Hello all!

As I mentioned in my last journal, I wanted to open for commissions in the first or second week of September, but given FA's announcement of upcoming maintenance, I wanted to move my timetable up by a few days so I could have this journal up and visible in case we're stuck in read-only mode for an extended period again, haha.

Anyway, I am open for commissions now, and I will be completing this batch of commissions by December 21. In other words, if you want any Christmas or other wintry holiday art from me, don't wait! This is when you need to jump in and get that stuff! (Of course, non-holiday art is fine too!) If you want to get art from me, hop over to my website and fill out a commission form!

If you'd prefer a standalone form that is a little easier to use on mobile, click here instead. If you fill out a form, I will contact you as soon as I can. (Just as a reminder, I do not take commissions through FA notes. You will need to fill out my form!)

I look forward to drawing for you <3

Hey folks! Just posting a quick update to let y'all know about a few things that are happening. You've probably noticed that I've been pretty active posting new art this month. I had a lot of commissions during the commission sale that I did back in April, and I've been finishing a lot of those this month. I've still got some stuff left to finish from that queue, but that will probably be done closer to the end of next month. I'll probably be a bit quiet here during the next few weeks, because I will be traveling to New England to spend some time with friends and family, and I won't be back until the 18th. Once I get back, I'll have to turn and burn on getting those remaining commissions done.

The main reason I want to bring that up is because I am HOPING to reopen for commissions in early to mid September - and if you're going to want Christmas art from me this year, that's when you'll need to put in for it. My usual turnaround time on commissions is 3-4 months (as always, you'll get a guaranteed finished-or-refund deadline when you commission me), so if you're wanting art that is guaranteed to be done in time for Christmas, this next opening is the one you will want to plan and budget for. I know July is really early to be talking about Christmas art, but I want people to plan ahead so that they don't miss out - if you want art for Christmas, you'll want to set the money aside for early/mid September and be ready to commission me!

On that same note, please remember that I don't do surprise gift art. If you want to commission art that includes someone else's character (especially if the scene is more explicit), I'm going to be checking with everyone who's involved in the scene. I know that probably kills a lot of the fun for some people, but there's just too much potential for things to go badly in surprise art; unless I know the person well enough to know they'd be okay with it, I don't do surprise gifts.

But yeah! Trip coming in a few weeks, finishing commissions after that, then reopening - set money aside for September if you want Christmas art! Thank you all for following <3

The title kinda speaks for itself. I'm really disappointed in the way people reacted to the latest announcement/rollback of an FA function. TLDR: they're getting rid of the "Gender" dropdown and replacing it with tags. That is, when you choose a gender from the dropdown during upload now, it adds a tag instead of putting it in a hard-coded category. In terms of the actual change, I'm pretty ambivalent about it - it doesn't really affect me one way or the other, since I've mostly used tags instead of the dropdowns anyway.

But what was extremely disappointing to see was the amount of entitlement and thinly-veiled (or in many cases not-veiled-at-all) transphobia in the comments. There's a lot of stuff that I'm seeing from people that I thought we had moved past, and I was really disappointed to see that we apparently haven't. I want to make two key points here:

First, screaming at the staff and being belligerent is not going to get you what you want. This site has never worked that way, and it never will. "But Alioth!" you say, "Screaming at the staff did get them to reverse course on the babyfur bans, and it got the bad staff to leave!" No. It didn't. What made that happen was people who stayed out of the noise working behind the scenes, patiently, to educate and work together. Yes, I was very vocally critical of the 2.7 policy - that's not what got me involved in that work. What got me involved was other people - the ones I mentioned who were staying out of the noise - who were patient and who knew that my input would be valuable, and they got me involved. And, as it turned out, I also learned a lot about how the site works during that process. I apologized for my part in adding to the stress. The "bad staff" left because the site's owner (not the site's users) stepped up and said "this is how it's gonna be," and they weren't on board with that. But none of us got anywhere by screaming at each other. We got it working by having nearly three months of discussion - sometimes for hours a day, for which none of us got paid - over what was reasonable, legal, and technically feasible. No amount of bullying the site staff is going to just make them do what you want - that might work on social media, but it doesn't work here.

The FA staff are open to criticism (they've left comments open on the journals - they didn't do that expecting everything to be smiles and rainbows). But at the end of the day, it's their website. When the 2.7 stuff was being kicked around, I said even then: FA is not the only game in town. If you don't like the way they run it, go to Bluesky, or Weasyl, or wherever. It's their website. They do not owe the community a "majority vote." They don't owe the community a "town hall where people can approve/disapprove" of every change. Yes, it's good that they're doing those town halls and having more open discussion, but ultimately, it's their website, and they get to make the decisions for how it is run. It's not a democracy - it's a benevolent (or malevolent, if you need to feel persecuted) dictatorship. It's not a libertarian free speech bunker where you can just be an asshole to people without consequences. Which brings me to my next point:

Trans people are what they say they are. A trans man isn't a "girl who thinks she's a boy." A trans woman isn't a "gay guy who's trying to trick straight guys." Trans men are men. Trans women are women. If a trans man on this site creates a character that he uses to represent himself (or even just as a character) and he tags it as "male," he has tagged it correctly. Period. It doesn't matter what that character's reproductive organs look like. "But my sexual preference is that-" blah blah blah don't care. The world is a diverse place. Some men have vulvas. Some women have penises. And when you search "male" or "female" on this site, you might see something other than the anatomy you have traditionally associated with that. Get over it and stop fetishizing people based on what they have in their pants. "But sex and gender are two separate th-" shhhhhhhhhh. Sex and gender are complicated, and neither one fits neatly into the little boxes that you would like it to. Those may have felt like the "good old days" to you, but to a lot of people, they were assumptions that forced people to be uncomfortable in their own skin and unable to live their own truth. The outside world is trying very hard to do that again - we DON'T do it here. Fix your hearts or die.

A thing that I've heard over and over the last few years - in moments of both anger and despair - is "Protesting/calling my congresspeople/etc. is pointless, they just ignore it" or "My vote doesn't matter. I can't make any difference."

They WANT you to feel like it's all pointless. It's not.

You can't do it all. That "5 calls a day" thing? I'm sure there are some dedicated folks doing that. But I know most of you aren't. I'M certainly not. Those protests every weekend? I don't go to all of them, and I doubt most of you do either. But that doesn't mean that none of it matters. When you get people screaming on social media saying "Y'all need to be doing x, y, z," that doesn't mean that EVERYONE has to do EVERYTHING. You CAN'T do everything. But what you CAN do is SOMETHING. Maybe you can't make five calls every day - but maybe you CAN send one email a week. There's SOME meaningful action that every single person can take (actually meaningful - I don't mean posturing on social media or "spreading awareness" or whatever the current in-vogue way of saying "pretending to care but actually doing nothing" happens to be). And something is better than nothing.

One of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten in my life was someone saying "If it's worth doing at all, it's worth half-assing." It was originally applied to creative endeavors, but it absolutely applies here too. Can't make five calls? Send one email. Can't donate $100? Donate $5. One very important phrase within leftist circles (often attributed to Karl Marx but its actual origin is unclear): "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need." That doesn't just apply to an economic model - it's an important part of thinking communally: do what you can. Those of us who are Americans - even self-described leftists - have a rugged, stubborn, ingrained sense of individuality, and it's hurting us here, because we feel like if we can't do it all, we've failed. Worse, because we feel like we'll fail, we decide there's no point in trying.

And we can't do that.

Hello all!

Between taxes and a few other expenses, I have a little bit less in the tank than I'm comfortable with as we're coming up on FWA, so I'm having a sale on some art! Right now, my simple color drawings (here's an example) are 20% off their regular price. They are normally $75, but right now, I'm selling them for $60!

If you've been thinking of getting art from me but have been waiting for a good moment to do it, this is a good time! My typical turnaround time is about 3 months, but I'll give you a hard deadline before you send me any money.

If you'd like to commission me, fill out a commission form and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

This sale runs until next Friday (April 11)!

UPDATE: This sale has now ended and commissions are closed for now! Thanks to everyone who jumped in <3 I will reopen once I've gotten through some of this workload!

I've not made a secret of this in any of my other spaces, but just in case it wasn't obvious here:

If you are a Trump supporter, or are in any way supportive of the MAGA headassery, I do not need or want you following me or interacting with me in any way. Go fuck yourself. I've cut off family members for it. I don't care how long we've been friends. I don't care how long you've watched me. If you are okay with what's happening right now, you are dead to me. If you're in favor of the cultural agenda Trump has pushed, you are a bigot and I want nothing to do with you. If you voted for Trump because of "the economy," you are showing me that LGBT people's lives are a worthwhile price to pay for a lower number at the gas pump, and I want nothing to do with you. If you stayed home in November because Harris didn't agree with this or that issue, you are a coward and I want nothing to do with you.

Don't come back in two years after he's kneecapped in the midterms, or in four years when he's gone, and try to "let bygones be bygones." You're dead to me. Forever. Every atrocity against LGBT people that is happening and that will happen in the coming days, I lay directly at your feet. You enabled it. You had a chance to stop it, and you either stood aside or stood up to be counted with the oppressor, and I want NOTHING to do with you. Save your pithy comments and your rationalizing; they'll just be deleted, and you'll be blocked. Begone. You are not welcome here.

If you've been following my last few journals (assuming anyone still follows me here lol), you've seen that I've been watching the AUP situation a bit optimistically.

I think I can comfortably say, based on discussions I've been part of, that I'm feeling fairly confident about beginning to upload art again here. I can't go into too much detail about what specifically has changed (not because of any NDAs, but because the people involved trust my discretion and because things could realistically still go south), but the way things are moving right now, I feel pretty comfortable about it.

I might be jumping the gun a little bit; things could still turn around (for the worse), but I'm optimistic enough at this point that I'm willing to take that risk. Of course, I will continue uploading to my gallery on Weasyl and my social media pages as well (my Twitter/X page is locked and abandoned - I don't use it anymore, and frankly, you shouldn't either) just in case things DO take a downward turn here again, but for now, you can expect to start seeing art from me again here. It's been two years since I've uploaded anything here, and I'm obviously not going to dump a two-year backlog on here, but I'll probably upload a few pieces here shortly, and I might toss an old piece up from time to time just to fill things out a bit.

If you've stuck with me even though I haven't uploaded anything here in forever, thanks. If you're new, hi :D

Hey folks.

Obviously, the past couple of months have been quite a ride, both in "the real world" and here on Furaffinity. To say the least: there are a lot of things in flux right now.  fjf mentioned in his journal a few days ago that he was "working with a select group of babyfurs and FA staff members on telegram to attempt to help fix all of the babyfur/FA issues." I am also part of that group, and like Jade, I am tentatively hopeful. I've mostly kept low-key about my part in it, because I'm looking to get the work done, not looking for a pat on the back. But with things being the way they are right now, I wanted to mention it just so that the rest of what I'm saying here has some context, and there are a couple of things I want to say.

First, regardless of what Furaffinity ultimately decides on their policy, our concerns are being heard, processed, and considered seriously. I know it can be hard to believe that since it's been said many times before without much action to back it up; I wouldn't blame anyone for walking away and not looking back. I know they're looking to make policy that works best for everyone, and that our community in particular is part of that discussion. I don't know yet what that policy will look like, and that's why I haven't jumped in and said "I'm ready to start posting here again."

Despite how productive community discussions have been, the policy may very well not favor us in the end for reasons that are entirely beyond FA's control - or we might end up getting everything we've been asking for. As I said, there's a lot in flux and neither I nor anyone else (including the ones making the decisions) yet know how things will play out; the best thing I can suggest is to avoid speculation, and avoid buying into rumors. I don't want to leave FA. I would like to return to being a part of the community here - and I'm hopeful that I will eventually be able to; I'm not ready yet, but I'm hopeful.

Having said all of that, the last few months - the state of FA, the state of Twitter/X, and just... *vaguely gestures at everything* - has convinced me that trying to put all of my stuff in one place is just generally a bad idea. We don't live in an era anymore where it makes sense to have your presence limited to one place. I've become most active on Bluesky and the Fediverse, but I know a lot of folks have just come to dislike social media. I don't personally think that's wise, because like it or not, that's where the community congregates nowadays, but everyone deals with life differently.

If you're looking to follow me for my art in a more gallery-style setting, I have become active on Weasyl; their policy is actually closest to what I want in a furry website. There are a few things I wish were different about it, but on the whole, it's very good. That said, the site isn't super active. I would really love to have more people following my page there. I might eventually return to posting art here on FA (in fact, at this point, I'd even go so far as to say it's more likely than not), but for right now, I am posting most of what I draw over on Weasyl, and I'd love for you to follow me there.

Yeah, I can't. For one, I can't bring myself to do it. There's just... too much here that I don't want to get rid of.

More than that, given the most recent site announcement, I am genuinely optimistic that this site can do better. Foolishly, perhaps; FA's given us the run-around a lot before. I wouldn't blame anyone else for saying "nah, fuck it" at this point. But I know for a fact that we're being listened to and understood in ways that we weren't before, and with the departure of so much of the previous staff, I really do think they have an opportunity to turn things around.

I don't think I'm quite ready to start uploading here again; I'm gonna wait until the new policy is hammered out to do that. I'd rather not charge full steam ahead only to find out a few months down the road that it was wasted effort. But I do think they're going to try, and I'm willing to hold off on deleting my gallery to give them a chance to do that.

Worth the reminder though - for now, the best places to find me are Bluesky and the Fediverse.

I'm setting things up on Weasyl (I had a gallery there years ago but I've not uploaded to it since 2019), but I'm not super active there yet. SoFurry is... honestly kinda meh, not sure how much I'm gonna commit to it.

I'm clearing my gallery in 7 days, so save whatever art of mine you want to save.

Follow me on Bluesky, the Fediverse, or SoFurry (I'm not super active there yet) if you want to keep up with me.

It's been fun, y'all.

I'm just posting this here because I've gotten a slew of new watchers since my last journal. And while I appreciate the follows, I'm just wanting to make it clear that you will see NO new art from me on this account for the foreseeable future.

I'm still on Furaffinity to check up on artists that I follow here (especially given that Twitter, or "X," or whatever is no longer viable), but I do not trust this site's moderation enough to continue uploading art here. For those who aren't aware of what led to this, several months ago, Furaffinity added a very vaguely-worded update to their AUP that they have been using ever since to target babyfur and ABDL artists - including those who, like me, do not draw inappropriate material of underage characters. At every turn, they have insisted that they're not doing so, but the artists I've seen get high-level strikes and bans over innocuous art tell a different story. Many others (including non-ABDL-adjacent artists) have voiced their complaints about the vagueness of the policy and have been ignored. In May, FA set up a feedback channel in their Discord server - the feedback was overwhelmingly negative. In response, FA's moderators turned off reactions and eventually shut down the channel altogether - lying and saying it was being used to "abuse staff." (I personally witnessed messages being deleted that were not in any way "abusive" or "harassing.") When they closed the channel, they stated that they would be taking time considering how to best respond to the feedback. It has now been nearly four months, and not a word has been said, so we can only assume that their idea of "how to best respond" is complete, stonewalling radio silence. Given that fact, I have chosen to cultivate galleries elsewhere instead of here.

I am most active on Mastodon (I no longer use Twitter), and frankly, that is where I encourage everyone to go. There's a lot of misinformation out there about Mastodon ("it's too complicated," "it's a walled garden," "it encourages feudalism" - all false), and the truth is that it is the exact atmosphere I've hoped for in a social media space. If you've bought into the misinformation and can't separate yourself from it, or if you just aren't interested in branching out to yet another social media platform and would like to just stick to furry sites, I am also on SoFurry and Cohost, though uploads in both of those places are somewhat more sporadic than on Mastodon. I am also active on BlueSky.
If you are interested in seeing new art from me, I encourage you to follow me in one (or more) of those places instead.

Hello all.

I didn't think I'd ever end up making this particular type of journal, but since FA has become hostile to ABDL artists who produce adult work, I don't have much choice. I won't be uploading any new art to FurAffinity for the foreseeable future. I'll still be here lurking and will still see any notes that are sent to me, but as far as actually uploading work, I simply don't feel safe doing so any more.

Anyone who's followed me for any length of time knows that I am firmly against any depictions of minors in sexual situations; I've spoken out against it on social media, I've participated in discussions about it for startup sites, and I've removed people who participate in it from my social spaces. I have always fully supported (and continue to support) FA's ban on cub porn. My position on that has remained consistent, and it has unfortunately not always been a popular one among the people who've followed me. In principle, I have absolutely no issue with FA's recent policy change stating "minors may not be fetishized."

In practice, however, the policy as it stands is extremely vague, and we have seen that that policy is being inconsistently applied and disproportionately used to target adult ABDL artists even when their content only involves adult characters, often leading straight to high-level strikes and bans. This has been brought up in Furaffinity's official Telegram chat a few times (and elsewhere), only for the ones bringing it up to be told, effectively, "You're just mad because you can't get your cub porn." It's infuriating, and I frankly don't have the spoons for it anymore. Furaffinity, of all places, should be a safe haven from the puritan attitudes that the right wing has made so pervasive lately, but alas, it seems that hotter heads are prevailing.

If you would still like to see the art I upload, I have a channel on Telegram where I still upload everything, and I am also posting all my art to my Cohost profile (you do not need an account to be able to view it), along with Mastodon and, for however long it remains viable, Twitter. I'll likely also start using my SoFurry gallery more often in the future as well. If FA clarifies its policy and reins in its moderation practice to the point where I feel like I can upload work here without falling afoul of its vague, inconsistently-enforced rules, I may begin doing so, but for the time being and for the foreseeable future, you will need to look for my work on the other sites I have mentioned. Thank you!

Hey all! I've just finished a major update to my website with it being the beginning of the year, and I am now open for commissions. Regular commission prices start at $20, but you can get stuff even cheaper than that if you're interested in things like profile pictures, YCHs, and Telegram stickers - I just added a huge amount of content to my website catalog, and you can browse that and see if anything strikes your fancy, especially if you're in the market for art but don't really have any ideas for what kind of scene you want.

If you want to commission me OR buy premade customs from my catalog, please check out my website! https://www.ursamajorartworks.com

Hello everyone! I know I haven't been super active journaling here, but I still check this site several times a day and still upload the bulk of my art here. So I'm still fairly active here even if you haven't seen much from me lately! Twitter is on fire (again) today because Apartheid Space Cadet did something really dumb (again) by essentially telling Twitter users that they're not allowed to link to their other socials. Naturally, pretty much everyone on Twitter has responded by... linking to their other socials. (Just a wild guess, but I'm guessing Musk has never met Barbra Streisand.) That brings me to the point of this journal. A lot of you I know are looking to bail on Twitter but feel like FA doesn't have the pace of an active community like Twitter did.

If that's the case,  crinklecat and I founded a Telegram community back in 2017, and we've been running it ever since. It has steadily grown and now hosts over 1000 users. The chat is lively and active, and if you're interested in joining the community, we would love to have you. You can join by clicking here, but before you do, make sure you have set a visible @ username (not just a display name, but an actual username) - we have that in place to keep out bots, prevent brigading, etc. Also, bear in mind that it is strictly for 18+ users. If that just sounds like too much and you're intimidated by a chat that size, we also have several smaller affiliate chats that you can check out.

Having said all of that, I will continue to post my art here on FA, but if you want to follow more social accounts of mine, I am now also on Cohost and Mastodon. (I've balked in the past about the prospect of joining Mastodon, and I still have definite reservations about it, but I can see the writing on the wall and see that that's where a lot of my friends and contacts are going.) You can find me on AliothFox, and on Mastodon at @AliothFox@cubhub.social. I hope you'll all consider following me in one or the other or both of those places!

Finally, you can see a complete lists of all my social profiles here.

Just to reiterate: I'm not leaving FA. In fact, as Twitter continues to burn down, I'll likely become more active here again, though my social activity at the moment is primarily going to be on Cohost.

I wish all of you happy holidays and hope 2023 treats you well!

Hello all!

I know, I'm bad about keeping up with this site, but all the drama of watching Twitter continue to sink like the Titanic has reminded me that I need to keep things up to date here. I'll be posting some of the art I've gotten done in the ~5 months or so since I posted last, so bear with me while I get all of that posted. Thanks! <3

Hi everyone! I'm taking commission forms from now until Sunday, 18 September! Art will be completed no later than December 21.
-Prices start as low as $20! (Full price list here.)
-Art will be completed by December 21! (This will likely be my only opening before Christmas!)
-Will take SFW or NSFW! (Ask for my "yes/no" list if you're not sure what subject matter I'm willing to draw)
-NOT first-come/first-served! (I will be taking forms until September 18, at which point I will select the projects that will work best for me.)

Fill out the form here if you're interested!
https://www.ursamajorartworks.com/commission-form

Contact information:
Telegram: AliothFox
Twitter: AliothFox
Email: ursamajorartworks[at]gmail.com

Hi everyone! You may have noticed that I uploaded quite a bit of art today - some were old YCH rewards that I've done over the last several months, and some were drawings that I actually just created today. So far, they've all been pretty well received. I'm really glad you've all been enjoying what I post!

Now, having said that, I would just like to say that if you are enjoying the stuff I create, PLEASE consider supporting me! Stuff like the YCH rewards you saw me post today, you can get those for as little as $5 per month on Patreon. Giving up one fast food meal per month would get you art like that each month, and it helps me a lot! And to be clear, my Patreon isn't any kind of raffle system or first-come/first-served type deal - if you pledge, and you claim your rewards, you get art. Simple as that. If you don't want that and just want to help out, I also have shinies enabled here on FA. Right now I'm having to replace my car, along with several other expenses that I don't normally have to deal with. I'm not in dire, desperate financial straits - I will be okay - but every bit of support I can get will help me out. This isn't a "omg, it's an emergency, pls help" journal or anything like that; it's more a "hey, life happens, and creating furry art is one of my main sources of income."

Really, all I'm doing here is trying to remind all of my wonderful watchers that if you like the work that I create, I hope you will consider supporting me so I can continue creating it ^.^ Thank you so much <3

Hey all! It's been a long while since I've posted anything here, but I appreciate all the new watchers and all the favorites and such. It's been a bit of a struggle to keep up with this account on FA, but I've done quite a bit of art since I posted here last. I'm much more active on Twitter (@ AliothFox), but with news coming in that Elon Musk might be taking over Twitter, I'm not sure how comfortable I am relying on it as my only platform anymore, so I'm going to try and get back to being more active here, starting with trying to upload some of my backlog of unposted art here once I get PostyBirb set up and figure out how it works. Thanks to all who are watching me!

Also, if any of y'all are gonna be at FWA, hit me up if you want to hang out. I'll be there!

Hey all! I've got a quick announcement I need to make - something that has been bugging me for a long time and I really feel like I need to point it out, policy-wise.

I'm okay drawing cub characters (in SFW, completely non-sexual settings, of course). I'm okay drawing ABDL characters - adult characters in diapers, and those are okay being a bit more on the naughty side. However, I am very uncomfortable drawing cub characters and ABDL characters in the same scene. I've drawn it a few times in the past on commission, but I've never been comfortable with it; this discomfort isn't a new thing. It was hard for me to really articulate why before, but now it makes more sense to me - I'm very uncomfortable with it because it's just too close to "kids in kink" for me to not feel gross about it. I'm not saying this to shame anyone or anything like that, and I realize this will probably upset a few people, but it is something that I am now firmly unwilling to draw, and I hope everyone will respect that even if you don't like it.

The other reminder that I wanted to make is that I don't take any commissions on copyrighted material. I don't draw Pokémon, Digimon, MLP, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc., and this extends to all parts of the scene (including props, diapers, etc.). I don't draw existing diaper designs, because the companies that make diapers own those copyrights. Again, I realize this is something that I used to be willing to do, but it's not something I'm comfortable with anymore. I've made my no-copyrighted-material policy very clear numerous times, but I still routinely get people asking me for it, so I guess I need to make it clear again.

Now, onto more pleasant announcements. First, for those of you who haven't heard, I may finally be able to upgrade my internet so that I can get back online doing streams, Discord voice chats, and other things that are simply not possible with a rural satellite connection. The downside is that the installation costs (due to the fact that the lines have to be run underneath a road and dug down a 400-foot driveway) are going to be very high, and I need some help being able to afford them. If you can donate to help me out, I have set up a GoFundMe here. Any donations would be very much appreciated, but no one should feel any pressure :)

And of course, if you aren't able or willing to donate but would prefer to commission me, I am open for commissions - you can fill out a commission form by clicking here!

So I have had several non-US people ask me about where the election currently stands. If the election has been officially called in Biden's favor, why is Trump still fighting? What happens if Trump refuses to conceded? What kind of legal challenges can Trump mount to prevent Biden from taking office? Let me give as clear of an answer as I can to some of the questions I've been getting. (For those of you who aren't aware, I teach history and political science, which is one reason I'm getting a lot of these questions.)

Has Biden officially won the election?
No, Biden has not yet "officially" won the election. All the major media networks have announced Biden as the projected winner, but there's nothing "official" or legally binding about that. All that means is that all of the media networks have declared that based on all available data, Biden is the presumed winner. It's extremely rare for media networks to call an election and then be wrong (it's not unprecedented, mind; most of you have probably seen the famous photo of President Truman holding up the "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline). That said, based on all of the data available, Biden is the winner of this election by a fairly comfortable margin even in the most closely-contested states. The election results become official as soon as they are certified, for all practical purposes. I'll get to that in a minute.

Why is there so much emphasis on the individual states?
In the United States, we do not elect our president simply by popular vote. We have what is known as the Electoral College (a term a few of you have probably seen tossed around but may not understand). Each state has a certain number of people known as electors. The number of electors in a state depends on the state's population (California, the most populous state, has 55 electors, while Wyoming, the least populous state, only has 3). On Election Day, voters cast their ballot for which presidential candidate they want their state to vote for, and (with a few exceptions), the winner of that state's popular vote gets all of that state's electoral votes. This is why "battleground states" like Georgia are so important. Georgia (for instance) has 16 electors. If Biden wins Georgia's popular vote, he gets all 16 of those electors, no matter how slim his margin of victory is; it's not split up as "9 Georgia electors for Biden, 7 for Trump." That's not how it works. In all states (except Maine and Nebraska), the electoral contest is a "winner takes all" affair. This is why, in 2016, Hillary Clinton lost the election even though ~3 million more people voted for her than they did for Trump.

On what grounds can Trump legally contest the election results?
Since the news of Biden's victory, Trump has launched a fusillade of legal challenges to the election results. Their goal seems to be to delay the certification of the results, though it's unclear to me what they hope to accomplish by doing so other than possibly make things rocky for the transition team so that Biden comes in with more of a political challenge to overcome, which puts Trump's party (potentially) on more solid footing in 2024. Realistically, Trump's current strategy seems more akin to a tenant trashing his apartment after receiving an eviction notice. Republicans are basically content to publicly "let things play out" while privately congratulating Biden. This is mainly because Trump (and his brand) will continue to be a force in US politics for years to come, and they fear his reprisal. Their hope is that by "letting the baby have his tantrum," so to speak, Trump will eventually realize that he has no path to victory and will back down.

As for the specific legal challenges, pretty much all of the leading legal experts (both conservative and liberal) have agreed that they are unlikely to accomplish anything for Trump. His main challenge at the moment is in Pennsylvania. The basis of his argument is that the process by which Pennsylvania receives and counts votes through mail-in ballots is not transparent enough and/or creates an opportunity for fraudulent voting. So basically, his goal is to have all of the mail-in ballots thrown out. Pretty much every legal expert agrees that this case is dead on arrival, for a number of reasons. First, the voting process Pennsylvania used was already well-known by both candidates in the weeks leading up to the election - Trump had plenty of time to challenge that process before the election and didn't, and the court is not going to go in after the fact and overturn thousands of ballots that were legally cast in good faith. Trump's margin of defeat in Pennsylvania is well outside of recount margins (he is behind by about 50 thousand votes), so overturning counted votes is his only option in Pennsylvania (and several other states). Even the most conservative courts are exceptionally unlikely to do this. So it's important to emphasize that these legal challenges have virtually no chance - even by the bizarre "Trump makes weird things happen" standards - of succeeding.

What about the recounts in Georgia and Arizona?
The margins of Biden's victory in those two states were slim enough that they are able to recount the votes to ensure that all ballots were counted correctly. There are two things to keep in mind about these recounts: one, they are unlikely to change those states' results. Recounts rarely ever change a state's election results because for the most part, they're pretty darn good at counting them correctly the first time. It might change the results by a few hundred votes in each state, but Biden is ahead by several thousand votes in both states at last count. Secondly, based on the current electoral map, Biden does not need either of those states' electoral votes to win the election; he has won 279 (a candidate needs 270 to win the election) electoral votes even without Arizona and Georgia.

So is it possible for Trump to change the election results?
Realistically, no. For the election to be decided in Trump's favor, his legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Michigan would have to succeed (which, again, stands virtually no chance of happening), and the recount would have to end up in his favor in both Arizona and Georgia (which, again, is very unlikely). These moves by Trump are a "Hail Mary" - just throwing stuff at the walls to see what sticks.

But what about Al Gore?
To put it simply, this election, despite the talk of "recounts," is nothing at all like the 2000 election that saw Al Gore lose to George W. Bush due to a recount. Gore was looking at a recount over a few hundred votes in one state. Trump is looking at a recount over a few thousand votes in several states - none of which matter if he loses his legal challenges in the states that are outside of recount margins, which is virtually certain to be the case.

What happens if Trump doesn't concede the election?
Nothing. There's no legal requirement for Trump to concede defeat; it's just based on two centuries of custom and courtesy (even Al Gore conceded to Bush before his recounts in Florida; this frees up resources for the incoming president's transition team to ensure a smooth transfer of power). But the simple reality is that with or without Trump's concession, Joe Biden will become the 46th president at noon on January 20.

Hopefully this clears up any questions! Feel free to ask more below if you have any, and I'll answer them as well as I can. (If I haven't made it clear by now in previous journals, I'm just going to immediately hide comments that aren't being made in good faith, so don't waste your time.)

As pretty much all of you have probably heard by now, all of the major media outlets have projected Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election in the United States. While the media announcements have no legal weight (and Trump has already launched a fusillade of legal challenges to the election, all of which are most likely to fail), they are very well calculated projections of the official math. Joe Biden will become the 46th President of the United States on January 20, 2021. It's been a very difficult few days as we've had to wait for the results, but Biden's vote count has surpassed Trump's in several key states to degrees where recounts are highly unlikely to make any difference (for those of you outside the US who are not familiar with how our presidential elections work, the people don't directly elect the president - they decide which president their state's delegation of official electors will pick; each state has a population-relative number of electors, and the winner of the popular vote in each state gets all of that state's electors).

Biden has won the national popular vote by a little less than five million votes (a comfortable win margin in a popular contest), but because of the state-level distribution of those votes (remember, each state matters individually, not just the national count), the race appeared to be very close as several states' results trickled in. Although Biden was not my first choice for a Democrat candidate, I can still happily say that I enthusiastically voted for him on Tuesday and that I wish him well. And I would also be remiss if I didn't also extend eager congratulations to Vice-President-Elect Kamala Harris, our country's first woman (and first woman of color) to become vice-president. Now the real work begins: cleaning up the last four years of Trump's mess, and building voter coalitions to enact policies that work best for everyone.

Just to reiterate something I said on other media a few days ago: there will be a lot of former MAGA-hat-wearers who are desperate to rebrand themselves, because they burned a lot of bridges and now want to be able to fit back into the circles they alienated themselves from. Don't let them. If you want to own the part you played in helping this odious man gain power and take responsibility for the pain you played a part in causing, then maybe - MAYBE; it's each person's individual decision - we can talk about reconciliation later on down the road. But if your line is "But Trump lost! Can't we just let bygones be bygones?" No. You made your bed, and now you sleep in it. It was never about Trump. It was never about "orange man bad." It was never "Trump derangement syndrome." It was about the hate - the hate that you not only did nothing to stop, but actively cheered on. You showed us the kind of person you are, and we want nothing to do with you. We will still fight for you - when we enact policies that benefit everyone, you benefit too, whether you accept that or not - but that doesn't mean that we are obligated to allow you to be part of our lives.

I'm not saying any of that to gloat over the win. The rejection of Trump IS something I see as a victory, but it also means that those of us who rejected Trump now have the responsibility to build something better for everyone.

I've mainly tried to avoid politics lately because it's just too stressful, but I do have a few important things I want you to consider. I know there are a lot of progressives who are very reluctant to vote for Biden, and I can understand that. He's a bit underwhelming. But here's the thing: let's look at this from a pragmatic standpoint first. It's kind of a "lesser of two evils" thing, but not exactly. The simple fact of the matter is that we have two viable political parties in the US at this point. You don't have to LIKE that, but like it or not, it is the political reality at this point, and that is realistically unlikely to change any time soon. Voting for Biden is voting for the party that has a progressive element. AOC and the rest of "The Squad"? Democrats.

Yes, you're getting the "milquetoast" Democrats too, but again - whether you like it or not, politicians have to play the game to win elections, and that is NEVER going to change. AOC Democrats are not going to win elections in places like North Carolina and Georgia. But when you empower the PARTY of officials like AOC and Ilhan Omar and the rest, you empower THEM. Politically. Biden is not just the "lesser of two evils" - a Biden win is objectively better for progressives than a Trump win. The needle CAN MOVE with Democrats at the helm. Biden is one man; although the presidential candidate is usually the face of the party, he's not the whole party. He's not even the whole administration. You have a shot at progress with the Democrats. You don't with Republicans. It is truly as simple as that, but there's more.

I've heard a lot of bullshit about the "ratchet effect," but the truth is that that ratchet effect can only happen when Republicans are allowed to remain in power. The country didn't shift to the right under Obama. Certain issues did, but his agenda stayed mostly progressive. We have gone backwards under Trump, and we will continue to do so if he is re-elected. Under Biden, even if things don't improve (and bear with me, because that's kind of a bullshit argument too), it's better than the continued backward path we are on right now. Biden's platform is not as progressive as a lot of you would like it to be. I realize that. But how many of you have taken an honest look at his full platform? How many have gone deeper than just the campaign messaging? His platform is more progressive than you might think.

But really, this does come down to a lot more than just "vote for Biden because he's better than Trump." You have to look at WHY he is better than Trump, and for progressives, it's as simple as this: every Democrat win (EVERY one) empowers progressives. Every loss weakens them. You don't have to LIKE Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary, and I wish that he or Elizabeth Warren had won. But they didn't. Not because the party stole it from them, but because they weren't able to build the voter coalitions they needed. I'm not even saying "vote for Joe Biden because he's our only chance." I do believe that, but that's not even the point I'm making here. The point (once again) is that the more Democrats win, the more political power progressives have. If you are progressive, that should matter. Not all Democrats are progressive, but most of the progressives who are currently in office are Democrats. (Find me a progressive who currently caucuses with Republicans.) Mainly because they realize that that is where they have the best chance to make the most difference.

"But what about third parties?" Sorry, I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but voting third party only tells me that you're more concerned with self-righteously (and idly) upholding nebulous principles than you are with actually making things happen. Third parties do not have the organizational resources to mount serious national-level campaigns right now. Don't like that? Start electing officials from those parties at the local and state levels so that they can become more of a force in national politics. "If everyone who complained about the two-party system voted for third parties, they'd win!" Maybe, but that STARTS with building a robust base of voters at every level. The idea that someday people are going to be fed up and all vote Libertarian in one fell swoop is a FANTASY. (Libertarians aren't even close to actually being progressive, but that's a whole other topic for another day. Point is, we're never going to have this overwhelming "exodus" from Dem/GOP to some third party. It's never going to happen. Not unless a third party builds a base.)

So I think I've made my point as well as I can. If you are progressive and you want to empower progressive political movements, then please vote for Biden, regardless of what you think of him personally.

PS: I wrote this as an appeal to fellow progressives, not to change the minds of Trump-supporting bootlickers; they're a lost cause. If you're a Trump supporter, don't reply. Unfollow me. I don't want you in my life. I already said that in an earlier journal, but I'm going to say it again now.

Hello all! Sorry I've been quiet here for a while. I've been taking a short break after finishing my summer commissions.

Just wanted to let you guys know that I am now OPEN for commissions again, and I'm kind of planning to stay open, trying out a new model for taking commissions that involves more of a rolling queue. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, at the moment, if you want art from me, you should head over to my website and click the great big "Commission Me!" button at the top of the page. You can check out other links on the sidebar if you need more information about commissions, and of course, you can always message me directly too.

At the moment, I am currently guaranteeing delivery in time for Christmas, but those spots will probably fill up fast, so don't wait!

I'm looking forward to drawing for you :)

This is no secret to anyone who follows me on Twitter, but it occurs to me that maybe I haven't made it as obvious here, so just a little reminder:

Right-wingers aren't welcome in my social spaces, and that includes here on FA. I'm not interested in debating with you, I'm not interested in engaging with you, I want nothing at all to do with you. Don't commission me and don't talk to me - I do not want you in my life. If you've got a big "anti-SJW" icon on your FA page, we are not going to get along, because I'm one of the people you hate. If you're the "MAGA" sort, I don't want to talk to you. Say whatever you want about how hateful and intolerant I am for thinking that way (only don't say it here - I'm just going to unceremoniously delete it if you do), but that's how it is.

Don't clutch your pearls about "why can't we all just get along" etc. etc. If you've supported right-wing people, you have no one to blame but yourself for being alienated from furry spaces, because those spaces are made up mainly of people who have the most to lose from the policies and people you support. So I don't want to hear it. Stay away.

Sorry this isn't my normal gracious happy type journal entry, but this week has been rough, and I wanted to make sure everyone knows where I stand. If you have a problem with that, take it elsewhere or keep it to yourself, because if you say it here, I will not only delete your comment, but I will immediately add you to my blocklist. I don't have the patience for it anymore.

Hey all! I've noticed that I have quite a few new watchers here. Normally I go through and thank each person individually for watching me, but I haven't really had much time to be here on FA for the last couple of weeks, so things have piled up a bit and have left me without enough time to do that. So all of you, thank you for watching me <3 I'm glad you like the content I produce.

Things are still a little hectic, but you can always reach me on Twitter and Telegram (both listed on my profile). I'm hoping to get back to uploading art sometime after next week :)