#“Can I get money for housing a refugee? Can I be is foster father? What about the endangered Species Act??”

[andyoullhearitagain]

Quark applying for every Federation aid program he can find until he can find one that will reimburse him for running one of his holosuites 26/7 with no customers in it to house a sentient hologram.

[d2kvirus]

Dickheads of the Month: November 2020

As it seems that there are people who say or do things that are remarkably dickheaded yet somehow people try to make excuses for them or pretend it never happened, here is a collection of some of the dickheaded actions we saw in the month of November 2020 to make sure that they are never forgotten.

Nobody was expecting Donald Trump to concede defeat gracefully, but bloody hell, between the completely batshit insane conspiracy theory bollocks from himself and the rancid Trump offspring to Rudy Giuliani making complete fools of themselves even before he had to give a press conference from the parking lot of a landscaping firm as nobody checked which Four Seasons it was, before threatening to outlaw Twitter because people made fun of his little table (yes, that sentence does make sense), nobody could have expected just how tempramental toddlers are now thinking it's a bit much

...although somehow the Tory government managed to have an even worse response, because not only did posting a boilerplate jpeg to congratulate Joe Biden for his victory the laziest response possible, but then it turned out that they only had a celebratory jpeg for a Trump victory and hastily edited it on Paint so that Biden’s name was on there, but did a cack-handed job of it even though a.) Common sense dictates you have one for each candidate ready in advance, and b.) Given they had several days to accept which way the wind was blowing, the fact they did the most cack-handed job says everything you need to know 

Smirking cretin Priti Patel has bullied Home Office staff and, having initially tried to bury the report, the best the Tory government could come up with to try and make this go away was claim that she was bullying her subordinates by accident while proven liar Boris Johnson claimed she had done nothing wrong, numerous members of the Tory government either said that as they hadn’t seen her bullying anyone she must be innocent or tried claiming she was “accused” of bullying instead of found guilty of bullying, and to top it all off we had Michael Gove’s wife Sarah Vine accused anyone calling Patel of being a bully racist while Alison Pearson said Patel can’t be a bully as she isn’t tall enough. Also, did I mention this came out during national Bullying Week?

...and just a thought for Jess Phillips after she decided to weigh in, considering it’s on record that you bullied Diane Abbott (and have gleefully said how you told her to “Fuck off” on various occasions) it's not a good idea for you to try and act as you’re above bullying as you will get called out for your hypocrisy

Murderer Amanda Knox thought it would be a really funny joke to suggest that, no matter what the election result, the next four years couldn’t be as bad as the four years she spent studying abroad.  You know, those four years where she murdered Meredith Kercher and got away with it

So it turns out that the moral compass of the Tory government says that it is fine for Dominic Cummings to be happy to sacrifice the elderly if it protects the economy during a pandemic while displaying that he doesn’t know how herd immunity works, purging 21 MPs from the party for not buying into his No Deal Britait Jonestown, siphoning hundreds of millions of pounds into the pockets of his mates in various dodgy contracts, or flagrantly violating the lockdown rules by driving several hundred miles to Durham (where he owns a house he doesn't pay council tax for) after testing positive for Covid - but as soon as he calls Carrie Symonds “Princess Nut Nuts” he’s out the door...for a staged photo op, even though he is remaining in his job until December, which is when he was going to leave anyway

...and we should mention Laura Kuenssberg bullishly stating that Cummings was going nowhere in the wake of Lee Cain being told he could leave when his contract is up in December but they want to make it look like he is being fired, but within twelve hours saying that Cummings would always be leaving in December as a blog post in January stated, which not only asks if anyone has checked the archived version of that blog in case any edits were made in mid-November, but also how she can justify her £290k a year salary if she can get a story that badly wrong that Cummings’ blog disagreed with her

There’s a reason why Lindsey Graham isn't popular in the Senate and it isn’t because he questions if Biden won the election, it's because he’s telling people to “misplace” the votes for Biden which they are counting so that Trump could claim that he won Georgia instead of losing Georgia, demanding a recount, then losing Georgia

Once again proven liar Boris Johnson demonstrated that lockdown rules apply to the little people but not to him or his inner circle, as he met with fellow Tory MP Lee Anderson in person rather than via Zoom as the lockdown rules state, didn't wear a mask as lockdown rules state, and clearly didn’t social distance as a picture of him with Anderson taken during the meetings shows they are not two metres apart as lockdown rules state, which means that he had to spend two weeks self-isolating as a direct result 

Has anyone told Keir Starmer that The Board of Deputies weren’t on the ballot for Labour leadership?  Because by his performative act of refusing to restore the party whip to Jeremy Corbyn after his performative suspension, which he did after the BoD stamped their feet and demanded the whip not be restored, he’s not doing a good job of demonstrating leadership

First of all it was news that Steve Bannon uses Twitter, as surely he should have flounced off for Parler years ago.  But secondly, the real news is how he used his Twitter account to call for Anthony Fauci to be beheaded - at which point he suddenly couldn’t use his Twitter account anymore

According to Iain Duncan Smith putting the UK into a second lockdown is “giving in to the scientific advisors” as if during a pandemic, which the last time I checked was a scientific matter, you should instead be listening to Julia Halfwit-Brewer, Dan Wootton, Alison Pearson or Isabel Oakeshott rather than people qualified to talk about what to do in the face of a global pandemic 

Nice Guy Rishi Sunak proposed a return of Eat Out To Help Out for Christmas.  You know, the thing which has been directly linked with causing a spike in Covid numbers in August?

Tory arrogance was neatly summed up by George Eustace casually saying that, if Lurpak didn’t want to incur the massive price hikes of Britain crashing out of the EU without a paddle, all they have to do is move their entire base of operations to the UK

The fact that Disney have been trying to justify their refusal to even issue royalty statements to Alan Dean Foster for his novelisations of the Star Wars and Alien franchises and have simply been pocketing the revenue made by the books continued sales by claiming they only purchased the license and not the liability, which is a particularly unique interpretation of copyright law

It was only a matter of time before The Daily Mail started trying to create dirt about Marcus Rashford because he has the sheer gall to say that feeding children is not a bad thing, which they did by reporting the horrors of him...buying a house for his mother

Twitter troll Ben Bradley had a stellar month, first by standing up in Commons and asking why there isn't a Minister for Women while also showing a terrifying inability to understand what equality is, and soon followed that up by quoting Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech by claiming that it was about equality - only for Bernice King to tell him that, no, her father’s speech was about eliminating racism from our society

I think that it's time for The Daily Express to admit that, when they're running articles saying that it’s Remainers who are to blame for Trump getting dumped onto the street, that maybe they have a problem

The Streisand Effect still hasn’t reached WWE judging by their continuing to double down on demanding their employees independent contractors stop earning money via third-party platforms manifested in their releasing Thea Trinidad from her contract in spite her Twitch account always being under her real name and not her WWE moniker of Zelina Vega

It was a coincidence that the Jewish Labour Movement decided to hold their annual conference on the Palestinian Day of Solidarity.  Of course it was...

This month it was Fin Taylor who demonstrated just how far from satire HIGNFY has strayed with his “Bomb Glastonbury and kill all Jeremy Corbyn supporters” joke in response to Joan Bakewell lying about Corbyn breaking the law - and, afterwards, Taylor was generally being a smug twat about it on his Twitter - which also serves to show how Tim Davie is fine with booking comedians whose acts have plenty of questionable content contained within it if it guarantees the Tories escape criticism

This month’s example of Steve Baker making himself a walking punchline with no self-awareness came from him howling that further lockdown measures would be a violation of terms set out by the European Convention on Human Rights - yes, the exact same convention that Baker has a.) Repeatedly accused of meddling with British affairs and is an example of the EU nanny state, and b.) Frowns upon things such as Steve Baker repeatedly voting against allowing child refugees to be reunited with their families

Nothing says “worker happiness” quite like GameStop running a competition for their stores to post Tik Tok dances where the store which is voted the winner receives prizes such as an Amazon Echo, a Visa gift card, and the privilege of working an additional ten hours during the week of Black Friday.  Wait, did I say “worker happiness”?  I meant to say “Dickensian shithousery” where employees are expected to compete so they can work more hours

Of course the “We’re not racist”s of Twitter had an issue with Sainsburys Christmas ad because it didn’t appeal to white men due to having a black family, in much the same way that Compare the Market’s ads don't appeal to white men as they’re not Russian meerkats

Professional victim Laurence Fox thought it would be a good idea to get into a slanging match with The Pogues while lying that Fairytale of New York would be banned from the airwaves.  It went about as well as could be expected

It wouldn’t be Remembrance Day without The Sun or The Daily Mail exploiting it for some obvious ragebait, and this year was no exception with both “papers” posting a photo of Extinction Rebellion posting with a banner in front of the Cenotaph protesting climate change - a photo taken two days earlier, but they held off on posting it until the day itself to get the rage flowing, because they needed something as neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Meghan Markle were within a mile of Whitehall

This month it was Ernest Cline who demonstrated a lack of understanding of the Streisand Effect by ordering DMCA takedowns on anyone who posted an excerpt of Ready Player Two online, which mainly served to help the internet realise which the actual excerpts were and which the parody versions were - because it was pretty hard to tell them apart otherwise...

“I’ve been silenced”, shrieked Suzanne Moore in an interview with the Telegraph, fatally undermining her argument in the process.  Funny how the people who have been “silenced” keep doing that, isn’t it?

Because we haven’t heard anything idiotic from Jake Paul in a while, Jake Paul decided to say Covid isn’t real and flu has killed just as many people.  So I give it a week before his older brother Logan feels he has to one-up this and say the Holocaust was fake...

And finally, not for much longer, is Donald Trump and his complicity in trying to organise a coup - but not a very good coup, as his minions at Fox News had to exaggerate how many people were actually protesting about him losing an election and crying about it - which was further undermined by his inability to tell Michigan and Minnesota apart

[kaimaciel]

My Favorite Books of 2018

The Archived  by Victoria Schwab

“Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive. Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous—it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost, Da's death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself may crumble and fall.”

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware

“On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money. Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it.”

Still Me (Me Before You #3) by Jojo Moyes

“Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life. As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you find the courage to follow your heart—wherever that may lead?”

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

“Could ten days at a health resort really change you forever? In Liane Moriarty’s latest page-turner, nine perfect strangers are about to find out... Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be. Frances Welty, the formerly best-selling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart, and an exquisitely painful paper cut. She’s immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Most of them don’t look to be in need of a health resort at all. But the person that intrigues her most is the strange and charismatic owner/director of Tranquillum House. Could this person really have the answers Frances didn’t even know she was seeking? Should Frances put aside her doubts and immerse herself in everything Tranquillum House has to offer – or should she run while she still can? It’s not long before every guest at Tranquillum House is asking exactly the same question.”

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

“On 21 June 1922 Count Alexander Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt – is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. But instead of being taken to his usual suite, he is led to an attic room with a window the size of a chessboard. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. While Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval, the Count, stripped of the trappings that defined his life, is forced to question what makes us who we are. And with the assistance of a glamorous actress, a cantankerous chef and a very serious child, Rostov unexpectedly discovers a new understanding of both pleasure and purpose.”

Heart of Iron (Heart of Iron #1) by Ashley Poston

“Seventeen-year-old Ana is a scoundrel by nurture and an outlaw by nature. Found as a child drifting through space with a sentient android called D09, Ana was saved by a fearsome space captain and the grizzled crew she now calls family. But D09—one of the last remaining illegal Metals—has been glitching, and Ana will stop at nothing to find a way to fix him. Ana’s desperate effort to save D09 leads her on a quest to steal the coordinates to a lost ship that could offer all the answers. But at the last moment, a spoiled Ironblood boy beats Ana to her prize. He has his own reasons for taking the coordinates, and he doesn’t care what he’ll sacrifice to keep them. When everything goes wrong, she and the Ironblood end up as fugitives on the run. Now their entire kingdom is after them—and the coordinates—and not everyone wants them captured alive. What they find in a lost corner of the universe will change all their lives—and unearth dangerous secrets. But when a darkness from Ana’s past returns, she must face an impossible choice: does she protect a kingdom that wants her dead or save the Metal boy she loves?”

Our Dark Duet (Monsters of Verity #2) by Victoria Schwab

“THE WORLD IS BREAKING. AND SO ARE THEY. KATE HARKER isn't afraid of monsters. She hunts them. And she's good at it. AUGUST FLYNN once yearned to be human. He has a part to play. And he will play it, no matter the cost. THE WAR HAS BEGUN. THE MONSTERS ARE WINNING. Kate will have to return to Verity. August will have to let her back in. And a new monster is waiting—one that feeds on chaos and brings out its victims' inner demons. Which will be harder to conquer: the monsters they face, or the monsters within?”

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.” Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.”

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway

“A contemporary novel about three adopted siblings who find each other at just the right moment. Being the middle child has its ups and downs. But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including— Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs. And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.”

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3) by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff

“Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion? Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken.”

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

“Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips. Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends. Yet it's immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.”

[annualsurveyresults]

2017 Year End Survey Results

2017 Year End Survey!!!

Hi Friends…

Happy Valentine’s Day, we hope you’re all well and that love is in the air. 

This email is going out to the awesome ones who responded to the poll (51 out of approximately 150 recipients). It turns out it hit a lot of people’s spam folders, so next year we will do a better job of clarifying the subject, etc.

As the survey has grown, there are now too many answers for us to add comments and include links, so this year the answers are coming as filtered lists (we cut where necessary, to try to be useful and concise).

Thank you so much for your answers!

Section 1: What is Tickling Your Brain

Meaningful Books

Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman

Sapiens

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

American Eclipse

Cryptocurrency

Seven Mysteries of Life

Owned: Property, Privacy, and the New Digital Serfdom

Tiffany Haddish The Last Black Unicorn.

Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad

Fourth State of Matter (New Yorker piece)

The President’s Devotional

Born a Crime

Creativity, Inc.

A Little Life

Hillbilly Elegy

Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu

Don Quixote

Oryx and Crake

All the Rivers

The Fifth Season

The Nix

Persepolis Rising

The Female Brain

The Undoing Project

Moonglow by Michael Chabon

The Girls on The Train

Underground Railroad

When Breath Becomes Air

Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace

The Innovators

Caine Mutiny

Pachinko

Beyond the Sky and the Earth

Saints for All Occasions

We Were 8 Years in Power

The Odyssey: A Father a Son & an Epic

Achilles in Vietnam

Zero to One

The Taste of Empire

May We Be Forgiven

Homegoing

Being Mortal

Born to Run

The Smartest Kids in the World

Groovy Song or Band (well known artists/songs were filtered out, focusing on discovery)

James Booker

“Sound of Silence” - Disturbed

Electrocutioner – Soraia

Flamingo

I’m The One

Sharkmuffin

Chicano Batman

Lord Echo

Jason Isbell

Hank 3

Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

Zodiac by Dave Douglas and friends

Static and Ben El Tavori

Ben Franklin’s Song (the Decembrists)

Kevin Morby

CHVRCHES

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Secret Weapons

Squirrel Nut Zippers, Metropolitan Klezmer

Dr. Dog’s Abandoned Mansion

Old Crow Medicine Show

De La Soul

Despair

The XX

Favorite Apps or Websites (well known apps/sites were filtered out, focusing on discovery)

Autodesk Graphic, Robinhood

Kaggle

ParkNYC

Hades Star - game

Weather.gov - everyday weather

Strictly Dumpling Mike Chen Food Reviews on Youtube

overcast

TheRawStory.com

ThinkorSwim, Kerbal Space Program

Nextdoor

Design Home game, Monument Valley, Redbubble

childmind.org

Ars Technica

Duolingo, NPROne, Feedly.com

Remodelista

Verify (OCR receipts - expense tracking); Day One (journal)

Strava, belfastcommunityradio.org, All Trails app

Wirecutter

The RealReal, Pickett of London

Citymapper

cupofjo.com

.alltop.com/photography

goodguide.com

blinkist, farnamstreetblog, bothsidesofthetable

Podcasts (well known podcasts retained, focusing on reinforcing quality)

Chapo Trap House, Intercepted, Archaeological Fantasies

Fresh Air, RadioLab, Terrible -Thanks for Asking

The Daily, On Being, Radiolab

Planet Money, Pod Save America, Radiolab

Real Vision, The Moth

99% Invisible

S-Town

Kalaidocast

The Daily, Pod Save America, Lovitt or Leave It

Imaginary Worlds, Jay + Miles X-Plain the X-Men, Blank Check with Griffin and David

Slow Burn; Pod Save America; RadioLab More Perfect

Slate’s The Gist; MSNBC Rachel Maddow; Week in the Knees

Wow in the World, Deadpod, Dope Queens

The Daily, S*Town, How I Built This

Splendid Table, Pod Save America

Busy Phillips podcast

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me; It’s Been a Minute; This American Life

NPR 1 (for Terry Gross), Global Politico, Preet Bharara’s new podcast

HBR Idea Cast, a16z, Tim Ferris Show

Adventures in Finance, Bloomberg Surveillance, The Moth Radio Hour

In Our Time, This American Life, Fresh Air

S-town, Revisionist History, Rachel Maddow

Section 2:  Soul - Feeling Better

What Makes You Happy (answers filtered based on broad applicability and usefulness)

Silence

drawing

Puzzle Mania 😀

Beer and wine

The possibility of reducing work to three days a week

family time / family vacation

Salty food and walking the local golf course with my dog off leash

Tennis

My SodaStream

My dogs

Exercise

Los Angeles

Sleep

Freedom

Skiing

Jogging

Civic Engagement

Reconnecting

Reading

Learning about self-compassion

Robert Mueller

yoga and Bulgarian yogurt

Stress Relief (answers filtered based on broad applicability and usefulness)

Drawing cartoons on my iPad.

Crossfit & Krav

Table Tennis

Quiet Places

luna & larry’s coconut bliss dark chocolate ice cream

Running

Hot shower on the weekends

Building Stuff

Citibike

Tennis

Swimming/hot tub

Mindless computer games like solitaire

Long Walks

Making Art

yoga and Tango Dancing

Reading and Writing Poetry

Transcendental Meditation

Kickboxing

Skiing

Needlepoint

Stop Taking Things So Seriously.

Being organized to that I actually get the piles of papers/bills/etc off my “To Do List”

SLT (strengthen lengthen tone) UWS

Mindfulness practices & class (meditation, writing prompts)

Biking

Cooking

vodka or tequila mixed with club soda with a squeeze of lime

Meaningful Not-For-Profit Organization (no filtering, if you named it, it’s in here…)

Sleeping Giants

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

misophonia research causes

Yvote

Israeli Venture Network

Humane Society of NY

International Refugee Assistance Project

Courageous Parents Network, helping families parent children with serious illness

The Bronx Freedom Fund

Goddard Riverside

IBD Support Foundation

Village Health Works

I just discovered the store BoxLunch, Badass Brooklyn Dog rescue is cool, also Tennessee Elephant Sanctuary is an amazing Group.

Hadassah hospital.

Jewish Funders Network

Child Mind Institute

CASA - court appointed special advocates for foster care children

EFF

The Trevor Project

Run For Something

Apex for Youth

Hazon

Indivisible, Hadassah

Child Mind Institute, Planned Parenthood

Mercy Corps

Harlem Children’s Zone

Indivisible

Second Harvest

City Step

Center for Justice and Democracy

Karuna Foundation

Speak Up Africa - helping mothers and newborns stay healthy

God’s Love We Deliver

Amani Global Works

Biblioburro

Gabby Giffords antigun PAC (giffords PAC) is fighting the right fight

AGW & WEACT (We Act for Environmental Justice)

ADL

Coney Island Prep

Polaris Project

American Cancer Society

Charity Water

Climate Reality Project

Inspiring Politician (no filtering, if you wrote it, it’s in here…)

No One/LOL (8)

Elizabeth Warren (5)

Donald Trump (“he inspired me to be active”) (3)

Tarana Burke (2) (#MeToo)

Kirsten Gillibrand (2)

Danica Roem (2)

Bernie Sanders (2)

Sally Yates (2)

John McCain

Jimmy Kimmel

Angela Merkel - her face says what I feel about American politics.

Adam Schiff

Samantha Bee

John McCain

Scott Stringer

Jeff Flake

Chris Murphy

Joe Kahn

Cory Booker

Michelle Obama

Jon Ossoff

Hillary Clinton

Bob Ferguson - Washington State Attorney General

Best Restaurant Experience This Year (no filtering, if you wrote it, it’s in here…)

PABU Izakaya in SF

Blanca

Berns Steakhouse in Tampa, FL

Breakfast Burrito from Frank’s on Fairfax

Sushi Nakazawa

Los Angeles Tatsu Ramen, Pork Bao on Melrose.

Asiate

Boulud Sud

Tomahawk steak at Gelso & Grand has changed me as a person

Park Avenue Summer

Pokeworks at lunch

Azurmendi ½ hour outside Bilbao Spain

The Modern (2)

Atlantic Grill

Candle Cafe

Barbuzzo (Philadelphia)

ABC Kitchen

Here’s Looking at You (LA)

Excellent Dumpling House in Chelsea

Burma Superstar

Blue Ribbon Brasserie, SoHo

Eataly

Quality Italian

Sate Kampar, Philadelphia

Shalom Y'all

Nix

Azurmende (in Bilbao)

Breakfast at Hyatt Kathmandu

Vietnam on First Avenue NYC

Maison Pickle

Jeni’s Ice Cream (ATL)

Sushi Takeshima in Kanazawa, Japan

Mastros

Picco Larkspur, CA

The Old Rose in the Jane Hotel

Souley Vegan - Oakland

Four Seasons Jackson Hole

Chris Aerni’s is the chef/owner of the Rosemont Inn in New Brunswick, Canada

Bite Into Maine - Lobster Roll

Sushi Inoue

Best Purchase Under $500 (answers filtered based on broad applicability and usefulness)

Allbirds runners

Samsung 4K HDR Monitor

Adidas Ultra Boost running shoes

Netgear orbi

Airpods (4)

5 nights of babysitting

SodaStream

InstantPot!

Deluxe Ninja blender

Salomon hiking boots

Brookes walking shoes

Western Mountaineering Sleeping Bag

Amope Electronic Foot File

Contigo hot cup for on-the-go. Really does keep my tea warm for 4hrs!

Madewell Jeans

Wrinkle-free shirts from LL Bean

Amazon Echo

Bombas socks (honeycomb support structure rocks)

We designed a glass vase and had it blown for us by Lexington Glassworks in Asheville, NC

Smart Light Bulbs

F2C Indoor Exercise Bike Stand trainer W/ 8 Levels of Resistance

Dream “Off The Beaten Path” Vacation (filtered to focus on discovery)

Northern India

Hill Tribes of India

The Color wars in India

Jacmel, Haiti

Rocky Mountain National Park

Lake Louise

Azores (3)

Portugal (4)

Mississippi

Namibia, Africa

Morocco

Aran Islands, Ireland

Northern Scandinavia

Lamu, Kenya

Palau

Iceland - Fire and Ice experiences

Cuba

Health Products or Insights (not filtered - you were all very interesting on this one)

Sleep more

ClassPass - yoga once a week

Pull-up bar that pops in above door

Stretches learned during physical therapy, amazing. Better posture while standing. Using a standing desk that can move up and down.

Switched from Eucerin face cream to Rose Hip and Hibiscus Moisturizer, skin feels much better.

One big meal a day

Citibike

under desk bike, apple watch

Yoga

I have begun Pilates this year and it really seems to work with my body. I am hoping I can join a studio to work with the machines next year. Also the foam roller will change your life ! I roll my back daily and it helps soooo much!

Not eating 5 or more hours before going to bed

Started tai-chi

Drink water

Cycling

doing at least a little bit of yoga or stretching every single day

intermittent fasting

alkali water

Flotation

TM

Mindfulness in every-day moments

You can do a lot in one day rather than spread it out over 5-6 days

More mindful breathing.

Hiking with walking sticks really helps the knees.

Still searching for something that I will stick with

SLT and retinol nightly

Yoga. And stretching.

I had some imaging done on my heart. Does that count?

Feldenkrais

hot yoga (I know, it’s so 10 years ago)

Stretching!

Marula facial oil and MCT oil in coffee aka bulletproof coffee

Float tanks

Eating low carb

Insight: Dry Fasting as implemented by Dr. Sergei Filonov in Siberia – cured my friend’s debilitating Lyme disease with six weeks of treatment.

Magnesium Taurate (back pain)

Milk thistle

How often do you meditate?

3+ times per week:             6.1%

1 or 2 times per week:     18.4%

1 or 2 times per month:   12.2%

rarely:                               22.4%

never:                              40.8%

Prediction: Bitcoin price at the end of 2018

>$25,000                                        22.0%

Between $25,000 and $2,500       63.4%

<$2,500                                         14.6%

Prediction: Senate after 2018 Elections

Republicans gain seats (>51 seats):        6.4%

51 Rep / 49 Dem (stays the same):         4.3%

50 / 50:                                                  23.4%

Democrats gain control:                       66.0%

Prediction: Who will win the World Cup

“I don’t care”:           53.1%

Germany:                 14.3%

Brazil:                       10.2%

Spain:                        6.1%

Argentina:                  6.1%

All other choices too low to bother with…

Favorite Life Hack (light filtering for usefulness)

Always be kind to your wife

Make a daily list of three things each day for which you are grateful.

Rely on the experts. They’re generally right

Better to “get over it” quickly

Using binder clips to hold loose wires to back of desk

Gowanus is as cool of a neighborhood as it is ugly.

Seek out comedy and laugh as much as possible. Recent interests Tiffany Haddish and Judd Apatow has a few good laughs on his special.

You don’t control your circumstances, you can control how you deal with them

Ink + Volt Planner

shave only once a week

Practice patience…

This is probably common knowledge to everyone, but it turns out there’s an arrow near the gas display that tells you which side of the car has the gas tank.

I learned about living an aloha life and while it is not super easy in NYC it is always a conscious decision that has not failed to make me feel better

“Books make my bed dirty, and alas, I ain’t got no transcendental eyeglasses”

Technology is not my friend

I should’ve spent more time with the Gottliebs in 2017. Will not make that mistake again.

Less social media. Facebook / twitter / insta can be bad for you.

overnight steel cut oats

Voters need to show up

Gmail allows variations to your address that include inserting a “.” anywhere or adding +“whatever you want” before the “@”. Generally logins require both you’re email address and your password. Half of that equation (your email address) is publicly available. For painless added security, when creating logins to sites, consider adding “+whatever you want” to the email address. A hacker would require both your password and this variation on your email address, which no one but you would have knowledge of. Incoming messages can also be filtered into folders by variations of this kind if you like (so “+secure”; “+junk”; “+temp”; “+important”).

Stop watching the news.

TM

It’s not as bad as it appears

To help kids be independent, we need to trust them.

Most damage can be repaired.

Be kind as often as you can because it will come back to you in spades

Book called subtle art of not giving a bleep….very good life advice

Take chances and try to be happy. Life is too short not to do so.

We need to regain a more equal distribution of income and the belief that we should take care of each other.

bidet

Getting old sucks

Growing old is good and becoming invisible has distinct advantages.

It’s not a new one, but work/life balance is CRUCIAL

Life is short.

When I say “yes” to something, what I am saying “no” to?

Electric power consumption will increase steadily over time notwithstanding efficiency gains in products that consume electricity

[ecfandom]

Can you talk about Lexa's anxiety (in PSI). Like the reason behind it, what makes it get really bad sometimes and how Clarke makes it better.

This has trigger warnings, please be careful. 

TW: Physical abuse, bullying, hate crimes, homophobic slurs. 

So Lexa had a pretty tough childhood. Her parents died tragically when she was very young. She had no relatives, her parents being war refugees who immigrated to America. They were very successful scientists and left Lexa with a large trust, but unfortunately they were also very strict and old school and put a lot of restrictions on that trust that wouldn’t allow Lexa to access it until she was 21. So After they die, Lexa gets put into the system where she ends up in a foster home halfway across the country in the middle of nowhere with a man who speaks her language. He is a total deadebeat, a drunk and doesn’t know Lexa is there half the time. He doesn’t feed her and expects her to figure it out for herself, but whenever she’s caught eating, she’s beaten. It’s not constant because he’s too blackout drunk most of the time and she stays out of the house as much as she can, but when he isn’t beating her, the kids at school are. She’s foreign and she’s different and she’s and orphan. She’s brilliant and she’s tall and bony and wears thick glasses and doesn’t talk. They think she’s a freak and tease her mercilessly. 

Lexa finds solace in the stars. She loves space and astronomy (hence the name Polaris for her company) and spends a lot of time outside at night, laying in a field near her foster home. Sometimes she sleeps out there too, but she tries not to because when she comes home wet with due, it upsets her foster father for whatever reason and he beats her. But sometimes she can’t help it. 

She befriends a girl who sits with her at lunch one day her freshman year of high school. It’s her only friend and she’s so happy to have the company. Our little Lexa falls hard for this girl and realizes she’s gay. Which she so innocently tells this girl one day as they’re looking at the stars. It’s Lexa so it comes out more like “I think I like girls the way boys like girls and I don’t like boys the way girls do. I like you like a boy does.” And this freaks the girl out because it’s a small town in the middle of no where and being gay is like the worst thing in the world. Unfortunately that girl tells one to many people and word gets around and some upperclassmen boys decide they’re going to teach our little Lexa a lesson about leaving their girls alone. So they attack Lexa on her walk home from school one day. They beat her unconscious and when Lexa comes to, she’s naked and chained to a tree with the word D*ke etched into her stomach. She passes out again and when she comes to again she’s in a hospital bed. There’s a sweet old man sitting in a chair next to her and he introduces himself as Po. 

Now Po knows a little something about being hated. As one of the few people of color in that town Po has had his fair share of bullshit from the people of the town. But he also owns the only movie theater that still plays on original film reels and the people love that theater, so he has grown into a little bit of immunity. He sticks by Lexa’s side in the hospital and as CPS investigates. CPS is understaffed and underfunded and overworked and Lexa’s foster father has a silver tongue that’s well practiced and so he gets off and Lexa has to stay with him. 

But now she has Po. One day when Lexa is leaving school, her bullies follow her and she ends up running all the way into town and dives into the movie theater to hide from them. Po of course hides her up in the projector room and lets her spend the whole day there. After that it becomes a routine. Po meets Lexa outside of her school and they walk to town together and spend the day watching films and chatting about them. This is where Lexa hones her love for films and filmmaking. And remember our little Lexa is brilliant so she graduates early and heads off to college with an unshakable focus on creating films that are made for little girls like her.  And then of course when she’s 21 she comes into her trust fund money and she creates her own small production company that starts to get noticed and she quickly moves through the industry to the top. 

All that being said, because of her traumatic past, Lexa has a lot of PTSD and anxiety that she battles with constantly. It’s triggered by new people or too many people, mostly. She has severe trust issues and doesn’t like being around people she doesn’t know because she can’t trust who is and isn’t going to hurt her. She doesn’t like being touched without being warned first or without seeing the person first. If she’s touched wrong, it can trigger a full blown panic attack--hence her hatred for paparazzi and her attempts to stay out of the lime light as much as possible. 

Clarke helps mostly because she is unbelievably patient with Lexa. She follows all of her rules when it comes to touch, she is gentle and careful and she is always asking for permission before she does anything. She reads and reads about PTSD and how to help and she talks to counselors and goes to counselors with Lexa and she learns calming techniques and she studies and she makes it a point to know eveerything she possible can to identify symptoms and try to stop things before they happen. She helps keep people at a distance and she helps sooth Lexa when they have to be in public. Lexa likes it when Clarke draws on her palm with her finger so Clarke is constantly doing that. Things like that. :)

I can tell you more specifics if you ask but it’s hard to boil it all down because I’ve tried to make her a complicated, layered charachter.  

[andrewromanoyahoo]

Can Democratic ‘Wonder Woman’ Mai-Khanh Tran unseat one of the most powerful House Republicans in 2018?

Dr. Mai-Khanh Tran (Photo: Courtesy of Facebook)

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — In many ways, Dr. Mai-Khanh Tran isn’t all that different from millions of other Democrats who have been dismayed or depressed or indignant since Donald Trump was elected president.

On election night, Tran watched in shock as the returns rolled in. The next morning, she wept at work — Tran is a pediatrician — with her colleagues. Later, she joined the protesters shouting slogans and waving signs outside the Orange County offices of several Republican congressmen.

But Tran didn’t stop there. Last month, she actually decided to enter elected politics herself, launching a long-shot campaign to unseat 12-term Republican Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

While defeating Royce may seem like a tall order for a political novice, Tran, 51, has already spent her entire life overcoming impossible odds.

In 1975, Tran arrived in America as a 9-year-old refugee from war-torn Vietnam — without her parents. She spent her summers picking strawberries in rural Oregon, eventually working her way through college at Harvard as a janitor. And she survived two bouts of breast cancer and endured eight rounds of in vitro fertilization before finally getting pregnant at age 46.

“I think you’ve got to have total commitment to everything you do in life,�� Tran said on a recent Thursday afternoon as she sipped from a bowl of bone-in kalbi soup on the patio of a new pan-Asian restaurant in Orange County’s Little Saigon. “You’ve got to do things for the right reasons. And when you have the right reasons — if what you’re doing is needed, on behalf of others — you will do it until you succeed. I truly believe that.”

Whether Tran can succeed her in mission to topple Royce remains to be seen. But if any place encapsulates the challenges facing Republicans in 2018, Orange County is it. And if any Democratic hopeful embodies the political crosscurrents that will likely define the coming midterms, Tran may be the one.

Topping the list of those forces? Health care.

The first patient Tran saw the morning after the election was a child with a brain tumor. The girl’s mother, a local nail salon worker, couldn’t get health insurance for her children until Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Realizing that her coverage might change under Republican rule — that “this was going to affect her daughter’s life soon” — the two women cried together in Tran’s examination room.

A few months later, the mother called Tran. The House had just passed the American Health Care Act — the GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill — and she was, according to Tran, “petrified.”

Dr. Mai-Khanh Tran currently works as a pediatrician in Orange County, Calif. (Photo: Courtesy of Facebook)

That’s when Tran decided to run for Congress.

“It was the speed of that vote, the secret way it was done, that just pushed me,” Tran told Yahoo News, noting that she had spent the previous three months appearing on local Vietnamese-language TV to explain what was at stake. “I thought, ‘We can do all the prep work, all the work to inform the public, but when it comes down to it, their voice just isn’t there where it matters. On the floor. In the caucuses. All of the meetings.’ It just made me so angry. And I said, ‘You know what? We need to have people who really understand health care in Washington. We need to be in the game.’”

As the Republican Senate struggles to pass its own version of a bill to repeal Obamacare, health care is shaping up to be the central issue in 2018.

In part, that’s because 217 GOP House members — including all four Orange County Republicans — voted for the AHCA, a deeply unpopular measure that even President Trump has called “mean.” Democrats plan to spend millions of dollars between now and next November reminding voters of this fact.

The so-called resistance to Trump — and, more specifically, the resistance to his party’s Obamacare repeal push — has inspired newcomers like Tran, many of whom are also doctors or scientists or women, to get off the sidelines and run for office themselves.

The result is a rookie class of grassroots candidates rallying around a potent message. The question is whether fresh faces and passionate resistance will be enough to flip the 24 seats Democrats need to regain control of the House.

Opportunity in Orange County

Despite its conservative past — Orange County voted for the GOP candidate in every presidential election from 1936 to 2012 — the O.C. now overlaps with the districts of four of the 25 most vulnerable Republicans in Congress: Darrell Issa, Dana Rohrabacher, Mimi Walters and Ed Royce. Hillary Clinton captured all four of their districts in the 2016 presidential race — a first for a Democrat — and won the county as a whole by 9 percentage points. A growing minority population, a concentration of college-educated whites and a declining GOP registration advantage are making the area more and more treacherous for Republicans, especially with Trump in the White House. Democrats have taken notice, fielding several promising candidates, including multimillionaire stem-cell pioneer Hans Keirstead; real estate entrepreneur Harley Rouda; environmental activist Mike Levin; and retired U.S. Marine Col. Doug Applegate.

“It’s districts like these that will decide whether the Democrats can make a serious run at control of the House,” the New York Times’ Nate Cohn recently wrote.

Political novice

In person, Tran doesn’t seem like a politician. Petite, with a few gray hairs peeking through an otherwise black bob, she trembles slightly when she starts to answer a question, her soft voice starting and stopping and wavering as she struggles for the right words to express her views, none of which have yet been scripted for her by some cadre of consultants. She apologized for “not being good at this,” and teared up four times over the course of a two-hour conversation. At one point, she unleashes a few choice words about Donald Trump, then said, “This is off the record,” which prompts her sole campaign adviser to laugh and explain that “you have to say you’re off the record before you say something, Mai-Khanh.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Tran said.

But Tran’s outward gentleness masks a fierce inner strength that has been fostered by decades of unimaginable hardship and improbable success.

Of her childhood in Vietnam, the things Tran remembers most are the near-constant explosions. “Every night, every other night, there would be bombs going off,” she said. “We’d all go into a little space under staircase. We’d hear the bomb go by — zoom! — and we’d run in there.”

One day in early 1975, Tran’s father, a prominent Saigon judge, took her and her three siblings, the youngest of whom was still wearing diapers, to a local Catholic orphanage, leaving them behind without any explanation. Tran recalls that her father was wearing sunglasses, but only later did she realize that he must have been crying.

“It was an act of total desperation on my dad’s part,” Tran said. “A lot of people were giving up their children so they could get them out. This was their last resort.”

The U.S. military airlifted Tran and her siblings to San Francisco, where “big Marines” carried each of them off the plane. “I tell you, even today, if I see a guy in uniform, I really do get so emotional,” Tran said. “I still am so grateful and humble.”

Eventually, the children ended up at a convent in Salem, Ore. Six months later, their parents, who escaped Vietnam during the fall of Saigon, joined them. In America, Tran’s father could no longer work as a judge; the closest he came was a gig cleaning the local courthouse. To make ends meet, the Trans rented out their apartment’s single bedroom to a college student while the six of them slept together in the living room.

“My first Fourth of July celebration was in 1976 — the bicentennial,” Tran said. “The fireworks were huge. And I was cowering in fear. It was so loud, like bombs. Even to this day, I don’t like fireworks.”

Inspired by her grandfather, a traditional medicine man, Tran decided early on that she wanted to be a doctor. Every moment she wasn’t working was spent reading. After four years at an inner-city high school in Portland — she and her friends were bused in from the Vietnamese “ghetto” — Tran graduated first in her class and was accepted by Harvard.

“Maybe because I am an immigrant, I feel like I need to know more,” Tran said. “I need to know more and do more.”

Tran loved her college experience, but it wasn’t exactly easy. Without money for a hotel, her father was forced to request Freshman Weekend accommodations from random Vietnamese locals, and Tran paid her way through school with three simultaneous jobs — janitor, security guard and reader for the blind.

“I cleaned the jocks’ dorm,” she said. “The rich kids’ dorm. And, you know, they throw out a lot of things. I remember picking up things that we could use. I don’t think I ever felt like I belonged there.”

A stint as a health care analyst on Wall Street followed, then medical school at Brown-Dartmouth. After her residency at UCLA, Tran started her own practice in Fountain Valley, where she has spent the last 25 years treating working-class immigrants, educating the community and leading thrice-yearly medical missions to hot spots around the world — leper colonies in the Vietnamese jungle, typhoon-ravaged villages in the Philippines, impoverished neighborhoods in Tijuana.

That experience, she says, is what has convinced her she’s ready for Congress.

“We have to figure out how we’re going to feed these people,” Tran explained. “We help them with job training. We set up farms for them. We set up revolving loans for them. We do clean water. We make sure their kids get the education they need. As a congresswoman, I plan to bring that sort of comprehensive approach to my community and my constituents.”

Tran’s successful battles with breast cancer and infertility have convinced those around her that she can succeed in the political arena as well.

Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., at a news conference on Capitol Hill, Sept. 21, 2016. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

“She’s like Wonder Woman,” said adviser Courtni Pugh, whose other clients include Kevin de Leon, California Senate president pro tempore. “Everything Mai-Khanh has overcome in her life? We need to create, like, a meme. We’ll put her in a red cape.”

Uphill climb

Wonder Woman or not, Tran is still a serious underdog in the race against Royce. If she wins the Democratic primary — her opponent is former chemistry professor Phil Janowicz — she’ll be facing off against a politician who’s been winning elections for as long as she’s been a pediatrician.

Incumbency isn’t Royce’s only advantage either. Even though Clinton won CA-39, Royce was easily reelected with 57 percent of the vote, and he’s the most popular of the four vulnerable Orange County Republicans. He’s also a prodigious fundraiser, with $2.8 million already stockpiled for 2018.

Tran believes the same demographic shifts that boosted Clinton to victory throughout Orange County could work in her favor. CA-39, for example, is more than 60 percent Asian and Hispanic — and only 34 percent white. Many of these whites are exactly the sort of college-educated suburbanites Trump lost in November, and while older Vietnamese-Americans have voted Republican for decades — like older Cuban-Americans, they tend to be staunch anti-Communists — their children have been registering as Democrats or independents.

For now, Tran is focused on getting her fledging campaign up and running. She’s talking to potential hires. She’s sounding out local politicos. And she’s spending hours every afternoon in her garage, dialing for dollars.

The work can be grueling. Devastated after one particularly fruitless fundraising session, Tran looked up to see her aging mother leaning over her. “Do you need me to give you my last gold nugget?” her mother said, referring to the small bars that she and other refugees had brought with them to America more than four decades ago, just in case. “You know, to help your campaign?”

Tran had to remind herself that the road ahead would be long — and that she was running for the right reasons.

“It was my mom who, throughout the years, said, ‘You’ve got to help people, you’ve got to speak for people,” Tran explained. “So if there’s an opportunity here, it is for a Democrat who resonates and listens. And so I go back to what makes me a good candidate: I’m a good listener. As a physician, that’s all I do. I listen to my patients. I listen to their pain, their suffering, their concerns. That’s what I’m good at. Then hopefully I’ll try to find a solution that might alleviate their pain, their suffering, their concerns.

“I don’t think that’s what people are doing in the political sphere right now,” Tran continued. “They have agendas. They have ideas they’re trying to push. But they’re not listening to their constituents. More and more, their constituents in these districts have changed so much; their needs have changed so much. And it’s just not connecting with the people who are currently representing them.”

Read more from Yahoo News:

Senate Republicans suddenly delay health care vote

Why it’s so hard to ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare — or almost anything else

Hillary Clinton: Reading ‘Harry Potter’ builds compassion for immigrants, refugees

White House warns Syria may be readying chemical attack

Photos: Wild horses return to Mongolia’s steppes

[nocnoctalgia-blog]

Morien/Foster Supports [C-S]

Morien - @twistedkat17

Foster - Me

✦  C-SUPPORT ——————– Foster: Ugh I feel so exhausted. Even a genius like me does. I shouldn’t have fought so much in the last battle, especially since I didn’t make much money. Foster: Hm, perhaps I should take a nice hot bath— Huh? Is that Morien who entered the hot springs just now ? Hmmm what to do, what to do ? I guess I can… sneak a peek. ~ Morien: *walks in and sinks into the water. Her body covered in scars* The water always feels nice. ~ Foster: *blushing* Tee-hee! Nooow turn to me. ~ Foster: She has a lot of scars though. Morien: Why do I get a really bad feeling…? Foster: ( Oops, she watch over here! ) Morien: *red faced* F-Foster?! What are you doing here, you peeper? Foster: Damn ! Er, I mean— I was going to bath and I accidentally saw you there…! Well erm, now I have to go haha ! Later ! *try to slip away* Morien: *sighs* That Foster… I’ve heard of his ways. I’m suprised I didn’t expect this to happen. (Screen transition) Foster: Pheew! I thought she was going to give me a dressing-down. Still, I have no regrets. *smiles* Foster: I’m pretty used to get caught red-handed then to be beaten, I’m glad this isn’t the case this time ! Should I spy on her more often ? ~ ✦  B-SUPPORT ——————– Foster: Oh, It’s Morien. Morien: Hello, Foster. Do you mind if I have a conversation with you about the last time I saw you? Foster: *sweats*…………Are you upset ? If you want to beat me, make this quick please. Morien: I’m not upset. I just wanted to ask for you to not do it again, okay? Foster: You’re NOT? Wow, that’s good to hear. *smiles* You must think that you can’t lecture a genius,right ? Morien: *scowls at him* Foster. Repeat what I just asked. Foster: Woah ! Huh…………. That you’re not upset…? Morien: *looks at him* after that, Foster Foster: *sweats nervously* AGH ! Could you stop with that creepy look ? Foster: Let’s see… You said you don’t mind if I keep spying on you while you’re bathering ? Morien: *face darkens* I asked you to please not spy on me in the bath house. Foster: Ew. Is that so ? O-okay, I won’t, I won’t ! Is this enough ? Morien: I want you to swear that you’ll stop. Foster: …TCH ! *irritated face* Let’s say that I swear that I’ll stop, but this isn’t because you’re asking me to ! I decided it myself, okay? [bad faith, obviously] Morien: *smiles* Thank you. I’ll take your word for it, but if I catch you doing it again, you’ll have forced my hand. Foster: Of course, pff… Morien: Do you doubt me? Foster: I do NOT. Can we move on others issues now ? Foster: For instance, why do you have so many scars ? Aren’t troubadours supposed to stay back, or hoshidians are really bad strategists ? Morien: …I rather not discuss this right now. Foster: ? Morien: Please… I just don’t want to talk about it right now. I… I have to go help the medics *leaves quickly* Foster: …

✦ A-SUPPORT ——————– Foster: Morien, do you have a moment ? Morien: Hello Foster. Of course I have time. I just got done sorting supplies. Foster: Great. Just as an aside, you runned away from Nohr did you ? Morien: …Where did you hear that from? Foster: …So I was right. Didn’t you have problems entering Hoshido ? I mean, a lot of Nohrians were arrested at the border. Morien: I was five when this all happened. They let us in as refugees. Foster: Were you with your parents ? Morien: Yes. We were escaping Garon’s wrath, and a nice Hoshidan family took us in Foster: I see. I suppose you lived a happy-healthy life since then. Morien: I tried. I wanted to help others, so I tried to learn the way of the sword. I actually got into a lot of fights to try and learn. It never ended well. Foster: But you’re a lucky girl after all. Trying to cross the hoshidian border because of misery and Garon’s oppression, my father was executed. Morien: Oh… I’m so sorry to hear that, Foster Foster: Oh, no need. I was a tiny infant, so I don’t even remember him. How could I feel sad for a person I didn’t know ? My mother didn’t get killed but she were forced to go back in Windmire with me. Morien: Oh? You lived in Windmire? Foster: Yeah you know, in the slums where rich people are always despising commoners. Morien: Well at least you’re in the army where people can care for eachother Foster: *sarcastic smile* Heh, I suppose you might say that. Morien: If it makes you feel better I care. Why do you think I stick around in battles. I can’t stand to see others hurt. Foster: Aah, you impress me, Morien, maybe you’re too kind, but you do. Foster: You should be honored, I don’t say it often. Morien: *smiles* Well I thank you then. Foster: No problem. ✦ S-SUPPORT ——————– Foster: Morien ? Sheesh, where is she? I REALLY need to talk to her. Maybe… Here ? *blushes* Oh wow! Morien: *red faced* F-Foster?! Get out of my barack! I’m in the middle of changing!! Foster: AGH, I’M OUT, I’M OUT! *screen fade* Morien: *still red faced* alright, Foster. What is it you wanted? Foster: Hum, first I want you to know that I didn’t mean to peep this time okay…? *sweats* But if you’re mad, I guess we should talk later or I may regret it. Morien: It’s okay. I believe it was an accident. It must’ve been urgent if you barged in Foster: Y-Yeah, It was. *blushes* Well oh em, It’s hard to know how to begin but… Here I go ! And I want you to listen carefully. Morien: Alright. My ears are open to you Foster: Well, you see, when I saw you half-naked, I couldn’t take my eyes off you and— Damn this sounds so strange ! Morien: *scowls* where are you going with this? Foster: *still blushing* Erm I meant… I can’t help feeling weird when I see you. It’s hard to define. But your voice, your personnality, your body… I want all of you. All this to say that I love you, Morien. Morien: *blushes* You… You what? Foster: You heard me right. And that’s why I can’t take my eyes off you. You’re really special to me and I want to remain by your side. Foster: So, will you marry me, Morien ? *gives her a ring* Morien: *blushes brightly* Oh Foster. *smiles* of course I’ll marry you. Nothing would make me happier. Foster: SERIOUSLY ?! Oh wooh I can’t believe it ! You’re not joking, are you ?! Morien: I would never joke like this. I’m being honest with you. After spending so much time with you, I can’t help but fall for you. Foster: This… This is the best thing that I ever heard. Then Morien, I promise I’ll make you the happiest woman in the world. Morien: I swear that I’ll keep you safe and to make you happy for the rest of my days. Foster: *smiles* Heh, being by your side is all that matters to me. Foster: By the way does it mean that you will let me peep at you from now on? ~ Morien: Well if we’re going to be married, would it really be peeping? I mean I’d be upset if you peeped on others. Foster: Hehe, you’ve got a point. Don’t worry about it, you’re the only one I want to see. Morien: *blush* That sounds nice in your own odd way.

[newssplashy]

Opinion: 'Why did you leave me?' The migrant children left behind as parents are deported

Adayanci Perez Chavez, who was separated from her father when they crossed the border from Guatemala more than two months ago.

One by one over the past few weeks, 90 percent of the children at the center, managed by Bethany Christian Services in Kalamazoo, have been put on planes and reunited with parents who had been held at immigration detention centers across the country.

“Yanci” was not among them, because there was no longer a parent with whom to reunite her. Desperate to get his daughter back, her father, Hugo Lionel Perez, said he had agreed to accept quick deportation as the price — except that when it came time to leave the country, he was put on a plane without her.

“The official told me, ‘Sign here, and you will be deported together.’ They tricked me,” Perez, 30, said in a phone interview from his indigenous village in Guatemala. Now, he said, “Whenever we talk, Yanci asks me, ‘Why did you leave me, Papito?'”

As the Trump administration has rushed to reunite thousands of children separated from their parents under a “zero-tolerance” policy on border enforcement, it is now left with 700 or more cases that have been more difficult to solve, including those of 431 parents who were apparently sent home without their children.

These are the cases that will continue to occupy federal immigration lawyers and immigrant advocates in the coming days, as federal authorities continue to unwind the effects of the policy that saw 2,800 or more children removed from their families in an attempt to deter the recent flood of migrant families from Central America.

Despite having substantially met the court’s deadline for reuniting “eligible” parents and children, the Trump administration continues to face immigration lawsuits across the country, including a case in Seattle in which 17 states are challenging not only family separations, but how the government handles claims for asylum and the licensing requirements for migrant children held in detention.

In Los Angeles on Friday, Judge Dolly M. Gee of U.S. District Court said she would appoint an independent monitor to evaluate conditions for migrant children housed in border processing centers and family detention centers where families can be held for up to 20 days. The judge said there was a “disconnect” in the assessments of conditions at the facilities between government monitors and the harrowing accounts of lawyers, health workers and others who have cited inadequate water, inedible food and other problems.

“I think the court was moved,” said Peter Schey, president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, who was a co-lead counsel in a 1985 lawsuit over the detention of migrant children, on which the current challenge is based. “I think this was an essential step in bringing the government into line with the terms of the 1997 Flores settlement that required the humane treatment of detained children and their proper release in appropriate cases,” he added.

Gee also issued a second ruling, which was preliminary and therefore subject to change, in favor of plaintiffs who alleged that migrant children in federal custody are routinely medicated with powerful psychotropic drugs, without giving informed consent.

Leecia Welch, a lawyer with the National Center for Youth Law, which filed the second motion, said evidence suggests that children were being medicated for “the convenience of the employees at the facilities to have more zombified residents rather than to actually help these children with their mental health needs.”

In the main case on family reunifications, Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the U.S. District Court in San Diego signaled that he would likely rule over the weekend on a petition by the American Civil Liberties Union to further postpone immediate deportation of newly reunited families. Deportation orders are already pending against about 900 such families.

In about 120 cases, said Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the ACLU, parents signed papers agreeing to be deported themselves without understanding that they were giving up the right to take their child with them. In such cases, most children are permitted to pursue their own petitions for asylum in the United States.

“We absolutely want the judge to stay the removal of this group so we can talk to this group about whether they knowingly gave their children away,” Gelernt said. “What we have found out is that many, many parents were clueless about what they were doing. They want their child.”

Perez said this is what had happened to him.

He said he and his daughter had been apprehended by Border Patrol officers in Arizona on May 12 and separated the next day. After that, discussions began about accepting what is known as “expedited removal” back to Guatemala.

Lawyers at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, which is representing Yanci, said that they had received assurances from officials at the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for children in government custody, that father and child would be reunited and sent home together if the organization did not pursue a separate immigration court case on behalf of the child.

“An offer was being made and we agreed to it so that the reunification could happen as quickly as possible. But the promise was not kept,” said Susan Reed, managing attorney of the legal-aid organization in Kalamazoo, adding that the same scenario occurred in about five cases.

“We were comfortable with a plan that got us the best possible result without the child going through a lengthy court process,” she said.

Since the father’s departure in June, the organization has made three formal requests to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to expedite Yanci’s removal from the country. Late Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed that it would work with Yanci’s lawyers to seek voluntary departure before an immigration judge. The process could take several more weeks before she can be returned.

Homeland Security officials have said that all the parents who were deported without their children made an informed decision to do so, and had agreed in writing to leave their offspring in the United States.

In a court filing this week, the ACLU said that “evidence is overwhelming that parents have signed forms they did not understand,” including papers they thought stated that they wished to be reunified with their children.

Some Central American migrants are illiterate. And many migrants from the highlands of Guatemala, where several dialects are spoken, do not speak Spanish.

The ACLU cited several examples of detained parents who were confronted with documents to sign without understanding their content, and who sometimes did so under emotional duress. Among them were parents who had waived reunification when, in fact, they had wanted their children back, the organization said.

“They gave me a paper to sign in English, which I didn’t understand, because I believed their word,” Perez said. “There were others there who also signed thinking that they would get their kids back. We were about 10 together. They told us not to worry.”

The 1,878 children who were returned to parents or sponsors in recent weeks represent only a fraction of all those who were separated from their children after crossing the border, a practice that began last summer and escalated in May. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on June 20 halting the separations after bipartisan outcry and global condemnation.

Of the 711 children who were deemed ineligible to reunify, according to government court filings, 431 have a parent outside the United States; 120 have parents who waived the right to reunification; 79 have a parent released into the country who has not been found; 94 have a parent whose location is under “review”; 67 have a parent who raised a “red flag”; and seven have been precluded from reunification by separate litigation.

Immigrant lawyers working at family detention facilities and volunteers helping arrange shelter and travel for newly released families said Friday that reunifications had been plagued with chaos in some areas.

“The government would like the public to believe it successfully met the July 26 deadline; nothing could be further from the truth,” said Efrén C. Olivares, a director of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “Here in South Texas, chaos dominates the government’s family reunification efforts.”

He said that many parents were reunited with their children in a parking lot of the Port Isabel Detention Center. One mother was brought the wrong child. Some parents had to sleep in cars because they were released but their children were not yet there.

Perez makes his living in Guatemala working in the corn fields and doing odd jobs. He lives with his wife and two children in a room in his mother-in-law’s house.

His plan had been to head to Florida, where there is a large Guatemalan Mayan community, to work in landscaping until he had saved enough money to buy his family a home in their village.

“I went out of necessity. We don’t have a house. I wanted to work so that I can support and feed my family, whom I live for,” he said. “They took my daughter from me.”

In Kalamazoo, Yanci spends her days at the migrant children’s center and her nights with a foster family. But she has exhibited increased anxiety as many of the children who, like her, had been separated from their parents began leaving.

“She told me all her friends have gone with their mommies and daddies and keeps asking why she can’t leave too,” her mother, Alma Lucerito Chavez, said in a phone interview.

The child’s caseworker informed her last week that Yanci had taken scissors to her hair in a fit of anger.

“I talked to her today. She was crying, saying she doesn’t want to be there,” Chavez said.

Her husband said that he had asked about his daughter right up to the moment he was boarding the bus to the deportation plane. Immigration agents told him they had no idea, he said.

“I wouldn’t have signed anything had I known,” he said. “It was all a lie to get us out of there.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Miriam Jordan © 2018 The New York Times

source http://www.newssplashy.com/2018/07/opinion-why-did-you-leave-me-migrant_29.html

[shg11]

News that a Christian child was forced into Muslim foster care caused a furore earlier this year. But, despite the challenges, these families play a vital role in bringing up vulnerable children, says Sarfraz Manzoor

About 100,000 young people go through the fostering system every year. In recent years an increasing number of these have been child refugees from Muslim-majority countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, many arriving here traumatised and in need of care.

We estimate there is a shortage of 8,000 foster carers, says Kevin Williams, chief executive of the Fostering Network, and there is a particular shortage of Muslim foster carers.

Those featured here were nervous that their stories would be misreported, an issue highlighted recently in the story about a white Christian girl supposedly forced into Muslim foster care. The story was cited as emblematic of a greater clash between Islam and Christianity. It has also provoked fears that the media storm could deter Muslims from fostering at a time when the need for a more diverse pool of carers has never been greater.

Sajjad and Riffat

Just before Christmas seven years ago, Riffat and Sajjad were at home when the phone rang. It was the foster agency letting them know that three children theyd never met would be arriving shortly. The children two sisters and a brother were in urgent need of short-term care. Sajjad and Riffat had been approved as foster carers only two months earlier and these would be their first placements.

We were excited, but I was also a bit nervous, recalls Sajjad, 50. The couple had tried to start a family after they married, but fertility problems led to six failed cycles of IVF. They considered adopting, but eventually decided to sign up as foster carers.

Both are observant Muslims of Pakistani heritage. Riffat, 46, was wearing a headscarf when we met, and prays five times a day. How did they cope with the arrival of three white English children raised in a Christian household?

I will never forget that day, recalls Riffat, who grew up in Pakistan and moved to Britain after marrying in 1997. It really was like being thrown in the deep end. They bought chicken and chips from the local takeaway for the children and the support worker told the couple about the childrens bedtime routine.

Once the children were asleep, Sajjad headed out on an urgent shopping mission. We are Muslims and wed never had a Christmas tree in our home, says Riffat. But these children were Christian and we wanted them to feel connected to their culture. So he bought a Christmas tree, decorations and presents. The couple worked until the early hours putting the tree up and wrapping presents. The first thing the children saw the next morning was the tree.

I had never seen that kind of extra happiness and excitement on a childs face, remembers Riffat. The children were meant to stay for two weeks seven years later two of the three siblings are still living with them.

Riffat has grown used to surprised looks from strangers and people asking if the reason she has such fair-skinned children is because she married a white man. But she focuses on the positives in particular how fostering has given her and Sajjad an insight into a world that had been so unfamiliar. We have learned so much about English culture and religion, Sajjad says. Riffat would read Bible stories to the children at night and took the girls to church on Sundays. When I read about Christianity, I dont think there is much difference, she says. It all comes from God.

The girls, 15 and 12, have also introduced Riffat and Sajjad to the world of after-school ballet, theatre classes and going to pop concerts. I wouldnt see many Asian parents at those places, she says. But I now tell my extended family you should involve your children in these activities because it is good for their confidence. Having the girls in her life has also made Riffat reflect on her own childhood. I had never spent even an hour outside my home without my siblings or parents until my wedding day, she says.

Just as Riffat and Sajjad have learned about Christianity, the girls have come to look forward to Eid and the traditions of henna. Ive taught them how to make potato curry, pakoras and samosas, Riffat says. But their spice levels are not quite the same as ours yet. The girls can also sing Bollywood songs and speak Urdu.

I now look forward to going home. I have two girls and my wife waiting, says Sajjad. Its been such a blessing for me, adds Riffat. It fulfilled the maternal gap.

Shareen

Shareens longest foster placement is a young boy from Syria: He was 14 and had hidden inside a lorry. Photograph: Karen Robinson for the Observer

A British Pakistani, Shareen (and her husband Asif, 47), began fostering three years ago after three failed rounds of IVF. She has looked after children from many nationalities including Afro-Caribbean, Syrian, Egyptian and Pakistani.

When she first used to read the background reports about the children she looked after, Shareen, 48, was shocked at what theyd been through. I just could not believe that there could be children so deprived of love, she says. I was exposed to so much pain.

One 12-year-old boy she fostered, who had been diagnosed with ADHD, couldnt sleep each night. He would break the lightbulbs and chuck them in the neighbours garden. Whatever he could find in the room he would open up and unscrew and he would not come home at curfew time, she recalls. I would have to call the police every evening.

The key to coping, she says, was to try to understand the reasons behind the challenging behaviour. You have to look at the persons history, she says. No child is born to take drugs or join a gang. It has happened because nobody has cared for them. The boy ended up staying with Shareen for eight months.

She has also fostered children of Pakistani heritage and says there are some advantages. Two Pakistani children fitted right into the house because they understood our culture; we ate the same food and shared the same language, but when I had white children and I was out with them, people gave me funny looks.

Shareens longest foster placement arrived three years ago: a boy from Syria. He was 14 and had hidden inside a lorry all the way from Syria, she says. The boy was deeply traumatised. They had to communicate via Google Translate; Shareen later learned Arabic and he picked up English within six months. She read up on Syria and the political situation there to get an insight into the conditions he had left.

It took ages to gain his trust, she says. I got a picture dictionary that showed English and Arabic words and I remember one time when I pronounced an Arabic word wrong and he burst out laughing and told me I was saying it wrong that was the breakthrough.

The boy would run home from school and whenever they went shopping in town, he kept asking Shareen when they were going back home. She found out why: He told me that one day he left his house in Syria and when he had come back, there was no house. Now hes 18, speaks English fluently and is applying for apprenticeships. He could move out of Shareens home, but has decided to stay. He is a very different person to the boy who first came here, she says, and my relationship with him is that of a mother to her son.

Fostering has, she says, helped her to be more resilient, patient and confident. I used to worry about who was doing better than me or earning more money, she says. But after meeting these children, those things just dont matter to me anymore.

Homayun and Parvin

We thought we had done well and it was time we paid something back to society: Homayun and Parvin. Photograph: Karen Robinson for the Observer

Two years ago Homayun, who came to the UK from Afghanistan in 1979, was watching the news when he saw the footage of a three-year-old Syrian boy washed up on a beach in Turkey. I thought to myself that we had done well in this society. We had been educated, got jobs and we also had a spare room. It was time we paid something back to society.

So he and his wife, Parvin, 44, applied to become foster carers. The process took 12 months and, at the start of this year, they welcomed two boys from Afghanistan and Kuwait now 15 and 12. We would have welcomed children from anywhere, including Britain, says Homayun, but I was especially interested in caring for children from war-torn countries because that was the experience I had been through.

Homayun, 51, owns a garage business and the couple have their own son, 16. My father was an activist and he was under house arrest, he says. We fled to Britain a few months before the Russians invaded the country. I know what it is like to live in a country that doesnt have freedom, human rights and a right to education I had that in common with the boys we were fostering. His Afghan foster son had travelled from Afghanistan to Iran and then to Turkey, where he had boarded a boat to Greece. From there he travelled to France before finally reaching Britain. His Kuwaiti foster son had been smuggled on to a plane using false identification. When he first met them Homayun was struck by how quiet the children were.

They would not speak and it took a few months to bring them out of themselves and get them to open up. The boys did not speak each others languages and relied on Google Translate. It was very challenging and difficult at first, says Homayun. But now the younger boy goes to school on his own, and uses public transport.

Although they share the same Muslim background, he would never force his own beliefs on his foster children. If I had a Christian child and they wanted to go to church, I would take them to church. If I had a Jewish child who wanted to go a synagogue, I would make sure they go there.

Homayun also encourages them to talk to their families back in their own countries. In Afghanistan the parents talk to their son regularly via Skype. They want him to receive something here that he never had there an education, he says. Leaving Afghanistan is a gamble; sometimes it pays off and other times it doesnt and parents can lose their children.

Both boys now call him Uncle or Baba and are starting to speak English well. If they can leave my house and go and achieve something in their lives, says Homayun, something that they could not have done in their own countries, that would be a satisfying job done.

Homayun chose to foster as a way of giving something back to society, but in fact both he and his wife found that the experience has enriched all of them in ways they could not have predicted.

Their son, who has autism, is now learning to share and communicate, and has started speaking in sentences. He enjoys having the two boys in the house and they go cycling and play football, he says. Fostering has done the whole family so much good.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/03/muslim-foster-parents-it-has-been-such-a-blessing

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The images were heartbreaking: Children gasping and choking for breath, their mouths foaming. A grief-stricken father, cradling the lifeless bodies of his two children, swaddled in white blankets. But they were also familiar, a harrowing flashback to 2013, when the Syrian government unleashed the last major poison gas attack on its own people.

This time, though, a new American president was seeing the pictures and absorbing the horror.

Donald J. Trump has always taken pride in his readiness to act on instinct, whether in real estate or reality television. On Thursday, an emotional President Trump took the greatest risk of his young presidency, ordering a retaliatory missile strike on Syria for its latest chemical weapons attack. In a dizzying series of days, he upended a foreign policy doctrine based on putting America first and avoiding messy conflicts in distant lands.

Mr. Trump’s advisers framed his decision in the dry language of international norms and strategic deterrence. In truth, it was an emotional act by a man suddenly aware that the world’s problems were now his — and that turning away, to him, was not an option.

“I will tell you,” he said to reporters in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, “that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me — big impact. That was a horrible, horrible thing. And I’ve been watching it and seeing it, and it doesn’t get any worse than that.”

Appearing again the next evening at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump said that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria had “choked out the life of innocent men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”

President Trump retaliated against the Assad government for a chemical attack in Syria that killed more than 80 civilians.

It was difficult to reconcile the anguished president with the snarky critic of American engagement who, from the comfort of private life, advised President Barack Obama not to strike Syria after a chemical weapons attack in the suburbs of Damascus three years ago.

“President Obama, do not attack Syria,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter in September 2013. “There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your ‘powder’ for another (and more important) day!”

And it is not easy to square Mr. Trump’s empathy for the victims of a single chemical weapons attack with his refusal to take in thousands of Syrian refugees from years of strife that have turned that country into a charnel house. Relaxing that policy did not come up in the president’s deliberations over striking Syria, his advisers said.

As a candidate, Mr. Trump said that forcing Mr. Assad out of power was not as urgent a priority for the United States as vanquishing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. He claimed, somewhat erroneously, that he had always opposed the Iraq war. He criticized Mr. Obama and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who was Mr. Trump’s opponent in the election, as plunging heedlessly into foreign entanglements, drawn by misplaced idealism and the substitution of other nations’ interests for America’s.

“One day, we’re bombing Libya and getting rid of a dictator to foster democracy for civilians,” Mr. Trump said during a major foreign policy speech in April 2016. “The next day, we’re watching the same civilians suffer while that country falls and absolutely falls apart. Lives lost, massive moneys lost. The world is a different place.”  

“We’re a humanitarian nation,” he continued, “but the legacy of the Obama-Clinton interventions will be weakness, confusion and disarray, a mess. We’ve made the Middle East more unstable and chaotic than ever before.”

The contrast between Mr. Trump and his predecessor could not be starker. In the early days of his presidency, Mr. Obama made the case for America’s moral responsibility to intervene militarily on humanitarian grounds. “Inaction tears at our conscience and can lead to more costly intervention later,” he said in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

Yet when Syria slipped into a deadly civil war, Mr. Obama focused more on the costs of intervention than the risks of inaction. Even after Mr. Assad’s forces killed hundreds in a poison gas attack in August 2013, Mr. Obama did not carry out a threatened missile strike because, he said, he had not gotten Congress to sign off on it.

Mr. Trump’s action, only 77 days into his term, hardly settles the question of when he might intervene in future crises. He has not articulated criteria for humanitarian interventions and, even if he did, it is not clear that he would stick to his standards any more than Mr. Obama did.

Firing dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria also deflects attention from Mr. Trump’s lengthening list of troubles at home, from the investigation of his campaign’s murky ties with Russia to his failed health care legislation.     

               Russia and Iran sharply criticized U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian airfield on Thursday night, while European countries have been broadly supportive so far.            

The president’s advisers insisted his decision was guided by strategic considerations. They were clearly uncomfortable with the suggestion that Mr. Trump was acting impulsively.

“I do not view it as an emotional reaction at all,” Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson said. Mr. Trump had looked back on Mr. Obama’s decision not to carry out a strike and decided that the United States “could not yet again turn away, turn a blind eye,” Mr. Tillerson added.

Mr. Tillerson and the national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, laid out a case that sounded eerily similar to Mr. Obama’s three years earlier, when he drew his fateful “red line” against Mr. Assad’s use of chemical weapons. These weapons violated the rules of war and the Chemical Weapons Convention, they said. Allowing Syria to wield such weapons with impunity risked normalizing them and might embolden others to use them.

Mr. Trump’s aides described a deliberative process, with meetings of the National Security Council, presentations of military options by the Pentagon and a classified briefing for Mr. Trump held under a tent erected in Mar-a-Lago to secure the communications with Washington. They spoke of phone calls to American allies, consultations with lawmakers and the diplomatic engagement that would follow the Tomahawk cruise missiles.

What is clear, however, is that Mr. Trump reacted viscerally to the images of the death of innocent children in Syria. And that reaction propelled him into a sequence of actions that will change the course of his presidency. Mr. Trump’s improvisational style has sometimes seemed ill suited to the gravity of his office. In this case, it helped lead him to make the gravest decision a commander-in-chief can make.

“I now have responsibility, and I will have that responsibility and carry it very proudly, I will tell you that,” the president said of Syria on Wednesday. “It is now my responsibility.”

[dekierey153]

By CHRISTOPHER SMART | The Salt Lake Tribune First Published Mar 13 2017 08:00AM    •    Last Updated Mar 13 2017 08:34 am

Half of me is with my family," said Rita Okbalidet, 20, a refugee from Eritrea, Africa who came to Utah in 2014 with the help of Utah's Catholic Community Services' Refugee Resettlement Program. Okbalidet was sold by her guardian in Sudan, held for ransom in Sinai and dropped off blindfolded and alone in Cairo before receiving assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Now she says she has many goals to accomplish. In a few months, Okbalidet will begin a nursing program at SLCC and hopes to bring her sister Miriam, 15, who is a refugee to Utah from Sudan.

A harrowing escape from traffickers and help from Catholic Community Services brought her to Salt Lake City.

Desperate to leave Eritrea, Africa, then 16-year-old Rita Okbalidet paid smugglers to take her to Sudan, where they sold her to human traffickers, who blindfolded her and stole her away to the Sinai desert in Egypt and demanded ransom from her mother.

She recalled those harrowing days last week in the comfortable home of Pam Silberman and Bryan Gibson in Salt Lake City. Although she doesn't like to dwell on it, Rita remembered languishing in the hot and horrible desert camp for four months, where people sometimes died when ransom wasn't forthcoming.

Traffickers eventually dropped her off blindfolded in Cairo near a church, where she found help and friendship.

Rita arrived in Salt Lake City on Sept. 9, 2014, three weeks before her 18th birthday. Now 20, she smiles when considering her new life. She has mastered English and just graduated from Horizonte Instruction and Training Center. Rita has enrolled in a certified nursing-assistant program at Salt Lake Community College. Her dream is to become a nurse.

Beyond that, she works 25 to 30 hours a week at Cafe Rio.

Rita has come a long way from those traumatic and desperate times during her exodus, said Silberman, her foster mother. She is now gregarious and determined to make her life successful.

"I have freedom. I have education. I have work," Rita said. "But half of my brain is with my family."

Rita's 15-year-old sister, Miriam, is in Khartoum, Sudan. Like Rita, she had paid smugglers to get her out of Eritrea, which is just north of Ethiopia on the horn of eastern Africa. And like her sister, she was sold to traffickers.

This time, it was Rita who paid the $5,000 ransom to free her.

"Traffickers prey on young people who have no future and want a better life," Silberman said.

Rita also sends money to her mother and two younger siblings, who remain in Eritrea. When she becomes a nurse, she will be able to support her mother, Rita said, eyes welling with emotion.

Miriam is now on the list of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The process to immigrate normally would take 18 to 24 months.

But President Donald Trump's renewed travel ban likely will be an obstacle in Miriam's effort to reunite with Rita. Not only is Miriam a refugee, but she is in Sudan, one of six countries banned under the president's executive order.

It is impossible to know Miriam's fate at this point, Silberman said. "Even though she is from Eritrea, she is now in Sudan — we don't know what that means."

Rita said Trump and his views on immigration frighten her. "It makes me so sad."

"I was always praying for Hillary Clinton," she said with a look of resignation.

In Eritrea, Rita lived in a small village with no electricity or running water. But that's not why she left. After the 11th grade, young men and women are conscripted into the Eritrean army, where they may spend the entirety of their working lives. Many young people want to leave Eritrea because there is no future there.

After eighth grade, Rita's mother kept her from returning to school, so she wouldn't be on the government's radar and could help raise her three younger siblings. Her father had left the family years earlier.

"I chose to leave my country," Rita said, "because I didn't have freedom."

If she were returned to Eritrea, she could be imprisoned or killed.

Rita was brought to the U.S. with the help of Catholic Community Services Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program. But she didn't choose America.

Silberman explained that refugees seldom get to select a host country. People Rita met along the way are now scattered across Europe and in Canada. She keeps track of them on Facebook.

That is among the reasons why Trump's temporary refugee ban is ill advised, Silberman said.

Most refugees know little or nothing about the United States, she added. "It makes no sense to say, we want only people who love America."

"Refugees would really like to be in their own country," Silberman explained. "They just want to be safe and free."

Now that she is here, however, Rita wants to be an American. She loves practically everything about this country.

Recently, Rita was among a contingent of people who met with the staff of Utah Rep. Chris Stewart in Salt Lake City. She was nervous about the visit but said she wanted them to know what a refugee looks like.

"It's easy to think of refugees as people to be afraid of," Silberman said. "But when you see Rita, you say, 'aren't these the kind of people we want here?' "

Rita's face lights up when she thinks of running water and electricity. "There is water everywhere here," she said, recalling her previous life where it had to be carried from a well a mile from her house.

She loves to take showers. But her foster mother has to remind her to turn the lights off when she leaves a room.

And Rita now has the luxury to think about her future. That is something people in Eritrea don't normally do — they must focus on getting through the day, which includes obtaining basic things like food and water.

"You must understand, where I come from we don't think about the future," Rita said. "I had never thought about my future before I came here."

Rita's life has changed, but so has that of her foster family, including 15-year-old foster sister Willa Gibson.

Silberman said that Rita makes Willa much more appreciative of what she has, and gives the family a better understanding of people's struggles outside the United States.

"We should embrace the global world, rather than be afraid of it," Silberman said. "You don't have to leave the U.S. to get a better understanding of the world — just meet a refugee."

Anyone interested in becoming a foster parent for the Catholic Community Services Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program can visit the website ccsutah.org or call 801-428-1283

csmart@sltrib.com