#Sparrows new no violence policy

[weird-unlimited-ramblings]

It’s my full belief that the season 1 moms should be considered more in who gets to kill Willy. Like, the man kidnapped their spouses and children. Put them through irreparable damages and the moms couldn’t even do anything until their kids came back, and told them that the last time they saw their dads. They were fighting a dragon, and losing. And it’s implied that it was months before they could even get back to the forgotten realms. I have no doubt that the moms were not expecting to see their husbands alive.

I think they just deserve to get a hit or twenty in. They can just tie him up and everyone gets a wack.

[trans-axolotl2]

I've been reading Cripping Intersex by Celeste Orr and one concept that I think is absolutely crucial and one of the best resources I've found for understanding my own experiences as an intersex person is the term Compulsory Dyadism.

Dr. Orr coins the term: "I propose the expression 'compulsory dyadism' to describe the instituted cultural mandate that people cannot violate the sex dyad, have intersex traits, or 'house the spectre of intersex' (Sparrow 2013, 29). Said spectre must be, according to the mandate, exorcised. However, trying to definitively cast out the spectre via curative violence always fails. The spectre always returns: a new intersex baby is born; one learns that they have intersex traits in adulthood; and/or medical procedures cannot cast out the spectre fully, as evidenced by life-long medical interventions, routines, or patienthood status. And the effects of compulsory dyadism haunt in the form of disabilities, scars, memories, trauma, and medical regimens (e.g., HRT routines). Compulsory dyadism, therefore, is not simply an event or a set of instituted policies but is an ongoing exorcising process and structure of pathologization, curative violence, erasure, trauma, and oppression." (Orr 19-20).

They continue on in their book to explore compulsory dyadism as it shows up in medical interventions, racializing intersex + sports sex testing, and eugenic and prenatal interventions on intersex fetuses. This term makes so much sense to me and puts words to an experience I've been struggling to comprehend--how can it be that so many endosex* people express such revulsion and fear of intersex bodies and traits, yet at the same time don't even know that intersex people exist? Why is it that people understand when I refer to my body in the terms used by freak shows, call myself a hermaphrodite, remember bearded ladies and laugh at interphobic jokes--yet do not even know that intersex people are as common as redheads? Understanding the term compulsory dyadism elucidates this for me. Endosex people might not comprehend what intersex actually is or know anything about our advocacy, but they do grow up in a cultural environment that indoctrinates them into false ideas about the sex binary and cultivates a fear of anything that lies outside of it.

From birth, compulsory dyadism affects every one of us, whether you're intersex or not. Intersex people carry the heaviest burden and often the most visible wounds that compulsory dyadism inflicts, as shown through often the very literal scars of violent, "curative" surgery, but the whole process of sex assignment at birth is a manifestation of compulsory dyadism. Ideas entrenched in the medical system that assign gender to the hormones testosterone and estrogen although neither of those hormones have anything to do with gender, a society that starts selling hair removal products to girls at puberty, and the historical legacy of things like sexual inversion theory are all manifestations of compulsory dyadism. For intersex people, facing compulsory dyadism often means that we are subjected to curative violence, institutionalized medical malpractice that sometimes includes aspects of ritualized sexual abuse, and means that we are left "haunted by, for instance, traumatic memories, acquires body-mind disabilities, an ability that was taken, or a 'paradoxical nostalgia....for all the futures that were lost' (Fisher 2013,45)." (Orr 26).

Compulsory dyadism works in tandem with concepts like compulsory able-bodiedness and compulsory heterosexuality to create mindsets and systems that tie together ideas to suggest that the only "normal" body is a cisgender one that meets capitalist standards of function, is capable of heterosexual sex and reproduction, and has chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, reproductive system, and sex traits that all line up. Part of compulsory dyadism is convincing the public that this is the only way for a body to function, erasing intersex people both by excluding us from public perception and by actively utilizing curative violence as a way to actively erasure intersex traits from our body. Compulsory dyadism works by getting both the endosex and intersex public to buy into the idea that intersex doesn't exist, and if it does exist then it needs to be treated as a freakshow, either exploiting us to put us on display as an aberration or by delegating us to the medical freakshow of experimentation and violence.

Until we all start to fully understand the many, many ways that compulsory dyadism is showing up in our lives, I don't think we're going to be able to achieve true intersex liberation. And in fact, I think many causes are tied into intersex liberation and affected by compulsory dyadism in ways that endosex people don't understand. Take the intense revulsion that some trans people express about the thought of medical transition, for example. Although transitioning does not make people intersex and never will, and the only way to be intersex is to have an intersex variation, I think that compulsory dyadism affects a lot more of that rhetoric than is expressed. The disgust I see some people talking about when they think about medical transition causing them to live in a body that has XX chromosomes, a vagina, but also more hair, a larger clitoris--I think a lot of this rhetoric is born in compulsory dyadism that teaches us to view anything that steps outside the sex dyad with intense fear and violence. I'm thinking about transphobic legislation blocking medical transition and how there's intersex exceptions in almost every one of those bills, and how having an understanding of compulsory dyadism would actually help us understand the ways in which our struggles overlap and choose to build meaningful solidarity, instead of just sitting together by default.

I have so much more to say about this topic, and will probably continue to write about it for a while, but I want to end by just saying: I think this is going to be one of the most important concepts for intersex advocacy going into the next decade. With all due respect and much love to intersex activists both current and present,I think that it's time for a new strategy, not one where we medicalize ourselves and distance ourselves from queer liberation, not one where we sort of just end up as an add on to LGBTQ community by default, not even one where we use a human rights framework, nonprofits, and try to negotiate with the government. I agree with so much of what Dr. Orr says in Cripping Intersex and I think the intersex and/as/is/with disability framework, along with these foundational ideas for understanding our own oppression with the language of compulsory dyadism and curative violence, are providing us with the tools to start laying a foundation for a truly liberatory mode of intersex community building and liberation.

*Endosex means not intersex

Endosex people, please feel free to reblog!

[tzifron]

The creation and rise of ecofascism actually began in the early 1900s, peaked in the 1970s during the birth of the modern environmental movement, and is now rising again with the current administration’s stance on immigration, environmental policy, and the ever-present effects of climate change. The founder of California’s first redwood and wild buffalo conservation organizations was also the founder of ecofascism (Darby, 2019). He was the president of the Bronx Zoo and responsible for kidnapping a Mbuti man and putting him on display in the zoo with apes. This white man, Madison Grant, believed the Nordic race was in decline and that his generation had the authority to decide which lives should be preserved and others discarded. In 1906 he authored The Passing of the Great Race, or The Racial Basis of European History , which would later become Hitler’s personal bible. He advocated for the incredibly racist Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Restriction Act of 1924 (Sparrow, 2019). Madison Grant introduced eugenics as central to the environmental movement, and the rise of ecofascism continued to grow. He is still so influential today that Anders Breivik, the Norwegian extremist who massacred 69 youth at a Labor Party Camp, made a tribute to Grant’s racial theory in his manifesto (Purdy, 2015).

In 1968, Paul Eirich, an entomologist at Stanford, published Population Bomb, in which he argued that ecological destruction and the majority of social problems on earth could be attributed to overpopulation and sterilization as the solution (Mann, 2018). Eirich’s publication and the growing environmental movement of the 1970s led to the first Earth Day in which 20 million people attended (Sparrow, 2019). Today, his theory has lost some of its stranglehold mainly due to slowed population growth, but his influence is still felt.

Modern ecofascists today draw on Eirich’s theory of overpopulation and believe that it puts a strain on natural resources and that, post-climate change, masses of people will be a threat to social stability (Darby, 2019). The only way to prevent this from happening in the future is to dramatically reduce the human population. As Pentti Linkola, a radical ecologist and ecofascist puts it: “When the lifeboat is full, those who hate life will try to load it with more people and sink the lot. Those who love and respect life will take the ship’s axe and sever the extra hands that cling to the sides of the boat” (Linkola, 1989). Today, this looks like white nationalism and xenophobia. Climate change is already one of the biggest drivers of immigration. Some climate change researchers argue that climate change has had a part in wars like the civil war in Syria, leading to mass migrations of people (Darby, 2019). Like many white nationalists, ecofascists believe that allowing immigrants into the United States is suicide. A popular meme among the far right is “save trees, not refugees” (Stern, 2019). Ecofascist beliefs like these are a major part of why Patrick Crusius murdered 22 people and injured more than a dozen in El Paso, Texas, in August 2019. Before the massacre, Crusius posted to Facebook the attack was “in response to a Hispanic invasion of Texas.” An entire page of Crusius’ manifesto is dedicated to theories originally founded by Eirich, discussing demographic shift and overpopulation. In his manifesto, “An Inconvenient Truth,” he wrote, “If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can be more sustainable.” Crusiusalso discussed the “decimation of the environment” and corporations contributions to overharvesting. Crusius was inspired by the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooter, Brenton Harrison Tarrant (Darby, 2019). Tarrant is a self-proclaimed ecofasisct who, in his own manifesto, stated that “there is no nationalism without environmentalism.” He massacred 51 people in May 2019 (Barton, Smee, 2019).

White supremacy is clearly not new to the environmental movement. When we promote the idea that social tragedies are a must in order to save the environment, we repeat a dangerous trope that has and will continue to cost many lives, many of whom are minorities. When one decides that population reduction is the most beneficial way to save the planet and minimize our impact, one has to choose who needs to be reduced – and it has consistently been minorities, immigrants, and marginalized peoples. It may not seem harmful to post misleading pictures of swans in Italy or call COVID-19 earth’s ‘vaccine’, but it contains an underlying tone very reminiscent of a devastating, racist, and violent sector of environmentalism.

We have already seen the consequences of scapegoating certain racial groups during COVID-19. Hate crimes against Asian Americans have now averaged to about 100 per day across the United States. Over 1,000 hate crimes have been reported since the start of the pandemic (Rep. Judy Chu, 2020). Labeling coronavirus a “Chinese virus” reinforces xenophobia and racism towards Asian people. When Patrick Crusius referred to “our way of life” in the El Paso shooting, he was referring to an all-white way of life, a way that would diminish multiculturalism and stop the demographic shift that has supposedly expedited the environmental crisis (Klee, 2020).

On top of the violence and genocide associated with ecofacsism, ecofascist tropes routinely disregard who is really at fault for the environmental crisis. Since 1988, only 100 companies have been responsible for 71% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and more than half of these can be traced to just 25 companies, including Exxon, Shell, BP, and Chevron (Riley, 2017). These companies are and will be responsible for catastrophic species extinction and global food scarcity over the next 30 years. Several billion people will have to and are already paying the price for a small number of state and private corporations to make record-breaking profits off oil. What’s even worse is that these corporations knew their potential impact on the global environment as far back as 1965, before the climate crisis (Taylor and Watts, 2019). Ecofasicists place the blame for climate change on population demographics rather than corporate groups and capitalism. Ecofasicists ignore the intertwining relationship between capitalist profits and environmental devastation. In a capitalist society, the consumption of goods is the center of everything (Reyes, 2019). The irrationality of it all is that it comes even at the expense of the state’s people and their wellbeing. Capitalism uses resources until it must transition or find new sources. From an environmentalist perspective, the resources are fossil fuels, and the consequence is environmental devastation and climate change. Ecofascism places this blame on the individual rather than the system as a whole. There are grave flaws with mindsets like this. Ecofascism has no place within the environmental movement. It is harmful and destructive to all human beings with an emphasis on those who identify as marginalized and non-white.

Now, this isn’t to say that every person who tweets or minimizes the impact of COVID-19 has the intention of being an ecofascist and is aware of the history and serious flaws within this mindset. It’s just to say that where there are unfathomable human tragedies, a dark, ecofascist side of environmentalism has always coexisted with it that ignores the overarching systemic issues that play a role. Until we call out the injustices in attributing environmental benefits to mass human loss, ecofascist tropes, unknowingly or not, are bound to rise and resurface in the midst of human calamities. The next time you see a post or tweet about the environmental benefits of shelter-in-place mandates, be careful and think about the potential and underlying repercussions of views like these on a broader, global, scale. Ecofascism does not have a place in the environmental movement, and well-meaning or not, articles and tweets with underlying ecofascist tropes should be scrutinized and called out.

[bookoftheironfist]

“And his opponent-- recently returning from a long stint in Hell. K’un-Lun’s forgotten bastard child! The one they call Death Sting! Miranda Rand-K’ai!”

Iron Fist vol. 5 #79 by Ed Brisson, Damian Couceiro, and Andy Troy

    Ed Brisson just made my dreams come true and finally-- finally, after twenty long years-- brought back my favorite neglected Iron Fist character... so let’s talk about her. 

    First of all: Welcome back, Miranda! I’ve missed you so much! 

    Miranda K’ai (technically, Wendell wasn’t using “Rand” yet at that point. Rand-K’ai is also Danny’s full last name, for anyone who didn’t know...) was first introduced in Iron Fist vol. 1 #2. She was one of Danny’s best (read: few) friends in K’un-Lun, along with her boyfriend Conal-- another character forgotten in more recent comics. She is also Danny’s half-sister from Wendell’s first, K’un-Lun-era marriage. While it seems she was aware of this connection from the very beginning, she didn’t tell him about it until literally her dying breath. Maybe she didn’t want to talk about their dad, and how he abandoned her after her mother’s death. Maybe she just wanted to avoid unnecessary awkwardness. But in any case, Danny had no idea, for the ten years they were friends, that they were also family. 

    This isn’t the only secret she kept from him. Danny spent most of his childhood being bullied, and shortly after becoming the Iron Fist, he got jumped by a group of his peers. He was helped out by the arrival of Conal and a badass masked fighter, who turned out to be Miranda! 

Miranda: “By the seven pits of Hell, no! My mask!!”

Danny: “Miranda?”

Miranda: “The one and only. I’m sorry, Daniel-- I almost got away with it. And the fight was going so well, too.” 

Iron Fist vol. 1 #2 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Michele W. 

    While change is finally in the air thanks to Sparrow’s ascension to the position of Yu-Ti, K’un-Lun has a long history of systemic sexism. Women were strictly forbidden from fighting, or experiencing any kind of violence (there were/are serious penalties for any man who struck a woman, which... was one of the few upshots to this policy, depending on how you look at it). However, many K’un-Lun women have snuck around this rule (99% of the female characters from K’un-Lun that we meet in the comics are fighters), and Miranda was no exception. It turns out that she had been training with Conal for years, entirely without Danny’s knowledge. However, having had her combat prowess exposed in public, she and Conal quickly ended up in hot water. To escape their punishment (getting mind-wiped and reeducated! Which is apparently a thing they do in K’un-Lun!), they fled into the wilderness outside the city, where they were captured by the H’ylthri. Danny tracked them down and arrived just in time to watch them die, and to learn the truth about Miranda-- who seemingly regretted her secrecy in her final moments.  

Danny: “Miranda, I... I...”

Miranda: “Daniel, help me! Please, help me--!! Brother!!”

“Brother... She called you... brother...”

Iron Fist vol. 1 #2 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Michele W. 

    Danny was knocked unconscious by the H’ylthri before he was able to save her and Conal, and afterward remained haunted by this failure, and the loss of a family member that he didn’t even know he had. 

    And that might have been the end of it, but then Miranda and Conal returned twenty years later, in Iron Fist vol. 3. It turns out that they had been kept in suspended animation by the H’ylthri, slowly having their life leached from them, and were then sent to the earthly plain to steal the Scorpio Key-- an item of power that the H’ylthri wanted in order to keep their race alive. Danny, not initially recognizing them thanks to their spiffy 90s costumes, tried to stop them. 

Conal: “If Rand knew what the stakes were-- he would not stop us! If the H’ylthri die, we die, too!”

Miranda: “It’s true, Danny. Conal and I were imprisoned in those pods for years. We weren’t quite dead-- but we certainly weren’t alive. Sss’Lethcott freed us from the pods, but if we go more than a couple of days without their special chemicals-- we die!”

Iron Fist vol. 3 #3 by Dan Jurgens, Jackson Guice, Tom Ziuko, et al. 

    This arc ended with Miranda choosing to kill the H’ylthri and die, along with Conal, as a hero. Once again, Danny had found and then lost his sister in a matter of moments. However, unbeknownst to Danny, there was an epilogue, hinting at Miranda’s miraculous survival...

“Throughout your life, Daniel Rand, you have witnessed numerous events that most would consider impossible. Those experiences keep you hoping and praying that some way, some how-- your sister might have survived. That the explosion of the pods might have rained enough of their life-giving elixirs on her-- that she might have escaped-- to live the long and happy life she so richly deserves. A happy thought, but one no doubt rooted in fantasy.”

Iron Fist vol. 3 #3 by Dan Jurgens, Jackson Guice, Tom Ziuko, et al. 

    And then she wasn’t seen again... until this past Wednesday, another twenty years later. The fact that the main character’s sister, another character who bridges the barrier between K’un-Lun and Earth, who is filled with so much untapped storytelling potential, who is directly linked to Danny’s past, has never really had a presence in his story has always baffled me. There are so many interesting things that could be done with Miranda! So many new details that could be added to the mythos! There’s so much we don’t know about her! She is an Iron Fist writer’s dream! Why has she been left mostly undeveloped for so long?

    Her return raises all kinds of questions. Here, in the current story, she is clearly dead, which negates the implications of the epilogue from volume 3. Clearly, Ed Brisson is aware of that story-- Miranda’s fighting outfit is derivative of her white and red Death Sting look. And heck-- Brisson brought back D’Kay, a minor character from an old, extremely unmemorable tie-in story. He’s clearly up on his Iron Fist continuity. But because of the intentional vagueness of the volume 3 epilogue, and the fact that Miranda had to be dead to show up in the current narrative, this doesn’t bother me that much. It’s easily No-Prize-able by speculating that volume 3 Miranda and Conal were plant-based copies, just like Planny (plant Danny) from PMIF vol. 1, and that the actual Miranda and Conal did actually die the day they fled K’un-Lun. Or maybe she didn’t actually survive volume 3 after all. 

    In any case, I’m thrilled to see her again. Even if she goes three-for-three and dies in front of Danny yet again, at least she has been acknowledged as an important and lasting character within the Iron Fist mythos. And hey... that’s better than nothing. Since the next issue is the big finale, I’m nervous about her chances. However, it’s probably going to be her soul or Orson’s-- and as much as I would love to get Orson back, having three Iron Fists hanging around on Earth might be seen as too much by the creative team. (That said: give me a Danny/Orson/Pei team-up mini-series right now.) But maybe-- maybe-- Miranda will be allowed to come back to life, thus setting her up to finally get the development and recognition she deserves in future runs.  

[metamatar]

the sparrow is written in direct response to pushback against columbus by the author as colonial apologia [1] and everyone knows orson scott card's a neoconservative. both the sparrow and speaker for the dead – they're technically good books, well paced and i am quite forgiving to the slightly mawkish character work because they ask questions that matter to everyone. in fairness i read speaker for the dead when i was 15 but i read the sparrow yesterday. both authors think of themselves as on the good side (anne edwards calls herself a liberal and is the author's acknowledged self insert) and orson scott card says he's a blue dog democrat.

it was like watching from a funhouse mirror, their constructions of what is revelatory and their attempts to grapple what makes humanity good. the neo fascist obsession with controlling reproduction, the eugenics, the explicit lecture in their books about good sex being reproductive, the inability to consider bonds outside the family structure 'real', an inability to seriously consider the morality of the faithless, their incuriousity about the rest of the world. it was as if we had not all grappled with the problem of evil. the sparrow takes the caricature of the hindu found in 18th century british colonial anthropology (weak, vegetarian, weird religion, not correctly shameful about sex, not serious about Art or Literature, in thrall to the brahmins) for her 'prey' species Runa'a and gives them recognisably hindu names (manuzhai, askama, chaypas.) humans bring them agriculture, sparking off revolt only because a human showed them how to revolt. as an aside, the predator species are called janata, that literally means people. supaari means mercenary.

there is, in a book about jesuits going to space, a main character who is a latino priest from the 'rough streets of puerto rico' no attempt to grapple with the present day legacy of slavery, or colonialism in the church apart from a wink nudge aside to 'bad' 'spanish' 'catholics.' there is no attempt to understand the actual policies that drive drug and gun violence that is destroying his community beyond oh those poor browns. a bleeding heart liberal doctor who helps the said community gets angry that the united states does not have copyright on alien music because they paid for the arecibo space telescope.

i can't do this anymore dear god maybe i am just terminally poisoned and am condemned to read the tiniest subset of genre fiction written by leftists for the rest of my life.

[1] What follows is from the afterword to the Sparrow. When I was reading this book I was uncomfortable but I thought maybe its just really ham handed commentary about colonialism. Turns out the author is Just Like That.

The idea came to me in the summer of 1992 as we were celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the New World. There was a great deal of historical revisionism going on as we examined the mistakes made by Europeans when they first encountered foreign cultures in the Americas and elsewhere. It seemed unfair to me for people living at the end of the twentieth century to hold those explorers and missionaries to standards of sophistication and tolerance that we hardly manage even today. I wanted to show how very difficult first contact would be, even with the benefit of hindsight. That’s when I decided to write a story that put modern, sophisticated, resourceful, well-educated, and well-meaning people in the same position as those early explorers and missionaries—a position of radical ignorance. Unfortunately, there’s no place on Earth today where "first contact" is possible—you can find MTV, CNN, and McDonald’s everywhere you go. The only way to create a "first contact" story like this was to go off-planet

Like. Columbus is bad by the standards of his age. She's a white anthropologist from the 90s, so it's not really a surprise that she's so weak on rigor.

reading maria doria russell is exactly like reading orson scott card actually

[torestoreamends]

This ficlet is inspired by conversations I had with Samuel and James H at stagedoor on the 14th of October. I asked them about Scorpius and Draco’s roles in the Voldemort timeline, and Samuel said that he thinks the Scorpion King is evil and has a closer relationship with Draco than Astoria in that world. Meanwhile, James said that he thinks Draco might be undercover, fighting for Dumbledore’s Army. I wanted to try and explore those ideas, and this is the result. 

*

Draco watches his son and doesn’t know what to do. Scorpius is three years old, a tiny, fragile life only just begun. He exists in this cruel, awful world, where people are killed and tortured, burned alive with Fiendfyre for daring to speak out against the Dark Lord, hit with Crucio after Crucio for harbouring Mudbloods, until they lose their minds and are left as shells to rot on the streets. This isn’t the sort of world to raise a child in, but that’s exactly what he and Astoria are doing.

Sometimes Draco lies awake at night, thinking about it. Thinking about what Scorpius will see as he grows older, the things he’ll have to do, the pain he might suffer.

“You’re worrying again,” Astoria murmurs far too often, rolling over and running her hands down his scarred chest. “You shouldn’t worry. You should sleep.”

“You worry,” Draco says, looking at her.

She gives a tired little smile. “I’m his mother. It’s my job to worry. It’s your job to show the world who the Malfoys are. You need to sleep.”

She’s right. It’s exhausting. He’s had a meteoric rise through the Ministry thanks to his connections and the Mark on his arm. His schoolboy hatred of Potter and Dumbledore’s Army stands him in good stead. How could Draco Malfoy be anything but loyal?

The best thing about his position is that he rarely has to raise a wand to hurt anyone himself. A cushy Ministry desk job is as far removed from the violence as it’s possible to be, and he’s glad of that. And an administrative role allows some things to be forgotten, some files to go unread because he still hasn’t got a secretary, some charges to be dropped through lack of evidence. As long as he’s angry enough at his juniors, it can go forgiven. Shoddy work would never be Draco Malfoy’s fault.

Home is the thing he finds hardest. Raising Scorpius with values he doesn’t believe in. Some days he feels lost when he looks at his son. When the cat drags in a half dead sparrow, Scorpius watches with cold curiosity as the bird flails in pain on the doormat. Astoria puts it out of its misery, and later Draco sees Scorpius mimicking the spell using a stick as a pretend wand. It makes Draco’s insides go cold and he wants to tell Scorpius to stop, to teach him that once upon a time that spell was Unforgiveable, that it still should be. But his son is safer this way, safer with this world’s values, and he’s torn. In the end he walks away and lets Scorpius play at killing.

---

Draco watches his son and doesn’t know what to do. Scorpius is eleven years old, about to go to Hogwarts, and his first wand has just arrived from the Wand-makers, a fine purveyor of wands operating out of Knockturn Alley. While he was waiting for it to come, Scorpius had spent hours poring over spell books in the library, teaching himself not just the basics – Alohomora, Reparo, Lumos – but also a few Hexes and Curses. Ones he thinks might be useful.

Draco will never forget the look of glee in Scorpius’s eyes when he first holds that wand. The cold, clear, sharp light of a frosty winter morning. There’s no warmth to that smile. No joy. Just opportunity and power.

He and Astoria take Scorpius to board the Hogwarts Express, and he knows that Scorpius is observing how everyone treats them with deference. They’re the highest of the high. A cut above the rest. Pureblood aristocracy. They wear neat, fine clothes. They look like royalty. And the normal people in their drab robes, with tired, miserable faces thanks to the influence of the Dementors that line the platform, just step aside and stare as they pass.

By the time they reach the train Draco is gripping Astoria’s hand for support against the cold, clammy darkness of the Dementors, but Scorpius is smirking. He holds his head high like he’s a king, kisses Astoria on both cheeks, shakes Draco’s hand, then boards the train. Through the window, Draco sees him evict a small boy from the prime compartment he wants to sit in, and by the time the Hogwarts Express pulls out of the station he’s holding court with five other boys, who are all clamouring for his attention.

Draco and Astoria escape the influence of the Dementors and lock themselves away in the Manor to recover. At least the rest of the world will assume that Draco is sad to see Scorpius go to school. Some emotion is safe, natural, understandable. Or at least it can be made to look that way.

That night an Owl arrives from Professor Umbridge, informing Draco and Astoria that Scorpius has already made an excellent mark on the school, that his grasp of basic Dark Arts is exceptional for a first year, and that he is doing a fine job of defending the honour of the Dark Lord. It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to know that Scorpius has already been using the Hexes and Curses he was so fascinated by in his books, and Draco goes to bed that night feeling faintly sick. He wonders if they could have prevented this. If they could have taught Scorpius to be another way.

Astoria traces her fingers over the burning Mark on his arm.

“He’s fitting in,” she whispers. “He’s too young to be taught an act. He’s too young to be at risk. We can endanger ourselves but we can’t endanger him. He’s better off. He’s doing well. We should be proud.” She sounds like she’s trying to convince herself, and Draco turns to look at her, at her lined, worried, frail face. He reaches out and wipes a tear from her cheek.

“I am proud,” he whispers back. “Aren’t you?”

She swallows and nods. “He’s my son,” she says. But that’s all she says.

Draco gathers her in close and holds her as she cries. At night, hidden in the darkness, is the only time they can be themselves. By the morning the tears will be dry and they’ll be ready to gush about how much their son has achieved so early in his school career.

---

Draco watches his son and doesn’t know what to do. Scorpius is thirteen years old, he’s standing beside his mother’s grave, and there are silent tears rolling down his cheeks. Death isn’t so easy or entertaining when it’s tearing your heart and your family into pieces.

“Are you alright?” Draco asks, and it’s the most pointless question he’s ever asked, but he doesn’t know what else to say. He hasn’t known what to say for weeks and months.

“I’m sorry,” Scorpius says, in a choked little voice, and he looks up at Draco. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a good enough son while she was alive.”

Draco blinks at him, uncertain what he means. “You are exceptional,” he says. “She knew that. She loved you very much.”

Scorpius shakes his head and wipes his eyes on his sleeve. Draco has never seen him do that before, but then he’s never seen his son in distress before.

“No,” Scorpius says. “I haven’t done enough. I should have done more. I should have done better. I should have shown her how much I support Him. I should have made her proud.” He sniffs and draws himself up straight, looking directly at Draco, eyes dry now, determined. “This will be her legacy,” he says, and he holds his left arm out and points to where his Dark Mark will be when he earns one. “I’ll do it for her. For both of you. I will live up to our name. I will make the Malfoys proud.”

Draco is speechless. He doesn’t know what to do or say. He thinks of his Astoria, the one who worried about Scorpius, the one who cried in the darkness when she heard what he got up to at school, the one who wished they were in a world where they could be free, the one who sometimes cast a Patronus so they could have some respite from the draining, cold anguish. She was his light in this dark world, and her legacy cannot be more darkness. But he has no way of telling Scorpius that. It’s too late. Scorpius is invested. Scorpius is a true inhabitant of this world. Scorpius is everything he should be, everything he needs to be. And if Astoria’s legacy is Scorpius’s continued safety, then perhaps she could have understood that.

Draco draws himself up tall, because it’s all he knows how to do, and he nods. “Very well.” He holds his hands out, wrists crossed. “For Voldemort and Valour.”

Scorpius lifts his head high and looks him right in the eye across the grave. “For Voldemort and Valour.” And then he turns and walks away, heading back to school, and Draco is left in a turmoil of loneliness and pain, which only deepens when the Daily Prophet arrives the next day.

New Counter-Mudblood measures implemented at Hogwarts

Star student, Scorpius Malfoy, has proposed a new Counter-Mudblood regime, to begin at Hogwarts with immediate effect. Anyone suspected of stealing magic from the Pureblood community will be investigated and severely punished.

This policy will bring Hogwarts School in line with the new Pureblood Protection Act, which has been drawn up by Draco Malfoy, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and will...

Draco crumples the paper in his hand and doesn’t read anymore. He just stares at nothing and tries to work out what has happened to his family. His heart was already broken, and now its shatters remnants have been flung apart, never to be repaired.

---

Draco watches his son and knows exactly what to do. Scorpius is fourteen years old, and he’s standing strong and determined on the other side of the office. Tears sparkle in his eyes, and he looks warm and bright and everything Draco could have ever imagined of Astoria Malfoy’s son. He challenges. He fights. He’s so different. This isn’t the Scorpius he knows but it’s the Scorpius he always dreamed of. And he’s scared, because if his son is like this then he’s in terrible danger, but at the same time he trusts this boy. This is a boy who can make a difference in this dark world. There’s something about him. His heart shines like a beacon of hope.

“Whatever you’re doing,” Draco says, because he doesn’t know, doesn’t know if he even wants to know; he doesn’t need to be more afraid or more hopeful. “Do it safely. Can’t lose you too.”

Scorpius looks at him, and tears trail down his cheeks. His mouth is set in a grim line, and Draco can see so much of himself in that face, so much of Astoria too. The determination. The mask. The need to survive.

But something more. The ability to make a difference. This Scorpius – because something tells him that this isn’t his Scorpius – is in this world but not of it. And he can change it.

“For Voldemort and Valour,” Draco says, crossing his wrists and giving an encouraging nod, wanting to show Scorpius how this must be done, wanting him to understand that this is survival. Rigid conformity is the air they breathe, the blood that pumps in their veins, whether it’s real or an act. They are made to do this, and if they don’t do it well enough then they’re faulty, disposable goods, and they will be destroyed.

And apparently this Scorpius, the Scorpius with Astoria’s heart and mind and soul, seems to understand, because he stands up, back straight, head held high like he’s a king.

He crosses his wrists and repeats the phrase in an unwavering voice that sends a surge of confidence through Draco. “For Voldemort and Valour.”

[actutrends]

Meghan Markle Was ‘Very Engaged’ & ‘Gracious’ During Visit To Vancouver Charity Amid Royal Drama

Watch

January 18, 2020 1: 08 AM EST

Meghan Markle shocked a Vancouver charity when she appeared for a go to on Jan. 14! We got the EXCLUSIVE details in a brand-new interview.

Meghan Markle, 38, surprised the staff at Vancouver’s Justice for Women when she stopped by for a see on Tuesday, Jan. 14! “She was really informal, and she shook everybody’s hand and was really thoughtful and happy to take a photo with us,” executive director Zoe Craig-Sparrow told HollywoodLife SOLELY. “And we were entrusted to an actually positive impression of the Duchess.” While Meghan has actually been staying in Victoria, which is a two-hour ferryboat trip or short flight away, she made headings when she appeared in gorgeous Vancouver earlier today.

” The Duchess met our Co-Directors along with representatives from our Board of Directors and staff,” Zoe continued. “She put everybody at ease and had an extremely engaged discussion with us for 90 minutes about our work and the rights of teenage ladies who live in hardship. We talked about Justice for Girls’ main locations of work and our plans to establish a Justice for Women Centre.” The excited charity made certain they had plenty of mint tea on hand– apparently Meghan’s favorite– ahead of her see! Meghan also snapped pictures with the women that she met, which you can see here

The charity, which was formed in 1999, offers services and programs that attend to the requirements of ladies in need– especially around concerns of violence, poverty and homelessness. With an emphasis on equality for ladies in all aspects of life, the group motivates ladies to be leaders in their communities– which has been an enthusiasm for Meghan through her different charitable undertakings. “The Duchess mentioned that it was truly essential to her to look into various local companies in the area,” Zoe shared. “And I presume that she was checking out them and had an interest in companies that align with her interests.” Justice For Ladies likewise uses an internship program for young ladies to read more about social policy, criminal justice monitoring and more.

While Justice For Women was delighted to host Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex didn’t precisely walk in unannounced. “We were contacted by an agent of the Duchess ahead of the check out, and we were all so excited and absolutely crazy to hear that she had an interest in checking out,” Zoe excitedly shared. While Meghan didn’t indicate any future plans to stay involved, the group are confident about any future chances that may emerge! In the meantime, she left a lasting impression on the women she satisfied. “She was exceptionally well-spoken and well-informed on the problems that we talked about,” Zoe revealed. “She’s passionate and dedicated to ladies’s rights, and she was relaxed … she made all of us feel extremely comfy.”

The post Meghan Markle Was ‘Very Engaged’ & ‘Gracious’ During Visit To Vancouver Charity Amid Royal Drama appeared first on Actu Trends.

[fitnesswomenshealth-blog]

Aged care royal commission must not slow reform

New Post has been published on https://cialiscom.org/aged-care-royal-commission-must-not-slow-reform.html

Aged care royal commission must not slow reform

The aged care sector has warned that significant reforms already underway must not be slowed by a royal commission into the sector.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who announced the royal commission on Sunday, said that aged care spending has already reached $18.6 billion and is set to grow to $23.6 billion as the nation’s baby boomers age.

“We are committed to providing older Australians with access to care that supports their dignity and recognises the contribution that they have made to society,” Mr Morrison said in one of his first major policy decisions as prime minister following the Liberal leadership spill.

But peak older persons advocate COTA Australia warned that both the Tune Review and the Carnell/Paterson Report into aged care made significant recommendations on improving regulation, funding and transparency.

Aged care facilities are booming.

Louise Kennerley

“Some of those recommendations are in train and must not stall – such as the new Quality and Safety Commission, funding for even more high-level home care packages, and a strategy to improve the quality and sustainability of the aged care workforce to appropriately meet current demand,” CEO Ian Yates said.

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Government fail

Leading Age Services Australia CEO Sean Rooney said 2,000 people in Australia turn 65 every week, and a further 1,000 turn 85 each week with 1.3 million older Australians accessing services across our aged care system every year and that successive governments had failed the system.

“We have repeatedly told government that the aged care system settings have not kept pace with the increase in demand for care and services, driven by the growing numbers of older Australians in our communities,” he said.

A recent PwC report estimated that on current projections an additional 226,000 residential aged care places may be required by 2040 at a capital cost of just under $50 billion.

A man has been charged after allegedly assaulting an 82-year-old man at an aged care facility on Sydney’s northern beaches.

“However, over recent years, successive Australian Governments have reduced residential aged care funding by an estimated $3 billion,” Mr Rooney said.

Independent analysis by StewartBrown estimated that 43 per cent of Australia’s residential aged care facilities in 2018 are operating at a loss and is even worse in regional and rural areas.

“Whilst recent governments have made some changes to the aged care system, review after review has been conducted and successive governments have failed to respond effectively,” he said.

LIke Guantanamo Bay

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is seen visiting the Meercroft Aged Care Home in Devonport in July.

Grant Wells

Mr Morrison’s decision was triggered in part by the Oakden nursing home scandal in South Australia. Oakden was closed a year ago after being compared to Guantanamo Bay.

The prime minister said he could no longer ignore the alarming number of aged care operators “flouting the law and putting lives at risk”.

There was an 177 per cent increase in the number of aged care homes where a serious risk to residents was identified last financial year, according to new government figures. There was a 292 per cent increase in the number of facilities that refused to comply with rules.

“Walking by these statistics was not possible,” Mr Morrison said.

“If you want to deal with a problem, you have to be fair dinkum about understanding the full extent of it. Whether there is a crisis in aged care or not is to be determined. That is the point of holding a royal commission. It is not to pre-determine outcomes,” Mr Morrison said.

“The evidence shows that the problems are not restricted to any one part of the aged care sector, whether it is for profit or not for profit, large or small facilities, regional or major metropolitan,” Mr Morrison said.

National crisis

The Oakden nursing home for elderly people was shut down last year following a damning report by South Australia’s chief psychiatrist highlighting ongoing neglect and mistreatment of residents.

Labor leader Bill Shorten, who has previously said there is a “national crisis” in aged care, said the probe was overdue.

He has stressed the need for the inquiry to look not just at individual cases of mistreatment but at “fundamental, systemic problems” and highlighted the issue of worker’s pay.

“It’s got to be everything. Staff, training, funding – making sure people get the care that they deserve,” Mr Shorten told ABC TV on Sunday.

Aged and Community Services Australia, which represents about 700 not-for-profit providers, has also welcomed the inquiry.

“This will give us an opportunity to talk about the quality of care that the community expects, and important things like how it is to be regulated and funded sustainably so that we can deliver the best quality care,” chief executive Pat Sparrow told Nine on Sunday.

Sector wants action

Dementia Australia CEO Maree McCabe agreed that “urgent action is needed to address these challenges for all those accessing the system now and to plan for the increased demand to come.”

The royal commission will also look into the challenge of caring for young people with disabilities living in residential aged care settings.

Disabled People’s Organisations Australia (DPO Australia) said there are many more thousands of people with disability who will be dismayed that our ongoing calls for a royal commission into violence and abuse against all people with disability have been ignored.

The government said the terms of reference will be determined in consultation but expect to cover:

The quality of care provided to older Australians, and the extent of substandard care;

The challenge of providing care to Australians with disabilities living in residential aged care, particularly younger people with disabilities;

The challenge of supporting the increasing number of Australians suffering dementia and addressing their care needs as they age; and

The future challenges and opportunities for delivering aged care services in the context of changing demographics, including in remote, rural and regional Australia.

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, waitSeconds: 60 ); Source link

[clubofinfo]

Expert: The truth of corporate journalism, and the great irony of its obsession with ‘fake news’, is that it is itself utterly fake. What could be more obviously fake than the idea that Truth can be sold by billionaire-owned media dependent on billionaire-owned advertisers for maximised profit? The ‘mainstream’ worldview is anything but – it is extreme, weird, a product of corporate conformity and deference to power. As Norman Mailer observed: There is an odour to any Press Headquarters that is unmistakeable… The unavoidable smell of flesh burning quietly and slowly in the service of a machine.1 A prime example of ‘mainstream’ extremism is the way the UK’s illegal wars destroying whole countries are not an issue for corporate moralists. Physicians for Global Responsibility estimate that 1.3 million people have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan alone. And yet it is simply understood that UK wars will not be a theme during general elections (See here and here). By contrast, other kinds of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ are subject to intense scrutiny. Consider the recent resignation of Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and his replacement by Prime Minister Theresa May’s Chief Whip, Gavin Williamson. Fallon resigned after it was revealed that he had ‘repeatedly touched the broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer’s knee at a dinner in 2002’. Fallon was damaged further by revelations that he had lunged at journalist Jane Merrick: This was not a farewell peck on the cheek, but a direct lunge at my lips. The Commons leader Andrea Leadsom also disclosed that she had complained about ‘lewd remarks’ Fallon had made to her. Sexual harassment is a serious issue, despite the scoffing of some male commentators. In the Mail on Sunday, Peter Hitchens shamefully dismissed women’s complaints as mere ‘squawking’. But it is strange indeed that, while harassment is rightly deemed a resigning offence, other ‘inappropriate behaviour’ leaves ‘mainstream’ commentators completely unmoved. Fallon voted for both the 2003 war that destroyed Iraq and the 2011 war that wrecked Libya. He voted for war on Syria. He voted for replacing the Trident nuclear missile system. Earlier this year, he even declared that Britain would be willing to launch a nuclear first strike. After he was made Secretary of Defence in July 2014, Fallon oversaw the supply of weapons to Saudi Arabia waging war on Yemen. Two years later, Campaign Against Arms Trade reported that UK sales to Saudi Arabia since the start of the war included £2.2 billion of aircraft, helicopters and drones, £1.1 billion of missiles, bombs and grenades, and nearly half a million pounds’ worth of tanks and other armoured vehicles. British sales of military equipment to the kingdom topped £1.1bn in the first half of this year alone. In December 2016, Fallon admitted that internationally banned cluster munitions supplied by the UK had been used in Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign. Six months earlier, Amnesty International had reported that British-made cluster bombs were being used in attacks on civilians that had claimed the lives of children. For none of these horrors did Fallon resign. So what kind of conflict are these weapons fuelling? The Guardian reports this week: Yemen is in the grip of the world’s worst cholera outbreak and 7 million people are already on the brink of famine. In July, Reliefweb reported: The scale of the food crisis in conflict-ridden Yemen is staggering with 17 million people – two thirds of the population – severely food insecure and seven million of these on the verge of famine. Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, José Graziano da Silva, has described Yemen as the UN’s ‘largest humanitarian crisis today’, noting that conflict and violence have disrupted agriculture, with violence intensifying in areas most short of food. In December 2016, a study by UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, found that at least one child was dying in Yemen every 10 minutes. The agency found that, since 2014, there had been a 200 per cent increase in children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, with almost half a million affected. Nearly 2.2 million children were in need of urgent care. This week, the Saudi-led coalition declared it would close Yemen’s borders to prevent an alleged flow of weapons from Iran, after it intercepted a missile attack by Houthi rebels near Riyadh, the Saudi capital. Johan Mooij, Yemen director of Care International, commented: For the last two days, nothing has got in or out of the country. Fuel prices have gone up by 50% and there are queues at the gas stations. People fear no more fuel will come into Hodeidah port. He added: People depend on the humanitarian aid and part of the cholera issue [is] that they do not eat and are not strong enough to deal with unclean water. There have been ‘daily airstrikes in Sana’a,’ Mooij said, adding: ‘People fear the situation is escalating.’ On Monday, the UN’s World Food Program said that, out of Yemen’s entire population of 28 million people, about 20 million, ‘do not know where they’re going to get their next meal’. These are Fallon’s millions, May’s millions, the ‘mainstream’s’ millions. In the Independent, Mary Dejevsky made the only mention of Yemen in an article discussing Fallon’s resignation that we have seen in the national corporate press: In the Middle East [on Fallon’s watch], the UK made great efforts to maintain its alliance with Saudi Arabia – and the arms sales that went with it – playing down the desperate plight of Yemen which was a by-product of this policy. Mass death, Iraq and Libya destroyed, millions of lives torn apart, profiteering in the billions from the torture of an impoverished, famine-stricken nation – none of this was deemed worthy even of mention in considering the record of Fallon and his ‘inappropriate behaviour’. As for his replacement, the Guardian‘s Andrew Sparrow tweeted a link to his blog piece titled: ’10 things you might not know about Gavin Williamson’. Vital facts included news that the new Defence Secretary ‘kept a pet tarantula called Cronus on his desk’, ‘likes hedgehogs’, ‘is only 41’, and ‘went to a comprehensive school’. Sparrow was adhering to the journalistic convention that parliamentary politics should be depicted as a light-hearted, Wodehousian farce. It is all a bit of a laugh – everybody means well. Despite Williamson’s lethal new role, the word ‘war’ was not mentioned. Preoccupied with spiders and hedgehogs, Sparrow found no space to mention that Williamson ‘almost always voted for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas’. He voted for war in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. He voted against the Yemen motion put before the House of Commons in October 2016 that merely called on the Government to suspend its support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces in Yemen until it had been determined whether they had been responsible for war crimes. The motion was defeated by 283 votes to 193, telling us everything we need to know about the ‘mainstream’s’ much-loved myth that British policy is motivated by a ‘responsibility to protect’. The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg tweeted a link to the BBC’s own comedy profile, which also discussed the tarantula and other nonsense, and made no mention of Williamson’s record on war. We asked Kuenssberg: Will you be asking him if he has any regrets on voting against the Yemen motion to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, given the vast civilian crisis? We received no reply. The extreme cognitive dissonance guiding ‘mainstream’ moral outrage was again highlighted by the Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff, who tweeted: Can’t help thinking that now would be quite a good time for the first ever female defence secretary, really We asked: What difference would it make to the civilians dying under our bombs in Yemen and Syria? Isn’t that the key issue on “defence”? Hinsliff did not reply. But the answer, of course, is that it would make no difference at all. * Mailer, The Time Of Our Time, Little Brown, 1998, p.457. http://clubof.info/

[theowlsarenotwhattheyremembers]

Episode 1: Dragonstone

Right guys I know you’ll have already watched this but look I only just started this blog and I can’t miss the first episode off also you will benefit from my insights regardless. 

!!!! I have been in a state of extreme agitation all year and I can’t actually cope with the fact that it’s here. I am not emotionally prepared and do not know what I just saw. 

Scene 1: Did everyone else not realise that was Arya and think we were in a flashback? I am so overwhelmed I am just right there in the moment I have no idea what’s about to happen. Then all those ratface (rats are intelligent moral creatures but you know what I mean) Freys start coughing up their own lower organs!! When did Arya learn about poisons? Was her training montage long enough to justify this?? I guess it was! And I know the Freys have deathsentence hospitality karma but baking your sons in a pie and feeding it to you and then dressing up in your corpse and poisoning your entire family - is that an eye for an eye according to whichever god is keeping score in this case? I guess possibly! 

This recap blog is going to have an eye for History and Fable (matters which I know only very modest amounts about but there is google) and the sparknotes on Titus Andronicus on which the pie move is based indicates that it may lead to an ambivalent conclusion:

[After a succession of grisly heinous acts of reciprocal violence, Titus] tricks [Tamora, Queen of the Goths], captures her sons, kills them, and makes pie out of them. He feeds this pie to their mother in the final scene, after which he kills both Tamora and Lavinia, his own daughter. A rash of killings ensue; the only people left alive are Marcus [Titus’ brother], Lucius [Titus’ son], Young Lucius [his son], and Aaron [Tamora’s lover]. Lucius has the unrepentant Aaron buried alive, and Tamora's corpse thrown to the beasts. He becomes the new emperor of Rome.

This does not end well for the pie baker, though I suppose his kin are the ones who ultimately triumph. My male friends will often assume that I, a woman, feel empowered and liberated by the character of Arya, the traumatised magical child murderer. Not so, friends. My favourite liberated Game of Thrones #strongfemalecharacter is the lost unlamented Ros, sex worker from the north invented for TV for the purposes of the early sexposition-heavy plot who voyages down south with the Starks and whose illustrious sex spy career is wastefully cut short by Cunt Joffrey. Ros was working-class woman who fled the north before winter even came, whose talents were picked up by the farsighted Varys and who would have made an incredible Kings Landing player had it not been for the misogyny of Joffrey and the script writers and the twat fans who think the TV has to be like the crappy books which I have not read. Rest in Power Ros, this blog is dedicated to you. 

Anyway I haven’t really recapped anything yet and this blog is already overlong  so let’s get back to it. 

Scene 2: The army of the north are coming!! This is too terrifying, it’s hot outside but I am wrapped in a blanket. There are multiple ice zombie giants as we all knew there would be. Let’s remember that like one living giant almost successfully broke through the gate at Castle Black during the wildling battle ages ago; multiple zombie giants are going to make fucking matchsticks of it no magic required, though they probably also have loads of that, those dragons need to get here pronto. Also why haven’t they iceblocked up the gate like Jon said they should ages ago??

Scene 2.5 (s2 was a vision I guess) Commander Dolorous Edd opens the gate to Meera and Bran, and asks if they are wildlings. Why does it matter? Wildlings can all come in anyway, that’s very much the policy now. Also if anything Bran saying “you were at Hardhome” etc only makes him seem more like a wildling, and a scary one? Anyway, no-one cares / everyone is too spooked to stay outside for long and so thank god poor Meera in particular can have a massive eat and a sleep by the fire. She and her magic and fighting skills have been wasted on being a less effective Hodor / wheelchair substitute, I eagerly anticipate her being given a chance to shine now our kids are back to what passes for civilisation. 

Scene 3: Jon and Sansa are still holding court with the whole Northern gentry from last season. At least all those guys look warm in that nice hall toasting their feet on Winterfell’s famous underfloor heating! That awful bloke from the Vale *googles it* Yohn Royce makes an extremely unreasonable and tactics-free suggestion to demolish some of the last strongholds between them and the wall because of “justice” or whatever. Sansa points out that the castles themselves didn’t commit crimes (top-notch statecraft) but suggests they be given to loyal families to punish treason and reward loyalty. Jon makes a generous decision to let the young Karstarks and Umbers stay in their homes despite their twatty dads, making the good and frankly biblical point that the sons shouldn’t be punished for their fathers’ sins. Sansa is unhappy about this and she is probably a better king than Jon, or rather, I think they are both good kings but need to team up and respect each other, which she is really keen to do but unfortunately is also a woman so this makes things harder for everyone because they have to unlearn misogyny first.

Then she tells Littlefinger who barges in to their important conversation what would make her so happy was if he shut up and fucked off, and not to bother trying to get the last word, she’ll just assume it was clever. Which is a King’s Landing style burn! Please Jon, show that this queen is not wasted on the north. Also please Littlefinger, fuck off and die. 

Scene 4:  I collapsed a couple of bits into one there but I am aware that this is too long already because of my Titus Andronicus and Roslove detour, for which I am unrepentant, tune back in next post for more of the same. ANYWAY, here she is, best villain in GoT. She may be evil, but who wouldn’t be in her position? Cersei marches over a map of Westeros telling Jaime she is already 5 moves ahead of him and has an Armada on the way headed by a man who is desperate to impress her. Everyone thinks Jaime is going to kill her, but might she not kill Jaime? She absolutely has no further fucks to give whatsoever and just wants power and revenge and to die a fabulous drunk old evil empress with ten husbands each more devoted and militarily useful than the last. I hope she dies much sooner than that! I also think she will because she can’t be the one to win the game of thrones. Can she?? Could the alcoholic childless widow of the usurper king really win in the end? She could have more children if she could be bothered probably, if she was in a mood to consider dynastic matters. In this scene, she is not, and is just savouring the prospect of ruling the world asap and as bloodily as you like. 

Scene 5: And here he fucking is! They really did cut down every tree on the Iron Islands! How did they throw this fleet together so quickly! It does not look like they cut corners! Those boats are fucking terrifying!

Is this even scene 5? Cersei and Jaime are immediately there, standing on the balcony, watching Euron’s terrifying Armada approach. Everything is happening extremely fast. This is not like the midseasons when everyone was walking painfully slowly around the Riverlands. Why do they have to get it all over as quickly as possible? Have they run out of money? I am no less overwhelmed than ever.

Scene 6: Thesp Goth Euron woos Cersei by saying she’s the most beautiful woman in the world and promising to give her a priceless gift to get to her woman’s heart. This is very tacky but it kind of confirms her power as actual queen and is a highpoint so far since the nadir of the Walk of Shame. Do you think the wildfire explosion of all the King’s Landing gentry and the Sparrows was the highpoint? Maybe that was the violence highpoint, and this is the statecraft highpoint. Also Euron’s “gift” is going to be more violence, and he also offers up his “two good hands,” at which Jaime, on behalf of us all, recoils. 

Cersei seems likely to graciously accept the first gift before declining the second. Has her Sparrows experience taught her not to unleash forces against her enemies which she then cannot control and which then turn on her? Probably not!

I hate that sleazy prat Euron and can’t believe that Fantasizr drafted him into my Game of Game of Thrones league. Any points I get for him are a badge of shame (I got 15 for this scene). 

Scene 7: Sam stars in music video soup poop library montage! Sam during this is confirmed as the fat nerd with a goatee and slicked back hair avatar of the show’s condescending idea of what a GoT fan looks like, corroborating the theory that Sam is actually the narrator / the Perspective from which the story is seen. Sam nicks some useful books after Jim Broadbent tells him he believes but doesn’t care that the White Walkers and the Long Night are coming. There is science going on in the Citadel, medical science involving weighing organs. This science needs to be more applied. Incidentally everyone, Game of Thrones is not medieval, it is Early Modern:

What Martin actually gives us is a fantasy version of what the historian Alfred Crosby called the Post-Columbian exchange: the globalizing epoch of the 16th and 17th centuries. A world where merchants trade exotic drugs and spices between continents, where professional standing armies can number in the tens or hundreds of thousands, where scholars study the stars via telescopes, and proto-corporations like the Iron Bank of Braavos and the Spicers of Qarth control global trade. It’s also a world of slavery on a gigantic scale, and huge wars that disrupt daily life to an unprecedented degree.

[…] even the medieval aesthetics of the show owes a debt to the 16th and 17th centuries. As any scholar of the The Fairie Queene will tell you, Renaissance literature is replete with tales of chivalry, jousting, dragon-slaying, and magic. Writers from Spencer to Cervantes displayed and abiding fascination with these medieval tropes precisely because they were witnessing their demise. And our modern conception of the Middle Ages, which emerged out of the Victorians’ fascination with Neo-Gothic and Pre-Raphaelite aesthetics, was actually based upon these early modern retellings of medieval life.

So why, outside of dorky pedantry, does any of this matter? Because fantasy worlds are never just fantasy. They appeal to us because they refract our own histories and speak to contemporary interests. George R.R. Martin’s fantasy has grown to enormous popularity in part because of its modernity, not its “medieviality.”

Scene 8: Back at Winterfell, we get to see Tormund’s brilliant face he puts on when he looks at Brienne:

To me this is adorable rather than creepy because though Tormund is a sex pest, it feels like this comes from a place of respect and genuine adoration. Also Brienne could dispatch him devastatingly before he knew what was happening and he absolutely knows it. 

Actually this scene is where Sansa delivers her burn to Littlefinger, but onwards!

Scene 9: The unforgivable casting and all-round existence of Ed Sheeran aside, this scene was bad because of the insufferably one-dimensional laid-on-thick Simple Honest Country Blokeness of the Lannister soldiers. Arya is obviously considering whether or not to kill them, do you think? But they are so Nice she reconsiders. 

The fact that she is still more than capable of affection, forming relationships, caring about people and so on, as also witnessed by that actor mother figure she befriended last season, indicates that despite ongoing trauma (actor murdered horribly in front of her, like all her friends) she is not the cold psycho she sometimes pretends she is. She is not Cersei (yet anyway). This is the point of this scene. Also to confirm that she is working through her list and Cersei is next. 

Scene 10: More redemption of traumatised killer characters! The Hound is riding with the Brotherhood Without Banners in a frozen bucolic twilight. What an adorable combo! Lines like “Why are you always in such a foul mood?” “Experience” and “There is no Divine Justice, you dumb cunt. If there was, you’d be dead” indicate that the BwB bring out the best in my bff @lasophus’ favourite character. They stop at the place where The Hound robbed those innocent country folk a few seasons back, as we were reminded of in the excitingly scored Previously sequence at the beginning. They have subsequently died of starvation-related causes as he and Arya predicted they would at the time. The Hound is now sorry and sees a vision in the flames of the Army of the Dead and buries the bodies of his victims and says some adorable words over them. The Hound’s redemption story is much more moving and interesting and spiritual than Jaime’s (a plotline I name “Choozy the Floozy” because of its Manichean orbit around his two love interests Evil Cersei and Good Brienne). But meanwhile the dramatic irony is killing us viewers at home! That poor little girl and her dad are going to rise as wights!! 

Scene 11: Sam fails to impress by finding out in the stolen restricted classified high-importance books that he was sent to the Citadel to read something that Stannis already told everyone but they ignored because he was too boring to listen to (what a merciful death that was at the hands of Can She Do No Wrong Brienne): Dragonstone needs to become an opencast Dragonglass mine asap. Which is a pity as Dragonstone is such an arresting work in the ‘dragon-brutalist’ style popular at the time of Aegon the Conquerer (which we will be admiring in the next scene but one). Sam fires off a raven to Jon which I hope will not be intercepted by some library rules-stickler maesters. 

Also it’s nice to see Gilly and Little Sam looking so well-dressed and -fed in this scene. Gilly, a sexual abuse survivor subaltern from a wintry hellhole with an evil father and who would otherwise have become an ice zombie by now, is far, far south, in a land where you can still get away with dressing lightly, inside a city which according to awoiaf “is surrounded by massive, thick, high stone walls.” Also their flat looks really nice.

Well done Gilly.

Scene 12: Jorah! Things have not gone well for you! Jorah is an obsessively lovelorn prisoner in a well-regulated, proto-humane leper colony. I guess actually that going to the seat of all worldly learning was a good move, but your terrible disease is going to need more than trolley gruel and a clean cell to be cured. Thankfully Our Sam is wearing gloves when Jorah does his unnecessarily dramatic Ghoul Grab. 

Scene 13: Our queen is coming home and everyone has put on eyeliner for the occasion! The general drift of the season’s wardrobe has been towards a kind of moody, shoulderpads-and-eyemakeup, subdued-charcoal-tones vibe. Everyone is looking great. Especially Cersei actually when she was receiving (at safe distance) Euron, and now Daenerys is looking wonderful too, with fine dragony detailing on her the tips of her shoulderpads. Actually Sansa had this look too, “Goth Military Queen” is clearly going to be massive this season. 

Daenerys has a moving moment with the Westerosi sand when she comes ashore. We have been waiting 6 seasons for this. Oh my god. 

I hope all the dragonglass mining won’t damage these amazing rock formations too much! 

This scene is mainly going to be recapped in screenshots.

A gorgeous example of Early Modern Dragon Brutalism.

Art throne

Fucking YES!

[stickyyouthstudent]

General election 2017: IFS says Tories offering five years of austerity and Labour's plans 'would not work' – politics live

As election campaign resumes, Labour leader to draw link between UK foreign policy and terror attacks, and criticise Tories over police cuts

The Snap: sign up for our daily election email and read today’s

9.05am BST

You can watch the IFS briefing live here.

Carl Emmerson, the IFS deputy director, is speaking now.

9.01am BST

The Institute for Fiscal Studies is about to publish its analysis of party election manifestos at a briefing in Westminster.

According to the summary sent out under embargo until 9am, their verdict on the Tory and Labour plans is highly critical.

Neither Conservatives nor Labour are properly spelling out consequences of their policy proposals.

The Conservatives have very few tax or spending commitments in their manifesto. Additional funding pledges for the NHS and schools are just confirming that spending would rise in a way broadly consistent with the March Budget. These plans imply at least another five years of austerity, with the continuation of planned welfare cuts and serious pressures on the public services including on the NHS. They could allow the deficit to shrink over time with no additional tax rises over the coming parliament. But getting to budget balance by the mid-2020s, their stated aim, would likely require more spending cuts or tax rises even beyond the end of the next parliament.

8.51am BST

In his speech Jeremy Corbyn says: “Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home.”

This is a reference to the evidence emerged after the Iraq war, partly in the Chilcot inquiry but also elsewhere, showing that Tony Blair was warned by the intelligence services that invading the country would increase the terrorist threats.

The JIC assessed that al-Qaida and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq.

The JIC assessed that any collapse of the Iraqi regime would increase the risk of chemical and biological warfare technology or agents finding their way into the hands of terrorists, not necessarily al-Qaida.

Our involvement in Iraq radicalised a few among a generation of young people who saw [it] as an attack upon Islam.

8.41am BST

For the record, here are the extracts from Jeremy Corbyn’s speech released in advance.

On fighting terror threats generally

This is my commitment to our country.

I want the solidarity, humanity and compassion that we have seen on the streets of Manchester this week to be the values that guide our government. There can be no love of country if there is neglect or disregard for its people.

To keep you and your family safe, our approach will involve change at home and change abroad.

At home, Labour will reverse the cuts to our emergency services and police. Once again in Manchester, they have proved to be the best of us.

We will also change what we do abroad. Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home.

That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and held to account for their actions.

8.30am BST

This is what Ben Wallace, the security minister, said about the speech that Jeremy Corbyn is giving later today, extracts from which have been briefed in advance.

First of all, I think [Corbyn’s] timing is incredibly disappointing and crass given there is a live police operation ... This is why his timing is also appalling, because I don’t think the substance of what he says is correct at all.

8.23am BST

Q: Do you accept that the Iraq war contributed to this?

No, says Wallace. The person responsible was the terrorist.

8.21am BST

Q: Jeremy Corbyn will criticise cuts to the police in a speech today. Some 19,000 police posts have gone. Have the cuts gone too far?

Wallace says Corbyn’s timing is “incredibly disappointing and crass”.

8.19am BST

Q: Are companies like Facebook letting terrorists off the hook?

Wallace says the government thinks they can do more.

8.18am BST

Q: NHS England have told trauma units to be on standby. Have they given specific information about threats?

Wallace says that is predominantly precautionary.

8.12am BST

Sarah Montague is interviewing Ben Wallace.

8.10am BST

Good morning. I’m taking over from Claire.

Ben Wallace, the security minister, is about to be interviewed on the Today programme.

8.04am BST

Andrew Sparrow is now picking up the live blog.

A reminder: you can sign up here to receive our daily election briefing email, the Snap.

8.03am BST

Today is what the Fair Funding for All Schools campaign is calling a national day of action against cuts in funding.

Caroline Lucas, the Green co-leader seeking re-election in Brighton Pavilion, will be speaking at one rally on her home turf this afternoon, and her party has also set out plans to boost school funding by £7bn each year by 2022.

The Tories’ plans for our schools will leave teachers stressed and stretched, and risk our children’s education. PTAs are already fundraising to pay for essential equipment like pens and glue sticks; the situation is getting desperate.

7.51am BST

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will publish their manifesto today, with a focus on Brexit and what they will say is the need for a second referendum ahead of any deal that could “wreck the future for our children, our economy and our schools and hospitals”.

Leader Mark Williams – who was, until the dissolution, the party’s only Westminster MP in Wales – will launch the manifesto promising that voters should have the chance to reject any deal and instead stay within the EU.

7.22am BST

Lord Carlile, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has been speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme about how authorities can deal with those suspected of having links to extremism.

He says it was a “grave mistake” for the coalition government to remove control orders.

There was a political resistance to imposing these orders on people who were reasonably suspected of being terrorists.

The use of Tpims has increased since the 2015 election from about zero to seven today.

It’s very easy to say we need more police … I do not believe the number of police officers is the central issue.

7.20am BST

Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, has been on Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of Jeremy Corbyn’s speech later this morning about the links between British foreign policy and terror attacks.

Gardiner says the Labour leader’s argument is a nuanced one:

There is no simple causal relationship … We need profoundly to reassess the ways in which there are linkages.

Libya is a country in which we intervened … what we did there was made a military intervention and then withdrew and that country has been in chaos.

The pattern that we’ve seen time and again has been one in which military intervention has gone in hard but then lost its way … Look back to Iraq, look back to Afghanistan … the stabilisation of a country is so important.

Absolutely clearly the responsibility for these atrocities is with those who have perpetrated them … but they use these things as an excuse.

These are people who simply want to destroy our way of life … There is no negotiating with these people.

6.58am BST

Schools in England will face real-terms funding cuts for years to come if the Conservatives win the general election, according to analyses by two thinktanks. The figures show year-on-year falls over the coming parliamentary term despite a Conservative manifesto promise to redirect £1bn in additional funding to state schools by slashing free school meals for infants.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said school funding would fall by nearly 3% by 2021, even with the additional £1bn a year, after adjusting for inflation and a rise in students enrolled.

Related: Schools face years of funding cuts if Tories win election, say reports

6.36am BST

Welcome back to the politics live blog as national campaigning restarts after a pause in the wake of the Manchester terror attack.

I’m Claire Phipps with what you need to know today, and the early news. Our live Manchester coverage continues here.

Good counter-terrorism is when you have close relationships between the policing and intelligence services. That is what we have … It’s also about making sure we get in early on radicalisation. But it’s not about those pure numbers on the street.

our foreign policy reduces rather than increases the threat to this country … Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home.

That assessment in no way reduces the guilt of those who attack our children. Those terrorists will forever be reviled and held to account for their actions. But an informed understanding of the causes of terrorism is an essential part of an effective response that will protect the security of our people that fights rather than fuels terrorism.

Exc: Times/YouGov poll would give the Tories an overall maj of TWO (down from working maj of 17) if swing repeated uniformly across Britain

It would have been unedifying, to say the least, to watch Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn squabble as the body count was still rising – but they must now join a conversation that has already started without them. Even if we consider it opportune to hold our tongue for some amount of time, there’s no way to pause our brain’s ability to form opinions. There’s fierce disagreement about both the cause of this sort of violence and the most effective policy responses … How can we expect these events not to dominate election discourse for the remainder of the campaign period?

A conventional interpretation will settle about this terrible week, in which Mrs May was saved from her botched manifesto by the need to be prime ministerial in response to an atrocity. The temporary suspension of campaigning, it will be said, came at the ideal moment for her and changed the subject from social care to security, on which she is strong and Mr Corbyn is weak.

It’s always a mistake to read the election up so close, though. Almost all elections are won by fundamental questions determined long in advance of the campaign itself. When Jo Cox was murdered during the European referendum campaign there were confident predictions about its impact. In the event, there was no impact. The campaign had been going on for 40 years.

. @jreynoldsMP got his first ever tattoo done to raise money for the victims of the Manchester bombing, then got caught by his mum: http://pic.twitter.com/kHHb7G37TG

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