#Majority Leader

[ghlagatindotcom]

"They pleaded with us" Afenyo Markin suggesting that he lowered standards - Majority leader

The majority leader in parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has stated that the minority leader, Afenyo Markin, has compromised standards if he claims they were asked not to scrutinize the Greater Accra Regional Minister. It was noted that the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, revealed that government representatives personally requested the Minority to avoid…

[subsidystadium]

If Buffalo leaders want to party at a taxpayer-funded suite during Bills games, it must be kept secret from the public

In 2022, the State of New York and Eric County agreed to give the Buffalo Bills over $1 billion dollars of taxpayer money. Some have called this agreement “one of the worst stadium deals in recent memory”. It is not difficult to see why this deal is disastrous for taxpayers. The State of New York and Eric County are giving the “largest taxpayer handout for a new stadium in U.S. history” and that…

[visenyaism]

if lbj was like that, why’d he push so hard for those bills?

The thing about American presidents especially during that time is that many of them were personally extremely racist but politically progressive as in still passing and lobbying for civil rights legislation.

Truman was kind of a bigot and definitely said a lot of slurs and held a lot of evil beliefs in his heart for his entire life. But he was pretty appalled at the wave of lynchings against black veterans after World War II because he was a veteran, and long story short the NAACP convinced him to try doing anything but Congress wouldn’t bite so he did what he could and integrated the military and civil service.

Eisenhower didn’t believe in the civil rights movement and thought that black activists including MLK were asking for too much too fast and that racist white southerners were good people, but he hated when massive resistance defied federal law and was worried about the USSR using Jim Crow for anti-American propaganda so he sent the army to integrate schools at gunpoint and passed civil rights legislation that said you can’t do massive resistance anymore you must comply.

Johnson was complicated. Said and did many racist things. Started vietnam war. He taught at a segregated school in a really desperately poor part of Texas after growing up in poverty himself, and to an extent was genuinely motivated by the principle of it. However, as a senator, he blocked all this stuff. But when he was the vice president, it became clear that it was going to be really politically expedient for him to do this and he wanted to establish a legacy of building a great society. Also, he definitely knew that if he signed it, everyone who got reinfranchised would probably vote democratic forever.

What you believe on principle and what you decide to do with power when you have it are different things. Sometimes against all odds that means that deeply problematic people end up benefiting society. 

[strawberryicemoon]

I'm still thinking about Pokemon Horizons 89. I mean. Pokemon's anime just did something for the first time. Something it could never done before because it never could have been allowed to do that. Pokemon Horizons is allowed to be traumatizing.

Not that nothing traumatizing never happened to any Pokemon characters including ash before, or that death was a huge taboo bc the ghost type literally exists, but there is a BIG difference between an episode about grief due to losing a loved one to age or illness vs. a tragic accident in front of the protagonists eyes. Or vaguely alluded to neglect/trauma played for laughs. It's not about what happened so much as the impact of the event on the story going forward.

And before you say Ash has died, or that Lucario died, or Friede isn't dead, there's a big difference between the death of a character we just met, or that dies in backstory, or is brought to life right after (and also the movies just get a bit darker in general) than a character who has appeared in a majority of episodes so far and is close to the main cast. Pokemon just killed off a main supporting character. A member of the main cast. And not from something like old age, but a young healthy man. Now I don't think Friede is actually dead ofc. They would never.

But the characters do.

For a year. At least.

They're letting the characters marinate in that devastating loss.

And even if we the audience find out Friede is alive in a couple weeks, they still let his fate hang in the air for several weeks. And even if we the audience find out his fate, it will likely will still be some time yet before the characters do and their characters going forward are going to be informed by this trauma in a way that Ash never could be. Because Ash couldn't change. So anything bad that happened to him had to be something that couldn't directly, tangibly affect him going forward. Things that could be pushed into the background and ignored by the writers. The writers can't ignore Friede's death, he's too central to the plot, the kids growth up until this point and the seasons iconography. The plot is going to have to completely pivot around this event.

Like yes we are getting a Time Skip, and that is HUGE for Pokemon. But that Time Skip deeply tied to Friede's fate. The time skip is a whole year where the characters have been pulled away from the plot because of the loss of Friede, the 6 heroes, and the framing of the Rising Volt Tacklers as the villains by Spinel.

So it's kind of a big deal to me is that they just functionally killed 3 people (and a Charizard) in one episode. Two of these are definitely permanently dead. One of whom was a member of the main supporting cast. Again, its not that people (villains mostly) haven't occasionally died. The point isn't that they're dead per se, but that their absence has radically changed the direction of the story. They've traumatized those kids and there's no going back. "Roy forced to grow up", "Liko is depressed".

The kids post time skip will not be the same as before, and them witnessing their mentors supposed death is going to be the reason why. Like I don't think the show is suddenly going to be depressing either, that's where the year timeskip comes, in so the loss is less raw. But still.

Friede isn't quite a main character but still they "killed" A MAIN CHARACTER OFF.

The irony of people stopping paying attention to the anime because Ash left, but Ash's departure opening the doors for the Pokemon anime to go wild is not lost on me.

[venusiinfurss]

i truly think sunny is going to end with either macdennis kiss or macdennis full penetration (no in-between) and then dennis has an existential crisis walks outside gets hit by a car and dies. cut to black end of series

[ifellintothestyx]

The funny thing about JC defenders is that they always try to argue that JC refusing to cover the Wens and side with WWX was the correct political move. In the short term, perhaps, but in the long term, that was proven wrong in the books themselves.

(It's even funnier thinking that correct political moves exist in a bullshit political system that blatantly serves only the gentry, is held together by hearsay and rumors, and has no actual system of laws that can serve as a basis to accuse, judge, or punish someone.)

So how was JC's refusal to side with WWX and the Wens considered the "correct political move"? Reasons include that the Jiang sect was still recovering from the war, that going against the Jins would result in another war that would end in major losses on the Jiang sect's side, and that the Wens weren't and shouldn't have been a priority for JC at all.

Let's clear a few things up. The Jiang clan was not the only clan recovering, so were the Nies and the Lans. In the aftermath of the war, it's not explicitly stated how well the other sects were doing, so we couldn't really tell if the Jiangs were worse off than the other three. It could be noted, however, that the Jins retained much of their wealth and influence, so much so that Jin Guangyao was able to take the position of Chief Cultivator with little to no opposition. The main point, though, is that at that moment in the aftermath of the war, we could not easily assume the Jiangs were the worst off, as the other three sects also lost many disciples in the war, and we didn't really know how much the other sects recovered.

For the second reason, if a major war somehow did happen again, this time Jiangs vs everyone else, everyone else would lose. WWX's presence single-handedly helped them win the war against the Wens. A war between the Jiangs and the jianghu would be based on numbers, which reflects the war between the Wens and the jianghu. The Wens had more disciples, and no matter how many LWJs or NMJs you got up your sleeve, numbers make a big difference in war. That's why WWX's skills were a critical part in winning: he is a one-man army of thousands. He could easily make up for the gap in numbers. That's why the Jins kept trying to get rid of him—they were nervous about so much power belonging to only one faction: the Jiangs. JGS couldn't exactly claim his desired role as Chief Cultivator if a younger, smarter, and more powerful individual was still around to keep him in check.

Finally, we get to the part of why I'm making this long-ass post on a caffeine-driven rage. See, the point of trying to stop a powerful faction from committing atrocities is to stop them from thinking they can do it whenever they like. The Jins were given a pass to do whatever the hell they wanted to a small, outcasted faction (the Wens), and they proceeded to take that pass as a pass for everything else. Nobody stopped them from torturing the Wens, so what's stopping them from allowing a mass murderer like XY to run wild in an attempt to create their own WWX? Definitely not NMJ, hahaha, because, y'know, the hypocrites in the gentry have already decided that whatever the Jins do is alright so long as it's not their problem. An exterminated clan isn't their priority. So, what was stopping XY from going out and doing it again to SL's sect? Absolutely nothing! Because the Jins could cover it up and no one could say a word despite how suspicious it was, because hey, remember what happened to the last guy that spoke up against the Jins?

Calling out the Jins on their crimes against the Wens, who were elderly and children save for WQ and WN (who JC owed his damn life and core to), would have created a precedent of not allowing massive crimes to slide under the radar. But because the opposite happened, because nobody fucking realized that apathy and selfishness don't fucking help in the long run, two sects were exterminated because JGS and JGY were basically given an "okay, fine, just keep that bullshit away from us". That's not actual justice. That's not "morally grey". Allowing people in power to trample over others just because it doesn't affect you personally is not sustainable, because what happens when it's you they've decided to trample over? Are you going to complain? Are you going to look to others for help, when you personally couldn't be bothered to offer your hand to those who suffered? When the reason the people trampling over you gained that power is because you allowed it?

The unopposed killing of WWX and the Wens led to the political climate that allowed the massacres of two sects because the Jins were trying to protect and satisfy their pet project. It led to the murder of NMJ because JGS/JGY wanted to keep people from checking their power. If JC couldn't find it in his heart to be sympathetic to the Wens, fine, but at the very least, he should have considered the potential harm in rolling over and giving a political faction too much power.

[evilroachindustrial]

You know it's kinda funny that Ashton, victim of a dangerous cult, has directed that anger at the gods and not their dangerous cultist parents cause if they get their way and the gods do disappear, Ashton and the rest of the party are about to usher in a banger time for Exandria's dangerous religious cults.

[elumish]

One day I will write a post on how management and leadership are different things, and also how the characters you're writing are often both bad managers and bad leaders (aka why do you think this micromanager who yells at his employees and has no respect for their time is a good manaager or a good leader just because he remembers his employees' birthdays).

[lazyveran]

i think the thing that makes azula so impressive beyond just her raw skill and power at firebending is that the majority of the time she ensures she's never alone when fighting others. like sure, she'll duel when she needs to and whip ass at it, but more often than not she's strategically placed allies around her. mai and ty lee, the dai li, backup soliders and fire benders - she never refuses assistance on egotistical terms. and she really has every right to, i mean her fire is blue, that puts her in a league that no one else touches. yet that ego doesn't translate to her battle tactics

azula operates with personal arrogance, and tactical humility. i think thats one of the reasons she's such a terrifying opponent

[themalhambird]

Considering Celebrimbor is the ONLY one of the main elves we never saw Adar interact with, my brain is doing a really good job of locking onto the idea of a Celebrimbor x Adar Political Marriage AU.

No, I don't know exactly how that would come about - something something elves and uruks united against The Shadowy Threat of Sauron whatever. Celebrimbor looks *hard* at Gil-galad when he asks if he would agree to it and is just...."If I say yes do you promise to give me Many Forge Supplies for a wedding present?"

Adar, for his part, isn't exactly interested in having a husband so much as the PRINCIPLE of it being openly acknowledged he's good enough for an Elf-Lord. Anyway they get married, discover over the course of the wedding dinner that they actually find each other interesting company, and proceed to have a cordial acquaintence with Adar staying at Eregion far more than he anticipated, like he'll stomp up to the forge with a really big sack over his shoulder and all the elves are eyeing him warily and he just dumps it at Celebrimbor's feet like: "here's a load of old and broken armour for you to play with only some of it was stolen directly from corpses" and Celebrimbor's all "Lovely now come and look at this, I've was thinking about the whole sunshine problem your children have and what started out as a thought exercise accidently became detailed schematics for enormous mobile rooftops you can extend before making camp so that the shade covers you even in daylight. "

Anyway. It takes them far too long to realise that they're actually into each other. Adar's letting Celibrimbor braid his hair and Celibrimbor's letting Adar make him go to bed if he's been working for too many hours straight and they're still referring to eachother as "possibly something of a friend" Eregion elves and the Uruks who set up base in Eregion's vicinity whenever Adar goes to see Celebrimbor are actually starting to interact with each other by virtue of having "how are they this oblivious about it?????" as a conversation starter.

Eventually Adar has an "oh no he's hot" moment and promptly flees Eregion because he's convinced Celebrimbor would be repulsed If he actually tried anything romantic and /or sexual. Celebrimbor is puzzled and hurt, but a stranger comes to Eregion and affords a little distraction.

This Annatar fellow is so very interested in the mithrael rings Celebrimbor made to reflect the light of the Valar, though Celebrimbor's not sure he follows his reasoning for sets to be made for either dwarves or men. Still, pleasent company. Until he starts suggesting that Gil-Galad debased Celebrimbor and his authority by forcing him into marriage with an orc, at which point Celebrimbor punches him in the face without thinking...

Merdarnia and the other smiths are very exasperated that "I think I'm in love with Adar" is somehow a bigger revelation to the Lord of Eregion than "I punched Annatar in the face and he turned out to be Sauron, he has now taken over the city and is holding us hostage."

[ghlagatindotcom]

We protected public funds worth millions of cedis - Ato Forson remembers his time as the minority leader

Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has expressed pride in the strength and passion of the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Members of Parliament during the Akufo-Addo tenure as president. The NDC was the minority group in parliament from 2016-2024 with Dr. Ato Forson being the minority leader at the time. With his elevation to Finance Minister after the NDC won the December 7, 2024…

[seecarrun]

“Okay everyone, take your seat, we’re going to go ahead and get started.”

Misty sighed and politely wrapped up her conversation with Janine, grabbing a pastry from the snack table and taking her seat with a yawn.

The Gym Leader Conference was held at Indigo Plateau three times a year, and the mid-year meeting was always the most boring. Everyone gave their little updates and reports, gossip was either dispelled or confirmed, and Misty always left feeling just a bit more dead inside than she arrived.

Lance stood at the front of the room behind a podium, waiting patiently for all the gym leaders to settle down, an unfamiliar young man at his side. The newcomer looked intense, dark eyes under shoulder-length purple hair glaring out at the rest of them, his entire vibe giving a mixture of indifference and self-importance.

“Who’s the new guy?” Misty asked Forrest, sliding in next to him at their usual table.

Forrest shrugged. “I’m not sure, maybe the new Viridian Gym Leader? I heard from Erika that they finally found someone.”

Lance cleared his throat and a hush fell across the room and conversations faded so he could speak. “Good morning, Kanto Gym Leaders,” he welcomed them. “We have a lot to cover today, so let’s jump right in. First and foremost, it is my pleasure to introduce our new Viridian Gym Leader, Paul. Paul comes to us from Veilstone City in the Sinnoh region. He has completed in numerous regional leagues and competitions, and is quite highly regarded for his no-nonsense battling style. I hope you’ll all joining me in giving him a warm welcome.”

They all clapped politely as Paul took to the podium, his expression remaining carefully neutral. “Thank you,” he began. “I look forward to working with you all and running the prestigious Viridian Gym to the best of my ability.” He bowed, and immediately stepped down off the stage to sit at an empty table at the front of the room.

“At least we know he’s not just a personality hire,” Misty said dryly, causing Forrest to snort out a laugh.

The rest of the morning passed by uneventfully. Misty’s gym update went fine; no news was usually good news when gyms were concerned, and it was easy to feign interest in the other presentations when she had something much more interesting to focus her attention on in her RotomPhone.

Ash: Hope the conference is going well! Look at this little guy I found the other day! I thought you would like it!!

Misty smiled fondly at the text from Ash and the accompanied picture of him beaming and holding up a little blue shellos.

(She was a bit horrified to realized she actually thought Ash was cuter than the shellos. Ridiculous.)

She was back at her table, picking at her catered lunch and catching up with Ash’s texts. He was somewhere in Sinnoh, apparently. When she asked where specifically, he sent her another picture of himself and Pikachu surrounded on all sides by trees, shrugging goofily along with his “lol idk”.

He was adorable, and she wanted more than anything to be our lost in the woods with him instead of in that stuffy conference room, eating a mediocre sandwich.

“You know Ash?”

She yelped, nearly falling out of her chair to spin and face the source of the unexpected question, finding herself looking up at Paul and his intense glower. “What?” she gasped.

He pointed at her phone with the hand not holding his own sandwich. His expression never changed. “Ash. You know him?”

“Oh, yeah,” she answered, still recovering from her surprise. “We’re good friends. We traveled together for a few years, through Kanto, Johto, and the Orange Islands.”

He seemed to take a moment to process that, then, after a long moment, nodded toward the phone again. “You have a thing for him or something?”

“What?!” Misty shrieked, blushing, more than a few heads turning their way curiously. “No!” she hissed, a bit quieter. “Why would you think that?!”

Paul shrugged. “I don’t know. You were just sitting there staring at his picture, so I assumed.”

Misty felt her face get impossibly redder. “I—I was looking at the shellos!” she stammered.

Paul stared at her for a long moment, then stuck his hand casually into his pocket. “Whatever,” he said, like he hadn’t just blurted out Misty’s deepest secret to all of her colleagues. “Anyway, I guess I’ll see you around,” he said, walking back to his own seat.

Forrest chuckled the moment he was out of earshot. “Oh man, he clocked you immediately.”

“Shut up, Forrest,” she snapped, grabbing her phone and immediately opening up her conversation with Ash, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she willed her face to cool back down.

~*~

Ash felt his phone vibrate from inside his pocket and grinned. “I wonder what Misty thought of that shellos,” he said to Pikachu with a grin.

Misty: OMG In don’t know who this Paul friend of yours is Ash, but tell Sinnoh to TAKE HIM BACK.

“I guess Misty met Paul today,” he mused with a chuckle.

“Pika…” Pikachu said with a cringe.

“Right?” Ash snorted. “Good luck to both of them.”

[zoya-nazyalenskys]

my biggest critique of veilguard is why is rook the hero of the story? like literally why are all these people even listening to rook who is literally nothing but some rando? how can the organisations of minrathous/treviso (especially minrathous that has that giant magic palace in the sky) not fight off a single dragon but rook, one singular person with absolutely zero special abilities, can?

[screampied]

OMGGGG GETO FUCKING US IN FRONT OF HIS CULT!!!!!

sorry i got excited. umm but get this: geto having a meeting with his higher-up members and we’re sitting on his lap. his dick’s inside of us and we’re essentially cockwarming him, but he’s got one hand on our waist to prevent us from moving

omg i might have to write this soon i’m gettin intrigued 🌚 UR SO RIGHTTTT. cult leader geto def cockwarms us during his meetings. purposely bounces his thigh ohhhh he’s sick

[wololo-01]

We are all so strong/hj 🫡

And Yeah them are all my favorite characters even though I never draw or talk about them, BUT STILL 😭

Original:

[whumpbby]

TBH I do think some Jiang disciples did survive the Lotus Pier massacre, if only because they had been elsewhere when it happened/too old or too young to fight so they ran (<-which could be a fun thing to grapple with for both the potential run-aways and newly recruiting Jiang Cheng, who was sent away), but it still wasn't enough people to be called Great Sect. So I think as you say they recruited anyone they could, including some rouge cultivators and some from smaller sects that were destroyed or taken over by the Wen Sect. I don't think they tried to recruit - while the Sunshot campaign was going - a lot of people without active golden core, because they would simply have little time to train them between the battles. Some probably did manage to join the Sect like that, and these would probably grow quite close to people who taught them between the fights.

Also Jiang Cheng having to be at least one of these teachers, because they are short on the disciples but shorter in those trained in Jiang style even more so. And how after the war he must've been doing that still, on top of having the sect to run as both Leader and Head Discipline (because Wei Wuxian was going through things he chose to neither explain or acknowledge) (1/2)

(2/2) Also Jiang Cheng, who almost had to watch his brother get caught by the Wen soldiers when he went off alone in the streets, WOULD try and make his disciples work in big enough groups to protect themselves. Also also Jiang Cheng that seems to go off alone rather often.

Oh, and Jiang Cheng throwing his weight around when his disciples get into some sort of disagreement/scuffle every time, and being harsh on the other party (totally not because of finally being able to shield someone he cares for) and never satisfying the questions about the punishment (totally not because of his mother and Zidian and Wei Wuxian). Even when Jiang disciples were in the wrong. Not meaning there was no disciplinary action, just that it never went outside the sect.

Also taking in some non-cultivators that are good at other things (like Jiang Yanli!) or people who lost their golden cores but can still fight and teach (because he remembers not having a golden core and how that felt like; and maybe he realises somewhere along the way that he might've been able to live without one too; which would certainly add even more flavour to learning whose golden core really was inside him all along).

The latter headcanon is also so amazing because resurrected Wei Wuxian would have to confront how he dealt with the loss of his core and finally stop saying he is fine and reflect on his feelings about all this, including Jiang Cheng

____________________________________________________

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me :D I am so absolutely taken over by this subject!

This is why I'm writing these things, I love to discuss them with other peeps:)

Your message pushed me onto another path of wild speculation via the mention of the other smaller sects that JC would approach to recruit - and that pushed me into the economics of Jinaghu and their influence on the post-war lay of the landXD

Which I am putting under the cut, because it's a lot of rambling to get to a point, but that's how it is in these parts;]

Also, the map I will be using, because it's as good as any other:

From the beginning - smaller sects yes, there was probably not a shortage of them that were destroyed by the Wen passing through and by the blowback of the war happening at all. I imagine that anyone from lone survivors to whole families was displaced…

But I am unsure if inviting them in would be a good idea in JC's position, because, going back to the main point - the Jiang were decimated. I can only go by what the story tells us when it doesn't mention any extra survivors - the Wen banning other sects from night-hunts was a nifty set-up for everyone being stuck at home after all - even if, logically, some of the disciples could be in other locations… however, even if they were, these wouldn't be the meat of Yunmeng Jiang. Because…

…random tangent no 1, because this is a low-fantasy setting (thinking of Game of Thrones I am), I am structuring the Sects as Just Gentry. Maybe not kingdoms outright - because there doesn't seem to be enough land between them to cover for their economic statuses - but city-states ruled by aristocratic bloodlines with the actual political power in their hands. Thus, even if the book doesn't really go into it, I'd wager that the region of Yunmeng was run by the extended Jiang family that was living in the capital of Lotus Pier. That's where the disciples were trained - but that was most likely also where the taxes were being collected, where the trade arrangements happened, where the law was being written, higher education took place, it had the best restaurants, etc.

When the Wen destroyed Lotus Pier, they did away with the whole socio-economic and political setup of the region, which is a smart move for someone who wants to set up their own shop.

…And that circles me back to JC and recruiting - he wasn't just gathering disciples to fight, he was rebuilding a whole intricate system of governance from scratch. A system that used to be run by the extended family that he could trust - now was something he was staffing with strangers.

And, from the example of Su Minshan, we know how jumping sects was considered to be in bad taste - it stands to reason that whatever decimated sect showed up on JC's doorstep, they wouldn't want to give up their own name. Just like JC wasn't going to give up his name. These people would be looking for an alliance and revenge, and, most likely, economic help in their own rebuilding, but most of them weren't looking to join the Jiang. And if they were - what was the guarantee that they'd stay? Or that they wouldn't use JC to meet their own ends and leave him worse for it? Or simply take over due to sheer numbers? A valid fear for a clan of 1 that had to seem ripe for picking.

I think JC would be very careful about accepting disciples from existing sects as his own, and instead build alliances with them. A rogue cultivator or a promising youth looking for a place to settle were a safer bet to build the core of his new sect with. Not to say that some of these alliances wouldn't result in the smaller sects merging into the Jiang later on by osmosis, but not at the outset…

Which leads me to believe that JC would want to start taking in and training coreless youths as soon as humanly possible - just to have someone at his back who was OF Yunmeng Jiang and not just allied with them. Maybe not during the beginning of the war, but by the time Lotus Pier was reclaimed things were probably going this way. If you think about it, Jiang Cheng was a fucking powerhouse of a leader. I have no idea when he slept. Probably not at all.

Probably why he was so cranky XD

That's why I am of firm opinion that the alliance by marriage with the Jin sect was a double-edged sword JC wasn't in a position to refuse, but also wasn't in a position to wholeheartedly accept. (And everyone who thinks that JC 'sold' Yanli to JGS for all these doubloons is just plain old wrong). Because now they're family. Only family he has. And that family can slowly find their way into the important positions of his own 'kingdom', because that's how gentry/aristocracy tends to work in a setting putting that much value on bloodlines, and he doesn't have his own family to plug these positions with ahead of time.

And even if JGS wasn't super eager to marry his son to JYL and the marriage was mostly pushed by Madame Jin and Jin Zixuan - it was in JGS's best interests for Yunmeng Jiang to remain weakened and/or under his control. Because….

…tangent nr 2- economics! :D

The plot doesn't go into it, but I like to know, so I was thinking of the actual economics of the magical land of magical peopleXD I don't need them to be detailed, but just realistic enough to make some sense, and serve as a believable background. I'm not going to question the existence of potatoes or other anachronisms, but one thing I needed to answer for myself was - where is all the money coming from???

Like, for real, where is the cash coming from for all the silks, fancy furniture, houses, swords and so on. How are the gentry sects making money?

Again, the genre, like many others, waves away monetary concerns in general - aristocrats are just wealthy, commoners are poor, and Bilbo Baggins is a landlord. OK.

So, taxes. What makes sect a Great one? Land, mostly, it would seem. The amount of land they own. Which means taxes - if we consider the Gentry sects local aristocracy. That tracks, because ain't no way they'd earn that much dosh via night-hunts from a population that isn't really that large. If you look at the approximate map of the whole realm and consider how fast people are moving from one region to another (even including flying swords and donkey-travel) that ain't a lot of land/people to feed all these sects fleeting about between the 5 Majors.

So, my idea is that the small sects do support themselves mostly via night-hunting and general spiritual upkeep of their locals, but the Greats are just aristocracy and live off of taxes and trade.

And that makes me wonder how Yunmeng Jiang managed to recover their wealth in such a record time, and why was the Jin so wealthy for apparently doing so little.

I propose that Lanling Jin grew out of a port-city and made its money on sea-trade. Sea trade was always The Shit if you wanted to, dunno, gild your palace in gold or something.

Yunmeng - with its access to lakes and rivers - was another trade hub of the realm with the additional bonus of lotus, fish and all other crops a well-watered land can give you.

Qishan - being the most West-ward placed of the Great sects we know of, had to have access to - or even monopoly over - the intercontinental trade routes, or a lot of raw materials available. But at the same time, being a mountainous region, it wasn't rich in water and water-intensive crops. I think that once the material appetite of the Wen upper echelon grew, the more they needed to look towards consuming other regions to sustain it.

Annexing Yunmeng was a good strategy from that point of view - it fixed the water issue and also opened new trade routes towards the South and East via the rivers.

But then the Wen were defeated - and all that West-ward trade potential suddenly was left unattended, and JGS would be a fool to let it slip through his fingers. And the only 'large' clan placed close enough to was Yunmeng.

Stands to reason that, somehow, JC managed to wrestle some of that for his own people to refill the coffers. Gusu was too far and not a trade hub by any means, and Nie Mingjue/Huaisang seemed uninterested in reaching out for it, so the only serious competition on that front were the Jin… Which, again, JC somehow managed to outsmart there, because I do not believe for even a moment that a fierce economic battle wasn't fought as soon as the military operations ended.