#FSS Polls

[fullscoreshenanigans]

*Yes, but only because they're young and they don't want to go through with the potentially painful process of having them removed until they're older. **This is very much a case-by-case matter, but I don't have strong opinions or headcanons for specific characters about it. ***This is very much a case-by-case matter, and I do have strong opinions or headcanons for one or a few specific characters regarding this subject.

Further discussed in this post.

(S1 Episode 1 | S2 Episode 8 | Chapter 56 | Chapter 69)

(There is Nothing You Can Do About it, Now by @bblueraven-and-fandoms14)

And spoilers for khgnh's Fragments focusing on the topic under the cut:

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Mamoru Kanbe blatantly on the NE and no homo agenda lmao

(Minerva Confidential Report from the S1 Blu-ray)

Given Shirai's sentiments shown in the mystic code book and the 2018 Demizu-Kobayashi interview from the year the anime was in production, I do think Sugita was purposely coy and obfuscating with the "but not romantically" comment, but still interesting how there was some back and forth on that approval.

i will forever hate how the anime made it seem like norman ONLY cared about emma and not ray like his nightmare, in the anime he only held her but in the manga he went for them both. Also when he broke down after the entire demon thing both emma AND ray hugged him. its like they read norman liked emma and went "oh yeah lets completely forget about ray"

[freifraufischer]

Evil Canadians

[[This is an excerpt of an alternate history role playing game that involved psychics, wizards, and a cold war that never ended I wrote in between 2002-2004.  This is an edited part of the section about Canada that several Canadian friends asked to see...]]

Canada is the world’s second largest country and occupies most of the North American Land mass, sharing with the United States of America what was once the world’s longest undefended border.  Though not extensively militarized until the Russo-American War, going as far back as the early 1990s many of the border provinces coming under control of the Dominion Unity Party (DUP) began paramilitary patrols to augment the official border crossing points.  Canada was settled as British and French colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries.   France surrendered to Britain its colony of New France, an area that composes present-day Quebec and Ontario at the Treaty of Paris in 1763.  

 ----

The Ungava Incident

            For almost forty years United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) nuclear-armed bombers flew armed over Canadian territory near the Arctic Circle on routine patrols.  These aircraft, by the 1980s aging B-52s with a host of electrical problems, flew from bases within the Continental United States, looped over the northern reaches of Canada, and than landed again at their bases in middle America.  Twice in the 1960s SAC B-52 on similar routes crashed with nuclear weapons on foreign soil. The first occurred on January 17, 1966 near Palomares, Spain during an in-flight refueling accident, three bombs were scattered over farmer’s fields and one in the ocean.  All four were recovered and the residents of the small Spanish town paid nearly $800,000 in compensation.  Just over two years later on January 22, 1968 another B-52 crashed near Thule Air Force Base, Greenland after a fire broke out in the navigator’s compartment.  Three hydrogen bombs were scattered across the ice, and one melted through and sunk to the bottom of Baffin Bay, unrecoverable.  The incident over Greenland, a Danish possession, caused massive protests in Denmark, and briefly strained relations between the two countries.

           These were nothing in comparison to the December 12, 1984 explosion of at least one (though some theorize that it may have been as many as three) hydrogen bomb over the Ungava Peninsula, in northern Quebec. The explosion vaporized the B-52 that the bombs were believed to have come from, killing the crew, and making investigation of the cause of the explosion nearly impossible.  Because the region was sparsely populated, mostly by isolated fishing villages, no one knows exactly how many people died, though estimates by both the Canadian and United States governments place the direct death toll from the explosion to be around 450.  This does not include the thousands of cases of radiation poisoning from fallout in Quebec, the Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as fisheries in the North Atlantic and as far away as western Europe.

           The United States Air Force immediately sent teams to help relocate survivors and those in the worst affected areas, but the estimated $4,000,000 in compensation has been considered inadequate and insulting by many Canadians and some of those eligible for settlements have refused them in favor of civil suits filed in American courts against the Air Force. The Department of Defense has attempted to have the suits thrown out citing national security concerns, but several Federal judges have kept it alive, even after decades of delay.  The mysterious deaths of one of those judges, and of a prominent Ungava survivors advocate are widely suspected to be the result of U.S. military covert operatives.  

           The Reagan administration dismissed concerns that the incident might permanently soured relations with the northern neighbor. Other American observers wondered though, as nearly fifty percent of Canadian Air Force personnel were recalled from joint programs such as the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).  Though many of those same officers returned in the following years, but military cooperation between the neighbors has never been the same.  Polls carried out in the United States ten and twenty years after the incident show close to forty percent of the American people did not even know that it had occurred, and listed Canada as one of the United States’ closest allies around the world.

 -----

 The Friendly Dictatorship?  

 The Prime Minister of Canada has what are often considered extraordinary powers in comparison to other western leaders. Because of a system of strict party discipline within the Canadian House of Commons, an elected member faces great difficulty in voting against the party line (set by the Prime Minister). If any member of the Prime Minister’s governing party votes against any new legislation, he or she may be expelled from the party.  An expelled member must sit as an independent, without the right to ask a question, raise any issue before the Parliament, and stands little chance of winning re-election without the party’s resources. These measures mean that members of the governing party almost always follow the will of the Prime Minister. This was best exemplified by former Prime Minster, Pierre Trudeau, who referred to the backbenchers of the (than ruling) Liberal party as “trained seals” and the opposition backbenchers as “noblies when they are fifty yards away from the House of Commons.” The lack of checks and balances as theoretically seen within the US system has lead some to question such power, especially with the unexpected term of Walter Bechmann’s Dominion Unity Party, which has held the office since 2003

The major counterbalance to the power of the Prime Minster of Canada are near autonomous powers of the provincial premiers.  They are required to agree to any constitutional change, and must be be consulted over new domestic initiatives within their area of responsibility. Unsurprisingly, traditionally the most difficult primeir to deal with has been the Priemer of Quebec.

 The Rise of the DUP

            Traditionally there have been two major national parities within Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada, the Conservative Party of Canada (or predecessors under other names), with a large regional party the Bloc Québécois following behind.  None of these players took much notice as a small upstart, the Dominion Unity Party (DUP), began to win power on the provincial level in Saskatchewan and Alberta.  Rising out of the movements collectively known as “Prairie Socialists” the DUP advocated traditional values, wide ranging social programs, a strong military, and a resistance to what they characterized as the cuddling of the Quebec separatists by Ottawa.  

           The economic and ecological disaster that was the Ungava Incident, the lack luster American response, and Ottawa’s inability to force the issue lead to a growing sense that Canada had seeded too much of its responsibilities to the United States.  If Ottawa would not keep the French in line, or Washington from walking all over the country, than someone would.  And that someone, the DUP claimed, was them.  Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s the DUP gained control of all of Western Canada on the Provincial level, and became the official opposition party after the collapse of the Progressive Conservatives.  

Who done it?

           The leak of the incriminating file on Liberal Party funding to the CBC have become the Deep Throat of Canadian political history.  Both their origins and even their authenticity have been vigorously questioned (and denied).  Some leading theories include:

           That the deputy prime minister leaked the documents in an effort to force Chrétien to resign in favor of former finance minister Paul Martin.  He was taken by surprise when Martin did not win the election and has dropped out of public life.

           The Bloc Québécois leaked them after obtaining them by means unknown. Thinking that they would have an easier time working with a Conservative government, or at least a better chance of winning the next independence referendum, it blew up in their face when instead of getting the Tories they ended up with their worst nightmare.

           One of the Canadian intelligence or security services leaked the document—the finger is usually pointed at the FSS—either out of patriotism or out of cynical and very illegal manipulation of the political process.  

           One thing is clear to those that are familiar with Jean Chrétien.  Few believe that he actually knew about the dirty dealings with the American companies. If the documents were legitimate to begin with.

 ----

           The government of Jean Chrétien came under fire in 2003 as documents began to surface in the press linking the Liberals to campaign funding directly by American corporations with ties to the Department of Defense.  The implication being, though never quite proven, that an agreement was in the works to arrange for the Ungava lawsuits to be settled or dropped entirely in return for the illegal funds.  The exact origins of the leaked documents have never been established. So angry was the Canadian electorate that not only were the Liberals swept from power, but the Conservatives also took a major loss, leaving the last man standing, the quiet and boring former Premier of Saskatchewan, Walter Bechmann.

           Following the election night carnage as the Liberals went from holding a long-standing majority to six seats, barely half what would be needed for official party recognition on the federal level.  Still weakened from their collapse under Kim Campbell in 1993, the Conservatives held only 20 seats.  And with the effective merger of the New Democratic Party into the DUP, the official opposition party was the separatist Bloc Québécois.  Given the DUP’s strong anti-French stances it has made for ugly fighting in Parliament, but with little effect on Prime Minister Bechmann’s policy goals.  

           Most observers speculate that after years of Liberal rule with virtually no other option, the image of the effective, hard working, non-flaboyant man from Saskatchewan has endeared Beckman with the Canadian people. While the more conspiracy minded suggest that the inability of the other national parties to organize may be linked to more sinister interference.  The Bloc, always willing to scream about government and DUP misdoings, points to the Canadian Federal Security Service, which had long been battling Quebec nationalists and had closely allied themselves with the DUP on its rise.

The French Question

            Conflict between Canada’s Francophone minority and Anglophone majority is hardly new, though the extensive efforts made on behalf of the federal government to help preserve the French language and French Canadian culture is relatively recent.  Unfortunately equalizing language and granting Quebec some special status has not stopped an upswing in separatist activity, violent and non-violent. The first eruption of what have been several decades of sustained violence began on October 5, 1970 with a string of bombings, kidnappings, bank robberies, and attempted assassinations, all the work of a Marxist-Leninist group, Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ).

           Like many similar groups, West Germany’s Red Army Faction, Italy’s Red Brigade, and the American Weather Underground, the FLQ was made up primarily of middle class born again radicals who would not hesitate to attack the class structure as much as the Anglos.  Two weeks into the emergency Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau ordered the Army into the streets to enforce Martial Law in Quebec under the controversial War Measures Act.  The overwhelming force, mass arrest of those associated with the FLQ (and their families), and the stretching of the organization’s resources beyond what they could handle for all practical purposes destroyed the organization.  The deaths of some of the detainees in the custody of the army and RCMP, and the disappearance of others have left a sinister note over the ending of the emergency.  Rumors still surface decades later of prominent Quebecois, made to disappear during the period, in the custody of particularly vindictive elements of the government.

           The next wave of extreme violence occurred in 1990 when a new group, calling itself the Armée de Libération du Québec (ALQ) and trading on the reputation of their similarly named predecessor began targeting Java Works, a nation wide specialty coffee chain which like many corporations continued to use its English name in Quebec.  Well-dressed young people, of an age to be university students, used automatic rifles to commit mass murder of the patrons and employees at one Saint-Georges shop.  Similar attacks followed within days, with brutality and efficiency associated to a particular terrorist leader soon identified as Amanda Legardeur, the daughter of an upper class Montreal family.

           Though relatively brief, the spree lasted just over a month; the brutality displayed cleared the fence sitters out of the way, leaving only those who would clearly choose between a sovereign and independent Quebec, and a united Canada.  That was of course, what Legardeur had intended, and the cultivation of a young woman who looked similar to her so that she could shoot her in the head to fake her own death was a small price to pay in her game.  It took CSIS and FSS nearly a decade to agree that she was indeed, still alive, though once they had, her legend grew even more.  Today she is the most wanted woman in Canada, believed to be not only armed, but possessing the organization and leadership skills to make her a one person national security threat.

           In response to the perceived failure of the moderates, the increasing violence of the extreme separatists, and what many particularly among the rank and file of the ruling DUP see as excessive allowances to the French, there has been a backlash.  With only the exception of the United States, the primary focus of the Canadian Federal Security Service—the most ruthless, and effective of the competing agencies—has been what is internally called “the French Question.” Some wonder though, if repressive and often highly illegal methods will only divide the country more, just as they did for the British in Northern Ireland.  

           The federal government believes—not without reason—that the violent separatists are being backed by east bloc communist countries that would use an independent Quebec as a base of operations on the Americans doorstep.  Unwilling to see the country torn apart, or to be used by either superpower in cynical games of brinksmanship, the Canadian government has begun to look at solving all their problems on a larger scale.

American Relations

            The Canadian government, and to some extent the Canadian people, have understood the true form of the American government longer than any other county in the world.  For them it is like having a window on the great superpower, seeing more up close in American news and American television—not to mention in frequent visits to the states to avoid high Canadian taxes—than anyone in the United Kingdom or the Europe ever does.  And certainly more than anyone ever gets to see of the Americans’ rival the Soviet Union.    

           Over the years though, at least from the American side, this familiarity has bread contempt.  Washington sees Ottawa, and more importantly in the Americans case, the Pentagon sees them as a joke.  The quaint socialist country to the north whose military is more focused on tracking down stray penguins and who police and intelligence services can be characterized by The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show’s Dudley Do-Right.  The fact that there are no penguins in Canada has not entered into the American’s calculations.  The American public’s view is not much more nuanced, seeing their continental neighbors as unerringly polite, and with the firm belief that every Canadian citizen can kill, skin, and gut a grizzly bear with their bare hands.

           The view south from Ottawa is quite a bit more nuanced, though the Canadians have learned a hard lesson about the sometimes friendly sometimes vicious pit-bull they have been planted next to.  The the view has been common enough going all the way back to repeated American invasions during the War of 1812, it came to a nasty point when the indifference which the American military seemed to treat the accidental nuking of their country.  As one Strategic Air Command general at the Ungava Board of Inquiry commented to another when he did not know that his microphone was on, “All they have are trees and rocks up there, what’s the big deal?”

           A firm belief has developed, especially among the security and intelligence communities (with the notable exception of CSIS, who have a close working relationship with the Americans) that there is indeed a major military and security threat to Canada, the Canadian way of life, and even the lives of every Canadian citizen.

           Their neighbors to the south.

 A Fair Deal, an Even Playing Field, a Slippery Slop—The Canadian Psychic Experiments

            Like many countries around the world the Canadians are intimately familiar with the uses and abuses of the paranormal within the intelligence community.  As a commonwealth country they have long been familiar with the sorcerer viziers that have advised the crown for centuries.  However as with many things that come with the British heritage, the mother country has far more use of the community than the former imperial possessions.  

           The ruling DUP have an innate distrust of sorcerers owing to a distrust of anything supernatural that gives one man an advantage over another.  It is a political, philosophical, and religious distrust that has placed the country’s small sorcerer community at odds with the government… though not yet at war.  The leading wizard in the country is the queen’s representative, and a master of the mysteries of the mind, Karen Clarke.  She has focused primarily on checking the power of Prime Minister Beckmann and the agenda that most people have not yet discovered behind the party and by extension the government’s actions.

           The difficulties between the sorcerers and the government are nothing though, in comparison to the outright war that has been declared on psychic talent within the Dominion.  The idea that among the citizens exist a population—small as it may be—who can commit the worst violations on a person’s mind and body without any control by rule or law offends the prairie socialists very nature.  In the view of the party psychics are to be monitored, controlled, and eventually eradicated from society as a threat to the rest of the human race.

           Most within the power structure would chose to do this through “curing” the afflicted, many of whom themselves would gladly submit at first for any chance to lead a normal life.  The main arm of this goal, like so many other things within the party’s plans, has been the Canadian Federal Security Service (FSS).  The service itself though, has mixed feelings about the mission.  Those that know the ultimate goal also know that enemy countries, particularly the communist nations, have been using their own psychics against Canada.  The cleverest among them have begun to play both sides against the middle.  

           Section C of the FSS has been responsible for the beginnings of an extensive tracking network that will eventually use the DNA markers to identify psychics.  Or so they hope.  One problem they have discovered—and one that the Soviets have been independently finding at the same time—is that the genes that control psychic gifts are not in the same place for each subset of gifts.  The genetic code that turns on a telepath’s ability to read minds is not the same gene that allows a remote viewer to see beyond his body or a pyrokinetic’s ability to set the world ablaze.   Complicating matters even farther, some suspect that multiple genes can trigger psychic powers.  

           In addition to the genetic studies, extensive drug trials have been carried out in an attempt to dampen or control psychics so that they can be returned to society and not imprisoned for life.  Unfortunately, as the Americans discovered almost half a century before, psychoactive drugs are themselves a tricky business.  It is difficult to determine outside of the subject’s self-reporting if the drug has dampened the powers.  The only way of independently determining any drugs affects has been testing on pyrokinetics and telekinetics, whose powers manifest physically. This can be very dangerous, as many test subjects react badly to the conditions within Section C’s hospitals. If not outright killed by the psychics (which usually results in the death of the psychic), the staff often report frightening and wild displays of power as the scared and often mentally ill telekinetic or pyrokinetic looses the concentration and control needed to keep their world together.  

           As of now, there is no effective drug therapy to control psychic talent.

 Those Who Serve

           A relative few Canadian psychics are employed by the FSS to battle those of other nations in order not to leave the country vulnerable to attack.  This was made abundantly clear during the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics when several east bloc psychics were brought into the country in order to give their athletes an edge in the medal count.  The scheme was discovered when a West German coach who had escaped the East recognized a Stasi colonel who had tortured his brother to death among the East German Olympic Committee’s figure skating staff.  After a confrontation the night before the figure skating long program, both the West German coach and the East German psychic were expelled from the country.

           Unlike the Americans, who rarely use government psychics and have left the practice entirely to corporations and other private enterprises, and the Soviets who have fostered a system of the widespread utilization of psychics, the Canadians keep their mental attack dogs on a very short leash.  Each psychic has a strong willed normal agent, known within the community as a Controller (telepaths often have two to prevent one from falling under the spell of their charge).  This officer is responsible for all operations that the psychic is used in, and in the field has the authority to summarily eliminate any that become impossible to control.  As could be expected, a physical psychic (telekinetics and pyrokinetics) or a mental specialist like a telepath is much harder to control than even the most powerful remote viewer or precognitive.  

 The Personalities Involved

 Her Excellency, the Right Honourable Karen Mendelsen-Clarke, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Canada.  A Vancouver born academic with impeccable credentials, her recent appointment by the Queen as her representative in Canada caused a near constitutional crisis as it went against the advise of Prime Minister Bechmann. The Queen’s growing concern about Bechmann’s politics and leadership of the country led her to appoint Clarke, a Cambridge educated sorcerer with a specialization in the powers of the mind. Publicly she is polite and friendly to the PM, but privately she has been hard nosed and difficult, threatening to withhold royal consent from legislation and implying that she might dismiss several of his ministers.  In an unprecedented step, she has also formed her own guard battalion for protection after a suspicious car accident nearly took her life.   With the traditions of the reactivated Black Watch (Royal Highlanders of Canada), they are seen by the DUP as her private army and viewed with great suspicion. She is divorced with no children.

 The Right Honorable Walter Bechmann, Prime Minister of Canada, Leader of the Dominion Unity Party. A long time provincial politician in his home province of Saskatchewan, he served for nearly a decade as a Progressive Conservative backbencher in the provincial assembly before recognizing a wave of political change in time to ride it to the top.  He ended up sweeping the Provincial Party elections when the DUP was first created and then surprisingly took the DUP to the top spot in Saskatchewan.  Eventually the Party attained national membership, and gained power in other provinces.  After several years as the Premier of Saskatchewan, he retired from politics briefly, before coming back for Federal politics to become the national leader for the party.  Often seen in the press as bland and dense, he is actually an astute observer and can be very charismatic when he wants to be.  And he usually wants to be charismatic in private.  During Question Period many a young MP have learned to underestimate the old man at their peril.  He has a wife and three daughters.  

 David Cherier, Premier ministre du Québec, leader of the Parti Libéral du Québec.  A lawyer by trade, David Cherier specialized in defending those swept up in various federal anti-terrorism sweeps.  He was first elected to Parliament as Progressive Conservative before returning to Quebec to become the Minister for Natural Resources.  Hard work, competence and charm brought him to the head of his party and with the PLQ’s win in elections to the position of Quebec Premier. Though not a separatist himself, he is a strong Quebec nationalist, and has fought vigorously against the policies of Walter Bechman in his attempt to roll back concessions made to Quebec. His sometimes ally in this has been Governor General Clarke, but she has also sided with the prime minister when it suited her.  He is generally considered a good man, if relatively unsophisticated when matching wits with the PM.  There have been three assassination attempts on Cherier’s life, one when he was Minister for Natural Resources, presumably by separatist groups such as the ALQ, though they have not claimed responsibility.  

[politicoscope]

Muhammadu Buhari Official Biography and Profile

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/muhammadu-buhari-official-biography-and-profile/

Muhammadu Buhari Official Biography and Profile

Muhammadu Buhari was born on 17thDecember, 1942 in Daura, Katsina State to Adamu and Zulaiha Buhari. Muhammadu Buhari was raised by his mother, following the death of his father when he was about four years old. He had his primary school education in Daura and Maidua from 1948 to 1952, before proceeding to Katsina Middle School in 1953.

Subsequently, he attended the Katsina Provincial Secondary School (now Government College, Katsina) from 1956–1961, where he earned his West African School Certificate. President Buhari was married to Safinatu Yusuf from 1971 to 1988, and since 1989 to Aisha Halilu. He is blessed with ten children.

Military Career He joined the Nigerian Army in 1961 when he was admitted to the Nigerian Military Training College, Kaduna. He underwent the Officer Cadets training at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England from 1962 to 1963, and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in January, 1963. He attended the Nigerian Military College, Kaduna for the Platoon Commanders’ Course from 1963-1964. He was then appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta.

In 1965, he attended the Mechanical Transport Officers’ Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School in Borden, England. Further military trainings included the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India in 1973, and the United States Army War College, from June 1979 to June 1980.

As a highly regarded officer, Muhammadu Buhari held several key command and staff, as well as political appointments during his illustrious military career. These included:

Military Secretary;

Member, Supreme Military Council;

Military Governor of the North Eastern State;

Federal Commissioner of Petroleum Resources;

Chairman, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation;

General Officer Commanding, 4thInfantry Division and General Officer Commanding, 3rd Armoured Division.

The military coup of December, 1983 led to the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, a position in which he served until August 1985.

Retirement General Buhari was appointed Executive Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) by the Abacha administration in 1994. The main consideration in appointing him to this position was his strict discipline and incorruptibility.

The PTF under General Buhari intervened directly in six major areas:

Construction/maintenance of roads;

Water supply;

Supply of educational materials and rehabilitation of educational infrastructure;

Health;

Food supply; and other projects.

The impact of this interventionist agency was felt across the entire nation in its four and a half years of existence.

Buhari in Politics Driven by a profound sense of patriotism and commitment to national service, General Buhari entered politics in 2003, following Nigeria’s return to a democratic dispensation in 1999. He joined the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and contested the presidential election on its platform that year. He lost to the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Olusegun Obasanjo. Undaunted by defeat, Buhari continued his political struggle, and on December 18th, 2006, he emerged as the consensus presidential candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party for the 2007 elections.

His main challenger in the April 2007 presidential polls was the ruling PDP candidate, Umaru Yar’Adua. In the election, Buhari officially scored 18 percent of the total votes cast, against 70 percent for Yar’Adua. Buhari rejected the results and in a post-election statement, Yar’Adua affirmed that the polls were indeed less than free, fair and credible. After Yar’Adua assumed office, the ANPP agreed to join his purported government of national unity, but Buhari denounced the agreement.

In March 2010, Buhari left the ANPP and formed, with some of his supporters, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC). General Buhari was nominated as the CPC presidential candidate on April 16th, 2011 for that year’s general election.

He ran against the then incumbent, President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling PDP, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), and Ibrahim Shekarau of the ANPP, and other candidates of smaller parties. Using the platform of the CPC, a newly formed party without much finance and essential party structures in the states, Buhari was able to garner 12, 214, 853 votes, coming second to Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP, who polled 22, 495, 197 votes.

The 2015 Presidential Election The 2015 General Elections were quite unique and interesting in redefining the character of the Nigerian political system. The previously inchoate opposition to the dominant ruling PDP was able to form, consolidate and mature.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP), The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), a breakaway faction of the ruling PDP known as the “new PDP”, and several disenchanted members of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) merged in 2013 to form the All Progressive Congress (APC).

It was this new party, the APC, much stronger in terms of resources and support base as well as having a pan-Nigerian appeal, that provided the platform upon which General Buhari contested the 2015 presidential election.

The perception of most Nigerians about the character of General Buhari greatly influenced the outcome of the 2015 elections. Over the years, General Buhari had cut the image of an incorruptible leader and had spurned several past opportunities to enrich himself. His campaign slogan of “Change” was widely embraced by Nigerians who longed for a new direction after 16 years of PDP rule at the national level.

General Buhari therefore won a popular victory in the presidential elections of March 28, 2015 and was sworn into Office as President, Commander-In Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 2015.

Honours Honours held by Muhammadu Buhari include:

Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR)

Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR)

Defence Service Medal (DSM)

National Service Medal (NSM)

General Service Medal (GSM)

Loyal Service and Good Conduct (LSGCM)

Forces Service Staff (FSS)

The Congo Medal

Global Seal of Integrity (GSOI)

Family Muhammadu Buhari is married to Aisha Muhammadu Buhari.

– Muhammadu Buhari Biography and Profile (State House, Nigeria)

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Mamoru Kanbe blatantly on the NE and no homo agenda lmao

(Minerva Confidential Report from the S1 Blu-ray)

Given Shirai's sentiments, I do think Sugita was purposely coy and obfuscating with the "but not romantically" comment, but still interesting how there was some back and forth on that approval.

And idk if I remember this correctly but I think all three of them were holding hands at some point but in the anime Ray didn't hold hands with them

This scene from chapter 28 that was altered to mimic a similar shot in the opening in episode 9?

Cloverworks pushing away the entire Norray subplot was crazy (well platonic norray but you get me)

Like after Norman found out Ray was the spy (it's really ironic tbh I love it >_<) he started to realize that he loved and appreciated Ray way more than he initially thought like even during that scene he was like "damn he was really risking it all for us..." "All of this for our sake..." He was like really touched (also before the confrontation he asked Ray why he thinks the traitor is betraying them and asked Emma if they should take the traitor with them during the escape all because he was looking for any reason to see the best in Ray) and literally after that he kept defending him with his LIFE every time they told someone Ray was the spy (first Emma then Don and Gilda) like "HE DID IT FOR OUR SAKE" OK DAMN CHILL...

and he was literally so fixated on the "to make sure YOU BOTH don't get killed" slip up he was on a mission to confirm his suspicions for like the rest of his stay in Grace Field and in his letter to Emma he was like "but Ray is amazing..." and "please take care of Ray... and the others I guess" like OK man

Ray was going to die so Emma and Norman could live and Norman literally did that for him instead like you can't make this shit up he literally adores Ray ok? He loves him so much he'd do anything for him HE LITERALLY SWITCHED PLACES WITH HIM BECAUSE HE THOUGHT RAY ALREADY SUFFERED ENOUGH FOR THEM and he kept thinking about him during his stay at Lambda too he didn't say "I miss her" he said "I miss them"

Meanwhile Cloverworks was like removing Ray from everything for Noremma's sake like what... Norman was hugging both of them in his nightmare... And idk if I remember this correctly but I think all three of them were holding hands at some point but in the anime Ray didn't hold hands with them and I know season 2 doesn't exist but they excluded Ray from the full score TRIO hug with Norman when he was breaking down and made him not gaf STOP FORCING NOREMMA!!!!! THERE WAS LITERALLY A SUBPLOT ABOUT NORMAN LOVING RAY!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!!!

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*Either all along or post-escape **Through being the reincarnation of James, one of his parents being a Ratri, or one of his more distant relatives being a Ratri

Really interested in the Other option as someone who came into the fandom after the series concluded and possibly missed some that were popular for a time and then dropped like a rock in the collective fandom conscience after a certain point.

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*No, I hope he never does. There's too much pain there, and letting it go is part of him moving on and healing. **He does for a few people/his family so they know it existed and each person can decide their own relationship with it, but he never sings it again after that. ***Yes. It's a slow process, but eventually he transforms it into something healing, even with the sadness it carries. He's still fairly private about it, though. ****I have strong leanings toward no but could be swayed toward yes by a capable author/artist. *****I have strong leanings toward yes but could be swayed toward no by a capable author/artist.

(S1 Episode 10 | S1 Episode 12 | Chapter 37 | TPN Light Novel 2: Moms’ Song of Remembrance - “The Starry Sky and Leslie’s List”)

[Related post with thoughts on this] [Related poll about Ray's relationship with reading post-escape]

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#my friend rachel fullscoreshenanigans has a really good analysis post abt their development also. i will find it if i rember <3 #or she'll see this post and link it herself rachel fucking loves links. pspsps

hey can you let me fubking live

but here

YOUR ART IS SOOO SWEET AND YUMMY ive been sucked in by your raydon propaganda i need to hear more

OOOOOHG THANK YOU HELL YEAH !!!! JUMPING AROUND SO MUCH

and i am soooooo normal about raydon you have no idea<3 i've been meaning to make a more in-depth analysis on their dynamic and why i like them as a ship for someone else who asked but i haven't had the chance to organize all my thoughts yet </3

tbh the biggest thing is i just really like their development through the series because like. don is shown to really admire ray and obviously pre-escape ray is experiencing the horrors and is actively pushing everyone besides emma and norman away and i really like seeing them grow closer after ray is finally allowed to begin healing it's very sweet to me <3

their dynamic is just really good in general and i think it is very underappreciated. and in the context of romance specifically i like the idea of them finally being allowed to get to know each other and seeing don's admiration turn into genuine love while ray tries to process his feelings (and probably has a few crises over it<3) and i think don being such an openly affectionate and caring person would definitely help ray as he learns to handle recieving affection and giving it as well. also it's really sweet seeing how emotional ray makes don at several points in canon and i like thinking about him just being so overjoyed whenever ray shows him any sort of affection (and ray noticing this and making a mental note to do it more often <3)

tldr theyre both very sensitive people in different ways and their development is very sweet and the would be so good to each other and they are cute. also they are funny as fuck

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Assorted bits/trivia/propaganda: • Favorite volume cover poll can be found here, and favorite inner volume cover poll can be found here. • Chapter 47's art is Kaiu Shirai's favorite color chapter cover art per the "Tracks to the Neverland" exhibition book interview (from December 2020): "Amazingly drawn upper arms (and legs!) Everyone is drawn differently for their different ages! I adore the happy smiles of a mother and her daughters. It's a color page published on One Piece's 20th anniversary, so let me applaud the use of the straw hats and One Piece theme. I love it. Only Emma's hat is fringed and that's the best!" • Chapter 75's art is Demizu's fifth favorite color chapter cover art per the exhibition interview: "The theme was graduation, and I had a lot of trouble deciding the color of the clothes, which left a lasting impression on me. The color scheme is a bit mismatched thanks to the combination of bright colors like foreign uniforms and cherry blossoms, but I think I turned out beautifully." • Chapter 119 was the inspiration for the "The Guiding Star" short story originally published in Shounen Jump GIGA 2019 Summer Volumes 1–3 and eventually reprinted in the fourth light novel, "Films of Memories." (First part can be found here, translated by @presumenothing.) • I included the original spread of chapter 153 in WSJ because the "he is always alone" line kills me. This is also Shirai's fifth favorite color chapter cover art per the exhibition interview: "God. Representing Norman’s mental landscape like this..? I want to take a peek inside Demizu-sensei’s brain! The expression on Norman’s face, a burnt land's grief, frailty; Emma and Ray appearing there. It hit me so hard that I used the metaphor for the main story as well. I love it!" • Chapter 181 propaganda by @tutubola and some tag ramblings:

"i really like this actually. ray carrying one of the younger kids? norman w rolled up pants? the vulnerability???? all of them w rolled up pants/skirts actually. gilda looks so cute. and look at sherry she's so obsessed w norman it's so cute. i would make this more elaborate but i cant think rn be back in 46-79 business days (#it's the more-than-earned casualness of it all combined with it being one of those pictures you can hear the sound of #the soft ebb and flow of the waves and cry of the seagulls #with the warmth emanating from this scene of this family that against all odds was able to overturn destiny #and come out together just as close as not more so than where we started with them in the very first chapter #enhanced by the gentle hues of the setting sun to parallel the end of their long and hard-fought journey #and the warm air that's carried by an equally gentle sea breeze~ #shoutout specifically to seeing Anna‚ Don‚ Norman‚ and Ray naturally falling into their elder sibling roles #showcasing one of the fundamental cores of this series #healingly wholesome)

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*The Grace Field kids at each plant share the same surname, the other farms don't **Certain groups of kids adopt the same surname, but it's not based on their farm of origin

My thoughts on this from another post:

Grace or Gracefield feels like it would have too much baggage [for a surname] (unless whatever agency is doing this goes over their heads and does it anyway; the mixed bag of bitterness that could crop up from these people still seeing them as bound to that place when they altered fate to flee it), but I could get behind the kids in each Grace Field plant sharing a surname, Grand Valley kids sharing a surname, and then so on with Glory Bell, Goodwill Ridge, and Lambda. From purely an aesthetic perspective, it's cute thinking of the older kids initially trying to pick out ones for themselves, and then the younger siblings latching onto ones they're picking so they can remain close before they all eventually decide to come to a group decision. A legal one would probably take precedence though. At the very least, I feel the older Grace Field kids would want to ensure they had a say in the future of the younger ones, and this would be an additional layer of claim to that which is conveniently citable. The mass production farms are where it becomes more complicated with each one's size, but for convenience they might opt for this as well. Plus if any child wants to change their name in the future, that's always an option too.

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*No. I have no qualms about how it affects the story; I just don't like deviating from canon in works in general. **I like playing around with it in fanfics/AUs, but I don't think it should actually happen in canon. ***Yes, a thousand years of cattle children and the general demon population suffering should have been compensation enough. ****Combination of two or more listed options since tumblr won't let us have multiple choice voting.

Sort of a continuation of this poll from last year.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 6)

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After reading Kei Toda's book The Promised Neverland with a British/American Literature Scholar, specifically the third chapter focusing on gender:

I personally find it more thematically satisfying if it's the first option to further drive home the dystopian horror of the series equating a human's worth not only to arbitrary measures of intelligence via the narrow and rigid standardized tests the children at Grace Field are forced to take, but also to bioessentialism so the dissolution of the farm system can act as a rejection of both.

It feels very odd to me if the narrative makes a point to voice how boys are discard (during the present at least) and shows the casual indifference to the deaths of so many girls who try to rise to the rank of sister (described most plainly in Krone's chapter of the second light novel:)

would turn around and then be gender affirming to trans girls (and again, the feminism in the work being tied to the rejection of this system).

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1.) *Yes, I have multiple ships I'm very fond of/passionate about, and at least one of them is one of the nine listed popular fandom ships 2.) **Yes, I have multiple ships I'm very fond of/passionate about, and none of them are one of the nine listed popular fandom ships 3.) ***Yes, I have one popular fandom ship I'm very fond of and a few I more casually ship 4.) ****Yes, I have one uncommon/rare ship I'm very fond of and a few I more casually ship 8.) *****Yes, but pretty casually/more as an afterthought, and none of the ones I ship casually are among the more popular fandom ships 9) ******No; I can see why people ship some characters romantically, but there are no ships that are appealing to me in this series

For the purposes of this poll, these are considered popular fandom ships:

Noremma (Norman x Emma)

Rayemma (Ray x Emma)

Norray (Norman x Ray)

Norrayemma (Norman x Ray x Emma)

Gildon (Gilda x Don)

Rayanna (Ray x Anna)

LesIsa/Lesbella (Leslie x Isabella)

Sonmuji (Sonju x Mujika)

Yuucas (Yuugo x Lucas)

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(Chapter 32 | TPN Light Novel 1: A Letter from Norman - "The Ghost Incidents at Grace Field House" | Shirai's Highlights for Volume 4 | Chapter 140 Post)

The most common route I see is he regains his love for it after he's out of the oppressive environment of Grace Field (myself included), but I've also seen some people opt for him to focus more on cooking, photography, machines, or archery.

(Chapter 4 | Questionnaire Translation Source | Mystic Code Book Chapter 7 Q&A)

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HE'S BALD NOW TOO?????