#Government Employee Transfer

[thehansindiaseo]

AP relieves 122 TNGOs to parent cadre

The Government of Andhra Pradesh had taken a crucial decision to relieve 122 non-gazette employees of Telangana who have been working in Andhra Pradesh for about a decade.

[townpostin]

Dr. Ajoy Kumar Accuses BJP of Denying Justice to Victims

Dr. Ajoy Kumar Cites Odisha Raj Bhavan Incident as Example of BJP’s "Conduct and Character" Former MP claims pattern of punishing victims instead of perpetrators in BJP-ruled states. JAMSHEDPUR – Dr. Ajoy Kumar, former MP and senior Congress leader, has leveled serious allegations against the BJP government, accusing it of systematically denying justice to victims and instead punishing them for…

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The specific process by which Google enshittified its search

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SATURDAY (Apr 27) in MARIN COUNTY, then Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

All digital businesses have the technical capacity to enshittify: the ability to change the underlying functions of the business from moment to moment and user to user, allowing for the rapid transfer of value between business customers, end users and shareholders:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

Which raises an important question: why do companies enshittify at a specific moment, after refraining from enshittifying before? After all, a company always has the potential to benefit by treating its business customers and end users worse, by giving them a worse deal. If you charge more for your product and pay your suppliers less, that leaves more money on the table for your investors.

Of course, it's not that simple. While cheating, price-gouging, and degrading your product can produce gains, these tactics also threaten losses. You might lose customers to a rival, or get punished by a regulator, or face mass resignations from your employees who really believe in your product.

Companies choose not to enshittify their products…until they choose to do so. One theory to explain this is that companies are engaged in a process of continuous assessment, gathering data about their competitive risks, their regulators' mettle, their employees' boldness. When these assessments indicate that the conditions are favorable to enshittification, the CEO walks over to the big "enshittification" lever on the wall and yanks it all the way to MAX.

Some companies have certainly done this – and paid the price. Think of Myspace or Yahoo: companies that made themselves worse by reducing quality and gouging on price (be it measured in dollars or attention – that is, ads) before sinking into obscure senescence. These companies made a bet that they could get richer while getting worse, and they were wrong, and they lost out.

But this model doesn't explain the Great Enshittening, in which all the tech companies are enshittifying at the same time. Maybe all these companies are subscribing to the same business newsletter (or, more likely, buying advice from the same management consultancy) (cough McKinsey cough) that is a kind of industry-wide starter pistol for enshittification.

I think it's something else. I think the main job of a CEO is to show up for work every morning and yank on the enshittification lever as hard as you can, in hopes that you can eke out some incremental gains in your company's cost-basis and/or income by shifting value away from your suppliers and customers to yourself.

We get good digital services when the enshittification lever doesn't budge – when it is constrained: by competition, by regulation, by interoperable mods and hacks that undo enshittification (like alternative clients and ad-blockers) and by workers who have bargaining power thanks to a tight labor market or a powerful union:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

When Google ordered its staff to build a secret Chinese search engine that would censor search results and rat out dissidents to the Chinese secret police, googlers revolted and refused, and the project died:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(search_engine)

When Google tried to win a US government contract to build AI for drones used to target and murder civilians far from the battlefield, googlers revolted and refused, and the project died:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/technology/google-pentagon-project-maven.html

What's happened since – what's behind all the tech companies enshittifying all at once – is that tech worker power has been smashed, especially at Google, where 12,000 workers were fired just months after a $80b stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years. Likewise, competition has receded from tech bosses' worries, thanks to lax antitrust enforcement that saw most credible competitors merged into behemoths, or neutralized with predatory pricing schemes. Lax enforcement of other policies – privacy, labor and consumer protection – loosened up the enshittification lever even more. And the expansion of IP rights, which criminalize most kinds of reverse engineering and aftermarket modification, means that interoperability no longer applies friction to the enshittification lever.

Now that every tech boss has an enshittification lever that moves very freely, they can show up for work, yank the enshittification lever, and it goes all the way to MAX. When googlers protested the company's complicity in the genocide in Gaza, Google didn't kill the project – it mass-fired the workers:

https://medium.com/@notechforapartheid/statement-from-google-workers-with-the-no-tech-for-apartheid-campaign-on-googles-indiscriminate-28ba4c9b7ce8

Enshittification is a macroeconomic phenomenon, determined by the regulatory environment for competition, privacy, labor, consumer protection and IP. But enshittification is also a microeconomic phenomenon, the result of innumerable boardroom and product-planning fights within companies in which would-be enshittifiers try to do things that make the company's products and services shittier wrestle with rivals who want to keep things as they are, or make them better, whether out of principle or fear of the consequences.

Those microeconomic wrestling-matches are where we find enshittification's heroes and villains – the people who fight for the user or stand up for a fair deal, versus the people who want to cheat and wreck to make things better for the company and win bonuses and promotions for themselves:

https://locusmag.com/2023/11/commentary-by-cory-doctorow-dont-be-evil/

These microeconomic struggles are usually obscure, because companies are secretive institutions and our glimpses into their deliberations are normally limited to the odd leaked memo, whistleblower tell-all, or spectacular worker revolt. But when a company gets dragged into court, a new window opens into the company's internal operations. That's especially true when the plaintiff is the US government.

Which brings me back to Google, the poster-child for enshittification, a company that revolutionized the internet a quarter of a century ago with a search-engine that was so good that it felt like magic, which has decayed so badly and so rapidly that whole sections of the internet are disappearing from view for the 90% of users who rely on the search engine as their gateway to the internet.

Google is being sued by the DOJ's Antitrust Division, and that means we are getting a very deep look into the company, as its internal emails and memos come to light:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

Google is a tech company, and tech companies have literary cultures – they run on email and other forms of written communication, even for casual speech, which is more likely to take place in a chat program than at a water-cooler. This means that tech companies have giant databases full of confessions to every crime they've ever committed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Large pieces of Google's database-of-crimes are now on display – so much, in fact, that it's hard for anyone to parse through it all and understand what it means. But some people are trying, and coming up with gold. One of those successful prospectors is Ed Zitron, who has produced a staggering account of the precise moment at which Google search tipped over into enshittification, which names the executives at the very heart of the rot:

https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/

Zitron tells the story of a boardroom struggle over search quality, in which Ben Gomes – a long-tenured googler who helped define the company during its best years – lost a fight with Prabhakar Raghavan, a computer scientist turned manager whose tactic for increasing the number of search queries (and thus the number of ads the company could show to searchers) was to decrease the quality of search. That way, searchers would have to spend more time on Google before they found what they were looking for.

Zitron contrasts the background of these two figures. Gomes, the hero, worked at Google for 19 years, solving fantastically hard technical scaling problems and eventually becoming the company's "search czar." Raghavan, the villain, "failed upwards" through his career, including a stint as Yahoo's head of search from 2005-12, a presiding over the collapse of Yahoo's search business. Under Raghavan's leadership, Yahoo's search market-share fell from 30.4% to 14%, and in the end, Yahoo jettisoned its search altogether and replaced it with Bing.

For Zitron, the memos show how Raghavan engineered the ouster of Gomes, with help from the company CEO, the ex-McKinseyite Sundar Pichai. It was a triumph for enshittification, a deliberate decision to make the product worse in order to make it more profitable, under the (correct) belief that the company's exclusivity deals to provide search everywhere from Iphones and Samsungs to Mozilla would mean that the business would face no consequences for doing so.

It a picture of a company that isn't just too big to fail – it's (as FTC Chair Lina Khan put it on The Daily Show) too big to care:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaDTiWaYfcM

Zitron's done excellent sleuthing through the court exhibits here, and his writeup is incandescently brilliant. But there's one point I quibble with him on. Zitron writes that "It’s because the people running the tech industry are no longer those that built it."

I think that gets it backwards. I think that there were always enshittifiers in the C-suites of these companies. When Page and Brin brought in the war criminal Eric Schmidt to run the company, he surely started every day with a ritual, ferocious tug at that enshittification lever. The difference wasn't who was in the C-suite – the difference was how freely the lever moved.

On Saturday, I wrote:

The platforms used to treat us well and now treat us badly. That's not because they were setting a patient trap, luring us in with good treatment in the expectation of locking us in and turning on us. Tech bosses do not have the executive function to lie in wait for years and years.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/22/kargo-kult-kaptialism/#dont-buy-it

Someone on Hacker News called that "silly," adding that "tech bosses do in fact have the executive function to lie in wait for years and years. That's literally the business model of most startups":

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40114339

That's not quite right, though. The business-model of the startup is to yank on the enshittification lever every day. Tech bosses don't lie in wait for the perfect moment to claw away all the value from their employees, users, business customers, and suppliers – they're always trying to get that value. It's only when they become too big to care that they succeed. That's the definition of being too big to care.

In antitrust circles, they sometimes say that "the process is the punishment." No matter what happens to the DOJ's case against Google, its internal workers have been made visible to the public. The secrecy surrounding the Google trial when it was underway meant that a lot of this stuff flew under the radar when it first appeared. But as Zitron's work shows, there is plenty of treasure to be found in that trove of documents that is now permanently in the public domain.

When future scholars study the enshittocene, they will look to accounts like Zitron's to mark the turning points from the old, good internet to the enshitternet. Let's hope those future scholars have a new, good internet on which to publish their findings.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

[kimikitti]

In honor of the new Book 7 part I present to you all the right and honorable Lord Calibearn the Pretender. Briar Valley's premier overworked government employee.

Former court jester turned Royal Advisor, he's wrangled almost three generations of Draconia royalty in vastly different ways. He's twisted from the forest animals in sleeping beauty taking over the Prince's coat. Yes, he is made up of a bunch of animals in a fancy stuffed outfit. There's a lore dump below the cut

Unique magic: "Flock Together"- Allows user to control and manipulate groups of small animals. Advanced application allows conscious transfer of the soul

Background:

Calibearn came from a relatively poor background in Briar Valley. He used to sing and play the lute for some extra coin on the streets. When the Royal Court held a competition for a new jester, Calibearn decided to try out. He was successful on account for the unique harmonies he could conjure with forest animals and was appointed as a companion to a young princess Malenoar. It was through this that Calibearn met Raverne and Lilia.

War: (I'm not too set on his lore yet) During the invasion of the Silver Owl, Calibearn was taken hostage trying to evacuate civilians. He was never supposed to be near the front lines, due to his weak nature. While in captivity, Calibearn was forced to give up his original form and escape using his unique magic "Flock Together".

He never found his original body.

Upon his return, Calibearn took on a more ruthless political role under the senate. His sharp tongue and wit led to a meteoric rise in political circles (plus a shit ton of blackmail).

During the seige of Malenoar's castle, Calibearn was faced with a terrible choice. Send more troups to defend Malenoar or move the supplies to secure civilians. He made a choice he'll never forgive himself for.

Relationships:

Malenoar: On account of a shared childhood, they were quite close. Malenoar would frequently tease Cali about his shyness when they were young. Calibearn also entertained the princess with the sordid affairs that happen amongst the nobles in her court. Calibearn was also involved in a lot of the mischief Maleanoar would pull on potential suitors.

Lilia: Calibearn developed a minor crush on Lilia growing up. He holds Lilia in very high regard. After the war, Calibearn and Lilia's relationship deteriorates. Lilia, though still believing in Calibearn as a friend, cannot forgive him for abandoning Maleanoar. Calibearn doesn't believe that Lilia is wrong about that, but also refuses to explain himself. While Lilia is banished, Calibearn constantly petitions the Senate for a repeal of his punishment. He continues to support Lilia indirectly and would often send gifts for Silver through Malleus.

After nearly centuries of healing, Lilia wants to finally have an open conversation of Calibearn about the past. Calibearn runs away from this constantly. Much to the chagrin of literally everyone involved.

Malleus: Due to the fact that the Senate sucks and Lilia was not often allowed to see Malleus, Calibearn self appointed himself to be a tutor and mentor to the young prince. He would often help Malleus sneak out to see Lilia. He wanted the prince to at least have some semblance of a childhood.

Calibearn was not always the best role model at times. He taught Malleus how to curse like a sailor once and got his ass kicked by Lilia. Though he is fond of Malleus, Calibearn felt himself to be a temporary figure in prince's life. The guilt he carried made Calibearn feel that his love for the prince paled in comparison to the love Lilia could give. As such, he kept some amount of distance between him and Malleus.

Malleus on the other hand, grew to respect Calibearn as a mentor. Though that doesn't stop the prince from teasing Calibearn at every opportunity. (Btw the I love DILF mug is from Malleus, Cali has no idea what DILF means no one tell him.) Also, Malleus is constantly trying to get is divorced dads back together. Silver gets enlisted into this fight on account for him being the youngest and cutest.

[tieflingkisser]

68 orphans were evacuated from Gaza to the West Bank, enraging Israel's far right

TEL AVIV, Israel - An international non-profit organization has evacuated 68 children without parental care as well as 11 employees and their families from Rafah, in southern Gaza, to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. With the help of the German embassy, the children, staff and their families were evacuated by the charity group SOS Children's Villages International, and arrived Monday in Bethlehem. The children are between the ages of 2 and 14, and according to a statement from SOS, were moved with the consent of their legal guardians.

[...]

The United Nations said that the transfer was carried out with the approval of Israeli authorities — a decision that has sparked anger among hardliners inside the Israeli government. The far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called the transfer one in a series of "fake 'humane measures,'" saying "the citizens of Israel continue to pay the price." Meanwhile, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), finance minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded to know who gave the "immoral order" while the children of Israelis are held hostage.

[skulandcrossbones]

audio transcript:

hi there, non emergency line, how can I help you? power outage? have you gone outside to see if the entire block is out? okay well then go outside - it's just you? I have to ask, did you pay your power bill this month? you didn't— oh you're a sovereign citizen? well see therein lies the rub— hey chill out, I- I don't like paying my bills either! and I just need to say, I'm a government employee and you called me so the irony is not lost—

non emergency line how can I help you? there's birds blocking the exit to your apartment? have they attacked you? no? okay good. can you count how many birds there are? yes it actually does matter. if it's eight or less we can send out keith, if it's nine or above we're gonna have to contact animal control. oh it's not arbitrary, it's aviary— I'm kidding, I'm kidding, no! no yeah we'll send out keith — KEITH GET THE NET!

non emergency line how can I help you? got a noise complaint? well it is.......3pm. we can't do anything until 10. okay i guess uh, yeah I guess children's laughter can be grating but—

non emergency line how can I help you? okay I'm going to have to transfer you to poison control for that— no it's a very common issue we have here so don't even worry—

non emergency line how can I help you? okay so yeah you will want poison control for that—

eehhh poison control– poison control– poison contr– buddy I love the way that gasoline smells too but unfortunately we're gonna have to loop in poison control—

non emergency line how can I help you? OH MY GOD SOMEONE'S SHOOTING AT YOU??? oh shouting at you, I was gonna say, you should [laughs]– we have a hold you should've called 911! what are they shouting at you? it does matter, see, the police and I have uh split custody of, of verbal altercations so it really does... okay so they're saying "no you incompetent buffoon, the birds are out--" KEITH IS THIS YOU??

[dazachi]

Theory time on the whole "ADA member transfers to PM" deal and why I genuinely think this was part of Dazai's plan (loooong post):

Based on what we have, I actually think we can assume that Fukuzawa, Ranpo, Dazai, all of the higher ups in the PM, and the govt. are aware of the deal and that Dazai will go back. Here's why:

Prior to Fyodor's arrest, Dazai had been maintaining an essentially crimeless record (and if he does do something morally questionable, he either had government backing from Ango, or was done in a way that can't be pointed back to him).

However, before anything could progress in S4, Dazai purposely put himself out in public to get arrested. I'd even argue that he had Ango purposely release some of his old crimes rather than it being written on the ripped page of the book (and if it was actually written in the book, then Dazai must have anticipated it in the first place because he knows Fyodor would do that).

This idea is further cemented by the fact that Ango, Mori, and Chuuya are actually aware of what Dazai is doing (more than the ADA even). Dazai had contacts in and out of Mersault ready before his arrest.

To make these plans in the first place, Dazai had to have talked to (at least) Mori and Ango. This would have to be roughly around the same time as when Mori and Fukuzawa made a deal. What if all of this was just one meeting?

Because let's face it. Fukuzawa only saying "except Yosano" was such a red flag moment. If there was anyone Mori would have wanted back in his control, it would either be his angel of death or his demon prodigy. The conversation must not have ended there...

Also, why was this deal even created in the first place? I feel like there could have been a different agreement, and this just looks like an excuse to get Dazai to go back. Fukuzawa agreeing with this deal is weird because he knows what the PM is like. Why would he subject his employees to possibly experience working there?

Dazai may have actually purposely put himself up for the taking in preparation to a future enemy that needed him back in the PM- back in his hometurf with all the manpower he could command and to give soukoku the free reign they had once again (without the limitations of the law on Dazai).

So anyway, now we have Dazai with his crimes leaked, which would have been fine alone because it could be played off as part of what was written on the page, but then he kills some guards in Mersault and commits jailbreak, along with several other crimes in just 30 minutes. In addition, he is clearly shown to be working with Chuuya, a well-known criminal, who has also committed several crimes while there.

Say what you will about Mersault security (which is actually good but just couldn't keep the demons on hold lmao), but they would 100% have records of what Dazai had done there. Even if he could be considered crimeless before, he can no longer be called crimeless again now. His actions here are beyond the manipulations of the book. To have these crimes (in France) erased would require the government to have an agreement with another country and to have Dazai go into hiding for some time again (doable, but troublesome).

That leaves us to the fact that Dazai is back to willingly committing crimes and partnering up with Chuuya as Soukoku for an extended period of time. All of these acts are known to Mori and Ango.

This implies that the choice had been made prior to S4, and this is why Dazai could do all these crazy schemes.

This also clears up why Ranpo and Fukuzawa no longer consider Dazai in the ADA roster recently. Not because they don't care for him, but because he is secretly no longer part of the ADA in the first place, and Dazai's safety is now under the concern of the PM.

Scarily enough, this could also possibly set up Dazai as the next boss of the PM in preparation for the next big enemy. One thing some people in the fandom noticed was that Mori had mentioned before that Dazai would become the boss when he turns 23. This fits in the timeline well because Dazai is several months (or maybe even weeks) closer to his 23rd birthday (or he may already be 23 right now). All of this may have been pre-planned for longer than we think.

Also, as a personal opinion on the other possible transfer candidates, they actually have better hold on the ADA and would not function well in the PM.

The PM would clash with Kunikida's ideals (though it would be interesting to have the future leader of the ADA be put in the PM the same way the future leader of the PM was employed in the ADA)

Tanizaki would be a great candidate, especially for his skills (and it would be interesting to have another redhead in the PM hahaha), but I highly doubt Naomi would take his transfer sitting down (Naomi would probably even attempt to join the PM) and, in turn, Junichiro would hate to bring his sister in the PM as well. Tanizaki's entire shtick involves his care for his sister, and taking that away brings him back to having no motivation to go crazy.

Atsushi is actually my 2nd option. Moving Atsushi to the PM would make him learn more about how the PM functions, and this allows SSKK to spend more time building their relationship. Chuuya could watch over the two of them as an aide to Dazai's mentoring, and this could lead to more character growth for Atsushi. Unfortunately, this voids Atsushi's plans to learn how to fight under Kunikida's tutelage, and the "no killing" deal with Akutagawa slightly lessens its impact because they would now be in the criminal organization rather than the opposing one (I'd rather have Akutagawa join the ADA tbh. This would further cement the "no killing" idea that Atsushi demands of him and build the SSKK partnership.)

Kenji is also a good bet, but the PM already has Chuuya, which makes having Kenji redundant. Kyoka would not return without an all out brawl and would actually waste all the efforts from S2. Ranpo would be insufferable lmao, and he is not made for Mafia types of strategy (he's smart! But he is not here for the manipulation and long chess matches. He doesn't have the patience for that when he can get straight to the point), and I'm not sure who in the PM he would have synergy with yet...he works best as a detective.

NOW, I may be wrong, because who knows what Asagiri will pull on us, and all of this is based on what is shown (I'm not sure if we could trust it lol), but this is the theory I came up with based on my understanding of events. Dazai planned to go back, and the tripartite knows of it.

Before anyone says this is a waste of Dazai's character development, I'd argue that there may be a misconception as to what Dazai is actually here to learn.

Odasaku knows that good and evil does not matter to Dazai. Dazai choosing to save people is not Dazai's character growth because he has ALWAYS been capable of that despite his unconventional means. The real character growth that Dazai needed was that there was a world beyond the darkness that he insists on putting himself in, and that he is capable humanity. Mori realized this too by proving the humanity in Dazai by chasing him out with Odasaku's death. Dazai has also realized this, and is now ready to return to his hellhole as a new man touched by the light. He is ready to be a leader, not the tyrant that he would have been without this lesson. Mori just prevented another insane mafia boss from taking the throne.

In addition, the PM has repeatedly been defined as the organization that protects the city in the dark. Being in the PM does not hinder Dazai from saving people (again, they've done so before while there). This might actually give him more power to move around and defend Yokohama more efficiently.

I guess this is it for now. I may have missed some things, but these are my main arguments for now hehe

[waheelawhisperer]

Look, I like shitting on Warner Bros as much as the next guy (God knows they've done so much to deserve it), but the way some of y'all (particularly in the RWBY fandom) are acting like the big bad media company killed poor uwu Rooster Teeth is baffling to me. Like... y'all are aware that RT had been bleeding money since at least the start of the covid pandemic, right? And when they weren't, it was because they were squeezing every last bit of unpaid labor they could out of their employees, to the point where there were multiple scandals over it and fucking Warner had to tell them to scale it back because they were literally violating employment law to a degree even the dogshit parent company couldn't tolerate, right? Their community manager posted in public, with absolutely zero self-awareness, that the company was making less money now than they were in 2011.

The writing was on the wall. Warner didn't kill RT for a tax writeoff like they did with multiple nearly-completed animated films, they killed it because it was so painfully mismanaged that it was, according to one of its own management-level employees, somehow making less money than it was thirteen years ago...

To say nothing of the bad PR that comes from, again, the repeated workplace abuse scandals, not to mention the sexual predators coming from within the company and its branches/affiliates and the documented instances of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry coming from a company that literally got its name because its initial proposal was too homophobic for the Texas state government, so instead of engaging in any self-reflection, it changed up the words a little bit so the name wasn't technically using a slur.

If I were a studio exec, I would've shut this cesspool down years ago and transferred any worthwhile IP to a different branch of my company.

That said, it's absolutely shitty that the employees found out the company was being shuttered and they were losing their jobs on fucking Twitter instead of from management. Idk if it's RT or Warner who fucked that up, but either way, it's awful for the workers. If you're going to fire someone, you need to look them in the eyes and tell them so.

[wannabanauthor]

To the 9-1-1 fans who are worried about Gerrard becoming captain again of the 118, here’s some info from a government employee (not first responder but I’ve seen people retire and people transfer and have that all messed up due to a grievance or complaint):

All of them can petition to have Gerrard removed due to his past bigotry to 2 current members. He will be transferred elsewhere. If Tommy gets in on it and writes an affidavit detailing Gerrard being homophobic at the medal ceremony and Buck being his boyfriend, that could get him moved out of being Buck’s boss. Hen and Chimney could also have cases of not feeling comfortable with a racist supervisor due to past filed complaints. If they have evidence of his picture with the lady who sabotaged Mara’s adoption, they can claim retaliation for getting him ousted in the past. They can pretty much prevent him from coming back. I’ve seen it happen at the city and county levels.

Retirement is a lengthy-ish process before it goes into effect, so Bobby can reverse it. He can also be hired temporarily as a retiree who is still on the job because the vacancy can’t be filled. I’ve seen it happen in LA City, but I don’t know the technical term.

Fun fact: even supervisors have a probation period, unless they’re temporarily assigned to a post due to vacancy that can’t be filled right away. Gerrard burned too many bridges at the 118, so they could sabotage him easily and get him out of there. However, since he’s a supervisor and government employee, it could be lengthy, but if Bobby wants to return, the higher ups would just transfer Gerrard out rather than deal with endless complaints and potential lawsuit if Gerrard gets back to his old tricks.

Also, have you met government employees? We are some of the pettiest folk around, and we document everything when it comes to fellow employees we don’t like. It’d still take awhile, but Gerrard would be forced into being nice. Otherwise, he’d get hit with a lawsuit and grievance. Even if he’s not immediately removed from his post, he’d be suspended for some time and not able to work with the people who filed against him.

And finally, word spreads in government work. Bad supervisors/employees will end up with a reputation government agency-wide because people transfer/promote between departments and divisions, and locations often, and they talk. I guarantee that Gerrard has done bad things at other stations that have been documented, so there’s a history to go along with any future complaints the 118 will have.

Oh, one more last point, the 118 could pull a stunt similar to what happened in The Closer tv show. When the detectives heard their supervisor might face consequences for some of her actions, they all signed letters saying they would quit if anything happened to her. It rendered the complaints against their supervisor useless since an empty department looks worse than a few higher ups with grudges.

So worry not, the writers have many real life avenues to choose from to put into next season’s storyline to get rid of Gerrard.

Feel free to add more info about government employees in LA or correct me where I said something wrong.

[djuvlipen]

A 6yo girl died of electrocution in a Romani camp in Italy last month. this is what racialized poverty looks like; children are always among the first victims. may she rest in peace

04 March 2024

The Saturday before she was due to start school, six-year-old Michelle died by electrocution in the Roma camp in Via Carrafiello di Giugliano in Naples. Despite desperate attempts to resuscitate the girl, who had brushed against exposed electrical cables, she was pronounced dead at about three p.m. on the 13 January 2024. 

Allegedly, distressed family members caused a disturbance at the hospital and were accused of attacking health care personnel and police. This ‘chaos’ quickly became the focus of local media attention, and coverage of the tragic death of a child quickly morphed into an issue of public order and security.   

Deputy Francesco Emilio Borrelli of the Alleanza Verdi Sinistra, weighed in by describing the Giugliano camp “populated by violent people whose lifestyle is many times beyond the law” as one of many “outlaw settlements where children are abandoned to degradation”; and declaring his solidarity with the emergency room doctors and the police. 

After a meeting of the committee for public order and safety, the prefect of Naples, Michele Di Bari, set the objectives for the local administration “Clean the camp from waste in the next few weeks and start the transfer of a Roma family of around 40 people, to an asset confiscated from organized crime.” 

The authorities responded with a blitz on the camp coordinated by local police, and supported by Carabinieri, military personnel and employees of the water company. Waste was removed, electrical cables made safe, vehicles seized, and the water supply was disconnected, leaving about 450 Romani people without access to water by 25 January. Behind the expressions of concern about the safety of children, the official stance is – to borrow a phrase from Matteo Salvini – one of “Legalità, ordine e rispetto prima di tutto!” (Legality, order and respect before all).

The reporter from Avvenire tells a different story, of bereaved families, wrongly accused of affray at the hospital, routinely scapegoated and repeatedly evicted. After the seventh eviction they ended up on this long-abandoned industrial site, amongst the rubble and mud, without water or electricity, except for illegal connections – an ‘informal settlement’ in officialese. In reality, a squalid and precarious site, where 200 Romani children subsist in conditions that do nothing to nurture “an atmosphere of happiness” for the “full and harmonious development of his or her personality”, envisaged in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In a submission to the UN Human Rights Council back in 2014, ERRC research revealed that Romani children raised in camps across Italy were prone to a number of severe and debilitating conditions: they suffered from high levels of anxiety, were more frequently born underweight, and became ill with respiratory disease in greater numbers. They suffered more often from poisoning, burns and accidents at home. There was a greater incidence of “diseases of poverty”, such as tuberculosis, scabies, and lice.

The roots of the crisis can be traced back to official policies in the 1990s which placed Roma in segregated ‘nomad camps’. Things worsened with Berlusconi’s illegal declaration of a State of Emergency to combat the so-called ‘Roma menace’ in 2008. This overtly racist demonisation of Romani people heralded a prolonged period of mass evictions and destruction of camps, harassment, expulsions, mob violence and pogroms against Roma communities. Up to this day, the legacy of this illegal state of exception still afflicts Roma, as successive governments have failed, or simply refused to honour the commitment to ‘get beyond the system of camps.’ 

For its part, the European Commission chose to remain silent in the face of mounting and overwhelming evidence of systemic anti-Roma discrimination, forced evictions and camp segregation. On 6 April 2017, The Financial Times reported that the European Commission had repeatedly blocked publication of a report which recommended sanctions against Italy for mistreatment of its Roma minority, in an attempt to avoid a damaging public row. Seven years later, little has changed in Brussels, and the Commission has consistently kept schtum on this issue.

On 20 May 2019, in response to an emergency case was brought before the court by Associazione 21 luglio and the ERRC, the European Court of Human Rights ordered the Italian Government to provide suitable accommodation for the 73 Romani families who were forcibly evicted from Giugliano the previous week. The court recognised the right to family unity and the need to provide adequate housing to the 450 Roma who had been evicted, and were camped in an area with no shelter, and were forced to sleep inside cars or outdoors, despite the difficult weather conditions, without access to electricity, clean water or toilets. And this is where Michelle and her friends spent the next four years.

Despite the availability of EU funds, the precarious living conditions endured by the Roma remained unresolved. On 12 January 2021, the Campania Regional Council approved the "Abramo" project worth €846,000 for a path of housing, work and social integration of the Roma populations of Giugliano in Campania. As is all too painfully evident, no tangible progress had been made on housing, and as Avvenire noted, in the aftermath of this latest tragedy “now the focus is on the reuse of houses confiscated from the Camorra.” As part of the education path of the Abramo project, “Interventions on school integration have started and yesterday Michelle would have gone to school with the apron and backpack given to her.” Instead, on that first day at school for the cohort of Romani kids, one desk remained empty.

[odinsblog]

24JAN2024: On Sunday, Israel approved a plan to send taxes earmarked for Gaza to Norway instead of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Since November, taxes that would ordinarily be sent to Gaza have been frozen by the Israeli government.

Under the terms of a deal reached in the 1990s, Israel collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the PA pending the approval of the Ministry of Finance.

While the PA was ousted from the Gaza Strip in 2007, many of its public sector employees in the enclave kept their jobs and continued to be paid with transferred tax revenues.

Weeks after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, Israel took the decision to withhold payments earmarked for those employees in the Gaza Strip on the grounds that they could fall into the hands of Hamas.

Now, Israel says it will instead send the frozen funds to Norway. “The frozen funds will not be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, but will remain in the hands of a third country,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement released on Sunday.

Why does Israel control Palestinian tax revenue?

The system by which taxes and customs duties are collected by Israel on behalf of the PA and transferred to the authority on a monthly basis was agreed in a 1994 accord.

Known as the Paris Protocol, the accord was meant to manage the economic relationship between Israel and the Palestinian territories it occupied until a final peace settlement was reached between the two states.

Approved in the wake of the optimism generated by the Oslo Accords, which were publicly ratified by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the White House in September 1993, this protocol was supposed to end within five years.

However, 30 years later, the financial settlement continues to give the Israeli state what the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has called “a disproportionate influence on the collection of Palestinian fiscal revenue, leading to deficiencies in the structure and collection of customs duties resulting from direct and indirect importing into Palestine”.

How much money is Israel withholding?

The tax revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the PA amount to around $188m each month, and account for 64 percent of the authority’s total revenue.

A large portion of this is used to pay the salaries of the estimated 150,000 PA employees working in the West Bank and Gaza, despite it having no jurisdiction over the Strip.

On November 3, the Israel security cabinet voted to withhold a total of $275m in Palestinian tax revenues, including cash collected for prior months that was still with Tel Aviv.

“The PA is not clear about how much of the tax revenues go to Gaza – it’s a black box,” Rabeh Morrar, director of research at the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute-MAS, told Al Jazeera. “Sometimes they say 30 percent, sometimes 40, sometimes 50.”

Under terms set by Israel’s cabinet on Sunday, the monthly tax revenue previously allocated to PA staff in Gaza will instead be transferred to a Norwegian-based trust account. However, that money cannot be released by the fund to pay workers in Gaza without permission from Israel.

How does Israel exercise ‘disproportionate influence’ over the PA?

The Israeli state has often used its control of the PA’s tax revenues as a means to blackmail and punish the authority.

In January 2023, for instance, the newly-formed Israeli government – seen as the most far-right coalition government in the country’s history – decided to withhold $39m in tax revenues from the PA following the authority’s decision to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on the legality of Israel’s decades-long occupation.

“Israeli blackmailing of our tax revenues will not stop us from continuing our political and diplomatic struggle,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh at the time after Israel’s security cabinet had earlier described the PA’s ICJ move as a “decision to wage political and legal war against the State of Israel”.

What effect has Israel’s withdrawal of public money had on Palestine?

“The PA owes billions in internal debt to local banks, hospitals, medical companies and the private sector,” said Morrar. “There are also debts [owed], for example, for privately owned buildings rented out by the government. They have not been able to pay those back.”

In 2021, the PA’s financial crisis, exacerbated by Israel’s periodic refusal to pay the PA its total tax revenue share pre-October 7, prompted it to reduce all salaries by 25 percent.

(continue reading)

[tomorrowusa]

Donald Trump may have gotten an illegal campaign contribution from an Egyptian dictator. Trump's attorney general derailed an investigation into this illicit cash transfer.

And it really was CASH. The Washington Post reports on this bizarre scene at an Egyptian bank.

Five days before Donald Trump became president in January 2017, a manager at a bank branch in Cairo received an unusual letter from an organization linked to the Egyptian intelligence service. It asked the bank to “kindly withdraw” nearly $10 million from the organization’s account — all in cash. Inside the state-run National Bank of Egypt, employees were soon busy placing bundles of $100 bills into two large bags, according to records from the bank. Four men arrived and carried away the bags, which U.S. officials later described in sealed court filings as weighing a combined 200 pounds and containing what was then a sizable share of Egypt’s reserve of U.S. currency.

Now we know that $10 million in US cash weighs 200 lbs./90.7 kg.

Trump loves dictators because they can give him money from national banks without a free press or pesky opposition squawking about it.

Trump is corrupt to the core. And when a president is getting emoluments from other countries then US foreign policy is being influenced in a way which Americans are in the dark about.

The attorney general who derailed the investigation is the creepy Trump apologist Bill Barr. He is the poster boy for why there should be more independence for investigators looking into wrongdoing at the highest levels of government – including Supreme Court justices.

[zvaigzdelasas]

The IB affair (Swedish: IB-affären) was the exposure of illegal surveillance operations by the IB secret Swedish intelligence agency within the Swedish Armed Forces. The two main purposes of the agency were to handle liaison with foreign intelligence agencies and to gather information about communists and other individuals who were perceived to be a threat to the nation.[...]

The story was immediately picked up by many leading Swedish dailies.[3] Their revelations were that: •There was a secret intelligence agency in Sweden called IB, without official status. Its director Birger Elmér was reporting directly to select key persons at cabinet level, most likely defence minister Sven Andersson and Prime Minister Olof Palme. •The Riksdag was unaware of its activities. People with far-left views had been monitored and registered. •IB agents had infiltrated Swedish left-wing organisations and sometimes tried to induce them into criminal acts. •There were Swedish spies operating abroad. IB spies had broken into the Egyptian and Algerian embassies in Stockholm. •The IB co-operated extensively with the Central Intelligence Agency and Shin Bet, in contrast to the official Swedish foreign policy of neutrality.[...]

In the following issues of Folket i Bild/Kulturfront the two uncovered further activities of IB and interviewed a man who had infiltrated the Swedish movement supporting the FNL, Vietnamese National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam - at this time the FNL support network was a backbone of the radical opinion - and among other things, visited Palestinian guerilla camps in Jordan. The man worked for IB and had composed reports that, it was surmised, IB later passed on to the Israeli security services which resulted in the camps being bombed. [...]Swedish authorities claimed they were unable to locate him to stand trial. In 2009, he released an autobiography of his years in IB[...] He also confirmed that he had been transferred from IB to the Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency, immediately prior to his exposure.[...]

The magazine had information from a previous employee of IB, Håkan Isacson, who claimed that IB had broken into the offices of two political organizations: the FNL Groups, a pro-North Vietnamese organization, and the Communist Party of Sweden, a Maoist political party. This concerned a Jordanian citizen and a stateless citizen. A wiretap was installed in the latter case. After this uncovering, the defense minister did admit that IB engaged in espionage outside of Sweden and infiltrated organizations within Sweden, including wiretaps. Evidence was put forth in 1974 that IB had built up a large network of agents in Finland, which included the Finnish foreign minister Väinö Leskinen. This network's main mission was to gather information regarding the Soviet Union.[...]

In November 1973, Prime Minister Olof Palme denied any link between IB and the Social Democrats. However, according to the memoir of ex-security service chief P.G. Vinge, Birger Elmér had regular contact with Palme and made his reports regularly to the Social Democratic Party secretary, Sven Andersson.[...]

Jan Guillou, Peter Bratt, Håkan Isacson and the photographer Ove Holmqvist were arrested 22 October 1973[2] by the Swedish Security Service on suspicion of espionage. On 4 January 1974 each was sentenced to 1 year in prison. Bratt and Guillou were both convicted of espionage; Isacson was convicted of espionage and accessory to espionage. After an appeal, Guillou's sentence was commuted to 10 months. The Swedish Supreme Court would not consider the case.[4][...]

In 2002 an extensive public report, named Rikets säkerhet och den personliga integriteten (Security of the Realm and personal integrity), was published on the operations of IB. This report clarified the details of the case, but it did not have any legal impact. To date, no member of IB has ever been indicted, nor has any politician or government official, despite the revelation of widespread extra-constitutional and criminal activity.

[enigmaticexplorer]

I Yearn, and so I Fear - Part IV - Chapter XXVI

Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

General Summary. Nearly a year since the Galactic Empire’s rise to power, Kazi Ennari is trying to survive. But her routine is interrupted—and life upended—when she’s forced to cohabitate with former Imperial soldiers. Clone soldiers. 

Pairing. Commander Wolffe x female!OC

General Warnings. Canon-typical violence and assault, familial struggles, terminal disease, bigotry, explicit sexual content, death. This story deals with heavy content. If you’re easily triggered, please do not read. For a more comprehensive list of tags, click here.

Fic Rating. E (explicit)/18+/Minors DNI.

Chapter Word Count. 4.8K

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” – Rumi 

3 Kelona

“You wanna talk about it?”

From her seat on the front porch steps, Kazi took in the mist smoking among the jungle’s elder trees. A mist reminiscent of the dense winter fogs that enshrouded Outlook Harbor. A fog she used to watch from her window, imagining long-extinct dragons soaring through the gray clouds, only for her to see. 

“Carinthia commed me this morning,” she told Nova. He side-eyed her. Folding her uniform jacket—the humidity from the drizzle was suffocating—she pursed her lips. “She told me that my bank accounts are still intact. I can access them.”

The revelation had rendered Kazi speechless. After the Purge, the Empire consolidated Ceaian national assets, including the banks. All this time she’d assumed her accounts were terminated. On the grounds of her questionable allegiance. All of her assets should have become liquidities of the Empire.

Her response to Carinthia was simple: How are my accounts still active? Is the Empire tracking them?

Quick thinking from a high-level security personnel. A CI, Carinthia replied. Most government employee accounts were transferred from the national bank and then terminated before the Empire took notice.

Kazi could only chuckle her disbelief. If there was one trait Ceaians shared, it was resilience: an ability to discover a way to survive. As they had for millennia. 

However, it was Carinthia’s last message that bothered her the rest of the day, a scratch unreachable. 

“She said she can reestablish claim of my accounts,” Kazi said, the drizzle dotting her black boots—the earth uncertain, stalling a decision.

Ceaian credits were billable only on Ceaia. So, reestablishing claim over her accounts was useless. Unless she returned. Or, she could transfer her Ceaian credits to Imperial credits. However, the transfer process was timely and required Imperial documentation and an interview. 

Was it worth it to reclaim her accounts? She wasn’t sure. 

“That’s not all,” Nova remarked.

His matter-of-fact tone earned a chuckle from her, and she slid her gaze in his direction. He sat with his elbows on his thighs; his hands were clasped between his legs. It was the same stance she’d come across when she returned from work half an hour ago. A pensive expression solemnized his countenance.

She considered him for a silent moment. “Do you need to talk?” 

Nova continued to stare ahead. “I…have a decision to make. Soon.”

Kazi grimaced. She could relate to the overwhelming pressure of decision-making: the investigation at work; the strain between her and Wolffe; her banking accounts on Ceaia; Neyti’s adoption. The last issue was her primary concern, and the reason she remained outside.

Before work that morning, Kazi visited Eluca’s Adoption Center for Young Girls and Boys. For two hours she watched holorecordings of the two women matched to Neyti: Jesminda and Rin Kouti. 

A collection of smile lines, eye crinkles, and affable demeanors, the two women were perfect. 

“…we’ve been married for twenty years…”

“…Jesminda is a Nabooan law expert, and I’m a civil engineer…”

“…we built the house a decade ago…the waterfall is half a kilometer away and it makes for a lovely environment to picnic or watch the stars…”

“…our story has been one of many triumphs but also disappointments…we hope to share our lives with a child we can call our own…”  

The matching process at the Center was sophisticated—ranked among the top five in the Outer Rim. All potential adopters underwent extensive interview processes, and accurate matches were expected. 

Since Neyti’s situation was unique—Kazi claimed her as a dependent—the Center allowed Kazi to assess potential adopters and determine their merit. To prevent emotional fallout over rejection, the adopters were unaware of the match. Only Kazi and the Center’s employees knew it existed. 

It should have been simple, obvious, to approve Jesminda and Rin Kouti. Kazi had known within the first five minutes of their first interview that they were the ideal couple. They would love Neyti. Cherish and adore the little girl. 

And yet Kazi had kept watching the holorecordings. 

One after another. 

She kept watching until the holorecordings blurred together and twin droplets salted her cheeks. 

“If you’re thinking so hard about it,” Kazi said, gently knocking her elbow against Nova, “maybe it’s not the right decision.”

“It is.” At his aplomb, her eyebrows lifted. His shrug of acknowledgement was blasé. “I’ve allowed my past to dictate my actions up to this point. It’s time to move on.”

She frowned. “How do you know it’s the right decision?”

“My gut says so.”

A quiet snort escaped. Nova glanced at her, a subdued smile lifting the corners of his mouth. It was the resignation in his smile, the acceptance in his eyes that had her stiffening. Carefully, she asked, “Are you leaving?”

He released a low chuckle and inclined his head toward the front door. “You should go inside.” Her narrow-eyed stare had him sighing. “Neyti’s not doing well.”

Kazi fisted her uniform jacket and loosed a heavy breath. Since the winter holiday and her life day, Neyti had grown reclusive. 

Morning breakfasts passed in silence; afternoons were spent doing homework. The youngling no longer showed interest in games or films or gardening or sparring. 

Most evenings Neyti spent with Fluffy star gazing in the backyard. Her grins were rare, her dimpled smiles nonexistent. A melancholic cloud stormed her gray eyes.

Even at night, when Kazi read to her, Neyti seemed disinterested in stories of forgotten kingdoms and ambitious princesses. Disinterested and distracted. Concerned.

Kazi pushed herself to her feet. “Has she worsened?” 

A dip of Nova’s chin was his sole response. She offered him a tight smile and then trudged into the house.

Uniform jacket hung on the rack, boots shucked off, she wandered farther inside. A quick scan of the kitchen revealed the preparation for dinner. A hearty soup cooked on the stove. An assortment of vegetables decorated a cutting board: half-chopped, hastily abandoned. The three men huddled around the partition to the sunroom explained the soup and veggies’ sudden solitude. 

Setting her bag on the staircase, Kazi strode toward the men, peering into the sunroom.

Slumped on a chair pushed against the wall-to-wall windows hunched Neyti. Her arms were folded across the chair’s back; her chin rested on her forearms. Beside her sat Fluffy, his long tail flicking across her back. Brushes of comfort. Neyti didn’t react. 

Stooped over the chair, Daria murmured something to Neyti. The little girl stared out the windows, unresponsive. Her gaze was distant; her features were drawn. 

Internally, Kazi flinched at the sight. At the sight of a little girl staring blankly out a window. Black hair flickered and tawny skin lightened. Ocean waves raged, overtaking the misty jungle. 

A tap to her shoulder and she blinked away the vision. The reminder of seventeen years ago. Wolffe motioned for her to follow him, and they returned to the kitchen. 

“She’s been like this since Daria got her from school.” Wolffe returned to the chopped vegetables. He kept his focus on his work; his technique was quick, practiced. “She hasn’t eaten. Didn’t do her homework. Hasn’t acknowledged us.”

Though he kept his voice even, controlled, Kazi noticed his concern: the rigidity in his posture, the flex of his fingers around a carrot. 

Setting aside the knife, Wolffe gathered the sliced vegetables and tossed them into a bowl. He settled his gaze on hers. “Do you think this is a…woman’s issue?”

Her eyebrows pinched together. “Woman’s issue?”

He shot her a meaningful look, and when her frown deepened, he sighed. His voice lowered as he said, “Her menstrual cycle.”

Kazi blinked. “Neyti’s seven.”

“I was under the impression it affected girls at different ages.” A defensive note underscored his tone, and he crossed his arms over his chest, arching a brow.

“It does,” she said with a tired chuckle. “But for Ceaian girls that doesn’t become a problem until ten. At the earliest.”

“You sure?” 

“Quite.” Kazi took in the kitchen and living area. A blanket, unfolded, littered the couch. Dirt muddied the wood floors. Two pieces of chocolate remained in the candy bowl. Rubbing her bare arms, she forced her gaze back on Wolffe. “Something else is bothering her.”

Something is bothering you, she almost added. 

For a moment, they regarded one another. 

The desire to talk to him—to confess to him about Neyti’s adoption, to question his growing distance—urged her hand to extend forward. Her fingers to skim his. But Wolffe reached for the knife, and her hand collapsed to her side. He returned to his chopping. And Kazi was left with the same guilt.

You should have told him, a cruel, leering voice nagged.

She ground her teeth. 

She’d debated it. Truly. 

Every morning she woke beside Wolffe, she considered confessing her conundrum. Admitting to the strong tug in her heart that insisted on keeping Neyti. 

But…Wolffe had grown reticent, reserved, the last three weeks.

Their morning conversations were distracted, their evenings spent separately. He still slept in her bed, and they were both trying, but something was on his mind. 

She felt it in the depth of his kisses. (A frustration.)

She felt it in the way he flattened her hand to her mattress, locked their fingers together, when they had sex. (A demand.)

She felt it in the kissed marks he left on her breasts and inner thighs. (A plea.)

She felt it in his soft strokes to her spine, his gentle brushes to her cheek, his tender caresses to her neck. (A resignation.)

So, like Neyti, she gave him space to work through it. Because she wasn’t sure what was bothering him, and her suspicions only worried her. 

Regardless, Neyti’s impending adoption wasn’t a responsibility for him to bear. It wasn’t his decision to make. He wasn’t her husband, and he wasn’t Neyti’s caretaker, and she already knew his opinion on the matter, and he could walk away whenever he wanted, and maybe this distance between them was partially her fault, too. 

A self-sabotaged internalization after realizing she was going to lose Neyti so, so soon. 

Footsteps alerted her to the other adults, and Kazi straightened, locking away the small, insistent hand pressed against the bones of her ribcage.

“She didn’t say anything,” Daria said, wiping her hands against her white apron. “She wouldn’t even look at me.” 

With the addition of Daria, Cody, and Fox, the kitchen grew crowded. The steam from the soup combined with the heat of the bodies warmed the main level. An uncomfortable heat—instigated by the humidity outside—burned within Kazi. Or maybe it was the looks shot in her direction: Wolffe’s contemplative, Fox’s pointed.

Kazi tugged on a braid. “Don’t take it personally, Dee. Something is wrong—” 

“You should talk to her,” Daria interrupted. Reaching for the soup ladle, her sister scrutinized her with a perceptiveness that itched. “You understand her best.”

She retreated a step. “She needs space—”

“No, she doesn’t.” At the hint of accusation in Daria’s tone, she tensed. Clenched her hands behind her back. “She needs you.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Kazi argued. To her irritation, Wolffe rolled his eyes. A dismissive gesture of her claim. “I don’t. I’m not a mind reader—”

“You comforted her the last time this happened,” Daria argued. 

The last time this happened Neyti was upset over an imperfect painting. A simple mistake. 

The last time this happened Neyti’s adoption was an unknown. 

And the thought of comforting Neyti—kind-hearted, compassionate, curious Neyti—while she debated giving the little girl away, felt like a betrayal—

No. It was a betrayal.

“She trusts you, Zee,” Daria said.

Kazi scanned the main level and its occupants: Cody continued to prepare the fish, neutral; Fox tapped a slow beat against the counter, a knowing gleam in his eyes. Daria and Wolffe observed her through narrowed eyes: the former wary, as if this was a test she was afraid Kazi would fail; the latter guarded, as if he weren’t certain what decision she would make.

“Fine.” Kazi forced her hands to unclench, and she faced Wolffe. “There was another long-range transmission to Eluca that I had to manipulate to the outpost—”

“Stop stalling, Ennari.”

A window was cracked open in the sunroom, the scent of rain fresh. Wisps of hairs curled and sweat slicked her arms as Kazi neared youngling and canine. Fluffy’s tail thumped against the ground. White teeth baring in a smile, he bumped Neyti with his nose. The little girl ignored him. A low whine reverberated in the back of his throat.

Scratching the anooba behind his ears, Kazi surveyed the mist-smoked jungle. “Seen any lightning?” 

Neyti jumped, and she shot a furtive look at her. Bemusement scrunched her nose; she shook her head.

“Good.” Kazi extended her hand. “Come on.”

Wariness kept Neyti hunched on the chair eyeing her. Kazi forced her hand to remain extended, to keep her features gentle yet uncompromised, even as she silently pleaded for the little girl to accept the invitation.

The chrono ticked.

The mist grew ashier, and the drizzle pattered louder.

Tiny fingers pressed into her palm, and Kazi swallowed, wrapping her hand around Neyti’s. With a small, reassuring smile, she gestured toward the back door. Neyti merely blinked. Hesitant. Skeptical. But also…trusting.

Socked feet tucked into boots, they stepped outside. The mist embraced them in its humid hold. The ferns welcomed them with damp caresses to their shins and calves, the hems of their rolled trousers sodden. 

Ignoring the drizzle sweating her skin, Kazi settled among the ferns. Neyti frowned at her but followed suit. Soon, they were lying on the wet-soiled earth, eyelashes coated with tiny raindrops and braids frizzed by the muggy atmosphere. Their hands remained clasped together.

“Did your mom ever tell you the myth about fog?” 

Kazi snuck a glance at Neyti; the little girl shook her head. It didn’t surprise her, considering Neyti’s Culturalist background. 

“Billions of years ago, the earth—Ceaia—was first created,” Kazi said. “It was new to the galaxy and eager to prove itself. But the earth was young and inexperienced, and one day, it felt so much pressure that it got confused. It felt sad, but also angry. And because the earth was so stressed, it didn’t know how to react, so it hid itself away. Behind the fog.”

She waved a hand through the mist. Miniature droplets speckled her palm and fingers.

“Fog isn’t a bad thing,” she continued. Neyti mimicked her, her tiny hand reaching into the mist. “It’s a natural part of the earth. But, if the earth allows the fog to fester, to grow unchecked, then there’ll be consequences.”

Neyti twisted her head to face her. Her eyes were darker, stormier, than the dense mist.

“With endless fog, the ground won’t experience sunlight and the plants won’t be able to grow,” Kazi explained, gesturing to the shadows of the elder trees. “Without plants to eat, the animals will die. And without animals to inhabit the earth, the earth will be alone.”

A small gasp shuddered through Neyti and she lunged upwards, yanking her hand from Kazi. She wrapped her arms around her knees. Hugged herself.

“In the myth”—Kazi forced herself to a seated position, too—“the earth realized the fog—realized that hiding from its emotions—was actually hurting itself.”

The drizzle lightened, and through the sudden silence descending upon the jungle, Kazi stared at Neyti. At the little girl huddled around herself, stubbornly resistant.

“Our emotions can be confusing and scary,” she said softly, gently. “We don’t understand what we’re feeling, so we try to hide from them. But, like the earth when it gets too foggy, hiding from our emotions isn’t a good thing.” 

Neyti shook her head. A harsh, defensive shake.

“Neyti,” she murmured. 

A tear slid down the youngling’s cheek. Neyti sucked in a shallow breath.

She tapped her boot against Neyti’s. “What’s going on?”

A breath escaped, and the mist retreated a few paces, and then Neyti placed a trembling palm over her heart. Hoarsely, she whispered, “Why did Mummy die?”

Kazi couldn’t remove her gaze from Neyti—she couldn’t look away from the confusion, the hurt, the yearning in the little girl’s eyes. Because, long ago, little Kazi had asked the same question about her papa. 

Long ago, little Kazi secluded herself in her harbor’s temple and knelt before an altar, pleading with the dragons to bring her papa back. 

Long ago, when everyone had moved on but her, little Kazi climbed to the top of the broken lighthouse and screamed at the raging sea. It roared back, defiant. Indifferent. 

No one answered little Kazi’s question. Not her mother. Not the ocean. Not the dragons.

“I don’t know,” Kazi said. Neyti watched her, and she swallowed, refusing to look away from the girl’s desperation, her denial. “I don’t know why your mom died. I don’t know why bad things happen to good people. I don’t, and I’m so sorry for not knowing.”

Another tear crumpled. Neyti hugged herself tighter.

“But…” Kazi rested a tentative hand on Neyti’s shoulder. “I do know that what happened wasn’t your fault. And it wasn’t your mom’s fault, either.” 

Neyti stared at her, lower lip trembling. 

“Death is a natural part of life. But it still hurts,” she said. “It hurts. And it’s okay to feel sad, or confused, or angry about it. It’s okay to feel those things.”

Dropping her gaze to the ground, Neyti picked at a fern. “Mummy’s not in my dreams.” 

Kazi tucked a strand of hair behind Neyti’s ear. “When did you stop seeing her?” 

“My life day.” The youngling’s withdrawn disposition that day suddenly made sense. Neyti inhaled sharply and shifted her attention to Kazi. “Mummy’s not coming back.”

A plea lifted her chin, so, so obstinate, but Kazi could only brush hair back from her forehead as she shook her head. “No,” she said. Devastation shattered Neyti’s defiance. “She’s not coming back.”

With a hitched cry, Neyti crawled into her lap, burrowed into her chest, and sobbed. Broken, mournful sobs that wracked through her body. 

And unlike her experience at the lighthouse, when Kazi had curled into a ball on the hard floor and cried all alone, she held Neyti. She held her tightly. A promise to never let go.

Eventually Neyti quieted, her sobs subsiding into wet hiccups. The mists loosened their grasp on the jungle, and the elder trees, graceful in the sway of their leafy branches, reached through the dissipating clouds. Pale sunlight brightened the rolling hills.

“My father died when I was little,” Kazi said, brushing the tears from Neyti’s cheeks. “I was sad for years. I still get sad when I think about him. Because I don’t know why he died, and I loved him very, very much. Just like you love your mom.”

Neyti stiffened. “I…I do love mummy?”

“Yes.” Kazi searched her face but Neyti averted her gaze, fiddling with her dragon necklace. Nonplussed, Kazi pushed the dampened strands of her hair away. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because…” Neyti wrung her hands in her lap. “I can’t…I can’t remember what she looked like.” Frustration,  fear,quivered her voice. “I can’t remember—” 

“The details?” 

With a nod, Neyti toed the ground. Dark soil muddied the white outline of her shoe. “She’s blurry.”

Kazi angled her head back, scanning the dispersing clouds for a solution. An answer. Because she didn’t have photos of Neyti’s mother, and she didn’t have stories about her childhood. After so many months—the dark of that night and the terror of the moment overriding her memories—she barely remembered the woman’s appearance. But she knew enough. Enough to ask Cody for a favor.

Weak sunlight sprinkled the earth, and Kazi reached for Neyti’s hand. A bruise from her sparring lessons with Fox darkened the light brown of her skin. Kazi traced the faded bruise as she said, “When you think about your mom, what do you feel?”

“Happy...and sad.” Neyti twisted her face into the sunlight. Breathed in. “But I feel really happy. A lot of the times.”

Kazi smiled smally. “And where do you feel happy?”

Neyti pondered the question, and then she moved her free hand to her chest. To her heart. “Here,” she said.

“Here,” Kazi echoed, placing her own hand over her heart. “You may forget what your mom looked like, but that doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten her. That doesn’t mean you don’t love her anymore, and that she doesn’t love you.” Neyti curled her fingers into her sweater, against her chest. “We don’t ever forget the people we love. Because they’re in here”—Kazi tapped her chest—“and they’re with us. Always.”

“Always?” Neyti asked suspiciously.

“Always.” She squeezed Neyti’s hand. “On Ceaia, when we lose a loved one, we write them a letter.”

A swipe of a tiny fist to her cheeks and Neyti eyed her. 

“At night, when the stars are out and the moon’s high in the sky, we read the letter,” she said. “Because, when we die, we return to the stars.”

“Like the Dancing Dragons,” Neyti whispered.

With a nod, she motioned toward the clearing sky. “Your mother is up there with all those billions of stars and she’s watching you. And I know she’s so, so proud of you.”

“She plays with the dragons?” Twin dimples mirrored one another as Neyti perked up. “Like my dreams?”

“You inherited your adventurous spirit from someone,” she said, smiling softly. Neyti tucked her cheek into her shoulder, her smile earnest, if a bit wistful. Kazi swept a finger across her knuckles. “I bet you got that from her.”

Hope, pure as only a child could muster, brightened Neyti’s face. Once more, the girl burrowed into her, playing with one of her dampened braids, the ends unruly. 

“Do you love me?”

Apprehension thrummed between the words, a cautious inquiry, and Kazi stilled, her gaze steadfast on Neyti.

“I do,” she said. A tear slid down her cheek. Neyti wiped it away, her touch gentle, and she laughed quietly. “I love you so much.”

Neyti leaned into her chest; Kazi smiled smally, tired yet content. She rested her chin on the girl’s head and closed her eyes. She knew what decision needed to be made.

The clouds blushed a dusty pink of health and youth as the sun neared the culmination of its early summer peregrination. An eagerness to apricate in the waning sunlight vivified the jungle. 

It was the petrichor of post-storm, the droplets bedewing the flora, that convinced Kazi to go for a walk. To watch the sunset and seek relief from her overthinking. Wolffe accompanied her, his contemplative silence their troubled companion.

They wandered for some time, and when they came across an outlook with a clear view of the dying sun, they stopped. Kazi wanted to appreciate the beauty of the darkening pink—a flush of purple suffusing the clouds. However, Wolffe—hands clasped behind his back, a slight crease between his brows—troubled the calm of the evening. 

The momentary hush of the earth, its tranquility after day-long mists, convinced her it was a sign: to find some clarity.

“You’ve been distant,” Kazi said.

Wolffe stiffened imperceptibly. A rueful shake of his head was his only response.

“Something’s on your mind.” A handful of stones clattered down the hill as she faced him. “It’s been on your mind for days—”

“Ennari.” He shot her a warning scowl. At her unimpressed stare, he widened his stance. “It’s been a long day. You don’t wanna talk about it right now.”

Disquiet pricked the nape of her neck, and she reached for a braid. Her fingers met loose, still-damp strands of hair. From her shower that evening. Her hand returned to her side, and she cleared her throat. “Are you leaving?”

“No.” Wolffe dragged a hand through his hair, side-eyeing her. “I’m…frustrated.”

“With me,” she surmised.

“Yes.” Annoyance feathered a muscle in his jaw, and he heaved a tired sigh. “And myself.”

An uncomfortable sensation, like sandpaper rubbing back and forth, scraped the inside of her ribcage. Hesitantly, she said, “Why?”

“Later—”

“No. I want to know—” 

“I want to be with you.” 

The emotion behind his words caught Kazi off guard—annoyance, wistfulness, longing—and she could only stare at him, speechless. Wolffe squared his shoulders; he pinned her beneath a resigned look.

“I want to be with you, Ennari,” he said. “But you don’t want things to change.”

Their conversation on the winter holiday, Kazi realized. The question Wolffe had asked her: about them. A warning sharpened in her chest, ice crawling between her ribs and sinking chilly fangs into her muscles. She exhaled an aggravated breath.

“I told you that I like you,” she argued, folding her arms over her chest. “Because I do. I like being with you—”

“You’re not ready to commit.” Accusation narrowed his eyes, even as disappointment softened his scowl. Wolffe crossed his arms. “I am—”  

“It’s only been a few months,” she said sharply. Wolffe winced but she couldn’t focus on it—couldn’t acknowledge it. An unnatural beat was pulsing in her heart. Her palms were sweaty. “You can’t possibly know what—”

“Don’t do that,” he hissed. “Don’t dismiss what I want.”

Kazi stilled, grew rigid, as she stared at Wolffe. He let out a frustrated groan, dropping his head back as he glared at the sky. Erratic heartbeats skittered in the silence before he lowered his gaze. His eyes were intense on hers: unyielding, soft; resolved, pleading.

“I’ve spent my entire life wanting something I thought I couldn’t have,” Wolffe said. He edged closer, his steps slow, as if she was a frightened animal. “Being with you has made me realize I can have it. I want it.” He tapped the underside of her jaw. “I made a decision on you months ago. I knew you couldn’t make the same decision. And I was more than willing to accept what you could give me.”

Her heart sank: knowing he’d waited for so long; knowing she had hurt him.

“But you made me realize that I want more. That I can have more.” He searched her face. “I told you: I want something that’s real.”

The cold in her chest spread, clumps of ice amassing in her stomach, chilling her blood.

“I want to be your choice,” Wolffe said hoarsely. “But you can’t make that decision yet.” 

“There’s no one else,” Kazi said. Her eyes flitted across his face, furtive, and she dropped her arms to her stomach, wanting to reach for him. To cup his face and make him understand. “You are my choice.” 

“If I were your choice, you would talk about our future.” The flatness in his tone was unapologetic, matter-of-fact. “You would commit. You would fucking let me in and trust me. But you’re withholding yourself.”

“You said we would take things slow.” Her fingernails dug into her forearms. “You said we would figure things out over time.”

“I know,” Wolffe said softly. He ran his tongue along his teeth. “I thought I could wait. But you—you told me I deserved to go after what I want. You told me I deserved to live. And I know what I want. I can’t keep pretending I don’t.” 

“I want to be with you.”

“Kazi.” Her name was a fond yet exasperated sigh. “You’re expecting me to hurt you. You don’t trust me. And I can’t spend the next year questioning if you want to be with me, too. I can’t do it. I won’t…not when there’s a possibility you’ll run from me.”

Kazi opened her mouth—to rebuke his accusation, to defend herself—but she couldn’t formulate the argument. Because he was right. And he deserved what he wanted, and she…she was too afraid to give it to him. She was scared of—

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“You’re in your head. And there’s nothing I can do to get you out.” Wolffe swallowed, trailed his thumb across her jawline, and then withdrew his hand. He rolled his shoulders back. “I’m giving you space to sort through your shit. To make your decision. ‘Til then…I’m stepping back.”

A small palm, strong-willed, desperate, slammed against her chest, pounded against the fortifying walls that were locking it away, once more. 

With a curt nod, Kazi forced her emotions aside. “I understand.”

A subtle darkness spilled through the canopied trees, and yet Wolffe lingered. Long enough she dared to hope he would change his mind. 

But that was the difference between them: Wolffe made decisions. And he followed through on them. 

He strode past her, his fingers grazing hers just once, and then the crepuscular shadows embraced him.

The yearning in her heart quieted. A glow banked. An ache unfillable. 

A cynical part of her chuckled. This was why she never allowed herself to be vulnerable with anyone. They always left. Except it was her fault, really, considering how much she sabotaged it.

Kazi looked to the horizon; she sagged with disappointment.  

She’d missed the sunset.

Masterlist | Chapter 25 | Chapter 27

[1americanconservative]

@robbystarbuck

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There’s a scandal going on in Guatemala that everyone needs to know about. The Attorney General in Guatemala is investigating child trafficking at the US border and it appears that the Biden Admin is retaliating. The interview you’re about to hear is apparently so dangerous that the Secretary General of Guatemala says he was warned by someone claiming to carry a message from the US Embassy that he was “playing with fire” if he took part in the interview. Last week they raided an NGO named Save The Children. Jill Biden used to be the Chair of STC’s board. Investigations into NGO’s like this are a part of Guatemala’s overall investigation as they search out who’s doing the trafficking and where the money’s coming from. Now let’s talk about $$$… Before doing this interview I reached out to

@Oilfield_Rando

@RandoLand_US

for a report on $ the US gives Guatemala. He found over 80 payments to individuals in Guatemala where the names are redacted. Many range from $20,000 to $40,000 per transfer. That’s a LOT of money in Guatemala. Who are they paying and why? Overall the Biden admin has spent over $500M in Guatemala. Why? US taxpayers are paying $125,000 for indigenous “healers” (shamans) in Guatemala and nearly $500,000 to support gender ideology there. Why? One things clear about the Biden Administration: You can’t trust them with money. That’s why

@GoldCoPM

is sponsoring this interview. Since Biden took office, many Americans are worse off. This is not the beacon of prosperity we grew up in. Click here to learn about an IRS loophole thousands of Americans have used to safeguard their money: http://Robby4Gold.com Guatemala’s Secretary General also admitted the US is harboring illegal alien pedophiles and murders. These are people Guatemala WANTS to put in prison but Biden’s Admin is protecting them instead of cooperating. As you’ll find out, it’s clear the AG and SG are being targeted. Guatemala’s President recently met with Sec of State Tony Blinken and Joe Biden. After this interview he announced a plot to remove the AG. If it feels like you’ve seen this movie before… It’s because you have: In Ukraine when Joe Biden forced the firing of a prosecutor who investigated his family. If you're short on time, below you'll find timecodes you can click to jump directly to the parts you want to watch. Accounts and news outlets are free to upload clips of this interview with credit to

@robbystarbuck

. Major thanks to

@MPguatemala

@MPGuatemala_EN

for agreeing to this interview and for being so transparent. 0:00 The Scandal in Guatemala Introduction 4:20 Interview Begins - Explaining the AG’s letter about child trafficking at the US border that the US government may be involved in. 7:12 Clarifying that this investigation involves sexual crimes against children. 8:24 Is there any explanation for the fact that 70% of all unaccompanied minors at the border come from either Guatemala or Honduras that isn’t rooted in child trafficking? 9:14 Clarifying that the claim the Guatemalan AG has includes claims that US officials and Guatemalan officials are allowing this trafficking. 9:40 Did they know Jill Biden used to be the chair of the NGO they raided recently? 12:15 Information on Biden Admin cutting off communication over certain AG office employees being fired by the current AG of Guatemala. 13:27 Does the US affect prosecution rates in Central America with pressure? 14:59 Addressing the media silence in this case 16:00 Bombshell: Secretary General says person sent by US Embassy came to warn him that he was “playing with fire” by doing this interview with me. 18:36 Has the Biden Admin reached out about the allegations of trafficking to figure out how to fix this? 19:43 Did the US Embassy want the Secretary General to cancel this interview? 20:27 Exposing mysterious individual payments made by the US to individuals in Guatemala with redacted names. What does Guatemala know about these payments? 23:38 What influence are people like George Soros having with their money in Central America? 25:25 Is the US funding NGO’s that work with Cartels? 25:50 Why is the US paying $125,000 for Shamans/indigenious healers in Guatemala? 28:00 Exposing nearly $500,000 the US sent to benefit far left gender ideology spreading to Guatemala. 31:24 How communication was cut off when the AG said parents need to consent before kids are taught about sexual/gender ideology topics and is the export of gender ideology from the US damaging social fabrics in Guatemala? 33:15 Is the Guatemalan government being reeducated into this far left ideology? 33:57 Discussing Flyers encouraging illegal aliens to vote at NGO camps. 34:39 Are dangerous criminals able to come in to the US illegally because the Biden Administration is allowing it? 35:22 Guatemala’s experience with Kamala Harris and Samantha Power… Wow… 37:15 Discussing the horrific rape problems at the border and how complicit the Biden Administration is. 39:37 Exposing Rape Trees at the Southern Border 42:00 Is the Biden Admin trying to make Guatemala a satellite state using grant money? 44:06 Are NGO’s teaching illegal aliens to lie for asylum claims? 44:47 Bombshell: Guatemalan Secretary General admits they have criminals on the run in the US who are being harbored by the US including pedophiles and murderers.

https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1790082374270623755

[beardedmrbean]

Japan joined a growing list of countries on Sunday to put a halt to providing funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees, citing concerns about allegations that staff members of the agency participated in the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel.

Also putting a stop to the funding temporarily are the U.S., Germany, U.K., Canada and at least five other countries.Israel released evidence showing that a dozen of the organization's employees in Gaza participated in the massacre of 1,200 Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023."Against this backdrop, Japan is extremely concerned about the alleged involvement of UNRWA staff members in the terror attack on Israel on October 7 last year," Foreign Press Secretary Kobayashi Maki from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan said. "In response, Japan has decided to suspend additional funding to UNRWA for the time being while UNRWA conducts an investigation into the matter and considers measures to address the allegations."

BIDEN ADMIN CUTS FUNDING TO CONTROVERSIAL UN AGENCY AMID ALLEGATIONS MEMBERS ASSISTED IN HAMAS MASSACRE

Kobayashi said Japan has been "strongly urging" the UNRWA to investigate the matter in a prompt and complete way and take appropriate measures.

Specifically, Kobayashi said measures should include strengthening governance within UNRWA, so the agency can fulfill the role it is supposed to play.

"At the same time, Japan will continue to make persistent and active diplomatic efforts to improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and to calm down the situation as soon as possible by providing support to other international organizations," Kobayashi added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan announced it was suspending UNRWA funding on the same day that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on member countries to resume funding for the agency, despite accusations from Israel that some of the group’s employees participated in the massacre last year.

Guterres said he understood the concerns leading to countries suspending funding to UNRWA, adding that he himself was horrified by the accusations. But he strongly appealed to those country’s governments to continue with funding for UNRWA’s operations.

"Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini; one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified," he said. "Any UN employee involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution."

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan fired back at Guterres’ call for countries to renew their funding for UNRWA.

"The UN Secretary-General has proven once again that the security of the citizens of Israel is not really important for him," Erdan said. "After years in which he ignored the evidence presented to him personally about UNRWA's support and involvement in incitement and terrorism, and before he conducted a comprehensive investigation to locate all Hamas terrorists in UNRWA, he called to fund an organization that is deeply contaminated with terrorism."

Erdan said every country that continues to fund the agency before a comprehensive investigation can be conducted should be aware that the money may be used for terrorism.

He also said the aid transferred to UNRWA could reach Hamas terrorists instead of the people who need it in Gaza.

"I call on all donor states to suspend their support and demand an in-depth investigation that will investigate the involvement of all UNRWA employees in terror," the ambassador said.