#been interested in social justice’s and whatever and willing to actually put an effort in and learn shit before I talked bc I was literally

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

Cat boy only the truth. Only the truth

It only gets DUMBERRRR

[alwaysthinkingoutloud]

Hannibal Episode-by-Episode Meta/Analysis: Episode 1, Season 1 (Apéritif)

The series start with Will Graham in a crime scene doing what he does, which is resurrecting crime scenes for further evidence and possible insight into the criminal’s mind and motives. What is interesting about this first scene is that for a first-time viewer, for the first a few minutes, it is not clear if what we are watching is a possible reenactment or it is actually a memory. That doubt gets cleared in a minute but until then, we don’t know if he is imagining or is he remembering. Is he a guy with a powerful imagination helping FBI who literally puts himself into the killer’s shoes or is he the killer itself, hiding in plain sight? To my thinking, the very first opening to the story does say a lot about the end of it all as well.

“This is my design”

Why not say plan, but design instead? Planning is something mechanical, strategical. It is the result of motive and effort of a rational brain rather than an acted-on urge. There is no much room for subjectivity or creativity since efficiency is the ultimate goal. However, design has a more artistical ring to it. It is like, its prior aim is not to be useful, but to be beautiful. Designing is done when aesthetics is of concern. We would say, Michelangelo designed David, plan would not look right there. It would be accurate as for explaining the mathematical part of it, the disciplined and patient hours that has been put into it, but it would not do justice to the inspiration, passion, and desperate need of the artist for his creation to materialize. A planner would not adore his work, but a designer would. And Will understands the difference a bit too well.

Later, talking with Jack Crawford, we learn that Will finds the name of Evil Minds Research Museum “hammy”. I do not think there is anything hammy about the name, it’s quite literal. It is not an ennobler name but why does Will find it so though? Does creativity and originality need to be perceived as abhorrent just because it was given birth by someone evil? This all-cautious way of approaching and overthinking things is a reflection of something dark within. Afterall, what is seen has at least a little to do with the seeing eyes, if not more.

Jack exhibits a disturbingly dominant way of communication with Will. He corrects Will’s eyeglasses, the guy who he knows is not comfortable with any kind of interpersonal interaction, within the minutes of their chat and holds down his bag to slow down his moving on. He is trying to make sure that Will feels Jack is the alpha and also that deep down, Will does not have the option to not cooperate. And more Will gets convinced to help for one step, stronger Jack drags Will into it for one more.

The first time we see Will interacting with any victim-related people, it is confusing. Being an empath and claiming that he can not only relate to narcissists and sociopaths but anyone, he does not seem to empathize much with the victim’s parents, cutting into the conversation about parents’ doubts on their daughter’s likelihood of being alive with a non-emotional, case related question. It almost makes you question if his ability to emphathize is just stronger with the dark side of the force than it is with the light one. Yes, the primer focus is to catch the killer and stop whatever malice is going on but after all, Jack came to Will with the need of help, so Jack must care about the case resolving more than he does. Yet, Jack seems more understanding of the parents’ feelings than Will, although Will is an ultimate empath. We even see Jack’s disapproval when Will cuts into the conversation. It is a brow mover.

Next, we get more insight about Will as he meets Winston. He finds him on the road roaming, tries to get close to him but cannot, so he drives all the way to his home to get something to lure him with and comes back to the dog. He is willing to go lengths to add a new dog to his pack, to his ‘family’, to his ‘social circle’. Something he is not willing nor comfortable to do for a person. Will's preferring an animal's company to a person's may say more than obvious. Afterall, he chooses Hannibal over Jack too, doesn't he?

Will who has already started to get traumatized by the case, is ambushed in the bathroom by Jack with an unforgiving mobbing, forcing ideas out of Will and stirring him up in the expense of his stability. Later on in his little chat with Alana, Jack’s intentions and priorities are further put into perspective. The way he talks about Will shows that for him, Will is more of a means to an end than an actual colleague. His insistence about “putting Will out there” despite Alana’s warnings and his admission of not being absolutely capable of protecting Will’s mental health just crowns that he does not genuinely care about Will. In fact, he even knows the risk of what he is doing, and he is trying to draw Dr. Bloom in to share, if not all together blame it on, the responsibility if something may go wrong.

We finally meet Hannibal in his office in a therapy session with his patient. The look Dr. Lecter throws when Franklyn blows his nose and places the dirty napkin onto the table… Up to this scene, we were not given any clue to suggest that Hannibal Lecter is a killer but after all, we do know who he is. And him being the first actual predator in the series we meet, we do not see him acting on brute violence or inelegant butchering. His first reaction depicted is unrest against rudeness. So the audience is welcomed into the mind of Lecter with an easily apprehensible act that can be shared by almost anyone. Almost to suggest that, this act of Franklyn’s may be enough to justify a wrath that may come upon him.

Jack shows up in Hannibal’s office unannounced and mistakes Franklyn with Hannibal. Hannibal, of course slightly annoyed, tells Jack to wait in the waiting room and invites him in with his own timing. Being a bossy and dominant guy he is, this takes Jack by surprise and it also tells us that there is an even stronger alpha here. So Jack realizes he cannot dominate Hannibal into his will like he did with Will. He may have to try something else. As Jack asks questions that are getting more specific and personal as they come, we see Hannibal getting cautious. Taking his scalpel into his hand and eyes widening. He lowers his guard only when he learns that he was referred to Jack by Dr. Bloom, his eyes visibly getting smaller, which are almost the only window to his thoughts anyway. So after seeing the sophisticated aura leaking not only out of Hannibal but everything around him, Jack chooses to sweet talk him into cooperation.

When Jack, Hannibal and Will first come together in a room, it is the first time in the show where Will makes such a long, non-blinked eye contact with someone, that being Hannibal. And we see mixed emotions and thoughts on Hannibal’s face. He is amused, intrigued and curious at the same time with the way Will thinks. He makes a quick analyze of Will which results in making him fling out of the room. Being the controlled, non-impulsive, strategic guy he is; even Hannibal himself is a little surprised with the sudden blurbing of his perception of Will. So maybe this first scene having Will and Hannibal together is another kind of first as well with both men doing something not typically them.

Hannibal, telling Jack that “he may help Will see the cannibal’s face”, he copies the crime of Minnesota Shrike. At the first look, this looks like an attempt of toying with the FBI and confusing them. But considering Hannibal’s last conversation with Jack, this feels more like a tribute, a helping hand for Will. Hannibal knows that Will would know that this is not the same killer the second he sees the crime scene. As Will later says to Hannibal, this was done to show Will a negative so that he could see the positive. So, we see from this point on that Hannibal’s wit does not focus on FBI, it does on Will. We see Hannibal eating and smiling, joyous of the fact that he now has an object of interest. Will imagining of a stag right after this, as stag will be the subconscious symbol of the Chesapeake Ripper / Copycat Killer before Will knows who he is and later when he does, of Hannibal; it shows that Hannibal literally entered his life and mind in more than one way.

Hannibal shows up in Will’s house very early and obviously very impatiently. So he does not only plan to interfere Will with being the Copycat Killer but through his ‘person suit’ as well. Feeding Will the meat of the girl he killed is also exciting for Hannibal as this manipulation game he has set to play with Will gets to be sicker for a normal human perception.

The breakfast scene is also the first time where Hannibal is looking for some ill-intent or killing inclination in Will, while Will denies having so. He wonders how much being able to empathize with killers say about Will’s own potential to do so. Hannibal suggests that Jack is treating Will as he is “a fragile little teacup, only used for special guests”. And that he himself sees him as “a mongoose that he would want under the house when snakes slither by”. He suggests that Will is not a pray that should be afraid to get hurt, that he is the predator. By that Hannibal does not only encourage the destructiveness Will may be trying hard to keep buried to come alive, but also the false perception that Will’s mind is strong enough to take any challenge Jack may throw his way.

Hannibal warning Garret Jacob Hobbs is literally setting the pieces in position of his will to get Will where and how he wants. He does not know what will be waiting in Hobbs’ house for Will but in the end, it does not matter so much since he just wants to see what happens.

When they arrive at the house, seeing Hobbs leaving his wife on the threshold her throat cut, Hannibal stands still. Is it because he is so confident that Will will be too frantic to ever look back and notice that, or is it because deep down he just does not feel like putting his person suit on in front of Will? I think both. When Will shots Hobbs and tries to tend Abigail on the floor, Hannibal walks in and sees Will caring hard for the girl. Hannibal’s face looks curious about what is going on but more than that, again, his focus is on Will more than it is on anything else. He sees all these humane emotions that Hannibal himself has always been somewhat stranger too on Will, those emotions that he thought, cannot come in a package with all the destructive ones. But maybe they can. And those emotions may even look nice. Because it almost does on Will. Although how the events would turn out Hannibal did not know, it was certain that the way he pushed things, there would be blood and there would be Will doing something that will change him one way or the other. After all, they have undergone a traumatic (for Will) and exciting (for Hannibal) circumstance together and it is a known fact that people who experience a significant situation together tend to develop emotional bonds. Maybe this was the least of what Hannibal hoped for. If that was the case, he got more than he wished. Will got to kill someone even if it was for a just reason and there happened to be an orphaned girl that Will desperately bonded the moment he killed her father, who maybe a manipulative tool for Hannibal in his game. The last scene where Will finds Hannibal holding Abigail’s hand in the hospital room highlights this perfectly. Now, Hannibal and Will has a mutual asset that Hannibal may use to draw Will closer to himself despite of Will’s initial reservations to do so.

[agiar2000]

Resistance to Violence

I just saw this video, and I found it very intriguing and impactful, intellectually. It actually did get me thinking differently about the main issue therein. https://youtu.be/YJSehRlU34w

When this video was published, I was probably already quite convinced of the virtue of non-violent resistance.

In recent years, however, I have seen more and more of how non-violent protesters have not only been subjected to oppressive violence in retaliation, but have also been publicly blamed for the violence being done to and around them, so that the corrupt media has successfully managed to redirect the sympathy that ought to be conferred on those who are bravely and peacefully standing in the face of violence and oppression, and twist it into even more support for the oppressive system. I have seen how violent regimes are perfectly willing to brutalize peaceful people just to assert and demonstrate their dominance, and then I see them getting praise from large swaths of the population who support that oppression.

On the other hand, I have also been thinking more about situations where violence was the catalyst to finally make progress for equality and justice. The Confederate States of America, the Nazis of Germany, and the various unconscionable horrors they wrought were not stopped by people protesting peacefully, by seeking common ground, by seeking to understand them better and make them comfortable. They were stopped by a sufficient opposing army slaughtering them until they ceased to be willing and able to pose a continuing threat to humanity.

It's also helpful, I think to contrast the end of the Confederacy with the end of the Nazis. Starting with the Confederacy: While slavery and white supremacy were certainly overtly stated goals of the Confederacy's rebellion, the Union was (and still is) hardly an anti-racist country, and it has been noted that their goal in fighting the Confederacy was more about retaining the Union than about ending slavery. In the end, when the Confederacy surrendered, there was an attempt by the victors to ease the feelings of the erstwhile rebels, to allow them to retain a great deal of "Southern pride". For that, we get the Daughters of the Confederacy whitewashing and rewriting history, the Ku Klux Klan continuing to wage terror across the country, and many of the various monuments and other dedications to honor Confederate leaders. The meaning of these symbols is clearly white supremacy, and not merely "Southern pride", as evidenced by how they're used. Many of these monuments were erected in the former Confederacy as part of the backlash against the civil rights movement in the 20th century, and some people even outside of America proudly wave the Confederacy's navy jack flag. Why would non-Americans wave that flag? Because they want to wave a flag for white supremacy, and they can't legally wave the flag of the Nazis.

The Nazis, by contrast, were obliterated. They were not allowed to retain "Nazi pride" after the fall of their heinous regime. The symbols of their monstrosity were banned. A standard of basic human decency was granted greater priority than the "freedom" of terrible people to do horrible things. Nazism was destroyed, not simply because it opposed other powers that wanted to control them, but because they were evil, and they needed to be stopped for the good of the world. The result is that now, less than 8 decades after the fall of the Nazis, Germany is a far more decent, pro-social democracy than the former Confederate states, which continue to stand for right-wing oppression, even over 15 decades after the surrender of the Confederacy.

Another example, though less of a dramatic one, is that of the Stonewall riot. The LGBTQ community did not start gaining rights and freedom from a horrifically oppressive regime because they were kind, nice, and peaceful, gently appealing to the better angels of their murderers and oppressors, making the effort to try to understand them and to meet them in the middle. What kicked off their victories at this time was Black trans women of color throwing bricks at police.

Considering all that, I found Chenoweth's presentation difficult to reconcile. When the oppressive regime has control over the media, when they make every peaceful protester look like a violent, dangerous terrorist, and they convince large portions of the population to be willing to fight for fascism, convincing them that it is actually "freedom", and that efforts for justice are actually an attack on their very identity, how can one possibly proceed? When those in power do murder peaceful protesters, do you keep showing up to protest peacefully? If you see someone going around shooting people left and right, do you stand there and demand verbally that the shooter stop?

So, what to do? We live in a violent society that has normalized routine violence against the poor, minorities, people of color, and all of the most marginalized and vulnerable in society. We only need 3.5% of the population to actively resist? Already 5.8% of the American population is in deep poverty, with 9.2% in poverty, generally. Globally, these numbers are even more horrifying, with 9.2% in deep poverty and nearly 17% in a state of being "multidimensionally poor", and nearly half living on less than the equivalent of US$5.50 per day. Couldn't we count on those people, at the very least, to oppose their own oppression? No, we cannot, partly because part of being so oppressed is being kept so weak and powerless that you don't have the energy to resist and being provided just enough that you're terrified to lose what little you have by daring to stand up, but also because so many of them have been brainwashed and corrupted into voting against their own interests and being willing to fight against the people who are trying to help them, and blame the even more marginalized among them or phantoms of foreign powers for all of their problems. Maybe if they knew what was really going on, we would have won long before now.

Now, regarding the topic of the video, the success of non-violent resistance, I very much appreciate that Chenoweth's presentation relied on statistical data from studies of hundreds of events rather than the mere anecdotes that were foremost in my mind when I started watching, and I also appreciate that she started by talking about the mindset from which she started, which closely resembled my own, including good examples of violent revolutions that ended corrupt regimes. I don't know exactly how the data she used to reach her conclusion were gathered and classified, and I retain some skepticism, but I would very much like to believe that her data are, in fact, representative, accurate, and actionable. I would very much like to believe that we can, in fact, win freedom and justice through peaceful means, though I have a hard time really being confident in it. I want to believe that she's right because otherwise, I see very little hope at all. We are very close to a point at which total environmental collapse is inevitable, with the majority of global power still putting the pedal to the metal to drive us off that cliff as fast as possible. The most aggressive policy proposals to save the planet involve easing up on the gas slightly, far too little far too late, and even those are being defeated by the regressive death cult of neoliberals, conservatives, and fascists. At this point, it is hard to see how any future can exist that does not involve tremendous destruction. Either the forces of evil win outright and destroy everything, or the forces that oppose them are forced to wreak so much destruction in order to stop them that they might as well have lost anyway. It's hard to imagine sometimes that we have not already completely lost, that the world is not already completely doomed, and all that is left is to watch as the monsters responsible for it just keep making things worse until the very end.

I guess the answer is just to have faith and to do whatever we can to give humanity the best possible chance, and that means two main strategic goals: 1. Motivate and influence enough people to reach that 3.5% threshold to actually resist for the change that we all need. 2. Determine an actual action plan for those people to carry out that will have the desired effect with a minimum of collateral damage and harmful side effects.

Sadly, I have no idea how to do either of those things, and anything I can think of still feels either depressingly small and insufficient or worrying for its potential to cause unintended harm.

[scrambledgegs]

Too Late the Hero

    It was Harvey Dent who uttered the famous lines, “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” A foreshadowing statement, as Dent later on personifies his very words when he goes on to become Two Face in the “The Dark Knight” Batman movies.

     This statement cannot be any truer, and we all can recount both real-life and fictional characters who easily represent this notion. The true-to-life “villains” we know of today may have actually started out as idealists, heroes, or savior-like archetypes that we used to looked up to – and looked past whatever side blemishes they also possessed in order to justify their actions. I think the best contemporary example of this – is the person whom Filipinos notoriously love to discuss nowadays – the person that needs no introduction, President Duterte.

About to Croak?

     President Duterte has recently been the talk of the town all the more when rumors circulated that he may have contracted COVID-19, while other rumors pointedly said that he was already on his deathbed. To augment such rumors, it was said that he may have allegedly even flown to Singapore to have himself checked. His office was quick to quash any such news by posting proof of life photos of the President, where he is seen to be eating a meal with the first family in Davao. Well, one thing we can all agree on however, is that he did not look his best. 

     The more significant and underlying message in this recent raucous is that, the general consensus on social media is that many had their fingers crossed for a new President. It looks like Duterte’s star power is quickly fading.

RUDY and RODY

   I was reminded of a conversation that a friend and I had around three weeks ago. During our usual, light political banter, I suddenly remembered how my parents used to compare President Duterte to American political icon, “Rudy” Giuliani. Quite serendipitously (and as though Netflix read my phone messages or possibly my mind), minutes later, I came across a new Netflix documentary entitled “Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia” where Giuliani is documented to have played a significant role in.

     This true crime documentary examines the rise and fall of organized crime in New York in the 1970s to early 1980s. It narrates the dark tale of how the Big Apple once transformed into the playground of underbelly operations of The Mafia – composed of the five major Italian-American crime families and their sophisticated network of ruthless henchmen. Law enforcers could not put a stop to their rings of crime, or even implicate them, and others that dared come close, found themselves or their loved ones in a rather, messy situation. These crime families of Italian descent were basically your true-to-life gangsters from which The Godfather Trilogy was based on.

 Batman, Robin and Commissioner Gordon in Gotham City

     Bringing down the Mob back then was a feat everyone thought impossible. Nevertheless, joint forces between the FBI and Giuliani (then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; 1983 -1989), and his handpicked team of prosecutors were able to do so – and with much required grit and tenacity. Giuliani especially, was credited to be the single piece of rice that tipped the scale in this momentous moment in the history of criminal justice. After which, Giuliani’s political career began to skyrocket. Despite losing his first election in 1989, he eventually gets elected Mayor of New York in 1993, and then reelected in 1997 to hold the position until 2001.

    During his term as Mayor of New York, Giuliani’s most popular platform was his “toughness on crime.” Such that, the gentrification, revitalization and “clean-up” of New York and significant decrease in crime rates during those heyday years are largely attributed to him. His appointment of NYPD Chief of Police, Bill Bratton also proved effective, and is often the popular topic of business case studies today. Bratton did not resort to brute force alone. In fact, he was said to be data-driven, resourceful and efficient. His non-traditional, out-of-the-box thinking, many would agree, had indeed brought about real, lasting positive change in New York.

    Giuliani was also known for making popular what is known as the “perp walk”, wherein he would orchestrate public arrests, worthy of media frenzies and major headlines, of high-profile suspects, usually of white-collar crimes. The nature of these arrests garnered some criticism of course, but it was not enough then to tarnish his image and push him far away from the good graces of the American people, especially New Yorkers. He is also highly commended for his post-9/11 (2001) disaster responses and was even knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for these tremendous efforts. He was even named TIME magazine's Person of the Year in 2001.

 Fall from Grace   

    However, fast forward years later to now 2020, many of Giuliani’s constituents and longtime supporters who once held “America’s Mayor” of the highest esteem, often say that the Rudy Giuliani of the past is long gone. Embroiled in various controversies and investigations, not to mention issues that involve being President Trump’s current legal adviser, he has said to have become the very type of white-collar “perps” he used to round up and arrest. It is quite unfortunate, isn’t it, these kind of tragic hero to zero stories. Time is not on his side now, but who knows if there is still a chance for a comeback.

 Rudy Giuliani’s story sounds very familiar.

Rody

    Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, in Davao, Philippines to be exact, during the same time that Rudy Giuliani was rising to fame, there lived and breathed another Mayor with a very similar tough guy image – Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte. An attorney as well, he also began his career in the prosecutor’s office.

Photo taken from The New York Times: Rodrigo Duterte posing with an Uzi submachine gun in 1994, when he was mayor of Davao City in the Philippines.

 Duterte Harry

    Duterte “made his bones” by allegedly taking crime into his own hands. Before assuming the Presidency, he was known as the gun-toting, smart-talkin’, fearless and tough Mayor who cleaned up Davao which back then, was supposedly a war-torn region due to the emergence of the New People’s Army (NPA) post Marcos-regime. People nodded in approval because he produced “quick” results.

    If Rudy Giuliani had his Chief of Police, Bill Bratton and the NYPD, Rody Duterte had a comparable squad as well. With the help of his elite unit of police enforcers, coined as the “Davao Death Squad” (DDS), they were able to arrest crime suspects, such as alleged (but non-convicted) drug dealers and petty thieves and parade them throughout the streets, for behold, all to know and see. This sounds like the Filipino version of a perp walk. In extreme cases, sometimes suspects were allegedly found dead in alleys or eskinitas, their bloody bodies mutilated.

     Yet, it could be said that quite a number of Davaoenos, as well as Filipinos beyond the Mindanao region, supported this kind of vigilante method because they felt safer, and they felt that finally, the wheels of justice were turning. To simplify this narrative by using a fictional analogy again, it is the same train of thought on why we have a great admiration for Batman and the like.

     Many believed this was what the Philippines truly needed - a “strongman” to discipline the country, which to be fair, is an idea that can understandably seem like the right and sound solution, given the Philippines’s web of problems. Not many are willing to further dissect, assess and accept what is truly needed to lead the Philippines. Duterte’s notoriety thus gained much popularity, and his savior persona spread like wildfire throughout the country, propelling him to the Presidential seat in 2016.

One-Trick Pony in a Small Pond

    Four years later, come 2020, and here we are, amidst a terrible pandemic with no signs of turning the tide in favor of a victory. I’ve heard one too many times, friends and colleagues say how they despise being a Filipino, and are looking for opportunities to leave and start a new life elsewhere immediately. I can’t say I blame them.

     The once highly respected and beloved Davao Mayor has become the Philippines’s Public enemy number one, for reasons we all know today such as, but not limited to:

Militaristic and shotgun approaches instead of “comprehensive, scientific and systematic policies” to mitigate the pandemic  (Read: Lives vs Livelihood Tradeoff?, August 5, 2020)

Lack of economic and fiscal planning and No transparency on stimulus packages and foreign loans (Read: A Perfect Storm, May 22, 2020)

Preferential treatment towards those in positions of power and unequal application of the law (Read: On lockdown and pushed over the edge, April 30, 2020)

Playing Russian Roulette on community quarantine implementations

Deflecting faults and shortcomings through the “Pasaway citizen” narrative

Demeaning local government leaders/efforts when they come up with their own local initiatives

Putting China’s interests ahead of the Philippines (Read: From Ugly Duckling to Black Swan, April 3, 2020)

And some of the more specific controversies that we can’t help but feel overwhelming emotions for:

Trial of Maria Ressa and his attack on free press and journalism

Shutdown of ABS-CBN which includes 11,000 employees to lose their jobs during a time like this

Inaction of recent PhilHealth scandal

  Perhaps si Mayor should have stayed as Mayor, or perhaps evolved to a different role beyond public service, instead of eyeing gargantuan tasks too big for him to handle. He may have been “effective” as Davao’s Mayor, but running a country is a whole different ballgame.

     It was in fact, the late Miriam Santiago, during the final 2016 Presidential debate held in Dagupan, Pangasinan (April 24, 2016) who pointed out, “We are not choosing a manager, administrator, etc. We are choosing the next President of the Philippines for the next 6 years.“ She even went on to enumerate three minimum criteria that a President must have in his or her arsenal in order to effectively lead, such as “1) Academic Excellence; 2) Professional Excellence, and 3) Moral Integrity” – all of which majority Filipinos flippantly shrugged off as useless qualities. I agreed with her which is why I voted for Mar Roxas. Maybe those who voted for Duterte regret this decision now, and hopefully see the wisdom behind Santiago’s statements.

     As I’ve said many times over, Duterte peddled a dream that the Philippines can only be great again with an “iron-fisted” leader, and sadly but quite expectedly, our misinformed voters ate it all up - hook, line and sinker. (Read: ORAS NA, April 26, 2016).

    I’d like to believe that Duterte perhaps started out as an idealist, with the genuine desire to carve out change where he thought he could. However, somewhere along the way, he lost himself and what he stood for when he let his ego get in the way. I think he himself now knows, but cannot admit to the public, that a one-trick pony has no business leading a highly complex, difficult and problematic country such as the Philippines.

More Analogies in 2020: The Year of the Rat led by the Pied Piper

    Other than Duterte, three other political personalities that will forever be remembered as the shameful faces of the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines are Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Speaker of the House Allan Peter Cayetano and the ever-infamous, Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque. I surmise history will not be so kind to them, and their roles and decisions in this crisis will continue to be told on, even when “this is all over.”

Infestation of Rats

    These three loyal lackeys of Duterte can be likened to the rats in the children’s fairy tale of the Pied Piper who is no less than Duterte. Roque, Cayetano and Duque seem like educated and smart people, leaving no other explanation for their horrible decisions, except that they have long sold their souls to Duterte, and are in too deep to back out now. They’ve let themselves fall under some kind of spell. A consolation in the story of the Pied Piper, is that the entranced rats follow the Pied Piper’s hypnotizing music to their eventual demise and drown at sea. The Pied Piper however, just leaves them there and walks on. Seems like a foreboding scenario, figuratively speaking.

      It would be best if the story ended there. However, we find that the Pied Piper, like our very own version, is a vengeful one, and will stop at nothing until he has accomplished a personal vendetta towards whomever crosses him. In our Pied Pier’s skewed view, he feels that his opponents have gravely wronged him, or have been incredibly ungrateful for all the “work” he has achieved. His next plan of action is to hit them where it hurts the most – by getting to the children or those “most vulnerable and without a voice”. Seizing the power of his position, he is able to demonize multitudes through his filthy words, terrorizing laws and drug wars. (Read: Dead Kids, February 20, 2020).

     In so many dark metaphors, in the dead of the night, while everyone cluelessly sleeps, the Pied Piper plays his hypnotizing song that “vulnerable communities” are uncontrollably drawn to, forced to follow, or fooled into blindly following, until they all disappear without a trace, possibly never to be found again.

Light at the end of a Long Tunnel    

    However, I think our Pied Piper may have made a costly miscalculation. He may have robbed the country blind and killed countless lives (directly and indirectly), while we ignorantly slept, but he has ignited a fire. He has seemed to awoken a sleeping giant – a sleeping giant, unified in anger against this administration and what it stands for. Is Change Coming?

[magesona]

YO EVERYONE HEY

BERNIE IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AGAIN

REPEAT - BERNIE SANDERS IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN THE 2020 ELECTIONS

This is the turn of the era everyone, honest to everything holy and whatever you hold dear, i really truly believe this is our opportunity to fix the fucked up shit Trump has been doing, and to lead America and humanity into a more positive and progressive future! This isn’t a petition or asking for a donation (though it will ask after you sign, you don’t have to, but y'know it’d be helpful if you can afford it), Bernie just wants to know and be able to show we’ll all be with him during this campaign!

This is all it takes, for real just sign!! Sign if you’re with this wonderful sweet man who has been screwed by elite class countless times, he wants to and can do so much to help our people, but we have to work together on this!! Believe me, even if the system is corrupt, even if it may not work in the end, it’s worth a shot! I’d say it’s worth the biggest shot we have, don’t let pessimism hold us back! Things have changed over the past few years, we have more of an advantage now with people realizing just how wrong they were to trust the man we’ve put into power. It’s the only way we can fight him and the broken system, TOGETHER!!

https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/em_bern_message/

Below the cut, i’ve included the rest of Bernie’s email. It includes all the promises he’s making for us, explains what we’re up against, and why he thinks we have a chance this time. It’s astounding how many important topics he addresses, universe bless this precious man, please don’t let the system fail him again.

---

I am writing to let you know I have decided to run for president of the United States. I am asking you to join me today as part of an unprecedented and historic grassroots campaign that will begin with at least a million people from across the country.

Please join our campaign for president on day one and commit to doing what it takes to win this election.

Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history. It is not only about winning the Democratic nomination and the general election.

Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

Our campaign is about taking on the powerful special interests that dominate our economic and political life. I’m talking about Wall Street, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the private prison industry and the large multinational corporations that exert such an enormous influence over our lives.

Our campaign is about redoubling our efforts to end racism, sexism, homophobia, religious bigotry and all forms of discrimination.

Our campaign is about creating a vibrant democracy with the highest voter turnout of any major country while we end voter suppression, Citizens United and outrageous levels of gerrymandering.

Our campaign is about creating a government and economy that work for the many, not just the few. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. We should not have grotesque levels of wealth inequality in which three billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of the country.

We should not have 30 million Americans without any health insurance, even more who are underinsured and a nation in which life expectancy is actually in decline.

We should not have an economy in which tens of millions of workers earn starvation wages and half of older workers have no savings as they face retirement.

We should not have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on Earth and a dysfunctional childcare system which is unfair to both working parents and their children.

We should not have a regressive tax system in which large, profitable corporations like Amazon pay nothing in federal income taxes.

Make no mistake about it. The powerful special interests in this country have unbelievable power and they want to maintain the status quo. They have unlimited amounts of money to spend on campaigns and lobbying and have huge influence over the media and political parties.

The only way we will win this election and create a government and economy that work for all is with a grassroots movement – the likes of which has never been seen in American history.

They may have the money and power. We have the people. That is why we need one million Americans who will commit themselves to this campaign.

Stand with me as we fight to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. Add your name to join this campaign and say you are willing to do the hard work necessary to transform our country.

You know as well as I do that we are living in a pivotal and dangerous moment in American history. We are running against a president who is a pathological liar, a fraud, a racist, a sexist, a xenophobe and someone who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction.

I’m running for president because, now more than ever, we need leadership that brings us together – not divides us up. Women and men, black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, young and old, native born and immigrant. Now is the time for us to stand together.

I’m running for president because we need leadership that will fight for working families and the shrinking middle class, not just the 1 percent. We need a president who understands that we can create millions of good-paying jobs, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and construct the affordable housing we desperately need.

I’m running for president because we need trade policies that reflect the interests of workers and not multi-national corporations. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, provide pay equity for women and guarantee all workers paid family and medical leave.

I’m running for president because we need to understand that artificial intelligence and robotics must benefit the needs of workers, not just corporate America and those who own that technology.

I’m running for president because a great nation is judged not by how many billionaires and nuclear weapons it has, but by how it treats the most vulnerable – the elderly, the children, our veterans, the sick and the poor.

I’m running for president because we need to make policy decisions based on science, not politics. We need a president who understands that climate change is real, is an existential threat to our country and the entire planet, and that we can generate massive job creation by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

I’m running for president because the time is long overdue for the United States to join every other major country on Earth and guarantee health care to all people as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare-for-all program.

I’m running for president because we need to take on the outrageous level of greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower prescription drug prices in this country.

I’m running for president because we need to have the best educated workforce in the world. It is totally counterproductive for our future that millions of Americans are carrying outrageous levels of student debt, while many others cannot afford the high cost of higher education. That is why we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free and lower student debt.

I’m running for president because we must defend a woman’s right to control her own body against massive political attacks taking place at the local, state and federal level.

I’m running for president because we need real criminal justice reform. We need to invest in jobs and education for our kids, not more jails and incarceration. We need to end the destructive “war on drugs,” eliminate private prisons and cash bail and bring about major police department reform.

I’m running for president because we need to end the demonization of undocumented immigrants in this country and move to comprehensive immigration reform. We need to provide immediate legal status for the young people eligible for the DACA program and develop a humane policy for those at the border who seek asylum.

I’m running for president because we must end the epidemic of gun violence in this country. We need to take on the NRA, expand background checks, end the gun show loophole and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons.

I’m running for president because we need a foreign policy which focuses on democracy, human rights, diplomacy and world peace. The United States must lead the world in improving international cooperation in the fight against climate change, militarism, authoritarianism and global wealth inequality.

That is why we need at least a million people to join our campaign and help lead the movement that can accomplish these goals. Add your name to say we’re in this together.

Needless to say, there is a lot of frightening and bad news in this world. Now, let me give you some very good news.

Three years ago, during our 2016 campaign, when we brought forth our progressive agenda we were told that our ideas were “radical” and “extreme.” We were told that Medicare for All, a $15 an hour minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universities, aggressively combating climate change, demanding that the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes, were all concepts that the American people would never accept.

Well, three years have come and gone. And, as result of millions of Americans standing up and fighting back, all of these policies and more are now supported by a majority of Americans.

Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution. Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.

So here is my question for you:

Will you stand with me as part of a million person grassroots movement which can not only win the Democratic primary, not only win the general election, but most importantly help transform this country so that, finally, we have a government that works for all of us and not just the few? Add your name to say you will.

Together we can create a nation that leads the world in the struggle for peace and for economic, racial, social and environmental justice.

And together we can defeat Donald Trump and repair the damage he has done to our country.

Brothers and sisters, if we stand together, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

I hope you will join me.

Thank you very much.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

[fyrapartnersearch]

The next Wild Hunt commences.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Phew, let's try this again shall we? I've received great many responses which positively surprised me :) I've managed to find some partners, but most of the people who contacted me, just sent me a friend request on Discord without even writing me a message. This gives me nothing to work with. Please, I implore you, if you want to start a RP partnership with me, write me a detailed email first! Describe yourself, your ideas and preferences. I want to get to know you before we move to another platform to chat OOC, alright? 

And for the future, do NOT ghost me! Thank you :) I’ll keep it short and sweet for my introduction. I am Fenry, but you may address me as Fen. Obviously this is not my real name but I would like to keep a pseudonym as my identity until I get to know my partner better. 



I am 25 years and that means adult themes and topics will be included

Female

Over 10 years of roleplaying experience

Masters graduate

I live in CET, Europe

Prefers doubling, though I can make exceptions

We can exchange more information once I’ve received your message. I love talking outside of the Roleplay for some brainstorming and plotting for the story. Plus, making new friends never hurts.

Now to the actual topic what I am looking for in a partner.

Please read before you message me!

Thank you.



My roleplaying partner must be above the age of 18, preferably 20+. 
I don’t care which gender honestly, as long as the Roleplay and friendship is good I am all for it. Contact me with a small introduction. Tell me about yourself, what you’re ideas are, how long you’ve been writing and your limits. I want to know more about you, assess your character before we move to anything else. It would otherwise come off as impersonal. 



The qualities I prefer in an RP buddy are: 


Mature

Dedicated

Detailed

Literate

Frequent (which doesn’t mean that you need to send me 5 messages per day. 2-3 times per week is absolutely fine since I am not able to respond as much either)

Flexible

We all have real, social lives outside of the roleplaying world. I understand when you’re not able to reply as fast all of the time, because it is not much different for me either. I will try to respond at least 4-5 times a week. If it’s a good week, my replying rate will increase depending on the given situation. If there’s work ahead or any sort of obstacle that might get in the way of our exchange, I will let you know as soon as I possibly can! I promise you this! 
But I also hope you do the same when there’s something that might cause a hiatus.




I am looking for LONGTERM and CONTINUOS Roleplays! My partner should be very committed because otherwise, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense and we might as well drop it.





When it comes to my writing style and preferences, I will list these things here for you to read.

Writing: I am a multi-paragraph sort of writer, which means that frequently, my writing will exceed at least 500 words, and upward of 1000+ words. I love detail in description, and I am actively seeking someone of the same infamy. Generally, I tend to write in the 3rd person. I’ve also tested the waters of 1st person but found it fairly awkward, if not, jarring so I’d rather keep it with 3rd person.

Pairings: I openly play characters of both genders, preferable m x f pairings, but I am open to m x m and f x f relationships as well. I have more experience with m x f relationships, so I might excel in this category more than I would do with the others. However, like I said, do not let this deter you. Very much open to other sexual orientations and preferences. Romance and intimate erotic scenes are always a part of the story, so if you are someone who prefers fading to black, I am afraid to tell you that my request isn’t something for you. This is not negotiable, sorry.

Genres: I am versatile when it comes to genres and settings that I like to play in. Supernatural is my absolute jam, especially urban and gothic fantasy, maybe even a bit of mythology as well? 
Anything involving vampires, werewolves, demons, witches, shape shifters, aliens, mutants, other urban creature of folklore, given some sort of modern day spun, is absolutely perfect for me. I also really love science fiction in its many forms. Primarily, I take my sci-fi craving inspirations from Star Wars, Mass Effect, and even Destiny (even though I did not really enjoy the games…). Another genre that I’ve vast interest in includes that of the superhero genre. I’m a big fan of both Marvel and DC fandom, and the concept of having humans with abilities, anything of that short would be awesome to do. Against, these would be with original characters on my part. I’m not as fond of general real-life or general modern day genres and themes without a good, complex idea attached to it.

Characters: Faceclaims, GIFs, drawings, mood boards or just a plain physical description is absolutely welcome / sufficient. I am not someone who necessarily needs a face claim for a character in order ‘to get the picture’. There are many instances where I could not find a suiting match for my character’s definition, so I resorted to drawing them myself or leaving it with a simple description. 
Characters should have flaws - that is a no brainer obviously, since nobody likes a Mary Sue / Gary Stu - but also some unique traits that make them stand out and remain memorable. I take inspiration from JK Rowling or George R.R. Martin for example as each of their character remains very unique and unforgettable in my opinion. They definitely did something right and I want to emulate that, so don’t be afraid to be rather bold with your character creation. Let your imagination run wild and surprise me with your ideas!

World building & plotting: An active roleplayer is wanted in this category, without a doubt. I love to world-build, but I tend to lose interest when I am the only one who puts in the effort into it. I can’t do the thinking for two people, so I implore you to at least share the burden (which should not be regarded as such because roleplaying is a fun hobby and nothing more). Too often I find people shying away from it in this regard. If I feel that I’m carrying the weight of the world-building part with specific ideas, I will end the Roleplay in immediately. And consider that the world building is just the tip of the beginning, so from that, I’ll be able to see whether we’ll be a match or not. Because we’d be starting from scratch with whatever we do, it would be a big relief to have someone who doesn’t mind letting ideas flow to set up the universe that we will be roleplaying in.

Content: I find writing erotic, dramatic or action packed scenes very enjoyable. I don’t hinder myself when certain subjects are mentioned that may be uncomfortable for the general public. But then again, as a reminder, a Roleplay is not reality but fiction. For example situations that heavily imply and involve brutality, mayhem, psychological and physical torture are things that need exploration.

Characters should be fully fleshed out, even the not so pretty parts of one’s personality and actions. There is no black and white, but a wide ranging spectrum of grey areas. A story does not always end well and life is never fair, so to implement this into a Roleplay, it would make a fantastic and very exciting story. Nothing is ever certain, people have their ups and downs… we shouldn’t make an exception here. I am not afraid to delve into even more sinister areas such as psychological trauma if its needed to further the story. I want to be as transparent as I possibly can. I have very few limits. The only subjects I will not touch, or rather avoid are heavy graphic rape scenes, bestiality, necrophilia and pedophilia. Other than that everything is fair game. What I also find quite fascinating is describing someone’s mental as well as physical transformation, ascending to a higher or lower state of being, etc. The process of metamorphosis, may it be the manipulation or corruption of someone… it all is quite eerie and at the same time, intriguing. It all leads to the progression of the story, so be warned that we won’t be walking on egg shells here. 


The story will not be solely centred on dark themes. I love me a mixture of everything, including drama, fluff, angst, action, comedy, romance, adventure, mystery and so forth.


Let’s lighten up a bit, kay? :)

The ones I’ve marked in bold are the ones I am currently itching for the most.




Original plots I am absolutely craving for are:




Genres:


anything mafia related

crimes in remote locations

small towns and supernatural happenings

post apocalyptic/dystopia

supernatural/modern fantasy (demons and devils, monster x hunter)

southern/mid western gothic

murder mystery (small town or big city)

modern/dark fairy tale retellings

sci-fi/cyberpunk

emotionally charged/dark and gritty

superpowers/gifted

unresolved sexual tension/slow burn

mythology

redemption

action

Pairings:

age gaps (non pedophiliac)

friend x best friend’s older sibling

enemies to lovers

cop x criminal

friends turned lovers/pining

grumpy x sunshine

dark hearted man melting for the innocent woman

reunited old lovers and/or friends

boss x employee

neighbours

mentor x mentee

hitman x victim

hurt/comfort

height differences

pet names

rich x poor (or noble and peasant / different social classes)

The Fandoms I am willing to do, although I prefer to make something original:

Films & television:

Marvel cinematic universe

Pacific Rim

Castlevania

Game of Thrones

Riverdale

Young Justice

Voltron

Constantine

Harry Potter

Star Wars

Games: 

Witcher III

Devil May Cry

Bayonetta

God of War

Star Wars

Dark Souls

My Roleplaying platform is mostly on email or google docs! I also would like to keep in touch with my partner over a different medium, preferably Discord.

 To contact me use these links here:


EMAIL: mynioncosplay@gmail.com

DISCORD: Fenry#4086


Find me there.

Here are two passwords that you can use in the headline so I know what you want to role-play.


*For ORIGINAL Roleplay, the password is:  Follow me and you shall be

free *For CANON Roleplay, the password is:  I will follow you until the end

#original #OC #supernatural(original, not TV) #longterm #email #googledocs #paragraph #detailed #partner #dedicated #fantasy #canon #doubling #chat #friend 

[allmyfangirldreams]

Would you be interested in a (7 part) series based entirely upon the Harry Potter Books/movies except from another character’s point of view?

Before I start, I’d like to say that if this idea happens to already exist and I didn’t know about it then please ignore this post as a whole cause thats really embarrassing!

I’ve been thinking about this for like forever and I’ve read a few posts of people also wondering what having the Harry Potter series be from another character’s perspective would be like so I thought it might be a really fun idea to try it. I have a plan but I’m not really sure if anyone would really be interested in it so I wanted to get some opinions from you guys.

Here’s what I wanna do: I want to write a series based on every single Harry Potter book/movie (mainly books) but I want it to be based on another character’s experiences. If enough of you support this idea of mine, I plan to go through each chapter and rewrite it from whatever character you guys most want me to focus on - this will take a lot of time and but if people get to enjoy it at the end or the day, I really wouldnt mind putting that effort into it. (I might not be able to have the same exact number of chapters in the original book especially if the character is hardly mentioned but I’ll try my best!)

This will clearly be based on what I imagined happening and most of it will be made up since the specific character might not be mentioned in that chapter however Im going to also use some interviews with JK Rowling and try to gain ideas about what she thought of the characters and what she thought would happen and base all my writing on that.

My personal choices if I do go along with this would be either be Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape or Sirius Black/Remus Lupin but of course I also want some of your opinions on whom you would be interested in the most.

Let me explain to you why I’d like to do each of those characters and how I plan to do it for each of them.

My top choice would is Draco because I actually would find it the most interesting to go through his experiences through each year at hogwarts. I’ve always wondered how things would’ve been like if he was the main character and I’ve always wanted to know what he’s thinking - especially through the last few books.

As well as that, Draco would also be a good choice since he’s been there ever since the start of the series all the way to the very end and I want more detail on his character development since everything he’s been through is also pretty damn horrific for a teenage boy and I don’t think the original books did him any justice with his character development.

Obviously it would be somewhat hard to write this because Draco is not in all of the chapters of the books but I’d use the books and movies and try to imagine what sort of things he would be doing at that particular time and what sort of things he might be feeling and like I said, I’d take into consideration all of Rowling’s thoughts of him and all of the facts we’ve already got in the books.

Some things that I’d really enjoy writing would be things like Draco meeting Harry on the train, his thoughts and feelings after being rejected for the first time, Draco ordering Dobby to warn Harry and stop him from going back to Hogwarts, being afraid of the dementors and the escape of Sirius Black and so on.

I’m not gonna lie; I am a huge Drarry fan so if I do go along with Draco, expect to see some sort of pinning or like ‘in love but unaware of it’ kinda things. However this will not change the story line/ending of the actual story; Draco won’t end up with Harry in their first year and neither would he do so in the seventh since that is not what happens in Harry Potter. Although that would not likely happen in the rewritten books, because that is not the purpose of this is, I’d happily write an eighth year of hogwarts (after all other books are complete) that might focus on Drarry and their relationship if you guys really want that.

(I got inspired with some post from someone stating that they’d like to read a book or fanfic that revolves around Draco - I think it was by @rosesforlester here on tumblr that was posted in around March last year - and I’ve seen other posts here and there asking for the same things so…)

My second option would be writing the stories from Snape’s POV. I’m not the biggest fan of Snape however I know that many people for some reason are so I begun thinking about it. It might really be interesting to see things he might’ve gone through in order to keep Harry safe or gain Dumbledore’s trust and maybe his feelings might be interesting to some people who really like him and appreciate what he’s done.

I also know Snape is one of JK Rowling’s favourite characters so I might be able to get a lot of ideas from her interviews or from pottermore and such so thats why I’m considering writing his point of view however in my mind it’s kind of hard to imagine what Snape could’ve been doing or feeling since he was pretty much seen as a cold heartless character until the last book so bare with me if you would like me to do his perspective.

Lastly, Sirius’ or Remus’ perspectives. This obviously would not be a 7 part series if i decide to do it from either of their perspectives as they are only there for 3-4 books and they’re hardly mentioned but I’m in love with both of them and what they’ve gone through so I really want to write their side of the story.

For me personally, it would be really interesting to know all about Sirius’ mind. I want to have flashbacks based on the night James and Lily died, I want to experience his thoughts during Azkaban and the hatred he felt when he saw scabbers on that newspaper article and I want to write all about the nights he spent trying to forget those horrifying 12 years he spent locked up.

As for Lupin, I want to know all about how broken he was the night he thought 3 of his best friends were dead cause of someone he used to trust with his life, how he felt lonely every night as he thought of all the maruaders went through together, how after every full moon he missed this 3 animagus friends who became that way just for him, how betrayed he felt for 12 years and finally how happy he was to see Harry and have tea with him at school and to realise that Sirius really never betrayed him at all and that he’s back now and its all okay except it’s not.

For both Sirius and Remus, it would he more like another version of their experiences during the first magical war and their experiences together with James, Lily, Peter and Severus during Hogwarts and all of that. It will basically be the marauders books that we never really got from JK Rowling but it will hardly follow the plan like Draco’s point of view would.

Also I’m one of the biggest fans of the marauders so a 7 book series based on their life would be everything I’ve ever dreamed of but since we aren’t getting that anytime soon, from the looks of it, I’d happily be the one to write it if you guys also like the idea. I’m also a big fan of wolfstar and since we dont know much about the marauders’ experience at hogwarts, in my version wolfstar might be referenced or it might be canon or whatever - I don’t know yet.

Anyway, I’d love to know all about your thoughts on my little idea and if you’d be interested in any of it. Feel free to comment or message me directly with your support and opinion on the character you’d most wanna see and your thoughts on my plan as a whole! It will be a huge motivation for me since this task is a really big one and your support is what will make it happen.

Also, feel free to also offer your own opinion and reason if you think theres another character that I did not mention that would be better to focus on - let’s discuss and debate!

I’d appreciate all the support and if any of you are willing to help with the research, editing or any other area you think you’d be of help with please don’t be shy to message me and I’d love you even more!

Reblogs would be most appreciated as it would also help spread the word! Thank you so much!

(All of my social media links are in my bio)

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

hot take

if you’re gonna write a story that takes place in china

maybe actually do the research abt china???

fair warning: if you like really like cinder and/or marissa meyer you may just wanna sit this one out

in these trying times of lost innocence of childhood and being more aware of social justice issues, i find myself being very critical of the entertainment media i consume

esp when it comes to representation, bc representation is important to me. and it’s becoming more and more important to me the older i get, as an asexual chinese-american woman. i’m still on the fence abt no rep v. bad rep, but this isn’t what this post is mainly abt

i’m currently reading cinder, by marissa meyer for my book club

and i just...i have a lot to say abt it. a lot that i really gotta get off my chest before i feel i can continue to read it

i’d preferably like to talk abt it with my friends (and maybe i will when the time comes), but i’d have to wait until june 1 and finish the book. as i said above, i really have to get this off my chest before i can finish it, so here i am, screaming into the void

so to begin, and i usually comment abt this when it comes to A LOT of east asian rep i see in entertainment media: my beef with the combination of east asian culture to mean one (1) asian/east asian culture

in this case, a combo of east asian cultureS (plural) into one (1), which would be china

honorifics

there are honorifics in china--like you definitely want to apply the correct honorific to your authority figures (i.e., parents, teachers, doctors, bosses, etc.)

and that part of china’s culture was taken, and then adapted into japanese culture today, HOWEVER, the way it’s used in japanese culture today is very different than how chinese ppl use them

okay so disclaimer real quick, chinese is my second language, and i have not taken up learning japanese, and am i’m going off information i’ve learned from my friends who took japanese as their second langauge; so the information i provide here may not be precisely accruate (hence, having trouble finding better words to explain this)

a lot of china’s honorifics aren’t as “““specific”””--for major lack of a better word--as japan’s

they have mr., miss, mrs., teacher/master, doctor, etc., and, in general, it’s custom to use them bc they are important--authority and hierarchy is v important to collectivistic cultures

japan has “““specific””” identifiers that are often, if not always, used to identify any of those older, younger, or equal to you

senpai, -chan, -san, -sama, etc., as well as other identifiers as placeholders for the person’s name to communicate who they are in relation to the person speaking (e.g., oniisan, oniichan, oniisama)

how honorifics are used in cinder is almost completely wrong, not just in culture, but also through translation

from meyer’s website:

-dàren: for a high-ranking official today is simply means adult, or grown up. it can be used as a respectful honorific toward superiors, but it mostly just means adult. archaically it did mean “your/his excellency.” but again, today, it’s mainly used to refer to an adult. and i imagine however far into the future this book takes places, they’d use it the same way??? but i mean i guess if they went back to imperialism

-shìfu: for an older male this is actually master (as an honorific, such as teacher is, or to specify a very qualified worker). sometimes it can be used to address strangers, specifically older men (not necessarily specifically, or often, used for an older male)

-jūn: for a younger male idk where she got “younger male” from bc it’s mostly used as a measure word. it can be used as an honorific, but translates to “your” not younger male. had she been going by the “honorifics” she uses below, it should be dì, which comes from dìdi (弟弟), which means younger brother (but not necessarily younger male)

-jiĕ: for an older female my best guess is this is derived from jiĕjie (姐姐), which means older sister (not necessarily older female)

-mèi: for a younger female once again, she probably derived this from mèimei (妹妹), which means younger sister (not necessarily younger female)

these specific pinyin (more specifically the last two/three) that she picked cannot be separated from the other pinyin that help to identify them. jiĕ and mèi don’t exist by themselves in the chinese language (compared to -chan, or -san do in japanese), and therefore do not translate as such in meyer’s book. not to mention, multiple characters can be applied to jiĕ and mèi depending on the context and other pinyin/character next to it that helps form the word, or helps distinguish the context

she perhaps simplified these honorifics a little too much. so much so in fact that they lost their meaning. quite literally

and, as i said before, these honorifics aren’t used like they are in japanese culture/language. you don’t tack on honorifics behind someone’s name (like a suffix) as they do in japan. the whole honorific (not just half of it, not like a suffix) comes after someone’s name, such as Lín lăoshī (林老师), which means Teacher Lin. or replaces their name entirely, such as tā shì wŏ de dìdi (他是我的弟弟), which means “this is my younger brother” (as opposed to, “this is bob, my younger brother” or variations of that same sentiment)

names

now, in this futuristic world, i can understand if there are names from other countries (esp. other east asian countries)

however, if your crown prince’s name of china has a japanese name...i’m probs gonna call you out on it. esp bc china and japan don’t have The Best history. now maybe they’ve worked thru it after all these yrs, but still

he’s the crown prince of china

he’s mostly just refered to as prince kai. which i would be okay with if it was just that bc kai is chinese

however, his full name? kaito. kaito is japanese

rikan? japanese. like wtf, if your the emperor of china, you should probs have a chinese name. i mean, you’d think hope?

iko? also japanese (i admit this is being a lil nit-picky, bc cinder or adri or whoever is free to name their android whatever-the-hell they want to, i’m just saying)

and i mean, i guess i can see names from other countries in the real world too, but you have to remember china has the largest population of ppl in the world, so the chances that there are ppl within a certain district who don’t have chinese names is v slim (esp bc you have to take the hsk to show you can contribute to society in china before they grant you a visa to live/work there).

compare that to cinder’s district, where we have cinder, adri, iko, peony, pearl, sacha, fateema, and dr. earland. oh and then the lab tech named li, who’s most definitely the only one i can assuredly say is chinese (and i would hope looks chinese)

now, again, bc it is the future, maybe more (like A LOT more) ppl have moved to china lbr tho, they’ve moved back to imperialism, why would you choose to live there? but i’d still be bitter abt it regardless, bc like china, in theory, should have chinese ppl? w/ chinese names??? i imagine it’s still a p big country in this future

optics

i really wish cinder looked chinese. this is more of a personal thing, and i get that genes aren’t so cut and dry, and if she’s a lunar, then yeah she probably won’t look completely chinese

but a girl can dream for representation other than just mulan ya know (not saying mulan sucks or anything, but it’s like, kinda the only thing i have so)

esp bc the book takes place in china. and she is said to be at least mixed “““““asian”””””

i also wish the fucking prince looked chinese--his skin is fair according to the wikia

bruh

why are you so afraid to make your main characters brown

on a more serious note, and this is getting really nit-picky (kinda) again, but i really wish meyer had put more thought into dr. earland’s character. okay, now, i haven’t finished the book so the good doctor may, in fact,,, be...a...good....................doctor..............?

but my point still stands in that dr. earland comes of as very sexist (with undertones of racism, wheeeeee) bc he hates fateen (who has dark skin, btw) bc she’s taller than him

and he’s also super creepy (as in, “where i’m from, that’s called pedophilia” kind of creepy) bc of his strange interest in young, teenage (cyborg) girls...

yeah

and okay, again, i haven’t finished the book, so maybe he’s supposed to come off that way

but an old, white dude showing too much interest in finding a young woc? not v good optics, regardless of dr. earland’s character yeah?

the fact the fateen points this out does absolutely nothing (aka lampshading).

if you point it out, but continue to fall into a harmful stereotype, you are still perpetuating the stereotype. full stop

misc

i say “misc” but most of this really falls under criticism of the author herself, misc is just shorter

i think it’s great that she’s taking this age-old fairy-tale and putting it into my place of birth, bc representation means the absolute world to me. also i really like this idea that the first telling of cinderella took place in china like fuck yeah, steal that white disney princess from the europeans

but i really wish you’d do it right

in her faq, she apologizes if she got anything wrong, but that’s like putting a band-aid over a bullet wound

how much research is research? did she just google a bunch of stuff, or did she sit down and actually talk to ppl from china? or chinese-americans who have kept their chinese culture?  participate in chinese culture to gain a better understanding?

going by the fact that she wrote cinder in a month, she probably stuck to google

which...i mean i guess i’m glad she made the effort, but it woulda been nice if she’d, after getting a book deal, consulted chinese ppl and edited what needed to be edited yeah? i know she did a little editing, but she said the whole process took 3 months from the time she found an agent to getting a book deal, so like...i’m willing to bet she didn’t sit down with some chinese folk and talk abt their culture (and so on)

and look, it’s really not that hard. and, sure it may delay when the book gets published, but at least it’d be more accurate. and better representation.

rather than falling into what most ppl do these days (i’m looking at you miraculous ladybug) and combining all the east asian cultures to make one (1) culture, and call it--not even east asian--but asian

as if that one (1) monster culture that’s mostly made of up east asian cultures could speak for the variety and diversity of a total of 48 countries, and their respective cultures, that are within the asian continent

now, this whole “calling it asian culture” isn’t meyer’s fault--it’s a side-effect of our society. like i get that, and i’m not trying to put the blame solely on her shoulders

but she still perpetuates it by choosing not to talk to chinese ppl abt a folk tale the may have originated in china, in order to ya know, make it more accurate to china. considering it takes place...IN CHINA

[entireoranges]

TV in HP (this got long)

There has been talk which often leads to arguments because people seem incapable of being respectful and actually discussing things of what house in the Harry Potter universe Tessa would belong to. For me though I know in the universe she would only be sorted into one and one alone I however prefer sorting people in the hybrid houses. Especially since I find people/characters far too complex to really be pigeonholed in just one house. The descriptions come from THIS buzzfeed quiz. Though if being honest I think the quiz itself is a bit weak but I have gotten all results and meanings from the comment section. Which I did provide in this post so I got you all covered. Alright now for the moment everyone has been waiting for!

There were a few in which I felt Tessa could work well within. Some where I instantly was like that is certainly not her! Of course I am aware I am not her and don’t have access to her mind/emotions/motives/etc. Still from the bits we see and others have said about her you can immediately remove some of the hybrids off the list.  I wiggled it down to these options ...

Gryffindor/Hufflepuffs: This is a particularly rare house to end up in, but Gryffinpuffs always recognize one another because they have a tendency both to wear their hearts on their sleeve and to charge into action. You’re honest to a fault, but you’d be willing to lie if it meant helping a friend in need. You’re humble and prefer a quiet life if it’s at all possible, but your keen sense of justice means that you’re always ready to jump to someone’s defense if you think they’re being wronged.

Gryffindor/Slytherin: It’s safe to say that not many people who know you truly know you, because you are a wealth of contradictions. You are individualistic and self-motivated, but you’re also dedicated to a small group of tight-knit friends, to the extent that some people think of you as cliquish. You have a strong moral compass, but your ambition and desire for excellence sometimes cause internal conflicts that you need to use all your considerable wits to resolve.

Hufflepuff/Slytherin: You love animals, your family, and being a part of a team. But while you’re known for being loyal and easy to get along with, that doesn’t mean you’re not ambitious or willing to take risks when the situation calls for it. People might mistake you for a pushover because of your easy demeanor, but they’d be dead wrong.

I find it interesting that I ended up with 2 Slytherin options which is where I have seen most people place her into. Also Gryffindor has been represented 2 times as well. So let’s focus on Gryffindor/Slytherin (and yes Slytherin/Gryffindor has a different meaning)

It’s safe to say that not many people who know you truly know you, because you are a wealth of contradictions.

Tessa is very private on what she shares, either on social media or interviews. When she does at first you think she’s “leading” you down one path but then boom there was a quick curve in the pah.

You are individualistic and self-motivated

Tessa knows who she is and what she wants.

but you’re also dedicated to a small group of tight-knit friends, to the extent that some people think of you as cliquish.

For this you can pretty much say “dedicated to Scott” LOL. Tessa’s world professional and personal basically involves around Scott to where yes the cliquish word choice could apply (but I think they are more then that). More then Scott, Tessa is dedicated to skating world in general. And of course she has other interests and passions such as fashion.

You have a strong moral compass

I take this as Tessa wants to win and be the best by working hard and not cheating or taking advantage of her competition.

but your ambition and desire for excellence sometimes cause internal conflicts that you need to use all your considerable wits to resolve.

Also her (and Scott) being the best need it be for a competition or just a show is important to her. She always wants to give and show her best and when something stops that from happening Tessa struggles with it. And it takes her awhile to realize or resolve with herself that not being the best at all times is ok.

Without saying it isn’t a perfect fit but I personally think it’s pretty good. And I will declare this has my official answer!

Here are all the hybrid descriptions as I promised.

Gryffindor/Hufflepuffs: This is a particularly rare house to end up in, but Gryffinpuffs always recognize one another because they have a tendency both to wear their hearts on their sleeve and to charge into action. You’re honest to a fault, but you’d be willing to lie if it meant helping a friend in need. You’re humble and prefer a quiet life if it’s at all possible, but your keen sense of justice means that you’re always ready to jump to someone’s defense if you think they’re being wronged.

Gryffindor/Ravenclaw: Gryffinclaws like you are rare in the wild, but you’re easy to recognize as a Gryffinclaw because you’re bold, outgoing, and a natural leader. Your ambition and your drive to change the world are powerful forces inside you, but they’re tempered and softened by your knowledge and your understanding, as well as your keen wit and sense of humor. If they haven’t already, somebody should probably put you in charge of something big.

Gryffindor/Slytherin: It’s safe to say that not many people who know you truly know you, because you are a wealth of contradictions. You are individualistic and self-motivated, but you’re also dedicated to a small group of tight-knit friends, to the extent that some people think of you as cliquish. You have a strong moral compass, but your ambition and desire for excellence sometimes cause internal conflicts that you need to use all your considerable wits to resolve.

Hufflepuff/Gryffindor: Huffledors like you are a bit of a contradiction. Because of your deep love of your family, your attachment to animals and the natural world, and the fact that you are so open and kind with everyone, many people think that you’re a pushover. But far beyond your warm exterior is a hardness, grit, and a passionate intensity that would truly surprise people who only know you superficially.

Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw: You thrive in collaborations and group projects, but you’re just as comfortable doing things on your own. Those who know you well know how smart you are, but it’s not something you like to show off. In fact, it doesn’t even really bother you when someone else takes credit for something you figured out, because you enjoy the process of working through a problem much more than the rewards of recognition

Hufflepuff/Slytherin: You love animals, your family, and being a part of a team. But while you’re known for being loyal and easy to get along with, that doesn’t mean you’re not ambitious or willing to take risks when the situation calls for it. People might mistake you for a pushover because of your easy demeanor, but they’d be dead wrong.

Ravenclaw/Gryffindor: Welcome to Ravendor – a truly elite house. Your keen, analytical mind and deep love of knowledge for its own sake were not enough alone to get you into this house, because Ravindors must also be lovers of people. To you, most people are both an open book and an endless, beautiful mystery, and your combination of compassion for people you don’t understand, and fascination with what it is that makes them different, truly sets you apart.

Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff: It could be said of you that books are your best friends, but your actual friends are incredibly important to you as well. You love learning, researching, and becoming the master of a particular topic, but you know that a life of the mind is meaningless without true friends to share your thoughts and insights with. You have an extremely strong moral compass, but it comes from thinking about morality logically, rather than from just feeling what’s right and wrong.

Ravenclaw/Slytherin: You have a genuine love of learning and acquiring new knowledge, but your efforts at self-improvement are geared specifically towards achieving the success you know you deserve. You prefer to avoid confrontation, not because you’re afraid of it, but because you don’t suffer fools gladly. You have a particular gift for seeing the merit of both sides of an argument, and you’re not afraid to use that ability to win in a fight, even when you know you’re wrong.

Slytherin/Gryffindor: You can appear cold and standoffish to people who don’t know you well, but you’re deeply attached to your closest friends. Your fiercely competitive instincts are tempered by an innate sense of fairness that will allow other people to get something you want if you feel they truly deserve it, but none of that really matters too much because you almost always get your way in the end. You are, to put it mildly, extremely resourceful.

Slytherin/Hufflepuff: You care deeply about your reputation, and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to achieve greatness…except if that means in any way harming a friend. You are cunning and can be very effectively manipulative when you need to, but you’re just as likely to use those abilities to help people you love as you are to get the recognition you deserve in life.

Slytherin/Ravenclaw: Slytherclaw is the hybrid house that has at once the most potential to achieve greatness and the most potential to do harm. Your sharp wit and intelligence is matched with a willingness to do whatever it takes to get ahead, including taking some serious risks. Your combination of cunning and analytical intelligence make you an asset on any team, but in general, you prefer to work alone.

Now where would you put Tessa based on these meanings? Should I do Scott next?

[maxwellyjordan]

Symposium: Free exercise, RFRA and the need for a constitutional safety net

This article is part of a SCOTUSblog symposium on the Roberts court and the religion clauses.

Kim Colby is director of the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom. She was counsel on amicus briefs on behalf of the Christian Legal Society in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, Tanzin v. Tanvir and Fulton v. City of Philadelphia.

Americans’ religious freedom depends on a patchwork of protections scattered throughout federal and state laws. Religious freedom is protected to a limited degree by the First Amendment’s free exercise clause; to a much greater degree, but only at the federal level, by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; and to various degrees by specific religious exemptions tucked here and there into federal statutes and regulations. While state constitutions, as well as some state and local statutes, pay homage to religious freedom, when state courts apply them the results frequently tend to be less robust than their language would suggest.

The Supreme Court’s 2019-20 term brought significant religious freedom victories. But it also highlighted the lack of a constitutional safety net for religious freedom. The 2020-21 term offers a critical opportunity to restore a constitutional safety net that has been sorely lacking for three decades.

Thirty years ago, the Employment Division v. Smith decision unexpectedly weakened the constitutional protection for religious freedom. The Smith decision substituted rational basis review — or possibly, no review at all — for strict scrutiny review whenever a burden on the free exercise of religion is imposed by a neutral and generally applicable law. The court has never explained what it means by a neutral and generally applicable law; it is still not clear whether Smith completely gutted the First Amendment protection for religious freedom or merely shrank it considerably and made it much more complicated and confused. Whatever the degree of damage, this loss of protection applies at the federal level and also at state and local levels.

The cases before the court this term and next term illustrate Smith’s regrettable long-term consequences and demonstrate why the court should overrule Smith. A case to be heard next term, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, expressly presents that question.

1. Constitutional protection at state and local levels is needed.

Americans’ religious freedom varies widely depending on the state in which they live. Smith deprived religious persons of previous bargaining power and incentives necessary to persuade state and local officials to respect religious freedom.

To provide protection in states, the court has labored to identify discriminatory treatment of religious persons because Smith itself left strict scrutiny in place when religious persons suffer discriminatory treatment. The court has utilized two distinct buckets to protect religious persons:

1. Discrimination based on religious status: In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, relying on the state constitution, Montana bureaucrats excluded parents and students from a state tuition tax-credit program because many participating families chose to send their children to religious schools. The court held that the Montana constitution impermissibly discriminated on the basis of religious status in violation of the federal free exercise clause.

2. Discriminatory treatment compared to similar secular conduct: Just three years after Smith, in Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, the court unanimously ruled that a municipality violated the free exercise clause when it prohibited killing animals as part of a religious ritual, but not as part of a secular activity, such as hunting. In 2018, in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the court applied Lukumi in ruling that state officials unconstitutionally punished a man of deep religious convictions who refused to create a wedding cake to celebrate a same-sex wedding, but did not penalize other bakers who refused to create cakes with messages to which they personally objected.

Requiring government officials to treat religious conduct with the same respect given similar secular conduct has been an important, if unevenly applied, protection for religious freedom under the Smith regime. But it is not an adequate substitute for reliable constitutional protection of religious freedom achieved through consistent application of strict scrutiny analysis to laws that burden religious freedom. Fulton – which involves a city’s denial of licensure to a Catholic organization’s foster-care program – gives the court an opportunity to reinstate strict scrutiny for such laws.

2. RFRA’s protection for religious freedom at the federal level requires reinforcement.

In response to Smith, Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote, and President Bill Clinton signed it into law. RFRA requires the federal government to demonstrate a compelling interest unachievable by a less restrictive means before it may enforce a neutral, generally applicable law against a person whose sincerely held religious beliefs would be substantially burdened by the law.

RFRA, rather than the First Amendment, has provided the primary protection for Americans’ religious freedom at the federal level for 27 years. A singular legislative achievement, RFRA ensures a level playing field for Americans of all faiths by putting minority faiths and unpopular religious beliefs on an equal footing with faiths that are politically popular.

Two cases on the court’s 2019 and 2020 dockets illustrate RFRA’s importance to persons of all faiths. In Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, Catholic nuns returned to the Supreme Court for the third time in their nine-year effort to win the right to serve the poor without violating their religious convictions regarding contraceptives. Ruling in the Little Sisters’ favor, the court held that the federal government had the authority under RFRA to provide a generous religious and moral exemption from an administrative regulation that required employers to provide contraceptive coverage through their insurance plans. Unfortunately, the court did not follow the course urged by Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch to find that RFRA not only permitted the exemption but actually required it. In a concurrence, Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justice Stephen Breyer, provided a roadmap for the lower court on remand to rule against the religious exemption — a prospect that may necessitate a fourth trip to the Supreme Court for the Little Sisters before final victory.

The second RFRA case, Tanzin v. Tanvir, will be argued this fall. Three Muslim men, one a U.S. citizen and two lawful permanent residents, seek to recover money damages from federal FBI employees who allegedly retaliated against them by placing them on the “No Fly List” for their refusal to become FBI informants within their religious congregations. The issue before the court is whether RFRA’s authorization of “appropriate relief” includes recovery of money damages from federal officials acting in their personal capacities.

The coalition of 68 organizations from across the religious and political spectrum that urged RFRA’s passage had one overriding operative principle: RFRA would protect all Americans’ religious freedom. Anticipating RFRA’s main task as protecting minority faiths, few proponents foresaw that Catholic nuns would be denied a modest religious exemption by a popularly elected administration and, therefore, need RFRA’s protection.

But the times have changed rapidly and dramatically. Since 2010, religious social conservatives have increasingly faced a rigid insistence that they conform to and promote the orthodoxies of the abortion and LGBT movements even when those orthodoxies directly conflict with their religious beliefs.

As a result, Congress is being pressured to eviscerate RFRA. The Equality Act, H.R. 5, passed the House of Representatives in May 2019 by a vote of 236-173, with a provision buried in it to gut RFRA. The Equality Act’s proponents are willing to forfeit all Americans’ religious freedom in order to suppress religious dissent.

In its decision this term in Bostock v. Clayton County, which re-interpreted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes, the court offered reassurance that RFRA, Title VII’s religious exemption and the “ministerial exception” will suffice to protect religious individuals and institutions. But more needs to be done to make its promise a reality. This is particularly true because many state officials are likely to apply Bostock’s rationale to re-interpret state prohibitions on sex discrimination in employment, public accommodations and government programs. Title VII’s religious exemption and RFRA do not follow Bostock’s analysis downstream to the states.

The court’s reaffirmation in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru of the First Amendment’s strong protection for religious employers’ decisions about who will lead their religious mission and teach their religious beliefs does apply to the states. But the protection, while strong, is limited and does not extend to all employees.

More to the point, Our Lady’s protection of this essential right was possible only because, eight years ago in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the court set Smith to one side. In Hosanna-Tabor, the U.S. government argued that the free exercise clause offered no protection to a religious congregation’s decisions regarding who would be its minister or teach its faith in its school. The government understandably relied on Smith for this jaw-dropping proposition, only to find its reliance rejected by a unanimous court. But by requiring the court continually to cabin it or create workarounds, Smith works distinctive institutional damage to the court’s reputation.

RFRA and the “ministerial exception” have performed yeoman’s work. But they urgently need reinforcement through restoration of consistent and reliable constitutional protection for religious freedom.

By protecting all religious beliefs regardless of their popularity, religious freedom makes it possible for Americans with starkly different worldviews to live peaceably together. Now is the time to restore substantive constitutional protection for all Americans regardless of what they believe or where they live.

The post Symposium: Free exercise, RFRA and the need for a constitutional safety net appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

from Law https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/08/symposium-free-exercise-rfra-and-the-need-for-a-constitutional-safety-net/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[comic-watch]

Batman fights hard to save Ten from the clutches of Payback, who is willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge on Batman. Will help from an unexpected source be enough to save the day?

  Batman Beyond #19

Writer: Dan Jurgens Penciller: Phil Hester Inker: Ande Parks Colorist: Michael Spicer Letterer: Travis Lanham Cover: Bernard Chang & Marcelo Maiolo Variant Cover: Dave Johnson Group Editor: Marie Javins Editor: Rob Levin

What You Need To Know:  Melanie Walker – aka Ten of the Royal Flush Gang – has been captured by Dr. Stanton, father of the original Payback, now using the moniker himself to take revenge against Terry McGinnis, the current Batman. In an effort to help them both out, Bruce Wayne has deployed a last-ditch effort – Matt McGinnis, Terry’s younger brother – who has taken up some of Robin’s arsenal to help save Batman.

What You Will Find Out: Aware that Terry needs help, Dana Tan arrives at Wayne Manor, looking for Bruce, who sits in a wheelchair, haunted by memories of the man he used to be and no longer is. He wants more than anything to help Terry, but he physically can’t, and while Dana thinks it’s a good idea to call the police or the Justice League, Bruce admits that he’s sent someone else to Terry’s aid instead – Matt, Terry’s little brother. Dana is horrified by this discovery, and as Bruce gives Matt some solid instructions on what to do, Dana aggressively questions Bruce’s choice in allowing Matt to help Terry. Bruce actually agrees with Dana’s protest in sending Matt out, but also tells her that he didn’t have a choice in the matter – Batman needs help as soon as possible, and Matt was the closest person around to help.

Following Bruce’s instructions, Matt does what he can to help from outside, without engaging anyone directly. Meanwhile, Ten is able to free Batman from Payback’s bindings, and though a fight ensues, Batman is never quite able to get the upper hand. Matt, seeing this from the outside, crashes into the building, taking payback out with his flying bike.

Terry, immediately realizing that it’s his brother wearing the domino mask, asks Bruce how he could allow Matt to help Terry like this. Dana adds fuel to the fire by telling him that Bruce encouraged Matt in this endeavor, and Payback – seeing a Robin – goes after him, because who is more important to Batman than Robin? Matt takes a batarang out of his belt to fight Payback, but given his lack of training, he’s easily subdued, and Batman comes to his brother’s rescue, all while admonishing Bruce for not having asked Terry about Matt putting on a mask.

Batman manages to take Payback out after a speech about how it was all Dr. Stanton’s fault that his son Kenny took his own life and ho he was going live with that for the rest of his life and then takes Matt out of there in a huff. Ten, having observed the whole thing, and possibly having recognized Matt, wonders about what exactly she had witnessed.

As Dana leaves the Batcave – telling Bruce that someone should have called child protective services on him years ago – Bruce continues to stew in his own guilt about having allowed Matt out to save Terry. Terry and Matt arrive, and while Terry is still angry at Bruce, Bruce explains that they can’t change what happened, and the important thing is where they go from there. In Matt’s case, it’s that he clearly wants to become Robin, but Terry tells him that there’s no way that will happen. Before anything else though, Terry has something important he wants to do.

Turns out, that’s paying Stalker a visit after Stalker had hurt himself while helping Terry fight Payback a couple of issues ago. He’s brought enough food for Stalker’s village to last a while, and he promises that the food will keep on coming as long as they need it. Terry explains that he’s not doing any of this because Stalker saved him, but because it’s the right thing to do – and the right thing to do includes finding a way to give Stalker his legs back.

What Just Happened?: Matt McGinnis is finally on the road to becoming Robin, and that’s kind of great. We’ve already had a fleshing out of Terry’s world quite a bit with Ten (comfortable in her role as his Catwoman archetype), the Justice League, even a Batgirl – though Terry has yet to truly cross paths with her. The only thing missing was a Robin, and it really was only a matter of time before Matt would slip on that particular domino mask and join his brother out in the field. It’s clearly going to be an uphill battle for Matt, since Terry doesn’t want him risking his life, and even Bruce feels regret over having Matt go out into the field, but it promises to be an entertaining journey. After all, when has a Robin – be it Dick, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, Damian, or even Earth-2’s Helena Wayne – ever taken ‘no’ for an answer? There’s also the fact that while we’ve had fraternal dynamics amongst Batman and the Robins – Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne especially – we’ve never had actual brothers functioning together, and dynamic between the duo promises to be fraught with tension, but also clearly love.

Having Terry come to Stalker’s aid at the end of the issue was a nice parallel to the A-story that went on for most of this arc, featuring a positive sort of payback – even though Terry insisted that this wasn’t a payback, but rather doing what was right. Stalker has always been the Batman Beyond universe’s version of Spider-Man’s Kraven the Hunter, and it’ll be interesting to see how this new relationship between Batman and Stalker plays out. What does a villain do once their prey becomes their friend and comes to their aid? Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of Stalker.

While it makes sense that Bruce may have been unable to get ahold of the Justice League to aid Terry against Payback – they may have been too far away, after all – one wonders why he wasn’t at least able to call on Nissa, the latest Batgirl. She would have been able to supply some aid to Terry without forcing Matt to go out into the field, and that could have cut a lot of tension. Granted, the out of story reason is that this is Matt’s awakening as Robin, but one does wonder what Bruce’s in-story reasons would be for not reaching out to a vigilante who already has a good working relationship with one of his own allies – Barbara Gordon.

Rating: 7/10

Final Thoughts: Another solid issue by Dan Jurgens, with some very setting-appropriate art by Phil Hester, this was another good installment in expanding the Batman Beyond universe. Though there were maybe a couple of in-story plot-hole hiccups, it’s thrilling to see the potential of a new Robin being born. Definitely well worth a read if you’re a fan of Batman Beyond and if you’re a fan of the ever-growing roster of Robins.

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Batman fights hard to save Ten from the clutches of Payback, who is willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge on Batman. Will help from an unexpected source be enough to save the day? Batman fights hard to save Ten from the clutches of Payback, who is willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge on Batman.

[uniteordie-usa]

FBI undercover stings foil terrorist plots — but often plots of the agency’s own making

http://uniteordiemedia.com/fbi-undercover-stings-foil-terrorist-plots-but-often-plots-of-the-agencys-own-making/ https://uniteordiemedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/FBI-logo-300x300.png FBI undercover stings foil terrorist plots — but often plots of the agency’s own making   By: Ian Cummings Announcements of foiled terrorist plots make for lurid reading. Schemes to carry out a Presidents Day jihadist attack on a train station in Kansas City. Bomb a Sept. 11 memorial event. Blow up a 1,000-pound bomb at Fort Riley. Detonate a weapon of mass destruction at a...

  By: Ian Cummings

Announcements of foiled terrorist plots make for lurid reading.

Schemes to carry out a Presidents Day jihadist attack on a train station in Kansas City. Bomb a Sept. 11 memorial event. Blow up a 1,000-pound bomb at Fort Riley. Detonate a weapon of mass destruction at a Wichita airport — the failed plans all show imagination.

But how much of it was real?

Often not much, according to a review of several recent terrorism cases investigated by the FBI in Kansas and Missouri. The most sensational plots invoking the name of the Islamic State or al-Qaida here were largely the invention of FBI agents carrying out elaborate sting operations on individuals identified through social media as being potentially dangerous.

In fact, in terrorism investigations in Wichita, at Fort Riley and last week in Kansas City, the alleged terrorists reportedly were unknowingly following the directions of undercover FBI agents who supplied fake bombs and came up with key elements of the plans.

“What I get concerned about is where the plot is being hatched by the FBI,” said Michael German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and former FBI agent. “There has been a clear effort to manufacture plots.”

Law enforcement has increasingly used undercover agents and informants to develop such cases in recent years, especially against people suspected of being inspired by the Islamic State.

Of 126 Islamic State-related cases prosecuted by federal authorities across the country since 2014, nearly two-thirds involved undercover agents or informants, according to the Center on National Security at the Fordham University School of Law in New York. The FBI has stepped up its use of sting operations, which were once seen as a tactic of last resort.

FBI officials have said the sting operations are just one tool for thwarting terrorist attacks and that the suspects in such cases are given many opportunities to back out before their arrest. Federal authorities employ the stings on the theory that a person willing to engage in terrorism would eventually find real accomplices to carry out an attack.

Such cases are almost never successfully challenged in court with entrapment defenses.

But some question whether the FBI is catching real terrorists or tricking troubled individuals into volunteering for a long prison sentence.

The most recent alleged plotter, 25-year-old Robert Lorenzo Hester Jr. of Columbia, was indicted last week after federal prosecutors accused him of participating in an Islamic State plan to cause mass casualties in a bombing attack on a train station and possibly buses and trains in Kansas City on Feb. 20.

The two men leading Hester in the alleged plot were actually undercover FBI employees. They suggested the time, place and type of attack, and loaned Hester $20 to buy the 9-volt batteries, duct tape, roofing nails and copper wire that they implied would be ingredients for a bomb. Hester reportedly failed to buy the copper wire, saying he could not find it. There were no actual bombs.

The FBI employees had identified Hester as a suspect after seeing Facebook posts he made about his “conversion to Islam, his hatred for the United States and his belief that supposed U.S. mistreatment of Muslims had to be ‘put to an end,’ ” according to court documents.

But despite Hester’s denials, the FBI employees noted, he continued to test positive for marijuana even though it is frowned upon by Islamic teachings. And he allegedly found it necessary to bring his children to a meeting with the FBI workers because he had no other options for child care.

At a December meeting, one of the FBI employees threatened Hester with a knife, saying he “knew where Hester and his family lived” to make the point that Hester was not to plan any attacks of his own.

“It seems like outrageous conduct,” said German, the former FBI agent, who noted other aspects of the investigation that he thought seemed “odd.”

The FBI found Hester on Facebook in August and made contact with him through an undercover employee on Oct. 2, a day before Hester was arrested in Columbia for reportedly throwing a pocket knife through a grocery store window during an argument with his wife and menacing store employees with a 9 mm handgun he carried in a diaper bag.

Hester was released from jail on bond and remained under electronic monitoring for the next three months as he continued talking with the undercover employees and allegedly grew more deeply involved in their plans.

In January, Hester pleaded guilty in the Columbia case. He remained free on bond and was taken off electronic monitoring. The plot with the undercover FBI employees sped up, ending with his arrest in February, a month before he was to be sentenced in the Columbia grocery store incident.

German questioned why Hester was allowed to walk free.

“If the government had a legitimate reason to think this person was a danger to society, why would they let him out on bond?” he asked. “And this person was about to walk into a jail cell. It makes me think the reason is they didn’t believe he was a threat, but they could use him to make a case.”

It’s not unusual for authorities to go undercover to try to foil terrorist plots, said Daryl Johnson, a former analyst for the Department of Homeland Security. And some plots show evidence of being very real.

In 2007, Johnson noted, six Muslim men from New Jersey and Philadelphia were charged with plotting to attack Fort Dix with automatic weapons and possibly rocket-propelled grenades in what authorities said was a plan “to kill as many soldiers as possible.”

“The Fort Dix case was the most serious — they actually had a small arsenal,” Johnson said.

In Kansas last year, authorities uncovered what they said was a plot by a militia group to detonate bombs at a Garden City apartment complex where a number of Somalis live. The defendants in that case included three men who, according to court documents, had stockpiled weapons and told an FBI source of their plan.

Johnson said it’s harder to find the real threat in sting cases, such as Hester’s, where a person spouting off on social media, with no resources or ability to carry out an attack, is led by undercover FBI agents down a path to acting out a pretend terrorist plot.

“Most of these cases are trumped-up, FBI facilitated,” Johnson said. “A lot of times, these people are just engaging in free speech. If they’re American citizens, they can say they hate America, they can say, ‘I support ISIS.’ Then they become targeted.”

In these cases, he said, law enforcement has facilitated a terrorist plot with someone who held some hateful views but didn’t have the capability to do anything.

“And they were either provided the capability, or they were arrested for just the plotting aspect,” he said.

KC terrorism cases

Several of the Kansas and Missouri cases followed a similar pattern.

In 2013, FBI agents arrested a 58-year-old Kansas man as he tried to use his employee badge to bring a fake bomb onto the tarmac of a Wichita airport. The arrest of Terry L. Loewen came after a months-long sting operation in which two FBI agents posed as his co-conspirators and led him in a supposed plot they devised with phony explosives.

The FBI had found Loewen on Facebook, where he told an undercover agent of his interest in jihad. Over a period of about six months, the agents arranged for Loewen to meet in person an undercover agent posing as a terrorist, asked him to scout the airport and take photos for an attack they planned, and instructed him to gather items supposed to be used in bomb-making. According to court documents, Loewen eagerly participated and expected to die in the explosion.

In 2015, FBI agents arrested 20-year-old John T. Booker Jr. as he attempted to set off a fake car bomb at Fort Riley. Booker had been befriended by a pair of undercover FBI agents after posting inflammatory messages on Facebook. Booker told the agents he wanted to join the Islamic State and would do whatever they said. “I will follow you,” he said.

When the agents, posing as terrorists, asked what target they should attack, Booker suggested Fort Riley. At the agents’ direction, Booker rented a storage locker and went with an agent to local retailers to buy components for what was supposed to be a homemade bomb. No real explosives were involved in the operation.

In court, Booker’s attorney said Booker was being treated for bipolar disorder. He pleaded guilty to two counts related to the bomb plot and faces 30 years in prison.

The same year, an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested 20-year-old Joshua R. Goldberg at his parents’ home in Orange Park, Fla. Goldberg was accused of trying to help plan — online — an attack on a 9/11  memorial in Kansas City by providing details on how to build a pressure cooker bomb.

FBI agents had become aware of Goldberg through a social media account in which he reportedly posed as a terrorist instigator living in Australia. Online, Goldberg allegedly took credit for inspiring a May 2015 attack on a “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” in Garland, Texas, in which police killed two armed men.

An undercover FBI agent contacted Goldberg online and expressed interest in carrying out a bomb attack in Kansas City. Goldberg allegedly suggested targeting the Sept. 11 memorial event, supplied links to online bomb-building manuals and suggested packing the bomb with nails, glass and metal dipped in rat poison.

While FBI agents kept Goldberg’s home under surveillance, they received information from Australian police that Goldberg had been identified as an “online troll” who engaged in internet hoaxes. Days later, they arrested Goldberg on one federal count of distributing information relating to explosives.

Since his arrest, Goldberg has been held in a federal detention center in Miami and repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial because of mental illness. Psychological examinations found him to be “paranoid,” “childlike” and unable to understand the legal proceedings against him.

His defense attorney, Paul Shorstein, said a federal court may make a decision in the next few weeks on whether Goldberg can be tried. Shorstein said Goldberg was not a real terrorist.

“He was sort of pretending to be somebody and playing the role,” Shorstein said. “He’s not a threat to anybody. It’s not a terrorism case — it’s a mental health case.”

Still, these investigations could help thwart terrorism, said Dru Stevenson, a law professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston who has studied how such undercover cases prevail over entrapment defenses.

By locking up people who would be willing to carry out terrorist acts, the stings can reduce the potential recruiting pool for real terrorists looking for willing followers, Stevenson said. And the knowledge that undercover FBI agents and informants are out there could make that recruitment more dangerous, difficult and slow for actual Islamic State plotters.

“If the choice is between waiting for the person to find some real terrorists to get involved with, or giving them a phony plot, I’m fine with giving them a phony plot,” Stevenson said.

Taking the Boston Marathon bombers as an example, he said, “Those are the kind of people I wish someone had caught in a sting before they hurt a lot of people.”

So far, the courts have agreed. No defendant in the Islamic State sting cases has successfully argued entrapment.

But the sheer volume of cases that depend on sting operations in which FBI agents supply the plot says something about the reality of the terrorist threat, said Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security, which authored the Islamic State prosecutions report.

Most of the potential terrorists being prosecuted have a lot in common, Greenberg said. Their average age is 26, 77 percent are U.S. citizens, a third are converts to Islam and a third live with their parents. Nearly 90 percent are active on social media. Only a handful had any link to Islamic State members overseas.

“If you take away the undercover cases to see what are the real organized terrorism cases, we’re not seeing it,” Greenberg said. “What do we have? The threat is different from what we’re being told.”

FROM: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article135871988.html

[fyrapartnersearch]

A Wild Hunt for Roleplay

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I’ll keep it short and sweet for my introduction. I am Fenry, but you may address me as Fen. Obviously this is not my real name but I would like to keep a pseudonym as my identity until I get to know my partner better. 



I am 25 years and that means adult themes and topics will be included

Female Over 10 years of roleplaying experience

A masters graduate

And I live in CET, Europe

Prefers doubling, though I can make exceptions

We can exchange more information once I’ve received your message. I love talking outside of the Roleplay for some brainstorming and plotting for the story. Plus, making new friends never hurts.

Now to the actual topic what I am looking for in a partner.

Please read before you message me!

Thank you.



My roleplaying partner must be above the age of 18, preferably 20+. 
I don’t care which gender honestly, as long as the Roleplay and friendship is good I am all for it. Contact me with a small introduction. Tell me about yourself, what you’re ideas are, how long you’ve been writing and your limits. I want to know more about you, assess your character before we move to anything else. It would otherwise come off as impersonal. 



The qualities I prefer in an RP buddy are: 


Mature

Dedicated

Detailed

Literate

Frequent (which doesn’t mean that you need to send me 5 messages per day. 2-3 times per week is absolutely fine since I am not able to respond as much either)

Flexible

We all have real, social lives outside of the roleplaying world. I understand when you’re not able to reply as fast all of the time, because it is not much different for me either. I will try to respond at least 4-5 times a week. If it’s a good week, my replying rate will increase depending on the given situation. If there’s work ahead or any sort of obstacle that might get in the way of our exchange, I will let you know as soon as I possibly can! I promise you this! 
But I also hope you do the same when there’s something that might cause a hiatus.




I am looking for LONGTERM and CONTINUOS Roleplays! My partner should be very committed because otherwise, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense and we might as well drop it.





When it comes to my writing style and preferences, I will list these things here for you to read.

Writing: I am a multi-paragraph sort of writer, which means that frequently, my writing will exceed at least 500 words, and upward of 1000+ words. I love detail in description, and I am actively seeking someone of the same infamy. Generally, I tend to write in the 3rd person. I’ve also tested the waters of 1st person but found it fairly awkward, if not, jarring so I’d rather keep it with 3rd person.

Pairings: I openly play characters of both genders, preferable m x f pairings, but I am open to m x m and f x f relationships as well. I have more experience with m x f relationships, so I might excel in this category more than I would do with the others. However, like I said, do not let this deter you. Very much open to other sexual orientations and preferences. Romance and intimate erotic scenes are always a part of the story, so if you are someone who prefers fading to black, I am afraid to tell you that my request isn’t something for you. This is not negotiable, sorry.

Genres: I am versatile when it comes to genres and settings that I like to play in. Supernatural is my absolute jam, especially urban and gothic fantasy, maybe even a bit of mythology as well? 
Anything involving vampires, werewolves, demons, witches, shape shifters, aliens, mutants, other urban creature of folklore, given some sort of modern day spun, is absolutely perfect for me. I also really love science fiction in its many forms. Primarily, I take my sci-fi craving inspirations from Star Wars, Mass Effect, and even Destiny (even though I did not really enjoy the games…). Another genre that I’ve vast interest in includes that of the superhero genre. I’m a big fan of both Marvel and DC fandom, and the concept of having humans with abilities, anything of that short would be awesome to do. Against, these would be with original characters on my part. I’m not as fond of general real-life or general modern day genres and themes without a good, complex idea attached to it.

Characters: Faceclaims, GIFs, drawings, mood boards or just a plain physical description is absolutely welcome / sufficient. I am not someone who necessarily needs a face claim for a character in order ‘to get the picture’. There are many instances where I could not find a suiting match for my character’s definition, so I resorted to drawing them myself or leaving it with a simple description. 
Characters should have flaws - that is a no brainer obviously, since nobody likes a Mary Sue / Gary Stu - but also some unique traits that make them stand out and remain memorable. I take inspiration from JK Rowling or George R.R. Martin for example as each of their character remains very unique and unforgettable in my opinion. They definitely did something right and I want to emulate that, so don’t be afraid to be rather bold with your character creation. Let your imagination run wild and surprise me with your ideas!

World building & plotting: An active roleplayer is wanted in this category, without a doubt. I love to world-build, but I tend to lose interest when I am the only one who puts in the effort into it. I can’t do the thinking for two people, so I implore you to at least share the burden (which should not be regarded as such because roleplaying is a fun hobby and nothing more). Too often I find people shying away from it in this regard. If I feel that I’m carrying the weight of the world-building part with specific ideas, I will end the Roleplay in immediately. And consider that the world building is just the tip of the beginning, so from that, I’ll be able to see whether we’ll be a match or not. Because we’d be starting from scratch with whatever we do, it would be a big relief to have someone who doesn’t mind letting ideas flow to set up the universe that we will be roleplaying in.

Content: I find writing erotic, dramatic or action packed scenes very enjoyable. I don’t hinder myself when certain subjects are mentioned that may be uncomfortable for the general public. But then again, as a reminder, a Roleplay is not reality but fiction. For example situations that heavily imply and involve brutality, mayhem, psychological and physical torture are things that need exploration.

Characters should be fully fleshed out, even the not so pretty parts of one’s personality and actions. There is no black and white, but a wide ranging spectrum of grey areas. A story does not always end well and life is never fair, so to implement this into a Roleplay, it would make a fantastic and very exciting story. Nothing is ever certain, people have their ups and downs… we shouldn’t make an exception here. I am not afraid to delve into even more sinister areas such as psychological trauma if its needed to further the story. I want to be as transparent as I possibly can. I have very few limits. The only subjects I will not touch, or rather avoid are heavy graphic rape scenes, bestiality, necrophilia and pedophilia. Other than that everything is fair game. What I also find quite fascinating is describing someone’s mental as well as physical transformation, ascending to a higher or lower state of being, etc. The process of metamorphosis, may it be the manipulation or corruption of someone… it all is quite eerie and at the same time, intriguing. It all leads to the progression of the story, so be warned that we won’t be walking on egg shells here. 


The story will not be solely centred on dark themes. I love me a mixture of everything, including drama, fluff, angst, action, comedy, romance, adventure, mystery and so forth.


Let’s lighten up a bit, kay? :)

The ones I’ve marked in bold are the ones I am currently itching for the most.




Original plots I am absolutely craving for are:




Genres:


anything mafia related

crimes in remote locations

small towns and supernatural happenings

post apocalyptic/dystopia

supernatural/modern fantasy (demons and devils, monster x hunter)

southern/mid western gothic

murder mystery (small town or big city)

modern/dark fairy tale retellings

sci-fi/cyberpunk

emotionally charged/dark and gritty

superpowers/gifted

unresolved sexual tension/slow burn

mythology

redemption

action

Pairings:

age gaps (non pedophiliac)

friend x best friend’s older sibling

enemies to lovers

cop x criminal

friends turned lovers/pining

grumpy x sunshine

dark hearted man melting for the innocent woman

reunited old lovers and/or friends

boss x employee

neighbours

mentor x mentee

hitman x victim

hurt/comfort

height differences

pet names

rich x poor (or noble and peasant / different social classes)

The Fandoms I am willing to do, although I prefer to make something original:

Films & television:

Marvel cinematic universe

Pacific Rim

Castlevania

Game of Thrones

Riverdale

Young Justice

Voltron

Constantine

Harry Potter

Star Wars

Games:

Witcher III

Devil May Cry

Bayonetta

God of War

Star Wars

Dark Souls

My Roleplaying platform is mostly on email or google docs! I also would like to keep in touch with my partner over a different medium, preferably Discord.

 To contact me use these links here:


EMAIL: mynioncosplay@gmail.com

DISCORD: Fenry#4086


Find me there.

Here are two passwords that you can use in the headline so I know what you want to role-play.


*For ORIGINAL Roleplay, the password is:  Follow me and you shall be

free *For CANON Roleplay, the password is: I will follow you until the end

I know, very original… haha xD
 But anyways, I hope I am lucky enough to find my longterm RP buddy here. 
 Till then, thank you for your time! See you soon <3

#originalroleplay #email #googledocs #partner #longterm #original #supernatural #demons #fantasy #monsters #search #mystery #mature #adult