#Indentured

[kemetic-dreams]

Anthony Johnson (c. 1600 – 1670) was a man known for achieving wealth in the early 17th-century Colony of Virginia. Born in Angola, he was one of the first African Americans whose right to own a slave for life was recognized by the Virginia courts. Held as an indentured servant in 1621, he earned his freedom after several years, and was granted land by the colony.

He later became a tobacco farmer in Maryland. He attained great wealth after completing his term as an indentured servant, and has been referred to as "'the African patriarch' of the first community of Negro property owners in America"

In the early 1620s, Portuguese slave traders captured the man who would later be known as Anthony Johnson in Portuguese Angola, named him António, and sold him into the Atlantic slave trade. António was bought by a colonist in Virginia. As an indentured servant, António worked for a merchant at the Virginia Company. He was also received into the Roman Catholic Church

He sailed to Virginia in 1621 aboard the James. The Virginia Muster (census) of 1624 lists his name as "Antonio not given," recorded as "a Negro" in the "notes" column. Historians have some dispute as to whether this was the same António later known as Anthony Johnson, as the census lists several men named "Antonio Johnson was sold as an indentured servant to a white planter named Bennet to work on his Virginia tobacco farm. (Slave laws were not passed until 1661 in Virginia; prior to that date, Africans were not officially considered to be slaves)

Such workers typically worked under a limited indenture contract for four to seven years to pay off their passage, room, board, lodging, and freedom dues. In the early colonial years, most Africans in the Thirteen Colonies were held under such contracts of limited indentured servitude. With the exception of those indentured for life, they were released after a contracted period. Those who managed to survive their period of indenture would receive land and equipment after their contracts expired or were bought out. Most white laborers in this period also came to the colony as indentured servants.

António changed his name to Anthony Johnson. He first entered the legal record as an unindentured man when he purchased a calf in 1647.

Johnson was granted a large plot of farmland by the colonial government after he paid off his indentured contract by his labor. On July 24, 1651, he acquired 250 acres (100 ha) of land under the headright system by buying the contracts of five indentured servants, one of whom was his son, Richard Johnson. The headright system worked in such a way that if a man were to bring indentured servants over to the colonies (in this particular case, Johnson brought the five servants), he was owed 50 acres a "head", or servant. 

The land was located on the Great Naswattock Creek, which flowed into the Pungoteague River in Northampton County, Virginia.

With his own indentured servants, Johnson ran his own tobacco farm. In fact, one of those servants, John Casor, would later become one of the first African men to be declared indentured for life.

Though Casor was the first person who was declared a slave in a civil case, there were both black and white indentured servants sentenced to lifetime servitude before him. Many historians describe indentured servant John Punch as the first documented slave (or slave for life) in America, as punishment for escaping his captors in 1640. It is considered one of the first legal cases to make a racial distinction between black and white indentured servants

                        Significance of Casor lawsuit

The Casor lawsuit demonstrates the culture and mentality of planters in the mid-17th century. Individuals made assumptions about the society of Northampton County and their place in it. According to historians T.H. Brean and Stephen Innes, Casor believed he could form a stronger relationship with his patron Robert Parker than Anthony Johnson had formed over the years with his patrons. Casor considered the dispute to be a matter of patron-client relationship, and this wrongful assumption resulted in his losing his case in court and having the ruling against him. Johnson knew that the local justices shared his basic belief in the sanctity of property. The judge sided with Johnson, although in future legal issues, race played a larger role.

The Casor lawsuit was an example of how difficult it was for Africans who were indentured servants to prevent being reduced to slavery. Most Africans could not read and had almost no knowledge of the English language. Planters found it easy to force them into slavery by refusing to acknowledge the completion of their indentured contracts. This is what happened in Johnson v. Parker. Although two white planters confirmed that Casor had completed his indentured contract with Johnson, the court still ruled in Johnson's favor.

In this early period, free blacks enjoyed "relative equality" with the white community. About 20% of free black Virginians owned their own homes. In 1662 the Virginia Colony passed a law that children in the colony were born with the social status of their mother, according to the Roman principle of partus sequitur ventrem. This meant that the children of slave women were born into slavery, even if their fathers were free, European, Christian, and white. This was a reversal of English common law, which held that the children of English subjects took the status of their father. The Virginian colonial government expressed the opinion that since Africans were not Christians, common law could not and did not apply to them

[someawesomeamvs]

Warning: Violence, gore, spoilers

Title: Indentured

Editor: Kirbygal

Song: Sixteen Tons

Artist: Tennessee Ernie Ford

Anime: Chainsaw Man

Category: Character profile

[crossing-the-line-comic]

Page 9+10 [Then he tapped his foot and the chamber suddenly shifted, changing form into a bedroom, with Varian now on top of the round, raised bed. He started down the steps leading from the bed to the ground and his clothes started to change from his blue shirt, brown pants and darker-brown apron to a black tunic with white pants and a blue belt with pockets. His goggles were turned black with blue straps and his hands and feet were covered in blue gloves and boots. He stepped down onto the ground just as a white cape formed around his shoulders, with blue shoulder-pads.] -- This took way too long to finish, between fandom drama, hiatuses, and me losing motivation to work on it, but I'm feeling much better about it and I hope you guys enjoy these pages! Sorry for the wait! Now to build his bedroom in EasyPose so I can more easily keep things consistent because this is going to be...fun.

[zonerobotnik]

This is the very ambitious first page of a comic I started a while ago that is basically the scene in "Indentured" where Varian gets the Moonstone. I think, though, that if I continue it then I'm going to stick to four panels. This was a little over 700 layers and my computer hates me for it. Looks great, though!

Anyways, do you guys want me to continue this? Don't have polls yet, so drop a comment if you want more!

[madlovenovelist]

Book Review – ‘Starflight’ (#1 Starflight) by Melissa Landers

‘Firefly’ meets ‘Overboard’ in this found family romp across space. Genre: Y/A, Science Fiction, Adventure No. of pages: 362 Life in the outer realm is a lawless, dirty, hard existence, and Solara Brooks is hungry for it. Just out of the orphanage, she needs a fresh start in a place where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles.…

[sleepyorchidmonster]

Okay, but what if, after graduation, all the students band together and create a gigantic contract that states that, after their deaths, their respective UMs are to be given to Malleus, so he'll never be alone?

The contract's paper received protection from Vil's Fairest One of All, so it's basically indestructible (it can only be broken after Malleus himself dies).

Future Malleus tries to use everyone's magic at least once per day.

It's a Deal, Off With Your Head, Bind the Heart and Split Card are very useful for his daily activities as a ruler, he uses Oasis Maker to water his garden and help in times of drought, I See You is mostly used to keep prized possessions in check and Sleep Kiss has saved plenty of people.

The more destructive abilities like King's Roar are mostly used in times of peril (or when he wants to be petty and dramatic), and the same goes for Bet the Limit. Shock the Heart, Laugh With Me and Snake Whisper are very useful for intel gathering or pranks.

He uses Unleash the Beast whenever he visits a colder climate or just wants to change forms without turning into a dragon (he becomes a black wolf with green eyes, very fluffy). Doodle Suit is often used to make food taste terrible (he misses Lillia, even his atrocious cooking), while Fairest One of All protects all gargoyles frim erosion.

Far Cry Cradle is used to reminisce fond memories, and he likes to use Meet Me in a Dream to visit Ortho, who is still alive. He LOVES dashing around with Living Bolt.

He can't exactly use Gate to The Underworld, since it's hereditary and troublesome, so Idia gave him an indestructible tablet with a custom gargoyle game and a "Idia Mode" (the tablet makes annoying remarks, like "GG Folks" or "This RNG really is awful").

BONUS:

Malleus: As your King, I hereby declare that the Senate is to be immediately disbanded.

Senate: WHAT

Idia Tablet: LMAO. Sucks to suck!

[dandelionlovesyou]

Lady, I now want to cry 😭 This is heartbreakingly beautiful.

If you don't mind my being presumptuous, I wanted to share a prompt idea I thought you'd be great for: "in a slightly alternate 12 with no reaping but where indentured servitude is legal, Katniss signs up as an indentured servant to Mellark’s bakery. Katniss and Peeta fall in love and eventually marry, much to the shock and horror of the other merchant families."

Hi! Sorry about the late reply but I've been getting over a cold this past week! I finally had a chance to work on this great prompt and here's what I came up with. It isn't the full story, but I like to think it's a nice starting off point for the canon-divergent idea you had. Hope you like it!

I call this drabble:

Indentured.

The words tasted like ash in her mouth. 

“I promise to abide by the laws and rules set forth by my master, to serve humbly, without complaint until the terms of my contract are considered fulfilled.” She repeated the verbal part of the contract as the indentured servitude liaison instructed. 

The look on Mr. Mellark’s face was solemn, even perhaps a bit sad. The two older boys seemed neutral, and the witch looked supremely pleased like the cat who caught the mockingjay by the tail. 

Only the youngest son seemed outwardly upset. 

“This is barbaric.” He grumbled under his breath, eyes blazing with anger. 

Katniss’ brows scrunched together, wondering if he opposed the indentured servitude law on principle or if it was something more. 

He opened his mouth to say more as his father picked up a pen a moved forward to sign the thick packet of papers that would make her the legal property of the Mellark family for the next three years, but his mother’s hand flew fast, and hard to smack the back of his head in warning. 

No further objections were voiced. 

The i’s were dotted and the t’s were crossed and money was exchanged. 

Katniss sold the next three years to buy her sister Prim’s way out of being sent to the community home. 

Since Katniss was over 18 and legally employed, she could keep their small shack in the Seam, and provide a home for Prim, even though their mother had died the winter prior. 

All that was left was to shake hands with Mr. Mellark, which she did numbly. From over his shoulder, Mrs. Mellark shot her a wicked smirk. 

In the back of her mind she prayed that the three years would go by fast. 

.

.

.

6 Months in

Katniss struggled to swing the axe. Her hands were chapped and she had no mittens to shield them from the bitter cold. 

While her contract with the Mellarks ensured she was fed, given hand-me-downs clothes, and got to keep her small home in the Seam, they were under no obligation to pay her any wages. 

Without wages, she had no money to buy gloves after hers fell apart. 

So she suffered in silence, as she tried to muster up the strength to split the remaining firewood before she could be released for the day. 

The sun had long disappeared in the shortened daylight hours and the wind was picking up something vicious. 

It would be snowing soon. 

Katniss lifted the axe over her head and ignored the pins and needles feeling in her hands as she brought the axe down. 

Her grip on the axe faltered slightly and the wood split incorrectly. Pain rebounded up her arm and she dropped the axe clutching her throbbing, freezing hands to her chest and biting her lip to keep from crying out. 

But despite her best efforts, a small sob-like sound escaped her. 

From nowhere a hand reached out and gently turned over her palms. 

Katniss sucked in a breath. 

She looked up into the eyes of the youngest baker’s son and saw only empathy. 

If anyone else knew the sting of Mrs. Mellark’s vindictive side, it was her youngest son. Peeta Mellark was often assigned difficult and demeaning tasks, the same as her. 

He held her hands so gently she could barely feel his large palms cupping hers. His eyes took in the sorry state of her abused palms and he made a distressed noise in the back of his throat. 

“You’ve been using too much lye when you was the laundry. It’s ruining your hands.” He said quietly. 

Katniss didn't know what to say to that because it was true. But it was also the way his mother insisted the family’s clothes be washed. The effect left her skin rough and irritated even before she was assigned firewood duty. 

So instead of uselessly pointing out that there was nothing she could change about the situation, Katniss simply shrugged and tried to pull her hands out of his grasp. 

But he held on firmly, but still gently. 

“You need to soak them in salve when you get home.” He told her seriously. 

Katniss almost snorted with amusement, except it wasn't really funny. 

All of her mother’s old tonics and salves were used up. Since she had signed on to become indentured to the Mellarks. Katniss had to cut down on her hunting and foraging time. Mrs. Mellark kept her busy from sunup to practically sundown. Katniss hadn’t had time to properly stock their stores with herbs before winter fell. She could barely afford to keep Prim out of rags with the game she caught and traded on her days off. A luxury like oatmeal soap was something so far out of her budget it was ridiculous. 

In fact, if she didn’t figure out a way to get her hands in working order, the surviving Everdeens were going to be in for a very rough winter. Katniss’ hands were her livelihood and if she couldn’t work or hold a bow then things were going to go downhill very quickly for her. 

“Wait here,” Peeta said quietly before he let her hands drop. Then he turned around and retreated into the bakery. 

Katniss almost considered leaving right at that moment but she still needed to finish cutting the rest of the firewood. She wanted to cry, thinking about having to pick up the axe and swing it again a dozen times before she was free to go. 

So she stayed instead, gathering her courage to pick up the axe again. At least, that’s what she told herself. 

She wasn’t quite ready to admit that a part of her was waiting on the broad-shouldered boy with the ash-blond waves to return. In the past six months, Peeta Mellark had become less of a stranger but no less of an enigma. He was soft-spoken around her in a way he wasn't in front of others. But he always had an encouraging word for her or a friendly bit of advice. He was the one who had taught her how to split the firewood in the first place when she was first assigned the duty. He was constantly trying to make things easier for her, keeping his kitchen station tidy so as to not make more work for her. Sometimes he would even slip extra food into the bag she was allowed to take home at the end of the day in payment for her day’s labor. 

He looked at her sometimes, from beneath his incredibly long and pale blond eyelashes,  half apologetic, half something else. That look almost made her heart stop in confusion. 

She wished sometimes that he would just ignore her the way his older brothers did, but Peeta seemed determined to acknowledge her at every turn. 

So when he came back out and handed her a bag, twice as heavy and big as she was used to, it shouldn’t have been a surprise. But when Katniss looked inside she gasped. 

“Oatmeal?” She asked him, incredulously when she spied another bag at the bottom of the larger one, underneath the two-day-old cast-offs. 

Peeta nodded at her, cheeks ruddy from the cold and maybe something else. 

“Two scoops. When you get home put the oats to soak in some water for ten minutes. You can make a simple salve for your hands if you add fat or oil or just soak your hands in the mixture. It should help.” He instructed her with quiet intensity. 

“But--” She began to argue, to push the bag back towards him. He wouldn’t take it back. 

“Please, take them. Mother never should have made you chop all the firewood when she knows you had nothing to protect your hands.” His blue eyes were imploring. 

She shook her head but he opened his mouth to say, “Please,” with such a beseeching note in his voice that she paused. 

“Do it as a favor to me.” Peeta insisted. 

“I can’t,” She croaked, frightened when she thought of what the consequences would be if Mrs. Mellark found out that Peeta had stolen from the bakery’s stores in order to help her. 

“You have to. Your sister needs you. She needs you strong. Needs your hands to be strong. Please Katniss. Take it.” Peeta said, his voice firmer. Damn him, he already knew what avenue to take to get her to agree. 

“What about you?” Katniss said nervously. 

Peeta shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I know how to make sure the books balance so she won’t realize.” He said quietly. 

Katniss simply stared at him incredulously, unable to speak. Here was this boy, this person who had already done more for her than any stranger could be expected to, she thought as she recalled clearly that sad and terrifying day in the rain, and he still wanted to do more. 

If she did this, if she accepted his help, she would not only owe him for the bread but now she���d be picking up a new debt. 

“Peeta, I can’t.” He seemed startled at first by her use of his given name but quickly recovered. 

“You can. You need to. Think of your sister. If you get sick my mother will try to tack on more time to your contract. You’ll end up owing another six months to a year when she’d done with you.” Peeta warned. 

Katniss felt her gut clench in fear. She knew deep down he was right. She needed this, almost as badly as she had needed the bread six years ago. 

Guiltily, she nodded her head. She tucked the bag under her arm. 

Before she could force herself to turn around and leave with whatever little dignity she had left, the question slipped past her lips. 

“Why?” She asked in a trembling whisper. 

Peeta stared at her for a long moment, before looking down at his shoes. 

“Lots of reasons. One is my mother is manipulating things to her advantage, to try and stretch your labor down to the last cent and beyond. I guess I can’t stand by and just let it happen. No one should be treated like that. Like you are just a piece in her games. But maybe…” He trailed off, seeming to lose his ability to hold her gaze for a moment. 

“Maybe you’ve just left an impression on me that I can’t shake Katniss Everdeen.” He finally finished, gaze swinging quickly back to pin her in his blue gaze that was at once deep and encompassing, but also soft at the edges, almost tender. 

“And what impression is that?” She asked, unable to stop staring up at him. 

He smiled at her then, something so sweet and genuine that an unexpected warmth rushes through me. 

“Let’s just say it's a good one.” He says, clarifying nothing but his smile deepens until a small dimple appears on his left cheek and I find myself exasperated and endeared in equal measures. 

“You better get home before the storm kicks up.” He tells me when I say nothing in response. 

I look over at the remainder of the wood and he shoo-es me off. “I’ll finish up.” He promises and then proceeds to rapidly chop three logs in the time it would take me to do just one. 

I shake myself to clear my thoughts. He’s surely strong enough to make quick work of the wood. 

I run all the way home, trying to forget about Peeta Mellark and his smile. 

But when I get home I find a pair of faded but still wearable mittens tucked under the bag of oatmeal. 

I hold them under my nose and breath in the scent of cinnamon and dill.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Antitrust is a labor issue

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

This is huge: yesterday, the FTC finalized a rule banning noncompete agreements for every American worker. That means that the person working the register at a Wendy's can switch to the fry-trap at McD's for an extra $0.25/hour, without their boss suing them:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-announces-rule-banning-noncompetes

The median worker laboring under a noncompete is a fast-food worker making close to minimum wage. You know who doesn't have to worry about noncompetes? High tech workers in Silicon Valley, because California already banned noncompetes, as did Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.

The fact that the country's largest economies, encompassing the most "knowledge-intensive" industries, could operate without shitty bosses being able to shackle their best workers to their stupid workplaces for years after those workers told them to shove it shows you what a goddamned lie noncompetes are based on. The idea that companies can't raise capital or thrive if their know-how can walk out the door, secreted away in the skulls of their ungrateful workers, is bullshit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#neofeudal

Remember when OpenAI's board briefly fired founder Sam Altman and Microsoft offered to hire him and 700 of his techies? If "noncompetes block investments" was true, you'd think they'd have a hard time raising money, but no, they're still pulling in billions in investor capital (primarily from Microsoft itself!). This is likewise true of Anthropic, the company's major rival, which was founded by (wait for it), two former OpenAI employees.

Indeed, Silicon Valley couldn't have come into existence without California's ban on noncompetes – the first silicon company, Shockley Semiconductors, was founded by a malignant, delusional eugenicist who also couldn't manage a lemonade stand. His eight most senior employees (the "Traitorous Eight") quit his shitty company to found Fairchild Semiconductor, a rather successful chip shop – but not nearly so successful as the company that two of Fairchild's top employees founded after they quit: Intel:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/24/the-traitorous-eight-and-the-battle-of-germanium-valley/

Likewise a lie: the tale that noncompetes raise wages. This theory – beloved of people whose skulls are so filled with Efficient Market Hypothesis Brain-Worms that they've got worms dangling out of their nostrils and eye-sockets – holds that the right to sign a noncompete is an asset that workers can trade to their employers in exchange for better pay. This is absolutely true, provided you ignore reality.

Remember: the median noncompete-bound worker is a fast food employee making near minimum wage. The major application of noncompetes is preventing that worker from getting a raise from a rival fast-food franchisee. Those workers are losing wages due to noncompetes. Meanwhile, the highest paid workers in the country are all clustered in a a couple of cities in northern California, pulling down sky-high salaries in a state where noncompetes have been illegal since the gold rush.

If a capitalist wants to retain their workers, they can compete. Offer your workers get better treatment and better wages. That's how capitalism's alchemy is supposed to work: competition transmogrifies the base metal of a capitalist's greed into the noble gold of public benefit by making success contingent on offering better products to your customers than your rivals – and better jobs to your workers than those rivals are willing to pay. However, capitalists hate capitalism:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/#the-winnah

Capitalists hate capitalism so much that they're suing the FTC, in MAGA's beloved Fifth Circuit, before a Trump-appointed judge. The case was brought by Trump's financial advisors, Ryan LLC, who are using it to drum up business from corporations that hate Biden's new taxes on the wealthy and stepped up IRS enforcement on rich tax-cheats.

Will they win? It's hard to say. Despite what you may have heard, the case against the FTC order is very weak, as Matt Stoller explains here:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/ftc-enrages-corporate-america-by

The FTC's statutory authority to block noncompetes comes from Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bans "unfair methods of competition" (hard to imagine a less fair method than indenturing your workers). Section 6(g) of the Act lets the FTC make rules to enforce Section 5's ban on unfairness. Both are good law – 6(g) has been used many times (26 times in the five years from 1968-73 alone!).

The DC Circuit court upheld the FTC's right to "promulgate rules defining the meaning of the statutory standards of the illegality the Commission is empowered to prevent" in 1973, and in 1974, Congress changed the FTC Act, but left this rulemaking power intact.

The lawyer suing the FTC – Anton Scalia's larvum, a pismire named Eugene Scalia – has some wild theories as to why none of this matters. He says that because the law hasn't been enforced since the ancient days of the (checks notes) 1970s, it no longer applies. He says that the mountain of precedent supporting the FTC's authority "hasn't aged well." He says that other antitrust statutes don't work the same as the FTC Act. Finally, he says that this rule is a big economic move and that it should be up to Congress to make it.

Stoller makes short work of these arguments. The thing that tells you whether a law is good is its text and precedent, "not whether a lawyer thinks a precedent is old and bad." Likewise, the fact that other antitrust laws is irrelevant "because, well, they are other antitrust laws, not this antitrust law." And as to whether this is Congress's job because it's economically significant, "so what?" Congress gave the FTC this power.

Now, none of this matters if the Supreme Court strikes down the rule, and what's more, if they do, they might also neuter the FTC's rulemaking power in the bargain. But again: so what? How is it better for the FTC to do nothing, and preserve a power that it never uses, than it is for the Commission to free the 35-40 million American workers whose bosses get to use the US court system to force them to do a job they hate?

The FTC's rule doesn't just ban noncompetes – it also bans TRAPs ("training repayment agreement provisions"), which require employees to pay their bosses thousands of dollars if they quit, get laid off, or are fired:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

The FTC's job is to protect Americans from businesses that cheat. This is them, doing their job. If the Supreme Court strikes this down, it further delegitimizes the court, and spells out exactly who the GOP works for.

This is part of the long history of antitrust and labor. From its earliest days, antitrust law was "aimed at dollars, not men" – in other words, antitrust law was always designed to smash corporate power in order to protect workers. But over and over again, the courts refused to believe that Congress truly wanted American workers to get legal protection from the wealthy predators who had fastened their mouth-parts on those workers' throats. So over and over – and over and over – Congress passed new antitrust laws that clarified the purpose of antitrust, using words so small that even federal judges could understand them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

After decades of comatose inaction, Biden's FTC has restored its role as a protector of labor, explicitly tackling competition through a worker protection lens. This week, the Commission blocked the merger of Capri Holdings and Tapestry Inc, a pair of giant conglomerates that have, between them, bought up nearly every "affordable luxury" brand (Versace, Jimmy Choo, Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Coach, Stuart Weitzman, etc).

You may not care about "affordable luxury" handbags, but you should care about the basis on which the FTC blocked this merger. As David Dayen explains for The American Prospect: 33,000 workers employed by these two companies would lose the wage-competition that drives them to pay skilled sales-clerks more to cross the mall floor and switch stores:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-04-24-challenge-fashion-merger-new-antitrust-philosophy/

In other words, the FTC is blocking a $8.5b merger that would turn an oligopoly into a monopoly explicitly to protect workers from the power of bosses to suppress their wages. What's more, the vote was unanimous, include the Commission's freshly appointed (and frankly, pretty terrible) Republican commissioners:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/04/ftc-moves-block-tapestrys-acquisition-capri

A lot of people are (understandably) worried that if Biden doesn't survive the coming election that the raft of excellent rules enacted by his agencies will die along with his presidency. Here we have evidence that the Biden administration's anti-corporate agenda has become institutionalized, acquiring a bipartisan durability.

And while there hasn't been a lot of press about that anti-corporate agenda, it's pretty goddamned huge. Back in 2021, Tim Wu (then working in the White wrote an executive order on competition that identified 72 actions the agencies could take to blunt the power of corporations to harm everyday Americans:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

Biden's agency heads took that plan and ran with it, demonstrating the revolutionary power of technical administrative competence and proving that being good at your job is praxis:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

In just the past week, there's been a storm of astoundingly good new rules finalized by the agencies:

A minimum staffing ratio for nursing homes;

The founding of the American Climate Corps;

A guarantee of overtime benefits;

A ban on financial advisors cheating retirement savers;

Medical privacy rules that protect out-of-state abortions;

A ban on junk fees in mortgage servicing;

Conservation for 13m Arctic acres in Alaska;

Classifying "forever chemicals" as hazardous substances;

A requirement for federal agencies to buy sustainable products;

Closing the gun-show loophole.

That's just a partial list, and it's only Thursday.

Why the rush? As Gerard Edic writes for The American Prospect, finalizing these rules now protects them from the Congressional Review Act, a gimmick created by Newt Gingrich in 1996 that lets the next Senate wipe out administrative rules created in the months before a federal election:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-23-biden-administration-regulations-congressional-review-act/

In other words, this is more dazzling administrative competence from the technically brilliant agencies that have labored quietly and effectively since 2020. Even laggards like Pete Buttigieg have gotten in on the act, despite a very poor showing in the early years of the Biden administration:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/dinah-wont-you-blow/#ecp

Despite those unpromising beginnings, the DOT has gotten onboard the trains it regulates, and passed a great rule that forces airlines to refund your money if they charge you for services they don't deliver:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/24/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-rules-to-deliver-automatic-refunds-and-protect-consumers-from-surprise-junk-fees-in-air-travel/

The rule also bans junk fees and forces airlines to compensate you for late flights, finally giving American travelers the same rights their European cousins have enjoyed for two decades.

It's the latest in a string of muscular actions taken by the DOT, a period that coincides with the transfer of Jen Howard from her role as chief of staff to FTC chair Lina Khan to a new gig as the DOT's chief of competition enforcement:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-04-25-transportation-departments-new-path/

Under Howard's stewardship, the DOT blocked the merger of Spirit and Jetblue, and presided over the lowest flight cancellation rate in more than decade:

https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/2023-numbers-more-flights-fewer-cancellations-more-consumer-protections

All that, along with a suite of protections for fliers, mark a huge turning point in the US aviation industry's long and worsening abusive relationship with the American public. There's more in the offing, too including a ban on charging families extra for adjacent seats, rules to make flying with wheelchairs easier, and a ban on airlines selling passenger's private information to data brokers.

There's plenty going on in the world – and in the Biden administration – that you have every right to be furious and/or depressed about. But these expert agencies, staffed by experts, have brought on a tsunami of rules that will make every working American better off in a myriad of ways. Those material improvements in our lives will, in turn, free us up to fight the bigger, existential fights for a livable planet, free from genocide.

It may not be a good time to be alive, but it's a much better time than it was just last week.

And it's only Thursday.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men

[thozhar]

In the estate, Thangamaal, despite not knowing how to read or write, raised her son, Neelavanan, with stories from the Mahabaratham, Ramayanam, as well as Tamil Bhakti songs. In spite of her devotion towards Hinduism, she was a woman who liked eating beef, a meat often seen as ‘impure’ by caste-Hindus.

“Once, my mother bought beef from the town, and when the neighbours asked her what she was cooking, she said mutton. When I asked my akka (sister) why amma (mother) said that, she told me that people [Hindus] who pray can’t eat beef,” recalled Neelavanan.

As Neelavanan grew up, he understood that Hindu religiosity surrounding beef was a weapon against Dalits who consume it. “People around me eat mutton, chicken, water monitors, pork—they eat everything,” he said. “But when it comes to beef, they say that it is god. They brand [Hindus] who eat beef as coming from a certain caste. We are buying [beef] with our own money; we did not steal or beg for it. Yes, I eat beef, so what?”

Ove time, however, the culture of eating beef has deliberately declined among Dalits in Malaysia as a way to escape casteism and adapt to caste-Hindu practices. This shift can be seen in Neelavanan’s own family, where his siblings and relatives refuse to eat beef and even scrutinise him for his beef-eating habits.

[kataraavatara]

“You can’t ship Neris because Eris is the kind of man Nesta’s mother wanted her to end up with!” I mean if we’re going there the IC uses her as a tool for their own gain the way her mother did and Cassian participates so I guess we can’t ship Nessian either

[shitacademicswrite]

[crossing-the-line-comic]

Page 6+7

[She drifted towards him and smiled, stroked his hair, and then pulled him close to her in a loving embrace.

You're perfect.

Perfect for what? He wanted to ask.

Oh, my beloved host. I have such a story to tell you.]

--

There's actually a final line that I forgot about until now, but it can be with the transition in the next page. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[zonerobotnik]

While we wait for the poll results, here's page 2! Varian is very glowy today!

[harry-sussex]

Friendly reminder that William’s wife and father are both critically ill and that he deserves to be able to take his ten-year-old son to a football match to get both of their minds off things and/or enjoy some relaxing quality time together regardless of whether he’s working or not because everyone needs a break from real life 🩵

[mayasaura]

If I could erase my knowledge of the Locked Tomb series and read it all over again, I'd want to start with Nona the Ninth first.

It's a new setting, mostly new characters, and a new perspective on the characters that are familiar. You don't need background information to follow the narrative, because Nona doesn't have any. The John chapters are mostly new information, too.

There would clearly be a lot of baggage and backstory you're not privy to between the Empire characters, but it's not like the previous two novels didn't have a lot of complicated relationships you only figure out in retrospect or through assumption.

I suspect it would hold together fairly well as an independent novel. And then there are two books of backstory to read next, and boy do they add to the reread value.

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

What do you mean Nikolai Lantsov was a morally grey character? He was a selfless hero!

Literally Nikolai Lantsov:

Befriended and convinced already disoriented and ignorant Alina that the Darkling was a bigger issue than the First Army and the people turning on Grisha and executing them, a brewing civil war that would most likely happen even if they killed the Darkling, Fjerda and Shu-Han casually invading their territory, etc. That they should abandon negotiations with the Darkling and prepare for war even though the country can't take it. Also, his reasoning that he should become the King? Nikolai: Oh yeah, I'm a bastard with no claim to the throne who has never actually done anything to change Ravka for the better, I was too busy playing pirates. And I just gave the rapist King who doomed this country a nice retirement and more servants to rape, while your friend Genya who he raped gets a trial for attempted regicide, be grateful she will be spared.

"Fouche did not miss the boat: Befriending the revolutionary leader Robespierre, he quickly rose in the rebel ranks. When Fouche arrived in Paris to take his seat at the convention, a violent rift had broken out between die moderates and the radical Jacobins. Fouche sensed that in the long run neither side would emerge victorious."

While Alina and Darkling were watching each other, Nikolai was watching the throne. Darkling got rid of the King and the only legitimate heir for him, so all Nikolai had to do is march into a disbanded army and declare himself a war hero and the King. Nikolai: Maybe we should just abolish absolute monarchy in Ravka because it's 20th century already, some of the countries no longer have it and no one even wants it anymore? Don't be ridiculous. My mother was an oyster and I'm the pearl or something.

"Power rarely ends up in the hands of those who start a revolution, or even of those who further it; power sticks to those who bring it to a conclusion. That was the side Fouche wanted to be on.

At a certain moment, however, he called a halt to the killings, sensing the mood of the country was turning, and despite the blood already on his hands, citizens of Lyons hailed him as a savior from what had become known as the Terror."

Nikolai to the remaining Grisha after the civil war: Right, so I know I used my big guns to slaughter you, the oppressed minority, because you sided with a man who gave you shelter, saved you and was your respected general instead of a girl who was prejudiced against you, never trained, and abandoned you, BUT I need an army. So, here's your pardon and you can once again become serfs to the monarchy who failed you for centuries. Also, the drafting age has been lowered for Grisha and now we're sending unprepared children to missions. Freedom for Grisha? Letting them buy land? Don't be ridiculous. Can't you see I have more important problems to deal with? The Darkling still exists trapped somewhere in the form of a ghost!

If only the author would acknowledge in KoS duology that he has flaws and selfish ambitions. Let him be a complicated character with layers, it's not the end of the world.