I just want to sleep

Nov 6 - chancellor Olaf Scholz fires minister of finances Christian Lindner (FDP) for being an incompetent little bitch and drags him on live TV, resulting in a government crisis as the three party coalition (named Ampel aka "Traffic Light"), which is ruling the country at the moment, falls apart.

Scholz also calls for a vote of confidence on January 15th which (if lost) will lead to the Bundestag being dissolved, triggering snap elections in March. This sends everyone into a panic because the ultra right-wing AfD (with Best Of hits such as "Russia is sexy.", "We should criminalize abortions and force every woman to have more babies instead of rights." and "Deport all immigrants and traitors." and the inofficial ones such as "Why don't we just kill everyone we don't like, let's start with the queers.") has been gaining support for a while (because MAGA has no monopoly on racism, sexism, hate and overall stupidity) and no one with an ounce of empathy or a triple digit IQ likes that very much and is thus worried they might actually make it into a new coalition.

Nov 7 - minister for justice Marco Buschmann is heartbroken over the Ampel-Aus and resigns.

Volker Wissing (FDP), minister for transport, commits the funniest anime betrayal and backstabs his party in order to keep his job, leaves the FDP but gets promoted to minister of justice as a little treat. The memes skyrocket.

Bettina Stark-Watzinger, minister of education and research, resigns along with Buschmann and gets replaced by Cem Özdemir (current minister for food and agriculture) because agriculture - education - at the end of the day where's the difference, right?

Federal President Steinmeier hands Christian Lindner his official participation certificate in an awkward ceremony at castle Bellevue. This is broadcast live on television so everyone can be sure that the little bitch is really leaving.

Friedrich Merz (CDU) threatens the nation with the promise that if he (Merz) becomes chancellor, he will let Lindner back into the government so they can keep fucking up the country's budget together. Bffs.

Nov 8 - after backstabbing the FDP Wissing's website gets hacked in retaliation to display FDP ads.

Meanwhile concerns are being voiced that snap elections in March might be way too early due to a lack of paper.

Robert Habeck (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), vice chancellor and minister for economic affairs and climate action, announces that he will be running for the position of chancellor with a social media post that shows him wearing a Swiftie bracelet which spells "Kanzler-Era" (chancellor-era). This sends Gundolf Siebeke from the super conservative CDU spiralling.

Nov 9 - Siebeke fires off a tweet stating that if Habeck becomes chancellor that would of course be totally the fault of women alone (who are all too emotional to make rational decisions) and Germany should "inofficially" consider revoking women's right to vote and officially implement "antiemotional" history lessons in school, earning him a massive shitstorm (completely deserved). Siebeke deletes the tweet.

Nov 10 - previous minister of justice Marco Buschmann processes his grief over the end of the traffic light coalition by composing and uploading a song to Soundcloud (feat. Gregorian chants) which is not exactly a banger but is admittedly still better than 99% of Germany's entries in the ESC these past few years.

Siebeke is still on his misogynistic bs and makes another incoherent and sexist tweet, this time yapping about queens and Christianity while trying to paint himself as the misunderstood victim.

There are sadly no more Volker Wissing memes.

Nov 12 - everyone has agreed to move the elections from March to the end of February because paper is no longer an issue, I guess? However, now everyone is unhappy because the date clashes with the carnival. No joke.

Siebeke changes the banner on his Twitter profile to read "Frauen. Wahl. Recht. Der 19. Januar 1919" / "Women. Right (to). Vote. January 19th 1919" in a pathetic attempt to show how much he actually (not) respects women while at the same time claiming in his Twitter bio that "only conservatism can secure democracy, freedom, rule of law, equality, climate and culture". No comment.

Nov 13 - 113 members of parliament have officially called for the Bundestag to open the long overdue investigation in order to finally ban the AfD.

It has been the longest week in the history of the Bundesrepublik. Everyone needs a fucking break.

To be continued

Nov 13 - Markus Söder, major whine baby of the CSU and walking human wet towel, finally comes up with the weakest retort imaginable to Scholz'es coolness claim: "I don't know anyone who's uncooler than you." That took him two days. These are the ppl in charge of this country.

Nov 14 - SPD and Greens (backed up by the Left) have proposed a law to legalize abortions up to the 3rd month of pregnancy

Additionally, info surfaced that the FDP had prepared the Ampel break-up with a PowerPoint presentation. Which would be hilarious if they hadn't called the designated date for the break-up "D-Day". Never a good idea.

SPD is still super furious and dragging Lindner's political corpse in every single press statement and interview. Something something about no need to shoot a dead horse, but we will gladly make an exception here.

Thomas Haldenwang, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which has been "looking into the AfD" for quite some time due to concerns of the party being unconstitutional (yeah, no shit) since AfD members have been exposed to be part of militant underground groups hoarding illegal weapons and keeping assassination lists of "undesired individuals"), announces his candidature for the CDU. Yeah. The super conservative party with the dude who wants to block the new abortion law and is besties with the party who wants to revoke women's right to vote and who has been getting increasingly chummy with the AfD. The joke kinda writes itself.

SPD members have started calling for the party to endorse Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius as chancellor instead of letting Scholz run again. Quite a few members are a huge fan of the idea. Pistorius isn't. Guy probably thought of how he'd have to deal with Donald Trump come the next year, and decided ha ha, I'd rather drink bleach.

Several US American accounts on Twitter have picked up on the drama in Germany and started tweeting about it, calling chancellor candidate Habeck from the Greens a "radical leftist". If you've never seen someone blasting their drink out of both nostrils with superhuman force but you'd really really like to, go and find a German with a drink and mention the ultra radical leftist Habeck while they're taking a sip. Wear a raincoat for protection, though.

On a side note the BKA released the newest stats regarding crimes against women and girls. To keep this short (because it's depressing as fuck): all of them increased significantly, most of all crimes based on misogynistic ideas. Time to start calling it what it is: misogynistic terrorism. I will refrain from making jokes about fire, houses and Dick Fuentes here because that would be tasteless. Btw, that was not a typo.

Markus Söder (CSU) is trying to get the nuclear power plant Isar 2 up and running again which is exactly as stupid as it's funny because it was already confirmed, multiple times, by engineers and the fucking plant operator that it's impossible to reactivate the plant. Just shows that there will always be men who never learn when it's the right time to pull out. Of nuclear energy, of course. (I need Habeck to become chancellor even if it's just so that he can bite Söder like a rabid dog.)

To no one's surprise Jürgen Pohl (AfD) has promised to support Scholz during the vote of confidence which is exactly what no one wants, least of all Scholz since winning the vote of confidence would mean that there will be no snap elections and Germany will be stuck without a functioning government until the end of next year. To everyone's surprise Pohl defended his decision by saying that Scholz is the lesser evil because Merz would suck major ass as chancellor.

Lindner bashing has now been picked up by the Kommunen (local administrative units?) who are super mad that Lindner withheld money from, well, everyone just so he could boost his own ego and the FDP's popularity (which is obviously an oxymoron). Germany really looked at that idiom "Man sollte aufhören, wenn's am schönsten ist." (You should quit when it's best) and went "I suddenly can't read." Good. We can do this all day. Keep it up. (PS: even the CDU has now joined the hate train and is avoiding Lindner? The only way this man could still get a job in politics is if he moved to the US. Donald Trump would surely create a whole new department for him.)

The SPD is still arguing whether to endorse Pistorius or support Scholz re-running for the position of Bundeskanzler. Apparently the cat fights within the party have gotten so bad that grandpa retired chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) had to step in and tell everyone to shut the fuck up.

Also, Pistorius is starting to get really annoyed by reporters constantly asking him about the chancellor position. To the point where Pistorius snapped and said "Anything can happen in politics. The only thing I can say for sure will never happen is me becoming Pope." I'm just putting this here so that Future Me can have a really good laugh later.

Meanwhile in the federal state of Brandenburg: minister for economy Jörg Steinbach (SPD) looked at the impending coalition of his party with the BSW, went "Yikes." (which is the general mood when it comes to the BSW) and decided to straight up retire from his position since he'd rather lick a toilet seat than work with the pro-Russia dumpster fire that is the BSW. We seriously need more politicians to roast the BSW. I'm not kidding.

Meanwhile the Greens announced that they have gained a huge influx of new members since the Ampel breakup, setting a new personal record with 13,000 new membership applications (and counting).

you can’t tell me that didn’t come out of a gay fan fiction 

brooo that telephone hand is crazy 

The direction of this scene is A+. Honestly, the perfect combination of visuals + camera angles + background noise and plot set up.

I particularily love the shot of Lakan holding the wine glass as the rain starts falling in the background, because for a second, you're led to believe he's gripping the cup so tightly it's breaking, thus the pitter-patter you hear faintly in the back.

MaoMao: Because he asked me out, he is drunk and I told him I am married.

Lakan: but you are married to him?

MaoMao: Yes.

Lakan:...Did you tell him that?

HOWEVER, the manga cuts off at this point, keeping strictly in Maomao’s perspective, and cuts straight to when she regains consciousness in bed after being treated for her injuries. The manga doesn’t show how she got back. They SAY how, and she briefly mentions, “wow that must have been embarrassing; he carried me back,” but we don’t SEE it. We don’t get to feel the true impact of what that means. But the anime DID show us, and holy shit.

They SHOW us how taboo this is. They show Jinshi carrying her out of the temple, after a public attempt on his life.

They show us the shock and horror on Lakan’s face as Jinshi silently walks past him. Horror at the state his daughter is in, horror at another man—a man with a status he could never dare to question—staking such a public claim over his child, horror at the fact that he could never have this level of closeness with her (as Maomao would never allow it).

Everyone hides their gazes, as is their custom when someone of his rank passes by, but the air is different this time. Jinshi is furious, he’s terrified, and he could not give a single shit about how inappropriate it looks to these palace officials.

The shot that slowly follows her trail of blood—even though it’s a small detail—that in particular leaves such a intense impression of how poignant this is for him.

Maomao talked about this scene in the manga like it was nothing to her. She did what she set out to do: she saved the person who was targeted by the attack. She didn’t even know the target would be someone she knew. But she has no idea that this happened afterwards as a result of her bravery. To her, it likely wasn’t even an act of bravery at all. She acted on impulse; she did what she knew was the right thing to do.

i never came out to my parents because my parents never assumed i was cishet.

i never did an "am i gay?" quiz because i knew the answer didn't matter, really.

i never "found out" about trans people, my parent has identified as gender neutral my entire life.

i never cried or even felt any big emotions when i found out i was queer. it was just like huh. cool.

my point here is not that i'm sad about having grown up in a queer-friendly enviroment. my point is that the fact that i don't relate to queer experiences as a queer person might imply that we still define queerness based on suffering.

Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #108 - "There Can Only Be One" (2023)

just this. constantly.

it’s a story about Clark starting out as Superman so everyone is younger than their comic counterparts. That means that this young, but still clearly Adult Man’s actual arch-nemesises are currently kindergarteners, still with their parents at the circus or a few years from turning green. Which. just very funny in general.

It also means, I realized, that he still has both eyes. This is Slade early in his mercenary career, seemingly post experimentation but pre eyeloss. Which is a very specific time period in his backstory that means he has a very funny trait for an edgy floppy-banged white-haired anime man:

He is currently married but (not by his choice) absolutely not going to stay that way.

it turns out about to be divorced is literally the funniest possible characteristic for a shonen villain to Me. I literally can’t stop calling him pre-divorce era Slade.

Oooo he’s edgy he’s dangerous he’s about to get shot in the face by his (absolutely justified) wife.

This man has at least one possibly two very young sons at home. He’s currently fighting Superman to avoid parenting. He is not going to get visitation rights and he Will be dodging child support payments.

James Bond throws up due to trauma at least once per book

Racism

No, really, more racism than you’re expecting

Yes, even for the 50s

At one point Bond writes a letter in his own pee

“All the real hep-cats smoke reefers!”

Many comments on the nature of American culture, including the “exotic pungency” of American road signs

Extended passages of James Bond being racist against various ethnicities you didn’t even know one COULD be racist towards

No seriously, James Bond inexplicably despises Bulgarians

A lengthy passage in which Bond shares his opinion that homosexuality is caused by giving women the right to vote

Bond gets tortured for the first time and immediately comes over all political and philosophical like, “Maybe communism is good actually, and also the Devil is a good guy?”

At one point Bond gets brainwashed by the KGB into trying to kill M

Bond is a grade-A Karen who delivers all of his restaurant orders with lengthy specifics as to how the food should be prepared, and gets pissy if it’s not up to his specifications.

“a gay, happy little crocodile” 

Bond is very excited to learn that in New York there are places where you can watch porn with sound AND color.

James Bond is The Most Boring Man in the World. His hobbies include golf and complaining about food.

Late in the books, Bond’s fiancee is killed right in front of him, and he starts showing PTSD symptoms and, instead of being all macho-man “I don’t need no help,” immediately starts going to every doctor available trying to get treatment

At one point the government tries to offer him a knighthood or some such and Bond messages back that he refuses the knighthood and that “My principal reason is that I don’t want to pay more at hotels and restaurants.” When told that this is too rude, he amends it to, “I am a Scottish peasant and I will always feel at home being a Scottish peasant.”

At one point the Bond girl is tied down by the villain of the book to await being eaten alive by crabs. Bond is terrified for her, but she, being something of an amateur zoologist, knows perfectly well that crabs aren’t gonna eat a living human, so she just chills there on the beach and waits for them to go away.

There is literally a damsel in distress tied to the actual train tracks, presented without irony

An MI6 agent speculates, in an official report to headquarters, that the target may be homosexual because he can’t whistle. Apparently men who can’t whistle are gay.

Bond is drafted to act as the villain’s secretary not once, but two separate times in two separate books. 

When Bond is at a boring party at a hotel conference room and is ordered by his employer to liven up the party, he accomplishes this by ORDERING THE HOTEL BAND, who were previously singing a censored version of some song, TO PERFORM A STRIP SHOW FOR HIM AND THE GUESTS WHILE SINGING THE DIRTY VERSION. This is his second idea, after he previously livened up the party by using one of the girls in the hotel band - the same one he wants to strip for him - as target practice by balancing a false pineapple on her head and shooting it. 

Bond exchanges a look with a fellow secret agent that is said to be “the recognition that exists between crooks, between homosexuals, between secret agents.”

“A hand-painted sign said ‘SNAX’ and, underneath, ‘Hot Cock Soup Fresh Daily’.”

The backstory of the villain of The Man with the Golden Gun is as follows: there was once a circus elephant who got REALLY HORNY and then went on a rampage and was shot by the cops, and then came back to the circus to  pathetically and tragically attempt to perform its circus act one last time. The child who was supposed to ride the elephant in the circus act witnessed all of this, and when the cops shot the elephant dead while performing its tragic act, the boy grabbed a pistol and SHOT ONE OF THE COPS in revenge for HIS ELEPHANT DYING. And that boy grew up to be a deadly, womanizing, hired gun, with three nipples, whom MI6 speculates must be gay because he can’t whistle. And that’s the villain of the book.

These books will make you hate the British as much as every single villain seems to

Waaaayyy more casual drug use than you would expect

like, seriously, at one point Bond is AT DINNER WITH HIS BOSS in his boss’s fancy-ass club, and he orders an envelope full of benzedrine from HQ and just casually pours it into his glass to drink with his champagne.

M lives with the man who used to be M’s Chief Petty Officer on his last naval posting, and who had followed M into retirement, and I am pretty sure they are boyfriends.