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Those who have not swords can still die upon them

@eowyntheavenger / eowyntheavenger.tumblr.com

My other blogs are tolkienillustrations and middle-earth-mythopoeia.
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Another political joke adapted for our times…

Journalists are questioning White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in the White House Press Room.

Journalist: “President Trump has made cuts to SNAP, and without it, more people will die. What do you have to say to that?”

Leavitt: “We stand by the President’s policies.”

Journalist: “President Trump has made it harder to get vaccines, and without them, more people will die. What do you have to say to that?”

Leavitt: “We stand by the President’s policies.”

Journalist: “President Trump has made healthcare more expensive, and without it, more people will die. What do you have to say to that?”

Leavitt: “We stand by the President’s policies.”

Journalist: “If the goal is to kill us, and depriving us of food and medicine isn’t enough, why don’t you just use bullets?”

Leavitt: “I’m pleased to announce that is the next phase of President Trump’s plan for the country.”

(This was originally a political joke about Romanian totalitarian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu)

#US politics#Trump administration#my post#Soviet jokes#Soviet anecdotes#< yes I’m aware Romania was not part of the USSR but that’s so I can find it later
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A political joke for our times…

Trump is holding a meeting at the White House when the doors slam open and who should walk in but Vladimir Putin himself.

“What do you want?” says Trump.

“I have two demands,” says Putin. “First, shoot every member of the government who opposes you—every member of Congress, every political appointee, every governor, every mayor, every judge, everyone, down to the lowest level government employee. Then paint the White House green.”

“Why green?” says Trump.

Putin smiles. “I knew you wouldn’t object to my first demand.”

(This was originally a Soviet joke, or “anecdote,” in which Stalin comes back from the dead and tells the current leader of the country to purge the government and paint the Kremlin green—“Why green?” “I knew you wouldn’t object to my first demand…” It was told over multiple decades of Soviet history, just replacing the name of the current leader, until the joke even outlasted the Soviet Union itself—the latest iterations have Stalin telling Putin to execute the government, etc. It’s pretty horrific how well Soviet jokes fit our current context.)

#US politics#Trump#Trump administration#Soviet jokes#Soviet anecdotes#my post
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Reblogged calliopechild
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Also, if you wish to view a satisfying video (no violence or distressing content) that is just a straight minute and a half of Minnesotans bellowing GET THE FUCK OUT and blasting their whistles and car horns at ICE in unison, causing them to skedaddle posthaste like the cowardly little turds they are, you can find it here. I have watched it a few times myself.

(Do you even know how badly you have to screw up to make Minnesotans hate your guts? Like. For real now.)

#Minnesota#US politics#ICE#abolish ICE
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Reblogged ariaste
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"Friends outside of Minnesota please read. I'm sharing a post written by a personal friend and medical doctor: Friends outside MN, you need to know what is happening here. Everyone knows that ICE shot and killed a woman here on Wednesday. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on:

  • ICE agents are cruising areas with immigrant-owned businesses, and kidnapping patrons and employees alike. Yesterday they abducted two US citizen employees at a suburban Target, one who was begging them to allow him to go get his passport to show them.
  • ICE is going door to door in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods, asking residents where their immigrant neighbors live. Read that again. If it sounds like something out of your high school history textbook, that’s because it is.
  • ICE is targeting schools and school buses. They pepper sprayed teenagers and abducted two school staff members at the high school up the street from me on Wednesday. Police are literally escorting school buses to ensure children can get to school and home safely. The Minneapolis Public Schools have moved to virtual learning for the next 4 weeks because it’s unsafe for children or teachers to physically come to school.
  • They are targeting hospitals and clinics. Patients are scared and are cancelling their appointments or just not showing up. Kids are missing their checkups and vaccines, folks aren’t getting their cancer care, etc.
  • They are smashing windows in cars and homes.
  • ICE is increasingly picking up Native Americans—again, targeting folks based on skin color alone.
  • They are arresting and beating legal observers. A friend of a friend had her arm broken yesterday. Folks are showing up at local hospitals, brought in in ICE custody, with severe injuries that are absolutely inconsistent with mechanism of injury reported by ICE. (Think: patient appears to have been beaten unconscious, while ICE agent says he slipped and fell.) I can’t emphasize enough that these ICE agents do not have warrants. There are 2,000+ agents here and they are simply hunting for anyone that’s not white. It doesn’t matter if you’re a citizen or a green card holder, they will kidnap you first and ask questions later. But the community is fighting back.
  • Protests are happening every day.
  • Community groups have been leading know-your-rights sessions for months, often to packed venues.
  • Whistles are being distributed by the thousands, carried on keychains and worn on coat zippers, always at the ready to be blown in warning if ICE is spotted.
  • Drivers are following ICE vehicles, blaring their horns in warning.
  • Businesses are locking their doors even while open to keep employees and customers safe. As I type this, I’m standing guard at the locked door of our neighborhood burrito joint while I wait for my takeout order, so the employees can focus on their jobs. The place is packed with neighbors supporting this small business.
  • Anti-ICE signs are posted everywhere. The community is making it crystal clear that ICE is not welcome here.
  • Parents and neighbors are standing guard outside schools, organizing carpools, and escorting kids to and from school on foot.
  • Parents of kids in Spanish-immersion daycare (there are a LOT of these daycares here!) are keeping their kids home so the teachers don’t have to take the risk of coming to work.
  • Churches and community groups are holding fundraisers to buy and deliver groceries to families who don’t feel safe leaving home.
  • Mutual aid money is going out to folks who can’t make rent because they can’t work or because a breadwinner was abducted, or who need a warm place to stay after their home’s windows were smashed. THAT is what is happening here. This fight is ongoing and it’s horrifying to watch. But we are not backing down. To my friends in other cities and states, don’t think for a minute that this won’t happen in your town. It will. Be ready. Learn from us, as we have learned from Portland and Chicago and New York. Fight back. Don’t let us get to the last line of Martin Niemoller’s poem.” -Grant Boulanger
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Here's an AP news brief with a little more info. It's limited in the way major news outlets are right now but provides context that supports the personal account shared.

#Minnesota#US politics#ICE#abolish ICE
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Reblogged tikkunolamorgtfo
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Civil rights pioneer

Claudette Colvin, who refused to move seats on a bus at start of civil rights movement, dies at 86
Civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin has died. She was 86. Her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus
AP News

Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86.

Her death was announced Tuesday by the Claudette Colvin Legacy Foundation. Ashley D. Roseboro of the organization confirmed she died in Texas.

Colvin was arrested months before Rosa Parks gained international fame before refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.

#US history#civil rights
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Reblogged
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Anonymous asked:

Do you think most of the blogs banned for election interference were actually plants rather than real users?

yesornopolls answered:
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Considering the one I followed (lagonegirl) seemingly only posted screenshots, mostly of tweets, and I can't remember "her" posting a single personal post or even a text post... yes.

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In case people don’t know the context of this real fucking thing that happened:

Tumblr Confirms That Russian Trolls Spread Misinformation On Its Service | Fortune
It worked with the DOJ to help indict 13 people working with Russian troll outfit, IRA.
Fortune
Tumblr's Ban Of Russian Accounts Adds Detail To Targeting Of Black Americans
The blogging platform has made public a list of accounts that it said were operated as part of the active measures campaign against the Unit
NPR

Russian Internet Research Agency Disinformation Activities on Tumblr: Identity, Privacy, and Ambivalence by Indira Neill Hoch

Russian 2016 Influence Operation Targeted African-Americans on Social Media (New York Times)

The IRA, Social Media and Political Polarization in the United States, 2012-2018 (Oxford University research report)

#disinformation#Russian disinformation#US politics
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Reblogged brainscrems
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Looking at what national news outlets are up to right now, one might not realize a whole major US metropolitan area is, you know, sort of under attack by paramilitary forces. Wild.

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im sorry the What is being What now???

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While it's not going unreported entirely, what's been happening in Minnesota and in Minneapolis–Saint Paul in particular since Renee Good was murdered is not getting the attention it should be.

There are already 2000 gangsters from DHS deployed, and "hundreds" or "1000" more are on the way, depending on which Trumpland person you ask. As a point of reference, the Twin Cities' actual police total just under 1200 (600 in Minneapolis and 590 in Saint Paul according to the depts' sites).

The feds there are more or less attacking people at random. They've gone door-to-door for "citizenship checks" (completely illegal). They've knocked doors down when residents haven't complied (obviously also completely illegal). In addition to abducting and brutalizing the immigrants they come across during their rampages, they've done the same to US citizens of color and are also harassing, stalking and physically attacking observers.

Here are some local sources:

ICE intensifies Twin Cities operation after killing of Renee Good, protests (MPR News—link won't embed)

Privacy advocates: ICE using private data to intimidate observers and activists (MPR News—link won't embed)

U.S. Border Patrol agent knees man in face in Minneapolis as other agents hold him down • Minnesota Reformer
A U.S. Border Patrol agent kneed a man at least five times in the face while several other agents held him pinned facedown on the pavement i
Minnesota Reformer

Below are some videos from observers. I'm linking to Bluesky because that's where I saw them, though many are originally from/also available elsewhere. I apologize for the rancid formatting below but it was the best I could do quickly-ish. The images are previews; click the links in the timestamps to watch.

Elliott Payne (@elliottpayne.org) January 12, 2026 at 10:49 PM

Mickey Kuhns (@mickeykuhns.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 10:58 AM

Dumb Meg (@dmbmeg.bsky.social) Jan 11, 2026 at 6:10 PM (You need to be logged in to see this—while it's unclear what happened to the victim in this one, there's no reported death so far; CW for heightened violence)

Dom Ervolina (@dominicervolina.com) Jan 11, 2026 at 8:42 PM (You need to be logged in to see this)

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 12, 2026 at 4:37 PM

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 12, 2026 at 7:22 PM

Sundae Gurl (@sundaedivine.lol) January 10, 2026 at 4:39 AM

Sherrilyn Ifill (@sifill.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 9:19 PM

SaltyBitchables (@saltybitchables.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 4:19 PM

News2Share has more on YouTube:

I also recommend checking out this guy's work:

ICE in Minneapolis | Chad Davis Photography
Chad Davis Photography
#ICE#abolish ICE#fascism#Minnesota
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Reblogged
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I see a lot of people saying that "If I had to choose between saving Olympus and saving you, Annabeth, I'd burn it all down" is too much, too soon for percabeth and they're ruining the slowburn, and I just want to push back on that a bit.

The thing is that as romantic as it might read to the audience, it's actually not at all about that for Percy. He follows it up by saying he feels the same about Grover. He's not making a romantic declaration in that moment, and I don't even think it occurs to him that it could sound like one. For him, it's all about how much he loves his friends and how he would choose them over anything, even Olympus, if it came down to it.

His fatal flaw.

Which, of course, Annabeth knows. She doesn't hear the romantic connotations in it either, she just hears how dangerous this makes him. She's not swooning over it, she's actually kind of horrified about it. She's doing a million mental calculations about how this is going to impact her efforts to try to save Olympus (and Percy).

It's kind of great, because yes, it's a fun percabeth moment for the audience, who can read the subtext and know that they end up together in the books. But the slowburn is preserved for the characters. To them, there was nothing romantic about it.

#Percabeth#Percy Jackson and the Olympians
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Reblogged
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The show writers approaching fatal flaws as the simultaneous greatest weakness and greatest strength of a character is actually very genius when you think about how Percy saves Olympus: he trusts Annabeth. He gives the knife to Luke and yields because of his undying belief and faith in Annabeth, and it literally saves the world.

But, it easily could’ve gone the other way. That decision could’ve led to the fall of Olympus. And that’s why it’s one of the only times in the books that his fatal flaw actually feels fatal, even though the outcome is basically the opposite of that.

The show introducing this dichotomy so early on sets all this up so well. Indeed, Percy would burn Olympus down to save Annabeth (and friends), but that type of devotion is what ultimately saves everything in the end.

#YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#Percy Jackson#Annabeth Chase#Percy Jackson and the Olympians
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Reblogged
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Walker's acting in the latest episode is so so brilliant.

The anger, the helplessness, the fear when he realises that Annabeth's dying, while Clarisse refuses to give up the fleece. You know, he would have gone to war, there and then. That he would have gone to any extent to get it to Annabeth in time. I know percabeth stans (me included) squeal about our OTP, but for me, this scene establishes Percy's fatal flaw.

It could have been anyone outside the cave instead of Annabeth. It could have been a close friend like Grover, a mean frenemy like Clarisse, an opponent like Luke or even a nameless camper who has only smiled at him once. If they were in a life or death situation and Percy had the power to change that outcome he would do it. Even if it jeopardises the quest, even if it challenges the authority of the Gods, even if it means you're playing with fate.

Because in that moment he isn't a forbidden child of the three or a hero that has to earn their glory. He's not Perseus, son of the sea God. In that moment, he's just Sally Jackson's son.

#Percy Jackson#Percy Jackson and the Olympians

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