too i get where you're coming from but like also please be more careful with extremely vague posts about Problematic Kinks

no. people's openness about what two consenting adults can do in private has no bearing on how likely they are to be child abusers or close ranks about child abusers & thinking there is some correlation is a sign that your stance on sexual abuse is mediated more by disgust reaction and aesthetic associations than by structural analysis. there is a pretty hard and obvious line between not condemming consensual sex acts between adults and being a pedophile and thinking that it's some sort of spectrum or slippery slope there imo speaks poorly to your conceptualization of why SA is a bad thing.

people love to say that X or Y kink Normalizes Abuse, but, like, actually think about communities where sexual abuse is 'normalized' in society. is the problem with the catholic church that it's too pro-kink? is the problem with US professional gymnastics that it's too pro-kink? is the problem with the amish that they're too pro-kink? was the problem with the british entertainment industry in the 1970s that it was too pro-kink? is the problem with the prison system that it's too pro-kink? &c. &c. &c.

sexual abuse doesn't happen because people are degenerate perverts and everyone is too accepting of that, sexual abuse happens because society is full of institutions that give adults structural power over children and men structural power over women. giving credence to the former, even in the form of thinking you have to be "super careful" about perverts, is a straightforwardly reactionary position.

#ask #nsftxt

[katruna]

#former amish meg & eli answer your questions #cults to consciousness #live

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: vampires

Listen, vampires are a classic for a reason, but they have also been done to death (pardon the pun) to the point that finding books that are creative with the premise can be a bit of a slog through tired old tropes. Hopefully this rec list can be to a bit of help for all vampire fans out there wanting something fresh!

For details on the books, continue under the readmore

Previous rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding

Really cool sci-fi worldbuilding

Dark sapphic romances

Mermaid books

Sci-fi vampires:

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler my beloved, literally you cannot go wrong with one of her books. Fledgling follows what at first seems to be a ten-year-old amnesiac girl, who finds out she is in fact a decades old vampire on the run from others of her kind. The vampires here are a separate species from human, not supernatural, and are as a whole very fascinating and unsettling. Come in prepared for fucked up power dynamics.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

Vampires and aliens and questions of the nature of consciousnesses, oh my. Not a vampire novel so much as a scifi novel about aliens in which there also happens to be vampires (one of which is captain of a spaceship sent to explore an alien ship just entering the solar system). Another example of vampires as an entire separate species, but more horror focused than Fledgling. No, seriously, this book will fuck you up, highly recommend if you're okay with a lot of techno babble and existential horror.

Peeps (Peeps duology) by Scott Westerfeld

Young adult. Vampirism as a sexually transmitted parasite that turns most people into bloodthirsty monsters. Cal is an asymptomatic carrier working to find other infected before they hurt people, including his own former girlfriends. But there is something else lurking in the dark, an ancient enemy of the vampire parasite...

Post apocalypse vampires:

The Hallowed Ones (The Hallowed Ones duology) by Laura Bickle

Young adult. Katie is an Amish girl eagerly awaiting her rumspringa, when she gets to try out the outside world. But before she has the chance, something happens to the Outside; a nearby town is wiped out, and something evil stalks the night. To protect their community, the Amish elders decide that no one can leave and no one can enter the sacred ground that makes up their home. That is, until Katie finds an injured young man and decides to help him.

The Company of Death by Elisa Hansen

Wild mix of genres, where a zombie apocalypse has struck and vampires gather up humans to keep their food source from going extinct, a robot travels across America with a young man she's tasked to keep safe, and former-vampire-hunter-recent-zombie Emily teams up with Death himself to stop the apocalypse. Features bi and ace characters! Bonus rec: the author also runs the youtube channel Maven of the Eventide, where she talks about various vampire media. Check it out!

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden trilogy) by Julie Kagawa

Young adult. Another zombie apocalypse (well; feral vampires) scenario in which vampires gather humans up to keep their food safe. Allison Sekemoto hates vampires, but when she ends up on the brink of death and is offered a way out, she has no choice but to take it. Hunted by a mad vampire and forced to flee the relative safety of her city, Allie must enter the post-apocalyptic outside world and team up with the free humans roaming there, seeking a cure for the undead plague that ravages the world.

Urban fantasy vampires:

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Queen of fucked up gothic horror, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, comes for vampires in this gritty novel following Domingo, a garbage collecting street kid in a Mexico City where vampires walk the streets. His life gets turned upside down when he meets Atl, a vampire descendant of Aztec blood drinkers who’s on the run and needs all the help she can get.

Sunshine by Robin McKinnley

Urban fantasy on a level of its own, where dangerous magic exists alongside humans. It keeps you guessing and much is left unexplained; if you want clear answers and explanations to everything you might be disappointed, but if you want a world that feels mysterious and dangerous and lived in you'll probably like it. It follows a baker who, after getting kidnapped by vampires, gets embroiled in a dangerous struggle and has to team up with one of them to survive. The vampires here are really inhuman and unsettling.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Young adult. After vampirism swept the land, special Coldtowns were built to quarantine anyone bitten, whether they have turned or not. After having survived a massacre at a party in which her ex-boyfriend got bit, Tana sets out with him and mysterious vampire to reach the nearest Coldtown, not knowing if she’ll ever be able to leave it again.

Modern vampires:

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Swedish literary novel set in the 1980s. Follows twelve-year-old Oskar, a troubled and bullied boy who befriends his new neighbor, Eli. But there’s something strange about Eli, such as her only coming out at night. Also available as two separate movie adaptations (I highly recommend the Swedish original; the American remake is perfectly adequate standard horror fare, the original is a masterpiece).

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

Literary novel following Lydia, who’s grown up as a vampire under the thumb of her mother, who’s been obsessed with self-hate over their existence as blood drinkers. Finally on her own for the first time in her life, Lydia moves to London hoping to make it as an artist. But surviving alone as a vampire is harder than expected. Slow and fairly light on plot, but utterly captivating.

Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde

Young adult. After Kerry saves a young man from three attackers who claim he's a vampire, she's drawn into a dangerous game and forced to work with a manipulative vampire. Pre-cursor to the modern ya vampire genre, Companions of the Night utilizes many of the same tropes but in very different ways, making it a unique experience.

Historical and fantasy vampires:

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson

Dracula inspired novella, following Constanta, who’s turned from a medieval peasant to an undead bride. As time passes the relationship between Dracula and Constanta grows all the more strained and potentially dangerous. Teaming up with his two other consorts, she seeks to unravel her husband's secrets. Sapphic and polyamorous.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

Having escaped from slavery in the 1850s, young Gilda is taken in by a vampire, and eventually finds herself turned as well. Consists of a series of novellas following Gilda throughout the centuries, from the past to the present to the future. It’s also sapphic!

House of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

In a world where the rich drink blood to preserve their health, Marion applies to a position as bloodmaid in a notorious noble house far from home. Suddenly showered with luxuries and debauchery, Marion soon gains the interest and favor of Lisavet, countess of the house. A fresh take on the idea of vampires and deliciously dark sapphic romance.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

The Hunger by Whitley Strieber

Ancient vampire is on the hunt for a new partner, none of which tend to last long.

My Soul to Keep (African Immortals series) by Tananarive Due

I keep seeing this one described as a vampire book, and once stumbled on the description "almost a vampire book" and listen by now I'm simply curious to see what it's about.

Team Human by Justine Larbelestier & Sarah Rees Brennan

Young adult. As far as I can tell, a satire on typical ya vampire romances.

The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman

*chanting* vampires in space vampires iN SPACE

The Lost Girls by Sonia Hartl

Young adult, sapphic. Three vampire girls turned and abandoned by the same vampire get together to stop him from turning yet another girl.

The Balance of Fates by Raquel Raelynn

Young adult, sapphic. A girl enters a competition against vampires and werewolves, complicated by her feelings for one of her vampire competitors.

#hello new critrole followers! i sometimes write book recs! #vampires #book recs #nella talks books #portal fantasies next time! #might be longer than a week tho #there are a couple of books i want to check out first to see if they qualify #(just gave up about nora roberts the awakening; it does NOT qualify)

[reallygroovyninja]

Christmas in Arkadia

At her talent agent Anya's urging, actress Lexa Woods reluctantly takes on the lead role in a Hallmark Christmas film, hoping the job will help her pay off her lingering IRS debts and stabilize her finances.

She heads to the fields of Amish country in Pennsylvania to shoot "Christmas in Arkadia" alongside co-star and former teen star Clarke Griffin.

As the days pass, Lexa finds herself captivated not just by the holiday charm and winter wonderland around her but by the growing intimacy between her and Clarke.

Long gazes linger as they rehearse scenes, sneak smiles between takes, and Lexa's heart flutters unexpectedly when they film the script's final romantic moment.

By the concluding scene, Lexa has a holiday hit and solved her financial woes. But most unexpectedly, she's falling head over heels for her charming co-star amongst the lights of Arkadia. Could romance be the real gift this Christmas season?

#Christmas in Arkadia #i started writing this story #and it got away from me #I will post it eventually #clexmas 23 #theme - basically a hallmark movie

[sirensea14]

INSTRUMENTS OF CYANIDE

THIS IIS ONE OF MY FAVORITE (and recent to finish) FANART YET!!! This fanart is based on the mv in my head about books 10-11 and the Angel-Demon War with the Instruments of Cyanide (my fave song) by DAGames. It has 3 parts: the 1st one is Book 10-11, 2nd is Book 11 ft. Not-cup and Mayhem, 3rd is the Angel-Demon War

1st part features:

Bendy, Boris, Felix, Alice Angel, Sarah, night terror, Holly and Mayhem (both on the window), Linda, Leticia, Michael and Cannikin (smol), plus Lucy holding the record on fire and the Instrument found just at the chin of the Night Terror.

The 2nd part features:

Not-cup(i know, i know, im wrong and he's not an actual character but i did it anyways XD) and Mayhem controlling the Cog's spin with Holly and Cuphead on it as if the two former are controlling the latter two characters. It also shows Bigby stuck on the Cog, which represents his deal with Mayhem, and Boris in the background, silently watching the events

Part 3 features:

The Angel-Demon War. It shows Lukahd, infamously known as the "Lady of Despair", Ventis (holding a sword), Amish (at Ven's side), the Past Devil in a cape as he picked up a test tube(it was based on ch 278, when Luka went to his room while he was testing or experimenting? Something like that. For the cure of the Illness of Demons, which is popularly known as the Ink Illness), and then there's guardian Boris on the side holding the Instrument in its flute form, carrying a fearful expression as he faced Lukahd.

This is prolly one of my best fanarts yet, im so addicted in the Labyrinth arc

#bendy and boris in the inky mystery #inkymystery #inky mystery #holly may #questers #quester bendy #cuphead #mugman #Felix #Alice angel #fanart #imagination #boris the wolf #Sarah songbird #sirensea

[sairobee]

Cover and character designs from a pitch I’ve been working on this year! Octavia is a farm girl from an isolated religious community (like the Amish) who must spend a month in the outside world before she chooses if she really wants to commit to a life of bonnets and horse-drawn buggies. For someone who has never used electricity, the world of 2022 is pretty overwhelming. But things go off the rails when she accidentally goes viral, and feelings get complicated between her and her former bestie.

#art: bmt #art: ocs #tct

[icestarphoenix]

Pennsylvania Headcanons

PA’s State Spirit forms cracks and chips all over his body, like that of stone. Small chipped pieces float around him. The revealed inside caused by the chips is shrouded by a bright purple light. The biggest rupture is on his back, with a large crater that has light bursting out of it.

The gaps in his body don’t really exist, it’s just how the Spirit looks. Touching the cracks and gaps will feel like normal skin, but those spots feel more sensitive to PA.

The stone cracks are a reference to the Keystone State nickname. A keystone is the middle stone at the top of an arch that holds all the other stones in place and lets the structure bear weight. It’s the most important part, without it the arch falls. 

Pennsylvania was a very important state as the site of the former capital, where the Declaration and Constitution were signed, and being economically important in manufacturing and agriculture.

He’s cracked and chipped now because he’s kind of past his glory days of being the heart and center of the country. He doesn’t have the capital anymore and he gets outclassed in many industries that used to be his best.

The significant crater being where it is is a little nod to how PA feels that he should have some serious back problems after carrying the country for decades.

While sort of a random choice for Spirit color, purple used to be a color only obtainable by royalty due to how difficult it was to get the pigment. Nowadays, anyone can have vivid purple stuff for cheap. It makes his exposed interior look like amethyst, which is findable in Pennsylvania. Also I needed some more purple-colored Spirits for this country. Blue and gold for so many of these official colors…

PA likes making handcrafted wooden pieces as a hobby. He often forgets that the Statehouse has power tools, which makes his finished works all the more impressive.

His large Amish population makes him forget about having power tools as an option.

Many of the states have their own cast iron skillets that they’ve seasoned over decades (the South all have theirs monogrammed.) Even Florida knows not to mess with them, but that doesn’t stop other, well-meaning states from causing some close calls.

The oldest cast iron skillet in the house belongs to PA, a 140-year old ERIE logo Griswold lovingly named Firefly. This is probably the closest thing he has to a child.

Washington nearly put her in a dishwasher once. Firefly was unharmed, but it took four states holding PA back to give them enough time to escape before he beat Wash to a pulp for almost killing his baby.

I’ve considered giving PA pants that flare out at the bottom, kind of like disco pants from the 70’s.

Disco as a genre and subculture saw its origins in Philadelphia and New York City.

The moment he senses a spotted lanternfly nearby, PA will not be stopped by anything until he annihilates it with the wrath of a thousand northeasterners. Then he goes back to whatever he was doing like nothing happened.

Spotted lanternflies are not fireflies. The latter is endangered and is good pest control. Spotted lanternflies are an invasive species and are harmful to many native flora that are important to the state’s economy.

As one of the strongest states in the country, he often causes slight property damage whenever he does so.

Sometimes PA and other afflicted colleagues (mainly New Jersey) will go together to different states and compete to see who can get rid of more in an allotted time. Truthfully, the contest doesn’t really matter and they don’t keep close counts. It's just as many as they can find.

PA is part of the Groundhog Day “inner circle,” the ones that plan the event and care for Phil. As the humans do, he will claim that Punxsutawney Phil is immortal just like himself and that he’s been the same groundhog for 136 years, no matter how much the other states try to disprove him.

Punxsutawney, the borough’s personification, is also part of the inner circle. Unlike PA, Punxsy can understand “Groundhogese,” the only person able to do so besides the president of the inner circle.  

Marines (the personification) often does under-the-table deals with PA, exchanging chocolate for crayons. While PA doesn’t necessarily need chocolate from Marines, it is an excuse to eat more chocolate.

Hershey, Pennsylvania is the Chocolate Capital of the US. It has the Hershey Company headquarters and their chocolate factory.

Lehigh, Pennsylvania has the Crayola headquarters.

#welcome to the table #welcome to the statehouse #ben brainard #wttt #wttsh #wttt pennsylvania #headcanons #finally found enough motivation to make another one of these

[funnelcloudd]

Been listening to a podcast by former Amish and conservative Mennonites and holy fuck is it disturbing

[mycupofstars]

Tagged by @spookylestat and @bilestat love you both!

3 Ships: Loustat/Devil's Minion (not choosing), Xiyao, JWDS, 4 disaster murder couples who literally invented love but then did not have sufficient instructions about what to do after that

First Ship: Xena/Gabrielle and Mulder/Scully pretty much around the same time period

Last Song: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) by Amberian Dawn. I said this in a tag thing this morning but I must again inform everyone very passionately that Amberian Dawn has a fully album of heavy metal ABBA covers.

Last Movie: Enys Men! Weird understated little folk horror, highly recommended but only with subtitles on (without subs I would have missed a very quiet very heavily accented bit on the radio in the background that was the key to the plot)

Currently Reading: Ghost Music by An Yu (quiet Chinese surrealism about an unhappy former concert pianist who starts getting mushrooms in the mail and having weird mushroom dreams), Ascension by Nicholas Binge (sci-fi thriller/horror about scientists investigating the sudden appearance of a mountain in the pacific ocean I will read any horror about mountains or oceans), and Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano (retro-style horror about a small island that seems to be voluntarily stuck in the year 1994 like neon colored Amish)

Currently Watching: Legend of Anle very slowly, working up the courage to start s2 of The Newsreader, I think I am starting yet another Beyond Evil rewatch now that Shin Ha Kyun is about to be in a similar show apparently

Currently Consuming: Fascinated by how this is worded and choosing to go with a food direction! Extremely strong London fog tea and chocolate chip cookies

Currently Craving: I have all the ingredients for mushroom lasagna but it is not a mushroom lasagna yet and this is a tragic crime against me

As always I get anxious like a shivery purse dog trying to choose who to tag in these! Mutuals please join in!

#personal #tag games #bilestat #spookylestat #lestat party #someone please come transmogrify my lasagna ingrediens

[lycanthology]

Aren't horses notoriously expensive to keep and weren't you flat broke a few weeks ago, what kind of wizard are you that were able to pull that off ??

1. i was flat broke bc i switched jobs and the pay structure was totally different so i had no income for almost a month with only half a weeks pay at my old job to get by. i am now getting paid with the raise i got!

2. rosie is a totally unremarkable pedigreeless 18yo former amish driving horse that was sold to a kill pen and was only $500. thats less than my snake cost! im boarding her at a local barn in the sticks thats super cheap in an outdoor pasture.

basically i was just in a really rough spot for a few weeks bc of the job switch and i got an uber cheap horse. the wizard magic was just being temporarily very unlucky then getting back on my feet :)

#ive discovered horses are only super expensive if you buy into the whole Purebred Showhorse at upscale barns thing #if you get a random horse nobody wants and board at a schoolteachers passion project barn its not bad

[ohc-and-the-music-tapes-archive]

https://web.archive.org/web/20081020013702/http://blogs.courant.com/eric_danton_sound_check/2008/10/review-elephant-6-holiday-surp.html

Review of Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise show at The Space, Hamden, 15 October 2008

"Koster's singing saws, which he spoke of as though they were sentient, produced a thin tremulous quavering sound not unlike a theremin. His singing television, named Static, flickered to life appropriately enough on "The Television Tells Us," a noisy, fragile folk-pop song."

[copy under the cut]

It was billed as a "Holiday Surprise" concert. Surprise: The only holiday component was a set of paper bells hanging on either side of the stage.

That's fine -- October is a strange time for a holiday themed show anyway, despite the flood of Christmas albums that start showing up in the mail. One of those, indie-rocker Julian Koster's CD "The Singing Saw at Christmastime," was part of the inspiration behind the Elephant 6 tour that stopped Wednesday night at The Space in Hamden, complete with a seven-foot metronome on stage, along with a singing television.

Perhaps best known for spawning revered indie legends Neutral Milk Hotel, Elephant 6 is an Athens, Ga., music collective that has also birthed the Apples in Stereo, Of Montreal, the Olivia Tremor Control, Elf Power and Koster's band the Music Tapes.

Musicians from most of those bands were represented in one way or another Wednesday, some of them on stage as part of a fluid band lineup, and some of them in the surreal 30-minute movie that started the show.

Neutral Milk Hotel was an obvious influence throughout, and not just because Koster and Scott Spillane -- a portly multi-instrumentalist with blue eyes, an Amish beard and a Red Sox hat -- were former members.

Neutral Milk's lo-fi indie-folk sound was on display everywhere, which made for musical performances that were anything but consistent. For every gleaming indie-pop gem -- most of which seemed to come from Elf Power leader Andrew Rieger -- there were stretches of shambolic fumbling, with lurching tempos on drums, the sound of a clarinet in distress and bleating horns in search of adequate intonation.

Pat Ferrucci from the New Haven Register put it best when he quipped, "Yeah, Neutral Milk sounded like this, but there were actual songs underneath it."

Singers rotated in and out, which helped keep the show moving through segments that dragged -- Spillane's turns on the mic, for example, seemed to last an eternity. However, he and Koster drew the biggest ovation of the night when they performed the instrumental track "The Fool" from Neutral Milk's 1998 opus "The Aeroplane Over the Sea."

Koster's singing saws, which he spoke of as though they were sentient, produced a thin tremulous quavering sound not unlike a theremin. His singing television, named Static, flickered to life appropriately enough on "The Television Tells Us," a noisy, fragile folk-pop song.

Rieger, though, was the real attraction. His Elf Power tunes adhered to tight, discernible structures full of melody. A strong bass line drove "Spiral Stairs," and trebly minor-key guitar adorned "An Old Familiar Scene."

#Elephant 6 #Holiday Surprise #reviews #2008

[vague-humanoid]

@startorrent02

[theehorsepusssy]

I hate tim allen for being the protagonist of this movie. I would watch far more than 90 minutes of Kozak being an evil scientist dogboy because he's my beloved dogboy bf I love him. this was all a ruse to get people talking about Kozak and bring him into the spotlight. fanart, fanfic, etc. now you know the truth. I'm desperate for content but nobody knows this movie let alone the character and that is a crime against humanity. in this essay I will-

The only Tim Allen movie I know is the one where him and Kirstie Alley go undercover in an Amish village and save the villagers with a big fashion show at the end. It's like Witness meets Don't Tell Mom The Baby Sitter Is Dead. It was tv all the time when I was dopesick. It's probably hus and her best work to date.

Fun Fact : Tim Allen and Kirstie Alley are both former coke addicts and awful people in real life. (She's a scientolgist. He is a snitch)

[mariacallous]

There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there is George Santos’s CV. In the short time that he has been in the public eye, the 34-year-old Republican congressman from New York has been accused of fabricating almost every facet of his life. During his election campaign, Santos claimed to be a “proud American Jew” whose grandparents “survived the Holocaust”. After being challenged on this, however, Santos clarified that he was raised Catholic and argued that he had always said he was “Jew-ish”. Emphasis on the ish.

What else has he lied about? Well, how long have you got? His education and work history appear to be fabrications. He has said his mother was working in the World Trade Center on 9/11, yet records show she was in Brazil. He has said that he “lost four employees” in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, but the New York Times has not been able to verify these claims. He has also claimed to have been a college volleyball star (unlikely) and a producer on Spider-Man (untrue). No one is even sure what Santos’s real name is.

I could go on and on with the lies, but I need to get to the scandals. There is the scandal about his former life as a drag queen in Brazil, which he originally denied, then appeared to admit. (To be clear: the only outrageous thing about his alleged drag-queen past is that he is now active in a party that demonises and wants to criminalise drag queens as part of a broader anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.) There is the $365,000 in campaign funds he can’t account for. And then there are the multiple dog-related scandals.

Last week, Politico reported allegations that Santos spent 2017 cruising around Pennsylvania’s Amish Country buying puppies from dog breeders with cheques that bounced. (I know that cheques haven’t been widely used in the UK since about 1492, so this story sounds suspicious to British ears, but Americans still use them.)

A few days after allegedly writing $15,125 in bad cheques to breeders, Santos held an adoption event at a pet store in New York. It’s not clear if he made money from this, but adoption fees can range from $300 to $400. Santos was charged with theft by deception, but those charges were dropped when he claimed his chequebook had been stolen.

The other dog-related scandal? The congressman is accused of promising to raise funds for a homeless man’s dying dog in 2016, then taking off with the money.

I am not sure how Santos still has a job as a lawmaker, but, as he becomes more and more of an embarrassment, his party colleagues are gradually turning against him. Fellow New York congressman Nick LaLota last week called Santos a “sociopath”. The Utah senator Mitt Romney, meanwhile, described Santos as a “sick puppy” and said he “shouldn’t be in Congress … if he had any shame at all, he wouldn’t be there”.

It turns out Santos doesn’t have any shame. On Wednesday, he told reporters that he is the real victim. “It’s not the first time in history that I’ve been told to shut up and go to the back of the room, especially by people who come from a privileged background,” Santos said of Romney’s remarks. “I think it’s reprehensible the senator would say such a thing to me … it wasn’t very Mormon of him.”

If Santos were a one-off, his antics might be amusing. But there is nothing remotely funny about a political system that has allowed someone such as Santos to get as far as he has. Indeed, Santos may not be the only fabulist in the Republican party: the Washington Post reported last week that Representative Anna Paulina Luna, who was recently elected as a Republican congresswoman in Florida, also appears to have fabricated a lot of her biography.

She, too, has claimed Jewish roots, but, according to her own family, her grandfather reportedly “served in the armed forces of Nazi Germany”. If true, these allegations would suggest that the only qualifications for a successful career in the Republican party are an active imagination and no moral compass whatsoever.

[l3r0chka]

a former Amish girl

#dallas #horse #fort worth #cowboy