#kiev rambles

[whencyclopedia]

Why Study History? Russia Teaches a Lesson

By Jan van der Crabben

Why should we study history? We all have our personal reasons why we love history; some like reading exciting stories that can be stranger than fiction, others let their imaginations transport them to worlds gone by. There are many reasons for loving history, but in this article I want to explore why history actually matters in the here and now.

Unfortunately, that belief is not universal. Around the world, budgets for social studies and history in particular are cut, and the focus in curricula is shifted to more practical subjects, such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in universities, and English and mathematics in schools.

Yet we have to look no further than the top headlines in current affairs to understand why history is extremely important as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can only be understood through the lens of history. The primary reason for Russia’s war is neither economic (as wars so often are) nor religious (as wars so often were). No, it is Putin’s belief that Ukraine is the cradle of Russian civilization and should not be an independent country… especially not one that aligns itself with Europe. We know very well now that apart from dynastic lineage, the Kievan Rus had very little relationship to modern Russia. In the thousand years since the Kievan Rus, Ukraine has been at the crossroads of Poland-Lithuania, Austria-Hungary and Russia. 

In the lead-up to the war, Vladimir Putin published a long and somewhat rambling historical essay where he places Russia in direct opposition to its western neighbours (who he blames for estranging Ukraine from Russia). The historian Serhii Ploky wrote that “the Soviet Union was created in 1922-1923 as a pseudo-federal rather than a unitary state precisely in order to accommodate Ukraine and Georgia, the two most independent-minded republics.” Ukraine’s independence has been a thorn in the Russian leaders’ side for a long time, but at the start of the Soviet Union, Lenin sided with the Ukrainians while Stalin was against it but went along anyway. Ukraine’s unique cultural mix was accepted as independent during Soviet times, and by the fall of the USSR, 90% of Ukrainians supported independence. Putin wants to wind back the clock to imperial times, fully incorporating Ukraine (and other regions) into a unified Russia. According to Ukrainian journalist Veronika Melkozerova, many Russians share this view.

Russia’s claim to Kiev is not a new one. The Russian Imperial historian Vasiliy Klyuchevskiy already wrote in 1908 that “the Russian state was formed by the activities of Askold and later Oleg in Kiev.” He refers to the Kievan Rus, after which Russia is named, whose dynasty lasted from the Norse leader Rurik (r. 862-879) all the way to ​​Ivan IV, first Tsar of Russia (r. 1547-1584, also known as Ivan the Terrible). The medieval Tale of Bygone Years (c. 1113) called Kiev “the mother of all Russian cities” – which should be read Rus-sian, not Russian, to be historically accurate. Putin’s “favourite historian” Ivan Ilyin (1883-1954) was a fascist philosopher who argued for a greater Russia that included Ukraine. Much of Putin’s rambling historical essay is based on Ilyin’s nationalist beliefs, writes historian Timothy Snyder. Putin’s view completely negates hundreds of years of Ukrainian history, where the region was touched by more Western influences.

If culture is a tapestry, then history is the fabric it is made from. National identities are built upon our understanding of history, which is why in most countries, history has been a compulsory subject in school since the 19th century. Recent legislation regarding how the history of slavery is taught in the United States clearly shows that governments still recognize the power of history to control the national narrative. As the current crisis shows, national identity is a powerful force.

According to Russian historian Dina Khapaeva, “the leitmotif of Russian history [is] a steady fascination with the West, coupled with an urge to excel it in order to escape its influence.” When Vladimir the Great converted to Christianity before marrying the Byzantine Princess Anna in 988, he forced his subjects to be baptized by the river Dnieper in Ukraine, which was associated with pagan beliefs. As a newly Christian state, the Rus needed Christian rules: The Ruskaya Pravda, the first Russian code of laws, was most likely written by Byzantine judges and also forced upon the Slavic population. As such, Khapaeva writes, “people perceived culture and civilization [...] as something enforced by foreign rulers.” Later Western reforms by Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and other rulers were always enforced at great cost to the general population. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the promise of democracy and a free market economy brought a short period of hope and expectation of prosperity which was crushed by economic crisis and political instability. This “idealization of the West therefore intensified the national inferiority complex”, writes Khapaeva: While in 1990 over two thirds of Russians considered themselves European, by 2007 only one third did. In the same 2007 survey conducted by Khapaeva, 80% of Russians believed that the history of their country should only stir feelings of pride. It is easy for a canny authoritarian leader to use all of this to his advantage.

In this context, Ukraine looking westward and aligning itself with the European Union is a major affront to Russia’s identity and Putin’s vision. After all, Putin and Russian nationalists see Kiev as the birthplace of the Russian nation. The current war can be seen as a calculated demonstration of Russia's might and opposition to the West. While this is a risky gamble for Putin (who appears to have underestimated both Ukraine and the West’s response), the historical context gives it a sense of rationality, albeit a false one.

Only through an understanding of history and how it shapes national identities can we begin to comprehend the major events in current affairs. The past is used by politicians to actively construct national identities; it is misused as pretexts for wars; it is abused in misinformation campaigns on social media. History is very much present and it matters for the present, just as much as STEM subjects do, and must be prioritized accordingly in order to shield our democratic culture from such malignant perversions of history.

Sources

Dina Khapaeva in Peter Furtado, Histories of Nations: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0500293007?tag=anciehistoenc-20

Joshua J. Mark, Kievan Rus: https://www.worldhistory.org/Kievan_Rus/

Matthew Lenoe, Fact-checking Putin’s claims that Ukraine and Russia are ‘one people’: https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/ukraine-history-fact-checking-putin-513812/

Save Ancient Studies Alliance, The Downward Trend: https://www.saveancientstudies.org/the-trend

Serhii Plokhy in Isaac Chotiner, Vladimir Putin’s Revisionist History of Russia and Ukraine: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/vladimir-putins-revisionist-history-of-russia-and-ukraine

Timothy Snyder, Putin’s rationale for Ukraine invasion gets the history wrong: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/02/25/vladimir-great-putin-ukraine/

Veronika Melkozerova, The Western World is in Denial: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/what-if-world-war-iii-has-already-started/627054/

Vladimir Putin, On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians: http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66181

#History #Russia #Ukraine #Education #Cultural Heritage #World History Encyclopedia

[stuckinuniformdevelopment]

@albertbutyoucancallmebert

(Previous) Bert perked his head up. “Hehehe… I suppose so!” He finally found enough focus to finish his kiev. He then pushed himself out from the table and hopped down from his stool, heading towards the minifridges. “Do you want your milkshake now? Grop knows I’m ready for mine!” He chattered away as he received the beverages. “Did you know Commander’s favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate? Who woulda thunk.”

Teddy grinned at Bert. It was sweet how bringing up Commander Peepers instantly cheered him up.

"Yes please!"

He made sure to polish off the rest of his plate before answering Bert's question.

"I can't say I'm surprised. He's always walking around with dark chocolate chip granola bars."

Maybe Bert would appreciate a few tips. Finally some good would come from the hours of obnoxious rambling he put up with. And as conflicted as Teddy personally was about their relationship he wanted Bert to be happy with him as long as possible.

So Teddy took a deep breath before saying, "A few other things that Commander Peepers loves are coffee, card games --specifically cheating at them-- and the noir genre."

"Lately he's been trying to find podcasts because he doesn't have time for books and movies require too much focus to multitask. Unfortunately I had to tell him that I prefer to stick to the written word."

Then Teddy gave Bert a pointed glance. "But perhaps you could help him..?"

#albertbutyoucancallmebert

[opedguy]

Romney Off-the-Wall on Ukraine

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), May 22, 2022.--Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Ut.), 75, talked crazy about the conditions under which NATO could intervene in Ukraine, if 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin decides to use tactical nukes.  Romey’s rambling shows that he’s lost it from the days only 10-year-ago when he was the Republican nominee in 2012 running against former President Barack Obama.  Former President Donald Trump, who became president four years later, said Romney “choked like a dog,” losing to Obama in a landslide. But ever since Romney became U.S. Senator Jan. 3, 2019, he’s led a band of anti-Trump Republicans to the detriment of the GOP and the country.  Romeny got exactly what he wanted working feverishly since taking office to help President Joe Biden get elected, upending peace-and-prosperity in the U.S.  Romney can’t help himself spewing utter rubbish about the Ukraine War.

Romney should push in the most vociferous way to peace talks in Istanbul to end the Ukraine War before it engulfs all of Europe.  “NATO could engage in Ukraine,” “potentially obliterating Russia’s struggling military,” Romney said, if Russia uses tactical nuclear weapons.  Raising hypotheticals like us flagrantly irresponsible, knowing NATO has now interest in starting WW III, or, for that matter, continuing the current war which potentially threatens Europe.  Romney, who has no influence whatsoever of U.S. foreign policy, urges President Joe Biden, 79, to tell China, India or Saudi Arabia, “You’re either with us, or you are with Russian—you cannot be both,” Romney said in a New York Times editorial.  Where Romney thinks he’s being constructive in today’s unstable situation is anyone’s guess.  He thinks Biden can bully China, India and Saudi Arabia into back the U.S. Ukraine war.

Countries in Europe, Asia and the Indian subcontinent already have grave reservations about the U.S. mission in Ukraine.  No one in Brussels or NATO signed up to take on the Russian Federation.  All you hear in the fake news is about Putin’s terminal illness, today forecasted by a former MI6 chief to end up in a sanitarium soon, never to return to power in 2023.  Ukraine and Western intelligence officials have been wildly speculating about Putin for months, meanwhile the Russian military has seized nearly all of Ukraine’s Black Sea Coast.  If you listen to the White House, Kiev and the Western Press, you’d think Russian is close to surrendering in Ukraine because of depleted troops and weaponry.  Well, for a depleted army, how has Putin managed to land-lock Ukraine, takeover nearly the entire Black Sea coast and wreak unspeakable damage over Ukraine’s infrastructure?

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wasn’t kidding declaring May 16 that Russia had completed most its goals in Ukraine.  Creating a corridor from Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, controlling nearly all of Ukraine Black Sea coastline, it’s hard to imagine there’s much left to do for Putin.  Yet if you listen to Biden and Zelensky, Putin’s ready to surrender, because they can’t admit that they’ve lost the battle with the Russian Federation. How sad for the some 6 million exiled Ukrainians that their leader, 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, lies to the public about Ukraine’s military success almost daily.  Zelensky has duped Biden about the great progress in Ukraine, touting the fact that Putin decided to pivot in Kiev, moving his army to the Donbas region.  In only a few weeks, Putin now controls nearly the entire Black Sea coastline in Ukraine.  How’s Zelensky supposed to reclaim all the lost land?

When you listen to Romney, he 100% backs Biden’s proxy war, using Ukrainian troops to battle the Russian Federation.  Romney says if cornered, Putin could use tactical nukes in Ukraine. Romney parrots the rubbish of CIA Director William Burns who warned about the possibility of Putin getting desperate in using nukes.  Romney said that if Putin becomes “cornered and delusional” he could use tactical nukes, saying NATO would have every right to start WW III.  Romney speaks to know one other that the lunatic fringe of war hawks that could push the conflict into WW III.  Romney says that if Zelensky makes concessions to Putin, he might “invade subjugate” other European countries, the same excuse made by Zelensky for U.S. or NATO intervention.  Romney’s arguments are an incoherent hodgepodge of neocon warmongering, typical of certain Republicans and Democrat war hawks.

Calling Putin a “small, evil, feral-eyed man,” Romney continued the insults that got Biden into hot water with Putin, calling the Russian leader a “soulless killer” March 18, 2021.  Romney gets traction in the left-wing press because of his hatred of former President Donald Trump.  Listening to him now, he sounds like a madman talking about conditions for WW III.  Talking about Putin using tactical nukes is preposterous, using the same scare tactics as other neocons itching for a fight.  In case Romney hasn’t noticed, Biden is in a proxy war against the Russian Federation, using Ukrainian troops to weaken and eventually topple Putin’s government.  Romney laps up all the wild speculation about Putin’s medical condition, jumping on the bandwagon with Christopher Steele, the architect of the fake Steel dossier Hillary used in 2016 to discredit the Trump campaign and presidency.  Romney sounds like a fool arguing that Biden should send NATO troops into Ukraine, for any reason.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma. 

[kiev4am]

Hello people.  How are we all doing?

You can probably infer from the radio silence that I’ve been a bit messed up during these trying times.  It’s been A Thing.  Amongst the contributory bullshit was a 'milestone' birthday, being made redundant, weight gain, joint pain, crap sleep hygiene and nutrition, creative brick walls, full-on midlife crisis, covid-enforced separation from some people I love and profound ongoing political despair - all incredibly interlinked, of course.  It’s been a shitshow and I haven't approached it in a mature, constructive manner at all.  I'm so fucking tired and I feel like the part of my life when I could turn corners and effect change is over and all that's left is to settle further into the mould I made, whether I like the shape of it or not.  I know that’s not actually true but it's hard to think positive during a pandemic, especially when it feels like your country's being gleefully and deliberately driven off a cliff.  I know I'm not alone with these feelings (and I do have support) but they're still awful.

I've been here, just lurking; you've all held me up from one time to another although I haven't felt able to participate and share (which is purely on me and my brain worms).  I'm so glad you guys are all still here and posting, and I'm going to try and drag my soul and my voice out from under this shitty rock.

A few things that have lifted my spirits lately/fair warning:

- The Old Guard - Umbrella Academy Season 2 - Apparent new Leverage happening - Gayle 'was anyone going to tell me' dot gif - Re-reading all of the Vimes/City Watch Discworld books - Friends posting and yelling about fandoms - even when I can't speak, I love to see & hear it - The enduring majesty that is the Terror fandom - Writing, sometimes - The frankly awesome Hammer House thunderstorm that's been raging above my house for over an hour - weather, you're on-brand for 2020 tonight

Best wishes, thanks and hugs to everyone.  This is the worst timeline and I guess we're the scrappy resistance movement.

#kiev rambles #it's taken me a while to post this #people sometimes talk about things that were triggers for a midlife crisis #it appears covid is that thing for me #and it's a plain ordinary crisis anyway so i get two for one yay #i mean i think i've been in a form of managed crisis for a while #the aura of a crisis? #and now it's kicking in #i believe a crisis is sometimes valid because sometimes we don't listen to ourselves until we're screaming #so i hold out hope that eventually i'll gather my shit together #ahem #covid #midlife #fandom #trying to relearn how to do presence #re-read some old tag rants and felt weird about it #anyway #hi #my nonsense: the adventure continues

[7woforjoy]

I’ve been trying to eat better recently and that involves eating breakfast when I wake up. Problem is I forgot I hate eating in the morning and I don’t like breakfast food that much so I’m just sitting there eating my self care porridge like -

#rambles #it takes me like two weeks to readjust to eating in the mornings it’s hell #like I know it’s for the best cause I’ve been unhealthy snacking like a beast recently but god did I not wanna eat this morning #like my appetite is always questionable at best so forcing myself to eat bran flakes with honey is like choking down sand #there’s only like 3 foods I’ll always be up to eat no matter what one is pizza #one is chicken Kiev #and the last is curry pot noodle #none of which is exactly good for you #like I never gain weight cause I truthfully don’t eat that much but all I do eat is like so bad for you 😭 #why must literally everything take up energy omg #worse when my anaphylactic shock paranoia is in full swing cause that limits me to the food I always have #and not having variety drives me up the bend

[dangerously-human]

34 :D

Ahh, thanks for your patience, sorry this took so long! 

34. What are you looking forward to currently??

A friend is coming over tonight to make dinner together, I’m really happy about that! I have off work tomorrow, which should be nice; I’m getting my first COVID vaccine dose on Tuesday; and I’m attending a (virtual) R conference on Thursday, which a couple of my friends are doing too, and we have a Slack channel set up at work to chat about what we’re learning and how to integrate it into our own projects, so that should give me a lot to have fun talking about with other people for a while.

#personal #kiev-aranel #research rambling

[auror-lovie]

Fairytale: Europe’s Skies

━━━•✦.✧. Author’s Note.✧.✦•━

Something short and sweet this time. And this concludes “Fairytale”. Thank you for reading.

━━━━━•✦.✧. About .✧.✦•━

By MACUSA’s orders, (Y/N) is sent to London to discuss Grindelwald’s transport. Thanks to a situation with a Niffler, she’s found another reason to visit London.

━━━━━•✦.✧. Preface .✧.✦•━

If the pairing isn’t for Theseus, expect a Theseus/Victoria subtext.

No warnings needed.

IT’S NOT SAD FOR ONCE

AND OH GODDDD I KNOW THIS SUCKS. Sorry to close off the series with a shitty fic.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

|| general masterlist || series masterlist ||

Fairytale: Europe’s Skies (Newt Scamander x Reader)

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Dusting off her clothes, (Y/N) walked into the Ministry Headquarters. With Grindelwald in MACUSA’s custody, (Y/N) boarded a ship to London to further discuss plans on his transfer. She made her way through the Ministry halls in search of the Auror Department. Looking at her surroundings, a shiver ran up her spine. For a Ministry Headquarters, it was dark and cold. It looked more like an underground prison- even MACUSA Headquarters had windows!

“Where are you, you little bugger?” (Y/N) heard a voice mutter before she found herself on the floor, landing on her butt. 

“Oh- My apologies.” The voice continued. 

(Y/N) rubbed her shoulder- it being the area of the collision. “No, no. It’s okay. I’ve endured more… excruciating pain than a measly little bump to the shoulder.”

“Newt Scamander.” He introduced himself as he set his suitcase on the ground.

She looked up at Newt and took the hand that he was offering. “Newt Scamander…” (Y/N) muttered as she hoisted herself up. “Oh, you’re the one Tina keeps talking about. The author of that book, right?”

“Please, call me Newt.” He paused. “T-Tina talks about me?” He asked quickly, his voice increasing in volume as he continued. 

“Yes and it seemed like you’re all she ever talked about until recently.” She replied, patting down her shirt.

“Until recently?”

“From what I heard, she’d gotten herself a boyfriend. Achilles? I don’t quite remember. I don’t dabble in the personal relations of my peers.”

“Oh,” Newt replied softly, picking up his suitcase. “I-If you excuse me, I do have to find my Niffler.” 

“I can help. I do have some time before my meeting.” (Y/N) lifted her wrist to check the time only to see that her watch wasn’t there. “Nifflers like shiny things, don’t they?” She asked sarcastically.

“Yes, why?”

“Little shit stole my wristwatch.”

“Well then, let’s get started.” He said before briskly walking off. 

“Mister Scamander, wait!” She called out as she ran to catch up with him. 

Newt stopped as she caught up to him. “What is it?”

“Magical creature correct?” She panted, trying to catch her breath.

“Yes.” He answered, looking at her.

“Thought so.” (Y/N) replied. “Appare Vestigium,” She said before blowing into her hand and pivoting in a circular motion. 

Newt stared in awe as gold dust-like light surrounded them. “Who are you?” 

(Y/N) smiled. “(L/N), (Y/N) (L/N). Auror and International Communications Liaison for MACUSA. I’m here to discuss things with the Ministry of Magic’s ICL and the Head Auror,” She said as she looked around for the Niffler prints.

“So it came running and that’s when we bumped into each other…” (Y/N) trailed off as she saw the dust reveal paw prints on herself. “Little shit took my wristwatch and ran…” She then looked down the hall. “That way. Come on, Mister Scamander!” She exclaimed, grabbing his hand before running down the hallway.

 They made their way to the second floor and ended up in someone’s office. 

“Aha, found you! Accio Niffler!” (Y/N) exclaimed and the Niffler came floating into her arms. She cradled the small creature as it slowly pushed the chain of a pocket watch into its pouch. “Not so fast!” She said, grabbing the watch’s chain before the Niffler could fully shove it down.

(Y/N) inspected the pocket watch in her hand as Newt carefully took the Niffler out of her arms. It looked familiar. “Newt… Whose office are we in?” She asked as Newt squatted, quietly reprimanding the marsupial-like beast.

Newt looked at (Y/N). “Not sure.” He said before looking around, still holding Niffler by the feet. The bookshelves were nice and tidy. There was a small tea set, perfect for two. An organized desk with a small muggle trinket. A Ravenclaw scarf-

“I’m sure Miss (L/N) will be here soon.” A voice came from the opposite side of the door. “She’s an amazing auror-” They paused as they opened the door, revealing (Y/N) and Newt. “- and already here… With Newt…”

“V-Victoria! What a surprise to see you here!” Newt stuttered, placing Niffler back into the case and quickly shutting it. 

“In my office? The real question is, what are you and Miss (L/N) doing here?” Victoria asked, walking into her office with Theseus in tow.

“Trying to figure out a way to lift his travel ban, I bet-” 

“Hush Theseus, I’m asking them and not you,” Victoria said before giving her full attention to them.

(Y/N) raised Victoria’s pocket watch by the chain. “Well… There was a bit of a mishap consisting of my watch and his Niffler.”

“He scurried off and we found him in here trying to snatch your watch as well,” Newt continued.

“I see. Well, since you’re here we can get a move on to the conference room. We do have matters to discuss.” Victoria replied. 

“I’m sure you’ll want this, Vi.” (Y/N) said before tossing the pocket watch to her. 

Victoria caught it in her palm as it made a soft clinking noise. “Thank you… It was a gift.” She held it close to her chest, giving a quick look at Theseus before setting it in her pocket. 

Theseus gave Victoria a subtle smile before walking over to the door. “Come on, then. Miss Howard, Miss (Y/N), shall we?” 

(Y/N) nodded. “Of course! Mister…?”

“Scamander, but Theseus is fine.” He replied, now leaning against the food frame.

“I’ll see you later, then… Newt.” (Y/N) said before walking towards the door.

Newt quickly stood up, suitcase in hand. “I guess I’ll be going then.”

“Quite so, Newton… And make sure that Niffler doesn’t get loose again.” Victoria shot him a wink before walking out the door.

Theseus waited for Newt to exit her office before closing the door. By that time, (Y/N) and Victoria were already walking to the conference room.

“They’re brothers? Handsome fellows, especially the older one.” (Y/N) whispered, softly nudging Victoria’s side.

“Yeah? Well, he’s off limits.” Victoria huffed.

(Y/N) gasped. “No way…”

“Hm?” Victoria looked at her, puzzled.

“Are you two… You know...?”

“W-What? No! A romantic relationship between Mister Scamander and I would be highly unprofessional.” Victoria argued.

“He’s the one who gave you the pocket watch, huh?” (Y/N) smirked.

“What about you and Newt, hm?” Victoria teased, quickly changing the subject.

“Victoria, I just met the guy!”

~*~*~

(Y/N) stayed in London for the rest of the week. Though whenever she wasn’t on Ministry duty, she was with Newt. She’d met his fantastic beasts and they loved her as much as she loved them. 

She kept her departure date a secret from Newt, afraid he’d stop her from going back to the United States. She missed her home, but yet, Newt had stolen her heart as that pesky Niffler stole her wristwatch.

When the week was over, she returned to the states.

Yet she wanted to find out who Newton Artemis Fido Scamander truly was, but there wasn’t enough time. Was he a famous author known across the Wizarding World? Was he a self-proclaimed Magizoologist? Was he the younger brother of a highly respected Auror and War Hero? Or was he Newt- just Newt?

Her trail of thought disappeared as she stood up from the café chair, paying for the cup of coffee.

(Y/N) couldn't find the right words to describe Newt. He was hard-working, kind, generous, and selfless. He was a man full of simplicity, and friendliness. She took out her wallet, looking at the photo of her and Newt.

Victoria was right. Whatever she felt for Newt, was love. 

Within the next month, they started to write to each other. Newt sent her letters about his travels- before his ban. He’d been to places like Oslo, Berlin, Moscow, Warsaw, Kiev, Amsterdam and so many more.

To (Y/N) it felt like he’d been everywhere. All she could afford was a nice day in the city. He traveled all over, like the birds flying over Europe’s skies.

As she read his letters, her mind was filled with anxiety. Newt traveled to study as many creatures as he could for his book, but did he meet other people during those travels? Other… potential partners? He was only a tourist in the places where he studied. Maybe someone showed him around?

~*~*~

When Grindelwald escaped, (Y/N) was put on orders back in London. With her heart on her sleeve, she sailed back to London- back to Newt.

Once she docked, she went straight to Newt’s flat. (Y/N) had used the key that he’d given her, to enter his house. She rushed inside and down to the basement. “Newt?” (Y/N) called out.

“(Y/N)? What are you doing here?” She tossed her arms around Newt, ignoring his greeting. “(Y/N)? Are you okay?”

“I’m here on Ministry duties, but I came to visit you first.” (Y/N) answered.

“I-I’m glad you thought of me.” He said, finally wrapping his arms around her.

(Y/N) relaxed in his arms. “Promise me…” She trailed off, pulling away slightly. “Promise me that you’ll be mine, Newt…”

“(Y/N)… I- Since when?”

“Promise me, Newton!”

Newt smiled. “I promise you,” He paused. “But promise that you’ll continue to write to me… and visit once in a while… The creatures miss you.”

“Just the creatures?” (Y/N) teased.

“A-And me too. I missed you too."

“Maybe when this is all over… we could go out on a date.”

He nodded. "And I know I don't know you all that well, but I'm willing to give time. I'll get to know everything about you if you’ll let me." Newt rambled.

“Newt, you’re overthinking this.”

“I want everything to go right with you.” He said as he leaned in for a kiss. (Y/N) reciprocated his actions. Their lips were about to touch just as the sound of coins dropping distracted her.

(Y/N) pulled away, much to Newt’s dismay, and looked past him to see Niffler in his cage with the Niffler babies. “There’s more of them?”

Newt chuckled nervously, “Yes.”

“Now that I think about it… I still never got my watch back!”

#fbawtft #fbtcog #newt scamander x reader #newt scamander #theseus scamander #thetoria

[sagehaubitze]

I am waxing (not)poetic and rambling spastically about reenacting today because I feel like I'm dying inside and have no outlets for my passions, so... rambling is under the cut

Instead of doing literally anything I was supposed to today, I've been looking at war photographer impressions again as if that's actually going to lead anywhere. It would give me more of an excuse to be sort of a free agent, kompanie-less, at events I guess, like I'm actually going to go to events lmao. The issue is there is jack fucking shit out there about the internal ranking/structures of Propaganda-Kompanien, common gear other than issued cameras, just.. anything. Honestly it comes across as very.. "get your own shit together and go cover whatever division you're being sent with", not lax but very piecemeal. I'm most commonly seeing a very light loadout, Leica, maybe their own personal camera as well, sidearm, mapcase, sometimes tornister to stuff the rest of your shit in I guess. The SS had their own specific SS-Kriegsberichter Kompanie with their own little special-wecial uwu cufftitle (fuck you) and naturally there's a ton of stuff about them out there (fuck you again) but I would rather die than do SS impressions. Anyway Propaganda-Kompanie 637 covered the battle of Kiev (in 41) so I have a lead there, at least. Alternatively I guess I could just stick with what I already have and tack a camera on, artillerie was already pretty... light and auxiliary, plus hammering away at a typewriter out in the field is something I do regardless, and would be doing the same with a PK impression. I don't know. I am mentally and emotionally suffering and I'm trying to figure out how to remedy it. I don't have an easy answer. especially not in the middle of a pandemic. anyway catch me out in the middle of nowhere with a fuckoff huge telephoto lens (this is already how I look photographing birds)

#text #please I just want to run around in the woods with friends and be stupid

[faterevivescere]

The Holy Grail War | Prologue 3

🎵🎵🎵

"Hello, everyooooone!"

Father Amedeo Abbatangelo speaks, throwing his arms out to either side as he grins at the lot of you.

Something about this priest strikes you as... Odd. You did get passed a document detailing the first three Fuyuki wars and their oversees, the latest of them being one Kotomine Risei- yet he has died some years ago, and his son, one Kotomine Kirei, had no interest in this...

Thus, Father Amedeo was chosen, perhaps simply by luck of the draw. He's too long in the wrong places, too angular- something about his general existence seems to put you ill at ease just by viewing him, despite the rampant smiles and closed eyes.

The woman standing next to him removes her aviators wordlessly.

"My name is Father Amedeo Abbatangelo. Haha! Ahh- and this is Olga!" He gestures to his companion before continuing.

"And those two are who I'd like to consider being 'Team Foreigner'! How exciting, no? We have my protégé, Aino Camsanguine, and.... The Foreigner! Hah! Can't go spoiling all these little secrets, mm?"

A nervous girl steps down from a set of stairs from the floor above you, followed by the sound of... Jingling bells? Behind her a man of clear Jesterly disposition follows, smiling and winking as he waves at all of you.

"These two are the official church representatives, while I am simply overseeing these affairs. I assume you all read the, ahhh- the information before coming here? And if not, well- good luck you, I suppose! Hah. Oh-"

Ruler coughs into her hand, as if telling Amedeo to get on with his rambling.

"Of course, of course~! Moving on. The rules of this little game are relatively simple. You're all here to receive the Holy Grail! Wow, what an honor. No fewer than six servants must fall in order for the grail to be ready, so I hope you're all excited!

"Anyways. My business here is to make sure none of you, well... 'die-die'," said while producing air quotes with his fingers. "Defeated masters may find refuge in my humble sanctuary at the church. I'm here to clean up your messes, help you retrieve whatever you may need to make this little game go smoothly... you name it, I've probably got it! Haha. Uh. Anyways, try not to go and do any of this stuff in front of civilians, alright? Because, part of my job description is silencing witnesses, and I don't reeeeeealllyyyyyy want to do that!! Haha. And, um- oh, thank you, Ms. Ruler! Here are your Catalysts!"

With those words, Ruler steps aside to reveal the basic, broken down altar of the church. On it seven small packages lie, each with a name tag attached to them. Your names. 

"I chose these per~sonally, so if you don't like what you get, tough! This isn't a gacha game! Haha. I definitely didn't choose these at random, though. Haha. Hah. Yes, alright- go ahead and take them."

He glances to Ruler, then back at everyone else, like he's just remembered something.

"—Lodging! Gracious, right- for those of you who don't have a place to stay, the church can arrange for suitable living quarters for all of you who need it. Although, I do know some of you have set up living situations for some of you. Haha. I won't come to fix the plumbing for you outside the church's living quarters. Outside of my job description! Ah- Aries and Ms. Förstner in particular, you two might benefit from a room at La Casa di Abbatangelo! ...Haha. Ahh... Anyways..."

Ruler is already getting ready to leave, her expression neutral yet annoyed. You all get up to gather your packages, and some of you may even take a peep to see the catalysts for yourself.

"Alriiiiight~! You can leave now and go summon your servants, haha. Ahh.... consider this an official truce, hmm? So, don't go killing each other for a few days at least! If you break the truce, Ruler will kill you!! Haha! Ahhhhhh... This is to ensure that everyone has their servant, and that, uh... that you're all ready, yes? As soon as the truce is done, you can all get started with this whole... nasty business of fighting for the grail! Hah. Go at your own pace... have fun... don't be safe! Or... whatever! At least go and get to know the people you're killing first... Ehehe. Have fun!"

And he waves one unnaturally elongated arm, looking more and more like an inflatable tube man by the minute...

Ruler rolls her eyes, as if she could ever be commanded by this man. She stops at the door as it swings open without her touching those heavy, rotten hinges. And she turns to speak to all of you.

“... I am Olga of Kiev, Ruler. I must reintroduce myself, for the words of that snake do my role no justice. I am unaffiliated with both your Association and with this- church.” She spits the last word out. “I am here only at the behest of the grail, to ensure this war is just and fair. Overstep your boundaries and I will end you. Play by the rules, and you will enjoy my oversight with no issue.” 

She puts her aviators back on, and soon enough you hear the sound of the Harley rev through the air as she drives off to god knows where. Amedeo covers his mouth with a single hand to hide- a laugh, perhaps? And so... You are free to go. Unless you are one of those poor souls who has to negotiate with Amedeo for lodging.

You must hurry, though. The sun will soon begin to set... And your Servants all await within the Throne. For the Erroll Holy Grail War has officially begun.

#prologue

[kristalliankka]

can i ramble about tenet to you? bc i was stuck at the question of what ives knows, because if he was also recruited by the protagonist, the same way neil was, would that mean that during the entirety of the film both neil and ives KNOW that the protagonist is their boss from the future/past? and let's say the protagonist goes to fullfill his destiny, he goes to recruit neil, and ives as well, does that mean there would be two versions of ives one who knows the protagnist and one who doesn't?

Of course you can, Anon! :D I am always open to a)rambling about tenet b) listening to others rambling about tenet. 

I think that Ives knows that who the Protagonist is, it would explain why Ives wanted specifically him to be in the two man squad tasked to get the algorithm. Ives must trust the Protagonist greatly, given how enormous responsibility it is (and how badly things could go wrong if someone malicious would get their hands on the algorithm). It would not, in my opinion, make any sense that he would trust him like that without knowing who he is. 

And yes, if Ives and Neil are recruited in the future, and they inverted back into the time the movie takes place, there would indeed be a version of both of them in the present, who have no idea what Tenet is. I would imagine they would have to be really careful to not cross paths with their former selves :D 

But if they were recruited in the past, then no, there wouldn’t be a version of them left out there who wouldn’t have knowledge of Tenet yet. But there might always be multiple versions of them around who all know the Protagonist. Like Neil in the end/beginning of the movie, who is simultaneously in Kiev saving the Protagonist, and going back and forth in time in Stalsk-12, resulting in there being more than two Neils at the same time. I think someone calculated that there was at least 6 Neils, but I can’t remember where I saw it. 

#i really like time travel concepts okay :D #thank you for your ask anon :) #asks #Anonymous

[stonestridernerd]

About the Writer/Mun

-Name/Alias: Karleen, though I'm also called Kar, Keb (and other variations of it), stonestridernerd, nerd in general, Kieve, and I will respond to any of my characters' names.

-Birthday: August 17th

-Zodiac Sign: Leo

-Hobbies: Roleplay, playing WoW, reading, hiking, swimming, hoarding blankets and stuffed animals, rambling about my obsessions...

-Favorite color(s): All sorts of greens, though I also love purples, blues and yellow.

-Favorite book(s): Unwind is my favourite I've read recently, but the Odyssey is the absolute best.

-Last song listened to: “The Internet is for Porn" from Avenue Q.

-Last film watched: I went and saw the newest Adams Family with my sister!

-Inspiration for Muse: Depends on the character! For Kennocha, I loved the idea of a gentle giant like Hagred from Harry Potter or my uncle. She also takes a lot of Aang from ATLA and my sister in terms of personality. When I was making Winoa, on the other hand, the original plan was just to make Kennocha a mom friend to help reel her in. Thus I took bits of myself (well, more than usual...), my mum, and grandma to create her. Once I decided she was going to be a shaman I'd actually play though, Katara from ATLA and Frank Zhang from Heroes of Olympus really came through her.

-Dream job: That's the big question, huh? Currently, I'm thinking about going into hydrology, since it's practical for anywhere I'd like to go and there's something about water that just brightens me up.

-Meaning behind your URL: Both Kennocha and Winoa belong to the Stonestrider Tribe. For the nerd part, I knew munday was a thing and questions would come up-but I'm not a Stonestrider- so I decided on nerd to end it since I am one and in its full name, the url makes sense, for I am a nerd for the Stonestriders.

Tagged by: @the-real-arcanist-val. Thanks for tagging me and sorry about the wait!

Tagging: @koszmar-zycie and anyone else who would like to do this!

[bountyofbeads]

Trump Acknowledges Discussing Biden in Call With Ukrainian Leader https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/us/politics/trump-ukraine-biden.html

Trump and the GOP will go to any lengths to win including for a 2nd time asking a foreign power for help in winning an election, extortion, subverting the Constitution, and sacrifing national security. #EnoughIsEnough #ImpeachTheMFNow

#VoteBlueToSaveAmerica

Trump Acknowledges Discussing Biden in Call With Ukrainian Leader

By Peter Baker | Published Sept. 22, 2019 Updated 4:41 p.m. ET | New York Times | Posted September 22, 2019 |

WASHINGTON — President Trump acknowledged on Sunday that he discussed former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. with Ukraine’s president as Democrats ramped up calls for an investigation into whether he improperly pressured a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent.

While Mr. Trump defended his July phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine as perfectly appropriate, he confirmed that Mr. Biden came up during the discussion and that he accused the former vice president of corruption tied to his son Hunter’s business activities in that former Soviet republic.

“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, with largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place and largely the fact that we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine,” Mr. Trump told reporters before leaving for a trip to Texas and Ohio.

Mr. Trump did not directly confirm news reports that he pressured Mr. Zelensky for an investigation. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Mr. Trump urged Mr. Zelensky about eight times during the July 25 phone call to work with the president’s lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, on an investigation of Mr. Biden and his son.

Mr. Giuliani has already publicly acknowledged pressing Ukrainian officials to investigate the Bidens, and Mr. Trump told reporters on Friday and again over the weekend that the former vice president should be investigated without saying whether it came up during the phone call.

The president’s interest over the summer in a Ukrainian investigation into Mr. Biden, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination and the right to run against Mr. Trump in next year’s election, coincided with his administration’s decision to hold up $250 million in security aid to Ukraine. But there have been no indications that Mr. Trump mentioned the money during the call. The president finally agreed to release the money this month after coming under bipartisan pressure from Congress.

Mr. Trump’s interactions with Ukraine are at least part of a whistle-blower’s complaint that has generated intense interest on Capitol Hill. The administration has refused to release the complaint to Congress. Mr. Trump said on Sunday that he would “love” to release a transcript of the call “but you have to be a little bit shy about doing it.”

The revelations increased pressure on Democrats to impeach Mr. Trump after months of stutter-start investigation into other matters and after resistance by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pursue such an effort, with polls showing only limited public appetite for Congress removing the president from office.

“This would be, I think, the most profound violation of the presidential oath of office, certainly during this presidency, which says a lot,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “There is no privilege that covers corruption.”

Mr. Schiff, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said impeachment “may be the only remedy” if Mr. Trump did in fact withhold aid to Ukraine in the hopes that the country would pursue an investigation into the Biden family. “The president is pushing us down this road,” he said. “We may very well have crossed the Rubicon here.”

Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said Congress had to take action. “If we do have the evidence from this whistle-blower that the president indeed did try to bully a foreign power into affecting our elections, then we have to do something about it,” he said on “Meet the Press” on NBC as he called for release of the whistle-blower’s complaint.

Mr. Murphy, who recently visited Ukraine, said Mr. Zelensky expressed consternation to him that the security aid was held up. The senator said administration officials gave him two explanations for holding up the money — that Mr. Trump was concerned about corruption in Ukraine and that he thought Europe should be the one to assist Kiev rather than the United States.

But Mr. Murphy cast doubt on those explanations and said the situation was clearly suspicious. “Obviously, the timing of this looks really terrible,” he said.

While most Republicans remained silent, one prominent senator added his voice to the chorus of concern. “If the President asked or pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate his political rival, either directly or through his personal attorney, it would be troubling in the extreme,” Senator Mitt Romney of Utah wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “Critical for the facts to come out.”

In Kiev, Mr. Zelensky has not commented on the matter since the issue erupted in news reports in recent days, but Ukraine’s foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, was quoted telling a Ukrainian news outlet on Saturday that the country’s leaders did not take Mr. Trump’s phone call as pressure.

“I know what the conversation was about and I think there was no pressure,” Mr. Prystaiko said. “This conversation was long, friendly, and it touched on many questions, sometimes requiring serious answers.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday denied any link between the security aid and Mr. Trump’s interest in an investigation into his potential rival. “Well, that I can tell you, that there was no connection,” Mr. Mnuchin said on “Meet the Press.” “I have been involved with Secretary Pompeo and others on the national security team on the issue.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, appearing on several Sunday shows, did not answer in specifics when asked if there was a “quid pro quo” agreement between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian officials. He insisted more generally that any discussions of aid delivered to Ukraine were “100 percent appropriate” and “100 percent lawful.”

On the other hand, Mr. Pompeo did not hesitate to advance allegations that Mr. Biden should be investigated for wrongdoing.

“If there was election interference that took place by the vice president, I think the American people deserve to know,” he said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. If “Vice President Biden behaved in a way that was inconsistent with the way leaders ought to operate, I think the American people deserve to know that.”

While vice president, Mr. Biden threatened in 2016 to withhold $1 billion in American loan guarantees if Ukraine’s leaders did not dismiss the country’s top prosecutor, who was widely seen as failing to fight corruption. Ukraine’s Parliament complied and the prosecutor was forced out.

That was the policy of the Obama administration at the time, a consensus policy to try to strengthen the rule of law in Ukraine as it fended off military intervention from Russia. But Mr. Biden’s son Hunter served on the board of an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch who had come under scrutiny by the fired prosecutor.

Mr. Biden asserted on Saturday that he had never spoken with his son about overseas work. On Sunday, Mr. Trump and Mr. Mnuchin both accused him of lying or misstating that, without citing any evidence.

The New Yorker this summer quoted Hunter Biden saying that his father did discuss his Ukrainian business but just one time. “Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’” the younger Mr. Biden told the magazine, “and I said, ‘I do.’

“Donald Trump tried to bully a foreign leader into creating a false smear campaign against me and my family,” Mr. Biden said in a fund-raising solicitation on Sunday. “He is intentionally misleading the American people in order to win four more years.”

Mr. Trump spoke with Mr. Zelensky in July shortly after the Ukrainian was elected as a reformer and inaugurated in May. The White House readout of the call that day said only that Mr. Trump congratulated him on his election and that the two “discussed ways to strengthen the relationship between the United States and Ukraine, including energy and economic cooperation.”

The Ukrainian readout of the call at the time, however, hinted at other topics, saying that Mr. Trump had expressed his faith in the new Ukrainian government to “complete investigations into corruption cases that have hampered Ukraine-U. S. cooperation.”

In his comments to reporters on Sunday, Mr. Trump said there was nothing wrong with the call. “The conversation, by the way, was absolutely perfect,” he said. “It was a beautiful, warm, nice conversation.”

Making an unscheduled appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Giuliani tried to focus attention on Mr. Biden’s actions rather than his own or the president’s.

In an 11-minute, often rambling interview, Mr. Giuliani delivered accusation after accusation against Hunter Biden, painting the former vice president’s son as a grifter and career criminal. “And the kid, unfortunately, is a drug addict,” Mr. Giuliani said.

He called out various Ukrainian officials and the Democratic donor George Soros by name as being involved in a vast criminal conspiracy, connecting the dots on “Ukrainian collusion” that was aimed at influencing the 2016 presidential election.

“When the rest of this comes out,” Mr. Giuliani said, referring to additional allegations about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China, “this will be a lot bigger than Spiro Agnew.”

Mr. Trump, too, mentioned China and attacked Hunter Biden, saying he was unqualified to be making the money he did with his overseas ventures. “The son, he knew nothing, the son is a stiff, he knew nothing,” the president said.

Other than Mr. Romney, most Republican lawmakers remained silent over the weekend. “I can’t imagine why people have lost their minds so much over these, these daily reports of one thing or another,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said when reporters encountered him in Houston while waiting for Mr. Trump to arrive for a visit. “They seem to consume everybody’s attention in the news coverage.”

Mr. Cornyn demurred when asked whether a president should pressure a foreign leader to investigate a political rival. “I’m not going to speculate,” he said. “I think the president ought to be able to talk to world leaders and have a conversation without necessarily being public because that you need to have those discussions.”

Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, said more needed to be known to draw a conclusion. “Look, it is not appropriate for any candidate for federal office, certainly, including a sitting president, to ask for assistance from a foreign country. That’s not appropriate,” he said on NBC. “But I don’t know that that’s what happened here.”

Emily Cochrane and Chris Cameron contributed reporting from Washington, and Michael D. Shear from Houston.

Comment's From Readers Of Article Are More Important Than The Article Itself:

"What I want to write is “When will even a *handful* of Republicans finally condemn and stop this president?” But we’ve been waiting for that moment for two and half years and it’s not going to come. The damage to our country and our democracy is probably irreversible. Norms have been destroyed. Republicans have not only learned that they can continue to deadlock Congress (as they have for years) they have now learned, from Trump, that they can play and even nastier and more lawless game with no repercussions. We are in real trouble."

"So first he says he had a "beautiful" conversation with the President of Ukraine, but never mentioned Biden, and would never do something like that. Now that what happened is slowly coming out, Trump now admits that he did bring up Biden, but that it was totally appropriate and wasn't an attempt to dig up dirt on a political opponent. We've seen this pattern of rolling disclosures from this administration before."

"Oh for crying out loud. This issue isn't complicated, brain surgery nor rocket science. If Trump is as innocent as he claims, then kick the complaint into the sunlight instead of keeping it hidden behind door #3. This continual Monty Hall version of "Let's Make a Deal" attitude is becoming as tiresome as it is lame. How about more of Bud Collyer's version of "To Tell the Truth"? Now that would be a refreshing change."

"once again, the "fake news" turns out to be the real news"

"I am getting tired of waiting for Democrats to up their game. They seem to be playing by the rules of 1980. I have pretty much given up listening to them saying they’re going to investigate things, because their investigations are so utterly pathetic. I fully expect this latest episode, with Trump and Ukraine, to blow up in the Democrats faces. Fox and the Swiftboaters will turn it into a big issue against Biden. And it will cost Biden votes. And Democrats will be shocked, shocked, that this happens. I want Trump out. But, boy, am I getting mad at Democrats. Their pathetic record since getting back the House is one reason why people are so disgusted with politicians. Trump has nothing to worry about. He’s playing a rotten game but at least he’s playing it well, and the Democrats are hopelessly inept at fighting him."

"Trump knows that the tapes will have to come out, so he's trying to spin his mentioning Biden as an offhand comment. However, he brought Biden up eight times. That wasn't a comment, it was an arm twisting rant. Brow beating a foreign leader into investigating a political opponent to benefit himself is an impeachable offense."

"For the umpteenth time, if the contents of the complaint is such "a ridiculous story, a partisan whistle-blower,” as Trump has told reporters in the Oval Office, then why not release the dang report, once and for all? Trump can't have it both ways and still expect folks to believe him - all of his posturing and denials and grandstanding on one hand while being resistant and balking at releasing the complaint on the other hand. If the contents of the complaint were not a threat to national security, I highly doubt an intelligence officer AND the inspector general would have been alarmed, stressing the urgency of the contents to be shared with Congress. Innocent people don't stonewall. Innocent people aren't fearful when the truth is on their side."

“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, with largely corruption, all of the corruption taking place and largely the fact that we don’t want our people like Vice President Biden and his son creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine,” What language is this? The man is completely out of his mind."

"It is time, without delay, to impeach. Anything less is a dereliction of duty and a stain on our democracy."

"Of course he admitted it. If there is anything Trump is good at, it’s committing crimes out in the open and getting away with them. And if there’s anything his party is good at, it’s lying, cheating, aiding and abetting."

"Trump is the most profoundly ignorant, laziest and most blatantly corrupt US President ever. A total con man!"

"I understand Pelosi's reluctance to get behind impeachment proceedings. It's not going anywhere in the Senate, but if this is true she may have no other choice. Trump is off the rails and his arrogant disregard for the law has to be confronted, or who are we now?"

"Trump lives in his own little sordid make-believe world that he fully intends to drag all of us into. His "admission" that he tried to extort Ukraine to do opposition research for his re-election campaign is a variation of "I Could Stand In the Middle Of Fifth Avenue And Shoot Somebody And I Wouldn't Lose Any Voters". There's more than just a whiff of desperation in his attempts to goad Pelosi into an impeachment fight, which is the only way he can divert attention from his spectacular failure as President. If he can turn it into a Me-Against-the-World brawl played out at his high school spirit rallies, on twitter and Fox, he thinks he can claim his spotless record of serial failure is the doing of the Democrats and "the deep state" (aka the resistance or "rule of law"). This is Nero fiddlin' while America burns, hoping his ear-splitting cacophony diverts us from the fires, the smoke and horrific screams. The damage Trump has done to America, all of humanity, the fate of the earth and to history in just 3 years tells us how fragile and precarious are the operating ideals of democracy. America isn't Denmark, Hillary said. But there is something very rotten here."

#whistleblower #war on whistleblowers #trump scandals #trumpism #trump administration #president donald trump #donald trump #ivanka trump #trump #trumpcrimesyndicate #trumpcrimefamily #trump crime family #trump crime syndicate #republican politics #politics and government #us politics #politics #ukraine #u.s. military #u.s. presidential elections #u.s. department of justice #u.s. news #house intelligence committee #national intelligence agency #national intelligence #intelligence agency #nationalsecurity #national news #national security #worldpolitics

[kiev4am]

Brb, just watching Tobias Menzies read ‘When You Are Old’ for the hundredth time.  As I said to @blasted-heath, in my semi-absence from Tumblr and its Terror gifs I seem to have lost my built-up immunity to his face so I’m now crushing on him all over again, it is A Lot.

#kiev rambles #unfair surprise menzies feels #it shouldn't be allowed #i feel attacked #my fic #(sort of) #but look at the video though #it is Very Good #terror actor thirst squad represent

[isitveganhun]

One more question about your diet lol. I'm trying to cut down my meat consumption by a lot to hopefully transfer over to plant based 24/7 cause it just makes sense to me and I feel like the majority of the world is going to be there in the next 20 years. Anyway, what are some good vegan snacks out there/good meat substitutes that actually taste good? I'm servery lactose intolerant so I know good dairy and cheese substitutes so I'm halfway there.

No no it’s fine I love questions like this, although I apologise for my poor literary skills, I tend to ramble!

Substitutes I recommend

The entire no bull range from Iceland (especially the burgers & ‘no chick strips’)

The meatless butcher co burgers at Aldi

Sainsbury’s Shroomdogs

Squeaky bean products (nuggets, fish fingers and satay chicken Kiev)

Tesco own brand veggie nuggets

Wicked kitchen products (especially the sub omg)

Jackfruit

Snacks

Livias kitchen products (sweet wholefoods)

Hike bars (Aldi)

Eat Real quinoa chips

Oreos & peanut butter

Sweet and salted popcorn

Flapjacks

Candy kittens vegan varieties

Smokey bacon popchips

Graze nut mixes

All of these products are available in the U.K 😊

Some of my fave meat subs in action 👇🏻

#vegan #plantbased #me #personal #vegan meat #vegan alternatives #go vegan

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#5yrsago We visited Ukraine's Palace of Corruption

Jasmina Tesanovic:

Jasmina Tesanovic ventures into the "Palace of Corruption" where deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych partied and gloried in graft while the #Euromaidan raged on his doorstep. Tesanovic was in Serbia when Milosevic was deposed, and she reflects on the careers of post-Soviet dictators.

Life is tense, these days in Kiev. The faces of the locals are stiff and their reactions are fast, as in an emergency ward.  One cannot lose one's nerve in a life threatening situation.

The street-fights are over for now, while the war tourism has started. In the famous Maidan Square where a hundred protesters were shot dead in the February struggles, the paramilitary camp tents are still standing.  Rubber tyres are piled in long, tall, ugly barricades, and the revolutionary militia are sitting on stools inside their tents and bomb shelters, chain-smoking and brewing coffee on campfires of scrap wood. However, the ex-President Yanukovych has fled for Russian sanctuary, and the stands of tourist attractions have arrived.

   Ukrainian women sell tiaras of plastic flowers with the national colors of yellow and blue.  Fridge magnets  carry symbols of the uprising: flags, militia logos, Internet memes,  pics of Vladimir Putin depicted as Adolf Hitler, and so on.

    The "EuroMaidan" is loud with the sound of mourning for the nation's fallen.  Orthodox priests have the biggest stages and the loudest amplifiers, these days. In their tall hats and gilt robes the priests endlessly chant and croon, and the random passers-by join in with their hands pressed devoutly to their hearts.  The EuroMaidan is like a wounded heart still pulsing after an attack, trying to heal.

     The recently-elected president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko,   swore into office these days with the words: we are not giving up Crimea. The Crimean region of Ukraine seceded to Russia, or it was seized by Russia more or less, while refugees from Donetsk and Luhansk, the Russian-ethnic dominated cities,  are fleeing every day to Kiev. The nation is splitting up on ethnic lines.  It is the beginning of a national struggle and not its end.

    The "Mezhyirya Festival," a one-time international conference about investigative journalism, activism and hackers, was held in an estate once commandeered by Viktor Yanukovych, in a huge park north of  Kiev: http://mezhyhiryafest.com.  The event was organized by the Yanukovych Leaks group and the Share foundation from Serbia.   The scenery was fantastic: a privatized hunting-grounds half the size of Monaco, next to the vast public reservoir for the city of Kiev, which is a beautiful and rather radioactive artificial lake on the Dnieper River.  The numerous and lavish buildings and villas in this huge estate were conquered by the rebels, after Viktor Yanukovych fled the uprising for safety in Russia.

   Strange militia figures in makeshift uniforms, with walkie-talkies and black wooden batons, patrol this vast park.  The secret elite stronghold has been opened to the citizens of Kiev and even a few of us tourists. Wedding parties have appeared, along with improvised carts and trucks offering bottled water, ice cream dispensers, local beer…  No one seems to drink from that lake, and there are no sign of swimmers despite the June heat.

     We stayed inside an administrative building for the State Guard of Ukraine, the men who guarded the blind metal gates for the secretive estate they called "Object 109."  Behind the vast, rambling, two-story-high metal walls, crowned with security videocameras, Yanukovych and his inner circle built odd structures like huge, half-empty hotels.  Our rambling former guard-house seemed scarcely used:  the Revolutionaries had arrived and kicked in the door-jambs, removing the police computers and leaving snarled wiring, scattered DVDs, fancy sofas and ugly chairs.  However, the karate gym,  numerous security brochures and antiterrorist shooting targets made it entirely obvious to us that this was the headquarters of Yanukovych security.

    I slept inside a narrow room that declared itself to be "bookkeeping" for some alleged company called "Grosser," yet it was full of abandoned almanacs and empty notebooks for the  uniformed Ukrainian State Guard.  A few kilometers down one of the best-paved roads in Ukraine was the colossal hunting mansion of the former President.  

    This Citizen-Kane extravaganza, now widely known as the "palace of corruption," blazed all over with crystal and gilt.  Money can really hurt when its controllers lack taste.   This palace is now well-symbolized by one of the ex-President's ideas of refinement, a gold-plated loaf of Ukrainian bread.

   Our little group of activists and journalists had to visit this legendary, sinister palace, and by night, as well.  Although we numbered a round two dozen, we were like mice in this vast over-lit labyrinth of conference rooms, gyms, spas, a vast indoor tennis court, a private full-sized boxing ring, dangling hosts of golden crystal chandeliers, Gothic viewing rooms with huge TV screens and robot massage chairs, marble saunas, baroque inlaid elevators, endless parquet floors, acre-sized plush carpets, hosts of antique bronze statuary and several spotless white grand pianos, one of them crowned with a skinned and stuffed housecat.  

    Despite its "private" status, it was entirely clear that no one had ever had any private life in this mansion.  It was a deliberate showplace in which a tiny, anxious elite attempted to impress itself.

   One of our journalist hosts was a young Ukranian woman who had never seen the palace herself.  Now they charge people twenty American dollars to see all this mess, she told me. The sight of it will make only people more angry, but it will take a lot of cash to keep this park running.

    The privatized compound has become a national park nowadays,  run by revolutionary volunteers. Someone has to feed the exotic ostriches and mind the giant wooden galleon and the antique car barn, so moms with toddlers clean the rooms, while old men mow the weeds.  Somebody also had to feed us foreign conference tourists, so bright-eyed women in braids and kerchiefs and aprons somehow appeared, to make us blintzes with jam, and potato pancakes, and pork chops.

     There was no packaged food. This brand new revolution of the Ukrainian poor is like some refusal of the industrial age. Viking-tall yellow-haired women with big blue eyes are like the personification of the blue-yellow Ukranian flag.  They were the main audience for us invited foreigners, and they listened to our ramblings politely, took notes and said almost nothing.

     Of course we had plenty to tell them -- mostly about surveillance marketing, the collapse of free expression on the Internet, and the many depredations of the American NSA.   Bewildered and shy, they listened.

    In October 5, 2000, Milosevic was toppled in Serbia.  The same heady post-revolutionary atmosphere reigned for a while -- maybe a hundred days.  However, the Serbian revolution never achieved a "lustration" like in the Czech republic, or the "truth and reconciliation" of South Africa.   Milosevic died in a Dutch prison in The Hague, but Serbia, fourteen years later, is mostly ruled by the younger and smarter people from the old Milosevic establishment.

     A revolution that fails to make a clean break with the past is just a changing of the guard. The people of Ukraine people are aware of this, which is why there are still wary militia camps inside the Maidan.  But whose government is it, when your nation shatters in the struggles between superpowers?  It has been a hundred years since a young  Serb shot and killed the royal heir to the great throne of Austria-Hungary, and to this day no one knows if he was a hero or a terrorist.

  It was an honor and a pleasure to visit Kiev: it brought me sadness, but it felt important and necessary.  I lived in Serbia during our own political mayhem, and when strangers came to visit us notwithstanding the so-called danger, we felt better and safer.  Of course we were stuck there on the ground while they had a jet return-ticket in their pockets: but at least there were those, few precious moments when we looked them right in the eye.

-Jasmina Tesanovic (Photos by Bruce Sterling)

https://boingboing.net/2014/06/12/we-visited-ukraines-palace-o.html

[arguedquill1226]

Hollowed Heroes

chapter one (18+, MINORS DO NOT READ)

Summary: BuckyBarnes x FemaleReader-you have a unpolished past but you want a true chance at doing good in the world, to redeem yourself. Oh! And you happen to live and work with the Avengers sense the fall of shield while doing it... everything changes one day when Steve brings home a stray. What can the future hold for you and the team? Will this change the dynamic of missions? Will this stray be the answer to some of your darkest secret? Only time will tell...

Word count: 2,790ish

Taglines: 18+, Marvel AU, angst, explicit language, cursing (more to come as it gets deeper into the story)

Notes: Hi everyone! This is my first ever post of AU Marvel fanfic so please be gentle LOL...in short I've flipped some of the canon facts around like Sam and Steve got really close while shield is still in operation but age of Ultron happened before the triskelion incident in DC. So the facts are still the same but flipped or altered to work for my AU timeline. I'll try to fill in the differences as we go along with the fanfic, but I'mma Bebe writer so bare with me and my terrible grammar and punctuation XD so I apologize ahead of time! Also I do my own photo edits but I get a lot of the pictures of of Pinterest so all the credit goes to the OG poster of those pics...Happy reading & Hope y'all enjoy!

PS. I post from a mobile device so sorry for filling your feed and no keep reading option 😢

Updated on January 22, 2021

••••••••••

Chapter one-

First Impressions…

Tired and your eyes are burning. You casually lean against the wall with your knee bent and foot pushed on a piece of industrial paneling in an open debriefing room surrounded by soft sunlight and windows. It’s fairly early in the morning and you’re zoning out looking at the rich wooden floor while Tony drowns on for what felt like the 10th time on how you and Nat’s night op went and what the information you gathered meant for the “big picture.”

You had completely understood the gist of what he was trying to explain the first time he went over it. But when he gets on a roll with an audience, you know better than to interrupt him or let your sarcasm get the best of you. You and Nat were beat but the others had shown up late to the debrief so you just thought about getting out of your gear and hitting the rack for a few. The room was fairly quiet, with only Tony talking. So it wasn't hard to hear down the corridor a heavy set of metal doors close calmly with an mild echo…a side effect of having such wide open spaces on the operations level of the Avengers compound.

The noise had jarred you out of your dazed thought patterns. When you looked up, it had dawned on you that not everyone you'd had expected to see was in the meeting.

Steve.......where is Steve? Was your initial thought.

You and Steve had gotten close over the last 10 months sense Nat had brought you into the fold a little while before S.H.I.E.L.D fell. About as close as him a Nat. Sam had always joked with you 3 about being “the three musketeers” on ops. But you didn’t care because it was all in fun and was kind of true. You all had your particular skill sets, but also some skills that we’re similar. So it was easy to fall into step with each other.

It was then, you could hear hushed voices right outside the door frame to the room. Within seconds Steve and another man obscured slightly behind his right shoulder had entered, quietly sliding over to lean on the opposite wall from you hoping to not interrupt Tony you had guessed. He'd seemed to notice you following their movements with curious eyes and gave you a kind nod that you returned with a saw smile.

You glanced over quickly at the stranger. He was about as tall as Steve but thicker with broader shoulders. Dark, unkempt hair came down to his jawline obscuring his main features along with the black ball cap he was donning. He wore an Army green utility jacket over a light blue plaid shirt, denim jeans with boots. Dressed very mundane, perhaps too much. What struck you as especially odd was the fact that he was wearing black leather gloves out of season for upstate New York. It was early autumn, still fairly warm outside.

Steve had backed out of this last mission with you and Nat to deal with what he would only describe as a “personal matter,” so you started to wonder if this man had anything to do with that. Steve had explained how he had full confidence in you two to handle a simple stakeout/smash and grab on our own. So neither of you pressed him for more info and wished him luck.

A few seconds later, Tony had finished and everyone was content with all the information given and was about to stand when Tony, being snarky, acknowledged Steve finally showing up to the meeting.

“So nice of you to join us, we were helpless without you Cap!” Tony stated while waving his finger at our fearless leader dripping with sarcasm.

“Sorry Tony, I was hoping to be here earlier to talk to you.” He said a little unsure of Tony’s reaction to the stranger he glanced back at.

At that action, Tony seemed to register something in his memory. Possibly something him and Steve had discussed in private you wondered. Possibly something about this strange man who seem to be fairly familiar to you but you couldn't place him…By this time, everyone but Nat and Sam was staring back at Steve and the stranger waiting for an explanation. Those two seem to know something you and the others didn't. Nat looked at you out of the corner of your eye.

Who was he?...you wondered.

•••••••••••••••

He was nervous walking through the double doors in the corridor leading to a room that he could hear some guy rambling on, the voice sounded vaguely familiar. Looking back at the exit while the doors echoed shut behind them, Steve assured him that he wouldn’t let anything get out of hand and would explain everything to the group who may not understand or be upset that he had found the man Steve new long ago and was bringing him home like some lost pup...which Bucky hated to think of it like that but the man was damn determined and stubborn for him to come back with him. Bucky knew this team was established to do good in the world but he didn’t know if his presence would upset their carefully built dynamic.

Steve had left 3 weeks ago on a solo op that he was quiet about any details to most of the team but Sam and Tony knew. And Nat guessed it when she had seen the three in an incognito meeting disgusting details on a large timeline display of information Friday, Tony’s helpful A.I., had up about the ghost from more than just Steve’s past. Even with how close Steve, Nat and You are…you all have your individual secrets and knowledge that hasn’t come up in conversation. And Steve didn’t know that you had your own run in with the man he was about to walk through the door with right now. But Nat did know, but choose to not tell you this fact and may be regretting it that the moment. But it wasn’t her secret to tell Steve so how was she supposed to explain to him that not everyone may be okay with this.

Nat had warned Steve once at the cemetery when she gave him a copy of the file from Kiev. But she did it again a second time that evening. Before he and Sam left to find his oldest friend. He had promised to take what she said to heart and to not push Bucky or the others into anything they weren’t comfortable with. But they left anyways. Sam had returned alone 8 days after they left and only would say “it went as well as could be expected and Steve (more likely, Bucky) just needed some more time.”

In that time away, the boys found Bucky on a tip from the Smithsonian video feeds and CCTV which of course Bucky didn’t know was a thing. So it wasn’t hard to track him down and they found him in a seedy motel living on stolen credit cards, junk food from gas stations and a few random notebooks looking so lost. They had only left a note on the door to his room, letting Bucky know they wouldn’t bother him. But they added a phone number and that they could help him learn about his past, if he wanted. He thought about it for days before he called the man from the museum exhibition, the one everyone called ‘Captain America.’ He was starting to remember flashes of memories and feelings over the last few months away from Hydra's grasp, but couldn’t seem to make sense of them on his own. So he said, “fuck it!” And met the two men he recognized from that awful day in Washington DC.

•••••••••••••

They did help but his mind was far from perfect and he felt like an exposed nerve walking through the door to the room.

Fuck, so many people!

So he ducked his head and stayed near Steve. Even though he only knew the man for a few short weeks, he felt like he could trust Steve unconditionally which wasn’t a feeling he was used to. He recognized the guy talking as the famous Tony Stark or aka ‘Ironman.’ He was grateful when Tony didn’t really draw attention to him directly and chose instead to pick on Steve.

Bucky took the opportunity to scan the room. An old habit from all the Hydra training or maybe from howling commando days. That wasn’t clear to him yet. He seen some faces that were confused or apprehensive. Two he recognized to be Sam and a girl he thought was named Natalia, he’d hoped she didn’t completely want to shoot him for what he tried to do to her in DC and whatever else he may have done. She didn’t look upset though. She looked unsure, then glanced to a quiet girl he hadn’t noticed until he followed Nat’s eye line.

It was you, a beautiful girl nonchalantly leaning on the wall in a “back of the class” kind of way. With long, YC hair that was a bit wild from the long night and deep YC eyes with messy black smoky eyeshadow that resembled war paint. Dressed in all black, holsters and straps. She wasn’t like Natalia dressed in a sleek look though, more apocalyptic and organic. Weathered Moto pants, combat boots and a loose fitted, faded black tank top that had a worn group of holes reminiscent of bird shot where your utility belt buckle rubs against the material. Your jacket discarded on the floor haphazardly by your feet. Almost familiar to someone or something he’d seen before…wait………..yes……definitely someone………..shit… and the memory slips away…

Bucky was completely stunned by how beautiful you are. But he didn’t want to seem like a creep so he kept his glance short before looking back at Natalia and Sam. He had completely ignored what Steve was saying to his friends, being stuck in his thoughts when he heard Tony say,

“This is James Barnes everybody. Don’t be afraid to say ‘Hi' and remember to show him to his room later, will ya Cap?”

“He prefers Bucky actually,” Steve says nodding his head to the rest of the group “and I will. Thanks again for understanding Tony.”

By this time, Vis, Wanda, Tony, Maria, Rhodey and Clint began filling out of the door past Steve and Bucky with quick greetings and smiles in a hurry to get to their priorities for the day…whatever those were. You found yourself smiling and wanting to giggle at the thought of Clint’s main mission probably being to eat the last donuts in the kitchen of the compound, when you realized Nat had walked up to you and Sam had joined Barnes and Steve by the door. Nat was obviously trying to block his view of you for some reason. As good as she was executing a distraction, she should’ve known better as that was one of your many skill sets too.

That’s when you realized Barnes kept his head coy but was glancing at you periodically over Nat’s shoulder. It wasn’t hard to see because you were slightly taller than Nat so she couldn’t really block him from looking your way. It struck you differently than it usually does when someone stares at you. Normally, you cringe and feel awkward in a personal setting with someone staring at you. But this time it’s like his eyes are drawing you into a trap. His eyes…holy fuck, you hadn’t noticed his eyes. Before they were hidden under the bill of his hat but now they’re looking directly into yours and they’re the brightest slate blue color. You easily spot them from over 15 feet away.

Nat notices your eye contact and she scoops up your jacket and shoves it lightly to your chest. You grab it while she simultaneously hooks her elbow around yours and leads you out of the room. On your way by the three men, she smiles and says,

“see you boys at the gym later.”

Bucky follows you and Nat’s path with his eyes as you hang a left leading into the section that has the hanger bay on your right heading to the elevators on the left that will take you up to the living quarters. He turns back to Sam and Steve to find them looking at him.

“Don’t worry, YourNickName isn’t anyone you need to worry about. She’s actually really cool.” Sam says with a smug smile on his face like he noticed something.

Bucky repeated, “YNN?”

“Ya, it’s short for YFirstN. She’s been working with us for a while now but she’s still kind of the new here too. Now, how about a tour?” Steve added.

Bucky nodded in agreement and they walked out of the room heading in the same direction as you two did. Hoping he may run into you again while Sam and Steve kept pointing out what different sections of the compound were used for.

•••••••••••••

After you and Nat we're a little ways away from the debriefing room, she started some small talk about how nice a hot shower would feel right now and you agreed wholeheartedly. But stepping into the elevator, you couldn't shake the feeling that you wanted to go back and properly say hi to the new guy Bucky and welcome Steve back.

Nat told you with a smile sensing your thoughts, “don't worry, we will see Steve later at the gym. And later for movie night. You know how Tony gets if we don't show up for his events, we should catch up on our sleep now so we're not late.”

You giggle, “events?... It’s a movie Nat.”

“Ya, but Rogers is back and brought Barnes with him so now he’s going to go overboard and really make it a picture show.”

“Yep…agreed. It’ll be a whole thang now!” you say over exaggeratedly with you hands and jacket waving back and forth while rolling your eyes. “Hopefully he doesn’t plan on showing anything Charles Chaplin for our sakes!” you yell jokingly while turning away and jogging down the hall. You hear Nat belly laugh before you both duck into your rooms for some much needed R&R.

It doesn’t take you long to peel your gear off and start the shower. It starts to whistle due to the steaming hot water shooting out of the head while you bun your hair on the top of your head and flop your towel over the rod. Ready for the inevitable soap in your eye somehow because you’re secretly a total klutz. You turn the water down a tad and start your music on your phone and jump in while you start to sing along.

You’re clean and relaxed in no time at all so you shut off the shower and hop out, throw on a tank and shorts and turn the music down a bit. When you walk out of the bathroom you hear a familiar voice pass by your door. It’s Steve saying, “and your room is right here, mine’s just down the hall and Sam’s is around the corner if you need anything.”

A door in the hall latches softly, then…… silence. You open your door to hopefully catch Cap before he runs off and he’s already in front of your door. His hand up looking prepared to knock and eyebrows raised with a smile on his face when he sees you.

“Hey!” he boasts.

“Hey you!” you reach for a quick hug and he gladly accepts. “We all missed you.”

“Well I’m back now. So you don’t need to anymore. Listen, can I ask you a favor?” he asks with a grin.

“Of course!”

“I hope you don’t mind but…uh…I gave Bucky the room next to yours. And I know you don’t really know him…or anything…I guess what I’m asking is, if you see him out and about can you help make him feel welcome…I figured sense you’re still kind of new maybe…” He tries to explain while rubbing the back of his neck and looking shy.

But you hold up your hand to stop his awkwardness and say, ”yeah, of course Steve. Anything for ya.”

“That great, thanks YN, you rock!” he says beaming.

“Not a prob. Now unless you have any better uses for my bed you’d like to personally show me?” you tease with a sarcastically sultry expression to see if he blushes.

“Uhhh…I…” he totally does.

“That’s what I thought,” you giggle and shoo him off. “I’m hitting the rack, night Stevie!”

“But it’s day!” he jokes as he head down the hall as you shut your door.

You climb into bed thoroughly enjoying the thought of how your sense of humor and Steve’s reservoir of pent-up 1940s sass effortlessly fits together. Within seconds of getting comfy and turning off your tunes, you’re out.

Chapter Two coming soon... Masterlist here

***if you liked this please feel free to let me know with a *reblog or ask* thanks so much for reading!!!

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