#Speedbump crisis

[madlori]

Ok, 8x06 spec

Now that my heart rate has somewhat returned to normal, here's my thoughts on what's gonna go down in two weeks.

The way Oliver's spoken about whatever speedbump he and Tommy are about to encounter makes it sound like Buck sort of creates the crisis in his own mind. He talks about how Buck can get up in his own head a bit, and spiral about things. That is also very in character for Buck. Heck, he did that when Tommy was hanging out with Eddie.

This makes me think that whatever he finds out about Tommy's past, it's not going to be something that makes him think "Do I want to be in a relationship with this person," but more like "Does this person want to be in a relationship with ME?"

(Also, after 8x05 it's very clear what kind of person the show is writing Tommy to be, so I doubt they'd have some revelation come out that reflects poorly on him)

Given we've been told that Buck works this out with the help of Maddie and Josh, this makes me think that whatever he learns about Tommy has to do with his past relationships, or his identity as a gay man. Suggestions have been made that they run into an ex of Tommy's, who makes Buck feel inadequate. Or that Tommy HAS no exes, and Buck is his first serious relationship, which makes Buck feel the pressure of being that first one. I particularly liked a suggestion that Tommy had a long term relationship end not too long ago, not by his choice, and Buck worries he's a rebound or a consolation prize.

The common thread here is that he learns something about Tommy's past that is not in and of itself bad, but it sends Buck on a doomscroll in his brain. That's very Buck, and something he'd need to be talked off the ledge about, and Maddie's his go-to person for that - the addition of Josh implies the need for a gay man to weigh in.

I've had the thought that it might be connected to Buck's evolving concept of his own sexuality, but it's hard to imagine something he could learn about Tommy that would spur that kind of introspection, I mean, he already knows that he was closeted until fairly late in life. Not ruling that out, though.

The bottom line is that I don't think this is going to be a revelation that's going to have Tommy crying mea culpa and Buck deciding whether or not to forgive or overlook some troubling transgression. That feels out of step with how they're approaching this. I think it's much more likely that it's something Buck turns into an issue inside his head, and through them talking about it, they'll be able to reach a new level of commitment to each other.

[biasbuck]

BiAsBuck’s ficrec Fridays

I actually did start drafting this yesterday but then my day got derailed by moustacheddie. Back again with another round of the fic I've been reading this week! You can find previous rec lists here.

27 July 2024

if you leave the light on by cloudydaisies is a post-canon fic that skips the messy bits and goes straight to a place where Buck and Eddie are free to be with each other. Though of course nothing is ever that straightforward, and here the speedbump comes in the form of an extended jeep engine light metaphor that works so beautifully. A delicious slow burn, in which Buck trusts Eddie when he says he can fix his truck and it's best to just stay with him and carpool until it's ready. Some really really lovely romance.

loves a game, wanna play? by @exhuastedpigeon have I ever seen a single episode of Love Island? No! Did that stop me enjoying the heck out of this wonderfully indulgent and fun fic. Absolutely not. In an effort to get Eddie out of his post-canon summer without Chris funk, Buck convinces him to sign up to Love Island with him. Has Eddie seen Love Island? No. Will that stop him from finding the love that's been right in front of him all along (and get a tan whilst he's at it?) Absolutely not! So funny and playful. A genuine and utter delight.

Drink in Hand by EiraLloyd a Hen POV Eddie coming out fic, with bonus Karen. In which Eddie kisses a guy at a bar and likes it:

She asks, “How bad is this going to be?”

Eddie holds out the bottle he’s carrying so she can read the label. “I brought mezcal.”

Translation: I’m having an existential crisis.

How is Hen supposed to turn him away? He brought mezcal.

so much left in store by @lesbianrobin in which Eddie is a single Dad in college, and Buck is the adhd punk kid at the back of the class, but of course he's an absolute baby whisperer. As they quickly become best friends and each other's support systems, Buck lets Eddie into a way to blow of steam...but a small disaster might accidentally lead to firefighters showing up.

all your letters in the sand (cannot heal me like your hand) by @dadbodbuck ok a sharp left turn into some hard angst here, so heed the trigger warnings and make sure you're safe when reading, this explores an on the page suicide attempt and subsequent recovery. In the wake of his mistakes and struggling with Chris' absence, Eddie's mental health rapidly declines. Buck and Tommy are there to catch him and offer a safe space to land. Not sugarcoated, this is crunchy and painful to read at times, but the love shines through, and though it's not a simple or easy journey, Eddie finds the support he needs to let professionals help him.

With a Friend in the Dark by Uncertainty_Principle and apparently I was in an angsty mood whilst fighting off this stupid cold because I also really loved this S3 post lawsuit, nobody is speaking to him, 'what if Buck found out his clots were lukemia' fic. Poor Buck just can't get the words out when he needs them, stuck in a miscommunication nightmare, and with a childhood secret about to blow up in his face. Maddie and Chim step in and soon the 118 realise just what the price is of holding on to anger. Just so much emotional whiplash. Whilst part one is complete, the follow up fic is a wip in progress now!

Maybe We're Strong by @ponyregrets finally it's time for some buddie meets The Good Place crossover fic, in which Bobby is Michael and Buck and Eddie are trying to figure out how they ended up in the good place when they've barely even lived their lives yet, Eddie's still in the army and Buck has been travelling but was thinking about maybe being a firefighter. Putting the firefam in this dynamic just works so well!

[antimatterpod]

Anika and Liz hit a speedbump with their recording schedule (stupid jobs) and then hit a speedbump with Prodigy in the form of ... two episodes that we did not entirely love? Is that even possible? We're here to talk about episodes 6 and 7 of Star Trek: Prodigy's second season: "Identity Crisis" and "The Fast and the Curious"...

We’re not NOT shipping Gwyn/Ma’jel

Both of these episodes are mainly about putting the pieces in place and setting up threads for later

What type of characters are allowed to be audacious and ambitious? 

Does Prodigy have a problem with body diversity and same-face? 

Zero/Ma’jel and the power of being chosen by someone instead of being thrown together by circumstances

Anika has a new favourite Andorian

Dr Noum: great at work-life balance, maybe not so great at … his job

“I’m going to say something controversial and brave.”

[avelera]

#what a concept#I wonder if hob would get flashbacks to say 1589 and not being able to hold dream's attention#maybe they've been together a couple of decades and gotten into certain rhythms#we've seen dream in the comics be very intense in the beginning but then drift back to creating for long periods of time#a sort of honeymoon period if you will#hob loves his life in the waking so he's totally okay with this and is content doing his own thing for maybe even months at a time...#...until he suddenly starts wondering if this isn't just the relationship naturally cooling down a little and it's actually dream losing#interest in him. I wonder if he'd start doing all sorts of things to get dream's supposedly waning interest back#like being extra romantic or even just trying to be different and more interesting#heck maybe even trying an art or creative type job thinking about how much dream values that (he knows him well by now) or even thinking#about how calliope was dream's longest relationship and was that maybe because for a long time they were creating together?#dream is totally oblivious of course. and changes nothing about his behaviour which possibly does hit hob hard for a moment thinking dream#really is losing interest#yeah hob is very resilient and good at change but he is very emotional and does get to pretty bad places often when bad stuff happens to hi#as for hob still being hob... I wonder if that would be hard in practice?#hob has almost never been himself for long periods of time that we know of. even at the meetings he's telling dream about his century and#still playing a character basically#I wonder if it would be hard to have to reinvent himself and be a different person and then come home to dream and be himself#I wonder if sometimes he meets dream and still has a mask on.#much to think about - @sb-essebi

These tags are so thought-provoking! Love the idea that Hob is always sort of playing a character, at what point does that mask feel like a second skin? At what point are you the mask?

And I know the temptation in a sort of fluffy fic would be for Hob and Dream to hit the first speedbump of Dream's hyperfixation meaning they go months apart and Hob has a crisis and does silly stuff to get his attention back and then at some point they have a conversation and figure it out.

But man, to me it would be so interesting to see (or write... oh no, new oneshot idea...) a scenario where Dream realizes it's been months since he last saw Hob or checked in on him and *he* is starting to have Alianora flashbacks, and assumes Hob would be the one to move on only for Hob, in true centennial meeting fashion, to greet him with the biggest smile like nothing is wrong at all, yeah, he gets it, the older he gets the easier it is for him too to get really focused on a project and not realize that months or even years have gone by.

Like, I'd love to see/write a scenario where they're a middle aged couple and then some, like their periods of puttering around the house, doing their own thing is actually beyond the normal mortal span, and Dream is stunned to learn that no, Hob isn't upset. And not, he's not drifting away either. They're just very much their own people who live a really fucking long time but Hob will always be there and overjoyed to see Dream again. Dream needs some time to himself? Awesome, Hob's got his own stuff too, they can reconvene for a dinner date at the end of the week (or year) and it'll be like no time has passed at all because that's love, baby. He did it for hundreds of years, he's got plenty of practice, and if it means Dream not feeling suffocated or inadequate, all the better.

Just... weird immortals, ok? Weird immortals who don't act like a clingy teenage couple. Weird immortals whose sense of time is totally fucking bizarre at times. Weird immortals who basically adhd/autistic and both have their hyperfixations in the dream world and the waking world and are actually relieved to be with someone who understands and that they won't lose over the fact. Maybe before Hob had to sort of hyperfixate on his partner because they were with him such a relatively brief time, he sort of made them his special interest, or he spent long years doing a project instead, but didn't really have relationships when the relationship wasn't the focus of that lifetime. And now he's got both. It's super weird and he's also nervous about fucking it up, but learning Dream is nervous and might also lose track of time and show up in a year apologizing about missing dinner last night might be, I dunno, in some ways more romantic than your standard flowers/chocolate/every-moment-spent-together fluff?

Plot bunny idea but… what if Hob has an identity crisis after he and Dream have dated more than 30 years?

Like his relationships have always had an expiration date when he has to fake his death and leave or otherwise abandon the other person. Maybe there were a few exceptions where he stays with someone who “knows” until they get old but even then the relationship changes, inevitably.

He’s never been with someone as unchanging as him.

Would it be a little terrifying? A lot terrifying? It’s as close to “actually grow old with someone” as he can get, with the whole “not growing old at all” thing. They’re aging at the same pace, something he’s not even had to think about as an option in almost 700 years.

Suddenly it’s not about making the most of your brief time together, it’s a marathon not a sprint. It’s continuing to be interesting. It’s accepting the change in someone else when it’s a much slower to near nonexistent change and it’s not defined by aging the way the others were.

Even if Hob is resilient and bounces back quickly or even sees this as a good thing, an amazing thing, that’s gotta hit hard at some point, right?

Edit: I should add, what if it’s not just being with the same person, it’s being the same person with that person? Like, every 10-30 years, Hob becomes a new person by necessity, one would assume (this is admittedly somewhat more fanon than canon but it follows logically that any immortal with a day job would have to switch it up from time to time to stay under the radar).

On the one hand, I’m the first to say that Hob is probably overjoyed to be with someone who knows who he is and who has constantly known who he is through all his eras and personalities.

But even then, those were for very brief meetings.

Does Hob have an identity crisis when he’s Hob and he’s still Hob with Dream 30 years later? When he can’t escape from himself, when the joy of having that one person with whom he can always be himself, his literal self without lying about his age or accomplishments or failures, is great and wonderful but also really uncanny valley strange for him all of a sudden? He could always escape his old baggage, except at the centennial meetings but those were so brief. (Heh, get it, brief lives oh no…)

Hob hasn’t had to deal with someone knowing his embarrassing childhood memories in over 600 years. It’s great but also must be so weird to have a partner who knew you back when and back when is the 1380s. No one alive knows he was called Hobsie once except Dream. There is no escaping the Hobsie allegations the way he once could in a few decades minus the occasional centennial meeting. It’s great but it must be so weird.

[ensignalang]

Bridge Log: Time is screwy

-Tricorder pings -

Campbell: We just got a reply from Tuvok’s comm badge.

Lang: It’s been almost 2 hours.

Campbell: Wow - has it really been that long?

Jenkins, musing: Time is moving really really slowly out there.

Lang: Or we’re moving really, really quickly in here.

Jenkins: Fair point. So by my calculations for every day that we experience in the bubble Tuvok is experiencing… a little under half a second?

Campbell: So if he was starting to blink when then bubble formed, he will finish blinking about this time tomorrow?

Jenkins: Yeah, that’s what it looks like. Alright let’s put this information to good use. Maybe we can streamline the sensor request data enough to get a timely reply if we send the message directly to engineering via the ODN relay.

Lang: Worth a try, but I was thinking that we may have more success with the internal sensors. There is a main control module between decks two and three so our initiation command doesn’t have to go as far and at this time of day most of the crew are in the residential sections of the ship and that’s far closer to us than much of what the external scanners look for.

Jenkins: Let’s do it. I know I’d feel a lot better if we could confirm that the rest of the crew is alright.  You keep making progress on the external sensors.  I’ll translate the progress we’ve made to the internal sensors and see if it’s enough to get some readings.

[lyssacampbell-blog]

Bridge Log: Impact

Jenkins: What the hell was that? 

Lang: Did we hit something? 

Campbell: I don’t think so there was nothing on the sensors a second ago. 

Jenkins: What are your orders Commander?  Commander? 

Lang: Commander Tuvok? 

Campbell: Reaches over her station to touch the unresponsive Sir? Shit ow! There’s something in front of him. 

Lang: What? 

Campbell: When I tried to touch him, I couldn’t reach him. I hit something before I got to Tuvok. 

Jenkins: Like a force field? 

Campbell: No. It was much harder than a force field and it didn’t feel at all electric. 

Lang: Leaves her station to head towards Tuvok. You physically can’t reach him? About a half a meter away from Tuvok she recoils as if she ran into something landing hard, on her back. Ouch!  What is that?

Campbell: You OK? 

Lang: Yea. I’m fine.  You weren’t kidding Lyssa that felt like I ran into a brick wall.

Jenkins: Ensign Jenkins to Captain Janeway. ... Captain Janeway please respond. Ensign Jenkins to Commander Chakotay. Ensign Jenkins to anyone on Voyager, please respond.

...

Lang: Tuvok’s not moving.  Lyssa have you seen him move?

Campbell: I haven’t seen him move either.  I don’t even see any sign that he’s breathing. But he’s still on his feet and he looks perfectly fine. 

Jenkins: All right, leave him for now. We need to make sure the ship is okay and try to figure out what just happened. Lyssa, did the sensors pick up anything? 

Campbell: Nothing before the impact, but...huh, that’s odd. I’m not getting any new sensor readings. And I’m not getting any error messages either.

Jenkins: The helm controls are malfunctioning too. I’m not getting any errors, but I can’t get the computer to show me current data for the warp core or impulse engines. 

Lang: I’m not receiving any damage or injury reports, but I can’t get a current status from any system. 

Jenkins: What in the world just happened to us?

[juniortjenkins]

Bridge Log: Analysis

-Lang, Campbell and Jenkins are gathered around the large panel at the rear of the bridge-

Lang: Okay, Let’s recap what we’ve learned so far. We were traveling on a clear route through normal space when we… hit something. And now we seem to be in an invisible bubble. Well, the three of us anyway. She glances back at Tuvok’s unmoving form. Tuvok appears to be on the outside of it.  The bubble is in red; and Tuvok is the green dot. I opened the turbolift doors, but found the bottom of the bubble was only about 2 meters below us.

Campbell: Internal sensors, external sensors, environmentals, helm control, communications well all the ships systems are malfunctioning in some unexplained way. They seem like they’re fine, but they can’t give us any new data and new commands are accepted by the system, but they don’t seem to do anything.

Jenkins: They must be working on autonomously because we’re still getting oxygen, the artificial gravity is working and we can see Tuvok outside the bubble.  Even if we can’t get through it, and his side of things looks okay too. All right. Let’s think this through. We know that this happened suddenly. Lyssa did anything unusual appear on the sensors?

Campbell: No, both short and long range scans didn’t show any signs of spatial or temporal anomalies, but we can only scan for the ones we know about so we can’t rule out that there was something in this part of space that we’ve never seen before.

Jenkins: Good point.

Lang: I don’t think this is some kind of attack. I can’t rule it out, but the Laetheans gave us really good information about these sectors and they didn’t mention anyone with a weapon capable of this kind of thing. Plus if someone was trying to disable and then attack us, they probably would have done so by now. Groups that use disabling weapons attack the bridge of the ship quickly. Something like 80% of the time.  They don’t want their quarry to have time to find a way out of the trap.

Jenkins: Lyssa, what do you think?

Campbell: I think Audrey’s right. We’ve seen so many things that were previously unknown to science in this quadrant.

Jenkins: That’s my feeling too. So the question becomes what kind of phenoma are we dealing with here?

Lang: Do you hear that?

Jenkins: Is that the tricorder?  

Campbell: It is the tricorder. I didn’t even realize I’d left it open.  You remember the medical scan of Tuvok I tried to do right after the impact? Well it just finished. 

Jenkins: What do you mean “just finished”?

Campbell: Here, have a look.  It shows Tuvok is alive, no sign of life threatening injuries.

Jenkins: Well that’s good news at least, but it the scan took 4 hours and 56 minutes. It usually takes 1/10th of a second right?

Campbell: Or less.

Lang: There’s another tricorder under my station.  Let’s make sure that one is working correctly… Diagnostic scans and the self diagnostic both show that the tricorder is working correctly.

Campbell: I believe it.  The replicator in the Captain’s ready room is working and at its normal speed. Thank goodness for that.  I was starving.

Jenkins: Speed… Normal speed…

Lang: TJ, you think this is a temporal phenomena?

Jenkins: I’m starting to.  It would explain why things seem fine on both sides of the bubble.

Lang: So are we in a bubble dimension? If we were in a different timeline, we shouldn’t be able to see Tuvok.

Campbell: When I was a kid, my physics tutor pointed out to me that even though air molecules vibrate back and forth at a few hundred miles per hour, if you could run fast enough there would be a point where the air molecules were no longer moving fast enough to get out of your way and you would literally bump into the air in front of you. I think maybe we’re in the same time line, but time is moving at different speeds. I think time is moving orders of magnitude faster in here then it is for Tuvok over there.

Lang: That would explain why the bubble is so rigid.

Jenkins: And a good number of the issues we’re seeing with the ships systems. They aren’t actually damaged, they just haven’t had enough time to reply to our commands.

Lang: Well they could be damaged, right?  They just haven’t gotten the readings to us? Or.. do we know that things are OK because we’ve got power and environmentals?

Campbell: I have the hardest time getting my head around temporal problems. I always get a headache.

Jenkins: Let’s focus on getting some information we can use to get us out of this. Lyssa, take the tricorder up to your station and put it as close to Tuvok as you can.  Then ask it to ping Tuvok’s comm badge. That usually takes what 1/10000th of a second?  That should tell us how big the time differential is.  Once that’s set up, see what you can do with the communications systems. Look for anyway we could send messages faster, or use smaller packets to send messages.

Campbell: Got it.

Jenkins: Audrey, let’s see if we can make any headway with the external sensors. If there is an anomaly out there, I want to find it.

[skarletterambles]

After my hours at work were slashed due to my prolonged absence with Covid (which is itself a shitty thing), I got on a state health care assistance program. It covered pretty much everything, or had a miniscule (<$5) copay. It was wonderful. For the first time since I aged off my parents' insurance, I didn't have to worry about a single injury or illness wiping out my bank account.

When I had emergency surgery followed by like five days in the hospital last summer, I never saw a bill. It was just taken care of, and I could concentrate on healing instead of panicking about the cost. I felt so blessed.

Urgent care clinic visits? Paid for.

Emergency room visits? Paid for.

My every-other-week visits to my therapist? Paid for.

My GP wants more blood work to see how new meds are working? Paid for.

Need to see a specialist for a consult? Paid for.

It was a Godsend. I could actually get the care I needed, when I needed it, without considering the cost. After the missed work and health care bills from Covid drained my bank account to the lowest point it had been since I got my first job in 2001, that was a huge load off my mind.

I had to fight tooth and nail for months to get my hours back at work, to the point where lawyers were about to get involved. Long story. But I finally got back to where I was before Covid, working 19 hours a week. Great!

Except it wasn't great, because it put me back over the amount I can earn and remain on the state assistance program. I got the letter today saying my coverage will stop July 1st.

I'm devastated. I'm livid. I feel like I literally cannot afford to live.

I'm already living with my parents (who are aging and have their own health problems) and with the economy and inflation the way they are (and the housing situation here being what it is) there's no hope of having my own place anytime soon--even without this health care mess!

For a variety of health reasons I am not able to work full time. The part time job I do have is my career, my passion, the place I belong, and where I have worked for over twenty years.

God have mercy on me and any other person who cannot afford to exist in this time and place. It's a travesty that in 2024, with the amazing medical technology that exists, a single adult with a regular job cannot afford to access it.

Yes, I'll go on the Healthcare Marketplace and look for a plan that I can afford that gives me somewhat of a buffer between a medical crisis and bankruptcy. But that's all it is. A speedbump on the road to financial ruin.

I don't expect to get everything for free, although it was amazing while it lasted. But there's really no middle ground between "Oh gosh, you're so poor we won't charge you anything" and "Haha, you need an MRI scan, blood work, I.V. medication, an emergency room visit, and almost a week in the hospital? Hand over your life's savings, sucker."

It's just one more symptom of the rot at the heart of modern America. It's all about making the 1% richer, and screw the rest of us. I don't want a yacht, a private jet, or an overseas vacation home. I just want to live a normal, modest existence in which I can work for a living and thus afford basic dignities. Health care should be a human right, not a luxury.

I'd say "eat the rich" but they're so full of fat, drugs, and bullshit that we'd just get sick and need to visit a hospital, defeating the purpose.

It's times like this I really wish I had the resources to move to a place that has a proper health care system, less bigotry, and less gun violence. Somewhere where "all human beings deserve a roof over their head and medical care, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, health, addictions, neurodivergence, employment, skin color, and political leanings" isn't an explosively controversial statement. Somewhere where billionaires and trillionaires don't exist and megacorporations aren't killing the planet.

Maybe Norway. My great-grandfather was born there. I've never been there and don't speak the language but I'd figure something out. (Kidding...mostly.)

I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system. I hate the American health care system.

I hate the American health care system.

I hate the American health care system.

I hate the American health care system.

[starblaster]

i know we talk a lot about words and phrases that get used inappropriately but there are way too many people who don’t know what they mean when they say they’re having an “existential crisis”

[justheretobreakthings]

So. Hi. Been a while, huh?

I apologize if my disappearance had caused any worry. It’s been a rough few weeks. There was a lot colliding all at once, especially with school stress, health problems, and family issues.

Then we ran into major financing problems with the aroace!Keith zine, and it kind of tipped me over the edge, I guess. Left me feeling like a failure and needing to step away from the internet for a while for the sake of my mental health.

If you’re following the zine’s tumblr you’ll have noticed that there’s been changes to the end product. No physical zines, for one thing. Different release date. And no charity tie, which is, I think, the thing I feel most guilty about. Me being unable to set up any way to take payments means that what was supposed to be a charity zine can’t make a charity donation. Which, you know. Sucks.

That’s certainly not to say that the zine doesn’t have its own value. We were able to create that aroace!Keith representation, and do a fantastic job of it - the writers and artists on the zine came up with some utterly beautiful creations for the zine, and I’ve been moved both by their completed works and their patience and understanding with the speedbumps and roadblocks we’ve encountered.

That gratitude goes double for the mods who helped support both me and the zine, especially @heymynameismolly-jk who was willing to take on so much of the zine’s creation and management and who stepped up to the plate and kept the project moving in my absence. Thank you so much.

In lieu of us being able to take payments for the zine, I still want to encourage you, if you are able, to make a donation to The Trevor Project. They’re a great charity that I’ve personally gone to before in times of crisis, and was met with validation and genuine care.

For now, I’m going to be trying to gradually ease myself back into online spaces. I think some time in the next couple of weeks I may attempt one of those prompt memes or something, see if I can churn out a few bitty little fic snippets of a couple hundred words apiece. Something to try getting back into writing and just interacting again, so that maybe I can also start working again on getting requests and bingo spaces filled, updating ongoing projects, and the like. We’ll see what the coming days bring.

Thank you for your support.

Also, Griff says hi.

[schraubd]

Trump and the Conservative Judiciary's Legitimacy Crisis

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a series of cases testing the authority of government to exercise oversight over Donald Trump. Trump has bitterly resisted turning over certain documents to congressional and state regulators, despite most legal commentators viewing his arguments as frivolous. Now, historically it has not been the case that a SCOTUS hearing bodes well for an incumbent president on matters such as these. Just ask Richard Nixon or Bill Clinton. But there is a lot of anxiety in legal circles that this might be different. As Scott Lemieux put it: "Supreme Court to indicate exactly how deeply it's in the tank for Donald Trump." One thought I've been turning over in my head is the possibility that, in a very real sense, the very legitimacy of the conservative judiciary -- especially (though not exclusively) Trump appointees -- is bound up in them ruthlessly dismissing any legal argument that might delegitimize the Trump administration. This is not something that's been true of every administration. It's probably a myth to have ever thought of a court as wholly apolitical. But I don't think Bush-appointed judges necessarily thought ruling against the Bush administration threatened their legitimacy; ditto for Obama-appointed judges re: Obama. The big difference is that with Trump, the issue isn't the possibility that here or there administrative actions fell outside the authority of the law (something that will happen to all administrations, at least periodically). It's not even a matter of losing a "signature issue" (as with, say, Obama and the Affordable Care Act). With Trump, the judiciary is repeatedly confronting legal questions that cut to the heart of his basic status as a legitimate leader of a democratic state. Legitimate in the sense of not being a naked avatar of White Supremacy, as in the Muslim ban and immigration cases. Legitimate in the sense of not being a cesspit of pure corruption, as in the Ukraine/Russia and tax returns cases. It's even more extensive of a legitimacy crisis tham the Clinton or Nixon cases, because with Trump it isn't a discrete case of (serious) illicit conduct, but the possibility that his entire administration is a corrupt, bigoted enterprise. If you're person whose authority to exercise the judicial power comes from an appointment by Donald Trump, and Donald Trump entire presidency is fundamentally delegitimated as either a racist or corrupt criminal endeavor, that starts to crack the foundations of one's own authority. What does it mean for, say, Neomi Rao if her very presence on the bench is attributable to a guy who it turns out is basically a mafia don? One shudders to think. And so it becomes incredibly important for judges in that position to insulate Trump (and by extension, themselves) from that conclusion. Moreover, I think -- while this is more of a stretch -- that this outlook extends to conservative judges who were not appointed by Trump himself. Trump has appointed, by and large, orthodox conservative judges. This is a bit ironic, given that the conservative legal elite prior to 2016 would probably not have comprised Trump's biggest fans -- they were the sorts of conservatives who would have privately and sometimes publicly contended that Trump was a lawless maniac. That Trump has appointed these judges is taken by these orthodox legal conservatives as a welcome surprise. They are resolutely avoiding pondering what it means if the man who they well know thinks of rule-of-law as an speedbump also thinks that the ideal judges to have on the bench are judges who think and act just like them. What this means is that Trumpism has effectively tied itself to the orthodox conservative legal movement. If Donald Trump had nominated judges of a very different type than those typical of Republican administrations, "smashing the establishment", then the old guard might have turned against them. Instead, like a medieval lord who marries into the family of a rival, he's drawn them inextricably together. The legitimacy of Trump-nominated judges depends on the legitimacy of Trump, and since Trump-nominated judges are generally indistinguishable from other conservative judges, that means that conservative judges generally -- and the entire conservative judicial philosophy -- depends on the legitimacy of Trump too. (A similar issue, I think, explains why Republican politicians have closed ranks so decisively around Trump. The same voters who elected them elected Trump, and declaring Trump a corrupt racist means admitting that the electoral coalition that approves of corrupt racists also chose them. Of course, Republican politicians also have to be re-elected, which means that they have not just "legitimacy"-based but also quite practical interests in pandering to the electoral coalition that supports Trump). This doesn't mean that no conservative or Trump-appointed judge will ever rule against him. But it does suggest that they will be fiercely resistant to making rulings which extend beyond the normal wins-and-losses that all presidential administrations take, and instead suggest a more fundamental rot. They will never rule in a fashion that suggests Trump is a flagrant racist, because that would imply that they were the ideal judicial choice of a racist. They will be loathe to allow investigations that would prove Trump corrupt, because that would imply that they were the preference of lawless, bought-out presidency. The conservative judiciary has to protect Trump in order to protect themselves. Get ready for the wagons to circle once more. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2Ph0KBH

[caustic-pixie]

With another celebrity suicide and the world's outpouring of suicide prevention posts, I wanted to address a particular sub-issue that isn't as openly addressed, especially in light of how a couple of these deaths relate.

If your loved one has committed suicide, it's not your fault and there was nothing you could have been/said more/less of in order to have done it "right" to prevent it.

If your loved one has committed suicide, it was not your job to save them. You haven't failed and you're not a bad friend/parent/sibling/partner/child/coworker/etc. Grieving is complicated and it's easy to wrap all those feelings around guilt and shame as if the right magic words could have somehow fixed the problem - as if we can beat ourselves up for not having the key of order in a chaotic universe - but grieving comes with a LOT of packages of different feelings, and from start to end it is not your fault.

The reason that there are hotlines and posts encouraging you to reach out is because that is all you can do, and you can't even do that 24/7. You have to take care of yourself. You have to survive because even in someone else's crisis, you matter, too. You have to eat, bathe, sleep, work, pay bills - all those Things that seem to pale in comparison to Helping and Protecting, but that are vital to being able to do anything at all.

If you have a loved one who seems like they've become very withdrawn, very impulsive, or is just plain actively suicidal, set up a plan of what you can do - but also a plan of what you can't do. Don't be afraid to ask other people for support. Don't be afraid to involve medical professionals or even the police if you have to. Even when you aren't at the center of a crisis, being close enough to help means you're still in the blast radius, and each person can only endure so much stress before they really must step back.

Anniversaries of good events and of bad events can be rough days to suffer through. Memories, objects, places, people - random shit can be triggering for intrusive thoughts. Intrusive thoughts can be triggering for even MORE intrusive thoughts. Suicide can be culturally contagious among closely-linked folks and small groups; the stigma around mental illness and even just normal negative feelings is a huge speedbump to people talking about these things.

If you're someone who's found themselves thinking a lot/more about suicide lately, seek help. If you're someone carrying around the weight or the emptiness of feeling responsible for another person's life OR death, please, also seek help.

[todaynewsstories]

Turkey’s lira weakens 4 percent, Trump says won’t take pastor’s detention ‘sitting down’

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s battered lira weakened 4 percent on Friday after a Turkish court rejected an American pastor’s appeal for release, drawing a stiff rebuke from President Donald Trump, who said the United States would not take the detention “sitting down”.

The case of Andrew Brunson, an evangelical Christian missionary from North Carolina who has lived in Turkey for two decades, has become a flashpoint between Washington and Ankara and accelerated a widening currency crisis.

The lira has lost nearly 40 percent of its value against the dollar this year as investors fret about President Tayyip Erdogan’s influence over monetary policy.

Heavy selling in recent weeks has spread to other emerging market currencies and global stocks and deepened concerns about the economy, particularly Turkey’s dependence on energy imports and whether foreign-currency debt poses a risk to banks.

“They should have given him back a long time ago, and Turkey has in my opinion acted very, very badly,” Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to Brunson. “So, we haven’t seen the last of that. We are not going to take it sitting down. They can’t take our people.”

Trump’s comments came after a court in Izmir province rejected an appeal to release Brunson from house arrest, saying evidence was still being collected and the pastor posed a flight risk, according to a copy of the court ruling seen by Reuters.

Brunson is being held on terrorism charges, which he denies. Trump, who counts evangelical Christians among his core supporters, has increasingly championed the pastor’s case.

It was not immediately clear what additional measures, if any, Trump could be considering. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Trump in cabinet on Thursday that more sanctions were ready if Brunson were not freed.

The United States and Turkey have imposed tit-for-tat tariffs in an escalating attempt by Trump to induce Erdogan into giving up the pastor. Erdogan has cast the tariffs, and the lira’s sell-off, as an “economic war” against Turkey.

At 1827 GMT the currency TRYTOM=D3 stood at 6.0350 to the dollar, 4 percent weaker after tumbling as much as 7 percent earlier. Turkey’s dollar bonds fell, while the cost of insuring exposure to Turkish debt rose.

As the row deepens, Turkey has reached out to European allies and spoken of improving strained ties with the bloc. On Friday, Finance Minister Berat Albayrak and his French counterpart Bruno Le Maire spoke by telephone.

Albayrak’s ministry said they had discussed U.S. sanctions against Turkey and agreed to act together in responding to such moves and to boost cooperation between their countries.

SPEEDBUMPS

“Diplomatic negotiations hit speedbumps and that’s not unusual in these kinds of situations,” said Jay Sekulow, a personal attorney for Trump who is also representing Brunson’s family. “We remain hopeful there will be a prompt resolution. Having said that, we fully support the president’s approach.”

Whatever action the United States takes looks likely to cause more pain for Turkish assets.

“There has been no improvement in relations with the U.S. and additional sanctions may be on the horizon,” said William Jackson of Capital Economics in a note to clients, adding that the lira could see a downward trend in 2019 and beyond.

Turkey’s banking watchdog has taken steps to stabilize the currency, limiting futures transactions for offshore investors and lowering limits on swap transactions. On Friday, it further broadened those caps.

People change money at a currency exchange office in Istanbul, Turkey August 17, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

But some economists have called for more decisive moves.

Turkey and its firms face repayments of nearly $3.8 billion on foreign currency bonds in October, Societe General has calculated. It estimates Turkey’s short-term external debt at $180 billion and total external debt at $460 billion — the highest in emerging markets.

Companies that for years have borrowed abroad at low interest rates have seen their cost of servicing foreign debt rise by a quarter in lira terms in two months.

Standard & Poor’s is scheduled to release a review of Turkey’s sovereign credit rating late on Friday.

Ratings agency Fitch said the absence of an orthodox monetary policy response to the lira’s fall, and the rhetoric of Turkish authorities, had “increased the difficulty of restoring economic stability and sustainability”.

DEEP CONCERNS

Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law, told investors on Thursday that Turkey would emerge stronger from the currency crisis, insisting its banks were healthy and signaling it could ride out the dispute with Washington.

Economists gave Albayrak’s presentation a qualified welcome and the lira initially found some support, helped by Qatar’s pledge to invest $15 billion in Turkey.

Deep concerns remain about the potential for damage to the economy, however. Turkey is dependent on imports, priced in hard currency, for almost all of its energy needs.

FILE PHOTO: A 100 Turkish lira banknote is seen on top of 50 Turkish lira banknotes in this picture illustration in Istanbul, Turkey August 14, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File Photo

Erdogan has remained defiant, urging Turks to sell their gold and dollars for lira. But foreign currency deposits held by local investors rose to $159.9 billion in the week to Aug. 10, from $158.6 billion a week earlier, central bank data showed.

Turkish markets will be closed from midday on Monday for the rest of the week for the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.

Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay, Tuvan Gumrukcu and Nevzat Devranoglu in Ankara; Karin Strohecker and Claire Milhench in London; Jeff Mason and Karen Freifeld in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones and Catherine Evans

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source link

The post Turkey’s lira weakens 4 percent, Trump says won’t take pastor’s detention ‘sitting down’ appeared first on Today News Stories.

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[newsintodays-blog]

Turkey's lira weakens 4 percent, Trump says won't take pastor's detention 'sitting down'

New Post has been published on http://newsintoday.info/2018/08/17/turkeys-lira-weakens-4-percent-trump-says-wont-take-pastors-detention-sitting-down/

Turkey's lira weakens 4 percent, Trump says won't take pastor's detention 'sitting down'

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s battered lira weakened 4 percent on Friday after a Turkish court rejected an American pastor’s appeal for release, drawing a stiff rebuke from President Donald Trump who said the United States would not take the detention “sitting down”.

The case of Andrew Brunson, an evangelical Christian missionary from North Carolina who has lived in Turkey for two decades, has become a flashpoint of tension between Washington and Ankara and has accelerated a currency crisis that has ricocheted through global financial markets.

The lira has lost nearly 40 percent of its value against the dollar this year, sparking a sell-off in emerging market currencies and weighing on global stocks. The crisis has been precipitated by investor alarm about President Tayyip Erdogan’s influence over monetary policy.

The selling has also deepened concerns about the broader economy, particularly Turkey’s dependence on energy imports and whether foreign-currency debt poses a risk to banks.

“They should have given him back a long time ago, and Turkey has in my opinion acted very, very badly,” Trump told reporters at the White House, referring to Brunson. “So, we haven’t seen the last of that. We are not going to take it sitting down. They can’t take our people.”

Trump’s comments came after a court in Turkey’s western Izmir province rejected an appeal to release Brunson from house arrest, saying evidence was still being collected and the pastor posed a potential flight risk, according to a copy of the court ruling seen by Reuters.

Brunson is being held on terrorism charges, which he denies. Trump, who counts evangelical Christians among his core supporters, has increasingly championed the pastor’s case.

It was not immediately clear what additional measures, if any, Trump could be considering. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Trump at a cabinet meeting on Thursday that more sanctions were ready to be put in place if Brunson were not freed.

The United States and Turkey have exchanged tit-for-tat tariffs in an escalating attempt by Trump to induce Erdogan into giving up the pastor. Erdogan has cast the tariffs, and the sell-off in the lira, as an “economic war” against Turkey.

At 1703 GMT the currency TRYTOM=D3 stood at 6.0450 to the dollar, 4 percent weaker. Earlier in the session it fell as much as 7 percent. Turkish sovereign dollar bonds fell, while the cost of insuring exposure to Turkish debt rose.

SPEEDBUMPS

“Diplomatic negotiations hit speedbumps and that’s not unusual in these kinds of situations,” said Jay Sekulow, a personal attorney for Trump who is also representing Brunson’s family. “We remain hopeful there will be a prompt resolution. Having said that, we fully support the president’s approach.”

Whatever action the United States does take, economists said it looked likely to cause more pain for Turkish assets in the immediate future.

“There has been no improvement in relations with the U.S. and additional sanctions may be on the horizon,” said William Jackson of Capital Economics in a note to clients, adding that the lira could see a downward trend in 2019 and beyond.

Turkey’s banking watchdog has taken steps to stabilize the currency, limiting futures transactions for offshore investors and lowering limits on swap transactions. On Friday, it further broadened those caps.

But some economists have called for more decisive moves.

Turkey and its firms face repayments of nearly $3.8 billion on foreign currency bonds in October, Societe General has calculated. For companies, the cost of servicing foreign debt has risen by a quarter in lira terms in the past two months.

People change money at a currency exchange office in Istanbul, Turkey August 17, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Standard & Poor’s is scheduled to release a review of Turkey’s sovereign credit rating later on Friday.

Ratings agency Fitch said the absence of an orthodox monetary policy response to the lira’s fall, and the rhetoric of Turkish authorities have “increased the difficulty of restoring economic stability and sustainability”.

DEEP CONCERNS

Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law, told investors on Thursday that Turkey would emerge stronger from the currency crisis, insisting its banks were healthy and signaling it could ride out the dispute with Washington.

Economists gave Albayrak’s presentation a qualified welcome and the lira initially found some support, helped by Qatar’s pledge to invest $15 billion in Turkey.

However, deep concerns remain about the potential for damage to the economy. Turkey is dependent on imports, priced in hard currency, for almost all of its energy needs.

For years Turkish firms have borrowed in dollars to take advantage of lower interest rates. But the sell-off has increased the cost of servicing that debt, particularly for companies whose revenues are solely in lira.

Turkey has the highest foreign exchange-denominated debt among emerging markets, Societe Generale said in its note on Friday, estimating its short-term external debt at $180 billion and total external debt at $460 billion.

Erdogan has remained defiant, urging Turks to sell their gold and dollars for lira and describing the crisis as an “economic war”.

FILE PHOTO: A 100 Turkish lira banknote is seen on top of 50 Turkish lira banknotes in this picture illustration in Istanbul, Turkey August 14, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File Photo

Despite that, foreign currency deposits held by local investors rose to $159.9 billion in the week to Aug. 10, from $158.6 billion a week earlier, central bank data showed on Thursday.

Turkish markets will be closed from midday on Monday for the rest of the week for the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival.

Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay, Tuvan Gumrukcu and Nevzat Devranoglu in Ankara; Karin Strohecker and Claire Milhench in London; Jeff Mason and Karen Freifeld in Washington; Editing by Gareth Jones and Toby Chopra

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source link

[ensignalang]

Bridge Log: Knowledge is power

Campbell: TJ, Audrey, come take a look at this. I’ve been mapping the locations of the bubbles as people report in as well as how long it took them to receive the message and for us to receive their reply. I think I found a pattern.  The closer you are to the cargo bays on deck 8 the slower time is.  The further you are from that section of deck 8 the faster your message travels.

Lang: Ok - the Borg alcoves are in cargo bay two, but Seven is in a bubble. It doesn’t make sense that the center of the anomaly would be in an area of the ship not affected by it.  Do either of you remember what’s in cargo bay one?  I know it’s general storage, but I can’t remember what specific things we have in there.  

Campbell: I can’t account for all of the contents, but that’s where the majority of the resources we got from Laethea are stored.  Both the things that we mined and those that we traded for.

Jenkins: This might be a bit of a stretch but could the mining accident that injured Lieutenants Torres and Paris and this anomaly be related?

Campbell: We never found out exactly why mineral 46270 interacted so poorly with our transporters and what caused that accident, but as a precaution, it is stored in the science lab in containment.  Let’s keep that in our back pocket for now.

Jenkins: Did we pick up anything else on our trip to Laethea? Anything unusual?

Campbell: Not that I know of.  I think all of the things that we obtained were things we needed to keep the ship running, but I guess it is possible the Captain chose to get some high-value items just for their resale value.

Lang: I’m going to check all the PADDs we have access to. Maybe one of them was still has a copy of cargo bay one’s contents from when we brought the stuff onboard.  

Jenkins: Good idea - even a requisition request form could be really useful.

Lang: Wait, wait wait. Maybe we are thinking about this in the wrong way. Instead of looking for a full list of what’s in cargo bay one to see if something stored in there could attract a temporal anomaly, what if we tried to figure out what cargo bay two, and the bridge, and all the other bubbles have in common. We know a lot about what the conduits, nodes, and relays on Voyager are made of and the bridge consoles already have full schematics for Voyager in the memory banks.

Jenkins: Audrey, you’re brilliant. That would be much easier and I think that’s how we should start. We should probably work on both angles though.  I’ll ask the computer to pull up the inventory in cargo bay one and see if we get lucky and the data is cached somewhere really close. There’s a chance we could get that information in a few hours.

Lang: OK, let’s start with what Federation and Borg technology have in common.

[lyssacampbell-blog]

Ship’s Log : Gamma shift

Ships Status: Fully Operational

Officer in Command: Lt. Cmdr. Tuvok

Bridge Staff: Ensign Lang, Ensign Jenkins, Ensign Campbell

Time: T-2 hours until start of Alpha Shift

::muffled yawn::

...

::yawn::

Tuvok: Ensign Campbell. 

Campbell: Yes, sir. 

Tuvok: It appears that you are very tired. 

Campbell: I’m sorry sir. I’m fine. I won’t yawn again.  

Tuvok: Rising from the Captain’s chair. I understand that you are making Ms. Torres’ wedding dress. 

Campbell: ... I am.

Tuvok: Is it finished? 

Campbell: Almost. I have a couple inches of the hem left.  I couldn’t get them done before the start of this shift.

Tuvok: And you are stationed on the bridge for this shift because...

Campbell: Lt. Kim agreed to cover for Ensign Dell on this shift a few weeks ago, before Tom and B’Elanna announced their wedding date. I told him I’d cover the shift so he could throw a surprise stag party for Tom.  Commander, I ...

Tuvok: raising his hand. I am sure that Tom and B’Elanna appreciate your friendship.  I will bring you a cup of coffee. Exits the bridge heading for the replicator in the adjoining conference room. 

Campbell: to Lang and Jenkins. Did he just say he’s bringing me a cup of coffee?

Lang: That’s what I heard. 

Campbell: Does this mean I’m not going to get a dressing down? 

Jenkins: No senior officer has ever brought me coffee before they give me a lecture so I think your safe.

Lang: You’re really making B’Elanna’s wedding dress?  What does it look...

-Conference room doors open-

Tuvok: Here is your...

-Voyager suddenly jolts as though it hit something. TJ falls hard into the helm in front of her. Audrey and Lyssa scramble to keep their seats. Lyssa fails to do so and falls back into the panel behind her. -