Daily OpusEverything I write is freely rebloggable. Just keep the source and tell people about my books :D [Until I decide otherwise, my pronouns are Ze/Hir/Hirself. As in "Ze went to the shops to get hir medication hirself". Thank you for the respect.]
there’s no real concept of “war” any more once you have a permanent military force active 24/7 and no real concept of assassination either, it all just blurs into operations conducted in the name of security for reasons that cannot be explained or effectively challenged.
That’s what I was just thinking—while neither Iran nor America will declare war, a series of escalating raids requiring ever-increasing troop deployments will eventually amount to the same thing.
The last time the United States formally declared war, using specific terminology, on any nation was in 1942, when war was declared against Axis-allied Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania, because President Franklin Roosevelt thought it was improper to engage in hostilities against a country without a formal declaration of war. Since then, every American president has used military force without a declaration of war.
The official term is “low-intensity conflict” and it’s the reason there has been a proliferation of contractors (we used to call them mercenaries back in the day) and special operations personnel (like yours truly) who all operate in the grey areas of international law.
It’s funny, the Geneva conventions don’t apply when there isn’t an official war declared, and that’s how we get things like indefinite detention without trial, extrajudicial killings and assassinationsdrone strikes, prisoner detainee abuse, and classifying political dissidents as terrorists and security threats. It means secrecy, surveillance, and unaccountable violence and spending with zero public oversight.
Greetings from the astral plane bc this gif killed me, but here it is - THE STOLEN CENTURY!! Just in time for the Grand Finale 😱 (Also, here’s the still backgrounds bc they’re kind of hard to see)
[Here There Be Gerblins: x] [Murder on the Rockport Limited:x] [Petals to the Metal:x]
[The Crystal Kingdom:x] [The Eleventh Hour:x]
[The Suffering Game:x]
[Lunar Interlude V: x]
The National Rifle Association of America must stop airing its ads that blast the Black Lives Matter movement and call for violence in response, activists from a BLM chapter in Los Angeles said on Friday.
In a video first shared with Mic (above), activists labeled the NRA’s ad as “dangerous propaganda” meant to incite “gun-toting racists.”
Surrogates for the gun rights lobbying group have previously lashed out at activists and politicians who criticized its ad. Read more (Opinion)
I was inspired by severalarticles about the Tampon Tax recently and some of the protests against the categorization of tampons as “luxury items,” so I made this up. It’s funny because it’s true.
Tampons are a “luxury item”
Once I worked as an intern in the state capital. One of the representatives I worked for was this middle-aged guy. And he hated the tampon and napkin machines in the women’s bathrooms. Hated them. He insisted that they weren’t necessary.
I found out why after I’d been working there, oh, about a month. My period started suddenly, as it sometimes does, and I asked to excuse myself to go to the ladies’ room. He wanted to know why. I told him.
He started ranting about how lazy women were. How we wasted time. How we were so careless and unhygenic, and that there was no call for that. He finished by telling me that I certainly was NOT going to the ladies’ room and that I was just going to sit there and work. He finished this off with a decisive nod, as if I’d just been told and there could be no possible argument.
“If I don’t go,” I said in an overly patient tone, “the blood is going to soak through my pants, stain my new skirt that I just bought, and possibly get on this chair I’m sitting in. I need something to soak up the blood. That’s why I need to go to the bathroom.”
His face turned oatmeal-gray; an expression of pure horror spread across his face. He leaned forward and whispered, “Wait, you mean that if you don’t go, you’ll just keep on bleeding? I thought that women could turn it off any time that they wanted!”
I thought, You have got to be kidding.
Several horrified whispers later, I learned that he wasn’t. He actually thought a) that women could shut down the menstrual cycle at will, b) that we essentially picked a week per month to spend more time in the bathroom, i.e. to goof off, and c) that napkins and tampons were sex toys paid for by Health and Human Services. I didn’t know the term then, but he believed that tampons were dildos. Which was why he and a good number of his friends considered them luxuries.
And that’s how, at twenty, I had to give a talk on menstruation to a middle-aged married state representative who was one of my bosses. American politics, ladies and gentlemen.
Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed an attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to an intelligence report declassified and made public Friday.
The report, “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections,” noted that Moscow has for years attempted to meddle in American politics, but 2016 operations “demonstrated a significant escalation in directness, level of activity and scope of effort.” Read more
Afterward, Trump said in a statement that cyberattacks had no impact on the integrity of his victory. Read more
just in case you’re like me and prefer sources that aren’t twitter or tabloids
Meet Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education. She funds an institute that wants to bring back child labor and get rid of public education.
did I die on November 8th and go to hell or something?
Honestly can I wake up in an alternate universe where the US did engage in nuclear war with the USSR in the 1970s
New Yorker Tyeesha Mobley was at a gas station near her Bronx apartment with her two sons when she caught the older boy, aged nine, stealing $10 out of her purse. Thinking this was a good opportunity to teach him a lesson about honesty and consequences, she called the police, asking them to help her communicate the seriousness of stealing.
When the police arrived, however, Mobley’s Arrested Development-style lesson quickly escalated into a terrifying situation. Three of the four officers who arrived at the gas station apparently understood that this was a lighthearted call.
“They started asking Tyleke what did he take,” said Mobley. “He told them. And about three officers was joking around with him, telling him, ‘You can’t be stealing, you’ll wind up going in the police car.’”
The fourth cop, however, had different ideas. He began yelling: “You black b——es don’t know how to take care of your kids … why are you wasting our time, we aren’t here to raise your kid … why don’t you take your f—-ing kid and leave?”
When she tried to follow his order, Mobley says the fourth officer arrested her, refusing to give a reason. While she and her children cried for him to stop, one of the other officers attempted to intervene, saying, “We are not supposed to act like this.”
He replied, “Black b——es like that … this is how I treat them.”
After her arrest, Mobley was hospitalized for the bruises she’d sustained on her legs thanks to the fourth cop kicking her during the arrest. She successfully fought off child endangerment charges—a pretty interesting charge given that the “endangerment” in question seems to have been calling the police.
Mobley’s two children were placed in foster care for four months, where they reportedly received sub-par care. Now, having recovered her children—who have undoubtedly learned a very different lesson than the one she intended to teach—Mobley is suing the NYPD.
