#Homelander has family and the entire corporation backing him up now

[ashortdropandasuddenstop]

Attention Vought Staff

A raise to whomever fetches the IT department something with our would be threat's ( @askjbuckybarnes ) energy signature on it. Vought shall have him kept until 24 hour surveillance and update all Soldier-Boy-grade weapons and protocols accordingly.

[divinecomedyproductions]

RWBY Saints of Remnant Notes: Should the SDC and Jacques be bad guys? Or one of the few Good Guys amongst corruption in Atlas?

DISCLAIMER: This post contains is a radically reimagined Jacques Schnee and SDC in a positive light in a heavily reimagined RWBY AU and has cliche tropes such as "dead mom" which I intend to complement with as "dead dad" of another family, if Canon Jack and SDC has given you a permanent bad taste in your mouth along with Canon Adam Taurus, I understand, this is an AU, just please do not come in with bad faith and ignore me instead.

Said AU is connected to The Emperor-Verse

I'm writing down notes and my gut just wants to make Jacques redeemable, but given how much damaged he has done to others, both his family and an entire people, that seems to heavy of a task without him ending up dead. But that was when I rebooted it by the end of V3.

But making this a hard reboot from the beginning then it hit me, and you do not have to agree with this at all...

What if instead of the SDC and Mr. Schnee being part of Atlasian corruption...

They along with James and the Atlas Military/Academy are the only few good individuals and institutions in Atlas, and both are paying the price for it from their upper class peers?

What if instead of Jacques being this opportunistic conman, he is Nicholas' biological son, and a former huntsmen in his youth who was on the same team as James Ironwood who served as his leader and who Weiss and Winter fondly call “Uncle Jim”, basically to them what Qrow is to Yang and Ruby

Jacques stuck to his father's principles and has managed to uphold The Schnee Dust Company as one of the few ethical businesses in regards to the Faunus, as well as providing support to other ethical businesses in the northern kingdom, mostly forming genuine friendships with their owners, and refused to outsource labor and resources when everyone else in Atlas did.

But as a result, James and Jacques are being ganged up on left and right by the upper class.

The only reason the Atlas establishment has tolerated Jack and his company for so long because the Kingdom was heavily dependent on them along with other companies for Dust and other goods and products, until recently with a growing unethical conglomerate run by Dr. Gray(Watts) with his mega-corporation GigaWatts Incorporated(Think OCP from Robocop and Lexcorp from DC), and plans on getting rid of the SDC and becoming the kingdoms new source of manufactured goods, tech, and labor, including dust mining and GWI is known for unethical use for Faunus labor in both the mines and factories.

Though I might just toss the Faunus Racism thing given how much of a mess it is and rework the WF for something else and have Atlas Upper Class replacing well-paying jobs with robots to keep the lower classes underpaid, or I could try something with both, need input on that.

Buy anyway, The SDC used to be big, but not in a megacorporation way. The SDC was one of the top four successful companies in Remnant back in the day(because 4 is the magic number in RWBY), and as I said before, Jack had made partnerships with other businesses both in his homeland and a few in other kingdoms during trips with his family, but its very few and Jack had made genuine friendships with the owners. He never stripped the human element out of his business.

You could say GWI is a large-scale "Evil Queen" figure

While the SDC is a large-scale "Snow White" figure, in more ways than one, but that's once again another story for another day.

Now GWI is overshadowing them at an accelerated rate with hundreds of Atlasian corporate companies joining it in exchange for Watt’s technology as well as Atlas Military’s higher ups hiring Watts to develop their military technology and last but not least outsourcing Dust Mining to the likes of Vaccou and Jacques and James are the only few who suspect Watts’ whole campaign being a “snake oil” tactic for something insidious as Arthur has all of the upper class eating out of the palm of his hand.

Meanwhile the likes of the White Fang and other kingdoms see Jack, SDC, James and The Atlas Military as just a bunch of rich pricks due to being part of the upper class(millionaires though, not billionaires, and even that’s dwindling now), seeing Jack and Jim as "one of them"

and understandably so mind you, given the rest of Atlas’ actions, but also because the current leader Rina Kumokage is lumping them in deliberately to distract the other members and branches(North, West, and South to be exact) of her own selfish and twisted intentions for the White Fang among other things

Though the White Fang itself seems to be in the hands of corrupt individuals in their neck of the woods. With the likes of Blake and Adam seeking to root it out, Adam being a little too aggressive in his means while Blake seeks outside help, which has strained their brother-sister relationship.

Spoiler alert, the corruption of The White Fang is not from Adam but a new character, Adam isn't the bad guy or a psychopath.

In this AU Adam is more like a cross between Fall of Cybertron Grimlock and Zuko, but he's another post for another day.

But anyway, the persecution of the SDC by the rest of the Atlasian upper class has gotten so bad, radical anti-Faunus militia Kriegsratten Korps aka “The Rats”(they allude to the Rats in The Nutcracker and mixed with Wolfenstein Nazis) and most likely be members of the Atlas Military throughout the ranks supplied with tech from GWI even secretly supported the corrupt council and big business, start attacking the SDC mines killing Schnee family members for being “faunus lickers”, one of them being Jack’s wife Anastasia(both alluding to the Russian Princess, and Snegurochka a Russian fairy tale character) while James struggles to provide the mines and family security while being undermined by higher-ups.��

Yes I know dead mom is cliche but I plan on complementing(is that the right word?) it with Blake losing her own father Ghira and leaving her mother, Noire(aka Kali), widowed. And I have a reason for that later on down the road.

Also Jacques isn't a monster, he just isn't a perfect parent and seems cold on the surface, but its mostly due the burden he bares of being a single parent, and upholding a noble family legacy, giving Faunus descent and honest work, and holding out with other businesses he’s made partnerships with. Their something of a resistance group against GWI.

All with countless of peers trying to sabotage him and James to the point its claimed his family and lover, all of which is straining his relationship with his daughters and his former teammates, James in particular. Plus losing his father at an early age and the board of directors forcing him to become CEO caused him to develop anxiety issues with only his mother and girlfriend and later on wife and children keeping him sane.

James and Jacques together allude to “Atlas” with a great burden weighing down on their shoulders they struggle to hold it up

He's a bit too harsh on Weiss with her huntress training(ie the White Trailer) but in order to defend herself against assassins, and sends her off to Vale in hopes she would be safer there(relatively speaking.) 

But the way he does it comes off to Weiss as her father not caring about her other than making her a trophy for his own reputation and being out of his way otherwise, and HOO-BOY don't get me started with how pissed Winter is with him.

Like I said, if all of this you can't vibe with because its supposed to be Jacques and Canon Jacques along with Canon Adam has put a permanent bad taste in your mouth, thats fine, I feel the same about other characters in other stories. No judgement.

I plan on making a post to dive deeper into Jack, but I will say he's primarily Jack Frost, but his secondary allusion to "The Nutcracker"

I'm also recycling this concept for my own original works, not sure what exactly, but something.

[itsthenovelteafactor]

Superhero Gothic

Thanks to everyone who responded to my previous post (special shoutout to @jeyfeather1234 💛 ) about superheroes and gothic media! I know it’s been, like, a month, but here we go.

Here’s a bit of a look into some common gothic themes, and how they apply to Doom Patrol, The Boys, Watchmen (2019), and The Umbrella Academy. This one’s a bit long, not gonna lie, but I hope you enjoy! 

Part I: Let’s Talk About Gothic Media

There is not actually an all-encompassing definition for gothic media, or even a universally agreed-upon one. You’re probably familiar with some well-known gothic works (think Dracula, Frankenstein, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King) but there is a lot of debate on what exactly makes them gothic. 

There are some common themes in gothic works, though: families/characters under the control of a tyrannical paterfamilias, the crumbling of the established order/estate, long-buried secrets that have consequences in the present, and supernatural events that are stand-ins for/reflective of the emotional state/past actions of the characters. 

(Note: these aren’t all the themes of gothic works or even most of them, but for purposes here, I’d like to limit this analysis to them. I’d love to talk about other themes/ideas, though, if anyone has them. 😊)

So… superheroes (quick overview in case you haven’t watched any of them… spoiler warnings for the rest of this discussion)

Doom Patrol:

Five misfit superhumans attempt to rescue their mentor figure when he is kidnapped by an old enemy.

They are very, very bad at it.

Also features a singing horse head, a sentient nonbinary teleporting street (who is by far the best character) and the narrator is the fourth-wall breaking series villain. 

Beautifully weird but will also emotionally devastate you. Criminally underrated, tbh.

Watchmen (2019):

Story takes place after the canon of the graphic novel which is too much to summarize.

Alternate history (that should really feel more fictitious than it does) where white supremacist organization the Seventh Cavalry, masked police officers, and former superheroes in hiding all collide in Tulsa Oklahoma

Swept the Emmys this year and ABSOLUTELY DESERVED TO

The Umbrella Academy:

Washed up former child superheroes are forced to reunite when their father dies under mysterious circumstances 

Time travel, dysfunctional siblings, and a killer soundtrack

Basically a family drama with the superhero story as secondary (complimentary)

Probably the most obviously gothic of all of these it is aesthetic AF 

The Boys: 

Superheroes exist but they are corporate sellouts under the control of evil company Not-Amazon (AKA Vought)

Regular human protagonists try to hold them accountable for their actions with varying (read: usually minimal) success

Yes, it’s the one from those weird ads earlier this year

Billy Joel!! 

Part II: Niles Caulder, Ozymandias, and Other Terrible Father Figures

The Tyrannical Paterfamilias: 

Does not always mean a father figure explicitly, often relating to the notion of a patriarchal tradition, or family inheritance that plays a role in controlling the main characters. 

Sometimes, it is a father figure. 

Sometimes, it is a representative of patriarchal tradition/male head of pseudo-family unit.

So, uh, role call: 

Reginald Hargreeves (even in death) holds power over his children, and has shaped all of them into the adults they have become, and that drives the majority of the conflict. Each of the major character individually grapples with the after-effects of his abuse. Luther feels the need to be the leader and protect everyone and alienates his allies as a consequence. Diego constantly asserts himself as a hero (often to dangerous extremes) because it is the only way he was ever valued. Allison has to teach herself boundaries and responsible use of her powers after he encouraged her to abuse them for years. Klaus turns to drugs to cope with his childhood trauma. Five disobeyed his father with disastrous consequences and is constantly fighting to not become him. Vanya spent her entire childhood in the background, and never learned to assert herself in a healthy way. Thanks, Reggie.

Homelander says that The Seven are like a family. While whether or not this is accurate (it isn’t) is up for debate, he does occupy the tyrannical paterfamilias roles incredibly well. Homelander controls every member of the Seven, threatening them and their loved ones whenever they step out of line (read: do not do exactly what he wants in the exact way he wants them to do it.) He is also very closely tied with conservative/patriarchal rhetoric in-universe and at one point dates a literal Nazi. 

William Butcher less evil than most of the other characters on this list but the bar is also like, on the ground. Butcher tries to control the Boys in a similar way (Butcher and Homelander are character foils, okay? it’s actually pretty neat). He’s perfectly willing to sacrifice them in pursuit of his own goals, disregards their points of view and the well-being of their loved ones, and tries to cut loose anyone who disagrees with his methods (recall when Hughie tried to rescue his friends at the end of s1 and Butcher… punched him in the face? Yeah, that.) The difference is that the Boys can push back against his without being, you know, brutally murdered. (And also the Butcher isn’t a literal monster; I’m not anti-Butcher, okay? He’s an interesting character and the fact that he seems constantly on the verge of becoming that which he hates most is part of what makes him interesting.)

Guess what, folks? It’s hating Niles Caulder hours. He engineered accidents to turn the main characters into his test subjects, and then kept them conveniently hidden away in his large manor. Stole their autonomy and independence but paints himself as a benevolent father figure. And that’s not even including what he does to his actual daughter, Dorothy. He’s terrified of her growing up (read: becoming a young woman) and so he locks her away for almost 100 years and, when she is freed, yells at her constantly and makes her terrified of showing any signs of maturation (even though she’s 111 and clearly tired of being written off as a child).

The relationship between Ozymandias and his daughter, Lady Trieu, is integral to the final act of Watchmen. Heralded as the “smartest man in the world,” Ozymandias refused to acknowledge his daughter as his until he needed something from her. While Lady Trieu is more self-sufficient and independent than some of the applications of this trope, she goes to great lengths to prove herself, first to him, and then to herself when he rejects her.

Part III: Been a Long Time Gone (Constantinople) 

Gothic fiction is often associated with change, and particularly, the collapse of established systems of power. For example, many works like The House of the Seven Gables and The Fall of the House of Usher take place in old, crumbling manor houses. There is a reason for this! These kinds of estates are remnants of a past that is irreversibly gone, and their continued presence in decrypt forms serves as a reminder. 

Each of the four series takes place at a moment, either on a wide scale or on a personal scale (or both!), in which an established order is being questioned, and the constant reminders of that failed order are used to gothic effect.

The Umbrella Academy plays this most directly (In fact, there are TONS of parallels between the end of s1 of TUA and House of Usher that I don’t have the time to get into right now... lmk if you want that meta). We can see the Hargreeves mansion as a very literal example of this. While not worn down, the house is notably both very large and very empty. Shelves are filled with merchandise for a superhero team that disbanded over a decade prior, and portraits of a family that no longer speaks to each other. None of the family members ever seem truly comfortable or at ease in the house, and for good reason - every back corner is a reminder of their incredibly traumatic childhood. 

In The Boys, the story begins with the fridging death of the main character’s girlfriend, Robin, at the hands of a member of the Seven, a group of heroes so ingrained in the public consciousness that when they later hide out in a costume shop, literally every single costume is for one of Vought’s heroes. The Seven represent the system in power, which, at the disposal of Not-Amazon means corporate greed, shallow altruism, and the cultivation of public personas at the expense of actual humanity. 

From that moment on, the sheer presence of The Seven on everything from public billboards to breakfast cereal is a remainder for Hughie (and the audience) that this established system doesn’t work and is based on lies, which serves this effect on a personal level. In the broader scale, however, we also see that the Seven themselves are fracturing under an unsustainable business model. Even their name, “The Seven” starts to seem a bit dated when halfway through season one through the end of season two there are notably... less than seven of them. 

The main characters in Doom Patrol are all in recovery after the accidents that irreversibly changed their lives. We see through flashbacks the people that they used to be, and the difference is striking. They were each established in their own elements: Cliff a famous race-car driver, Rita a world renowned actress, Larry a hero pilot, Jane was involved in counter-cultural movements, Vic was a student and athlete. The foundations upon which their worlds were established are completely decimated by the accidents, and now they (save Vic and sometimes Jane) live mostly in isolation in Niles’ manor house, an estate that is far larger than would be necessary to comfortably house a group of their size.

And you feel the emptiness, both in the manor, and in the lives of the characters. They have barely created a shadow version of their own existence when the series starts, so fragile that a simple trip into town devolves into utter chaos. 

Angela Abar of Watchmen has also constructed a life following the terrifying act of terrorism on the White Night. It’s a bit of a double life, and we see that the balancing act is challenging for her, even before the story truly begins. The death of Judd Crawford, and the revelation about him that follows is not only traumatizing on a personal level (but it definitely is that), but also upsets her understanding of the world. People she’s come to trust are not just dishonest but truly monstrous. And the more Angela learns about what has been happening, the more her understanding of the world begins to unravel. Her memories, and the memories of those around her are cast in a much more sinister light, and the effect is genuinely chilling. 

Part IV: “I’m the Little Girl Who Threw the Brick in the Air”

In episode 3 of Watchmen, Laurie contacts Dr. Manhattan on the cosmic phone booth to tell him a joke. It’s a version of what TVTropes calls the “brick joke,” and it relies on set up taking place early on, other stuff happening, and then the response coming at an unexpected moment. 

So, yeah. Events of the past/buried secrets resurfacing with consequences in the present.

Continuing with the theme from Watchmen, the entire series is punctuated with the way the past and the present intertwine, with elements from both the original Watchmen graphic novel, and actual American history. One of the things we talked a lot about in my gothic lit class was the manner in which the overhanging specter of past atrocities casts a shadow over the present, and how many works cannot help but have gothic themes because there are so many horrifying things in the past that cannot be ignored, and provide both context and nuance for the discussions we have in the present. No series tackles these topics quite so directly (and with as much care) as Watchmen. (note: it does not always make for easy viewing, but if you’re in a place where you feel like you can engage with that kind of material, I highly recommend the show.)

In Doom Patrol, the past actions of the characters very much control the storyline (see: previous discussion of Niles Caulder), but the character whose storyline I want to talk about here is Rita (partially for plot reasons and partially because I just love Rita, okay?). We learn when we first meet Rita that in the past she was... not a great person. We know that the trauma of the accident that gave her her powers has changed her, we also know that she still holds on to the guilt and that her guilt has limited the scope of her world for years, but we don’t know what exactly it is that she’s done. 

Enter Mr. Nobody, all-powerful narrator who is not just aware of Rita’s greatest sins, but perfectly capable of manifesting reminders of them into the story. She is confronted with empty cradles, and the sound of crying children in the background of many scenes and we see how much it effects her, without a full understanding of why it does (see: The Tell-Tale Heart). Her past begins to haunt her physically, and she begins to crumble in response to it, until finally she is forced to confide in a stranger (and thus the audience). The past actions do not just inform the audience of Rita’s character - they show up to influence her behavior in the present. 

The ending of The Umbrella Academy season 1 is super evocative of the gothic genre with Vanya breaking open the soundproof chamber (wherein she was silenced for years) and rising from the basement to destroy the last remnants of the Hargreeves legacy (which would be awesome if the last remnants of the Hargreeves legacy didn’t include the rest of her family). Pretty much every mistake the siblings make over the course of the season feeds together to create the finale, but the primary cause isn’t something any of them actually did. It all ties back to Reginald Hargreeves’ complete inability to be nice to children. Any children. His own and random strangers that need help. 

In The Boys, while the extent to which people are making f-ed up choices in the present cannot be expressed enough, we see through the characters of Homelander that many of the present difficulties are a result of past mistakes. Particularly, the profit-seeking corruption within Vought. We learn in s1 through Vogelbaum that Homelander was raised in a lab by Vought as an experiment, only to be unceremoniously thrust into the spotlight and told he was a superhero (which... does not justify a single one of his actions but is still a major yikes). As the head scientist of the project, Vogelbaum is very aware that ignoring his conscious if the name of research has essentially created the biggest threat their world has ever seen. 

(Seriously y’all just stop raising your super kids in isolation) 

Part V: Put Them Together, and They’re the MF-ing Spice Girls 

Having the environment respond to characters’ emotions/mental states is pretty common in gothic works (it was a dark and stormy night = someone is probably not doing super well). One of the advantages of the genre’s tendency towards the supernatural is that, often, those elements of the stories, as well, are reflections of the main ideas of a work of fiction (see: Stephen King’s really unsubtle period metaphors).

Because all of these shows have a ton of supernatural/scifi elements by virtue of being, well, superhero shows, I thought it would be easier (and more fun!) to come up with a short list of elements, what they mean, and what cases they might apply to.

1. A Nonlinear Experience of Time

The Umbrella Academy: legitimately about time travel. Characters are attempting to fix the timeline but are unable to because they are both mentally and sometimes literally stuck in the past. 

Watchmen: In the episode This Extraordinary Being, Angela experiences firsthand the experiences of her grandfather, under the influence of a drug called Nostalgia. The episode touches on many themes, one of which being the impact of generational trauma in marginalized communities. Throughout the series, Dr. Manhatten is cursed with experiencing all time at once, and the episode A God Walks into Abar illustrates that, because of this, he is constantly facing the consequences of particular actions before, after, and while he is preforming him.

Doom Patrol: Mr. Nobody is able to physically travel to one of Jane’s flashbacks via his fourth-wall breaking powers, and gives Dr. Harrison an ultimatum for the future. 

What it implies: Events, particularly events that evoke guilt or conflict, are not as rooted in the past as one would like to think.

2. Powers/Abilities that reflect personal trauma/failings

Doom Patrol: Larry’s abilities/bond with the Negative Spirit have made it so that he is constantly covering himself with bandages/avoiding other people, which reflects his experiences having to hide his identity as a gay man in the 50/60s. Rita forced herself to walk a thin line, betraying everything in pursuit of her image; her abilities require constant effort to keep her entire body from becoming misshapen and out of control. Vic’s father with boundary issues can literally control his perception of the world through his cybernetic enhancements. Dorothy’s abilities manifest as imaginary friends because she was kept isolated for years at a time. 

The Umbrella Academy: pretty much all of the kids’ powers are representative of the interpersonal skills they were never able to develop. Luther is super-durable but also the most emotionally vulnerable of the group. Five can teleport and time travel but always seems to be too late to stop things. Diego can manipulate the trajectory of projectiles but cannot escape the path his father set out for him, not matter how much he resents it. Vanya always forced herself to stay quiet until the sound literally explodes out of her.

The Boys: Annie’s abilities allow her to control light, but she struggles (in the beginning) to bring to light the horrible things done to her behind closed doors. 

Watchmen: Not technically a power, but Looking Glass’ mirror-mask is a constant reminder of the hall of mirrors that both saved his life and traumatized him forever. 

What it implies: from a story perspective, these allow for an exploration of trauma/guilt to occur on a scale much larger than people simply talking about their problems (as if anyone on any of these shows knows how to talk about their problems...) It also means that the trauma/guilt of the characters takes on a physical form that is able to haunt them, and constantly remind them/hold them accountable for their past actions.

3. Diluted Sense of Reality:

Doom Patrol: The first season is narrated by its main villain, and throughout the season we see that the act of narration itself has an impact on the story.

Watchmen: The event that kicks off the plot of the story is hinged upon a paradox introduced by Angela near the end of the series when trying to speak to her Grandfather in the past through Dr. Manhattan.

The Umbrella Academy: The pair of episodes in season 1, The Day that Wasn’t and The Day That Was take the same point in time and explore two possible avenue for the future from there, with The Day that Wasn’t ending with the events of the entire episode being completely erased from the timeline.

What it implies: you can’t necessarily trust everything you see, even from the audience perspective, giving them a position not unlike that of the characters. The character’s uncertainty and confusion is magnified and reflected in the world that surrounds them.

Other examples: an apocalypse (The Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol, Watchmen (of a sort)), ghosts (The Umbrella Academy - hi, Ben!), immortality/invulnerability (Watchmen, Doom Patrol, The Boys), and characters that look significantly younger than they actually are (The Boys, The Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol). 

Part VI: Why Did You Write a Literal Essay Don’t You Have Real Schoolwork (yes... shhhhh...)

And... there you have it. I don’t really have some grand conclusion here. This is (clearly) far from a complete analysis but it is the most my finals-week brain can concoct at the moment. 

If you have other ideas, let me know! You can always add to the notes or message me – my inbox is always open!  If you got this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Much love! ❤️

[mythrilhusk]

Korosensei Never Dies - Chapter 6

Words - 1967 Ao3 Version Chapter 5 (last) Chapter 7 (Next)

AN: Just wanted to note (although it’s already in tags) that there are no ships in this story. The characters may be affectionate with each other, but it’s all platonic. 

====

Exams are the worst part of school, but the end of the first term approaches fast. Tommy determines he will not fail. Philza has promised to teach them how to fight, and by the ever-loving stars, Tommy wants to show off his mad skillz. 

He's so intent on getting fighting lessons that he's dragged his friends into group study sessions. Wilbur insists on leading said sessions, and somehow the schoolwork gets entwined with role-playing battles with fiercesome monsters. 

"The answer is forty-two!! I pull out a bazooka and blast everything to smithereens!" Tubbo cackles. "Nothing shall stand in the way of world domination." 

"Tubbo," Wilbur sighs for the fortieth time. "That would kill all of your teammates." 

"Do I care?" Tubbo grins innocently. "Less competition, big man!" 

"I lay down and die." Ranboo says drily, leaning against the wall with his arm around Tubbo's shoulders. 

"Not you, Ranboo, you're going to be my puppet queen. Every world-dominating super-villain needs a puppet queen." Tubbo says, quite matter-of-fact.

Tommy scrawls messily on his workbook, determined to complete the next answer first and get a turn. "Ha! Fucking x equals twenty-nine!" He crows. "I shoot my nets at Tubbo and capture him!!" 

"Stand-off." Wilbur says with a grin. "Who wrote Frankenstein?" 

"Some woman with a boring name." Tommy retorts. 

"Anne Rice!" Tubbo cries. 

"Tommy, you got the closer answer. It was Mary Shelley." 

"Alright, I win, and I say 'Hahaha, you fucking imbecile, you are no match for me!' and then I drag them to jail." 

"I completed my worksheet, Wilbur." Eret pipes up. Wilbur takes it, then nods for Eret to complete his bonus action. "I stab Tommy and release Tubbo, saying, 'The world is yours for the taking, but allow me to oversee a portion of it.' and then I kneel and plant my sword in the dust." 

"Oh! Oh!" Tubbo waves his worksheet in the air. "Ranboo, stab him for me!" 

"As you wish." Ranboo sighs with a wicked grin. Eret protests weakly in the background. 

"Ranboo, you need to answer a question correctly, first." Wilbur steeples his fingers. "Or else there will be penalties." 

"I, uh, I think I got this one correct." Ranboo shows his study sheet to Wilbur, who nods curtly. 

"Fine, go ahead." 

Ranboo turns to Eret and says in a dark tone, "You betrayed your friend. I can't trust you, Eret." Then he turns to Wilbur, "I run him through with my dagger." 

"Eret, you're now a ghost." Wilbur shuffles through his game notes. 

"Aw, man. Can I haunt anyone?" 

"Yes."

"I haunt Ranboo to remind him of his crimes." 

"Aw, dang, another voice." Ranboo groans playfully. 

"Whaddya mean, another??" Tubbo cries. "Am I being replaced, Ranboo??" 

"You- you are the voice." Ranboo laughs nervously. "Even when you're dead, I'll still hear you, shouting at me to not kill the bees." 

"You better not. I worked hard to cultivate our apiary." 

"I won't, I won't." 

Tommy finishes his worksheet, ignoring the chatter of the others. "Ha!" He turns it into a paper plane and throws it to Wilbur. "I want twelve actions now!" 

"Okay, Tommy." Wilbur replies with a sly smile. The others protest, but Tommy has Wilbur wrapped around his little finger, so they won't be winning this battle. 

"But! I want to split them up between us, because I'm a fucking nice person who loves women." 

"Go ahead." 

"My first action as King de facto of the world is to declare peace between the Moon and Mars." 

"Wait, wait, you're king?? Eret, you didn't even kill him properly!!" Tubbo throws up his hands. "Ranboo, kill Tommy for me." 

"Hypothetically, what if I didn't?" 

"Ranboo. Are you betraying me??" 

"No, no, I said hypothetically." 

"Then, hypothetically, I would nuke your entire homeland and make you watch as I killed your family before your very eyes." 

"Oh! Oh, no." 

"And then I would torture you to death." 

"Oh, man. That would not be good." 

"So are you going to betray me?" 

"Apparently not." 

"Aw, man. I wanted to torture somebody." Tubbo sighs. 

Ranboo gives Tommy a look that says 'help me'. 

"You both lost your turns for talking too long." Wilbur decides. "Tommy and Eret, you both have an extra turn." 

"I turn corporeal using necromancy, and I use Tubbo's soul as the energy source, draining him of life." Eret says, his cheerful eyes belying his dark tone. 

"No! Ranboo, avenge meeeee!!" Tubbo cries melodramatically to the heavens. 

"Oh no! I'll avenge you!!" 

"I kill Ranboo." Tommy cackles at the horrified look on Ranboo's face. 

"Oh, that's not good." 

"How do you kill him, Tommy?" Wilbur asks. 

"I stab the bastard through the fucking eyes." 

"Oh. Man. That sounds painful." Ranboo winces.

"It is. You're screaming like a fucking bitch." 

"Am I? Oh dang, that's not fun. Am I a ghost now?" 

"Ghostboo." Tubbo laughs. "You're now Ghostboo." 

"You're Toast, you don't get to mock my name." 

Tommy frowns. "What's my ghost name?"

"Ghommy." Ranboo laughs. "Eret is Gheret." 

"Tommy, you think we're ready for the exams?" Wilbur gathers the papers scattered across the floor.  

"Fuck yeah, we are. We'll crush those bastards to dust. We'll get the highest grades of anybody in the entire school!"

++++

"What do you mean, you can't transfer me?? My grades are the worst they've ever been in years!!" Jack cries, stomping his foot on the polished wood floor of the principal's office. 

"I'm sorry, duckie, but I can't let anyone transfer between classes this year." Puffy-- rumored to be a pirate in a past life and therefore always called Captain-- frowns as she flicks through Jack's portfolio. "Why did you want to be transferred, anyway?" 

"No reason." Jack grumbles, then stomps out of the office, slamming the door behind himself. 

"How'd it go?" Niki hops down from one of the pillars. 

"Terribly. Those bastards in 3-E must've told Captain Puffy to not let anyone in. They're probably planning to take over the world now, using Techno as bait!" Jack cries, his eyes burning with furious tears. 

"That's awful!" Niki wails. "What will we do?" 

"What do heroes do to villains? We bomb them." 

"Bomb them?" 

"I don't know how yet." Jack grins, filled with burning rage. "But we'll think of something." 

"I know a man." Niki says decisively. "He'll get us supplies. If they really are planning to end the world, we need to stop them." 

++++

Exams roll around, and 3-E joins the the main school buildings for the tests. Quackity and Sapnap both leap on and hug Karl Jacobs. Tommy strides through the testing auditorium like he owns the place, with Wilbur glaring at everyone and Tubbo whetting his dagger with a placid smile. 

Fundy watches the chaos from the sidelines, chewing on caramel taffy and bubblegum at the same time. He doesn't recognize the quiet boy huddled in a corner and writing. Before he can creep over and look at the boy's words, Eret accosts him. "Hey, man." 

"Oh, hey!" Fundy grins and hugs his friend. "What've you been up to?" 

"Oh, just trying to stop the world from ending and make a profit in the process, you know, the usual." 

"Right, right. What's up with that, anyway? This guy, Technoblade? He must be really hard to kill if nobody's done it yet." 

"We have till the year ends." Eret says gravely. 

"Right. But why hasn't anybody, I don't know, tried to get in on the action?" 

"The government is supposed to be keeping his location a secret." Eret adjusts his sunglasses. 

"Weird." Fundy pops a bubble between his lips. 

"Indeed. I know there must be a weakness. But I'm not sure what it is."

"Maybe it's something like technical immortality! Maybe he can only be killed if he lets it happen!" Fundy theorizes, chewing more intensely. 

Eret grimaces. "Perhaps. Threatening his friend, Philza, directly is out of the question. But perhaps we can get the kill switch from the president." 

"Woah, woah, back up!" Fundy laughs. "There's already a kill switch in his friend and the prezz hasn't thought to use that??" 

"Well, he's a hostage, but- oh." 

"Exactly!! If the prezz actually wanted him dead, all they'd have to do is threaten to kill this Philza dude if Techno doesn't let himself be killed!" Fundy blows another bubble and pops it with his teeth. "Damn, I'm good." 

"That's assuming Technoblade would die if he allowed it. What if he can't?" Eret muses. 

"He has to have some weakness. How was he even created??" 

"I- I don't know." 

"The only way a mutant like that could be created is through Human intervention, aka a laboratory and scientists!!" Fundy claps his hands together excitedly. "But why would scientists create a creature who can destroy the world?? Unless he can't, and this is all just a damn test." 

"Hmm." Eret doesn't sound convinced. 

"So, they're trying to develop immortality, and they're testing it on Technoblade-"

"Why him?" Eret asks. "And if it is a test, why here, with a bunch of students?"

"He got loose before the tests could be finalized, and they're trying to contain him again!" Fundy starts pacing. "He was a terrorist, yeah? I remember him in the news. The Acolyte." 

"Blood for the blood god." Eret reminisces, paling. "That's right." 

"He only ever went after important government figures! But, five years ago, he disappeared, and nobody ever heard from him again. Until now..." Fundy grins wildly. "This is amazing, I can't believe I get front row seats to a conspiracy!" 

"Wait." Eret groans. "He had a partner." 

"Oh! He did?" 

"Technoblade was the Acolyte. But his partner was the Angel. What if that was-" 

"Philza!!" Fundy cries. "Oh god, we have both of the most deadly international terrorists in my school!! Why couldn't I have worn better clothes??" 

"I don't think that should be our main concern." Eret steeples his fingers. "I think we should worry more about what they're planning to do." 

"I'm going to talk to Captain Puffy." Fundy decides. "Come with me?" 

"I'll pass. Good luck." 

"I've got the best luck in the world." Fundy crows and skips off. He glances back once, briefly, only to see Eret watching him with an unreadable expression. 

++++

Tipsy, Schlatt lounges on one of the pristine metal tables. In the background, HBomb sweeps up the shards of a broken whiskey bottle, the remnants of a drunken tantrum. 

"Heyyy." Schlatt greets the mercenary waiting in the doorway. "Come on in." 

"How much do I get paid for my trouble?" The mercenary asks, slouching in a too-large purple hoodie and baggy pants. 

"Fifteen billion, take it or leave it." Schlatt grins. 

"I'll take it. But this is the last time." 

"Sure, honey." 

"How'd you lose him again?" 

"Bitch killed half my fucking scientists." Schlatt shrugs genially, hiding his irritation. "But we've got a neutralizing agent, now." He tosses a capsule to the mercenary, who catches it and inspects it. "Inject that and he'll be as harmless as a two-ton hippo." 

"That's hardly what I'd call harmless." 

"Eh, semantics. He won't be immortal." 

"Hmm." The mercenary pockets the neutralizer. "I'll do it. But you'd better pay me exactly what you promised, or he dies." 

"C'mon, darling, what do you take me for? A scam artist?? Nah, that's not my fucking style. Return him safe and sound, and everything will be just fine." Schlatt lights a cigar, takes a deep drag, then lets it all out in a slow plume. "Do as I say and nobody gets hurt." 

++++

Eret opens his buzzing phone and answers, "Hey." 

"Crocodiles don't cry often." The familiar voice says coldly into their ear. 

"Crocodile tears are worthless." Eret replies. 

Purpled laughs on the other end. "What do you say, partner? Ready to make some dough?" 

Eret grins, baring her teeth. "Always." 

Chapter 7 (Next)

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

UN chief warns China, US to avoid Cold War (AP) Warning of a potential new Cold War, the head of the United Nations implored China and the United States to repair their “completely dysfunctional” relationship before problems between the two large and deeply influential countries spill over even further into the rest of the planet. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to The Associated Press this weekend ahead of this week’s annual United Nations gathering of world leaders. Guterres said the world’s two major economic powers should be cooperating on climate and negotiating more robustly on trade and technology even given persisting political fissures about human rights, economics, online security and sovereignty in the South China Sea. “Unfortunately, today we only have confrontation,” Guterres said.

Canada votes in pandemic election that could cost Trudeau (AP) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gambled on an early election in a bid to win a majority of seats in Parliament, but now faces the threat of being knocked from power in Canada’s election on Monday. Polls indicate Trudeau’s Liberal Party is in a tight race with the rival Conservatives: It will likely win the most seats in Parliament, but still fail to get a majority, forcing it to rely on an opposition party to pass legislation. “Trudeau made an incredibly stupid error in judgement,” said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto. Trudeau entered the election leading a stable minority government that wasn’t under threat of being toppled.

Biden easing foreign travel restrictions, requiring vaccines (AP) President Joe Biden will ease foreign travel restrictions into the U.S. beginning in November, when his administration will require all foreign nationals flying into the country to be fully vaccinated. All foreign travelers flying to the U.S. will need to demonstrate proof of vaccination before boarding, as well as proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of flight, said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients, who announced the new policy on Monday. Biden will also tighten testing rules for unvaccinated American citizens, who will need to be tested within a day before returning to the U.S., as well as after they arrive home. Fully vaccinated passengers will not be required to quarantine, Zeints said. The new policy replaces a patchwork of travel restrictions first instituted by President Donald Trump last year and tightened by Biden earlier this year that restrict travel by non-citizens who have in the prior 14 days been in the United Kingdom, European Union, China, India, Iran, Republic of Ireland, Brazil and South Africa.

Recall vote highlights California’s geopolitical divisions (AP) The California recall election was a blowout win for Gov. Gavin Newsom that reinforced the state’s political divisions: The Democratic governor won big support in coastal areas and urban centers, while the rural north and agricultural inland, with far fewer voters, largely wanted him gone. “It’s almost like two states,” Menlo College political scientist Melissa Michelson said. Though California is a liberal stronghold where Democrats hold every statewide office and have two-thirds majorities in the Legislature, it is also home to deeply conservative areas. Those residents have long felt alienated from Sacramento, where Democrats have been in full control for more than a decade. A conservative movement in far Northern California has for years sought to break away and create its own state to better reflect the area’s political sensitivities.

US launches mass expulsion of Haitian migrants from Texas (AP) The U.S. is flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland and blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signals the beginning of what could be one of America’s swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades. More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights Sunday, and Haiti said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico. The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Madrid street party (Reuters) Roughly 25,000 Spaniards joined in an illegal mass drinking party on the streets of Madrid on Friday, which took police until 7 a.m. the following day to break up. The huge outdoor parties, known as “macro-botellon,” have been resisted by Spanish authorities for years, and have taken on renewed significance as coronavirus restrictions limit public interactions. Police may find quieter streets next weekend as closing times for Madrid’s bars and clubs are finally extended to 6 a.m. from their previous 2 a.m. limits.

Thousands flee as lava spewing from volcano on Spain’s La Palma island destroys houses (Reuters) Authorities have evacuated about 5,000 people from villages in the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma as lava spews from an erupting volcano, local officials said. The 15-meter high lava flow has already swallowed 20 houses in the village of El Paso and sections of roads, Mayor Sergio Rodriguez told TVE radio station on Monday morning. Since erupting on Sunday afternoon, the volcano has shot lava up hundreds meters into the air and poured flows of molten rock towards the Atlantic Ocean over a sparsely populated area of La Palma, the most northwestern island in the Canaries archipelago. La Palma had been on high alert after more than 22,000 tremors were reported in the space of a week in Cumbre Vieja, which belongs to a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.

Shooting at Russian university leaves at least 6 dead, 24 injured (Washington Post)  At least six people were killed and 24 were wounded after a gunman opened fire at a university in the northwestern Russian city of Perm, the government in the region said Monday. President Vladimir Putin called the shooting at Perm State University “a tremendous tragedy, not only for the families who lost their children, but for the entire country.” Such a rampage, which sent students hurling themselves from windows in a bid to escape the gunfire, is extremely rare for Russia, which has little experience of the kind of mass shootings routinely seen in the United States. Russia’s Investigative Committee, a law enforcement agency, said the attacker was a student who had purchased a hunting rifle in May. The agency said he had been apprehended and is in the hospital for treatment of wounds suffered while resisting arrest. Russia has strict laws on civilian gun ownership and requires people to pass psychological exams before obtaining a license for hunting and sport firearms.

Evergrande debts (NYT) Once China’s most prolific property developer, Evergrande has become the country’s most indebted company. It owes money to lenders, suppliers and foreign investors. It owes unfinished apartments to home buyers and has racked up more than $300 billion in unpaid bills. Regulators fear that the collapse of a company Evergrande’s size would send tremors through the entire Chinese financial system. Yet so far, Beijing has not stepped in with a bailout, having promised to teach debt-saddled corporate giants a lesson. Evergrande is on the hook to buyers for nearly 1.6 million apartments, according to one estimate, and it may owe money to tens of thousands of its own workers. As Beijing remains relatively quiet about the company’s future, those who are owed cash say they are growing impatient.

Pacquiao for president? (Foreign Policy) Manny Pacquiao, the former professional boxer and Philippine senator, has said he would run for president in next year’s election, accepting the nomination put forward by a faction of the ruling PDP-Laban party. His decision comes after Christopher “Bong” Go rejected a presidential nomination from a rival PDP-Laban faction earlier this month, although his running mate, President Rodrigo Duterte, accepted the nomination for vice president. If electoral authorities recognize Pacquiao’s nomination, he may still face competition from Sara Duterte-Carpio, the mayor of Davao and daughter of the president. Duterte-Carpio has topped recent opinion polls but has been cagey about her plans for higher office, saying last week that she would run for another term as Davao mayor in 2022.

Talibanning Women From Work (Guardian, BBC) In mid-August, with American troops still present, the Taliban vowed to respect women’s rights, forgive those who fought against them, and ensure that Afghanistan won’t become a haven for terrorists. Zabihullah Mujahid, long-time Taliban spokesman, gave his first ever public news conference, saying leaders had encouraged women to return to work and girls to return to school. He promised women would retain their rights, but qualified that as being “within the framework of Islamic law”—specifically, Sharia law. To no one’s surprise, it was just ‘happy talk’ meant to allay suspicions of world powers and the fears of Afghans. Soon there were ample reports of Taliban soldiers going house to house, searching for “traitors” and executing them. Working women were told to stay home and schools were shut down, although it was labeled a temporary security measure. In Kandahar, women bank tellers were forced out of their jobs at gunpoint. In the next days and weeks the group’s new government issued decrees restricting more rights of girls and women. Female students in middle and high schools were told they couldn’t return to classes, although boys were allowed to. Female university students were informed studies would now take place in gender-segregated settings, and they must abide by a strict Islamic dress code. Other crippling measures from when the Taliban ruled in the 1990s surfaced unofficially, including a requirement that Afghan women have a male guardian accompany them in any public place. On Friday, female employees in Kabul city government were told they couldn’t return to work if their job could be performed by men, meaning almost 1,000 women who were part of the city’s workforce of nearly 3,000 lost their jobs. The Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” tasked with enforcing Islamic law.

The Taliban vs. ISIS (Washington Post) After years of waging a holy war to overthrow the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan, Taliban fighters have struggled to adjust to their new day job: the mundane task of securing a city. “All of my men, they love jihad and fighting. So when they came to Kabul they didn’t feel comfortable. There isn’t any fighting here anymore,” Taliban commander Abdulrahman Nifiz told The Post. But the Taliban still faces a violent foe: the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, which claimed responsibility Sunday for a series of blasts over the weekend in the country’s east that reportedly killed several people and injured tens more. The improvised explosive devices were set off Saturday and Sunday around the city of Jalalabad, known as a stronghold for the Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIS-K).

Troll Farms (MIT Technology Review) A report produced by a Facebook employee details the enormous impact troll farms—that is, organized networks designed to spread misinformation—have on the social network. The October 2019 report identified that the most popular pages for Christians and Black Americans were, in fact, operated out of Kosovo and Macedonia. As of October 2019, 15,000 Facebook pages with a predominantly American audience were operated out of those countries, reaching 140 million U.S. users every month. Troll farms operated the fifth-largest women’s page, the second-largest Native American page, 10 of the top 15 African-American interest pages, and every single one of the 15 top pages targeting Christian Americans.

[suitofvibraniumarmor]

Catch My Breath

Summary: After her parents are killed, Y/N needs someone to guard her until the culprit can be found.  Pairing: Clint x Reader  Word Count: 3643 Warnings: Death of parents, attempted murder, violence, guns, funeral. Angst. But also a some fluff? Square Filled: Private Security AU for @marvelfluffbingo​

GIF found via Google Image Search. 

The idea of going out in public with a bodyguard was positively abhorrent to you, but since your parents had been unceremoniously shot down in the house you had lived in your entire life the week before, going out without protection was just plain stupid. Your uncle assured you that he had found someone in private security who would take good care of you without being intrusive. 

Detectives were working round the clock to find out why your parents had been the target of murder. Your father’s parents were wealthy, yes, but he had wanted no part of their fortune when they refused to accept his love for your mother. He traded his place in their will for their acceptance of her. Your parents would never see a dime of those riches, and neither would you, but your family was happy; that was far more important to you than anything money could buy. 

“He’s late,” you mumbled to yourself, checking the time on your phone. 

Your uncle smiled kindly and wrapped an arm around your shoulder. “He’s not. You’re impatient, Y/N. Your father was the same way when he was anxious to get things done.”

Maybe impatience wasn’t the best quality to have, but knowing you had a trait that resembled that of your father, pulled a sad smile from your lips. You missed both of your parents terribly, so you would take whatever pieces of them you could get at this point. 

Another ten minutes passed before someone buzzed the gate. Your uncle’s own security put the man through several questions, which meant another ten minutes before he was actually on the property and approaching you and your uncle in the foyer. 

“You must be Mr. Barton,” your uncle greeted, holding his hand out to shake that of the man dressed in black and pushing dark sunglasses onto his head. “I’m Sawyer Preston, and this is my niece, Y/N Y/L/N.”

“Clint Barton, nice to meet both of you,” he returned, nodding in your direction. Maybe you should have offered to shake his hand, too, but you were too skeptical of anyone for any type of physical contact. It was a wonder you allowed your uncle a hug or two throughout the day. “Ms. Y/L/N, your uncle mentioned you need a protection detail for an indefinite amount of time?”

You had expected that your uncle would handle of this, so you weren’t prepared to answer questions. “Y-yes. My parents —”

“I know,” Clint interjected. You met his eyes, directly, for the first time. He wasn’t interrupting you; he was sparing you a repeat of a story you had already had to tell far too many times. “I’m willing to take the job, and your uncle has my references.”

“Homeland Security, quite impressive,” you uncle commented, nudging you with his elbow. 

You gave a tight smile. “Impressive, yes. I don’t need much — for right now, I need to go out and find a dress for the funeral tomorrow. Eventually, I’d like to go back to work.”

“I’ve told her that’s not necessary. My parents weren’t keen on sharing their fortune, but I don’t share the same qualms they did,” your uncle supplied. 

You pursed your lips together. “And while that’s very kind, my desire to work is more to keep me from wasting away, doing nothing.”

Clint smirked. “Fair enough. I can handle both of those things. In order to do my job, Ms. Y/L/N, the only thing I ask is that you keep me aware of your plans so that I can be there to do what I need to do. You’re going to get annoyed, having a human shadow everywhere you go, but until they’re able to find the people who did this to your parents, I’m going to be a necessary nuisance.”

“I appreciate the honesty.” You gave your uncle a single nod. “I think this will work out fine. Are you available now to go with me? If I don’t find a dress soon, I’ll be wearing these clothes to my parents’ funeral.”

Clint nodded. “Of course. Mr. Preston, you and I can discuss the financials when we return?”

Your uncle nodded and sent the two of you on your way. Clint showed you to his car, a stereotypical, all-black SUV, with tinted window. Despite the tint, he insisted you sit in the middle row. 

You sighed. “I guess that’s part of the annoying human shadow game?”

“Exactly,” Clint answered, chuckling. “It’s likely any shooters would assume you’re in the front seat, with me. I’m not a chauffeur, but I try to avoid any harm coming to my clients.”

“I appreciate that.”

You appreciated his casual, easy demeanor. Clint was professional, but not corporate. He wasn’t treating you like a paycheck; he was treating you like a person. A person who had nothing left to lose except her life — and he was going to prevent that loss if he could. 

As you perused the racks of dresses in a store you normally wouldn’t have dreamed of shopping in, but now you had a standard to live up to. You wanted something stylish, but modest. Classic, but not old-fashioned. With three dresses on your arm, you asked the sales attendant for a fitting room. She offered to help you, but you declined. Clint, a man you hardly knew, standing outside the door of the fitting room was enough of an invasion to your privacy. 

Of the three dresses, there was one that you felt comfortable in — in fact, you felt downright good about yourself. And a little guilty for feeling that way. You decided you needed a second opinion. If the reaction was too good, you would find something else. You stepped barefoot out of the fitting room and looked around for the sales attendant. 

“Wow.”

Clint had muttered the word under his breath, and judging by the look on his face, he hadn’t mean to let that slip out. You bit your bottom lip and apologized. 

“I’m sorry, I was expecting the sales attendant to be out here. I needed a second opinion.” You stood in front of the open fitting room door, shifting nervously from one foot to the other. “I really love this one, but I feel almost … not almost, I do feel guilty, about how much I love it, and how good I feel in it.”

“Hey,” Clint soothed, taking a step closer to you, “you’re still living your life, remember? Grieve. You’re absolutely allowed that. But what good is me protecting your life if you’re not going to live it?”

Your breath caught in your throat. If life was a movie, he would have reached up to caress your cheek, and there was a not-so-small part of you that wanted him to do that. What was wrong with you? You’d known him for, what, an hour? You looked down at the floor, smoothing out the front of the dress. 

“Okay. I’m going to get dressed and then we can go.”

Clint resumed the place where he had been standing before you came out of the fitting room and hadn’t budged when you came back out again. This time, there was no conversation as you got back into the black SUV. You didn’t mind; the exchange in the fitting room lobby had left you a little rattled, and, if you weren’t mistaken, Clint was feeling a bit of the same. 

The morning of the funeral, you rode in a town car with your uncle. Clint and two men from your uncle’s security team followed behind the town car in Clint’s SUV. 

“How’s the security detail working out so far?” your uncle asked as the town car pulled up to the church. 

You watched out the window as Clint got out of the SUV, becoming familiar with his surroundings before he headed toward the town car. 

“Fine. It’s fine.”

Clint came and opened your door, while your uncle exited the other side, escorted by his own security team. Your aunt, Sonya, was waiting at the front of the church for you and your uncle. She was the only sister of your grandparents’ three children, and had always been incredibly kind. She had even been one of your mother’s bridesmaids, and sent you a card or a gift for every birthday. You would have opted to stay with her after your parents’ death, but she had been traveling at the time, and you weren’t familiar enough with your uncle to explain that you would rather live with your aunt. Maybe once the investigation was over.

“Y/N, my dear,” she sighed, tears filling her pretty eyes. She took your hands and kissed you on both cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry this happened, I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner. I’ve arranged to have your things moved to my house first thing tomorrow morning.”

You hugged her, more grateful than you can express. When you pulled away, you motioned to Clint right behind you. 

“Aunt Sonya, this is Clint Barton. Uncle Sawyer hired him as my person security for the time being.”

Sonya reached out to squeeze her brother’s arm. “Very smart, little brother. The guests will be arriving soon; shall we go in?”

She hooked an arm through yours and the two of you walked ahead of your uncle and the security into the funeral home. The director went over a few last minute details with the three of you, and then advised you where to stand as guests filed in for the service. There was a guestbook, but propriety called for you to greet all of them along with your aunt and uncle. 

Clint was never far, always right behind you, occasionally reaching out to set a hand in your arm — soft, as though he was letting someone pass, although no one was. No one else would have noticed the gesture, but you were grateful for it. Despite your aunt and uncle on either side of you, the cold fingers of loneliness had taken a grip on you. The more people who poured in — most of whom wouldn’t have acknowledged your parents on the sidewalk if they passed — the lonelier you felt. With Clint behind you, you felt less as though you were suffocating in the feeling. 

You made it through the majority of the service by taking deep breaths and occasionally meeting eyes with Clint, standing off to the side, at the front, not terribly far from the caskets were placed. Each time, he gave you an encouraging nod, and you were able to make it a few more minutes. 

Just at the end of the eulogy, Clint was focused in on something or someone that wasn’t you. Without his silent encouragement, you felt your chest tighten and a lump form in your throat. The walls began to close in, and it felt as though everyone else in the room was breathing all of the air, leaving none for you. 

Pushing from the pew, you rushed as gracefully as possible out of the room and out front of the funeral home. Fresh air rushed over you. You gasped it in as though it was the last air you would ever breathe, closing your eyes and trying to get the world to stop spinning. 

“Y/N!”

Before the spinning became too much and your knees gave out, Clint was there, holding you at the elbows and urging you to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. 

“I can’t — I can’t —” You couldn’t finish the sentence. “They’re gone! I’m alone! I have no siblings, my family in there, I hardly know. Even my aunt kept a certain amount of distance so she didn’t lose her inheritance, too. I’ve lost my parents and now I’m thrust into this world where I could die at any moment, surrounded by people I hardly know, in a world that’s uncomfortable and unfamiliar!”

You were sobbing now. No matter how hysterical your rational self might have thought you were at that moment, you couldn’t stop. You were heartbroken. Your world was falling apart and you had no idea how to pick up the pieces, let alone put them back together. 

“Okay, all right,” Clint soothed, pulling you against him. You set your chin on his shoulder, holding on to him tighter than you had held on to anyone in a long time. “It’s the beginning, Y/N, you’ve got a long way to go with this. You’re allowed moments of uncertainty, especially at your own parents’ funeral. But you’re not alone. You’re not going to be alone. Your aunt is going to take care of you, I’m going to take care of you. You’re not alone.”

You nodded against his shoulder, unsure how this man you had known for not even twenty-four hours was more comforting than relatives you had known your entire life. With Clint’s presence as your security guard came a certain kind of security you hadn’t expected him to be the source of. 

The two of you waited in the lobby for the service to be over. You aunt doted on you when she came out, making sure you were okay now and ready for the burial. You assured her that you were, though the disapproving glances from your uncle had you wondering if you would hear about this from him later on. 

The burial and the wake were tolerable. You were introduced to so many people, you knew you would never remember them all, but you did your best. When it was permissible, you had Clint drive you back to your uncle’s house so that you could get out of that pretty dress and rest. You put on a t-shirt and a comfortable pair of sweats, washed your face and took the pins out of your hair, then fell to your bed to take a nap. 

When you woke, it was dark and you were startled awake by the bedroom door slamming shut. You squinted your eyes in an attempt to see in the dark. 

“Clint?”

He put a finger to his lips, urging you to be quiet. “There’s someone in the house. They shot the at the front gate. I want you to get your phone, get under the bed, and call your uncle. Tell him to stay wherever he is until this is under control.”

You did exactly as Clint told you, clapping your hand over your mouth when your shin hit the bed frame as you scrambled in the dark to get where you had been told. A bruise later was certainly better than losing your life. 

Honestly, you were worried that even the light of your phone from under the bed would give away where you and Clint were, but you didn’t want to put your uncle in danger, either. You dialed his number and prayed that the volume was low enough that whoever was in the house wouldn’t hear it.

From right outside the bedroom door, another phone rang. You frowned, wondering who had been stupid enough to invade a house and not turn their ringer off. Two rings later, realization hit you: those rings were in sync with the ones coming from your end of the line. 

Clint must have realized it, too, because you heard him curse under his breath and he whispered for you to end the call. Once it was disconnected, the ringing in the hallway stopped. 

“Stay here,” he ordered before you heard his footsteps leading out into the hall and away from your room. 

You were terrified at having him farther away than he had been since he arrived the day before, but there wasn’t much of choice in the matter. You stayed where you were, praying that it wasn’t your uncle who had come after your life, not really. 

The light in the bedroom switched on, and you held your breath. From your position under the bed, you could see not Clint’s black boots, but your uncle’s fine leather, polished dress shoes. Surely it was only a matter of time before he looked under the bed, but until then —

Two strong hands gripped your wrists and pulled you out from under the bed. You screamed and fought, but your uncle was quicker and stronger than you. He punched you once across the face, then clamped one hand over your hand and your mouth, the other pressing down on your throat. 

“Shh, Y/N,” he urged quietly, “shh. The more you fight it, the more it’s going to hurt. Death doesn’t have to be as painful for you as it was for your parents.”

Your squirming stopped, and a lack of oxygen wasn’t even your greatest concern. You stared up at him, eyes wide with both fear and realization. 

He nodded. “That’s right. It was me. You were out, or you would have been taken down with them, I’m sorry to say. How’s about, since you’ve only got a few minutes left anyway, I’ll tell you everything?”

He let up the pressure on your throat, but kept his hand over your nose and mouth, allowing some air, but not much. You wondered where Clint was, why he hadn’t come to save you yet. 

“You see, your parents weren’t exactly taken out of the will as they thought. Well, they were, but you weren’t. Before my mother and father passed, they set up a trust for you. It is to be awarded on your next birthday. However, that means money has been funneling out of my inheritance for years. I simply cannot have that. You have no children, and with your parents gone, the next of kin are Sonya and myself. My sister has no idea about any of this, so I suppose she’ll never be grateful that I took care of things for us, but at least —”

Someone hit your uncle, hard, at the temple. He fell to the side, his hand leaving your face, and allowing you to breath. For the second time that day, you gasped in air, greedy to fill your lungs again. 

Clint stood over your uncle, blood running from a gash on his forehead. He was already on the phone for backup, even as you worked to sit yourself up. You scooted away from your uncle’s limp form as quickly as you could. 

You could hear sirens in the distance, but you stayed where you were, as did Clint. Your uncle was rousing as police officers entered the house; they cuffed him and carted him off to a squad car to have a medic check him over before they brought him to jail. 

With the situation under control, you allowed another medic to escort you to the back of the ambulance, to have your face checked and make sure there would be no last damages from the brief time you were being suffocated. 

“She gonna be all right?”

The medic turned to see Clint behind him. “I think so, although I’m going to encourage her to go down to the hospital and get checked out, just in case. Maybe you should, too, sir.”

Clint pointed to the cut on his head. “Oh yeah, this — I didn’t see it coming, I guess. I’ll have someone drive both of us over here soon. Fair enough?”

The medic nodded, but had both of you sign AMA forms, just in case. Clint informed you that your Aunt Sonya had called the house, having been alerted by authorities, and Clint had assured her that you were all right, but she would likely want to meet the two of you at the hospital. 

“That’s fine,” you nodded, sliding down from the back of the ambulance. “Are you going to drive, or ��?”

He reached up to run a gentle hand over the bruising on your face. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there, Y/N. He got the jump on me down in the kitchen, and when I came to, he was confessing. I wasn’t trying to leave you out for bait, and I never would have let him hurt you more than he did, but they’re going to need that confession.”

“What, you got the whole thing on video?” You smirked, adrenaline fueling your sense of humor for the moment. “You’re one of those people! The people who see a car wreck or whatever and instead of calling for help or something, they just video the whole thing and take pictures.”

Clint rolled his eyes. “Hey, c’mon, I saved your life in the end. They need the evidence.”

You nodded and stepped forward to kiss his cheek. “You did, and I’ll be forever grateful for it. Perhaps sometime you could accompany me to dinner, as a small, insignificant thank you?”

“Well, I should probably keep up the security detail, at least until your uncle is safely behind bars and we’re sure he’s not going to send anyone else for you — or your aunt for that matter.”

“Yes, that’s a good point,” you nodded, “but I mean accompany me not as my security guard.” 

As the gist of what you were saying sunk in, Clint’s smirk grew to a smile. He put a hand at the small of your back and guided you toward his SUV. 

“Let’s get you to the hospital, Ms. Y/L/N. The sooner we get you back on your feet, the sooner you can take me to dinner.”

You giggled, but you knew this happy feeling wouldn’t last. The reality of the last week and a half of your life was going to sink in again, this time with the addition of the attempt on your life. You were confident, though, that with Clint around, you could could keep breathing through it all. 

Tags: @captain-s-rogers​ @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan​ @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked​ @hurricanerin​ @horsesandbandsforlife​ @im-not-an-armrest-im-short​ @captain-rogers-beard​ @shynara51​ @sea040561​ @anxiouskore​ @pinknerdpanda​ @xtina2191​ @jackryanplz​ @beakami​ @heartsaved​ @fullprunerebelstatesman​ @blackwidowismyhomegirl​

[weareinstrangetimes]

This Day In History - Jan 20, 2021 |  a work in progress...

Immediately after the inauguration of Joseph R Biden as the 46th President of The United States of America, the Republican Party, along with the right wing disinformation network and their allies abroad and whatever nook and cranny they can be found in will attempt to re-write history. They will point the finger of blame for everything they are responsible for including their complicity in the corruption, deceit, atrocities, breaking of all norms, denigrating the Constitution, insurrection and attempted sedition based on the lies and conspiracy theories by their nice leader and traitor-in-chief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A post from October with a lot of research, graphs, and links, topped with a video from Meidas Touch

The Trump Depression: The Economy Does Better Under the Democrats

One of the rare occasions when DJT has told the truth.

https://weareinstrangetimes.tumblr.com/post/633392690647711746/the-trump-depression-the-economy-does-better

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The National Debt.

Trump’s most enduring legacy could be the historic rise in the national debt

COVID-19

One Year, 400,000 Coronavirus Deaths: How the U.S. Guaranteed Its Own Failure

Cremation Limits Lifted In LA Due To 'Backlog' As COVID-19 Deaths Skyrocket

~~~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I continuously see posts in FB, and shared from one person to another, in many edited forms, that are to be their “reminder” of where we are currently, for posterity. Most of them will have some personal points of fact in them such as the current price of gasoline in their area. Most of them contain the usual false or misleading talking points used by the GOP and the right wing disinformation circles. They aren’t outrageously nonsensical enough to have come from the duck pond people, so they mostly are just the usual disinformation from the Republicans. Case in point: Facebook post I am making this post so it will show back up as a future memory on my timeline:Today is Biden's Inauguration ...Gasoline is currently $2.17 per gallon in Checotah OK. Interest rates are 2.25% for a 30 year mortgage. The stock market closed at 31,188.38 +257.86 (0.83%) today even though we have been fighting COVID for 11 months. Our GDP growth for the 3rd Qtr was 33.1 percent. We had the best economy ever until COVID and it is recovering well. We have not had any new wars or conflicts in the last 4 years. North Korea has been under control and has not been testing any missiles. ISIS has not been heard from for over 3 years. The housing market is the strongest it has been in years. Homes have appreciated at an unbelievable rate and sell well. Wood prices are high with 2x2x8' going around $5.66/stud at Home Depot... And let’s not forget that peace deals in the Middle East were signed by 4 countries—unprecedented! Unemployment sits at 6.7% in spite of COVID.

Point - Counter Point

My reply: The 33% gain in GDP is true. That is still 10% below the Q1 level after the 31.4% drop in Q2. And even farther below the Q4 2019 level. The reason for the 33% gain from a 31.4% loss is due to the stimulus pumped into the economy from the Cares Act that Nancy Pelosi worked so hard on getting. https://www.brookings.edu/.../dont-let-flashy-3rd.../ 

Below is a running tracking of the GDP from 1947 to the latest data. There are two major drops in the GDP. One starting in Q3 2008, and another dramatic one beginning Q1 2020.

   Reply to me: plus adding manufacturing that was outsourced to offshore manufacturing, lowering tax rates on business, and a multitude of other things. If you think this new stimulus bill they passed will benefit us we'll see since they seem more interested in sending money to other countries including enemies.

My Response:

Which manufacturing jobs were those? I know there has always been a lot of "talk" about it. Many corporations took advantage of their tax windfall to buy back their own stocks. Some who did upgrades added automation which resulted in loss of jobs for human workers, that robots could do. Some of those high profile corporations that were on display at the White House who gave out $1000 bonuses (to high ranking employees) laid workers off and scaled back which more than made up for it. Many CEOs and upper management received raises and very little went to the working class employees. There were a few companies that actually did increase wages and benefits to their employees, and Kudos to them. But I think they were in the minority.

The money going to foreign countries is not anything new and it was also included in the previous years budgets. It was part of the annual budget, in the defense portion, and was not part of the stimulus bill. They combined voting on them to try to get them both passed. The House voted on them separately and the Senate was to vote on the combined bill. The talking points are merely political, knowing full well that the majority of the population were not going to do any research.

N Korea? While exchanging love letters they were continuing their nuclear war head development under the cloud of a love affair. They had already perfected and tested their long range missiles within the last 4 years. Missiles that could reach the Western United States.

Peace treaties between non-warring countries? A nice political ploy. Bebe was returning the favor for the previous administration's help with his re-election. The two peoples still at odds are Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians were left out. The Palestinians want the same thing that Israel has always wanted and rightly so. Their own homeland/country and recognition on the world stage. The conflicts in that region, aside from with Iran, were with Qatar, (where we have a strategically shared air base and thousands of troops, and the other strategic partners in the region. Why? Because Jared Kushner got turned down when he was asking Qatar to bail out his failing 666 5th Ave property. It was revenge. So, that's like throwing gas on a pile of wood, lighting it, and then offering water to put the fire out. Those "peace treaties" were nothing more than normalization and cooperation agreements with some promised "deals" thrown in.

Point - Counter Point Another post being passed around in FB.

I've heard everyone else's hatred, rhetoric and blatant lies for the past four years, so now I'm expressing my opinion. If you don't like it, you know where the delete button is. Let me be clear, I'm not a Biden fan. I think he's corrupt, a liar, a racist fanatic, he's in bed with China and probably suffers dementia. He has done nothing to improve anything in his 47 year political career. But what has Trump done in the past 4 years?The ′′ arrogant ′′ in the White House negotiated four Middle East Peace Accords, something that 71 years of endless political intervention and war failed to produce.The White House ′′ buffoon ′′ is the first president to not involve us in an outside war since Eisenhower.The ′′ racist ′′ in the White House has had the biggest impact on the economy, bringing jobs and reducing unemployment among the black and Latina population of ANY other president. Never. Ever.The ′′ liar ′′ in the White House has exposed profound, widespread and long-standing corruption in the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Republican and Democratic parties.The White House ′′ White Supremacist ′′ turned NATO around and made them start paying their debts.The White House's ′′ dumb ′′ neutralized North Koreans and prevented them from sending missiles to Japan and threatening the Western US.The ′′ xenophobic ′′ in the White House changed our relationship with the Chinese, brought hundreds of businesses back to the US and revived the economy.This same ′′ clown ′′ reduced taxes, increased the standard deduction in his IRS statement from $ 12,500 to $ 24,400 for married couples and prompted the stock market to rise to record levels, positively impacting retirement accounts of tens of millions of citizens.The ′′ idiot ′′ in the White House accelerated the development of multiple COVID vaccines that are now available or will be soon. And yet we still don't have a vaccine for SARS, bird flu, ebola, or a number of diseases that emerged during previous administrations.The ′′ orange man ′′ in the White House rebuilt our military, which the Obama administration paralyzed and fired 214 key generals and admirals in their first year of term.Got it you don't like it. Many of you hate and despise him completely. How special of you. He is serving you and the WHOLE American people. What are you doing besides insulting him and laughing that he got the China virus Some of you even expected COVID to be the cause of her disappearance. (Ah, the left. The party of ′′ tolerance ′′Please re-educate me on what Biden has accomplished for America in his 47 years in office, as well as enriching the entire Biden family. BTW where's Hunter?I'll take the ′′ clown ′′ any day versus a corrupt, hypocritical, racist, fork-tongue liar. I want a strong leader who isn't afraid to kick butts when necessary. I don't need a father figure. I don't need a liar. That's what Hollywood, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS and The New York Times are for.Call me dumb, racist, super diffuser or part of the basket of deplorables. I don't care!God bless Donald Trump, the best and least appreciated president in US history.

Reply:

Counterpoint part 1: I realize you are not the author of that post. I have seen this post re-posted many times in various forms here in FB including by friends and I didn't respond. But since this is my post I will. I have also seen it at a site where gamers, musicians, music enthusiasts and creative folks hang out. It did not originate from there. The origin I believe is in part anyway from the same conspiracy theorist group that also makes up wild and crazy claims of former heads of state and officials being arrested, that never are. And people dying, who are still alive. And a dead person secretly being alive and running a crusade, who is still dead. And pizza joints having basements with trafficking rings, that have no basements. And miracle cures for COVID that are not proven and can cause more damage if not used for what they were intended for, even if you have a really cool pillow and a clean aquarium. And, and, and ... 5G, windmills, George Soros, Bill Gates, Forest Gump, Mr. Magoo, and voodoo doctors doing it with little green men in their dreams. 

Do they ever question why everything they believe is bunk? Do they ever get angry for being deceived? Do they ever feel foolish for looking foolish for posting such foolish nonsense? No. They just pass it off and wait for the next wild tale to spread and swear by. 

There are those who praise so-called Peace Treaties between nations that are not at war, leaving out the 1 culture that is affected and wants their own sovereignty and homeland, in every one of those so called "peace treaties". They suggest he should get a Nobel Peace Prize, and some even think he has been awarded it because he puts a fake facsimile of the medal in some of his posts. Those "peace treaties" I don't think were any more than cooperation and normalization agreements, and in some cases containing agreements to make financial transactions. 

The guy they tout as not having involved us in any wars has brought us very close to nuclear conflicts with his loud mouth and nasty tweets. The one guy who was the most imminent danger learned quickly that he could dupe the the mad Tweeter by giving him praise. In turn, he received what his father and grand father, also dictators before him, could never get from a U.S. President. What they got, with very little in return, was their most coveted prize, an audience with the Tweeter which gave them credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of their own subservient population. And they got an end to our annual readiness maneuvers with their Southern neighbor and our other strategic allies which was their second most coveted prize. Then while exchanging love letters with the mad Tweeter, they were able to secretly continue with their nuclear warhead development. And since they already have long range missile capability to reach the United States (tested during the mad Tweeter's reign) they are not only a major threat to our allies in the South Pacific, they are an imminent threat to the mainland U.S. 

The "buffoon" (referenced in the list of fables) in question also abandoned our allies that were instrumental in fighting ISIL (who is not completely eliminated) leaving them to be threatened with genocide (our betrayed allies) by another despot whose country hosts real estate developments the mad Tweeter has his name on (Trump Towers), and another crazed dictator who has been guilty of genocide and using chemical weapons in his own country on his own citizens. Those allies were also guarding the prisons that the ISIL prisoners were housed in, and they were allowed to escape. In fact his claims of completely eliminating ISIL himself 100% can be debunked by his own State Department. https://www.factcheck.org/.../trumps-isis-claim-goes-to.../ That was in 2017 and 2018. So, if ISIL (ISIS) was 100% defeated by 2018, why were we still fighting them in late 2019? Trump walks back claim of defeating ‘100% of the ISIS caliphate’ https://www.rollcall.com/.../trump-walks-back-claim-of.../ The claims by the right wing propagandists and Trump regarding unemployment for Blacks, and Latinos can be corrected by simply doing some research. AP FACT CHECK: Trump on unemployment for blacks, Latinos https://apnews.com/article/e1afa3f19a054540a7c34ca193bdd9ae Quote from the fable: "The White House ′′ White Supremacist ′′ turned NATO around and made them start paying their debts." What he did was weaken our alliances, playing right in the hands of one of our most dangerous adversaries, the guy who helped him to get into office. Something he has done throughout his term. And, his alt-facts and those of the right wing deceivers are easily fact checked. FactChecking Trump’s NATO Remarks https://www.factcheck.org/.../factchecking-trumps-nato.../ Trump made many claims about bringing jobs back to the U.S. and creating new jobs. Many of those things he was taking credit for early on were things that were already in the works long before he was helped into the White House. 2017: https://www.factcheck.org/.../trump-jobs-returning.../ 2020: We can reshore manufacturing jobs, but Trump hasn’t done it https://www.epi.org/publica.../reshoring-manufacturing-jobs/

There are a lot of claims around the GOP tax cuts. Sure, the standard deduction was increased. So has the cost of living due to illegal trade wars and prices sky rocketing. And many deductions for those who itemized were eliminated. Many are still waiting for their "post cards" so they can file their taxes. Those who really benefitted were those who are not in a month to month struggle to make ends meet. The corporate tax cuts that the Trump and GOP promoters said would trickle down and benefit the working class family wage earners was not realized. Corporations used their GOP granted socialism to buy back their own stocks. And many of those who touted handing big bonuses out in turn laid other workers off or eliminated jobs which more than made up for it. 

The stock market has been used by Trump and his mouthpieces as an economic indicator. While some people do benefit with returns on their retirement plans and stock portfolios, it is not a barometer of how working families are getting along, many who have to work multiple jobs just to pay rent and eat. And not everybody dabbles in the stock market. There have been ups and downs in the market. There was one period in March of 2020, where all gains in the market were wiped out back to February 2017. What happens in that type of situation? Those companies that can wrangle it buy back their own shares at lower prices which artificially gives the market another instant boost.

Counterpoint part 2:>>> Let's talk about infrastructure week. Still waiting on that one since February or March of 2017. We'll have to wait until real President-elect Joe Biden takes office. 

How about Operation Warp Speed and vaccine development. Accelerated vaccine development is a good thing, and because there were decades of research behind it and technological advances it was possible to accomplish. Joe Biden even acknowledged Trump, or at least Operation Warp Speed as a positive move. We can at least give him credit for that, since he botched the response with delays, denial, disinformation, and creating a herd mentality to push back on safety and mitigation in order to recklessly reach herd immunity through infection and death.> It should be noted that the first vaccine that was approved was from Pfizer, and they did not participate in Operation Warp Speed where the others received funding. They funded themselves although Trump deceitfully takes credit. And those 20,000,000 vaccine doses that Trump, Pence and the Trump administration were promising by the end of December 2020? As of January 8th, 6.6 million initial doses have been administered according to NBC News MAP Covid-19 vaccination tracker across the U.S. https://www.nbcnews.com/.../map-covid-19-vaccination...

After Trump "wanted to play it down" the U.S. as of Friday, January 8 2021, has surpassed 22 million COVID-19 cases, with a record 269,420 new cases, and over 372,000 deaths (Jan 9). https://www.nbcnews.com/.../u-s-covid-19-cases-hit-22...

Trump and his enablers and apologists often talk about how he rebuilt the "depleted military" that he inherited from President Obama. As with most Trump claims, it is Mostly False. Quote from the fable: "The ′′ orange man ′′ in the White House rebuilt our military, which the Obama administration paralyzed and fired 214 key generals and admirals in their first year of term. "Regarding the firing of the Generals, I saw another figure, 197, that was posted in a publication for retired folks in The Villages in Florida. Others have said it first appeared in the alt-right fake news Breitbart site. As with most things that roll around like a marble in an empty box in the right wing disinformation arena things are just made up, or facts spun and twisted like a taffy pretzel. In 2010, President Obama did replace his top Afghanistan war commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal due to in-bickering in his national security team. He replaced McChrystal with his boss and mentor, Gen. David H. Petraeus. https://www.nytimes.com/.../24/us/politics/24mcchrystal.html There have been other firings, replacements, and retirements. Most absences are for good reason and there is no wholesale purging as the right wing conspiracy theorists would lead you to believe. https://skeptoid.com/.../24/president-obama-purge-military/ Quoted from Snopes: "The U.S. national defense budget was slightly reduced during Obama's second term, in large part due to efforts by Congress to limit government spending and the withdrawal of troops from the Middle East. "Who controlled both the House and Senate? The Republican Party. https://www.snopes.com/.../trump-inherit-depleted-military/ AP FACT CHECK: Trump's Overblown Boasts About Military, Vets https://www.usnews.com/.../ap-fact-check-trumps-overblown... General Michael Flynn was also fired in 2014 from his position as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under Obama. Too many connections with RU it seems. And something I didn't previously know, was after he was fired he became a contributor to RT (government funded, Russia Today). https://themoscowproject.org/collusion/flynn-fired-dia/ I had always thought he was fired due to his overt Islamophobia which didn't sit well with some of our allies. He was advising Trump in 2016 on foreign policy and national security and subsequently during his campaign transition. Then he was appointed National Security Adviser in the administration (despite warnings not to), and he brought much of his baggage with him. It was discovered that he had previous contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. and was accused of trying to undermine U.S. policy. He was also accused of being a lobbyist for the same country where Trump's name is licensed on the Trump Towers Istanbul (that's 2 of them). All this while receiving classified briefings. He was fired or asked to resign just 3 weeks into Trump's term. https://apnews.com/article/ce90066b4e20483da79adf21910da0c7

Another quote from the fable list: "The buffoon in the White House has exposed the deep, widespread, and long-standing corruption in the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the Republican and Democratic parties." While there have been some procedural errors and some ethical issues, most of them are small compared with the real issues at hand. Now, the "buffoon" has not exposed anything. All the noise is to cover up and deflect from the corruption and high crimes and misdemeanors of said buffoon and his accomplices, enablers and apologists. That is the way the GOP does things.

"47 years" seems to be one of the fall backs when they run out of any other fables, or simply can't think of anything else to say. That would bring us back to 1973 making him 31 years old at that time. Joe Biden was a U.S. Senator representing Delaware from 1973 to 2009, re-elected several times. He was Vice President in the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2017, two full terms. He ran for president in 1988 and 2008.He has been on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In his early years he worked on consumer protection, environmental issues, and greater government accountability, arms control. He has worked as a public servant most of his adult life. He has probably done a lot more in his 47 years since being elected U.S. Senator than most people asking what he has done. While some of his views and policies in the past were controversial at the time, like most people, he has evolved and adapted to the changes in culture and public opinion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden...

The person who wrote the fable list states he will take the ′′ clown ′′ any day versus a corrupt, hypocritical, racist, fork-tongue liar. The Impeached "clown" in fact is all of the above and has been identified as a pathological liar and probably the most documented liar in history. The "clown" is also labeled as racist, corrupt, a con-artist, a xenophobe and a bigot among other things too numerous to list. Many people have said that. Also, unindicted co-conspirator, Individual 1, in crimes another person is serving prison time for. Individual 1 was only ‘not indicted’ due to Justice Department policies on not indicting a sitting president for crimes committed.

to be continued....

[citizen0ne]

Yakuza White Dragon Society battles New World Order Khazarian Mafia as U.S. troops deploy worldwide with 10,000 sealed indictments to help take them down.

“10,000 Sealed Indictments” – Fulford Report – 12.18.17

By Benjamin Fulford, official spokesman for White Dragon Society (Yakuza)

U.S. troops deploy worldwide with 10,000 sealed indictments to take down the centuries old secret Khazarian mafia

U.S. President Donald Trump spent the weekend at Camp David with his top generals to map out the exact strategy for decapitating the Khazarian mafia worldwide, say Pentagon sources. “The Atlanta airport was shut down while the Department of Defense refused to disclose the locations of 44,000 U.S. troops who may be involved in terminating the cabal worldwide,” a senior Pentagon source said. There are now close to 10,000 sealed indictments as more and more of the Khazarian criminals give up evidence on their colleagues, the sources say.

There are also many extra-judicial killings going on. “The liberal sanctuary city mayor of San Francisco, Edwin Lee, dropped dead after an illegal alien was found not guilty in the murder of Kate Steinle even after his confession,” one source notes. “Lee’s death is a message to the Democrats and sanctuary city mayors like Rahm Emmanuel of Chicago and Bill De Blasio of New York City,” the source warns.

The Khazarian mob is also killing off lots of people. In Japan, two former executives of Toshiba, Atsutoshi Nishida and Taizo Nishimura, suddenly died in the past two months because they were about to provide evidence about the March 11, 2011 Fukushima tsunami and nuclear terror attack against Japan, according to sources close to the royal family.

This attack was carried out by henchmen of the Rockefeller family, whose members include Hillary and Bill Clinton, the sources say. The Rockellers, in turn, were taking orders from the fascist P2 Freemason lodge, they say. The Rockefeller family, by the way, has elected Mel Rockefeller, the son of Nelson Rockefeller, as the new family head, these sources added.

In Canada, Barry Sherman, owner of the Canadian pharmaceutical giant Apotex, was found hanging dead alongside his wife Honey by the family’s indoor pool. According to CIA sources, Sherman was killed to cover up an evidence trail leading to the Clinton Foundation and their crimes in Haiti. “We have a classified document involving the Clinton Foundation and a pharmaceutical company from Canada that was to supply generic drugs for the people of Haiti. The point is that they were going to supply inferior-quality generic medicine and pocket the difference in price,” the CIA source says.

In any case, no matter how many potential witnesses are bumped off, the situation has reached a point where the Khazarians will not be able to murder their way out.

The December 12th Senatorial election in Alabama, for example, was a sting operation against the Khazarians, Pentagon sources say. “Senator Roy Moore was allowed to have his election stolen in Alabama so Trump could collect voting data to take down the Soros organization, the Democrats, and the cabal for vote fraud,” the sources say. “Three poll workers have been arrested already,” they note.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is next to join a growing list of politicians who are resigning in the ongoing purge of the House and Senate, the sources add. Senator John “Daesh” McCain is also apparently wanting to leave this world before his many crimes are made public.

http://fox6now.com/2017/12/15/john-mccain-described-as-increasingly-frail-senate-sources-say/

Even the brainwashed propaganda media is beginning to realize that something is going on when they see Hillary Clinton’s “surgical boot” (hiding a GPS ankle bracelet) staying on long after it should have been removed if the official excuse of a broken toe were true. No doubt some lame excuse will be given and the still-brainwashed segment of the population will accept it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5178037/Clinton-wears-surgical-boot-MONTHS-breaking-toe.html

The people who still believe the cabal’s story line are like the people in the joke about a man who was told his wife was cheating on him. In the joke, he hires a detective to confirm his wife’s innocence. The detective comes back and says, “She met with another man in the street and they entered a hotel together.” The husband asks, “Did you see them enter a room together?” The detective says, “Yes.” “Did you see what went on inside the room?” the husband asks. “Yes, I peeked through the keyhole and saw them on the bed together,” the detective answers. “Were they covered with a blanket?” the husband asks. The detective says, “Yes” to the man. He asks, “Did you see under the blanket?” and the detective says, “No.” “In that case you cannot prove she was cheating,” the husband says.

The husband does not want to face reality because it would upset his entire worldview, and in the same way, the brainwashed people will cling to the lamest excuses to avoid reality. Similarly, if the Clinton people explain the cast is still on because of “complications,” people in denial will go with this story rather than accept that she has been arrested.

Nonetheless, we are reaching the point where even these people will be forced to face reality. The entire FBI and Justice Department network that tried to protect Hillary Clinton from prosecution is also being systematically exposed and dismantled. The link here provides a good visual summary:

http://rense.com/general96/whoswho.html

Now even the corporate media is being forced to accept that the so-called “Islamic State” was a CIA creation. This is coming out now because the November 18th U.S. military raid on the CIA has shut down Operation Mockingbird and the corporate media is being forced to report the truth.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-15/weapons-went-cia-isis-less-two-months-new-study-reveals

A clear sign of how unusual the times we are living in have become is that former U.S. Corporation President Barack Obama is seeking and apparently getting political asylum in England.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/17/prince-harry-interviews-barack-obama-today-programme-guest-slot

What this shows, together with the fact that Donald Trump is not welcome in the UK, is that the Anglo-Saxon world is split between bloodline-controlled England and the anti-bloodline Gnostic Illuminati-ruled Republic of the United States of America.

This situation is likely to come to a head of sorts in January as an informal Anglo-Chinese alliance tries to bankrupt the U.S. internationally, based on its cumulative trade deficit and its inability to pay for the goods it imports with real money.

The U.S. will respond with threats of war. This will appear in the news in the form of U.S. sabre-rattling against North Korea, as it yet again wields the all-out nuclear war card in an attempt to extort more money. The Chinese are preparing to call the U.S. bluff this time, as can be seen by its government warning its people to prepare for nuclear war as it conducts military drills near Taiwan and North Korea.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2124613/north-korea-time-bomb-government-advisers-urge-china

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201712131059976881-beijing-bombers-jets-encircle-taiwan/

https://www.rt.com/news/413269-china-navy-drills-north-korea/

The Chinese and British want the creation of a world government in order to ensure a peaceful and law-based planet, Asian secret society sources say. In the absence of some sort of compromise with the U.S. military government, there will be financial chaos even if war is avoided.

The current financial system is dysfunctional and only serves as a way to funnel privately owned central bank funny money to the super-rich via the stock market. This means of distributing money has pushed financial markets away from reality, and reality always will prevail, no matter how hard you try to avoid it. The Boston Consulting Group surveyed 250 top institutional investors who together manage over $500 billion in funds and found them to be the most pessimistic they have been since the Lehman shock of 2008.

https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/survey-increasingly-bearish-investors-seek-long-term-value-creation.aspx

Hopefully, a new transparently and meritocratically run financial system will be launched, but we may need to go through the chaotic collapse of the old system before this is possible. We will find out in the new year.

On a final and personal note, Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center will be speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on December 20th. Cooper had one of my books banned for being “anti-Semitic.” When I asked him what in my book was “anti-Semitic,” he said that I wrote that U.S. President George Bush Jr. was responsible for the deaths of many civilians in Iraq. Bush is supposed to be an evangelical Christian, and the information on the deaths of civilians in Iraq came from the medical journal Lancet. So here we have a supposed Jew banning a book written by a person with Jewish ancestry that is denouncing genocide by a non-Jew because it is “anti-Semitic.” How hypocritical can you get? Poor Mr. Weisenthal must be spinning in his grave.

According to officials at Tokuma Shoten Publishing, the Weisenthal Center paid bribes to editors to place misleading newspaper ads for my book. This then led to a complete ban of all advertising for all of my books in newspapers and other ad venues, no matter what their content. This is typical of what they do to writers worldwide and is a part of their control grid in Japan and elsewhere. In the U.S., the Department of Homeland Security froze the bank accounts of entire publishing companies to prevent them from publishing my books in English.

Cooper and his Jewish mafia buddies also pay rent-a-mob right-wingers to do things like attack ethnic Korean shopping districts in order to keep South Korea and Japan fighting each other, according to members of these groups.

The man is a criminal and belongs in jail. If Cooper is arrested, he will sing like a canary about the entire Khazarian mafia control grid in Japan and elsewhere. He will also explain exactly how the Khazarian mafia runs North Korea. I would be very happy if some MP’s showed up at the event and arrested him. Take him to Guantanamo and make him sing.

The Dragon groups we do know to be real include:

the White Dragon which has an ancient Asian counter-part

the Black Dragon (Greater East Asian Co-prosperity sphere etc.)

the Dragon family (Merovingian royalty)

the Green Dragon which has roots in Iran (Persia) and central Asia

the Red Dragon may be the Nazis new name for themselves because the Odessa group (post-war Nazis) is definitely on the war path.

(Benjamin Fulford is a Canadian national who has lived and worked in Japan for over 20-years experience as a professional writer and journalist. He has sold over 500,000 non-fiction books written in Japanese. He’s produced a comprehensive catalogue of scoops in field ranging from business to Yakuza gangsters to high-finance to government corruption. Now focused on exposing U.S. manipulation of Japanese politics, media and education through a combination of bribes, murder, brainwashing etc. My goal is to counter U.S. propaganda and expose the Japanese people to the truth so that they may free themselves from the colonial yoke and use their $5 trillion in overseas holdings to end world poverty and save the environment. Native or near native, spoken and written: Japanese, French, Spanish and English. Conversational, reading ability in Mandarin, Portuguese and Italian. As for his experience: from 2005-present: He published 15 books written in Japanese with cumulative sales running at over 500,000 copies. Has a weekly 2-hour TV show and appear frequently on numerous other nationally broadcast shows. He has regular columns in a variety of best-selling Japanese magazines. From 1998-2005, Fulford worked as Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief for Forbes Magazine, he quit in profound disgust over extensive corporate censorship and mingling of advertising and editorial at the magazine. From 1997-1998: Fulford worked as the Tokyo correspondent for the South China Morning Post. From 1995-1997: Fulford worked as the staff writer for the Nikkei Weekly and the Nihon Keizai Shimbun Newspaper. From 1993-1995 he took a sabbatical in Canada and researched the link between evolutionary forces and modern world society. From 1989-1992 Fulford worked as Senior Tokyo correspondent for the International Financing Revue. There, he created and managed Japan Watch, a news and analysis service available on the Reuters and Telerate news-wires. Created Katana, a Japanese language news service available on the Nikkei Quick news-wire. Triggered several Finance Ministry investigations with articles that uncovered financial industry irregularities. From 1986-1989 he worked as correspondent for Knight-Ridder Financial News; covered a broad range of market related news. One particularly market moving story was used by Knight-Ridder in an advertising campaign. From 1982-1985 Part time jobs during student years included: work as an editor of Hitachi Review, a science and technology magazine; translation in the fields of business and finance and assorted television, radio and movie appearances. From 1978-1982: he spent time traveling and avoiding civilization. He spent 1-year studying with a witch doctor along the upper reaches of the Uquyali river in the Peruvian Amazon. Lived with former cannibals. He also traveled to other wilderness locations and lived off the land describing his experience as peaceful, beautiful. challenging and character building, zen.

Education: Sophia University, Tokyo Japan; the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. BA Asian studies, China area specialty.)

(If you have been following me for a long time, you will remember my post laying out who were “black hats” fighting for the New World Order and who were “white hats” fighting for the people...well this is the “white hat” White Dragon Society (Yakuza) faction I was talking about.

[xtruss]

The Ugly Face of China:

Mysterious automated calls, vanished relatives, and sinister Facebook comments: How China intimidates Uighurs who don't even live in the country

Uighurs abroad say they've received mysterious automated calls and Facebook comments, and seen their relatives vanish.

Alexandra Ma

A protester wearing a mask painted with the colors of the flag of East Turkestan — what Uighurs call Xinjiang — and a hand bearing the colors of the Chinese flag outside the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in July 2018.

— China is waging a widespread, coordinated mass crackdown on its Uighur Muslim minority.

— Though the brutal campaign is most active in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, the Uighurs' homeland, many Uighurs abroad say they have also been targeted by Chinese agents.

— Members of the Uighur diaspora described receiving mysterious automated calls, eerie Facebook comments, and being threatened by Mandarin Chinese speakers in real life.

— Uighurs abroad have also discovered their relatives in Xinjiang vanished days after they spoke out against China's human-rights record.

China's unprecedented oppression of Uighur Muslims goes beyond the borders of Xinjiang, the western Chinese region where most of the ethnic minority live, former residents told Business Insider.

Under President Xi Jinping, China is waging a widespread counterterrorism campaign on Xinjiang, also known to Uighurs as East Turkestan. It is a paranoid move in response to a spate of ethnic riots between Uighurs and Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in the country, ten years ago.

The Communist Party sees Uighurs' religion — Islam — as a threat, and often conflates it with religious extremism.

For this reason, China apparently feels the need to control the Uighur diaspora outside the country in case they return home and carry out attacks.

Police patrol on a scooter as an ethnic Uighur boy stands in his doorway in the old town of Kashgar, Xinjiang, in June 2017.

“For those still outside the country for whom suspected terrorism cannot be ruled out, the border control reading will be carried out by hand to ensure that they are arrested the moment they cross the border," one government bulletin said.

"For those ... whom suspected terrorism cannot be ruled out, they should first be placed into concentrated education and training for examination," it added, referring to tightly-secured detention camps in the region, where former inmates say they are physically and psychologically tortured.

Copies of Chinese government documents that were leaked to a the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists displayed in November 2019. (Associated Press)

'Family and friends suffer the consequences'

Several members of the Uighur diaspora told Business Insider they've also been spooked by China without even having to step foot in the country.

Rushan Abbas, a Uighur activist living in Herndon, Virginia, discovered last September that her sister had been disappeared by Xinjiang authorities six days after she spoke out against China's human rights record. She still has no idea of her whereabouts.

“The Chinese government is basically holding her hostage for my speaking out about the horrific blatant human rights abuses of the Chinese government," Abbas told Business Insider last month.

"My sister's story is not unique. China harasses Uighurs in the diaspora's relatives back home, presenting them with heartbreaking choice: Keep silent about the horrific violations of human rights, or let your family and friends suffer the consequences for your choice for speaking out," she said.

"I am an example of that."

Bahram Sintash (right) and his father, Qurban Mamut, during Mamut's February 2017 visit to Washington, DC. (Courtesy of Bahram Sintash)

An entire business gone

Abbas is not the only foreign Uighur who has been punished in Xinjiang for their actions outside the region.

Bahram Sintash, a Uighur-American living in Chantilly, Virginia, has been campaigning for his father's release from the Xinjiang camps since October 2018. He has called on the Chinese government to reveal the whereabouts of his father, a retired magazine editor, through social media, protests, and speaking to journalists.

Sintash has been living in the US since 2008, but continued to visit his family in Xinjiang until 2015, when his Chinese visa was inexplicably revoked. That same year, he had opened a company in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital city, to provide fitness supplements and workout plans to Uighurs in the region.

Sintash requested anonymity for his company to protect its former employees. But he said the business flourished, and had earned close to a million dollars.

That success came to an end in October 2018 — exactly two days after Sintash spoke to Radio Free Asia about his father's disappearance for the first time.

Sintash's father Qurban Mamut in Washington, DC, during a February 2017 visit. (Courtesy of Bahram Sintash)

Multiple police officers went to the company's office in Urumqi, took photos of every corner of the office, and told employees to leave as soon as possible, Sintash told Business Insider.

Shortly after the raid, police officers further questioned his colleagues, shut down his office, storage warehouse, and corporate social media accounts, he said.

"The police warned my partners to stop communicating with me and told them I was the enemy of the country living overseas," Sintash said.

"I couldn't get my money back from the region," he added. "I can no longer contact any business partners or my teammates or my customers."

Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing, in November 2018.

Sintash said he learned the news of his company's collapse not from any official correspondence from Xinjiang authorities, but from one of his customers.

There's no other way to verify it: His mother blocked him on WeChat last year for fear of getting in trouble with authorities, and all his phone calls to regional authorities about his father have gone unanswered.

Mysterious automated calls and Facebook messages

As some Uighurs lose touch with their family on the phone, others have received menacing messages from Chinese-speaking agents.

A protester wears a mask painted with Xinjiang or East Turkestan's flag and tears of blood in Brussels in April 2018.

Guly Mahsut, a Uighur Canadian living in Ottawa, reported receiving multiple automated calls from Mandarin Chinese-speaking agents in recent weeks.

A female caller had identified herself as the Chinese embassy and told her to pick up some documents. Mahsut told Business Insider that even as she kept blocking the numbers calling her, she kept receiving the same automated calls from other numbers.

It's not clear how the caller got Mahsut's phone number, what documents she is referring to, and why Mahsut was receiving these calls. Earlier this year she publicly questioned China's claim that it had released most inmates from Xinjiang's detention centers, telling Agence France-Presse she knew of a cousin and two friends still in the camps.

Listen to one of the recordings Mahsut received below, accompanied with a rough translation of the message verified by Business Insider:

The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa told Business Insider this call was a "telecommunications fraud," calling the caller "law breakers [who] use technical means to disguise phone numbers as embassies and consulates." It added that the alleged scam is "not targeted at a specific group of people."

Some 30 members of the Uighur diaspora in Norway have received dozens of automated calls from phone numbers connected to the Chinese embassy in Oslo, Al Jazeera reported last month.

One of the Uighurs, a naturalized Norwegian citizen, said she started receiving the calls after attending an anti-China rally on October 1.

The Chinese embassy in Oslo denied the calls in a similar manner to the London embassy, saying they were part of a scam.

Uighurs living in the US and France also told The Daily Beast and Foreign Policy last year that they had been asked for personal information including license plate numbers, bank details, ID photos, and marriage certificates — and threatened harm to their families in Xinjiang if they did not comply.

Uighur men pray before a meal during the Corban Festival, also known as Eid al-Adha, in Turpan, Xinjiang, in September 2016.

Sintash, the fitness company owner, has also received messages in Chinese threatening to harm his family.

In January 2019, he received a comment in simplified Chinese on Facebook, in response to a comment he had left in the Uighur language on another person's page.

You are a good son of the Chinese Communist Party. Your father has been released now," the comment read, without providing any evidence.

"I reckon you can keep selling your white powder [crying-eyes emoji]," the comment continued, in what Sintash took to mean his fitness supplements. "Strongly support you."

The account was registered under a Chinese name, and its profile photo was of a young Chinese woman.

The entire account has since been deleted. Business Insider last saw the post in February, and has preserved screenshots of the comment.

What I understood [from the comment] was: 'Keep obeying the Chinese Communist Party and shut your mouth. Your father is in our hands,'" Sintash told Business Insider.

"I felt threatened by the CCP."

Trolling people is not a new Chinese tactic. The country's propaganda department pays some two million people to publish pro-government posts and attack critics on social media, a Harvard University report found in 2016.

These commenters are known as the "wumao dang," which translates to "50 cent party" in Chinese — a reference to the amount of money in yuan they are allegedly paid per post. That's about $0.07.

'Your mother has died'

Another bizarre run-in with Chinese speakers took place in late October, when Sintash and other Uighur activists staged a protest outside the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, DC.

As Sintash and 13 others held up signs and chanted slogans, a Han Chinese man — the largest ethnic group — went up to them and said: "Your mother has died" five times.

Video shows the group looking at the man, puzzled, as he walked away.

“He was a pro-CCP Chinese citizen who could've said anything to define [himself] ... but he chose to tell us 'your mother has died,'" Sintash said.

“I was shocked at the time. I never expected someone to deliver such an evil message while in the United States."

Those words were particularly jarring to Sintash, who hadn't spoken to his mother or anyone else in his family since February 2018. To this day, he still has no idea who that man was.

A man on his phone in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Will these threats stop Uighurs from speaking out for their families trapped in China? Probably not.

"They cannot control us," Sintash said. "China looks for people who are weaker mentally. I am different ... I have the US behind me."

“I never cared about politics in the past," he added. "What China is doing to the people in the region — we have to speak up. We have to stand up."

— Business Insider

[elizgeli]

DuckTales 2017 Premiere: Woo-oo!

I watched the premiere as it debuted at midnight on 8/12. It’s going to rerun for 24-hours, so check it out if you have Disney XD!

This is my SPOILER RECAP. Fair warning. 

-- 

We begin with a seagull flying, so I guess non-anthropomorphic, non-verbal animals existing in this universe.  Must be a class struggle a la “Wicked.” 

Donald has no job and the nephews are teasing him but they make him a fish breakfast to say they believe in him. It kind of looks like the casserole from Kiki’s Delivery Service and “WE BELIEVE IN YOU UNCLE DONALD” is written in ketchup around the plate.  Before they shoo Donald away to his job interview Dewey gets caught trying to hotwire the boat. He must be like the Donatello of this group. 

Donald sets his GPS to take the boys to Scrooge McDuck. They know of him as some legendary billionaire. I guess that they don’t know they are related yet? 

Scrooge’s board is telling him that they are cutting funding to historical research and experimental tech. Lucius Fox won’t be happy about this. St. Canard is mentioned...so I’m assuming we’ll be getting Darkwing Duck at some point? #LETSGETDANGEROUS

Launchpad is his chauffeur in a car...no planes yet. Donald is blocking Scrooge’s driveway and they greet each other. When Donald calls him Uncle the boys begin celebrating in the backseat. They obviously hate each other but who knows if we’ll ever find out why. He tells Donald to “jettison that Jalopy,” which I’m assuming is a reference to the 1943 Donald Duck short “The Flying Jalopy.” *cricket...cricket* He agrees to watch the boys for a few hours mostly to spite Donald. Beakley urges him to talk to them but they ask a lot of questions so he shoves them in the attic with Beakley. She is British now and not as cuddly like before. I guess there’s no Duckworth...he never made sense to me anyway since he was a dog, but now Beakley has to take on the role of icy British servant.

Scrooge is offended that the boys said he “used to be a big deal” so he locks them in attic with a bag of pre-counted marbles that they have to return. Webby ties up the boys and it is revealed she is obsessed with the Duck Family. She has a Homeland-style bulletin board about them, which is mildly unsettling. She is desperate for friends and immediately declares HDL as such. Louie is established as the evil triplet. 

They start climbing through the air vents and overhear Scrooge saying that family is nothing but trouble and get sad. Webby shows them Scrooge’s “Wing of Secrets,” which I’m assuming is the West Wing. A bunch of things from the original cartoon credits sequence is shown. A painting reveals Donald used to be Scrooge’s sidekick and a daring adventurer, which they can’t believe. 

Donald is shown struggling with a stapler at the interview, where he is seated in the waiting room next to Max’s girlfriend Roxanne from The Goofy Movie--at least that’s what she looks like. He obviously loses his temper and destroys everything. 

The boys don’t believe Webby until an actual Pirate ghost appears, as well as a “Headless Man Horse.” Scrooge discovers them and them saves them. But then hits a cursed gong that releases a gold-hunting dragon (Smaug?) that goes straight for the money vault. 

Scrooge rides the dragon with Daenerys-like skill (not actually).  Struggle ensues and Scrooge ends up falling into the money pit to the horror of the kids that think they are about to see him die. However his superpower of viscous money is revealed and he joyfully swims through the gold. “Family truly is the greatest adventure...oh no the ground!” says Launchpad as he crashes. 

Scrooge gives a Mulan-Emperor speech about everything they ruined but then praises them. The greatest gift of all is having you all for nephews and my indentured servant’s daughter. 

Donald gets the job! BUT as a sailor for Glomgold, Scrooge’s archrival! Oh no! Launchpad leaves notes for all the cars he hit with the plane because he is a BRO. 

THEME SONG NOW. I guess the first half hour was a cold open. TITLE CARD. Ok now another open is a commercial for Glomgold industries and reveals his entire corporation revolves around finding the lost treasure of Atlantis and becoming the richest duck in the world. 

The whole crew is in a sub looking for the treasure. They’re pretty sure he doesn’t know their names and Scrooge calls one of the boys SONNY JIM which can only be a TWIN PEAKS REFERENCE. Launchpad doesn’t actually know how to drive the sub so Dewey programs in a “short cut.” Havoc and sea monsters ensue. 

There’s already been an ESPN product placement, so I’m sure that’s gonna make the shareholders happy. Donald is unknowingly headed with Glomgold to the same treasure with a bunch of hunters.  They all arrive at the City of Atlantic but not THAT Atlantis. There’s probably a reference here to the Disney movie but I’ve never been able to stay awake for all of it so I dunno. The boys try to teach Webby how to call Beakley and lie about being at a friend’s house but she is really bad at it. 

Temple searching ensues. Lots of death traps, including the laser hallway from Resident Evil. With his knowledge, Dewey navigates the lasers against Scrooge’s wishes. “Maybe I could just hire a family. Then they’d have to listen to me!” Sadly not true.  I’ve looked into it. Glomgold reveals Donald is working for him and Scrooge is bummed. That’s cold, even for this rivalry. Donald claims he had no idea they were enemies. Glomgold takes off and floods the chamber, leaving all three of them to die?! Worst boss ever. 

The other three kids and Launchpad are discovered by Glomgold’s associates. Donald is trying to hold the water by stuffing the money in holes. Dewey and Scrooge figure out that they need to let the room flood to get the treasure. “This is a surprising insightful deathtrap” says Dewey.  They break out with the jewel and save the others from the thugs, but it’s revealed Glomgold ditched all the employees. One of the thugs says “I thought you said employees were the greatest treasure of all?!” “No!” says Glomgold, “Treasure is the greatest treasure of all, that’s why it’s called treasure!” 

The good ducks agree to take everyone back and escape in the sub. Upon arrival at Duckberg harbor, Glomgold is showing off his jewel to the media when Scrooge upstages him with a bigger, family jewel...ahem. It’s revealed to be a clean energy source that could power Duckburg for 50 years! So Scrooge is now in the energy business. When asked about Glomgold’s jewel, Scrooge says “It’s nice but it’s obviously super cursed.” Turns out he’s right because Glommy is immediately devoured by a giant octopus. 

Donald admits he’s been too overprotected of the boys and agrees to let them hang with Scrooge sometimes. The houseboat explodes because Dewey is cray and they all have to move into the mansion after all.

A reporter says Scrooge McDuck is back, “Solving mysteries and rewriting history.” Finish your drink. Back in the west wing, Dewey sees the old painting and puts up a folded over corner saying “Mom?!” WHAT THE HECK?! So we’re gonna explore that? 

Some overall thoughts: Much like Girl Meets World, the new Mickey Mouse shorts, and the maze, this reboot is not meant for me. That being said I still found it pretty entertaining and it’s something the whole family can enjoy together. There were plenty of things for today’s kids mentioned (photoshop, smart phones) but it didn’t feel too over-the-top. Ninety’s nostalgia seekers should feel welcome. The plot was similar to the original series pilot, just minus all the uncomfortable racial caricatures. Instead they used the mythical Atlantis. It will be interesting to see how they keep this up since most treasure is rooted in ancient mythology. Donald clearly will have a bigger role, and Webby is much spunkier, as still the only girl, but this time without all the thumb-sucking and crying.  I guess there’s no Duckworth...he never made sense to me anyway since he was a dog, but now Beakley has to take on the role of icy British servant. Hopefully she loosens up too. She lost weight, while Glomgod gained about twice his body mass. He no longer looks like Scrooge + beard. 

There were lots of fun jokes that went by so fast I couldn’t even type them. OVerall I enjoyed it! I plan to keep watching! What did you think?

[movieswithkevin27]

The Lost City of Z

NOTE: SPOILERS THROUGHOUT

A journey to find a lost city is always about more than finding the city itself. Conquistadors set out to “discover” the Americas and explore the new world for three reasons, “God, gold, and glory”. Facing horrific conditions in the jungle and squaring off with the naturally confused and hesitant natives of the land, the men - for all of their faults - embarked on a journey that changed the course of human history. Yet, being willing to embark on such a journey naturally calls for a man that is willing to get away. One that is willing to leave his homeland and take on such an arduous with the odds being against him ever returning home again. Either disease or conflicts with the natives would prove to be the end for him and others in his party and, as such, is always a journey to find more than a city or explore a civilization. It is a calling for people that are missing something and want to find something in those jungles that is more than a city of gold. What they hope to find is unknown to even them and is one that will undoubtedly forever change their life.

Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) was one such man. Initially sent to Bolivia on behalf of the Royal Geographical Society and British Army in order to end a border dispute between Bolivia and Brazil over where the border actually is between the two, Fawcett quickly becomes obsessed with the Amazonian jungle. In his initial mission to find the source of a river known to the British that holds the key to where the border lies, he stumbles across pottery and a carving in a tree. Around him is nothing but jungle, except for these small trinkets. Upon returning to Britain, he immediately calls for his return to find a lost city he is calling “Zed”. Despite the fact that his wife Nina (Sienna Miller) is pregnant with their second child and his son Jack (soon to be Tom Holland) does not remember him, Percy believes he must go back to the jungle. With the backing of a few investors, he does set out to find this lost city, returning with Corporal Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson), Corporal Arthur Manley), and explorer James Murray (Angus Macfayden). Upon there, illness and a loss of rations prevent them from completing the journey. Finally, years later after spending time in France for World War I, he returns with son Jack to complete his journey for this lost city.

However, in spite of its apparent set-up as a film about a man embarking on a life’s journey to find a city and throwing away his family in the process, The Lost City of Z is mostly a character study. Percy Fawcett is a man who has made Major in the British Army at the beginning of the film, but without a medal. He has received some distinctions in the past, but is the only man to have the rank of Major without a medal. Compounded by the fact that his father was a drunk with an infamous reputation that ruined the Fawcett name, Percy first accepts the surveying mission to Bolivia in an effort to restore his name. Calls from Britain for him to return immediately due to adverse conditions on his first trip are met with stubbornness from Percy, who insists on completing the mission given to them nonetheless. Though he loves his wife Nina and loves his children, he is on a search to find himself in this Amazonian jungle. He feels destiny calling him with even a psychic he visits in the trenches of World War I telling him that his soul will never rest until he finds what he is looking for in the jungle. To Percy, this means the lost city. If he just finds the city, he will be okay and will stop hearing the voice in his head to run. However, what he is running to is an illusion. There has been a possible city found there in this century, but it is not what was calling Fawcett. His call what one of self-identity. Who is he? He has no rank. His father was a drunk. All he has is this city and it is the only accomplishment he could ever dream of having that will define his destiny and leave a mark on the world. If he could find this city, he would be remembered and revered for his bravery. If he fails, he is seen as a crazy person who fell for the old “El Dorado” mirage that explorers and conquistadors had fallen prey to throughout time.

Percy Fawcett is no crazy man. He may be embarking on a journey similar to Klaus Kinski’s in Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God, but he is not losing his mind. He is of sound mind and body. In battle, he ably leads his men. In the jungle, he ably leads his men. At home, he may hit his son Jack, but is otherwise a sound father figure. In the jungle, he finds that the so-called “savages” are more advanced than previously thought and reports his findings to the British. He is met with derision from his countrymen who cannot fathom these “savages” being anything less than cannibals with a blood lust for white men. At home, his children and wife have no idea what he is looking for in the jungle and are frustrated by him constantly leaving them for years at a time. Men such as James Murray believe him to be a fraud who has no proof of this so-called city of Zed. Yet, there is proof. It is out there and Percy knows where to find it, he just has to be able to get there. The years he has spent in the jungle has only made him more determined, not insane. This is his chance. His opportunity to change everything for the Fawcett name and himself. Finding this city would mean he was a success and better than his father who sought to find himself in the bottom of a bottle. Not finding the city is not an option and he has decided that his destiny is to find the city, above all other challenges.

His rejection at home by his peers and his cabin fever at home is only exacerbated by his experiences with the natives. Accepted as one of their own and welcomed into various communities during his time traveling the river in Bolivia, he has finally found a place that accepts him. They do not care about who his father was or what he is doing in the jungle. It is a place separate from a world that has largely rejected him and that had forced him to seek a purpose in this jungle. While his encounters do not quell the fire in his soul for more and to finally achieve something worthy of being rewarded for, they do convince him that the Amazonian jungle is the place for him. Though it may be dangerous for his health and not all of the natives are welcoming, it is the only place that does not make him want to run away from it and find something new to do. No matter where he is in Europe or what he is doing, his soul keeps calling out for him to be in the Bolivian jungle. Once he is there, he must find Zed and stop at nothing to accomplish this goal.

Unfortunately, Fawcett’s issues with his own father and his own self-identity has rubbed off on his family. Feeling abandoned by him and wondering why they must embark on these journeys of sacrifice alongside him, his eldest son Jack accompanies him on his third and final journey to the Amazon. Similarly seeking to find the lost city, Jack’s journey is certainly partially inspired by a desire to see more of his father, but there is more to why he goes to the jungle as well. Initially convinced to go as a way of changing the Fawcett name, Percy has only marginally improved the way the family is viewed. He has improved upon his father to be sure, but has certainly met with his share of detractors due to his obsession with a mythical city of gold. For Jack, he sees it as a way to allow his father to complete the mission. Though the film skips over the time in between the war and his final mission, it can certainly be assumed that Percy was a little disconnected. He left his heart in the jungle and is dying to find it again. Jack is willing to go to see him find this missing piece of himself in the jungle and see his life’s journey to its conclusion. Partially, it would bring joy to his father, but also convince Jack that his father’s efforts were not in vein. For Jack, this journey also personally means that he will be able to restore the Fawcett name. He has seen the newspapers that ridicule and mock his father at every turn. He has seen the name be publically shamed by everybody that matters in Britain and so he seeks out the Americans, who do not know the Fawcett name, to fund the latest adventure. Akin to his father trying to restore the family name, Jack’s journey is one where he hopes that he and his father can together restore the family’s pride and worth in the community.

The journey undertaken by the Fawcett’s is a fruitless one, however, due to the expectations of Percy and, later on, Jack. Both of them are convinced they will find this city hidden by time. Everything they encounter hints at it with hidden statues. An opera house that Percy went to in his first journey is now nothing but sticks and rubble. The jungle consumes all and stops at nothing to reclaim what Europeans is stealing from it whenever they arrive. It only stands to reason that a city could be similarly consumed by the trees and brush that surround its every edge. Yet, they never actually find this city. It may be out there, but they never set their eyes on any such lost city. Instead, they are met with constant hurdles and lose sight of a simpler goal. In a flashback scene, we see Nina read Percy a letter that she had written in the event of dying during the birth of Jack. In it, she asks him to encourage their son to dream and to always remember that seeing beauty is its own reward. Thinking back on this letter, it is clear that Percy has misunderstood its message. Daring to dream is not dragging your entire family into a fruitless and hopeless journey to find a city that may or may not be there. He is just running away to try and restore his father’s name, while simultaneously neglecting his own family. Along the way, he overlooks everything. No matter how many tribes extend a warm welcome to him and no matter how much he talks about how advanced the natives are with brilliantly designed farming methods, Percy is never satisfied. He soaks in the beauty of those moments, but it is not rewarding to him. He needs to find the city. At home, simply being with his family is not enough. He needs to be busy restoring their name. There is no reward for him in the simple moments. There is always a beacon calling him elsewhere and one that he will never be able to actually reach. In the meantime, he has forgotten to live and to actually experience things outside of the jungle. It, like it consumes everything within it, has consumed him and left him a broken old man. The only portion of Nina’s letter that really speaks to Percy is how a man’s ambition should always exceed his grasp. His guiding light in taking on this ambitious venture, it is clear that it should only be undertaken with the other two pieces. On its own, it only opens him up to losing him in his ambition and forgetting that which he already has around him.

A classically-styled film with hints of Herzog’s aforementioned Aguirre, the Wrath of God, as well as the film directly inspired by that one, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, The Lost City of Z shows a man consumed by the jungle. Yet, as previously mentioned, he is not insane. He is just a man who sees the jungle has his only option. The only way he can leave a mark and change history. Without it, he is a failure and cannot rest until the city is actually found. With scenes set on a river with land on either side akin to the films that influenced it, The Lost City of Z’s style screams of being from the 1970s, even if its ambitions often feel similar to the epics of the 1950s and 1960s. Attempting to depict 20-or-so years of this man’s life, director James Gray quickly flips through time and gives highlights from each time period that all play a role in building his character. From his quiet English home to the jungles of the Amazon to the trenches in France, the film wears many hats and attempts a variety of things. Yet, no matter how grand its scale or how far-reaching its sweep is, the film remains an intimate character study of a man that never was able to accomplish his main goal in life: find a city in the forest.

With exquisite cinematography, the film’s old school appeal translates to its imagery with somewhat washed out scenes set in England with stuffy period clothing and roudy Brits boasting about their superiority to the rest of the world. In the jungle, cool blues and greens surround everything before a final goodbye to the jungle that sees fire all around and smoke billowing from the top of the trees. This color combination is a feast to behold throughout, especially when Gray introduces candlelight to the equation. As with all great epic journeys, The Lost City of Z presents incredible staging, lighting, and framing of shots with each frame firing on all cylinders.

However, no matter how striking its imagery is and how ambitious its scope, Gray’s film often gets out of his reach. At times, the way in which it skips through time feels like a highlight reel. Its slow pace and Gray’s willingness to not cut too quickly allows this issue to be somewhat mitigated as each moment is given its due, but there is simply too much going on here. In particular, the war sequence is simply bloat and its only thematic contribution is the introduction of the belief that Percy’s soul will never be quiet until he finds what he is looking for in the jungle. At the end of the film, the final tribe they encounter state that they will put Percy’s soul to rest. Tying these two together is nice and highlights how detailed and nuanced the script by Gray is, but the war sequence hardly contributes much otherwise. It goes on a bit longer than needed and shows unnecessary battle scenes that could have been short-handed as simply temporarily blinding Percy and reuniting him with his son Jack. While well shot as always and representing the ambition undertaken by Gray in making this picture, it is an unnecessary diversion from the film’s thematic considerations in both Bolivia and England and its only contribution is a brief sentence that could have been introduced elsewhere.

A somewhat haunting tale of a man consumed by a destiny that he believes awaits him in the Amazonian jungle, The Lost City of Z is not so much an adventure film about a man trying to find a city. Instead, it is a character study of Percy Fawcett, who is consumed by a desire to find what he believes to be a lost city in the jungles of Bolivia. Spending years of his life trying to find this city and missing the births and youth of all of his children as a result, Percy unwittingly takes them in the jungle with him. By leaving his heart on the road to El Dorado, he has condemned his wife and children to forever search the jungle for where he left it, wondering what made the man they called their father or husband leave them for this mess of heat, poisonous animals, and trees. However, they will never know. Instead, as the brilliant final shot of Nina walking into the jungle in a mirror shows, they are doomed to walk the paths of the jungle for the rest of their days as the seek the answers to why Percy felt the jungle held the keys to his destiny and that only its branches could reveal the lock.

[agentem]

Emily DOESN’T watch Iron Fist

The final installment (?).

Originally I started the “Emily watches Iron Fist So You Don’t Have To” tag because I wanted to recap the series for those of my friends who had decided to conscientiously object to watching it (because of the racism #AAIronFist controversy), which I totally understood and supported.

I chose to watch the show to support Colleen Wing who is a fave of mine (because Misty Knight owns my heart and Colleen is her bestie).

But you may recall that yesterday I stopped after the creator of Iron Fist said some racist things in an interview. I felt that changed this because before I was happy to criticize the adaptation--as many adaptations of comics are terrible--and hoped to get some enjoyment out of the characters I truly cared about (Colleen, Claire, and--as it turned out--Madame Gao) and have fun mocking the elements that I did not enjoy.

Today I’ve decided not to watch the rest of the series after reading some spoilers about the three episodes that I haven’t gotten to. I’m going to spoil them below the cut for those of you who were following my tag so they would get the gist of Iron Fist without having to watch it (and for Cameron H. who was having fun watching my reactions to this mess).

In fact, I may just summarize the things that could be applicable to The Defenders from much of the series, again so you don’t have to.

COLLEEN WING. Colleen Wing is gorgeous and beautiful and I love her with all my heart. She opens the series as the “sensei” at an NYC dojo where she teaches neighborhood kids how to defend themselves to give them a sense of purpose and a place to go. She is doing good in the community and also a badass. She is a precious flower. 

Then halfway through the series things start to go awry. She sleeps with Danny and starts to act oddly. She also suddenly has her own “sensei” (Bakuto, played by Ramon Rodriguez) who had not previously been mentioned in the first six episodes. I went on a rant about this, that they were taking away her agency and giving her a man to boss her around. You can read said rant in the recaps.

For those of you familiar with the comics, Bakuto is a member of the Hand and a bad guy. So I was immediately suspicious of him. However what I did NOT expect was that it would be revealed that BOTH he AND Colleen were members of the Hand.

That’s right! Our girl, Colleen, who teaches low-income children at her own expense, thinks cage fights lack honor, etc has joined an evil ninja cult that has thus far only been shown to RUN DRUGS and MURDER PEOPLE.

In the show, they attempt to justify this by having Colleen think Gao’s faction of the Hand (again, in Daredevil she was not in the fucking hand, but now she leads her own faction) is an evil splinter group, and that the rest is fine. But it doesn’t explain why Colleen wouldn’t be like, “what what?” when Danny says the Iron Fist’s purpose is to protect K’un L’un from the Hand.

Basically the first six episodes don’t agree with the later six episodes, none of which agree with the continuity of Daredevil .

Since the Daredevil creative team are the ones behind The Defenders (which I was originally kind of meh on because I like Luke Cage and Jessica Jones better, but now I’m like THANK GOD they didn’t involve the Iron Fist team), I hope this is completely fucking ignored and Colleen can go back to being the badass defender of the poor.

Ultimately she decides to side with Danny against the Hand and Bakuto and one of her students, Darryl. Bakuto is killed but still might come back in the way the Hand people do. But I am going to pretend this did not happen.

HEADCANON: Collen was as she was for the first six episodes. Her student, Darryl, joined another dojo and was recruited into the Hand. Now her student (who apparently was also in Luke Cage so might be important) might be evil unless she is able to get through to him.

MADAME GAO. As I have said above, the only thing that I will thank Iron Fist for is truly making me understand my deep love of Madame Gao. You may remember her from Daredevil. In season one, she was the elderly Chinese lady who worked with Kingpin by running a drug operation.

In season 2, she was in just one episode where she had been reduced to hiding out in Chinatown because her drug trade had been affected by “The Blacksmith” who was running his own drug trade and was responsible for the death of the Punisher’s family. Gao helped Daredevil locate a shipment of The Blacksmith’s drugs, leading to the confrontation with him and the Punisher on the docks. She painted the entire time and was amazing.

In Iron Fist, she is still running drugs but now somehow has the assets of the Rand Corporation at her disposal because she’s part of the Hand. None of this rings true to her depiction in Daredevil. She of course interacted with the Hand, particularly Nobu and didn’t seem to be against them. But then each of Kingpin’s allies seemed to have their own purpose. The Hand was the muscle and Madame Gao provided money.

I personally think this is racist. Gao is Chinese. The Hand are Japanese (originally, at least). Maybe the Iron Fist showrunners just confused the Asian people? Or perhaps because Madame Gao’s Daredevil season 1 drugs bore the “Steel Serpent” Iron Fist logo, they felt they had to put her in Iron Fist and just shoehorned her into the role of Hand leader.

What We Learn About Her in Iron Fist: Gao claims to be immortal, and is possibly from K’un L’un. She, at the very least, has spent a lot of time there. She has some kind of telekinetic superpower, which seems odd she never used on Daredevil. She still runs drugs for money. She thinks Danny Rand is a shitty Iron Fist (I agree, see below).

The actress who plays her, Wai Ching Ho, is amazingly great in a role that could be stereotypical or unsympathetic. You are just like, yes of course the Hand do what Madame Gao tells them because she’s got so much authority.

HEADCANON: Madame Gao joined the Hand after Danny Rand became the Iron Fist. She thinks he’s shitty and can’t protect her homeland (see below) and is angered by his presence in her territory of New York. She doesn’t have the same animosity to Daredevil as she has to Iron Fist. She actually kind of respects Daredevil in a way.

THE MEACHUMS. The show spends a lot of time on the Meachums. The two children are Ward and Joy and the father is Harold (”Daddy Faramir” in my recaps). THEY DO NOT MATTER. This is almost all filler and a complete waste of your viewing time. The only thing that MIGHT be relevant is that Harold (Daddy Faramir) was resurrected by the Hand. After he is killed again, he still comes back. Meaning those revived by the Hand (like Nobu and Elektra) will keep coming back.

But each time they come back, they come back worse. Supposedly they kill will ultimately kill all the people they love.

You can only totally forever kill them by cutting their head off. Or incinerating them, I guess. Since Ward says he’s going to cremate his father. It only really matters insofar as it applies to Elektra. She has her head. She will come back.

DANNY RAND IS A TERRIBLE IRON FIST. This is consistent throughout the series.I’m used to Danny being a kind of peaceful presence but also someone with great purpose. This Danny i not that. He’s pretty aimless. When he shows up in New York, he’s got no clue about anything--not what happened to his family or the Meachums and he has NO insight about the Hand. Supposedly he’s the enemy of the Hand but he’s never met one and didn’t know they were in New York. Question mark?

He also left K’un L’un unprotected, and you’d assume it was to go take the fight to the Hand (which is something Madame Gao says) but... no. He just came to say hi or whatever. Steel Serpent, usually a villain, is dispatched to bring him back to K’un L’un. Like, hey, you might want to do your job, bro?

He has no problem killing people, and often people like Claire Temple and Joy Meachum try to keep him from killing people which seems at odds with a lot of the Buddhist philosophy he has appropriatedspouts.

Danny also doesn’t seem to understand the actual Iron Fist weapon, like what it can be used for. He punches through doors a lot, and I make fun of him. Also sometimes when he punches people with the Iron Fist they are really hurt and sometimes completely average joes are JUST FINE. Nor does he know about the healing properties of the Iron Fist (the ability to use his chi to clense people). He actually has to be told about this by Bakuto, an evil Hand member (!!!).

And the big reveal at the end of the series, is that K’un L’un has been destroyed. So, yeah, he’s a terrible Iron Fist because he failed to do his duty when he went on a weird vacation to New York.

So that’s it. That’s the series. It’s about a hero who is terrible at his job and is generally a failure in every way. It’s no wonder that Steel Serpent ends up wanting to kill him. Madame Gao is probably like, “Yeah, I told you from the beginning.”

You really don’t have to look at it very closely to realize she is actually the hero of the piece. If she’s from K’un L’un, then this white guy has come to her homeland and stolen its MOST POWERFUL weapon without realizing what it can do. Like stealing a nuke or something and then going on a walkabout. He takes this dangerous weapon home with him and she’s like fuck I gotta stop this guy. He could hurt people, and people back home will die if the weapon isn’t returned.

The show should be called Iron Fist: Weapon of Mass Destruction.

[filmista]

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

William Shakespeare, It's the name of a man we've probably almost all heard of at one point or another and It's also likely that you'll know one of his most famous works, Romeo and Juliet, considered by some the greatest and most tragic love story to ever be produced by someone's pen.

Usually, people, when confronted with Shakespeare, will express either plain boredom and dislike even though they may never have read a single word he ever wrote, some will be indifferent, some adore his work.

One fact is undeniable, and that is that cinema has had quite an intimate affair with the man, as there's a number of films adapted from plays written by him, but they almost always respect the time Shakespeare's play originally took place in.

When it comes to Shakespeare there seems to be a consensus which is don't touch him with your filthy, modern, progressive hands, so most attempts to take a story by him and modernize it is usually met with distrust and discontent.

Romeo and Juliet is no exception to the rule, two modern versions have been made of it, one from 1996 with Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes, who you may know from the tv series Homeland, in which she is, in a permanent state of paranoia and hysteria in most episodes. Behold:

Personally I find that the billboard with the tagline “Is he a terrorist or am I crazy?” (which I once saw on Tumblr) sums up the whole show to perfection, personally I think that they're all freaking crazy in their own way, though mind you I actually really like her work in it, even if she makes me really nervous while watching it, It's proof that she portrays the character well.

Then there's also a version from 2013, starring Hailee Steinfeldt, who I absolutely have nothing against, I loved her work in some films, though my opinion on this one was, that if Shakespeare ever got to somehow see it from the grave, his eyes would bleed and he'd turn in his grave.

But the version of Romeo and Juliet, that I want to talk about today is not the one from 2013, but the one from 1996, made by Baz Luhrman, the guy who made Moulin Rouge.

Now Baz Luhrman is a director that I'm not familiar with but also not unfamiliar, I have as of yet to see Moulin Rouge, I definitely will one of these days, I recently got the book Cinema The Whole Story and Moulin Rouge is mentioned in it, so I’m now pretty curious. 

His films usually all have something kitschy and over the top, but It's the sort of kitschy and over the top that I personally really dig. Because It's passionate, not inexperienced and chaotic kitschy, there's a difference. Now I've seen his Romeo and Juliet, about 3 times and I actually really like it and don't mind watching it again now and again.

On Imdb, it receives almost a 7 and still enjoys a high popularity rate and on Rotten Tomatoes 72%, famous American film critic Roger Ebert (with whose reviews I have a sort of love and hate relationship, I love some, completely hate others) butchered it in his time and then pretty much shat on it, the guy totally hated it.

There seems to be something strange with the film, some critics adore it, others think It's an abominable self conscious piece of shit, there's almost no in between opinions. It switches from one extreme to the other, curiously enough the ordinary audience seems to really like it, some even love it, if you look it up on Tumblr you'll see that it still receives plenty of love still. 

Now personally, I've always really liked it, It's not my favourite film, but I like it enough to have it at home in my collection and still watch it from time to time. I don't usually bother watching films that I really don't like again, unless It's to please someone that really happens to love that particular film.

I'm familiar with Shakespeare's work and I've read Romeo and Juliet, and I actually liked reading it when I finally did, even if I had my previous negative  preconceptions. Now many people dislike or hate Romeo and Juliet, one of the reasons is that it supposedly because it glorifies teenage suicide.

But you have to see it in It's time and context, I think, a time when rearranged, loveless marriages still were the norm, and the warring families represent the intolerance and incomprehension, towards the romantic interest Romeo and Juliet felt towards one another.

Who knows whether they were each other's true love, they just desperately wanted to be together, nowadays being with the person of your choice is accepted in most countries.

But if people are denied that right, surely in some cases in their desperation they'd be willing to take their lives for it, It’s truly more tragic than romantic, which is why Romeo and Juliet is usually considered more of a tragedy than a romance. personally I've always found that Shakespeare in his work defends that people should be able to be with who they chose, so for his time you could argue that he was progressive in his own way.

Now I see how some people defend that you don't take a story like this out of It's historical context, but personally I think that some of the themes in it are still modern, and that you can apply them to a modern scenario. Which this film did while still respecting and preserving the essence of the story, for instance Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes speak in old English and I didn't find that it came across as forced or ridiculous.

The film follows the traditional plot of Romeo and Juliet, all the elements, inclusive, the tragic suicidal ending. But it got thrown into a modern, (in some aspects I'd say retro modern, since it has plenty of vintage nodges) funky jacket.

Verona, instead of the beautiful city in Italy, is now a suburb of a big American city (it was filmed in Mexico), and the two warring families are two huge modern, capitalist, corporations that compete against each other. But the essence remains they hate each other's guts to the core, and the Capulets would never allow their daughter to fall in love with and marry the son of the enemy, the Montagues, but we all know that this is exactly what happens.

Anyway, since I don't want to jump to any conclusions or be disrespectful towards anyone that doesn't know the story, I'll leave you guys with the storyline:

The classic story of Romeo and Juliet, set in a modern-day city of Verona Beach. The Montagues and Capulets are two feuding families, whose children meet and fall in love. 

They have to hide their love from the world because they know that their parents will not allow them to be together. There are obstacles on the way, like Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, and Romeo's friend Mercutio, and many fights. But although it is set in modern times, it is still the same timeless story of the "star crossed lovers".

I've personally always loved the acting in the film, though I'm still able to recognize that it isn't perfect or flawless at all times, that's not always neccessary, sometimes It’s compensated by the visual beauty, but It's still in my eyes very enjoyable, energetic and lively acting.

Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Dane's brought a youthful, passionate, refreshing quality, to the old words that in the hands of lesser actors might have come across as dusty and antiquated.

Dicaprio and Dane's capture the beauty and the romance of the original words, in a modern setting in a charismatic way but they don't come across as two teenagers, reading Shakespeare whilst suffering hysterical laughing fits, as they disregard it as garbage.

they seem convinced as they deliver the words, they believe in the urgency and the desperate the wanting to be together, the romance and the passion are there and are palpable, which is essential in any adaptation of a romantic play, if there's no passion, there's no romance, maybe a lukewarm one, which is something that you don’t usually want in a romance. 

The acting of both Claire Danes and Leonardo Dicaprio in this, has been the subject of quite some controversy. First of all there's the age difference, Danes was 17, Dicaprio was 21, that's 4 years between them.

This shocked some people, but It's not uncommom to see a significative age differences between a woman and a man in film, and It's not uncommom in real life either, and 5 years is not an unusual age difference in real life, my own parents have 6 years between them for instance.

So personally I wasn't that shocked, also back then Dicaprio still had the baby face, and he seemed light years away from developing anything that closely resembled a beard, so he looked younger. Danes on the other hand, looked slightly older in my view, but anyway the point is they were both young and could pass as a teenage couple.

Then there was also the fact, that allegedly Dane's and Dicaprio didn't get along with each other at all, now I wasn't there, so I don't know, I've heard that this was greatly exaggerated and I've heard that It's entirely true other times, I don't know what to believe, so I don't really have an opinion on it.

The important thing to me is not being able to notice that supposed dislike between the two, and I have as of yet to notice any discomfort and strain between the two, so until I don't, I'm sold on it.

If they really did dislike each other, then the fact that they came across as convincing and believable, is probably due to the director who must have been able to create some harmony between the two, and their individual acting chops.

Young 90's Leo, is a known romantic. And he's never been an actor who shies away from a tragic love story or romance in general, It's something I admire. And personally I've found that the guy is really good at losing himself, in the drama of a particular moment in a romance.

So I really had no problem with 90's Leo as Romeo, he's a good fit for it in my view, Dicaprio is an actor that can capture intensity and drama, without becoming laughable. Danes is an actress, that I like, but she isn't one of my favourite actresses. I liked her in the early season of Homeland, but that and Romeo and Juliet is really all I've seen her do, well that and a film called Stardust, which I enjoyed at the time and seemed forgettable to me after... 

They always seem to pick her in roles, in which she's anxious and nervous, It's probably because of her really big and expressive blue eyes, Danes is because of her eyes one of those women that's probably unable to hide what she feels, because her eyes tell the whole story.

Eyes like these are for an actress in some cases are a blessing or a curse, they're highly expressive, but It's also easy to get typecast as a woman who's permanently stuck in the same emotion, wide eyed wonder, or nervousness. 

But while Danes is in Homeland, nervous and anxious a lot of the time, I've also seen her capture other emotions naturally and believably, so she's not my favorite actress, but she's not a bad actress in my view, speaking from the little that I’ve seen her do. 

And I think she's great with Dicaprio in Romeo and Juliet, they give off the sensation of losing and given themselves entirely to the character. Danes at times seems a little more doubtful in delivering the monolugues than Dicaprio, but in her defense she was younger and more inexperienced than Dicaprio at the time.

Baz Luhrman’s direction is not flawless, but it is highly enjoyable, the overall visual and narrative result is highly pleasing to the eyes and ears, and he gets performances out of Danes and Dicaprio that are more than decent. Bahrman has a background in theatre which is probably why his films, always have a dazzling, theatrical quality.

It's probably not for everyone, most people are either into his films are not, but I do believe that for this film, it made him into the right man to handle it, since It's based on a play, and he already had a background in theatre, so he'd be able to keep the theatrical, dramatic quality of it while applying it to a film.

And I think he succeeded well at that, the film still has something of the quality of a play to it, but not in a bothersome, amateurish sort of way, it has an elegant, broadway sort of quality to it.

As important as the characters are in the film, the place their actions occur in, is just as important, he understands that the decor and cinematography support the actions of his characters, and they in turn support the overall aesthetic of the film.

So the visual aspect of the film, is splendorous, grand and truly beautiful to look at. Everything, even the little insignificant details have been thought out and are impressive, the set decoration and costume design is a treat for the eyes, It's perfect in It's Bombasticism, if that's your thing.

There's wonderful, simple special effects, great contrast in lightning and colors, their intensity varies according to the mood and tone of the  film. Truly dazzling colours, and lightning, while in the background you can find all sorts of funky stuff, such as 50's vintage inspired billboards, for example a sign that looks like a Coca-Cola but with the words L’amour on it. 

A lot of the times there's a lot going on visually in one scene, your eyes might wonder from the main event, and focus on little details which can at times make it a little difficult to follow, as it feels like It's a bit all over the place at times.

This is one of the main problems that a lot of people have with it, as they say that the camera work is imprecise and chaotic, without purpose and difficult to follow. I agree with it being difficult to follow at times, but that's really more due to the timing than anything else I think.

The film moves at certain times either a tad too fast or sometimes a little slow, but I found that most of the time it has normal pacing, that doesn't present a great difficulty to follow it. And the camera captures what's going on between the characters successfully. It is true that the camera work is handheld and quite shaky, and this to some people made it seem of bad quality.

But it was done on purpose, there's something sensationalist about it, the hand held camera work is supposed to be reminiscent of a a documentary, or in this case more of a sensationalist news broadcast, as the story is told to us, in this modern version as a news broadcast.

And that is very often, in terms of filming style how it comes across, only It's quite a little more glammed up in this case, and more reminiscent in this case of an MTV videoclip, but the drama and sensationalism, are there, It's a true spectacle.

So liking it probably depends on whether you're one for dazzling, glamorous, cinematograhraphic spectacles, and I myself am the kind of person that can enjoy visual bombasticity from time to time, a part of me (I'll spank myself for it later) likes kitsch, of perhaps questionable quality from time to time, if It's what I deem good kitschy.

But it is a well known fact that taste differs from person to person, so what's kitschy for some person, might be in the eyes of an other,  something that belongs in the Tate modern, for instance I myself love Pop Art, especially Roy Lichentenstein’s paintings.

It’s regarded as art and has a place amongst several museums in both America and Europe, but by some it is disregarded as worthless crap, or for instance the film Suspiria made by Dario Argento, is considered by plenty of people, a timeless visual masterpiece, for others kitschy, psychedelic crap. 

One of the reasons that I like Romeo + Juliet is the soundtrack, you may like the film or not. But quite a number of people, probably wouldn't be able to deny, that the film has a number of delightful musical moments that are like little pearls in the film, that truly elevate the film to a higher level, they illustrate the power music can have over a film, in two simple words, either add to it or detract from it.

A few times over the years, I've shut off a film simply because I found the music so distracting, so distasteful and just plain migraine inducing. For me Romeo + Juliet is the perfect example of a film, in which the music contributes to the atmosphere and helps to make the film, into one emotionally consistent whole.

My personal favourite musical moment, is the scene with the tropical fish aquarium, Romeo and Juliet, meet for the first time, and observe each other through the glass, while in the meanwhile Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah plays.

While I personally prefer Leonard Cohen's version, simply because I love Cohen, my mom would listen to him a lot when I was younger, so his voice has something soothing and comforting for me, that reminds me of my childhood, anyway enough nostalgic reminiscing. 

So as I said I prefer Cohen's version but Buckley's version is perfect, in this instant in the film, it adapts to the sentimentality and yes the drama of the scene harmoniously, there's a perfect coordination between the rhythm and content of the scene and rhythm of the music.

Romeo + Juliet, is not the best film ever made and I won't ever say that it is, not all of It's aspects are flawless or even good, but I find that underneath if you're willing to overlook them you'll find a good film and one that does justice to It's original source. It is true that it is , just like many people say and like I've said myself kitschy, terribly kitschy even.

But then again taste is subjective, It's like pineapple in warm food (I have a problem with fruit in warm food) especially on pizza, highly controversial, some love it others hate it.

I'm one of the ones that hates it, pineapple on pizza physically repulses me, much the same happens when I’m reminded of the fact, that allegedly some Americans fancy ketchup on oysters (culinary blasphemy in the eyes of many Europeans, this one included), I’ve never seen anyone actually do it and I hope I don’t ever should have to witness it, but if I should I won’t run... 

Still I won't judge them and others for liking it, we all very likely like at least one food or combination that others find disgusting and that’s pretty much how I feel about the film. I accept that some people find it a bad film and I don’t judge them for not liking it or myself for liking it.

To some the film is terrible in many of It's aspects but a visual delight, and while I don't find myself liking all of It's aspects, I find it a feast for the eyes, and I'm always in for that. 

“A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence and have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punished. For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

[effifioc]

About the OCs: Eonan

Name: Eonan Alt Names: Eònan | Ionan  Titles:  Fairtheoir / Faireoir; Prince

Eonan’s title, Fairtheoir, is commonly translated to Sentinel by those who study his country’s language, but the meaning is more complex. Sentinel is not an entirely incorrect translation, but the title is passed down through generations and has gone through linguistic changes. It means, loosely, that the holder is both a defender and an peaceful observer to their homeland. In short, there’s a duality to the title that is necessary for times of war. The word Fairtheoir has similarities to the word Faireoir, which would be commonly translated to Watcher. In Eonan’s homeland both titles are technically correct. 

General:

In certain company Eonan must introduce himself as “Eonan of Nord-Süd Sineath.” Sineath, Eonan’s homeland, was once two nations known simply by its respective peoples as “The North” and “The South” (or Nord and Deisceart in their respective languages; the alternate spellings of Eonan’s name are due to these cultural differences). About 200 years before Eonan was born there was an agreement to merge the two lands based on friendly alliance. This didn’t go over quite as well as the monarchs hoped, and though the country was technically now one, the divide was very clear. It was Eonan’s parents that finally put an end to this divide by marrying for the sake of unification. As such, Eonan’s culture is a mix between his mother’s Northern heritage and his father’s Southern heritage. Despite rumors to the contrary Eonan is the third royal child, and second in line for the throne. 

History:

Eonan separates his past into distinct categories: his happy childhood and his refugee adolescence. 

As the third child of aging monarchs, Eonan had a very different experience growing up than his older siblings. Dario and Yvenna are only one year apart in age, but both of them are about eight years older than Eonan. They didn’t share tutors because they were so much older, and they didn’t really make time to play with Eonan once he was past his toddler years. Eonan’s friendships were regulated by the royal council and consisted mostly of crown employees (those weren’t truly friendships, but Eonan was too young to understand that). 

Even so, Eonan was happy. He spent his days glued to his father’s side. Queen Alba considered them a matched set moreso than even herself, and after the first few initial weeks of Eonan sneaking into classified meetings to seek out his father people stopped trying to keep them apart. King Nuada would often take naps to get a second wind to deal with the day and one could always find him in his study with Eonan napping on his chest or tucked against his side. They were as close as a father and son could be while still having to take care of their respective responsibilities. This closeness didn’t vanish over time, and soon enough Eonan was playing the role of confidant to the king. This was his first foray into politics, though it was a small one, and many rumors were started by unhappy parties about the possibility that Eonan wasn’t truly the son of Nuada and Alba. Though Eonan knew about these rumors thanks to his Princeguard he never payed them any mind. He never doubted his place in his family, and moreover he never doubted his family. 

It was then that things took a turn for the tragic. 

Eonan’s family was betrayed when he was fourteen. Eoghan, a member of Eonan’s Princeguard, sold information to Glacea, a hostile neighboring country, that allowed an elite squadron of assassins to slip past the castle defenses and launch an attack during one of King Nuada’s many state-of-the-country briefings. Queen Alba was in attendance as well as several dozen Kingsguard and Queensguard, council members, bodyguards, and crown employees. It was a swift and underhanded battle that resulted in the breaking of a country. Eonan, who was also at the briefing, was the only one left alive. He witnessed the attack and subsequent murders of his family, shared heartfelt and devastating last words with his father, and was forced to flee his homeland. 

That incident, which Eonan later refers to as The Coup due to the status of Sineath in his present timeline still being occupied by Glacean troops, marks the start of the second category of Eonan’s past. 

As Eonan and Aoife, the only surviving member of his Princeguard, attempt to flee the capital they witness a single airship headed away from the city. Dario and Yvenna, who were in separate parts of the castle when the attack began, came together and fled with their respective guard units. This left Eonan and Aoife no real choice aside from hoofing it to the border and trying to disappear into the neighboring country. They lived this way for quite some time, willfully letting their people believe that Eonan had died with his family while he learned how to control the ability he inherited from the late king. 

That’s when rumor of a resistance caught Aoife’s ear. They dropped their concocted life immediately upon hearing of a resisting group of survivors from the capital and set out to meet them. After two weeks of searching and dealing with increasingly more complex riddles to find their location, Eonan stumbled across the resistance. He was happy to see it was led primarily by a surviving member of the Kingsguard that had been on medical leave during the attack. Oisín was as much a constant in Eonan’s childhood as his father, and the familiarity was too tempting to resist. Eonan spent the next two years helping the resistance cultivate resources and earn under-the-table backing from Sineath’s formerly allied nations. This effort eventually culminated into a battle with Glacean forces that the resistance, though determined, lost. Those that survived were scattered, and Eonan, nearly seventeen, fled with Aoife across the world. They spent a year and a half traveling under the cover of night, protected by Eonan’s celestial abilities, before they entered the plains region of Duscae in the peaceful kingdom of Lucis. 

Celestial Power | The Fairtheoir

The royal bloodline of Sineath is gifted with a celestial power in the form of a bow that can be summoned at will. Sineathean mythology states that a person’s ancestors become stars when they die so they can watch over their families and provide light in the darkness. Sineathean royalty dates back 400 to 500 years before unification, and their ancestors have clustered together to form constellations. It is said that these constellations saw a need for a guiding light and gifted the royal family with their strength. 

While King Nuada only used the bow to fire physical arrows (of which Queen Alba made and carved with good luck charms), Eonan’s bow has three functions. He can, as his father did, purchase or make arrows and fire them through the bow. Its primary function, however, is the firing of arrows formed by magic and willpower that explode in different spacial fashions (such as very small black holes, or blinding stars). 

In times of need Eonan can also request guidance from his ancestors. King Nuada wasn’t able to make use of this power, but some of his ancestors had, so it isn’t a complete surprise to Eonan when it happens. It is entirely up to the ancestor whether or not they respond, but if they choose to they can descend temporarily to earth in the corporeal form their constellation is named for. In the five or so years Eonan has trained this ability he’s only managed to summon three different ancestors. He calls them sentinels: Orion (a fully-armored knight that fights with a lance, always answers the call, Eonan secretly suspects his father’s star is now part of the constellation), Lir (an octopus that specializes in healing horrible injuries), and Fenrir (a wolf that will not fight, but will stand guard over Eonan while he sleeps). 

Persona

Despite the tragedies Eonan has lived through he remains a generally happy person. He tends to be shy upon first meeting due to his lack of social interaction with people his age growing up, but warms quickly to most people. He is slightly less trusting than he was before The Coup, but it isn’t a level of distrust that’s detrimental to him. He wants to believe the best in people but won’t hesitate to cut ties is someone proves themselves to be unworthy of trust or friendship. 

Eonan hopes to reunite with his siblings some day, even just to talk, and is glad to hear they’re doing well in a kingdom Yvenna recently married into. He does have mixed feelings about being left behind and denied help from them when he asked on behalf of the resistance, but he’s adjusted and moved on with his life since then. He hopes to one day find happiness with someone the way his mother and father did, but knows that might be difficult given his refugee status and ambition to one day free his country from Glacean control. 

( read more about Eonan here )

( how does Eonan fit into FFXV? ) (coming soon) 

[ladystylestores]

Visa lottery winners feel cheated by Trump’s visa ban

CAIRO (AP) — Noha, an Egyptian engineer, should feel lucky after winning a visa lottery that randomly selects people from a pool of more than 14 million applications for about 55,000 green cards that would let them live permanently in the United States.

But the hopes she and her husband had of moving with their two children to New York vanished last week when President Donald Trump extended a ban on many green cards issued outside the United States to the end of the year, including the lottery’s “diversity visas,” which have been issued every year since 1990 to people from underrepresented countries.

This year’s recipients learned of their good fortune about a year ago, but many had not yet completed the vetting process when American consulates closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now the administration’s latest step to reduce legal immigration has upended their lives, and many find themselves stuck in a worse situation than the one they were trying to escape.

The lottery requires that green cards be obtained by Sept. 30 or they will be voided. The State Department says no exceptions are made for those who do not yet have one in hand.

Noha and her children got their visas in February. But her husband, Ahmed, is still waiting, and the family fears his visa will never come.

The situation forces Noha to make an impossible choice between going alone to New York to seek a better life for the couple’s 7-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son, or giving up that dream so the family can stay together. She said she felt angry and cried for days after learning of Trump’s order.

“All my plans were collapsed in an instant,” said Noha, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used for fear that speaking publicly could hurt her family’s case. “I felt that all what we have achieved went for nothing.”

Trump’s decision to extend the ban marked the first time the visa program has been interrupted since it was created to attract immigrants from diverse backgrounds. U.S. immigration lawyers are considering challenging the move in court.

Story continues

Only about 13,000 of the roughly 55,000 lottery visas have been issued so far this year, said Simon Paul, a diversity visa recipient who now runs a blog helping other immigrants at britsimon.com. Even those who obtained a visa have found it tough to get to the U.S. because of pandemic travel restrictions.

Noha’s family spent nearly $10,000 on the vetting process.

After being told by a U.S. official in February that the entire family was approved, the couple started making plans for their new life. Noha and her husband, also an engineer, resigned from their jobs, sold their car, notified their landlord they were moving and stopped paying tuition at their children’s school for next year.

The embassy in May told her husband his visa just needed to be printed, so “we even packed our bags,” she said. Her kids watched videos on YouTube about life in the U.S.

The administration put the hold on the visas as part of efforts to free up jobs in the coronavirus-wracked economy — a reason the president has used to achieve many of the cuts to legal immigration that eluded him before the pandemic. The president’s move also applies to other green-card applicants and to people seeking temporary work visas at high-tech companies, summer camps and multinational corporations.

Long before the pandemic, Trump criticized the lottery, falsely claiming it has been “a horror show” because countries put in “some very bad people.”

The U.S. government runs the program, and citizens of qualifying countries are the ones who decide to bid for the visas. Foreign governments do not choose who applies or ultimately receives a visa.

Applicants must have graduated from high school or have two years of experience in a selection of fields identified by the U.S. Labor Department. The winners cannot have a criminal record, and they must have a U.S. sponsor willing and able to support them until they get established. More than 80,000 applicants were named winners so they had to race against each other to get the visas made available.

Dozens of the 2020 winners reached out to The Associated Press in response to a request to tell their stories. Many are highly educated but hindered by the lack of opportunities in their homelands.

Among those selected this year were an infectious disease doctor, an agricultural engineer, a software developer, a post-doctorate researcher, a businesswoman and a middle school teacher. They come from Egypt, Turkey, and Albania, among other countries.

Mahmoud Elrweny, who works as a production manager at the Hershey Co. in Memphis Tennessee, said he was elated when he heard the lottery had awarded visas that would let his brother join him in the U.S.

Egypt’s high unemployment had forced his brother to move to Saudi Arabia, where he was teaching, though he did not want to stay because he has two daughters and felt they would be restricted as women.

His brother had to do the visa interview in his native country. Five days after he got to Egypt, the U.S. embassy canceled it, and then Trump issued the order. His Saudi school fired him for leaving and refused to give him his last paycheck. Saudi Arabia canceled his visa to go back. He also left his car there.

He and his wife are now both unemployed in Egypt, living with family.

Elrweny wants to help him but doesn’t know how.

“I’m really stressed out and depressed,” he said. “His dream was to come to America.”

The lottery changed Alma Mandija’s life in 1997, when her homeland of Albania was gripped by civil unrest that resulted in the toppling of the government and the deaths of more than 2,000 people.

“It was very unsafe,” she said. The visa allowed her to go to college. She went on to become an immigration lawyer in New York.

Her cousin, Eldis Bushati, was among this year’s lottery winners after trying for 16 years. Mandija and her parents agreed to support him, his wife and 3-year-old daughter and found several companies in New York that expressed interest in hiring him as a plumber.

Bushati, 31, was waiting for U.S. officials to email him his interview date when Trump ordered the ban. He is still holding out hope.

“Time will pass soon. The virus will be away, and we shall end this process and be in America soon,” he said.

Nataly Savenkova, 27, who works at the Russian branch of an American bank, is not banking on anything. She got her green card in January and decided to move to the U.S. even though her husband has not received his visa yet.

The couple had hoped to build a “new and exciting future together.” But now her “big luck and happiness appeared to be a total disaster,” Savenkova wrote in an email to the AP.

Noha had similar aspirations for her family.

“All this was for the future of our children,” she said, fighting back tears as she talked outside her home in Cairo. ““Now we do not know what to do.”

_____

Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press Writer Llazar Semini in Albania contributed to this report.

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[vegas-glitz]

Do Foreigners Treatment For the US Economic climate?

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I've been operating for an engineering agency for about 6 years. The unique business has been acquired out and is now owned by a international business residing in Germany. I could increase, it's owned by the Germans.

I came on board appropriate when the full transaction was having position - 6 decades in the past. Considering that then, a really obvious development has been noticed by the staff members hired right before the transition - or what was still left of them. As the American staff members were being leaving the corporation for just one rationale or a further, they were being remaining changed by German workforce. Also, as new positions were opened, most of the positions were crammed with who else but German people. 6 a long time immediately after the obtain-out of the American firm, the ratio of the American employees vs. German personnel has enhanced to all-around 50/50. The overall volume of folks in the enterprise did not change substantially, but the ratio adjusted significantly.

Back again in November of 2001 when the large layoffs were being occurring about the place, above 100 people today shed their employment in one particular working day. They were being enable go. The motive - undesirable economic system. Very well, the economic system has picked up since then, at the very least for this enterprise, but the men and women had been in no way called again. Their positions were crammed in with certainly you guessed it right - non American individuals for the most element.

Towards the finish of 2004, a important improve transpired in our office. All of the American "chiefs" had been replaced by German "chiefs." And then, we experienced a team assembly the place the "most significant German chief" resolved us. At the meeting we were being instructed that, estimate: "We have way too a lot of American Suppliers." Their goal was to outsource the operate to international firms for much less expensive labor. That intended having rid of the "American Suppliers." A lot more American men and women shedding work and even their work. The phrase "We have way too quite a few American Suppliers," was pointed out a number of times by the major German "chief" at that conference.

At the similar conference we have been also notified that "they" had been likely to near an assembly plant furnishing incomes to quite a few hundred American family members. The do the job was going to be transferred to Mexico for cheaper labor. Effectively, the plant in Mexico was already built, and by the end of that 12 months, close to 400 people shed their work opportunities in just one day.

The organization is still experimenting with 3rd earth nations around the world for outsourcing even a lot more work. The enterprise inventory has been soaring for the previous 6 several years. From what begun out as $ 7 per share, it's now in excess of $ 100 per share. The business is raking in large revenue each and every yr.

And the place does that revenue go?

Perfectly, the mother company outside the house the US is accumulating all that prosperity while boosting their economic climate.

And, what about the US financial state?

It has come to be a nationwide development for overseas corporations to occur in and purchase out American providers. But then, the foreign business has to pay out the US personnel in US bucks. That revenue converted to their native financial ends up costing them significantly additional than what they would fork out their possess individuals in their homeland. Or, the different would be to bring in their possess men and women in area of the American workers. And the relaxation, effectively, ship the work to 3rd globe countries for less expensive labor.

The enterprise now finishes up building an enormous earnings due to the fact the bills are significantly decreased than what they had been with the American Owned organization. Low paid foreign personnel operating on US soil and not having to pay taxes, supported by cheap labor from the third environment international locations. And what occurs to the American households caught in the middle of this economic shift?

The usa is regarded to be furnishing reduction to catastrophe parts and providing guidance to countries in problems. But who is providing reduction to the American Households in great will need? Who is delivering reduction to the American households buried in fiscal debt? Who is furnishing reduction to the American people today who have dropped their work opportunities for the reason that their operate was delivered over to third entire world nations for cheaper labor?

Who is supplying reduction to the more than-exhausted father that I bumped into whilst doing my grocery buying? He was so drained he could hardly keep his eyes open. We show up at the...same church. I reported "Hi" to him as he tried to power a smile onto his experience. He could barely discuss. I kept my dialogue brief. He was permit go from his work a number of months ago. Now he works 14 several hours a working day at two odd jobs, though making an attempt to carry in the exact same money that he employed to deliver to guidance his wife and two young children.

Who is likely to deliver aid to the overworked dad and mom that had to pull their 17 yr-aged daughter from university? They equally worked at the identical job and they both of those misplaced their work right after their change was totally eliminated. The work was transferred to Mexico. Now they both of those have to operate for a measly $ 7 an hour although obtaining their 17 year-old daughter looking at her 2 more youthful siblings. The mother asked my sister to support her obtain a far better shelling out task.

Who is going to give reduction to the father who has to do the job in a distinct condition? He was let go from his career immediately after it was purchased out by - gues who - a international firm. He couldn't uncover a different job for 8 months. His family ran out of revenue and they arrived to request us for some monetary aid. He eventually did find one more position, but in a various condition. On Sunday evening, he leaves his spouse and two tiny daughters, and drives absent. On Friday, late in the night, he will come back again home to invest only two times of the week with his liked ones.

Who is likely to offer reduction to the cashier at the local food stuff sector that couldn't prevent begging me to choose his resume and go it about? He missing his career simply because his posture was removed and outsourced. Now he functions as a cashier though passing his resume to as lots of shoppers as he can at the look at out.

Who is heading to provide aid to my buddy who missing his task mainly because the firm that he labored for was acquired out by - a overseas organization? The reorganization did not consist of him as properly as quite a few of his coworkers. He hardly ever obtained his job back so now he has to do the job for half of what he used to make even though trying to supply for his spouse, two very little girls and his elderly mom.

Who is going to provide aid to all the folks who dropped their positions simply because their positions were being transferred more than to a third planet state for cheaper labor? How are they going to feed their households? Can they obtain other jobs that pay back the very same money or probably a lot more?

As I drive about town, I continue on to see international flags popping out in front of lots of local corporations. What's the information? The corporations have been acquired out by the international business that the flag represents.

I continue on to discuss to nearby individuals who are telling me the exact tales. They're getting rid of their positions simply because their positions are either remaining transferred to a 3rd planet place such as Mexico, India and China for much less expensive labor, or they're being replaced with international employees on a functioning visa.

American people are continuing to lose their positions or remaining forced to do the job for considerably less dollars though acquiring further and further in financial debt. The overseas corporations are continuing to buy out American organizations, even though doing anything at all to enhance their income - even if they have to get rid of the American Workforce from what was previously an American Owned corporation on American soil.

The former American businesses now owned by international corporations are continuing to produce enormous profits for the reason that of the decrease expenses (get the job done pressure) put together with the earnings from their sales. That revenue is continuing to increase the financial state of the country that the mother organization is from.

Meantime, the American financial system is continuing to journey the roller coaster.

The value of dwelling is increasing at a terrifying level, but the American people today aren't having any major changes to their salaries. The bankruptcies are at an all time high. The credit rating card financial debt is reaching alarming heights. The international flags are continuing to wave proudly upcoming to the American flag line-in-line on American soil.

But how a great deal do these foreigners actually treatment for the American economic climate?

Resource by Steve Dimeck