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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 months ago

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Jesse Duquette

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

January 25, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

We have all earned a break for this week, but as some of you have heard me say, I write these letters with an eye to what a graduate student will need to know in 150 years. Two things from last night belong in the record of this time, not least because they illustrate President Donald Trump’s deliberate demonstration of dominance over Republican lawmakers.

Last night the Senate confirmed former Fox News Channel weekend host Pete Hegseth as the defense secretary of the United States of America. As Tom Bowman of NPR notes, since Congress created the position in 1947, in the wake of World War II, every person who has held it has come from a senior position in elected office, industry, or the military. Hegseth has been accused of financial mismanagement at the small nonprofits he directed, has demonstrated alcohol abuse, and paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement. He has experience primarily on the Fox News Channel, where his attacks on “woke” caught Trump’s eye.

The secretary of defense oversees an organization of almost 3 million people and a budget of more than $800 billion, as well as advising the president and working with both allies and rivals around the globe to prevent war. It should go without saying that a candidate like Hegseth could never have been nominated, let alone confirmed, under any other president. But Republicans caved, even on this most vital position for the American people's safety.

The chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker (R-MS), tried to spin Hegseth’s lack of relevant experience as a plus: “We must not underestimate the importance of having a top-shelf communicator as secretary of defense. Other than the president, no official plays a larger role in telling the men and women in uniform, the Congress and the public about the threats we face and the need for a peace-through-strength defense policy.”

Vice President J.D. Vance had to break a 50–50 tie to confirm Hegseth, as Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined all the Democrats and Independents in voting no. Hegseth was sworn in early this morning.

That timing mattered. As MSNBC host Rachel Maddow noted, as soon as Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), whose “yes” was secured only through an intense pressure campaign, had voted in favor, President Trump informed at least 15 independent inspectors general of U.S. government departments that they were fired, including, as David Nakamura, Lisa Rein, and Matt Viser of the Washington Post noted, those from “the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration and the Social Security Administration.” Most were Trump’s own appointees from his first term, put in when he purged the inspectors general more gradually after his first impeachment.

Project 2025 called for the removal of the inspectors general. Just a week ago Ernst and her fellow Iowa Republican senator Chuck Grassley co-founded a bipartisan caucus—the Inspector General Caucus—to support those inspectors general. Grassley told Politico in November that he intends to defend the inspectors general.

Congress passed a law in 1978 to create inspectors general in 12 government departments. According to Jen Kirby, who explained inspectors general for Vox in 2020, a movement to combat waste in government had been building for a while, and the fraud and misuse of offices in the administration of President Richard M. Nixon made it clear that such protections were necessary. Essentially, inspectors general are watchdogs, keeping Congress informed of what’s going on within departments.

Kirby notes that when he took office in 1981, President Ronald Reagan promptly fired all the inspectors general, claiming he wanted to appoint his own people. Congress members of both parties pushed back, and Reagan rehired at least five of those he had fired. George H.W. Bush also tried to fire the inspectors general but backed down when Congress backed up their protests that they must be independent.

In 2008, Congress expanded the law by creating the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. By 2010 that council covered 68 offices.

During his first term, in the wake of his first impeachment, Trump fired at least five inspectors general he considered disloyal to him, and in 2022, Congress amended the law to require any president who sought to get rid of an inspector general to “communicate in writing the reasons for any such removal or transfer to both Houses of Congress, not later than 30 days before the removal or transfer.” Congress called the law the “Securing Inspector General Independence Act of 2022.”

The chair of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, responded immediately to the information that Trump wanted to fire inspectors general. Ware recommended that Director of Presidential Personnel Sergio Gor, who had sent the email firing the inspectors general, “reach out to White House Counsel to discuss your intended course of action. At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss” the inspectors general, because of the requirements of the 2022 law.

This evening, Nakamura, Rein, and Viser reported in the Washington Post that Democrats are outraged at the illegal firings and even some Republicans are expressing concern and have asked the White House for an explanation. For his part, Trump said, incorrectly, that firing inspectors general is “a very standard thing to do.” Several of the inspectors general Trump tried to fire are standing firm on the illegality of the order and plan to show up to work on Monday.

The framers of the Constitution designed impeachment to enable Congress to remove a chief executive who deliberately breaks the law, believing that the determination of senators to hold onto their own power would keep them from allowing a president to seize more than the Constitution had assigned him.

In Federalist No. 69, Alexander Hamilton tried to reassure those nervous about the centralization of power in the new Constitution that no man could ever become a dictator because unlike a king, “The President of the United States would be liable to be impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors, removed from office; and would afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law.”

But the framers did not anticipate the rise of political parties. Partisanship would push politicians to put party over country and eventually would induce even senators to bow to a rogue president. MAGA Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming told the Fox News Channel today that he is unconcerned about Trump’s breaking the law written just two years ago. “Well, sometimes inspector generals don't do the job that they are supposed to do. Some of them deserve to be fired, and the president is gonna make wise decisions on those.”

There is one more story you’ll be hearing more about from me going forward, but it is important enough to call out tonight because it indicates an important shift in American politics. In an Associated Press/NORC poll released yesterday, only 12% of those polled thought the president relying on billionaires for policy advice is a good thing. Even among Republicans, only 20% think it’s a good thing.

Since the very earliest days of the United States, class was a central lens through which Americans interpreted politics. And yet, in the 1960s, politicians began to focus on race and gender, and we talked very little about class. Now, with Trump embracing the world’s richest man, who invested more than $250 million in his election, and with Trump making it clear through the arrangement of the seating at his inauguration that he is elevating the interests of billionaires to the top of his agenda, class appears to be back on the table.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #cabinet posts #Inspectors General #Hegseth #FOX news #class #Billionaires #Gilded Age

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justinspoliticalcorner · 3 months ago

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Olga Lautman:

As infuriating and outrageous as Trump’s latest comments on annexing Gaza are, he is a master of distraction. He deliberately throws out incendiary statements, knowing they will dominate the headlines and divert attention from his dangerous actions at play��in this case, a power grab. I’m not saying Trump won’t invade Gaza—he very well might—but it won’t happen today. Right now, we need to stay focused on what is happening in real-time which is the dismantling of U.S. institutions, the seizure of sensitive government data—including our data, and the hostile takeover of federal agencies by Musk and his unelected, unvetted operatives. We must take Trump’s words seriously, but we cannot allow them to distract us from the authoritarian restructuring of our government that is unfolding before our eyes. Just as major news outlets finally began covering the hostile takeover of the U.S. federal government, questioning Trump and Musk’s actions to gut every agency and seize control over America’s most sensitive financial and intelligence systems, Trump dropped another bombshell comment to redirect the conversation—and instantly, the focus shifted. This is a classic authoritarian tactic and I have watched Russia use it for decades. Whether through false flags or controlled state media distractions, the Kremlin has long understood that if you control the conversation, you control public perception. While the world looks one way, they would consolidate power and tighten their grip behind the scenes. And right now, Trump and Musk are doing exactly that.

The Federal Government Is Being Dismantled at Blazing Speed

With Treasury payment systems, Medicare and Medicaid, intelligence agencies, and federal IT systems now under Musk’s control, the question isn’t just about political influence—it’s about them potentially preparing to loot the U.S. government and weaponizing the agencies against us. Every move suggests something far bigger is happening behind the scenes. In just over two weeks since Trump returned to power, we are already watching Project 2025 come to life. The FBI is being gutted, with at least 6,000 agents at risk as purges begin, crippling federal law enforcement and leaving the U.S. vulnerable to both foreign and domestic threats and attacks. Independent inspectors general have been purged, and USAID has been dismantled, eliminating one of America’s most effective tools for democracy-building and urgent humanitarian aid—a massive geopolitical victory for Russia and China, who will now fill the void immediately left by the U.S. as they celebrate. The Department of Education is set to be shut down, stripping away federal protections for students, gutting public education, and eliminating grant funding. Meanwhile, the CIA is now being purged, with ‘buyouts,’ which may potentially be illegal, offered to its entire workforce under the guise of “aligning with Trump’s priorities.” In reality, this is an effort to drive out national security experts who could resist an authoritarian takeover and a massive gift to Russia and every other adversary. At the same time, Musk has seized control of financial systems that handle trillions of dollars in payments. His unvetted operatives have gained access to the Treasury’s payment infrastructure, meaning they can freeze Social Security checks, federal tax refunds, military pensions, Medicare and Medicaid, and critical government funding at will. Career officials have been locked out of key systems, and government data is being copied and stored under Musk’s control, including Social Security numbers, tax filings, and classified federal records.

Russia’s Playbook: Diversion, False Flags, Crackdowns, and State Resource Theft

Russia is a master at using diversionary tactics to distract from major political shifts or internal power grabs. When the regime wants to tighten its grip, it throws out a narrative, and manufactures a crisis or scandal—either real or fabricated—to dominate the news cycle. When the government seeks to restructure power or push through major changes, it creates distractions. A foreign conflict, an internal crisis, or a manufactured national security “threat” floods the media, ensuring the public’s attention is diverted. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, major political and financial decisions reshape the country—as laws are rewritten or another crackdown is being prepared. All while, vast sums of state resources quietly vanish into the pockets of the Kremlin and its oligarchs. Sadly, we are now watching the same playbook unfold in the United States. Nearly every federal agency is under siege. This isn’t just about reshaping government or budget cuts—it’s about dismantling it from within. Law enforcement, intelligence, national security, and public institutions are being systematically hijacked and dismantled, leaving Americans more vulnerable at home and abroad as chaos spreads. And, it’s only the beginning and it will escalate.

Musk’s Control Over U.S. Systems Is the Real Emergency

While Trump dominates the news cycle with outrageous comments, Elon Musk is taking over the U.S. government from within. His unelected, team—including unvetted interns and former workers—now controls some of America’s most sensitive financial and national security systems. Musk’s team has gained access to the Treasury’s payment system, potentially giving them the power to stop Social Security checks, federal tax returns, and military pensions at will.

Olga Lautman explains that the Musk Coup of many federal agencies is the real crisis to our country.

#Donald Trump #Elon Musk #Musk Coup #Federal Funding Freeze

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vague-humanoid · 3 months ago

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The federal government is going MAGA — fast.

Why it matters: President Trump has only been in office a week, but the departments under his command are moving with blazing speed to transform the federal bureaucracy into an army of loyalists.

The new administration immediately moved to freeze nearly all foreign aid, root out DEI programs, remove officials and whole offices deemed ideologically suspect, and muzzle public health agencies.

"We're getting rid of all of the cancer ... caused by the Biden administration," Trump told reporters while signing a Day One executive order that stripped employment protections from civil servants.

Driving the news: Late Friday night, the White House fired 17 inspectors general — independent agency watchdogs responsible for identifying fraud, waste and corruption.

The mass firings, relayed via email, appear to violate a federal law that requires the administration to notify Congress 30 days before removing inspectors general.

Amid outrage from Democrats and ethics experts, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) — a Trump ally and longtime advocate for whistleblowers — called on the president to explain his decision to Congress.

Zoom in: DEI offices and programs have been shuttered across the government, including at the CIA, Department of Veterans Affairs, Army and Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Federal workers have been ordered to report colleagues who may seek to "disguise" DEI efforts by using "coded language."

And Trump directed federal agencies to each identify "up to nine" major companies, universities or non-profits to investigate over their DEI practices.

There have been hundreds of staff removals or reassignments, including at the State Department, where far more career officers were asked to resign than in past administrations.

The Department of Justice reassigned at least 15 senior career officials, including a top counterintelligence attorney involved in the FBI's investigation of classified documents Trump stashed at Mar-a-Lago.

The DOJ also rescinded job offers to recent law school graduates who were placed through the Attorney General's Honors program.

Trump's National Security Council sent home around 160 staffers while Trump officials conducted loyalty screenings to ensure they're aligned with his agenda.

One of the administration's highest-profile firings so far was Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military. She was accused of leadership failures and an "excessive focus" on DEI at the Coast Guard Academy.

Between the lines: Trump loyalists have also moved to centralize control around public messaging, particularly when it comes to public health.

The Department of Health and Human Services ordered an unprecedented "immediate pause" on all health reports and social media posts through at least the end of the month, leading scientists to cancel CDC meetings on the escalating bird flu outbreak.

The Pentagon also ordered a global pause on all official social media posts until the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has promised a radical culture shakeup across the U.S. military.

The new administration is also moving quickly on issues including LGBTQ and civil rights.

The State Department froze all passport applications with "X" designated as the gender.

DOJ ordered a freeze on civil rights litigation and is weighing a potential reversal of police reform agreements negotiated by the Biden administration.

It also ordered federal prosecutors to investigate local and state officials in so-called "sanctuary cities."

Meanwhile, the Pentagon moved to abolish an office set up during the Biden administration focused on curbing civilian deaths in combat operations.

Zoom out: Trump made no secret of his intentions to build a MAGA-aligned federal workforce during the campaign, and he quickly imposed a hiring freeze after taking office.

The vast majority of federal workers are career employees, not political appointments, but the president has made clear he wants them all to board the Trump train.

His administration is currently testing the ability to email the entire federal government workforce from a single email address.

What to watch: Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, will be a key architect of the White House's efforts to re-engineer the administrative state.

Vought has assailed "the woke and weaponized bureaucracy," and said in a 2023 speech to his conservative think tank that he wants to put federal bureaucrats "in trauma," ProPublica reported.

"When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains," Vought said — comments he defended during his confirmation hearing.

#u.s. politics

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delicatuscii-wasbella102 · 8 months ago

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So, I have just watched the Harris/Trump debate and the one thing that stood out to me was that Harris talked of the future, helping the country, building it up for the people. Were as Trump espoused fear, he knows that that is a great control mechanism and throws it around like confetti. Trumps statement about Haitian immigrants "eating pets" Fact Checked: A Springfield spokesperson said the city has received no such reports, and Springfield police told a local news outlet the department has received no reports of pets being stolen and eaten. Trump: "But the governor before, he said, ‘The baby will be born, and we will decide what to do with the baby.’" Fact Checked: Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, never said he would sanction the execution of newborns Trump: "It was a fraud, just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud." Fact Checked: Economists across the ideological spectrum reject Trump’s claim. The process is an annual effort to fine-tune initial data that the agency acknowledges is imperfect. Trump: "Millions and millions of people … are pouring into our country monthly. Where it's, I believe 21 million people." Fact Checked: Encounters aren’t the same as admissions. Encounters represent events, so one person who tries to cross the border twice counts as two encounters. Also, not everyone encountered is let into the country. The Department of Homeland Security estimates about 4 million encounters have led to expulsions or removals. Trump: The U.S. "left $85 billion worth of brand new, beautiful military equipment behind" in Afghanistan Fact Checked: An independent inspector general report told Congress that about $7 billion of U.S.-funded equipment remained in Afghanistan, According to the report, "the U.S. military removed or destroyed nearly all major equipment used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan throughout the drawdown period in 2021." Trump: Under Biden and Harris, the U.S. had "the worst inflation we've ever had." Fact Checked: The highest year-over-year inflation rate on Biden’s watch was around 9% in summer 2022. That was the highest in about 40 years. So the majority of what he said was a lie, no surprises there

#trump2024 #kamala harris 2024

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mariacallous · 1 month ago

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When great changes are afoot, we look for a user manual. There will be new patterns of living and new expectations for the future. The rapidly developing corruption landscape in the United States will be no exception.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s election last November and the accelerated institutional and personnel changes since his inauguration have forced Americans into new political territory. In particular, anti-corruption institutions and norms are unraveling. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered the Justice Department to prioritize cases related to criminal cartels and closed down Task Force KleptoCapture and the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative; Trump himself ordered a pause in new investigations or enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for six months.

While those developments focus on U.S. businesses engaging in corruption overseas rather than at home, other anti-corruption norms are also coming under rapid and significant pressure. The Trump administration has fired at least 17 inspectors general—offices installed after the Watergate scandal as an independent check on mismanagement and abuse of power within government agencies—as well as several senior Justice Department employees. The president also issued an executive order that undermined the independence of agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission, both of which have important roles in detecting and punishing corruption.

For some, these changes go beyond the usual shifts in policy that come with a new administration. They seem to require a new vocabulary. For example, few people had heard of the word kakistocracy (a society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens) until it was the Economist’s 2024 word of the year. Pundits have labeled the tech executives with the best seats at Trump’s inauguration as America’s new oligarchs; in his farewell address to the nation, President Joe Biden issued a warning that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America.” And in February, Sen. Bernie Sanders deployed a more dire descriptor still when he said the Trump administration was “moving this country very rapidly toward a kleptocracy.” What do these terms mean, both definitionally and in practice? And which, if any, can be accurately said to apply to the United States’ oncoming political order?

The first definition required is that of corruption itself. Corruption is the building block of regimes considered antithetical to Americans and the American tradition yet has been frequently invoked across the political spectrum of late. “I campaigned on the fact that I said government is corrupt—and it is very corrupt,” Trump said in an appearance with advisor Elon Musk at the White House in February. Indeed, rooting out graft in the so-called “deep state” bureaucracy is one of Musk’s stated goals for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), set up via executive order in January. Among other accusations, Musk has said his team at DOGE discovered “known fraudsters” receiving payments from the federal government and that some people working in the bureaucracy, including at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), had been taking “kickbacks.”

Few would argue that fraud and waste are entirely absent from federal government spending. Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion a year to fraud and that agencies had made about $2.7 trillion in improper payments over the last 20 years. The figures are huge, as with any organization spending more than $6 trillion annually. But do the documented instances of fraud in the U.S. government rise to the level of corruption?

While there is no universal definition of corruption, one of the most common, as defined by the advocacy group Transparency International, is “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” For Musk to use this term in its proper sense in regards to USAID, for instance, he would have to demonstrate how USAID employees or contractors used the authorities granted to them in order to gain private benefits, such as by taking bribes or gifts in return for granting lucrative contracts. Receiving a duly authorized government paycheck for implementing policies within one’s job description does not count as “abuse of entrusted power” or “private gain” and thus would not qualify as corruption.

There are a variety of flavors of corruption. Currently, the most concerning kind is grand corruption. Grand corruption is when public institutions are co-opted by networks of ruling elites to steal public resources for their own private gain. It involves a wide variety of activities including bribery, extortion, nepotism, favoritism, cronyism, judicial fraud, accounting fraud, electoral fraud, public service fraud, embezzlement, influence peddling, and conflicts of interest.

In dismantling systems that protect against it, there are fears that the Trump administration could be opening the door to grand corruption in the future. Rep. Mark Pocan has criticized Musk’s situation as a special government employee with federal contracts—at least 52 are ongoing, with seven government agencies—as “ripe for corruption” and plans to introduce a bill aimed at banning special government employees like Musk, who gave at least $277 million to support Trump and other Republicans in last year’s election, from obtaining such contracts. In a New York Times op-ed in February, five former Treasury secretaries expressed concern about “political actors” from DOGE gaining access to the U.S. payment system. This access, they wrote, endangered the security of a system previously handled exclusively by nonpartisan civil servants in order to prevent individual or partisan enrichment. (Musk told podcast host Joe Rogan in February that DOGE employees “go through the same vetting process that those federal employees went through.”)

In contrast to grand corruption is the petty kind, which citizens encounter when asked for bribes or other favors in places such as hospitals, schools, and police departments. While pop culture is rife with storylines of corrupt cops and civil servants, such as in The Sopranos, most Americans have not experienced having to slip a little something extra to get their driver’s license renewed or a child registered in the local public school. But, as the old saying goes, a fish rots from the head down. When grand corruption increases, lower-level officials may feel even more emboldened to demand bribes in ways new to many Americans.

Kleptocracy takes corruption—even grand corruption—to a whole new level. There is not one specific definition of kleptocracy beyond that of “rule by thieves.” As with grand corruption, a kleptocracy involves tightly integrated networks of elites in political, business, cultural, social, and criminal institutions engaging in bribery, extortion, and other destructive actions. But additional characteristics make kleptocracy stand out even above grand corruption.

First, the grand corruption in a kleptocracy is systemic, deeply networked, and self-reinforcing. Setting up a complex and highly lucrative corruption scheme is one thing, but transforming institutions to keep multiple streams of grand corruption through multiple networks ongoing for years or decades is a whole different level of kleptocratic wherewithal.

Second, the consequences of a kleptocracy will distort long-term political and socioeconomic outcomes. While grand corruption schemes may amass elites billions of dollars, if those occur in a large enough economy, they may not necessarily impact the average citizen much. In a kleptocracy, the distortions are so massive that average citizens cannot miss the impacts on their lives.

Third, in non-kleptocracies, grand corruption scandals may shock the conscience and grab headlines because they are not the norm. Such grand corruption in a kleptocracy is not an aberration but instead the unifying purpose and core function of the state. The scandals come so fast, so widespread, and so large that many citizens feel powerless to respond.

Key elites—referred to popularly as oligarchs—are instrumental in a kleptocracy. Oligarchy is derived from the ancient Greek words oligoi (“few”) and arkhein (“to rule”). Aristotle described oligarchy as “when men of property have the government in their hands.” Per Aristotle’s definition, to count as an oligarchy, the wealthy must be able to influence the government so to protect their wealth and power at the expense of the larger population.

While the term is most associated with the hugely wealthy insiders who are part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, some scholars argue that those described as Russian “oligarchs” do not technically meet the definition because while these individuals clearly have plenty of money, most do not seem to have much actual influence over domestic or foreign affairs. Scholar Ilya Zaslavskiy instead refers to them as “kremligarchs” to signify their huge wealth but lack of actual political influence.

Democratic kleptocracies offer a different model of political power again. In Hungary, the ruling Fidesz party under Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been able to consolidate control over the parliament, courts, bureaucracy, and the media. Former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman has summed up Hungary’s system as an “embrace of nihilistic corruption.” Companies linked to Orban’s family and others in his inner circle receive highly preferential lucrative opportunities for government procurement contracts, for example, while those on the outside find their ability to operate limited. Meanwhile, even though Hungary is in the heart of Europe, the press there is highly curtailed, to the point that one of its last independent radio stations was forced off air in 2021.

All kleptocracies are unique, and an American kleptocracy, were it to eventuate, would function differently from those in places such as Hungary, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, or Venezuela. Nonetheless, kleptocracies share common characteristics, and there are signs a uniquely American form is already emerging.

Seeking to categorize how kleptocracy operates in different countries, scholar Michael Johnston has identified four major syndromes of corruption. The United States falls into the bucket of what he calls Influence Markets—the world’s democratic good-governance leaders.

No country considered an Influence Market has ever become a full-fledged kleptocracy. In an Influence Market, petty corruption is rare, and cases of grand corruption can lead to jail time, new legislation, and electoral losses, though there is often significant controversy over what should be considered legitimate lobbying or campaign contributions versus outright corruption. These countries display strong democratic norms, protect personal freedoms, advocate for human rights, and have independent courts and other enforcement agencies. The state is administered through a relatively clean, professional, and apolitical civil service.

The United States is the preeminent Influence Market country in the international system. It boasts the world’s reserve currency and one of its strongest economies and biggest militaries. Anti-corruption institutions and norms—as understood at the time—were written into the Constitution by the Founding Fathers or instituted shortly thereafter, including its system of checks and balances, emoluments clauses, Bill of Rights, and the requirements for representatives to live in the districts and states that they represent. In 1977, the United States even became the first country to make it illegal to bribe another country’s politicians, via the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which Trump has ordered a pause on enforcing.

There is no historical model for what happens when a great power that is also an Influence Market becomes a kleptocracy. Should the United States fall into kleptocracy, a few winners will benefit greatly. To be sure, inequality is not new, and several studies have shown that social mobility in the United States has been declining for years. Even so, a tilt toward kleptocracy and fewer checks and balances would exacerbate an alarming trend line. In 2023, there were 1,050 billionaires in the United States, with a combined wealth of almost $5 trillion. In the third quarter of 2024, the top 1 percent of Americans held $49.23 trillion in household wealth, while the bottom 50 percent held only $3.89 trillion. Under an American kleptocracy, the number of billionaires would likely grow along with the already disproportionate wealth of the top 1 percent.

In a kleptocracy, preferential policy access and outright grand corruption for oligarchs mean that procurement prices rise, public services are further privatized, and nitpicky fees abound. Thus, more public roads turn into toll roads, and businesses from airlines to hotels to credit cards can pile on the fees and surcharges. The Trump administration’s attempt to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the cessation of its investigative work, is a possible harbinger.

As oligarchs can further avoid taxation, taxes fall more heavily on the poor and middle classes. Tariffs typify this trend, since they are taxes paid primarily by the consumer, not the supplier. Price increases from tariffs on food will hit the poor especially hard; the lowest income quintile of U.S. households spent 33 percent of their after-tax income on food in 2023, compared with the richest quintile, which spent only 8 percent.

Social programs—especially for a nation’s poorest citizens—are increasingly curtailed, underfunded, or cut entirely in a kleptocracy. The recently passed House budget proposes to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which primarily benefited the wealthy, aiming to cut $2 trillion in spending over 10 years, including $880 billion in cuts to be determined by the House committee that oversees Medicare and Medicaid funding. Recent comments by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, immensely wealthy himself, that Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are “wrong” is a further worrying sign. Trump would not be the first Republican president to muse about cutting these programs, but early moves—including the proposal to slash hundreds of Veterans Affairs contracts—suggest that this administration’s cuts may be more deep and widespread than its predecessors’.

Politicized institutions, especially law enforcement, are necessary to keep the kleptocracy going. As former Peruvian dictator Óscar Benavides put it, “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.” Venezuelan and Russian companies, for example, know that being on the wrong side of the government brings the tax police, devastating tax bills, and bankruptcy, making the weaponization of the IRS a threat to all. This was something that President Richard Nixon understood when he provided his IRS commissioner an “enemies list” of some 200 Democrats for auditing, with the intent that they would be investigated and some even put in jail. The IRS commissioner had the list locked away rather than conducting the audits. The recent departure of the acting IRS commissioner and the firing of 6,700 probationary workers during tax season, as well as DOGE’s efforts to gain access to IRS and other taxpayer information, are also warning signs of such politicization.

Looking forward, other executive orders and policies, if implemented, could further push the United States toward kleptocracy. Most crucial is Schedule F (now called Schedule Policy/Career), laid out in October 2020 by the first Trump administration. It was rescinded by Biden and then reestablished via an executive order on the first day of Trump’s second term. This executive order allows civil servants to be categorized into an employment grouping with fewer job protections, undermining 150 years of civil service reform. Implementing it would return the United States to the spoils system prevalent in the 19th century.

The result of these various executive orders and directives, questionable personnel choices, a hamstrung Justice Department, undermined independent agencies, and the defunding and defanging of the civil service is that those who want to morph U.S. federal institutions for their own personal benefit are in positions of power to do so. Moreover, the rapid-fire initiation of all of these efforts makes it harder for states, courts, civil society, and journalists to respond effectively; this is former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s famous edict to “flood the zone with shit” in action.

Journalists in a kleptocracy are further constricted because libel laws may be skewed to make it easier for those in power to mount strategic lawsuits against media, civil society, or even ordinary citizens who might report on malfeasance to silence them. Musk and the administration’s response to reporting that identifies DOGE employees is an early example of this. The narrative can be controlled in other ways, too. While Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s ownership of the Washington Post or Musk’s ownership of X gets the most attention, conservative ownership of local media stations throughout the United States, such as Sinclair’s network of nearly 200, makes them an important means to shape the pro-Trump message. In a globalized world, high quality—and often highbrow—media will remain available to those with the money, time, and willingness to access it. As Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman note in their book Spin Dictators, the availability of this media serves to prove that the regime is not actually that authoritarian while also making scapegoats of globalist elites who read the international, often paywalled, press.

Since the 2010 Citizens United decision, which allowed unlimited dark money to flow to federal election campaigns, what constitutes “corruption” for legal purposes has been very sharply curtailed. The most disturbing recent decision, however, is Trump v. United States (2024), which has given the president a remarkable amount of immunity so long as his actions are in some way linked to official acts. It also limits what presidential actions can even be investigated. Combined with the ability to pardon those involved in federal cases, Trump and any future president have a great deal of legal leeway to bend the U.S. government to their will.

Trump’s pardon of cryptocurrency cult hero Ross Ulbricht—who ran a darknet drug market and had been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole—and the administration’s possible pressure on Romania to allow the departure of Andrew and Tristan Tate—under criminal investigation there for human trafficking and money laundering, among other charges—are ominous signs. When asked, Trump said he knew nothing about Romania’s decision to lift the travel ban. (The fact that Florida’s attorney general has opened an investigation into the recently repatriated brothers, who deny the charges, is more promising.) Trump’s executive orders targeting two law firms, one of which represents former special counsel Jack Smith, further serve to weaken the rule of law.

Despite promises to free up business, kleptocracies must intervene substantially in the economy. After all, one cannot ensure that economic benefits go to favored groups if the market is allowed to do its thing. In a well-governed country, for example, a procurement contract goes to the firm with the best bid and that has a track record of being able to do the work. But in a kleptocracy, most procurement contracts go to those in the right network or who paid the right bribes, not to the most qualified.

The best documented example of kleptocratic state capture of an economy is in South Africa, where a judicial commission found that former President Jacob Zuma and other state officials worked with the Gupta family to ensure that their companies received lucrative contracts with the government and state-owned companies while employing members and friends of Zuma’s family. The massively overpriced contracts sucked tens of billions of dollars out of the economy and left a large hole in the federal budget. Among the detritus of the corruption and rot left over since Zuma’s resignation in 2018 has been the mangling of the country’s electricity grid, which in turn has undermined broader economic growth.

The United States is nowhere near South Africa in this regard. And it has often fallen short of its ideals in the past without surrendering its status as a liberal democracy. Yet Americans can gauge whether they are descending into kleptocracy simply by observing whether their net worth and social network increasingly determine their rights and access to services.

Because the United States was already the most unequal country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, life for the wealthy in a kleptocracy would largely carry on as it has before—or may even improve. They can squat behind their private security and their walled communities. Their children can attend high-quality private schools and can play tennis and soccer at private sports clubs. Medical insurance and health care are already available mostly to those who can pay or who have an employer willing to do so. Some wealthy communities will be able to maintain high-quality policing, fire departments, and other social services. For those who cannot pay or who do not happen to live or work in or near these fortunate suburban ink spots, the crumbs available for public services will continue to diminish, as will public security.

An opposition united against oligarchs is a kleptocracy’s greatest threat, so they must maintain a divide-and-conquer strategy. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump increased his share of Black and Latino voters and barely budged with white voters, leaving some experts to describe polarization as decreasing. But many of Trump’s early decisions seem designed to reinflame polarization. For example, his sweeping pardon of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol hardly seems geared toward uniting the country. The ongoing purge of military leaders, with some dismissals apparently linked to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, is further divisive. Particularly notable was the firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., along with the chief of naval operations, vice chief of staff of the Air Force, and the top lawyers for the Army, Air Force, and Navy. Generals have been fired before, including by Presidents Harry Truman and Barack Obama, but in Brown’s case, there was no clear reason or obvious poor performance to point to. In fact, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously questioned if Brown, who is Black, had received his position because of his skin color.

Whether such actions, taken en masse, add up to full-fledged kleptocracy remains to be seen. But what is certain is that kleptocracy is a deliberate strategy rather than a fortuitous opportunity. There is no “accidental kleptocracy.” As a result, dekleptification studies show that the best time to dekleptify a society is whenever that society’s rules and institutions are in flux, which in the United States is now. Normally, a dekleptification window stays open for up to two years, but this American example is moving so fast that there may be only months rather than years to react.

Civil society action through the courts has been the most effective countermove so far. Organizations such as Democracy Forward, a consortium of good-governance civil society groups, have been filing lawsuits on behalf of veterans, teachers, and the rights of average citizens. Likewise, states—especially blue states—have been filing lawsuits, including one alleging that DOGE’s authority granted by Trump is unconstitutional.

People around the world have fought against kleptocratic networks, often successfully. That means there is a trove of dekleptification lessons learned for concerned Americans to adapt as part of developing their own strategies and tactics. USAID’s Dekleptification Guide is considered the best synthesis of how to dekleptify a country; it examined case studies of both successful and unsuccessful dekleptification from around the world to find the most useful strategies. While the document is no longer online, the anti-corruption community is working to make it available to the public again. It is hardly the only guide. Srdja Popovic helped found the group Otpor! in Serbia, which successfully and nonviolently helped bring down President Slobodan Milosevic’s kleptocracy. Since then, Popovic has worked through the Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies to publicize successful nonviolent strategies, too. These are only two of the many global sources available. After decades of Americans trying to tell other countries’ citizens how to fix their governments, it may be time to turn the tables.

As for grand corruption, Americans have their own history of fighting back, including during the Gilded Age. They can look for and then elect committed anti-corruption reformers like Theodore Roosevelt, reinvigorate the muckraking of Ida B. Wells and Ida Tarbell, and reengage in the tactics of sit-ins, protest marches, boycotts, and other acts of resistance. These, after all, have been the hallmark of civil rights movements throughout U.S. history.

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homeboundmonsters · 1 year ago

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More Jumbled Thoughts on the Psychology of Inspector Javert

Building on the mention of Prison Mother and Law Father:

Javert exits his mother's womb into another symbolic womb: the prison, a place where transformation happens, where men are turned into beasts. Like a womb the prison entraps, monitors, maintains and sustains the life of its prisoner, but also can kill him. Because of her ethnicity and estrangement from society, Javert divorces himself from his biological mother and, in this way, the prison system holds the symbolic role of the mother in Javert's life. Because Javert is born without a father there is a symbolic void, an absence which he fills with The Law. In the philosophy of Carl Jung the Father archetype represents authority and responsibility; he is the protector and provider. Javert requires this figure to form a family triad, every child requires stability and that stability is found in parental figures- whether biological or otherwise. It is in prison where Javert adopts his affinity with observing: observing is safe, observing is a guilt-free activity because it is amoral: the observer does not partake in, and thus approve of, or disapprove of the activity he observes. In addition, observation is a passive activity. Prison and the Law teach Javert to be passive, because to be passive is to be safe from unwelcome observation, it is to be small and unseen. We see this in how Javert behaves at the barricade, like Valjean he turns into himself returning to the state of dissociation that gave him comfort in childhood.

By the time Javert leaves the womb he is already a man and so he is trapped in a sort of psychological infancy. He cannot develop beyond the idea of black and white right or wrong. He cannot move, like a man does, away from the overbearing and domineering psychological influence of his parents. He seeks to please them and when he feels he has failed he suffers mental and emotional distress and anguish. He prefers straightforward tasks, requires reassurance and praise, and seeks out the attention and approval of his parents in all things. He has been taught to be obedient and passive from birth and has not had the experience of a life outside of ‘the family’ with which he might compare his way of living. As he divorced his biological mother, Javert divorces his symbolic mother by abandoning the prison system and moving to the Law pure to work as a police officer. This is because, as a man, he seeks to identify with the masculine identity in himself as if represented by his Father. But also because the approval of his father is the ultimate form of safety because in reality, Javert’s Father figure is the Dark Father: he is critical, often cruel, emotionally distant, he is the father who consumes their own child. For what does the Law give Javert? Not social status, not family, not community, not love, not an appeasement of hunger or the safety of a good solid income.

Like the son who never flies the nest, he forms few to no other social or sexual relationships. How can he when all of his psychological and emotional energy is going into fulfilling his parents' perceived needs? This is part of the danger of Jean Valjean. He disrupts, he invites in Javert sentiments and psychological excitements which draw him away from his primary focus of satisfying his parents. He entices with an alternate way of life in which a man might live by his own values, independent and seeking only his own approval. And he introduces physical desire into Javert's life also, forcing him through a sort of psychological puberty from sexless child to confused and frustrated yearning adult. What emotions he should have had years to understand he is forced to process in short and destabilising bursts. He does not even have the language to express to himself what he desires, beyond the framework of service and pleasing a superior figure or destroying and harming the cause of the destabilisation.

Jean Valjean also entices because he is The Father. This can be seen in the development of his relationships: as a young man he is the father figure to his nieces and nephews, then he is Father Madeleine to M-Sur-M, then he is Cosette’s adopted father. Valjean represents what Javert has searched for since childhood, a figure to fill the symbolic void of the absent father. Unlike his cruel, judgemental Dark Father in the figure of The Law, Valjean is accepting, merciful, gentle, patient and forgiving. He offers praise, community, tenderness, but without the lack of any traditional masculine traits; he is strong, powerfully built, handsome, respectable, wise, intelligent, masterful, dominant, and holds social influence. To put it in a vulgar terminology: Javert has Daddy Issues. Valjean is the symbolic Father he has yearned for to treat the wounds of his agonised childhood. Now, this is not to say he wishes Valjean to be his father, that would be a naive interpretation. It is to say that he requires a figure to take that role in his emotional and psychological hierarchy. But it is also why he has such an internal conflict: to abandon the Law Father is to turn his back on a lifetime of programming, but worse: to accept that he is lovable and deserving of respect, mercy and tenderness without having to deprive himself and exhaust himself mentally and emotionally to earn those things. And worst of all, to face the belief that he has already proven through his acts that he is not worthy of this freely given love and approval that his potential Good Father offers him. The Dark Father is ingrained in Javert’s very psychology, even outside of his presence (as outside as he can ever be) he is ruled by the critical and cruel judgements and strict rules that his Dark Father has set for him. In a moment of agonised realisation, Javert comes to understand that he is worthy of Love and that he has made himself unworthy of it all at once: the perspectives of two warring Father symbols whose conflict ultimately tears apart Javert’s fragile psyche.

#les mis #valvert #javert #lesmis #les miserable #theorising #analysis #valvert week #I like this old man

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portlandrowismyhome · 2 years ago

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Borrowed Time: Chapter One

A little fanfic I got suckered into writing by @the-biscuit-agreement ‘s incredible prompt. Huge thanks to @lemonsharks and @oceanspray5 ‘s additional ideas.

This is that Lockwood and co serial killer prompt…

Tag list (or interest list for those who showed interest in the prompt. If you aren’t interested in the fic no worries): (also my Lockwood friends in general): @neewtmas @givemea-dam-break @thedonutdeliverygirl @ikeasupremacy @wellgoslowly @edmundlockwood @narnianweirdos @tangledinlove @so-true-jestie @oblivious-idiot @paysomeonetopaysomeone @peachesanddandelions @myownpainintheass @sadwinistic @almostlikequake @saelterlude @fandomscraziness22 @everythingwillend @uku-lelevillain @atlabeth @carlyleons @smol-being-of-light @losticaruss @superpositvecloudshipper @totally-not-an-npc @paranorahjones @malteevars-kee-devi @teaandtoastandthyme @jesslockwood @krash-and-co @lucy-j-carlyle

Please note this is a sideblog and all replies will come from @waitingforthesunrise

This takes place four months after The Hollow Boy: Lucy is an independent agent who starts investigating the wrong case, and Lockwood has always been living on borrowed time…

Warnings: mild language, general pain, angst, suggested injury, death, car accident, hint at torture, threats, hurt/very little comfort (yet). I’m so sorry, guys…

“Miss Carlyle.” Inspector Barnes sighed, flipping over the newspapers strewn across his desk. “Trust me. This is a case to let go.”

“What cases do we let go, Inspector?” Lucy leaned forward. “We’re agents. Getting to the bottoms of things is what we do.”

“And DEPRAC’s job is to make sure that’s the only thing you go to the bottom of,” Barnes said. “Miss Caryle, you have almost no evidence. You have no team. You certainly have no proof. There’s nothing here, and frankly this will only cause you danger I’m unable to help you with.”

“I didn’t ask for your help,” Lucy snapped. “You called me here.”

Barnes rubbed a hand across his jaw. Lucy stared stubbornly at his desk. They were sitting in his office; well-lit, clean, and smelling strongly of chemical cleaner. Lucy clenched her jaw, determined not to lose the silent battle. She was so tired — Barnes had called her and left no choice but to return to his office immediately after work. And now she was sitting here in front of his desk, wasting time…she could be eating breakfast, or in a warm shower…the hot water cascading over her tired shoulders….

But the water was shut off due to a leak at her apartment, and there would be now arm breakfast or inviting smells awaiting her. Only crusty dishes and a sulking skull.

It had been four months since Lucy had left Portland Row.

Barnes cleared his throat. “Let me make sure I understand. You first took the case from a Miss Helen Younge, correct?”

Lucy nodded. Miss Younge had been young no longer when they had met; the whispery, frail old lady worked at the take-out shop where Lucy often bought doughnuts. Miss Younge often showed Lucy pictures of her cats, but that had been the extent of their interactions until the day the old woman had seized Lucy’s wrist over the cash register and whispered, you’re an agent, aren’t you? Oh, I’m in such trouble…

Barnes studied a notebook. “She offered to pay you?”

“Of course. I am an independent agent. But it was more…”

“A favor?”

Lucy nodded. “She’s an old woman working at a bakeshop, Inspector. She could never pay for a Fittes or Rotwell team.” She didn’t bother to hide the bitterness in her voice; who knew how many nights Miss Younge and others like her had spent, anxious and afraid of things they were unable to see, knowing an inspection alone would cost them precious food?

If Barnes noticed it, he didn’t let on. “Surely you didn’t inspect the property at night?” He squinted at the paper. “An apartment building, nonetheless.”

“Of course not. I did it in daylight. But…” Lucy hesitated. “I thought it would be just a weak Type One, an old person’s death or something, but…”

“Yes?”

“There was a strange whispering.”

“Miss Carlyle, you are a Listener, and sources do have a habit —“

“I found the Source, sir. It was just a simple Type One and gave almost no trouble. But I don’t think it’s the only ghost there. There’s something else, maybe more than just one.”

Lucy paused, remembering the sticky brush of a spiderweb against her face, the quick rush of cool air, the sudden suspension of time.

“It says here,” Barnes said, “you ‘found yourself stuck in a time-loop.’ You have no idea when it could be from, or what it’s stemming from. You’re convinced it’s connected to the Type One, but that it’s not the cause.”

“Exactly.” Lucy eagerly leaned forward. “The voice, it kept saying the same thing, over and over—”

“— help me, I’m dying, he took care of you, so now you’ll kill me too,” Barnes finished in a bored tone. “Very concise for a ghost.”

Lucy brushed off his skepticism. “Of course there was more, that’s just what was clear — Inspector, this ghost was murdered. Maybe Miss Younge’s Type One, too.”

“Wouldn’t it have been a bit stronger, then?”

“Not if it was a miserable, elderly person living alone in an apartment complex with a cat and a bottle of pain pills. Those are a dime a dozen, Inspector. The person might not even know they were murdered. Not until it was too late.”

Barnes groaned. “You have the Source, don’t you.”

“Not on me,” said Lucy. She did. It was in her knapsack, securely sealed in iro; a small, initialed pocketknife.

“Miss Carlyle—”

Lucy hurriedly shuffled through her knapsack, and held out a stack of papers. “Look, Inspector, I found these in the library — it’s a murder case, I’m sure, I think this might lead to the victim, an unnamed body — the Source gets clearer every time I listen to it—”

“Miss Carlyle!” Barnes brought his hand down on the table. “I don’t have time for this. DEPRAC can’t keep you off the case, but consider this a warning. Whatever happens after this is on you. And —“

The door banged open. Lucy looked up to see an ashen-faced assistant gabbling into a hand-held receiver.

“Sir!” The assistant said. “Sir, it’s urgent…there’s been an accident outside, a body…”

Barnes jumped to his feet and hurried out the door, and Lucy, after hesitating for a moment, followed.

Clouds were gathering in the sky overhead; the air smelled like rain. A cool breeze tugged at Lucy’s hair as she hurried down the steps after Inspector Barnes and towards the knot of people gathered near the road.

“They said it was a green van,” the assistant said. “Just barreled through and drove off…”

Voices rose excitedly from the gawking group. “Came right out of nowhere, he did…just slammed into the poor thing…never had a chance….”

“DEPRAC Inspector!” Barnes roared. “Stand back!”

The crowd drew apart, and Lucy had a clear view of the blood streaked face staring empty-eyed at the sky.

It was Miss Younge.

There was a blur of ambulances and shouting and the passerby offering eager comments. Lucy couldn’t look away from the sightless eyes and crumpled cardigan of the old woman. Her head pounded; it couldn’t be real, couldn’t be happening. Miss Younge had given her a sandwich only that morning! The blood spattered across the pavement…

Barnes tried to steer her towards the steps, but she caught his sleeve.

“Miss Carlyle —“

“Inspector.” Her voice was ragged even in her own ears. “Don’t you see? Don’t you understand? This is proof! She must have been coming here to tell me something, she must have found something out! She was murdered, I —“

“Lucy,” Barnes said gently. “There’s been an accident. I understand you’re distraught. Go home, get some sleep.”

“Don’t you get it? This isn’t an accident, this is murder!”

Barnes glanced at the crowd, the assistant waiting nervously, the flashing lights of the screeching ambulance. “This was an accident, Miss Caryle. You’re conjecturing —“

“No!” Lucy stumbled back. “No, it wasn’t.”

An official approached, holding a clipboard. “Inspector, if you’d step this way…”

Barnes looks down at the paper, and when he looked up, Lucy Caryle was gone.

He swore under his breath.

Lucy paused in front of Miss Younge’s apartment building, breathless. She had run all the way from DEPRAC headquarters, rapier digging mercilessly into her hip, stopping only at her apartment to retrieve the skull. Lucy would rather have died on a bed of hot coals than admit it out loud, but she felt safer with it at her side. She bent over, gasping.

The skull groaned from inside her knapsack. “You know, I said that all that greasy food would slow you down. But did you listen? No, of course not. Why listen to your friends? Oh wait…” It cackled. “You only have one!”

“Shut up,” Lucy said abruptly. She was digging in her pockets for the key Miss Younge had given her. The key she had been going to return today….

But there was no time for that. She needed to focus, keep her mind clear. Find any clues before DEPRAC took over. She bounded up the stairs, skull complaining loudly in her ear. Hurry, hurry, hurry…

The door was unlocked.

Lucy tapped it hesitantly and it creaked slowly open.

“Put me down!” The skull complained. “I can’t see a thing!”

Lucy slid the jar out of the bag and set it in the corner. The room was dark and musty; a few half-empty bookshelves, a stained quilt covered the sagging bed…and that strange muttering whisper in her ear sending shivers up her skin…

Something warm and furry brushed against her leg and she almost jumped out of her skin.

“Skull! You could have warned me.”

“Oh, because that’s my job now? You haven’t even apologized for this morning, and you expect me to hand out my exceptional services for free? Besides, it’s only a cat.”

The orange cat meowed hesitantly, and Lucy bent down to brush its back.

“God, no,” the skull said. “Lucy…I see what you’re thinking, Lucy, and the answer is no!”

“We have to take it.” Lucy straightened up and began to examine the dusty bookshelves. “Miss Younge won’t be coming back.”

“It’s a cat. Cats live like the little demons they are. ARGH! It’s coming closer, Lucy, make it stop, it’s so ugly…”

A sharp riiiing cut through the skull’s moans. Lucy jumped, glancing at the phone. Just a call. Probably some elderly friend, looking for a chat. And she’d have to tell them…

She picked up the receiver. “Hello, I—“

“Hello, Lucy Carlyle.” The voice was smooth; slippery, sharp, and entirely unfamiliar. “I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you. Might I add how beautiful you look this morning?”

Lucy froze. “Who is this?”

“A businessman. Looking for a deal.”

Lucy shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. “I’m sorry, but this isn’t my number.”

“Oh, no. It’s your location. But why leave a message when I can reach you like this? I knew you’d come for the cat, anyway.”

The sounds of the skull arguing faded away. “What did you say?”

“Look, darling. You’ve had a good run. A good case. Why, if you go home now, you’ll even find a little payment on the doorstep.”

“A payment for what?”

“Dropping the case, of course.” The voice was like silk. “And never speaking about it to DEPRAC again. We wouldn’t want to bother our silly little head about it, would we?”

“I’m not dropping the case!”

“Oh?”

Lucy scrambled for time, a cold weight in the pit of her stomach. “So you know something? Miss Younge was murdered?”

“Oh, Miss Younge.” The man made a disgusted noise. “She was small and unimportant.”

“The Type One, then?”

“No, my dear. This is about Lockwood.”

Four months. Four months. And her world still reeled at the sound of his name.

Lucy swallowed. “What does Lockwood have to do with this?”

“What doesn’t he have to do with this is a better question. Everything about you traces back to him eventually, doesn’t it? But it’s simple: you bury the case or I bury the boy. After I’ve had some fun, of course…And come on, Lucy. We both know catching him wouldn’t be the hard part.”

“I—”

“You need to drop this while I still have the restraint for it. Think how hard it will be for me to stop after I’ve heard him beg like you have. The boy’s practically screaming for someone to end his misery already, and trust me — when I’m done, he will be. And I’m sure you saw that last case put him in the hospital for three days…No, our Locky’s been looking for death a long time…”

Lucy’s ears were ringing, her nose full of the heavy must of dust and cat. “I—“

“Good day, darling,” the voice said, and hung up.

Lucy clenched the receiver, staring at the faded wallpaper. Her knees were shaking. God, he was right. That hospital visit. A broken leg. She had scanned the papers every day for news of Lockwood, hoping she wouldn’t find a death announcement, hating herself for it every time…

The skull was making horrific faces at the cat, which was inching closer. The skull yelped as Lucy swept it into the bag and bundled the cat in her arms.

“What kind of treatment is this, huh? And we’re going home, I hope…”

“We’re going to find Lockwood,” Lucy said briefly. “Before it’s too late.”

Lucy didn’t bother with the bell or the iron line. She threw herself at the door, hammering at the wood, a horrific panic clutching her heart. The voice had seemed so sure, so certain. She had imagined her re-entry to Portland Row many times; in one particularly gratifying scenario, Lockwood had been on his knees begging her, the hugely successful businesswomen, to save his beloved house. And now it was her begging for entry…she kicked the thoughts aside and hit the door with her foot.

The door swung open unexpectedly and she fell into the dark hallway. George was staring at her, eyes round from behind his glasses, a rapier in his hand.

“Lucy?” He said blankly.

“George,” Lucy gasped, the cat leaping from her arms. She brushed her hair back with a sweaty palm. “Is Lockwood here? Hurry, please, I need to see him!!”

Holly appeared over George’s shoulder, wrapped in an elegant coat. “Oh, it’s Lucy! And she’s brought us a cat!”

“Please!” Lucy pushed past them towards the library. “Where is he? Lockwood!”

“Oh, Lucy,” Holly whispered.

Lucy paused, the quiet house settling over her like a heavy weight. For the first time she noticed George and Holly’s coats and hats, rapiers strapped to their waists.

“We were just going to find you,” said Holly.

Lucy swallowed. “I..”

George heaved a sigh. “Lucy, Lockwood’s been missing for two days.”

The world was spinning again.

Lucy felt a hand on her elbow, and Holly guided her into a chair. “Hurry, George, put on some tea, she’s probably frozen…oh, I’m so sorry…”

George made a disgruntled noise. “She still hasn’t said what she’s doing here.”

“I got a phone call,” Lucy said numbly. “About Lockwood. There’s this case — it was a warning, and I …Oh, my word.”

Holly set down a mug. “We were just going to look for you. We thought, maybe…”

“He wasn’t with me,” Lucy said.

They all jumped at the shrill ring of the phone. The sound sliced through Lucy with a cold recognition. She rose.

“I’m alright, Holly, really. I — I need to answer that call.”

“You don’t even work here!” George said, following her into the hall. “It’s not your job!”

“You never answered them even when it was your job,” she shot back. “And this one will be for me.”

The receiver was cool in her hands. She stared at the dark bookshelves, breathing in the familiar smell of Portland Row. “Hello?”

Silence.

Hope filled her. Maybe it was just a wrong number — a grocery order —

“Hello, darling,” the voice said, a soft chuckle hiding in it’s voice. “What a pleasure to hear your voice again.”

“Wish I could say the same for you.”

“My, my. Sass this early in the day? Did your little pals miss you?”

She gripped the receiver. “Where is he?”

“Where is he? But you’ve guessed that, haven’t you, Lucy Caryle? Best Listener in London. Head like that on your shoulders. You know where he is.”

“I swear if you’ve hurt him,” she whispered. “It will be the last thing you ever do, do you hear me? I swear—“

“Oh, Lucy,” the voice crooned. “If I hurt him? You should be begging me for a little mercy.” He sighed. “What would you have guessed? DEPRAC arrived at the apartment only five minutes after you and started a Source sweep with a double team. Your Mister Barnes trusted you a little more than you thought. But that’s besides the point…”

“I don’t know you have him,” Lucy said. Geroge’s worried face loomed in her vision, Holly right behind him, hands clasped under her chin. “You could be lying.”

“I could.” The voice hummed lightly. “How would you like me to prove it to you? His voice saying your name? A handkerchief?”

Her stomach clenched. “A recording. A piece of fabric. Could have gotten them anywhere.”

“True,” it mused. “What about a finger? You’ve stared at his hands enough; you’d know them anywhere, wouldn’t you?”

“I—“

“Or his ring? The one you thought you might wear on your finger one day.” It chuckled. “Still time for that. At his funeral, maybe —“

“Where is he,” Lucy spat into the phone. “Where is he, you stupid bastard!?”

“Now, now,” the voice tsked. “I’m not cruel. Why don’t I just put him on the phone? Be a good girl and listen to his demands, now.”

Lucy’s stomach dropped at the familiar voice over the phone.

“Luce,” Lockwood said warmly. “It’s been a while!”

“My word, Lockwood,” she said faintly. It was him, really him; his voice and his nickname for her… “What are you doing?”

“A spot of business. Quite nice, really.”

She could hear the rough edges in his voice now, the little gasps on the end of his sentences, like the air was whistling through his lungs.

“Lockwood,I—”

“It’s so good to hear your voice again, Luce; you have no idea. Wish you could have popped round for some tea the other day, though. George made your favorite.”

“Lockwood!”

His voice was weary when he spoke again. “Yes, Luce?”

She turned away from the others. “What’s going on, Lockwood? They couldn’t find you — I was so worried — where are you? Where do I need to go? I’ll come and I’ll —“

“Not to worry,” Lockwood said cheerfully, but it sounded forced, as though he was saying it through clenched teeth. “I’ve got it all handled, Luce. Everything’s under control. You’re not running yourself to the ground over me, are you, Luce? Get some rest and take care, you hear me? And stay at Portland Row as long as you like. Oh, and tell Holly that I broke one of her pink teacups the other day. She can order a new set. My apologies.”

Lucy’s gaze rose to meet Holly’s horrified eyes. “Lockwood!” She spat, trying desperately to keep the panic from her voice. “Tell me where you are, I swear — dear God, Lockwood, this isn’t a joke—”

“Isn’t it? That reminds me: I heard a particularly good one the other day, I made a note to tell you…” Lockwood hissed sharply. “Ah. Oh, that’s better.” There was a sliding sound. “Just needed to sit down.”

“You’re hurt, aren’t you?” Lucy knew she was babbling. “Lockwood, please, please—”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s okay, Luce.” Lockwood’s voice was perfectly calm, with only a slight tremor to remind her they weren’t sitting across from each other at the breakfast table. “I promise.”

“No!” She gasped for breath. “No, you swore you would never lie to me again, Lockwood — you swore—”

“Lucy!” Lockwood chuckled, but inhaled sharply as though it pained him. “I’m taking care of a brief issue. It’s business as usual.”

“No, Lockwood, it’s not! Just tell me, please, please—”

“I’ve spent my life feeling like a weapon,” Lockwood said quietly, his voice echoing over the phone. “Always living on borrowed time. I never could tell if the weapon was pointed at myself or at others. But I’ll make damn sure it isn’t pointed at you.”

A ragged sob caught in Lucy’s throat. It wasn’t real. She’d wake up tomorrow, in her own bed, and Lockwood would still be an annoying prick who lived nearby, and she would have a chance to fix everything. It couldn’t end like this.

And here she was, already acting as though it was the end.

“No,” she whispered into the phone, her voice growing louder. “No! NO. DAMN YOU, LOCKWOOD, YOU ANNOYING BASTARD — JUST TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO DIE, I WON’T LET YOU, I—“

“Listen to me, Lucy,” Lockwood said, his voice suddenly urgent. She broke off, sobbing for breath. His voice was quick and direct, like they were on a case together. “Take the Source. Listen exactly to what it says, and then tell Barnes. Okay? And then take it to the furnaces and burn it. Understood? You’ll be alright. Everything’s under control.”

“No,I—”

“One last thing,” said Lockwood, his voice shaking just a little. “Luce, I needed to say…there’s not much time, but I lov—”

There was a sharp beep, and the line went dead.

~ To be continued ~

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partisan-by-default · 4 months ago

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An independent watchdog probe uncovered no evidence that federal agents were involved in inciting the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, according to a report released Thursday, undercutting years of baseless claims spread by far-right political figures who have alleged the FBI played a significant role in the attack.

The long-awaited report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no evidence that FBI undercover employees were present among the thousands of Trump supporters who stormed the building, or even among the crowds of Trump's supporters who attended protests around Washington, D.C. that day.

While the report confirmed there were 26 informants in Washington, D.C., who were dubbed within the FBI as "confidential human sources" or CHSs, Horowitz uncovered no evidence suggesting that any were instructed to join the assault on the Capitol or otherwise encourage illegal activity by members of the pro-Trump mob.

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theknightlywolfe · 8 days ago

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"The documents reveal a DOGE affiliate is attempting to transfer the headquarters of an independent think tank, the United States Institute of Peace, to the government at no cost.

On April 1, US district judge Beryl Howell effectively allowed the transfer of the United States Institute of Peace headquarters building to the DOGE-controlled General Services Administration.

The DOGE-affiliated acting president of the United States Institute of Peace, a Congressionally funded, independent think tank, has moved to transfer the agency’s $500 million headquarters building to the General Services Administration free of charge, according to court documents revealed in a recently filed lawsuit.

Tensions at USIP have been escalating for weeks, starting when the Trump administration fired the agency’s 10 voting board members on March 14 and USIP staffers denied DOGE representatives access at the front door. Three days later, DOGE employees made their way into the building, reportedly using a physical key from a former security contractor. The dramatic confrontations culminated in a full takeover, with former State Department official Kenneth Jackson assuming the role of president. As of this past Friday, most USIP staffers have received termination notices."

"As these legal and regulatory battles continue to play out, Hudicka says he anticipates a number of trickle-down effects to happen, such as local market wars over resources, which bigger cities and larger grocery chains will be better equipped for than mom-and-pops and rural communities. Hudicka says that allowing shipping containers to sit uninspected could also impact other sectors, as the delays will prevent them from being reused for other kinds of goods. “Those containers are supposed to be moving stuff every day, and now they’re just parked somewhere,” he says.

Kit Johnson, the director of trade compliance at the US customs broker John S. James, also predicts prices and waste to increase. But what raises the most alarms for him is the increased likelihood of invasive species slipping through inspection cracks. He says the price of missing a threatening pest is “wiping out an entire agricultural commodity,” an event that could have “not just economic but national security impacts.”

Decimating the Department of Agriculture could even have consequences for US Customs and Border Protection, which deploys the dogs trained by Copeland and other staffers at the National Dog Detection Training Center. CBP works closely with the USDA in other ways as well, particularly at points of entry. The two agencies run the Agricultural Quarantine Inspection program, but it’s funded by the USDA. Many Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service programs do not rely on taxpayer dollars to operate but instead collect fees from importers and other industry players. In this way, it subsidizes some of CBP’s agriculture-related activities. CBP did not respond to a request for comment."

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-cfpb-disregarded-court-orders-mass-firings-statement-says-2025-04-18/

"WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday halted the mass firings carried out on Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying she was deeply concerned the Trump administration had violated court orders setting conditions on dismissals.

On Thursday, the agency fired between 1,400 and 1,500 workers, eliminating as much as 90% of its workforce.

...

The witness said the DOGE member Gavin Kliger also demanded staff work a 36-hour shift without breaks and verbally abused staff. However, the Office of Personnel Management, the government human resources office where Kliger works, rejected the allegations as "an outright lie," asserting Kliger had not overseen the workforce reduction."

Are we "great" yet?

#us politics #doge

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feminist-space · 10 months ago

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"Just weeks before the implosion of AllHere, an education technology company that had been showered with cash from venture capitalists and featured in glowing profiles by the business press, America’s second-largest school district was warned about problems with AllHere’s product.

As the eight-year-old startup rolled out Los Angeles Unified School District’s flashy new AI-driven chatbot — an animated sun named “Ed” that AllHere was hired to build for $6 million — a former company executive was sending emails to the district and others that Ed’s workings violated bedrock student data privacy principles.

Those emails were sent shortly before The 74 first reported last week that AllHere, with $12 million in investor capital, was in serious straits. A June 14 statement on the company’s website revealed a majority of its employees had been furloughed due to its “current financial position.” Company founder and CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles district said, was no longer on the job.

Smith-Griffin and L.A. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho went on the road together this spring to unveil Ed at a series of high-profile ed tech conferences, with the schools chief dubbing it the nation’s first “personal assistant” for students and leaning hard into LAUSD’s place in the K-12 AI vanguard. He called Ed’s ability to know students “unprecedented in American public education” at the ASU+GSV conference in April.

Through an algorithm that analyzes troves of student information from multiple sources, the chatbot was designed to offer tailored responses to questions like “what grade does my child have in math?” The tool relies on vast amounts of students’ data, including their academic performance and special education accommodations, to function.

Meanwhile, Chris Whiteley, a former senior director of software engineering at AllHere who was laid off in April, had become a whistleblower. He told district officials, its independent inspector general’s office and state education officials that the tool processed student records in ways that likely ran afoul of L.A. Unified’s own data privacy rules and put sensitive information at risk of getting hacked. None of the agencies ever responded, Whiteley told The 74.

...

In order to provide individualized prompts on details like student attendance and demographics, the tool connects to several data sources, according to the contract, including Welligent, an online tool used to track students’ special education services. The document notes that Ed also interfaces with the Whole Child Integrated Data stored on Snowflake, a cloud storage company. Launched in 2019, the Whole Child platform serves as a central repository for LAUSD student data designed to streamline data analysis to help educators monitor students’ progress and personalize instruction.

Whiteley told officials the app included students’ personally identifiable information in all chatbot prompts, even in those where the data weren’t relevant. Prompts containing students’ personal information were also shared with other third-party companies unnecessarily, Whiteley alleges, and were processed on offshore servers. Seven out of eight Ed chatbot requests, he said, are sent to places like Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Australia and Canada.

Taken together, he argued the company’s practices ran afoul of data minimization principles, a standard cybersecurity practice that maintains that apps should collect and process the least amount of personal information necessary to accomplish a specific task. Playing fast and loose with the data, he said, unnecessarily exposed students’ information to potential cyberattacks and data breaches and, in cases where the data were processed overseas, could subject it to foreign governments’ data access and surveillance rules.

Chatbot source code that Whiteley shared with The 74 outlines how prompts are processed on foreign servers by a Microsoft AI service that integrates with ChatGPT. The LAUSD chatbot is directed to serve as a “friendly, concise customer support agent” that replies “using simple language a third grader could understand.” When querying the simple prompt “Hello,” the chatbot provided the student’s grades, progress toward graduation and other personal information.

AllHere’s critical flaw, Whiteley said, is that senior executives “didn’t understand how to protect data.”

...

Earlier in the month, a second threat actor known as Satanic Cloud claimed it had access to tens of thousands of L.A. students’ sensitive information and had posted it for sale on Breach Forums for $1,000. In 2022, the district was victim to a massive ransomware attack that exposed reams of sensitive data, including thousands of students’ psychological evaluations, to the dark web.

With AllHere’s fate uncertain, Whiteley blasted the company’s leadership and protocols.

“Personally identifiable information should be considered acid in a company and you should only touch it if you have to because acid is dangerous,” he told The 74. “The errors that were made were so egregious around PII, you should not be in education if you don’t think PII is acid.”

Read the full article here:

https://www.the74million.org/article/whistleblower-l-a-schools-chatbot-misused-student-data-as-tech-co-crumbled/

#data breach #lausd #la school system #tech bro ai being reckless with personal data as usual #anti ai

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natlacentral · 1 year ago

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ONE NAME IS ALL KIAWENTIIO NEEDS

The mononymic Mohawk actress stars in the highly anticipated new adaptation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” one of Netflix’s most expensive series ever. It’s a role she’s been preparing for almost her entire life.

At first, it’s a ripple. Hovering drops rising from a puddle soon cluster into a faster-moving, levitating stream that swirls into an orb of water floating over a young woman. The focused motion of her hands control this aquatic flow. In the lore of the beloved animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, the ability to manipulate the elements is known as “bending” and wielding this power is Katara, a fan-favorite of the franchise’s core characters. In this instance, she’s no longer animated, but rather living and breathing in Netflix’s recent adaptation of the cult show, as played by Kiawentiio, the 17-year-old actress and singer-songwriter from the Mohawk Nation at Akwesasne. For young Indigenous audiences, it’s a powerful moment seeing what was always an Indigenous-coded character, dynamic and independent, brought to life by an Indigenous actor. Her interpretation of the heroine is both true to its source material and grounded in an undeniable sense of Indigeneity, notable in the scenes of Katara’s survival of the violence inflicted upon her tribe and their later resistance to its recurrence. Free from the confines of Western film tropes or the expected relegation to secondary and background roles, Kiawentiio’s Katara is unprecedented. She’s both of this world and beyond. A sign of things to come.

There’s a balletic velocity to Kiawentiio when she arrives at her photo shoot, a certain sense of purpose and the pull of a trajectory toward something just off of the horizon. She’s traveling with her mother Barbara, who works in their community’s cultural restoration efforts, and her father Corey, a volunteer firefighter and building inspector for their tribe. They beam with pride as they watch her and recount the recent stops she’s had on the show’s busy press tour. In the dressing room, she smiles while reviewing pieces she requested from Indigenous designers Josh Tafoya and Karen Francis. It’s like witnessing someone coming into alignment, a new possibility realized. She says, “It feels like it’s not real, to be honest. Sometimes it feels like I’m living this fantasy life or living someone else’s life, especially with where I come from.”

The evening prior, Kiawentiio walked the red carpet for Avatar’s Los Angeles premiere in a stunning ensemble, also fashioned by Indigenous designers: an ice-blue duo chrome taffeta skirt by Evan Ducharme, accented by a hand-beaded corset from Tasha Marie, and jewelry by BYCHARI and Dean Davidson. The look, both in color and from the corset’s beaded wave design, is a subtle nod to Katara’s Southern Water Tribe in the show. Kiawentiio grew up watching the original series, which makes this all the more surreal. “For filming, we were in British Columbia for almost a year and stepping out of that was really kind of like a culture shock,” she explains.

It’s not lost on her that this is her moment, one that she’s balanced with both grace and aplomb, but also a time to reflect on all that’s led her to this point. From her beginnings as a guest star a mere five years ago on the Canadian series Anne With an E, to playing the title character in Tracey Deer’s debut feature Beans in 2020, and more recently appearing in Peacock’s Rutherford Falls and Marvel’s What If…?, Kiawentiio’s career has been nothing short of meteoric. In many ways it mirrors the creative boom of Indigenous-led and centered television in the last half-decade. That a young, Indigenous actor is now one of the leads in a $120 million Netflix production—one of its most expensive to date—that also happens to be an adaptation of what is considered to be one of the best animated series of all time, is as much of a cultural tipping point as it is an expectation rewriting itself. And Kiawentiio is at its precipice.

Over the phone, Kiawentiio discussed this moment and what it means to her.

How did you connect with the Indigenous designers you’ve chosen to work with recently?

One of the looks was Josh Tafoya, a fashion designer out of New Mexico. I actually got to meet him, I think it was two years ago now. He also works closely with 4Kinship, which is also a really cool Indigenous vintage brand. For the red carpet, I got to work with two Indigenous designers to custom-make this very beautiful gown. Tasha Marie Designs was the designer that beaded my corset and Evan Ducharme made my skirt, and they both just came together so beautifully. I love how it turned out, truly.

Does anyone in your family do beadwork? Is it something that you grew up around?

Yeah, my mom beads. She doesn’t sell any of her work, which she should. My sister also beads. I grew up beading here and there, but it was never something that I continued. I think out of all my creative outlets, it got the short end.

My mom does some beadwork too, so I know it’s super meticulous. How do you approach style outside of professional spaces, like the red carpet? What are you drawn to?

I feel like my style has been changing a little recently. I like really baggy pants. I haven’t really worn jeans in a while, but I wanted to up my whole closet recently. I’ve been wanting to get more color because I tend to lean on black a lot and earth tones in general. It also depends on what time of year, ’cause sometimes in the summer I like giving off that skateresque vibe.

I like a lot of men’s fashion too. I’ll have long shorts that are past my knees and huge T-shirts on and be like why do I look like a boy? Oh, I’m dressed like this. Doing a lot of this press and having this part of my life really lets me tap into my feminine side.

You grew up in Akwesasne?

Mm-hmm.

When you’re on set and you’re in front of the camera, how do you become this character that you grew up with?

It was honestly really crazy, like that first time we had that transition. Growing up, seeing this character all of the time and idolizing this character almost, and then to have that transformation and look in the mirror and see yourself as that person. It’s like whoa, whoa, whoa. But honestly, Katara and I have a lot of similarities in our personalities. And I feel like it’s kind of a double-edged sword in that it becomes easy to become them. But because there are some similarities, it’s hard to differentiate yourself from the character and keep those things separate.

Were you able to draw on or tie some of your own Mohawk roots? It was great talking to your parents too and hearing about the impact of their own work, your mom’s work in cultural restoration and your dad’s work with your tribe. I’m curious if any of that went into how you shaped this role, especially because Katara is a very Indigenous-coded character.

I think with my Mohawk roots and what my parents have done my whole life, I feel like it has shaped me as a person. With that, I can’t help but take that to every role that I play in the past and in the future, too. So, I feel like my Kanienʼkehá:ka roots will always be there with me in every character that I have the pleasure to portray. I haven’t said this before, but really, I truly do owe everything that I have to my mom and my dad.

What was some of your preparation for this role?

We binged the original show. I think I watched it twice and then went into specific scenes for Katara’s character and her mindset, and then also her bending. Every time we had a fight or we wanted to re-create something from the animated show, we were watching clips of Katara’s bending and that also was really helpful for me.

What’s it like being a young actor now in the age of TikTok and social media?

I think it’s a delicate balance. I feel like in this age, it’s really easy to get caught up in what people are saying, good or bad. Because it’s just so accessible. It’s really important to be able to protect yourself from that. With the show dropping, I will have to find ways to protect myself from the outside and what they are saying, even though I have this sense of wanting to look, wanting to know what the public thinks. That’s how I’ve been this whole time leading up to the show coming out. I want to be and I try to be an open-minded person. So, with what people are saying, I like to look at it just plainly, not trying to hurt my own feelings or anyone’s feelings. I like to have this information and [take] it as a learning type of thing.

With the show dropping and how massive the scale is, there is going to be so many opinions, so many thoughts. So, I feel like it’ll be OK if I just kind of let this one go for a while and revisit when I’m in a more stable place.

I think that’s healthy. On the flip side, for somebody coming up in your generation, specifically somebody Indigenous working in this industry, what’s it like to watch actors like Lily Gladstone or Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs lead the way?

It’s so beautiful. It’s beautiful to see all these amazing strong Indigenous actors. A lot of our stories have been trying to break through for a long time. To now be able to see it in multiple people that come to mind immediately with Reservation Dogs, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Echo, all of these things are so amazing to be able to see in the industry. It’s come so far even from when I was little.

I think one of the main reasons that I was drawn to Avatar: The Last Airbender growing up was being able to have a strong brown role model in Katara. She was one of not many. I think representation, even in that time, was so scarce and rare. So, to be able to carry the torch that’s been passed down for a long time now and be able to light multiple fires and lead the way for the generations coming is so important. I am truly blessed to be alongside all these incredible Indigenous actors leading the way.

Has there been a particular performance by another actor that’s had an effect on you like that? Somebody that you saw growing up, or are even watching right now that’s a model for your career?

The only person that I could think of is Zendaya. I grew up watching her on K.C. Undercover and Shake It Up, when she was just a kid star on Disney. Another thing that is so inspiring to me is her fashion sense. I love how she doesn’t always step out to all these different events. But when she does, everyone knows it and she’s making a statement. It’s just really inspiring to me, her fashion sense and her choices. Also, to have a single name that’s different from what you always hear is also something that we relate to and is inspiring to me.

What is it like having this be something of a new normal for a Native actor where you’re not necessarily just relegated to these roles in westerns? That’s something that people have been dreaming of. It seems like it’s a totally open future now too. What does that feel like?

It feels so surreal. Honestly, sometimes I get the sense of guilt. There are so many people that fight for the same spot. Sometimes, I have to remind myself how hard I’ve worked for things because it sometimes can feel like maybe someone else deserved this. You know that type of feeling?

But I’m lucky enough to have an amazing support group. To be able to be in this position that I’m in now is so incredible. Something that my dad always told me that we’re always where we’re supposed to be. I think that’s something if I had the chance to tell other Indigenous people, or just people in general, especially with actors and acting—you’re always where you’re supposed to be. If you didn’t get this job, it was for this reason. If you feel like you really wanted this thing but it didn’t end up happening, it was because this thing was waiting for you. And I feel like a lot of times, fate works in really funny ways. Of course, I was auditioning for so many things before Avatarhappened. I just can’t imagine if I had landed a different role and then wasn’t able to go out for this. So, it’s so funny how the universe works in crazy ways to make things align perfectly.

#natla #atla #netflix avatar #avatar the last airbender #netflix atla #avatar netflix #atla netflix #kiawentiio #interview #photoshoot #ssense

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experthiese · 9 months ago

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my first one is messy and honestly not the way I'd want it, so here's my shot at a public vs. private information post, version two.

"but pluto, where does my muse fall on this?"

I don't know! I don't write your muse! realistically speaking, even lupin's canon can't even seem to keep itself consistent with what's known and who by, so I'm not really all that fussed about how you choose to interpret this list. go with whatever feels right, and I'll play along accordingly.

so, let's get started!

PUBLIC.

He is the grandson of Arsène Lupin, phantom burglar of France.

He is the son of Lupin II, attempted founder of the Lupin Empire.

Like his predecessors, Lupin III is a master thief who targets valuable items from all across the world. He's a household name, and even has official merchandise (including the infamous plushie claw machines).

He's affiliated with what's informally known as the Lupin Gang: his 'inner circle' of friends. The current active members are Jigen Daisuke, Goemon Ishikawa XIII, and thieftress Fujiko Mine. She's more of an independent force, and is just as likely to betray Lupin and co. as she is to aid them. More members may be present, as dependent on verse and muse connections.

His eternal rival is Inspector Koichi Zenigata of the ICPO. Zenigata is the only person able to consistently get close to Lupin, and has managed to capture and detain him over one hundred times. The issue, of course, is that Lupin has been able to break out over a hundred times.

He's polyamorous and can often be found surrounded by short-term lovers whenever he's out spending his heist gains. He makes no attempt to hide this or deceive anyone: he's poly, not a cheater.

He's a polyglot, able to speak as fluently as a native regardless of where in the world he travels. Despite French and Japanese being his mother languages, he has no noticeable accent when speaking outside of them. Lupin also knows a select handful of dead and computer languages.

He's a master of disguise, able to forge documents as the need arrives and change his entire appearance at will. He can fake scars, injuries, identifying marks such as birthmarks or tattoos, and adopt the face, voice and mannerisms of anyone he pleases. His masks do have tells, however: such as not showing sweat after a period of exercise, while real skin would.

His chosen weapon is a Walther P-38, kept holstered against his chest.

There's a tongue-in-cheek saying that, for a Lupin, walls and gates and security systems simply do not exist. Many believe them able to get anywhere and everywhere, regardless of any preventative measures attempted. While this isn't entirely true, it is exceedingly difficult to keep Lupin out of somewhere, with even supposedly 'top security' buildings having been compromised more times than I care to count.

He was married to Rebecca Rossellini, Italian heiress, model, actress, and general celebrity.

He was the star of the Lupin Game online phenomenon, where he was tracked day and night by drone cameras, whose footage was live-streamed across the internet. People were encouraged to take photographs or video clips if they saw him.

SEMI-PUBLIC.

His calling cards lay out the rules of his heist. He will appear on the date and time listed, and he will leave empty-handed if he's unable to complete his theft before the end time listed on the card. The heist's no fun if there's no game involved.

Lupin doesn't kill unprovoked. That's one of the rules of his game. Taking another's life only becomes an option once they cross the line and endanger the lives of himself or his friends. Under all other circumstances, he'll always shoot to disarm first.

Not only does Lupin have copycat thieves aiming to impersonate his crimes, but this no-killing rule is one of the biggest copycat downfalls, often being the thing that gets them discovered. Thief he may be, but Lupin has a strict code of ethics that both he and Zenigata are very well acquainted with.

He has an IQ of 300, and can temporarily raise it to 301. He's incredibly intelligent, far more than he's often given credit for, but prefers to hide it behind a silly and easily underestimated persona.

His marriage to Rebecca wasn't his first, nor his last. However, the only real 'love match' was his attempt to settle down with Fujiko, while ultimately failed and lead to a separation. All other marriages are used as a means to an end, a way to get himself closer to whatever treasure he's aiming to steal.

He was the star of dark web phenomenon Happy Death Day, where people would bet on the date Lupin would die. This inevitably ended up attracting prominent assassins who would compete to kill Lupin on their predicted date, and after a particularly large confrontation, most of these competing players have been declared dead.

He's AMAB, just androgynous enough that many databases find it difficult to make a definitive decision one way or the other. As a result, this field is often left marked inconclusive.

He's bisexual, and appreciates pretty faces of all genders. His love for womanising and vocal adoration for his beloved Fujicakes just tend to overshadow the times he pursues everyone else.

SEMI-PRIVATE.

He stayed in France for the early years of his childhood and was raised within his grandfather's sprawling Paris estate. Arsène taught him the ways of Lupin family thievery from the moment he could stand, and he had already mastered several of its skills by the time he was able to write.

He attended the later years of elementary and early years of Junior high school in Tokyo, Japan. However, he left the system before graduating.

He targeted dark web drugs trafficking and money laundering giant Marco Polo in an online heist, draining their crypto wallet and making off with millions in BitMoney currency. He was also involved in the arrest of its three executives: Chuck Glay (Peekaboo), Kunal Robinson (Chap Tip) and Sonia Boutella (MooMoo).

He can pilot any vehicle, be it for land, sea or sky. It's safe to assume that he owns at least one mode of transport for each, and tends to favour cars, submarines and planes respectively.

He's been declared dead many times. One time 'Lupin' was even publicly hanged, though this was later revealed to be a clone. Lupin himself had no hand in the clone's creation.

He has chapodiphobia: a fear of octopi. This fear extends out to squid, cuttlefish and anything else under the cephalopod umbrella.

He's... somewhere under the nonbinary label. Most likely genderfluid, though he lacks the vocabulary to express this (nor does he have much desire to explore / pin himself down to any particular label).

His marriage with Fujiko ended poorly, and left a rift between them for some time. While she was the one to actually leave, a lot of their inner conflict was a result of Lupin and his discomfort at being truly transparent, even to her.

PRIVATE.

He has connections to the Grand Duchy of Cagliostro thanks to his efforts to save its ruler, Clarisse, from an unwanted marriage.

He's incapable of dreaming, lacking the subconscious needed to activate REM sleep. This void was once said to be the consciousness of an idiot or a god, though it's impossible to tell what one Lupin is.

The only marriage still standing is the one with Onabes, an art collector. He's the husband of Lupin's Miss Marie persona, making him Onabes' wife in the eyes of the law. Lupin has requested divorce several times, but Onabes is yet to sign the necessary papers.

He's got an occasional telepathic ability, though this link has only been shown between him and Fujiko, and it only seems to activate in times of life-or-death danger. Lupin's aware of this ability, and once called it the miracle of love.

He has safehouses in every conceivable corner of the globe. Some are luxurious mansions with grand estates attached. Others are rickety wooden shacks held together by hopes and dreams and prayers, with no running water and a single flickering lightbulb. All of them are owned under false names.

All gadgets are handmade, as are any smoke bombs or chemicals he uses. Lupin's a capable scientist when he wants to be, an often occupies himself by engineering new little toys to try out.

#▸ major headcanon #this will be updated as I think of more ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )

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