MAJOR BREAKING: Donald Trump has arrived in China to find that President XI did NOT greet him at the airport.

MAGA is in spin mode heralding the “red carpet treatment,” but the visit is already at a rocky start.

Instead of a presidential welcome, Trump was greeted by US Ambassador to China David Perdue; Xi’s vice president, Han Zheng; China’s Ambassador to Washington Xie Feng; and Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu.

I’m sure Trump would hate if you shared this and rubbed it in all day long.

Oh, Donald, bless your tiny, fragile heart. You jet off to China, bragging about your “very good friend” Xi and how he respects you more than anyone else ever has… only to get greeted by the diplomatic equivalent of the intern who draws the short straw?

No red carpet, no strongman handshake for the cameras—just the B-list bureaucrats side-eyeing the guy who spent years calling China a “bankrupt” enemy while secretly begging them for deals.

MAGA’s out here spinning “historic welcome” like it’s not the most obvious airport snub since your last rally crowd.

How’s that “Art of the Deal” working out when even dictators won’t pretend to like you? 😂

Please, please, don't listen to them. They don't care about us, they only talk about us because they want clicks. They want likes. They want angry comments. They are using YOUR IDENTITY and YOUR STRUGGLES and YOUR DISCRIMINATION as a "debate" and "content" topic. They are using YOUR identity as a topic about "sin" because it gives them attention, it gives them rage, it gives them clout.

The fact that I don't want myself dead is a "political argument" is crazy. The fact that I don't want MY QUEER AND LGBTQ FRIENDS DEAD IS A "POLITICAL ARGUMENT" IS INSANE.*

*Not saying that you shouldn't use politics to advocate against homophobia, I'm pointing out the fact that LGBTQ people's existence is seen as "political" and "controversial" is CRAZY.

Please, please, to all my queers, don't listen to them. Your human rights should not be a political debate. OUR human rights should not be a political debate. OUR human rights is not a "debate content" idea. OUR human rights is not somebody's political content idea. Please. Please. Please. Please.

If the genders were swapped for Blazer and Robert, you guys would also instantly see how coercive and manipulative she is as a boss towards her employee. Imagine if a man took a woman to a bar and got her drunk for a job interview, and got her a second drink after saying she was going to sober up. Then flying said female interviewee with no superpowers of her own onto a billboard and then leaving her there!

ah yes orientalism my old friend - clearly this is just packaging a bunch of signifiers of legible-to-the-west indianness together viz. northie hindu upper caste names, bollywood numbers, haldi ceremony before marriage but literally no other rituals, BANGLES, relatively more 'known' northie languages, chai

keep in mind i am saying this as a tamilian with dark skin roughly the same tone as simone ashley's, who got bullied thoroughly for this in school in india by my fellow indians.... kate sharma being dark-skinned as an upper caste person with the implication that her father, a sharma, is dark-skinned (thx to edwina's skin tones)... sorry this sends me around the bend bc i did not spend my youth reading 1 william ads for "fair-skinned brahmin girl/boy" whenever i flipped through literally any of the newspapers in this country for this... caste and skin colour are not exactly divisible and unrelated in this country, even though yes ofc there are exceptions. people love to ascribe this to the british but one (1) glance at the writings of jyotirao phule should disabuse you of this notion, ykwim?

kate speaking marathi but calling her parents amma and appa... like, listen, i could still suspend my disbelief to some extent bc it could be a situation where her father was transferred from the madras presidency to the bombay presidency on work, but a tamilian willingly teaching their kid bengali and MARATHI over tamil...an old, literary, established classic language.... i have to laugh!!!

tbh speaking of which, am sort of perplexed at the absence of persian in the list of languages taught as accomplishments

some brain geniuses have suggested that perhaps her father was north indian and her mother was south indian to explain all of this, but i would point again to edwina being much darker than mary which just brings us back to our first paradox re. caste and colourism in the subcontinent

perhaps mean, but i do find it fascinating that very little of the caste aspect is raised as a discrepancy re. kate sharma's character and bridgerton worldbuilding re. india but then What To Expect from endless thinkpieces by people with the surname patel

i have to also say that i find it very funny that the very same types also enjoy the very clearly pandering to the western gaze nods to "indian" "culture" as hashtag myindia. can we have some self-respect here guys.

There was so much fan fodder for the HuskerDust fans and Chaggie fans! Husk blushing and his high pitched voice when realized the “broad” he was talking about was Angel, was complete peak entertainment! I couldn’t get over Charlie and Vaggie working things out in their relationship and figuring out how to work together again. It was a fresh breath of air to see a healthy relationship in Hell!

Losing Streak and Easy was my favorite songs out of them. Both were surprisingly slow paced songs and yet such a nice turn from HH’s usual fast pace.

Also Alastor being a piece of shit in his damn rolling chair was fucking hilarious😂. I loved him being so maddeningly infuriating to the Vees. The fact that Vel and Val are starting to see how truly shitty Vox is thanks to Alastor is a nice touch by the story writers.

I can’t get over Val nailing Vox with a fucking mug and making his screen get all messed up. It was a well deserved reaction and can we talk about the fact that Val is from Florida of all places?! Definitely a surprise for me, I think I, along with many other fans, assumed he was Mexican given that he speaks Spanish. But him being from Florida AND speaking Spanish given his location is really good character writing!

I enjoyed seeing Lucifer’s demon form again! Any time we see the King become Demon Daddy is always fun😌. It was so heart wrenching to see him demeaned by Vox, as well as his reaction when yelled at by Charlie. Like what has that poor man been through that made him react in such a particular way as hiding?? Surely the man has some trauma that hasn’t been explained by the story writing yet.

Some more commentary on Vox, there were some disappointed fans when he showed his true colors with him being a racist and all. Unfortunately not surprising given he’s an old fuck from the 60’s or 70’s, but it’s always going to be a sad time for fans when their favorite villain is even more shitty in such a realistic way. The fact that he calls one of the most common languages besides English, an “island language” got my blood boiling. The man is a clear product of his time which makes him an even better villian in my opinion. Because everyone loves to hate on a racist so why not give us one served up on a platter!

Overall, these new songs weren’t my favorites in general personally. Vox’s songs in particular didn’t hit as hard as his past two, I think it was because it sounded more like they were using the song as a way to explain his plans in a story way rather than show what his plans are in an action way. Definitely a preference thing for me, but glad to see the story is still developing:). I did love that Husk got a complete song and it being a solo was definitely good in terms of character plot! Angel getting another song never hurts, but I enjoyed it in particular because it showed how the relationship between him and Husk is developing in such a gradual and healthy way. Even the way they’ve argued has been healthy! Both recognize their faults and take the time to apologize for the parts they played in it. I’m desperately hoping that it’ll develop to be as healthy as we see Charlie and Vaggie’s.

And over on Twitter people are talking about how Season 2 is going to end in a cliff hanger, which all in all isn’t very surprising if you look at the pacing. I think it was a good decision story-wise because then they can lay out Vox properly as a villain and we can see the whole arc in real time.

Angel getting hypnotized by Vox this whole time was also a huge mindfuck, like wtf??? SPARE HIM OMG😭. The poor guy has been through enough as is! It was super sad to see that the abuse wasn’t just coming from Val’s end but at Vox’s hands too. Be it from physical abuse to literal hypnotizing, it sucked seeing such a lovable character get beaten down in such a way.

It was so nice to see some background work and appearances of smaller characters too! The other overlords popping into a song and to hear some of their voices for the first time was cool:).

I think in the end I’m very happy to see the story develop in such a way and I can’t wait to see where they take it!