S.H.I.E.L.D.

Unfortunately, many guys still need to see this….. (but ovviously it applies to everyone).

I used to work for a call center and I was doing a political survey and I called this number that was randomly generated for me and the way our system worked was voice-activated so when the other person said hello you’d get connected to them, so I just launch right into my “Harvard University and NPR blah blah blah” thing and then there’s this long pause and I think the person’s hung up even though I didn’t hear a click

And then I hear “you shouldn’t be able to call this number.”

So I apologize and go into the preset spiel about because we aren’t selling anything, etc. etc. and the answer I get is

“No, I know that. What I mean is that it should be impossible for you to call this number, and I need to know how you got it.”

I explain that it’s randomly generated and I’m very sorry for bothering him, and go to hang up. And before I can click terminate, I hear:

“Ma’am, this is a matter of national security.”

I accidentally called the director of the FBI.

There was no MS Dos involved. Instead, there was a proprietary type-based OS and an actually-uses-transistors refrigerator-sized computer with switches I had to trip at certain times during the night as I watched the data flow from six pm to six AM on Fridays and weekends. If things got stuck, I reset the server. 

The company handled everything from low-end data (hotel and car reservations) to flight plans and tower information. I was weighed every time I came in to make sure it was me. Areas of the building had retina scanners on doors. 

During training. they took us through all the procedures. Including the procedures for the red phone. There was, literally, a red phone on the shelf above my desk. “This is a holdover from the cold war.” They said. “It isn’t going to come up, but here’s the deal. In case of nuclear war or other nation-wide disaster, the phone will ring. Pick up the phone, state your name and station, and await instructions. Do whatever you are told.”

So my third night there, it’s around 2am and there’s a ringing sound. 

I look up, slowly. The Red phone is ringing.

So I reach out, I pick up the phone. I give my name and station number. And I hear every station head in the building do the exact same. One after another, voices giving names and numbers. Then silence for the space of two breaths. Silence broken by…

“Uh… Is Shantavia there?”

It turns out that every toll free, 1-900 or priority number has a corresponding local number that it routs to at its actual destination. Some poor teenage girl was trying to dial a friend of hers, mixed up the numbers, and got the atomic attack alert line for a major air-travel corporation’s command center in the mid-west United States.

There’s another pause, and the guys over in the main data room are cracking up. The overnight site head is saying “I think you have the wrong number, ma’am.” and I’m standing there having faced the specter of nuclear annihilation before I was old enough to legally drink.

Seriously, this is legit.

In December 1955, Sears decided to run a Santa hotline.  Here’s the ad they posted.

Only problem is, they misprinted the number.  And the number they printed?  It went straight through to fucking NORAD.  This was in the middle of the Cold War, when early warning radar was the only thing keeping nuclear annihilation at bay.  NORAD was the front line.

And it wasn’t just any number at NORAD.  Oh no no no.

Terri remembers her dad had two phones on his desk, including a red one. “Only a four-star general at the Pentagon and my dad had the number,” she says.

“This was the ‘50s, this was the Cold War, and he would have been the first one to know if there was an attack on the United States,” Rick says.

The red phone rang one day in December 1955, and Shoup answered it, Pam says. “And then there was a small voice that just asked, ‘Is this Santa Claus?’ ”

His children remember Shoup as straight-laced and disciplined, and he was annoyed and upset by the call and thought it was a joke — but then, Terri says, the little voice started crying.

“And Dad realized that it wasn’t a joke,” her sister says. “So he talked to him, ho-ho-ho’d and asked if he had been a good boy and, ‘May I talk to your mother?’ And the mother got on and said, ‘You haven’t seen the paper yet? There’s a phone number to call Santa. It’s in the Sears ad.’ Dad looked it up, and there it was, his red phone number. And they had children calling one after another, so he put a couple of airmen on the phones to act like Santa Claus.”

“It got to be a big joke at the command center. You know, ‘The old man’s really flipped his lid this time. We’re answering Santa calls,’ ” Terri says.

And then, it got better.

“The airmen had this big glass board with the United States on it and Canada, and when airplanes would come in they would track them,” Pam says.

“And Christmas Eve of 1955, when Dad walked in, there was a drawing of a sleigh with eight reindeer coming over the North Pole,” Rick says.

“Dad said, ‘What is that?’ They say, ‘Colonel, we’re sorry. We were just making a joke. Do you want us to take that down?’ Dad looked at it for a while, and next thing you know, Dad had called the radio station and had said, ‘This is the commander at the Combat Alert Center, and we have an unidentified flying object. Why, it looks like a sleigh.’ Well, the radio stations would call him like every hour and say, ‘Where’s Santa now?’ ” Terri says.

For real.

“And later in life he got letters from all over the world, people saying, ‘Thank you, Colonel,’ for having, you know, this sense of humor. And in his 90s, he would carry those letters around with him in a briefcase that had a lock on it like it was top-secret information,” she says. “You know, he was an important guy, but this is the thing he’s known for.”

“Yeah,” Rick [his son] says, “it’s probably the thing he was proudest of, too.”

So yeah.  I think that might be the best wrong number of all time.

I have an idea that I wanna potentially poke after being so silent over here for so long. Mutual please feel free to share with your Loki friends.

So idea is a verse where Scarlett goes on vacation to Norway and the Asgard crew has snuck to Midgard for the hell of it. Crew is in Norway. Loki bumps into Scarlett at one of the museums. He sees her wearing a piece dedicated to him and it sparks his interest.

Slowly the two fall for one another and are happy together.

This would all take place BEFORE the events of Thor and Loki would be what we got during Thor 3.

So no mad controlled by Thanos Loki.

I have an idea that I wanna potentially poke after being so silent over here for so long. Mutual please feel free to share with your Loki friends.

So idea is a verse where Scarlett goes on vacation to Norway and the Asgard crew has snuck to Midgard for the hell of it. Crew is in Norway. Loki bumps into Scarlett at one of the museums. He sees her wearing a piece dedicated to him and it sparks his interest.

Slowly the two fall for one another and are happy together.

This would all take place BEFORE the events of Thor and Loki would be what we got during Thor 3.

So no mad controlled by Thanos Loki.

Ask to be put on the Do Not Call list. If you think it’s necessary, ask to watch them get out the territory card and write it down, but realistically, Witnesses in my experience are pretty good about this and the only time it won’t be honored is if someone forgets to check your address or if it’s been like 10+ years

Tell them you are an apostate. They are not allowed to speak to apostates at all, ever, but especially in regards to their beliefs. They aren’t supposed to go to places/events where they know apostates will be

Argue with them. Jehovah’s Witnesses are instructed to end the conversation and leave if it becomes clear that someone wants to debate rather than just passively learn and accept that they were wrong before. This might get you put on the DNC list without even asking

DO NOT answer the door naked. You wouldn’t think this needs said, but intentionally flashing people is sexual harassment, and Jehovah’s Witnesses frequently preach with children— both as a training thing and because people are more likely to be receptive. They say every JW who’s preached long-term has gotten a naked householder at least once. Do not do this

DO NOT unleash your dogs in the yard. First off, your dogs aren’t as mean as you think they are lol. Second off, almost every JW has been dealing with giant jumpy dogs— again— since they were children. Letting loose your dogs will get their dress clothes muddy, possibly tear them, and maybe scare some children/a few adults who will simply pass the door to someone else. It will also make every other dog in the neighborhood start barking. This isn’t helping you or anyone else

Remember that you are dealing with a high-control cult. Jehovah’s Witnesses have falsely prophesied the end of the world almost a dozen times. Around 33,000+ members have died for the sake of a doctrine they made up in the 60s. Whoever you are talking to has trained for years or possibly their entire lives on exactly how to sell this, and make literally anything sound reasonable and appealing. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that God will kill all non-JWs at Armageddon, as they deserve, and are actively praying for this. They won’t tell you that on the first visit, or the second, or the third. Don’t let them get their foot in the door. Don’t talk to them more than once

However, if you live in an apartment complex where they have a strict No Soliciting policy they actually shouldn’t be coming on the property to do their speaking. So check your complex’s policy. 

Why do I know this?

There is a lot to unpack here and I do have a lot of insights into this so:

First I wanna say that the ironic thing is that while you feel that Tr*mp is going to be better for your family he is also at the very same time, severely negatively impacting mass groups of people, me and my family included, and when I say negatively impact I mean he puts people lives in my communities directly in danger

I’m genuinely curious as to what negative impact Biden would have caused for your family that pushed you to vote for the president again

I’m a black woman and a Latina and it’s really scary and mind boggling to me that for you and for many who voted for him the first time and this time around, his blatant racism and xenophobia and lying isn’t a dealbreaker for you

It’s a different kind of reality seeing and hearing him and his supporters vehemently agree that Mexico is crawling with murderers and bad people, separating children from their families and then failing to reunite them all even still, or to hear him use racist dog whistle terms about black people and back law enforcement and call us thugs and not address the root of our outrage, it makes my stomach hurt

As does hearing him speak about other countries, seeing his racism and xenophobia and hate shine through in his actions and policies from LGBTQ+ rights to women to quite literally everyone and every issue, that carries weight, that has consequences that will last far longer than you realize

If a man like that is someone you still vote for even if you think he’s a mockery, even with how terrible he is, even with right wing white supremacist groups supporting him, even with how many lives have been lost due to his negligence, that means the life/lifestyle, you lead really needs to be thought about and given a look at

Bc your words are telling me that you and your family walk through this world at the expense of a million others, what’s the price others will have to pay for the way your family will benefit off a white supremacist system of government held up not challenged by Tr*mp?

You can tell yourself you’re not like his supporters, you can say there is a difference between voters and supporters or his fanatics all you like but the truth is that they’re two sides of the same coin. I just think those who say they vote/voted for him but don’t like him as a person or don’t agree with him all the time are better at lying to themselves that they aren’t complicit or contributing to the hate he sows everywhere he goes

Many who have studied fascism or come from countries/been through periods of history where fascist governments and leaders were in power have said numerous times that we are already several stages into the process of becoming a fascist country under him and there is no amount of benefit to your family or any other group of people that man could provide that will make the choice of voting for him ever ok

Tr*mp is a symptom of a larger disease in American society and government and how its systems work since it was founded all the way to now, I am wary of Biden for many reasons and him taking office will not change the fact that behind the presidency the same sickness in how this country operates still remains, but Biden isn’t a fascist and can be reasoned with, he’s a million more times likely to actually listen and can begin to undo the damage Tr*mp has done and that is the only right choice for the greater good

Got to the interview, and it turned out they didn’t want a barista, they wanted someone to spearhead their new cafe, as the cafe that had been in the store before didn’t want to resign their lease with the bookshop. They wanted to put their own cafe in its place, all new menus etc. They needed someone experienced to train their new staff, to handle window displays, to communicate with the bookstore owners about changes and needs of the cafe, to be able to handle inventory and ordering.

Okay, I had basically done most of that stuff at my previous job. I asked if cafe positions would also be required/trained to work the bookstore. They would. They would be required to run the book sale counter, stock and reshelf books, and help bookshop customers find things. They would also–despite having an outside cleaning company–have to help maintain bathroom cleanliness. They’d have to take out trash, and clean spills, and vacuum.  Wow, that’s a lot, I said. Is this a manager’s position, then?

And the face that they want a bunch of experience??? Then you need to pay for it.

My friend who works for a hiring firm literally told me the hiring firm is telling jobs that they’re asking way too little for the position based on the qualifications they want.

THE NEXT TIME I SEE SOMEONE SAY INCEST IN REGARDS TO THE STARON KISS I WILL PERSONALLY REMIND YOU OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:

Now that I have your attention, let me explain. If you watched the Agent Carter series you will know Peggy was only depicted as having ONE older brother. Just the one.

Said brother, Michael, DIED during WWII and he was the one who recommended Peggy for the field work. Upon news of his death she called off her engagement and joined the SSR where she went on to meet Steve, Bucky, the Commandos, and eventually Daniel Sousa - he’s the one I have set as Grace and Scarlett’s grandfather.

There was no wedding ring. There was no wife present at the engagement party for Peggy in the episode where we learn about Michael.

THEREFORE Sharon must be a relation down on Peggy’s father’s side. Which nullifies the idea that she is actually Peggy’s real niece.

But as far as the Staron kiss, it is not incest. Steve is not biologically/DNA related to Sharon. Therefore you were wrong before my explanation ever began.

And those that stan Peggy that’s fine. But please remember this bit of information: in the comics SHARON came first. Peggy was created as a sister for her and then went on to become her niece in later versions. But for the most part Staron has been endgame for most of the comics.

On June, 20th the JURI of European Parliament approved of the articles 11 and 13 of the new Copyright Law. These articles are also known as the “Link Tax” and the “Censorship Machines” articles.

Articles 13 in particular forces every internet platform to filter all the contents we upload online, ending once and for all the fandom culture. Which means you won’t be able to upload any type of fandom works like fan arts, fan fictions, gif sets from your favourite films and series, edits, because it’s all copyrighted material. And you won’t also be able to share, enjoy or download other’s contents, because the use of links will be completely restricted.

But not everything’s lost yet. There’s another round of voting scheduled for the early days of July.

What you can do now to save our internet, is to share these informations with all of your family members and friends, and to ask to your MEP (the members of the European Parliament from your country) to vote NO at the next round, to vote against articles 11 and 13.

Here you can find more news and all the details to contact your MEP:

https://saveyourinternet.eu

Also, sign and share this petition:

https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-stop-the-censorship-machinery-save-the-internet?recruiter=50668942&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial

We have just a couple of weeks to stop this complete madness, don’t let them dictating the way we enjoy our internet.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52016PC0593

https://creativecommons.org/2018/06/20/european-parliaments-legal-affairs-committee-gives-green-light-to-harmful-link-tax-and-pervasive-platform-censorship/?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitterfacebook&utm_content=JURI-vote-june-20

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/article-13-european-parliament-internet-censorship-copyright-a8408531.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true

https://amp.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/20/eu-votes-for-copyright-law-that-would-make-internet-a-tool-for-control?__twitter_impression=true

http://www.wired.co.uk/article/eu-meme-war-article-13-regulation

Also ao3 has spoken out about this

https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/10637