Just my second art blog
192 posts
Bukuneshiro - SSSS - Tumblr Blog
happy jungkook day!
happy birthday to my favourite bun 💞💫💖🎉
WHY WE LOVE JUNGKOOK:
The way he succeeds in one try
The way he loves animals
The way he smiles like a bunny
The way he loves BTS
The way he loves ARMYs
The way he is so good at his job
The way he looks the same as when he was a baby
The way he is so weird (he literally ate paper)
The way he is a total dork
The way he reincarnates every meme even if he is a meme himself
The way he wishes happiness to everyone. He is so kind.
The way he gets sleepy when he gets his hair done
The way he hated acting cute but started doing it for ARMYs
The way he swears to protect everyone
The way he is clumsy sometimes
The way he loves drinking with his members
The way ARMYs call him baby at times
The way he turns the tables and turns into a real man at times
The way he was literally raised by BTS
The way he is so handsome and beautiful
The way his soul is even more wonderous
The way he gets scared of nothing but microwaves
The way he grew up in front of our eyes
The way he eats all the time but still manages to have abs
The way he is so strong (He opened a pineapple with his bare hands and a watermelon too)
The way he laughs
The way he makes weird faces
The way every product he mentions or uses gets sold out
The way we love him more than anything just because he is himself
There are infinite reasons we love him. Because you can’t just describe your love for someone in some lines. He is the light of many in this world and on this date today this star was born. He is anything you can wish in a human and more. People like him you might think only exist in novels and k-dramas. But he is 100% real. Jeon Jungkook we love you not to the moon and back. We love you to the farthest point in this universe and back because it’s you. Yes, because it’s simply you. Happy birthday our beautiful YOU.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEON JUNGKOOK^^
| I hope you liked this post. | By @mimibtsghost
01/27/2016
@fullheartedlyprovocative
Very good point! Many people who aren’t from the UK are probably not aware of the impending disaster that is Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
I keep describing him as a clown, incompetent and overall destructive to society as a whole, but i’ve failed to go into detail. And the reason is simple: There’s just far too much to cover in a concise and efficient way. It is very literally a massive rabbit hole that knows no end.
But i should probably collate some of his more memorable moments, so that everyone can get a rough idea about who he is exactly and why we’re all dead inside.
Bojo is often described as clownish, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he’s harmless. He’s as Machiavellian as a politician can get, and he weaponises his clownish behaviour in order to cover up his corruption. He has this down to an Art.
A recent example of his perception manipulation:
During the Brexit referendum, Boris was heavily campaigning for Leave, and he infamously commissioned a big red Bus with this message on it, claiming that the 350 million currently going to EU membership will be redirected to the UKs NHS (National Health Service), this was a massive deal and fueled the leave campaign.
This was also a massive lie, and he was (rightly) hated for it.
The Bus Lie hung over Boris long after the referendum. When you’d type up Boris Johnson on Google, it would suggest the Bus scandal as an auto-complete search, bringing up countless articles on the lie that had clearly tarnished Boris’ reputation.
However, during the leadership campaign, Boris did something extraordinary. While being interviewed about his leadership bid, he was asked what he does for fun. This was his response:
Hilarious. Ridiculous. Blustering. Making it up as he went along. It quickly became an interview widely mocked across social media and news outlets. Why did he make himself sound like such an idiot? Why buses? This is why:
He is not only immune to being mocked, he has weaponised it to cover up his biggest controversies. Typing up “Boris Johnson Bus” now yields funny clips of him struggling to get through an interview talking about painting little buses. His Bus Scandal has almost been entirely pushed out of the picture.
That is only the tip of the Boris shaped iceberg.
His clowning has gotten him national and international mockery. Who can forget that time Boris (while Mayor of London) got stuck on a zip-line because he was too heavy?
Or that time that he got overly competitive in a game of rugby against kids and tackled a child.
Or that time during a recent Leadership debate where he pulled out a literal Kipper and waved it about, declaring that “we will get our Kippers BACK when we leave the EU!”
What a silly man. How completely harmless he must be.
Well while the nation struggles to get these images out of their heads, collectively we have forgotten many of his greatest sins.
One sin still hangs above him… An ongoing scandal that has endangered the life of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
In 2017 Nazanin had travelled to Iran from the UK to visit her parents, when she was detained by authorities under suspicion of coming to Iran in order to train journalists. In 2017 when Boris was Foreign Secretary and during Nazanins trial, Boris made this statement to the news:
“When I look at what Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was doing, she was simply teaching people journalism, as I understand it,”
This was considered damning evidence that was used against Nazanin. She is still imprisoned today. Her husband in the UK has been tirelessly campaigning for her release, going on a joint hunger-strike with her. Boris refuses to take any responsibility for his comments or apologise for what he has caused.
This isn’t the first or last time Boris has been reckless with his words.
Very recently, Sir Kim Darroch (the UKs (now former) ambassador to the US) suffered a memo leak, in which unflattering remarks regarding Donald Trumps presidency surfaced. The leak was unfortunate, but the comments made were not unprofessional and entirely expected from a foreign diplomat. But Trump wasn’t happy and applied pressure to the UK government to fire Darroch for doing his job. The entire UK government united behind Darroch and supported him…… well… almost the entire government. During a live debate, the final two leadership candidates were asked about the Darroch situation, and whether Darroch would remain in his job if they become PM. Boris refused to comment and avoided the question as usual. However since Boris was the favourite to win, Darroch realised he had no hope, so he resigned. Boris was cited as the main reason and was widely criticised.
Before Boris was a politician, he was a journalist. And in recent years, a very unsavoury recording surfaced from his time as a Journalist in 1990…A phone recording between him and Darius Guppy, where the two conspired to have a reporter physically hurt. (Somehow this is the only youtube video available on this…)
Boris has also been known to have absolutely no filter and speaks before he thinks. Such comments are a result of this.
He had referred to black people as “Piccaninnies” with “watermelon smiles”
In 2018 he had referred to Muslim women wearing burkas as looking like “letter-boxes”
At a conference on Libya in 2017 he claimed that the country could become a thriving luxury resort once they “cleared the dead bodies away”
In 2013 he claimed that Malyasian women went to University because they “have to find men to marry”
In 2006 he claimed that Barack Obama had an “ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender”
All of this… and we haven’t even covered his politics yet.
This is the big reason why he’s becoming PM and it’s simple. He’s lying to everyone.
He’s promising everything to everyone. He’s promised a soft brexit to some, a hard brexit to others. But he refuses to explain how he would achieve either. He’s only now clearly settling on the side of a hard-brexit, or what’s considered a No-Deal brexit (walking away from the EU without striking a trade deal), but he has no answers for any questions posed to him.
His debating strategy, and interview strategy is to make people laugh until they forget what they asked him.
When asked “Is austerity a dead duck at this point?” he ended up rambling about ducks for a solid minute and making the audience giggle before giving a very vague and nothing answer
When debating with leadership rival Jeremy Hunt, he won over the audiences heart by interrupting Hunt with immature jokes.
After declaring that he knows exactly what he’s doing in regards to a No-Deal brexit, he tells everyone that he will follow “Paragraph 5B” of a document that will supposedly solve the Brexit crisis. He repeats “Paragraph 5B” constantly, giving the impression that he’s a man of detail and knows the entire document like the back of his hand. When asked if he knew what was in Paragraph 5C, he simply states “no” and tries to play it off like it’s funny. Without a studio audience to laugh at him, he was simply left in the silence of an astounded interviewer. This is one of the many reasons why he had avoided as many interviews as possible during his leadership campaign.
The fact is, no one knows what he really stands for, no one knows what he’ll really do. He’s a wild-card, or more appropriately, the Joker card. He seems crazy enough and chaotic enough to go through with No-Deal that people are voting for him. But so many people are going to be disappointed. This is a man who says he’s always wanted to be Prime Minister ever since he was 15. He wants power for the sake of power. And for some reason, the Tory party are handing him that power.
There’s so much more to go into, but this is a good initial crash-course into Bojo, the literal clown.
make me choose: ↳ @jungshiii asked: jimin being a flirt or jimin being his slytherin savage self?
“you take away all the worries that I have hidden underneath this smile. I hope only good things happen to you” -jimin, to hoseok ↳ happy birthday @bwimini ♡
birthday countdown d-6: savage hobi
i love this family… (trans.)
+ namjoon’s psa:
Joonie Vs Namjoon
Cr: bemyjoon
CUTE
Why is no one talking about what happened in São Paulo yesterday?
The sky turned completely black around three in the afternoon partly because of smoke coming from the Amazon rainforest, WHICH IS 2300 KILOMETERS AWAY FROM THE CITY, where the government has greatly increased the amount of land being burned for profit. People are getting sick, animals are dying, native territory is being lost to the flames.
This is what the sky looked like in my city yesterday, in the early afternoon.
It got so dark so fast the city had to turn on the lamp posts and night lighting.
Please talk about this. Reblog this post, non-brazilians especially.
Amazon Rant
So you're telling me that the Amazon has been on fire for THREE WEEKS , due to ILLEGAL BURNING, and NOTHING has been done about it???? Like, South American leaders (most of whom are cooperate pigs anyway, looking at you Bolsonaro) haven't done ANYTHING, cause short term gain is all that matters to them without any concern for the future generations. To make matters worse, the Amazon Rainforest is responsible for absorbing 2.2 BILLION tons of carbon from the atmosphere, and, while also referred to as the lungs of our planet, has been credited as a 'tipping point' in climate change, where the current destruction of the forest leads to A) More carbon in the atmosphere, due to not only dead trees absorbing nothing, but also the burning and planned cattle ranching PRODUCES tons of carbon. B) The Amazon Rainforest is a self-contained weather system, which produces its own rain to keep the forest going. If too much is destroyed (like what's happening right now) the rainforest won't be able to keep up that weather system, turn into a savanna due to (more) droughts, and accelerate climate change (2.2 billion as a LOT of carbon).
I'm just mad it took us three weeks to get to this. And don't even try to bring up "it's what's best for the people!" When you're actions, or lack thereof, lead to a fire so big the smoke of which can turn a major metropolitan area miles away from the first dark at 3pm, you're not doing what's best for you're people. People have lost lands and homes. Who knows how many people have died due to fire spread and smoke inhalation
The forest is dying. People are dying. The planet is dying. We need action NOW
Get in the bus, cause we need to planet another 350 million trees when this is over
Sources:
https://blog.ucsusa.org/ucsblog/amazon-deforestation-and-brazilian-president-bolsonaros-attack-on-science
https://www-livescience-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.livescience.com/amp/44235-amazon-rainforest-carbon-cycle-measured.html?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQEKAFwAQ%3D%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livescience.com%2F44235-amazon-rainforest-carbon-cycle-measured.html
https://amp-usatoday-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/2067220001?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQEKAFwAQ%3D%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Fworld%2F2019%2F08%2F20%2Famazon-rainforest-fires-smoke-seen-space%2F2067220001%2F
How I make book covers + tips for you!
Hey people of Earth!
Around this time last year, I mentioned I would have a video up on how I make book covers/cover making tips, and to summarize: I did not do the thing, and this year old script is still sitting in my drafts.
SO, I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and post a written version of these tips! Going to get straight into this because I imagine this will be rather long!
This post will be divided into 6 parts: finding inspiration, concept art, incorporating elements of design, composition, tools and software, and resources. Feel free to skip around to whatever section interests you most!
***Before we get started, really quick disclaimer. I am in no way a professional cover designer. Cover design is merely something I picked up on my own, and I don’t have any formal education/credentials in graphic design. So of course take my advice with that in mind. These are also just my personal thoughts and opinions. So take everything with a grain of salt!
1. Finding Inspiration
What’s the deal?
A really great way to start out in design
Finding cover designs or designers you admire may help you see what works technically
Helps nail down a style you like
In turn, can help you find your cover design style
What should you do?
Look at covers in your genre!
Whenever I design a cover, I take a scroll through Goodreads to pick up some inspiration in designs I personally love
I also love walking around my bookstore and taking a look at physical copies
Find a cover design you like, and point out the specific reasons you like it
Example:
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was actually not an inspo cover for this edition of I’M DISAPPOINTED, but as you can see, things I liked from it spilled over into my own design. By pointing out aspects of graphic design you like, you’ll better be able to understand your style as a cover artist.
Some personal thoughts:
I like covers that include a textured backgrounds, as seen in the collage below:
So for the I’M DISAPPOINTED cover above, I included a textured background. I also love handwritten fonts/lettering, which I include in almost all of my book covers.
What I did:
Off-white colour from A List of Cages and Holding Up The Universe
Silhouette from Painless and previous cover design of I’m Disappointed
Speech bubble from Simon VS the Homo Sapiens Agenda and Say What You Will
Marker texture from A List of Cages
Obviously my thought process wasn’t to put 4 covers in a blender and thus create my product, ha, this is just an example for the ease of understanding!
2. Concept art
What’s the deal?
Coming up with concept art is a super important part of designing a successful book cover.
Acts as the skeleton of your book cover
Your book cover’s roadmap
Saves time/effort
Similar to an outline for a novel.
Can be a very quick sketch, or full fledged design
I like keeping my concept art quick, but if this is your first cover, making a more detailed mockup can help.
What should you do?
Sketch out book cover ideas once you get them/take notes of concepts you’d like to explore
If you can’t come up with concepts, take a look at your inspiration folder and pull concepts/ideas from covers you love
This does not mean copying another book cover (this is notttt a good idea!). BUT, pulling inspiration from elements you like on a cover can be helpful in generating your own concepts
You don’t have to come up with concept art (sometimes winging it works!) but I do recommend jotting notes down, and drawing out loose sketches when applicable!
Keep a list of ideas for book covers as you accumulate them (almost like a little vault of concepts lol) and reference them in the future!
Take a look at as many book covers as you can and make a list of elements you like and don’t like
This is one of the easiest ways to accumulate ideas/concepts!
Example:
^^^ Concept art for two book covers
Likes and dislikes in book covers:
Of course this list is not my be all and end all (nor should it be), and obviously, I still use these things (besides clunky composition I hope!) in some designs!
3. Incorporating the elements of design
What’s the deal?
There are 7 elements of design: line, shape, texture, form, space, value, and colour.
These sometimes vary depending on where you look, but this is what I was taught, so I’m going to be working off that!
Examples:
I’m going to go through them really quickly via an assignment I did for my comm tech class
Keep in mind this assignment is 2 years old and is only meant to give you an idea of what these elements are
1. Line
Line is probably the most important element of design as every piece of art starts with one.
There are various types of lines. You can have curved lines, straight lines, vertical lines, horizontal lines and so on.
2. Shape
You can have more mathematical, geometric shapes, or more abstract, free form shapes.
3. Texture
Texture is the feel of a particular surface.
Texture in my opinion is one of the most important elements when it comes to graphic design, especially book covers.
My favourite thing to see in book covers is texture, whether that be paper textures like construction paper, crumpled paper, wallpaper, lace, wall textures, paint textures, or marker textures
Texture adds depth to designs, and if there’s any element of design you focus on in this post, I’d highly recommend it be this one.
(i’m biased but still)
4. Form
Form is almost like shape, except instead of flat objects, we’re dealing with 3-dimensional objects.
I don’t often use it in my covers since I like drawings and flat shapes in my designs, but if you want to include objects on your cover, or any sort of 3D shape, this would be form.
5. Space
The distance around an object, to put it simply
Space in covers can help emphasize what’s important, and what is less important, or can draw attention to a particular piece of your design.
Examples of space:
Colour coding: yellow = space, teal = focal point/movement of viewer’s eye
In Twilight, the black space helps emphasize the main image, the hands holding the apple.
This also occurs in the Red Queen book covers. The empty space around the crown draws attention immediately to the focal point
You can also lack space. In The Duff, the girl’s face is the only thing you can see on the cover.
6. Value
Is determined by how much light or dark is incorporated into design.
Example of value:
A great example of value in book covers is on Alexandra Bracken’s Passenger. As you can see, the green at the top fades down in a gradient as more white is added to the centre.
7. Colour
Light reflecting off objects
Can make certain elements of your design stand out
Why should you incorporate the elements of design into your designs?
Adds layers of depth to your work
Thus can take your cover-making skills to another level
Can help in producing ideas
4. Composition:
What’s the deal?
In my opinion, can make or break a design
Can mean clutter of things, OR too much or too little space between elements
Title placement
Composition is sometimes subjective from design to design
What you can do:
Pay close attention to detail and spacing
Look out for natural shapes in your design you can fit elements into
Watch the linked video from Mango Street (one of my favourite photography channels) on composition
While photography and design are two different things, the tips in this video can also be applied to various ideas in design such as headroom and leading lines
Examples:
*Before I get into this, I want to make it clear that these examples are exaggerations for the purpose of showing you good and bad composition. If you make these mistakes, that doesn’t mean your design is bad, and again, I’m no professional. This comes from what I believe could be considered bad composition, but trust your gut.
Example 1: Stick People
doesn’t effectively use space
no headroom for text
text is covering 200 element (looks very clunky)
text is cut off
No focal point
Can’t read the title
Textual elements are better spread out
Title is now focal point
Slightly imbalanced
200 element is distracting
Addition of stick figures balances out cover
Text follows natural shape of photograph
Removed 200 element makes cover look less clunky
Example 2: Sixteen Cents
Half the title is on a dark background
Lacks readability
Last name is cut off by window
Uninteresting composition (everything is on one line)
No movement
Title placement is better
Better readability
‘A novel’ fits under windowsill
Last name is smaller to avoid cutting it off
Still slightly boring
Uses free space of wall wisely
Title is easy to read
Text is shaped around photo elements
Gives the cover some movement
Example 3: Fostered
Title is covering the focal point (the girl)
Title doesn’t seem to be incorporated into the design
By moving title down, we’ve made space for the subject
Title placement makes cover look less clunky
Same composition as prior but image is colour-graded
Embossed title adds texture/depth
I’ve mentioned this a few times in this post: focal point. What is it?
FOCAL POINT:
Is defined as the main attraction of your book cover
This is where you want your readers’ eyes to focus
Focal points can sometimes define themselves in areas where more contrast happens to be
Doesn’t have to be the centre of the page.
Keep focal point in mind for composition because if you put it in the wrong spot, you could end up drawing your readers’ attention to the wrong area of the cover.
The point of most interest in a cover is the focal point, so if you want a particular subject of your book cover, such as a person, to stand out make sure you don’t make the other areas of the cover too high contrast or busy.
Framing subjects also helps, so be creative!
The human eye tends to focus on areas with increased contrast so keep this in mind
Examples:
The Host
The camera has focused on the eye of the model, with the nose bridge and forehead shadowing each corner of the cover
Helps lead eye to focal point (the eye)
The Girls
Blue around the edges encircles the focal point (the girl), leading the viewer’s eye directly to her
Girl is also scarlet in colour, contrasting the background
The Hunger Games
Grey outlines on the cover lead straight to the mockingjay
Mockingjay is bright gold in comparison to the black background
Creates contrast, thus viewer’s eye is lead there
The Female of the Species
‘Straight’ composition
No particular focal point, viewer’s eye instead moves horizontally across the design
What should you do?
Use the natural shapes and outlines in your design/photo to fill your cover
Use your space wisely (see examples above)
Use leading lines to draw attention to your focal point
Manipulate text to fill empty spaces
5. Tools and software
You do not need Photoshop to make a good book cover
I made my first book covers in GIMP, a free image manipulation program (kinda like Photoshop’s little brother)
This is the stick people cover I made in photoshop, and the same cover made in GIMP.
Other tools you may want to use are CreateSpace’s cover templates.
You can find these through CreateSpace OR Bookow (my personal fave)
OPTIONAL (what I use):
Graphics tablet
I use the Huion H610 which I really enjoy!
I use this to hand letter, draw silhouettes, create concept art, and so on
Paper and my Faber Castell India Ink Artist Pens.
These are fine tip markers, and are what I used to create the text on I’m Disappointed
Thin sharpies and pens will also do the job, and you can always clean any mistakes up in photoshop or gimp.
A scanner so I can transfer what I’ve hand drawn onto my computer
If you don’t have a scanner you can take a clear photograph on a camera or phone
I also use a few custom marker brushes that now come with the 2018 version of Photoshop
The main one I use is Kyle’s AM - Watercolour Paper from the art markers set (you have to load these into Photoshop, but if you have PS 2018, you should have access to ‘em).
(I’ve lettered everything in this post with that brush)
6. Resources
Here’s a list of amazing resources you might need when making your own book covers!
1. Stock image websites
Check out THIS post for a master list of my favourite stock photo websites!
Stocksnap.io
Unsplash.com
Pixabay.com
2. Dafont
Is my main source for finding fonts
3. Goodreads
A huge resource I use to find cover inspiration
I’ll often browse the new releases section to look at new covers and so on
Easy way to narrow down the genre of cover you’re looking for, as well as the age category
4. Keyboard shortcuts
Check out a masterlist for Photoshop HERE
GIMP masterlist HERE
Makes workflow super efficient
My fave I highly recommend in Photoshop is ctrl > shift > alt > e (merge all layers into new layer)
I’ve made TWO custom shortcuts: ctrl > shift > o is now open as layer, and ctrl > shift > alt > r is now rasterize layer (these save so much time!)
So to conclude this post, I’m going to list out some of my favourite tips when it comes to cover making (sort of a reiteration of this post)
Add texture!
Texture is a super easy way to add dimension to your book cover
Try lettering with a paper and marker when starting out
I find this a lot easier than digital lettering!
Google is your friendddd
If you can’t figure out how to do something in Photoshop or GIMP, the internet is a vast depository of information!
Pay attention to detail
Cover design is alllll about the small details. Making sure you’ve centred something properly can seriously help in making your cover go from amateur to whoaaa who made thatttt
Get a second opinion
Been looking at your screen for 8 hours straight? Ask someone you know what they think of your design! I find this has sparked a lot of secondhand ideas!
If it doesn’t work out, doesn’t mean it was a fail
If a particular concept just doesn’t work, don’t worry! As you practice you’ll get better, and you can always revisit the concept for another novel!
EDIT: a really great suggestion from @sarahkelsiwrites: print out your design if you need a fresh perspective! You’d be surprised by what you notice on screen VS off!
So that’s it for this post! I hope this was helpful for some of you guys, I know it was looooong overdue. If it helped you out, let me know, and if you have any questions, feel free to send ‘em my way! :))
–Rachel
baby boy, baby. evil (cr.)
Did you know that you can make fake 3D pixel art in Blender by just like turning anti-aliasing off?? And pixelizing post-effects? Sounds super simple but it took me forever to figure it out.
the holy grail
"She will take it back some day." -Pink Floyd
Wow cats the movie trailer looks great cant wait to kill myself watching this
Cats (2019)
Dir. Tom Hooper
Day 4: AU
No one:
Me: Did someone say mercenary AU? Alright mercenary AU it is
Is It Weird To Feel Empathy For A Place That Isn’t Your Home?
-K.A.
Is it weird to feel empathy and sadness for a place that isn’t your home? Is it wrong to feel a pit in your stomach and a hole in your heart when many of your friends and acquaintances, many of the people you admire and many of the people who have served as your mentor in life have once called the island home?
There’s a full scale riot in Puerto Rico and you’re probably hearing rumblings about it on your timelines. To summarize, there was a leaked conversation on the Telegram app (think WhatsApp) in which the governor of Puerto Rico and other members of his administrative team held conversations of insensitive, misogynous, homophobic and criminal nature. The nature of these message, which officials found humorous and worthy of applause, were abhorrent, embarrassing and downright heartbreaking.
These officials went through painstaking details to reveal how throughout the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and during the months where Puerto Rico was dealing with an ever-rising death toll, humanitarian aid that was sent to Puerto Rico; aid such as necessary potable water, food and sanitary items; were withheld from citizens that needed it most. These provisions were left to spoil, expire or become unusable in exchange for political propaganda and public relations stunts that these officials could “sell” or “promote” to the population and “sell” or “promote” them as benevolent and doing everything they can for the Puerto Rican population, thus earning them the 2020 re-election. That’s right, they were using the suffering of Boricuas and their desperation for clean food and water to lock down those crucical re-election votes. The motherfuckers.
In the midst of these details, they took their time to make many politically incorrect, hateful, cruel and abhorrent messages about the poverty level of their people; finding humor in saying a man paid for more for a shirt than he makes in a month. They found the time to make fun of women protesting the treatment of Boricuas post-Hurricane Maria, finding humor in their plight alongside the amount of female deaths due to domestic violence. They found time to make fun of the LGBTQ community, because hey, why not at this point, they joked about the #MeToo movement, and general misrepresented themselves to the point they appear to be the worst people on Planet Earth. Still, that’s not the sole reason the people have reached the boiling point.
The people of Puerto Rico have come to realize through these conversations the degree of unforgivable cruelty that these officials are seemingly capable of, knows no limits and knows no bounds.
Hundreds upon thousands of people have died. They have died horrible deaths from starvation, lack of water, and lack of sanitary conditions that no one considered a US citizen should ever experience. Yes, Puerto Ricans are considered US Citizens. Yet, these elected officials cared more about hiding the facts, placing a PR spin on it, and manufacturing information in order to securing their place in the next election than doing their civic duty.
Soon after the conversations leaked, Boricuas and independent Puerto Rican media (because as revealed by the leak, state media is mostly, if not entirely, taking money from the officials, which is another story), many members of the administration resigned and the governor began a series of manipulative damage control tactics that he and his father, a previous Governor himself have employed in the past to great success.
Ricardo Rosselló, Governor of Puerto Rico exploited people’s most basic and deeply-rooted traditions and beliefs and manipulated Latin belief in religion and Christianity to his benefit.Using history as a crutch, he keyed on the fact that Latino culture is susceptible to religious stunts and manipulation and he relied heavily on Puerto Rican history; pulling from their history as an island nation that was colonized by the Spanish in the name of Catholicism to the dismay of the Taino people and then not as egregiously converted to Protestantism when the US made it a commonwealth. Religion has been the one constant that has brought both pain and healing to the souls of those who’ve been deprived of liberty and education in many ways in Puerto Rico, and ever the scumbag, Rosselló honed in on it.
Reportedly, Rosselló ran to a church the day after this all blew up, to seek “forgiveness from the Almighty” and have the churchgoers pray for him, using that Christianity as a crutch and banking on the most deeply-rooted of Latin beliefs and ideals. Want me to make it more fucked up? It’s on good authority that the governor and his family have always professed the Catholic faith. Inside of the official home of the Governor, the equivalent of the White House for Puerto Rico’s governor, “La Fortaleza”, there is a chapel where he could’ve gone to “get right with God” and have his “come to Jesus” moment.
Instead, this “mamabicho” went to a Protestant church that streams their service online so everyone would see him “humiliating himself before God” in a last ditch effort to detract the angry mob that now wanted him to resign. Once again, he tried to manipulate his population with another PR stunt.
Puerto Ricans thankfully, saw right through it.
Rosselló would address Puerto Rico and it’s people as a whole on television saying he reaffirmed his commitment to see his job through and that he would not resign, but would instead “get rid of those that have wronged us” as if he had NO part in the damn thing, as if he didn’t say that stories about the Hurricane needed to be killed, that “crows needed to be fed corpses to keep them appeased”, as if he didn’t say that Ada Monzón (a respected meteorologist who went the extra mile and then some to keep us informed during and after Maria) should suck his dick. As if he didn’t sit there and say, along with his cronies, that they needed to make this whole Hurricane Maria situation work for them instead of against them. As if they didn’t laugh at the men, women, children, and elderly who suffered, got ill and perished under his watch. As if he didn’t let necessary and essential provisions go to waste for a fucking electoral vote. The motherfucker.
So that’s why they riot in Viejo San Juan right now. Because people had enough. People suffered enough. Enough people died. Enough manipulation happened. Because this hijueputa pushed it too damn far and worse? Found it funny. That’s why they march. To get their damn home back from the people in charge.
They took so much from these people, that they took the one thing they didn’t count on.
Their fear.
A breakdown of what's happening in Puerto Rico:
On Saturday July 14 the not for profit journalism group Center for Investigative Journalism released 900 pages were released of private conversations between the current governor or Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló and others from his party.
In the chat group were Luis Rivera Marín, Rosselló’s secretary of state; Christian Sobrino, who held a series of important economic posts; Carlos Bermúdez, a one-time communications aide; Edwin Miranda, a communications consultant; Interior Secretary Ricardo Llerandi; Public Affairs Secretary Anthony Maceira and Elías Sánchez, one-time representative to the board overseeing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy.
These 900 pages revealed that they had been running a smear campaign against the opposition. That he had threatened to set the police on journalists and to set up a troll network against any opposition or critics even going so far on commenting on wishing the death of Carmen Yulín Cruz the mayor or San Juan. Homophobic, racist and sexist comments.
Even more horrific was how they mocked the dead who had passed after hurricane Maria. A natural phenomenon that devestated the island. How they held back efforts to help to use the hysteria as leverage.
Prior to this was the arrest of two senior administration officials (also part of Ricardos party) who were arrested and charged with fraud. abusing federal work contracts from the Department of Education and the Health Insurance Administration (ASES).
Puerto Ricans are currently protesting and taking to the streets both on the island and in the States. Police have already gotten violent with protestors and a member of Ricardos party stated that more force would be taken.
Ricardo has released a statement saying that he refuses to resign from office. Puerto Rico will be holding another massive protest on July 17th.
Keep putting pressure on este sapingo cabron and keep Puerto Rico and its people in your thoughts. Fuerza y a la lucha mi gente!
propaganda works, it’s why cops are worshipped, it’s why the military is worshipped, it’s also why low income workers are treated like dirt.
we’ve been exposed to propaganda our entire lives telling us that low income workers don’t matter. that you need to work hard so you don’t become a low income worker. that if you become a low income worker you failed.
that’s not true. that’s all propaganda we’ve been fed since we were children.
supporting strikes, like the amazon warehouse strike, by boycotting amazon until the warehouse workers are done striking, is a way to improve the public image of low income workers, in this specific case, of amazon warehouse workers.
it’s a way to show the public they can be powerful.
it’s important to get behind this sort of action organized by low income workers because we all need them to know they’re important, and we all need to know they’re important.
you can’t do anything against a capitalist when workers have no power. by believing in low income workers, by supporting them, we are encouraging them, we are telling them they can keep going. we are telling them they should keep going.
none of us win when we treat important labor like dirt. none of us will win if we don’t jump at a chance to support our fellow workers.
Day 3: Shopping Trip
Color-coded mall trip with mandatory shopping cart ride