As Always L The Oatmeal L ⬇txt-edited

Short little video of an eastern red bat!! : ) So fluffy and cute!!

The problem appears to be that Trump's cult showed up, but nobody else did.

I think, it's not so much his cult as.... Trump has a lock on low (really NO) information voters,

so take 2022 Democrats did really well for a midterm, expanded their senate majority and lost the house very narrowly, but only 46% of voters showed up, in 2024 67% of voters turned out, that 20% of the American public that didn't vote in 2022 but did in 2024 likely don't know what a midterm is.

and for people like that, Trump speaks in HYPER, MEGA! simple terms, terms so simple they're wrong even when he's not trying to lie (which he often is) like "build a wall" well thats not actually physically possible, but no amount of pushing back that there was no way to do that got him to stop saying it or his supporters to stop cheering for a thing that couldn't be done, and it was not done, because it wasn't physically possible.

we live in a country PACKED with people who don't understand how anything works, and Trump won because he speaks at a 2nd grade level and there's where 50-ish% of voting Americans are at rn.

I literally think the Code of Claw is A. The number one best book to give to middle schoolers to teach them about loss and war BECAUSE IT HAS SO MUCH NUANCE AND RELEVANCE TODAY STILL!!! And it teaches you so much abt grief oh my god I think half the ways I’ve coped with grief come from that series.

And B. ITS SO GOOD GOD THE TWISTS?? THE TURNS??? THE FIVE BOOK BUILDUP THE LAST PAGE???? ITS SUCH A GOOD SERIES I DONT CARE ITS WRITTEN FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS

Okay alright sorry for all the sudden German politics influx but lemme explain what happened so far and why Germans are losing it a bit:

The tldr? Our government is getting a divorce and it's turning messy with elections being called early and now being called even earlier.

The longer version?

Okay so, groundwork first:

in Germany there is a coalition currently in power called the Ampel(traffic lights) bc the colours of the party are red, yellow and green (or not anymore or for much longer??). They're centrist slightly more left leaning than right leaning. (You could argue about that I am aware). There has been infighting for as long as this coalition has been going on. It is also the first three party coalition since y know, the Last Time.

So. Enough groundwork. The yellow party (FDP) has a finance minister (Christiane Lindner) it's this guy

You will see him in memes I am sure. We don't like him. He's an asshole and has blocked every meaningful change that the coalition had been trying to accomplish. He also got his finance plan blocked by our highest court because parts were against our Constitution.

(.... I am oversimplifying hard here it's actually more complicated than that and not fully his fault, but it's also not the focus)

What WAS the fault though of him and the FDP was that they had a strong position of "saving money at all costs" which made bigger and bigger rifts with the two other coalition partners who were more leaftleaning. The war in Ukraine, Infrastructure, climate change - there were many places that needed more money and Lidner was like naaahhhhh for no fucking reason other than "oh we need to save money!!"

Long story short there have been arguing all the fucking time and therefore have started to lose approval. Drastically lose approval. As on for the first time since the Last Time there is a far right party in charge for part of the country that is also being investigated for being Nazis. (Oversimplifying again).

Which is. Worrying. You know. Especially with Trump now being elected. It has us all a little skittish.

The finance minister has also now been fired.

You see. We were all still trying to stomach Trump winning the US election, when Scholz, in the same fucking evening, fired Lindner.

And not in a polite way. Nah. Olaf fucking Scholz our Chancellor, notorious for saying literally nothing, and with a running joke that he regularly stops existing bc that man Does Not Take Stances, a spine of wet cardboard, delivered this yesterday evening:

(English subtitles by me you already got this far watch it I spent too much time on this lol)

And it is insane alright. For his standards and German politic standards thats the equivalent of calling Lindner a egomaniacal bitch that has only his self interest at heart and can not be trusted.

Lindner and his party have been pulverised in all recent elections. Which means that after he was fired, the FDP completely withdrew from the coalition and all minister from the FDP resigned.

....well all but one who apparently stayed in his positions because he's leaving the FDP over this. What sort of shitty backstabbing kindergarten fight is this. (Jokes aside hes the minister of transportation and says he needs to stay in office in important projects. Which. True. Having minister resigning en mass is not good)

Alright cool cool cool cool. Current situation yesterday is the following:

So. Trump is president. Fuck.

Lindner got fired! Yaaay!

Wait my goverment is now also falling apart! Fuck.

Which all lead to new elections being called in Germany.

Mind you, that's not usual ok. I know other countries have systems where they can call an election whenever but that is not a thing that normally happens here. We have a schedule alright. (Insert obligatory "Germans and their plans and structure" joke)

So new elections are called for spring, nearly a year early. Cool cool cool. With a right wing rising in Germany and deeply unpopular current leadership. On the eve of motherfucking trump getting elected.

Habeck, leader of the green party and one of the few policians in germany I think is vaguely liked by ppl (the general attitude in German politics is less "I like this guy" and more "you are the least shitty choice I guess") has appearently also nearly started crying after the news broke. So. Yeah.

Now. Let's make this shitshow complete,alright?

There is this party. CDU. They had been in charge for a very long time in Germany. Centrist, right leaning, with the afd on the rising even more right leaning than before. Their current leader is Friedrich Merz, as unpleasant as human beings can go.

He has now called for the new election to be not in a few months but like. To be called next week.

In the current climate.

So yeah. if you're German mutuals and friends are currently going through their own stages of grief - this is why.

...Ideas... But on the other hand... why? Because fun, of course! Additional fun!

Behold, my homemade d20 with pips! Takes a while to count up the higher numbers.

Formosan Golden Tube-Nosed Bat, photographed by Heng-Chia Chang, (source)

...they're the size of an average adult human's thumb. their entire body is thumb sized. ...

aaaaaaaaaaa I would be petrified. worried that even breathing too hard could injure the bat.

Eastern Small-footed bat, via

those feet arent the only thing that's small that's for sure <3

Mexican Free-tailed bat, via

I can’t stop thinking about how long Golbat is when he closes his mouth