#even though he still will be president because of martial law

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Well, we will no longer see Shefir next to Ze and Andriy 🫤

[satureja13]

It's the last night before the tests and - should they all pass - the last night on their home planet...

It's already late but the Boys are still awake. And they're learning diligently.

Rubyn is tutoring Sai on Androids. Their fields of applications, their maintenance - and their dangers...

Sai knows about their dangers just all too well now. And he wonders why Rubyn hadn't desintegrated her evil creation RoDri6ue2-B. Since they are about to do exactly that with Tiny Can...

Rubyn: "Do you think we have the right to do so?" Sai: "Why not? It's just a machine. Of course we have the right to turn it off - if it malfunctions and can't be repaired. And we even have the obligation to destroy machines that are a possible danger to mankind."

Rubyn: "The following is what Captain Picard said at the hearing to Android Data's defense in the episode 'The Measure of a Man:

"Commander Riker has dramatically demonstrated to this court that Lieutenant Commander Data is a machine. Do we deny that? No, because it is not relevant: we, too, are machines, just machines of a different type. Commander Riker has also reminded us that Lieutenant Commander Data was created by a man; do we deny that? No. Again, it is not relevant. Children are created from the 'building blocks' of their parents' DNA. Are they property?"

I think it's not as easy as it seems. RoDri6ue2-B and Tiny Can are sentient beings. And even though RoDri6ue2-B is - let's say 'eccentric' - he never acted against the law. And the strive for world domination makes one excellent president material in some parts of this planet, right? Tiny Can only ever tried to help you - successfully. Hasn't he?" Sai wasn't convinced: "I don't know, they could be a potential danger in the future... Who knows what he's capable of?" Rubyn: "Well, anyone of us could be a 'potential danger' in the future. Jack, for example. He could spiral down again into madness anytime. Shall we withdraw him in advance, then?" Sai: "What? No!"

And while Rubyn and Sai philosophized about what makes one 'human', Jack and Kiyoshi went to the small yard behind the workshop for Jack's martial arts training. He's designated as security officer and takes this very serious. Jack: "Argh! I just can't seem to get this Tal-Shaya move right!" Kiyoshi suggested to practise with him - boy-to-boy.

The others already went to bed to be fit and well rested for the tests in the morning, so Kiyoshi and Jack went a bit away from the tents to not disturb them. Ah, how they'd missed this! They didn't know it then, but fighting is something they both really enjoyed back in their days as a (secret) couple.

And just like in the good old days, the intense physical contact aroused them - significantly ö.Ö' Jack doesn't know what to do with all those feelings - and the need. He needed more of Kiyoshi - now!

And Kiyoshi seems to feel the same way ö.Ö'

They agreed to quickly take a cold shower and go to sleep!

But the Romantium ore, Sai had threwn under the shrubbery, thwarted their plans and made them giving themselves over to absolute pleasure - as if they were remote-controlled.

'Give yourself over to absolute pleasure Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh Erotic nightmares beyond any measure And sensual daydreams to treasure forever Can't you just see it?

Oh, oh, oh

Don't dream it, be it.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

And - of course - Sai and Jeb heard them. Sai: "These noises don't sound like fighting noises anymore... What are they doing again?!" Jeb is a bit jealous. These are exactly the noises he wants to make with Sai. But he can't - because he can't hurt him...

Jack and Kiyoshi also didn't notice the ore when they crawled out of the bush. Jack even almost hit his foot on it!

Sober and deflated, they are devastated of what they'd done again. Sure, they talked it out last time, but it still feels wrong - to both of them. Being as close and intimate as they are as mates, just mates is one thing. But woohooing (and let alone kissing) feels still weird. Even though they try hard not to make it weird.

Jack: "Do you think it's the heat again?" Kiyoshi: "Hm - I thought if I were your Alpha once again it would stop, after I - uhm ... claimed you once...? I'll ask Greg about it." Jack: "Maybe rather Uncle Stefan..." Kiyoshi: "Right." Because Jack hates Greg...

From the Beginning 🔱 Underwater Love 🔱 Latest

Current Chapter: starts ▶️ here Last Chapter: 'Here comes the Sun' from the beginning ▶️ here

📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 23-29

[princess-of-the-corner]

Disney comics tend to have negative continuity (I kid you not, when Don Rosa got Grandma Duck as the mother-in-law of Scrooge's sister and Donald's actual grandmother as per Barks' family tree it made HEADLINES in Italy, as local authors had her as Scrooge's sister and Donald's aunt for decades)... But there's three very interesting things authors around the world all agree about Donald Duck:

Donald is a crossdresser. Not in a creepy or weird way, he just likes pretty dresses and has absolutely no problem wearing one if it's the practical solution to a problem (he once borrowed Daisy's clothes and pretended to be her twin sister because the lady had too many obligations). If one takes the Paperinik stories into account it fits with his habit of disguising himself (it's also how Paperinik maintains his secret identity, after the many times Donald Duck "revealed" himself as Paperinik disguised as Donald they all assume Paperinik just wears a Donald mask under the domino mask), but the lack of issues in dressing as a woman and even pretending to be one is a nice touch.

Donald likes strong-willed and powerful women, as shown by all the love interests I know of: Daisy has a side job as a spy for Scrooge (and Donald KNOWS), has a powerful temper, and is one of four known people capable of matching Scrooge's insane work hours (the other three being his first secretary Emily Quackfaster, said secretary's niece and successor with the same name, and his butler Quackmore); Reginella is the queen of the planet Pacificus, chosen by her people for her charisma and skills as a ruler, and when it comes to defend her people summoning a furious Donald is HOLDING BACK (the moment she realized Donald couldn't solve the current emergency and used her full power was one of the scariest things ever put on a comic book, especially for how JARRING it was to have this kind woman do what she did); Xadhoom (from Paperinik New Adventures) was elected president of her homeworld of scientists at a rather young age because she was the smartest of them all, she missed the Evronian invasion allowed by the fact her intelligence didn't mean wisdom because she was off-planet with an experiment intended to solve her world's impending energy crisis, and when said experiment gave her godlike powers and she discovered what happened to her people she assumed the name of Xadhoom (meaning creditor, as the invaders owed her a debt of an entire sapient species) and started hunting down the Evronians with the explicit intention of committing a genocide, also stopping by to help those in need (how she met Donald, she knew some of her people would have tried to forewarn Earth of the Evronian threat, found the Evronians were already preparing an invasion but were wary of Earth's nuclear arsenal, and started culling the invasion force once in a while to prevent a full scale invasion while looking for their base); Lyla Lay (also from PKNA) is the droid assigned by the Time Police to surveil our time, and is one terrifying lady; Juniper Ducklair (from PKNA's sequel) was eventually elected queen of her homeworld of Corona (yes, Donald has three love interests that have been DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED rulers of entire planets) thanks to her sheer psychic might and the discipline she had to not brainwash anyone less powerful just by talking to them); and Kay K (from DoubleDuck) is one of the world's best spies, also skilled enough in martial arts she actually defeated Lyla in single combat (by throwing her off a roof, but she still managed to grab and throw her).

Donald is an amazing parental substitute to his three nephews. The original reason he even got to raise them was that the hellions had blown up their father and Della sent them to his house while the poor man recovered, and he, slowly but surely, turned them into good kids (though he had to fight quite the battles at time). Two alien tyrants once brainwashed them into their would-be successors, and Donald set up a revolution with the help of an Earth scientists who had been captured before him, physically destroyed the tyrants, and spanked the brainwashing away (it was a story from the 1970s). While hunting for a treasure with Jose Carioca and Panchito he was asked what he planned to do with his share, and he casually said he'd put it in their college fund (this casual admission is one of the reasons his two friends hold him in awe). And when the time-traveling bandit The Raider discovered his identity he was amazed at the kind of life and education he gave his nephews while also finding the time to fight crime and save the world and without doing anything unlawful or immoral to get the necessary money, something The Raider is uniquely qualified to judge due being a single father of one himself and his entire reason for still being a criminal being that it pays well enough to grant his son everything he needs to make himself a better life.

Curious that THIS, alongside his temper, is what everyone agrees on Donald's character...

Honestly a great character!

[agentfascinateur]

The case in California vs Biden & Blinken

Taking a page from Trump & January 6th:

Dereliction of duty is recognized as a crime in some state laws, such as an Ohio statute governing law enforcement personnel, but no general federal law makes it a crime. There is, however, a robust body of dereliction of duty law in the armed forces. Since the president is commander in chief, there is some justice in invoking the concept, even though Trump was never subject to military law, either before or during his time in office. The Manual for Courts-Martial sets forth the elements of the offense of “dereliction in the performance of duties.” The first three apply across the board: (a) that the accused had certain duties; (b) that the accused knew or reasonably should have known of the duties; and (c) that the accused, willfully or through neglect or culpable inefficiency, failed to perform those duties. A fourth element applies where the dereliction of duty resulted in death or grievous bodily harm: (d) that such dereliction of duty resulted in death or grievous bodily harm to a person other than the accused. The manual elaborates: A person is derelict in the performance of duties when that person willfully or negligently fails to perform that person’s duties or when that person performs them in a culpably inefficient manner. “Willfully” means intentionally. It refers to the doing of an act knowingly and purposely, specifically intending the natural and probable consequences of the act. “Negligently” means an act or omission of a person who is under a duty to use due care which exhibits a lack of that degree of care which a reasonably prudent person would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances. Culpable inefficiency is inefficiency for which there is no reasonable or just excuse. The manual also provides that “where the dereliction of duty resulted in death or grievous bodily harm, the intent to cause death or grievous bodily harm is not required.” Dereliction can be a serious offense in the armed forces. The maximum punishment turns on whether the conduct was willful, negligent, or the result of culpable inefficiency. Importantly, for willful dereliction that results in death or grievous bodily harm, confinement for up to two years is authorized. Had Trump been subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, there would be no question that his actions and failures to act on Jan. 6th rose to the level of willful dereliction. And there were fatalities and grievous bodily injuries at the Capitol that day. Setting aside technical definitions of dereliction of duty, even its broader, colloquial sense—someone’s failure to perform an action it was his responsibility to perform—is now no longer the main point. It could have formed the basis for an impeachment, but Trump is no longer subject to impeachment. Indeed, he escaped his last impeachment, coming as it did so close to the end of his term, in part because some thought his misconduct could be adjudicated in criminal and civil proceedings. (“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office,” Mitch McConnell said. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation.”) Even so, reference to dereliction of duty in connection with Jan. 6th is quite understandable. It contributes to our understanding of just how grave a betrayal Donald Trump’s behavior represented. It may go to his intent, and it would certainly be taken into account on sentencing in the event he is criminally charged in connection with the assault on the Capitol. Particularly as the Jan. 6th Committee trains its sights this week on his conduct during that assault, it is worth keeping in mind, if only for contextual reasons as the Department of Justice, state prosecutors in Georgia and perhaps elsewhere, and Americans generally, make the critical decision whether he should face criminal charges.

(Source: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trumps-inexcusable-jan-6th-dereliction-of-duty )

[i-believe-in-melinda-may]

This came together a bit easier than I was expecting, but I think it has the spirit of the original conversation while also having Bill and Laura being as familiar as they would be after knowing each other as they do.

“We’re not going to start that. They’re still human beings. Tell the captain that I expect daily reports on the wellbeing of the prisoners, and if there’s any mysterious deaths, the Astral Queen may find herself on her own without the Galactica’s protection,” Laura instructs, and as she does is torn between admiring her nerve for offering up the Galactica for protection without his consent, but he also feels annoyed because of the exact same reason.

“Yes, Madame President,” Billy responds, and Bill is shocked to hear someone call Laura that for the first time, though it also seems right, before getting up and leaving.

“EJ, can you give your dad and I a minute?” Laura requests as even after everything that has happened, she still wants to keep her daughter from seeing her and Bill fight.

“Sure,” EJ says to her mother, recognizing what she is doing and not having it in her to argue against it, not after everything that has happened. “I’ll wait outside,” EJ tells her parents.

“Don’t go far,” Bill tells his daughter, as he knows there are a lot of dangerous things going on at the moment and he wants her safe.

“I won’t,” EJ assures her father as she heads out and because it is clear to her that they want to talk alone she closes the hatch behind her.   

“That looks like a nasty cut,” Laura notes, trying to tell if he has gotten stiches, but Bill is currently too far away for her to tell.

“That’s what happens when you fight a machine,” Bill responds, as he walks over to Laura. “Cylon’s look like us now, Laura, right down to the blood,” Bill explains, having no intention of keeping that from Laura, as he sits down across form her.

“Are you sure?” Laura asks, her voice shocked, realising that that means things are about to get so much worse.

“Positive,” Bill responds. “They could be anyone,” Bill tells her.

“Well, that’s horrifying,” Laura comments, knowing that it is going to be a huge problem, and she just adds it to the list, and she leans back on her chair. “Are you planning to sage a military coup?” Laura asks.

“What?” Bill asks shocked.

“Do you plan to declare martial law? Take over the government?” Laura asks, leaning forward once again.

“You know me better than that, Laura,” Bill tells her, as he has always made it clear how he feels about marital law, something which he would think Laura should know.  

“I thought I did,” Laura admits, and Bill realises that his earlier words hurt her more than he realised, and he isn’t sure if he can make that right.

“I’m President of the colonies now Bill, which makes it my responsibility to look at the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is that there are fifty thousand civilian refuges out there who don’t stand a chance without you and your ship to protect them,” Laura tells Bill.

“You will if you stay here at Ragnar,” Bill tells Laura, thinking that is for the best. “You and the fleet can stay here where it’s safe, the storm here effects all Cylon technology, while the Galactica will rejoin the fight, because that’s my mission,” Bill says, knowing that Laura should understand that because his ‘mission’ is always what got between them.

“Your as bad as Saul,” Laura says, rolling her eyes, and Bill recognizes the insult. “I can’t believe I’m the one who has to keep saying this, but the war is over, Bill,” Laura tells him, needing him to comprehend that.

“Actually Laura, it hasn’t begun,” Bill corrects.

“That’s insane,” Laura says, trying to keep her frustration down as twenty-seven years of experience tell her that becoming frustrated won’t get her anywhere.  

“Would you rather that we run?” Bill asks, not understanding how Laura could think that’s a good idea.  

“Yes, absolutely,” Laura answers, without hesitation. “It’s the only sane option we have,” Laura informs him. “We leave this solar system, and we don’t look back, it’s our only hope,” Laura tells Bill, needing him to understand as while she can lead the fleet if they are going to have a chance at survival then they need Bill and the Galactica.

“And go where?” Bill asks, wondering if she has really though that through.  

“I don’t know,” Laura admits. “Another star system, another planet, somewhere where the Cylon’s won’t find us,” Laura says to Bill.

“If you really want to run then you can, but this ship will stand, and we will fight,” Bill says, even though he doesn’t want to say goodbye to Laura and EJ again, and Laura continues to try to push her frustration down.

“That’s a mistake,” Laura tells Bill. “Bill, I need you to really listen to me, the human race is about to be wiped out,” Laura tells him “We have fifty thousand people and that’s it,” Laura reminds him. “Now, if we are even going to survive as a species, then we need to get the hell out of her, and people need to start having babies,” Laura tells Bill, needing him to understand exactly what is at stake.  

“Excuse me,” Bill says before getting up and heading out of the room, Laura’s words having more effect on him than he’d like to admit, and after watching him go Laura takes off her glasses and rubs her eyes, feeling a headache coming alone.

“I’m going to guess that didn’t go well,” EJ’s voice says, and Larua opens her eyes to see that her daughter has walked back into the room.

“Honestly it went about as well as I was expecting,” Laura says, knowing that the best she can hope for is that Bill thinks about what she said and realises that running is their only option.

“Dad wants to fight, doesn’t he?” EJ asks, as from the whispers she has heard, and what her uncle said earlier, that’s what she assumes is the case.

“He does,” Laura confirms.

“Do you think that is a fight that could possibly be won?” EJ asks her mother, and for a few moments Laura debates how to answer that, as she doesn’t want to lie to her daughter, but she also doesn’t want the truth to traumatise her.

“No, I don’t,” Laura admits, deciding that answering the question honestly is for the best.  

“Then I really hope Dad listens to you,” EJ admits, knowing that she doesn’t want to lose her father now that she just got him back, nor does she want to lose Lee who would also be in danger if their father decides to keep fighting.

[mariacallous]

On Tuesday, the State Duma adopted both the second and third reading of legislation that will expand Russia’s age range for conscription (not to be confused with mobilization) to men between the ages of 18 and 30, effective January 1, 2024. Late last year, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced a “phased increase” in the lower age limit for conscription from 18 to 21. State Duma deputies later abandoned the idea, however, arguing that Russia’s “serious demographic situation” means the military must cast a wider net to draw enough men into the armed forces. At the same time, lawmakers raised the upper age limit by three years immediately, even though Defense Committee chairman Andrey Kartapolov said just a day earlier that the increase would be gradual.

Thanks to these changes, the total number of men eligible for conscription in future call-ups will be 1.5 million higher by 2025 compared to the original plan that included a phased increase to the lower age limit. Russia’s conscription pool will be 700,000 men greater by 2025 than would have been the case without any reforms at all.

When he addressed his colleagues to defend the legislation, Andrey Kartapolov said, “This law was written for a big war that’s already in the air.” The remark prompted a biting response from Andrey Klishas (one of the Federation Council’s most influential senators and the chairman of the Constitutional Legislation and State Construction Committee), who said he’d need to reread the law before it comes to the parliament’s upper house because he didn’t remember seeing anything about “mobilization or a big war.”

It’s likely that the rise in the number of potential conscripts will be gradual because the new rules don’t take effect until January 1, 2024, meaning they won’t affect this fall’s call-up. Under existing laws that Kartapolov confirmed will remain in effect until next year, men who are 27 or older by 2024 will be listed with Russia’s reserves — even those who evaded military service “without legal grounds.” 

It is not legal to conscript men listed in Russia’s army reserves.

On the other hand, it’s possible that some draft offices will refuse to transfer men to reserve lists, especially if they don’t report in person (though theoretically, this isn’t necessary). 

Those enlisted in the reserves have another problem: they’re eligible for mobilization

In the original version of the legislation, “draft dodgers” who waited to turn 27 would have been offered a choice between enlisting in the reserves or serving one year as a conscript. While the reserves might seem like a refuge from the armed forces, it actually puts men within reach of mobilization and death on the battlefield in Ukraine. (Under existing practices, short of a declaration of war, Russia’s conscript soldiers are not sent into combat.)

In the final version of the legislation, however, lawmakers removed this choice altogether.

Formally, service contracts for conscripts during the war and draftees will be short (no more than one year), but Putin previously declared all service contracts to be indefinite for now

The final version of the legislation raising Russia’s age limit for conscription states that only short contracts (one year or less) can be reached with conscripts and reservists in periods of mobilization, martial law, wartime, in the event of armed conflicts, when conducting counterterrorist operations, and when using the armed forces abroad. 

It’s unclear, however, why soldiers would seek out these contracts, given that President Putin’s executive order implementing a “partial mobilization” is still in effect and essentially transforms all military contracts into indefinite service until Russia’s mobilization ends.

[downtroddendeity]

None of you asked, but here it is anyway.

And for the record, yes, I did eventually eat lunch.

Starting assumptions:

I'm putting the start of the game contemporaneous with its release date, so 2018.

The single definite point of timeline divergence I have decided on between the US in our universe and what I have taken to calling "The United Union of Eagleland" is that Reagan didn't exist. Therefore, the Republican Party is still evil but it doesn't have rabies yet, and all major political events in the last 40 years are up in the air.

I overshot my guesses about Roland's age in my first few posts because it was funnier; with full-game and DLC context, he's probably meant to be in the Obama age bracket and is just going gray early. He is absolutely still significantly older than Batu, though.

Even before the DLC validated me I had Roland pegged as a "my role model is FDR"-style infrastructure Democrat, because canon-wise his skillset is in the nuts and bolts of making a government that functions and he doesn't get heated enough about Broadleaf's corporatocracy to be a social justice or labor guy- he can keep his mouth shut when the other rulers are evil, but slips up when the way they run things is just dumb.

Since our guy is the Jungian Archetype of The President of the United States, when in doubt, assume the most Generically Presidential option.

I said in one of my jokes that he's from Illinois solely because a midwestern swing state is the most Generically Presidential and Illinois is the one with the funniest-sounding name. This reasoning is clearly foolproof.

Roland is born in 1966 (making him 52 at the start of the game), and growing up has zero intention of going into politics. The incident with the bullies is when he's 10. He gets into gun sports as a hobby as a teen because he's good at it and into 14th-century German longsword combat because he's a fucking nerd, unwittingly creating both an extensive paper trail of pictures of him at firing ranges that will become very convenient for countering NRA PR and an equally extensive paper trail of pictures of him at Renaissance Fairs that will become the greatest gift Eagleland political memes have ever received. He graduates law school somewhere respectable but not elite and goes into civil litigation. He marries his theoretical mystery wife at 31, but they keep putting off having kids because This Just Isn't A Good Time For Us. Then in like 1999, he's representing the plaintiffs in a lawsuit where some Regional Business Asshole who basically owns a couple of small towns has been doing a bunch of blatantly illegal stuff to harass people in a specific area because Business Asshole has a huge deal pending with some giant petrochemical company for fracking but can't move forward with it because a handful of people smack in the middle refuse to sign over the mineral rights for their property. Being a lawyer is frequently depressing, so now that Roland has one of the relatively rare chances in the job to be categorically The Good Guy he is getting into it. Giant petrochemical companies are evil but impersonal, but Regional Business Assholes are just some shitty guy and thus prone to getting mad and doing things that are evil but also very stupid, and that is why one day when Roland Crane, Esq. is walking out of his office on his way to a deposition some guy he's never seen before in his life walks up to him and fucking shoots him.

Except, unfortunately for the guy who got handed twenty grand in unmarked bills by the brother of the buddy of this guy the associate director of operations to the Business Asshole knows, being something you only study if you're a fucking nerd does not change the fact that historical European martial arts is, in fact, a form of close combat training, and Roland kicks the shit out of him. The security camera footage is pretty grainy, but the photos are incredible. It makes the news. It makes so much news, and of course it gets picked up nationally because they've got time to fill and this is fucking wild, and since it's 1999 and even though fracking is starting to really take off almost nobody has heard of it yet, this also kicks off a bunch of people going "oh my god I can't believe we didn't know about this sinister corporate scheme in MAYBE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD that they sent CORPORATE NINJA ASSASSINS over!!!" (Roland always corrects people that it wasn't a corporate ninja assassin, it was some guy who wanted beer money, and also the giant corporate conglomerate didn't actually do anything, it was some dumb asshole, but he knows that just makes him sound modest and while he’d be forced to admit that isn’t exactly a downside he would occasionally like it if people believed him.)

(Roland Crane, Master of Repression, subsequently started doing very normal things like, oh, say, wearing a loaded gun in a concealed carry holster on a thirty-minute drive from the airport to his hotel, which are certainly not indicative of any sort of trauma at all, and he finds it quite strange when anyone suggests that this is anything but a completely reasonable and sensible precaution to begin taking. Worked out for Evan, at least.)

Roland realizes his five minutes of fame are a golden opportunity, because he never really thought about going into government before but right now everyone knows his name and face and thinks of him as a badass crusader for justice standing up to The Man. He announces a run for House of Reps in like March and crushes the incumbent in the primary and that’s why I keep getting my difficulty gauge hiked up in the bonus dungeon. He wins in the general election and stays there for four terms while racking up a record of bills and amendments and cosponsorships on the kind of legislation that nobody gets really excited about, but if you list a few of them pretty much everyone will react to at least one of them as something that they just kinda noticed made their life get easier and more pleasant one day and didn’t realize was something their personal Congress Guy had a hand in. "Your income tax paperwork is slightly easier now," "you don't get 12 scam robocalls a day anymore," "you can buy diapers with food stamps," that kind of stuff.

Will is born in 2005. This was not planned, but Roland and his unnamed mystery wife kinda went, “Well, it’s still not a great time, but the time’s not going to be getting better any time soon, so…”

In 2008, Roland runs for Senate and wins.

Roland’s wife dies of terminal Being A Mom In The Ni No Kuni Franchise in 2013. The fact that he literally never alludes to her in any way in the entire game even on the single occasion she is directly mentioned is proof of how totally healthily he has processed his grief and certainly not indicative of any emotional baggage at all. Will is eight at the time, and totally definitely having healthy grief processing modeled for him and receiving the emotional support he needs.

He keeps his Senate seat in 2014. I have no idea what the overall 2016 Presidential election lineup looked like in Eagleland because the one in our universe was such a nightmare clownshow, but somebody notices that hey, they’ve got this guy who a) is charismatic and good-looking, b) has a reasonable amount of government experience without being a Washington Insider™, c) has a legislative record so deeply boring that it’s surprisingly hard to attack despite being extensive, but, d) simultaneously has a handful of details of his personal life and history so absolutely buck-fucking-wild that they instantly make him the most interesting person in basically any room.

And that’s how the United Union of Eagleland got universal health care, thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

I accidentally headcanoned 1200 words of Roland Crane backstory instead of eating lunch. Happy Presidents' Day, everyone.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Washington, DC

Do you think we’re seeing the start of a civil war today?  Armed Trump supporters have literally stormed the US Capitol building.  The police all but stepped out of their way, they LET them in, no tear gas, no rubber bullets, no tazers or truncheons, nothing.

The president ordered his people to storm the capitol to stop them from certifying the election.  How is this not a coup?  How is this no sedition?  What legal defense do any of these people have?

The irony is not lost on people; everyone knows that if these were black protesters, they would all be shot and killed, no questions asked, but because they are white and working on behalf of the president the police are suddenly trying to deescalate things.  How is this not a felony?  How is storming the capitol and threatening the lives of congress okay?  I know for a fact that not a single person will be charged with anything substantive.  Trump will deny responsibility, deny wrongdoing, but still pardon himself anyway even though he claims he did nothing wrong so that Biden couldn’t press charges against him.

Imagine for a second if we were hearing this news from any other national capitol in the world.  Imagine if right-wing rioters in Brazil stormed the parliament at the behest of an outgoing Bolsonaro, and that Brasilia police were doing nothing to stop them.  This would be a turning point in Brazilian history, the start of a new political era, history books would have an entire chapter dedicated to this.  There’s no other name for it than the start of a revolution, or the culmination of one a few years in the making.

Imagine if pro-Russian rioters in Ukraine stormed Kiev for Putin.  Imagine if Boris Johnson lost the majority to the Labour Party and ordered his stooges to storm the Palace of Westminster.

The National Guard has already been called in, I wouldn’t put it past Trump to declare martial law in DC, conveniently turning the media’s attention away from his electoral loss and the Georgia senate races.  What happens when Congress doesn’t reconvene to continue with the certification process?  By law, if neither candidate has been certified by January 20th, then the Speaker of the House becomes acting President, but do you think Trump is gonna just let Nancy Pelosi take over?  He’s doing this to stop Biden, you now for a fact that he’s going to go after Pelosi before that can happen.

I seriously do not see how this can end without widespread unrest.  Trump is playing both sides, egging on his base to continue the riots, but calling for the DC police and National Guard to take control.  Congress is in recess because of this, the constitution is in crisis, the transition is halted.  We’re watching a last ditch effort power grab play out in real time.  They’ve already evacuated Pence and Grassley, the first and third in line for the presidency behind Trump.  No word on Pelosi though, the second in line.  How convenient for Trump...

I am scared.  I was feeling optimistic this morning for the results in Georgia, and now I’m scared for the future of out country.  Republicans in the House and Senate were in the middle of an attempt to subvert our democracy, and the president’s goons may have been the Hail Mary they were looking for.  No Republicans are going to disavow the rioters, they’re not going to blame Trump and his rhetoric for harming American democracy because to them nothing of value has been lost.  To them, the rioters are on their side, they have the same goal in mind, keeping Donald Trump in power after January 20th.  Pence and Grassley and McConnell and Cruz and the rest of the filth are in a better position now than they were this morning, this is working in their favor.

What do we even do when federal police do nothing to stop a putsch?  What do we do when Pence and Grassley and McConnell refuse to reconvene the Senate and continue the constitutionally mandated certification?  What do we do when Trump refuses to leave office because of the state of emergency he himself created?  The feds have shown they have no intention of stopping it from happening, so it’s not like we can just say “oh, but the law says...”  Because the law doesn’t mean anything anymore!  He has just shown that he can break it and the SS will follow his orders, let his people run amok, throw democracy under the bus for the Fuhrer.

The constitution says that on January 20th, 2021 at 12 o’clock noon, Donald Trump is no longer president.  But who’s gonna enforce that?  How CAN enforce that?  It’s up to the military now to decide who to back; they either continue supporting Trump and give him the dictatorship he so desires, or they support Pelosi if Biden still hasn’t been certified the winner.  The DC police and the National Guard have just let MAGAts destroy federal property and endanger the lives of elected officials, I don’t think they’re gonna look at Trump and say “hey, you can’t do that!”

This is going to be big.

This is going to be remembered.

This is Lexington and Concord.  This is Fort Sumter.  This is the Lusitania and the Zimmerman Telegram.  This is Pearl Harbor.

This is the start of something very, very, very bad.

[sincerelyqueers]

Media Review - Your Name Engraved Herein (2019, Taiwan)

Your Name Engraved Herein is a Taiwanese film, directed by Patrick Kuang-hui Liu, released in 2020. The summary from google is, “In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressures, homophobia and social stigma.”

The film is available to stream from Netflix (with extremely mediocre English subtitles that definitely needed a second translation check pass).

Note: this conversation contains spoilers for basically the entire film.

Mirrored from our Wordpress site.

em

Well, one of the things that struck me about this film when I watched it is that it’s very steeped in explicit Taiwan-ness, and it’s set in a very explicit point in Taiwan history.

So while I was watching it, I kept going, will non-Taiwanese people without any context actually “get” the film? Haha.

Myriam

The answer is, mostly no. Only with your very good guidance!

em

Wow, so it’s all up to me to save the people from ignorance, I see, I see.

Myriam

WELL, OK, WHEN YOU PUT IT LIKE THAT! /lh /j

em

[/sunglasses]

OK, OK, so some context. The film very explicitly takes place right at the end of martial law in Taiwan, which for those who don’t know, was an almost four-decade period that followed the end of the Chinese Civil War (~1950s), when the KMT government fled to Taiwan from the Mainland after their loss to the CCP. At the time it ended, it was the longest period of martial law in the world!

There’s a lot more historical context, like the tensions between the Taiwanese folks who had lived on the island since before WWII and the Japanese occupation, and the Mainland folks who had fled to Taiwan post-Civil War, but at that point, I’d be running a “Taiwan history primer 101” instead of talking about this movie, haha.

Suffice it to say, that while martial law had ended (in 1987), Taiwan still remained controlled by an authoritarian government, with no free elections, until the late 1990s! (I remember the first free election for president, actually! It was a huge deal!)

And Chiang Ching-Kuo, whose death was mentioned in the movie, was an authoritarian dictator! Hence, the protests that the characters comment briefly on, haha.

(A very funny scene, since the two boys are saying a Catholic prayer for the late President Chiang Ching-Kuo, when said president was assuredly not Catholic.)

Myriam

Yes! I really enjoyed what the movie included about martial law. Though I feel like it spent the first half establishing the end of it, and then the second half just sort of dropped it and failed to go into more detail about how it affected people’s lives.

em

Oh, that’s a valid critique! In a way, despite this film being on Netflix, it really feels very much like a film for Taiwanese people, so it felt like the director chose to focus on the characters first and foremost over the politics, because he assumed that everyone knows what the political atmosphere was like back then.

Though that might be just me projecting my assumptions, haha.

Myriam

That makes a lot of sense! There were quite a lot of cultural references I had to ask you about or google haha. So it does seem like this is a movie that is definitely made with a Taiwanese audience in mind. (Which, honestly, is great to see in my opinion!)

Most of the movies I’ve seen depicted certain cultures/countries, even when they’re made by people within’ that group, on Netflix feel very spoon fed. Which can be fine and all, but sometimes it’s a little weird for every sentence to be an in depth explanation of culture- when presumably the people in the movie would already know these things.

It would be like someone in a movie saying “Hey son, you want to go to dinner now? You know, to eat food! Every afternoon, or sometimes later, we go eat dinner. So how about tonight?”

em

Hahaha, oh yes. It’s definitely a different feeling when a filmmaker is clearly trying to appeal to a broader audience (for whatever reason) and when a filmmaker is just making something for their “in-group”, so to speak.

Oh, and we should probably mention that the filmmaker, Patrick Liu, has said that the film is semi-autobiographical!

Something along the lines of the fact that the film is about 70% based on his real life.

Myriam

Oh yes! That’s one of my favourite parts. There are a lot of real-life elements in this movie, even besides the auto-biographical parts! Like the queer protester who was arrested early on.

em

Yes! I loved learning in interviews and stuff that they actually contacted the protestor and asked if they could pay homage to him in the film!

And they even used actual outfits he wore back then!

(A homage to gay rights activist Chi Chia-wei. The location, outfit, and sign are all based on a real-life protest. The Chinese text here reads: “Marriage is a human right!”)

Myriam

You know, this movie actually has a lot of elements that are similar to “Eternal Summer (2006)”, which is also a Taiwanese film that has- well- a very similar plot.

Some of the scenes even look almost exactly the same to me!

em

Oh! I remember watching Eternal Summer, but I honestly remember nothing about it, haha.

There’s been quite a few LGBT+ coming-of-age Taiwanese films, but this one’s the first I know of that had a queer director.

“Blue Gate Crossing” is also somewhat similar, in that sense.

I think the difference between all the previous movies and this one is in the ending (which I loved! and which I think really shows the difference between having a queer director and not), but we should probably talk about the actual content of the movie for a bit before skipping right to the ending! Haha.

Myriam

That’s a very good idea! LOL

Now, I think a lot of this movie was just me going “???” For instance, what happened to the other gay character? Where did he go!

em

Wait, LOL, which one?

Myriam

There was a third queer character that had a relationship with one of the main character briefly. But, we only see him once or twice!

em

Oh, you mean the underclassman!

Myriam

I have no idea! LOL I’ll assume you’re right.

em

(Netflix completely botched these subtitles, haha. The kid always referred to Jia-han as “upperclassman”/”senior”, but that wasn’t even alluded to in the subtitles!)

He’s the kid who was originally bullied in the bathroom, right?

Myriam

Oh yes, I think so!

[editor!em note: I later realized that Myriam could’ve been referring to the old man, who Jia-han feeds birds with. That scene actually made me so uncomfortable that I purged it from my mind until I went back to the movie to grab screenshots. It’s definitely a very raw scene, but I’m personally not sure about its inclusion in the narrative, even if I understand the intent.]

em

Oh, yes, then, I agree, it would’ve been nice to see where he had ended up in the end.

But, as a semi-autobiographical film, it’s understandable that we have no idea, because I assume the director doesn’t either.

That’s kind of the double-bind here, right? That kind of hanging thread feels very “real” in the sense that you don’t always get closure in real life, but in movies, you can and should expect closure.

So yes it’s a shame that we don’t see it. Though I hope he’s living his best life now, wherever he is.

Myriam

Yes! Absolutely! He is queer, he is… not here.

But, maybe he is happier elsewhere!

em

Yes! Also he gave me my favorite scene in the movie, that tableau of him and Jia-han against the backdrop of that stained-glass window. So props!

(A stunning tableau, where the two of them are almost haloed by this stained glass image of a bird taking flight. Fantastic.)

Myriam

Yes! That was a gorgeous scene. (We are starting every reply with “Yes!”)

em

Because this movie inspires that kind of acknowledgment!! …or something LOL.

Oh, oh, can we talk about how the setting is in a Catholic school? Like, I don’t know exactly what I want to say about it, but I do want to Talk about the setting, haha.

Myriam

I have no experience with catholic schools, besides technically working in one. But the priest turning out queer was a great touch!

em

I was surprised at the Catholic school! Especially since Christianity, especially Catholicism, isn’t actually very common in Taiwan!

Like, there were quite a few Christian missionaries immigrating to Taiwan post-Civil War, mainly as an anti-communist tactic, but not many people actually converted!

So this was one of those experiences that probably would’ve been surprising/foreign to the average Taiwanese viewer as well.

Myriam

Oh yes! I do however feel like the movie captured how painfully awkward everything in catholic schools are.

em

Though I guess Taiwanese boarding school experiences might have been kind of universal? Just with less God in non-Catholic ones, I assume LOL.

But, yes, the queer priest was interesting! And (while not a bad thing) it felt like one of the few plot points that was deliberately “staged” so to speak — as in, fictional. Because, from a storytelling perspective, I kind of predicted that the priest would be queer, even though there was no textual indication of it until the very end. It just felt like it would’ve been a neat thing to write into the script, and it seems like the director agreed.

Though who knows? Maybe he really did have a queer priest mentor in high school. Stranger things have happened.

Myriam

I really liked the person who played the priest! I think he did a very good job at seeming out of touch. /hj

em

LOL. His Chinese was sometimes very… not understandable, let’s put it that way.

Though maybe that’s also a true Taiwanese Catholic school experience, who knows, ahaha.

Myriam

I personally do not intend to take a trip and find out if that is the authentic experience, so I’ll just go off of trusting your judgment!

em

I have no idea either! Are there still Catholic boarding schools in operation here? I should look this up.

There was also this very harrowing and emotional scene where Jia-han essentially comes out to the priest and asks why being gay is such a sin, which I took note of in my notes.

The utter devastation in that scene felt super real and heartbreaking.

Myriam

Yes absolutely! If I remember correctly, I actually skipped that scene the first time I watched it. Or rather, couldn’t watch it without many many breaks.

em

Yes, I don’t think he even says he’s gay in that scene. I think he tried to say it, but the priest stops him.

Which just goes to show how much of a “taboo” it was to be, back in those days, where even saying it out loud was considered such a terrible thing.

In fact, now that I think about it, there’s several “almost” coming out scenes in the movies. Like when Jia-han returns home after fighting with Birdy over Birdy’s relationship with a girl and tries to come out to his parents but is stopped by Birdy himself.

Myriam

Speaking of his parents, the mom in this movie is lovely! I don’t think she was shown as being queerphobic on screen, and also, her hair is really pretty.

(Do ya'll agree that she has good hair? Discuss.)

em

I feel like you always comment on someone having good hair in every movie we watch together! LOL

Myriam

📷 I just really enjoy looking at peoples hair!

em

But, yes, the mom was a nice mom! Haha. But also, like, from my perspective, I’m not sure if she’s even sure that her child is queer?

Or, rather, even if she knew, she was pretending not to know.

Myriam

Didn’t she at one point directly walk in on them cuddling very queerly? :o

And turned a fan on them! LOL

em

OK, OK, so I think this is a Chinese cultural thing, haha.

So a lot of queerphobia that takes place in many Chinese families is erasure/silencing.

Like, you aren’t supposed to ever talk about queer family members being queer because being queer is bad, so you don’t acknowledge that it exists, kind of thing.

So, in this case, she could’ve just thought, “Oh, they’re very close friends.” (Like the: “They’re just roommates!” meme, haha.) And she could really believe that, or she could just be fooling herself.

But that’s a common thing with many Chinese parents.

Myriam

Oh wow!

em

Like, I’m not saying that’s definitely what’s happening here! But that’s kind of what I got from that scene.

And the director himself even mentioned that he only came out to his parents after the movie came out, haha.

And nowhere in the film does it even seem to imply that Jia-han is out to his parents, which is a very valid, and honestly very “Chinese” experience imo!

Like, I have no idea if you’ve ever watched Saving Face (2004) (it’s very good, though, and you definitely should!) but in it the main character’s mom asks her if she’s dating her neighbor, and when her neighbor asks her later why she isn’t out to her mom, she was like, “I am. She walked in on me with someone one day, but she just pretends it never happened.” And that was, like, the pinnacle Chinese coming out experience.

Myriam

Oh wow, I should definitely watch that movie haha. That’s honestly really interesting!

em

Yeah! I do think it’s interesting the differences in priorities with queer stories, depending on country.

Like, even in stories that aren’t focused on coming out in America, they still have some focus on gaining acceptance from friends and family. But in Your Name Engraved Herein, the focus is both more narrow (on individual acceptance) and more broad (societal acceptance). Other than that aborted coming out sequence with his family, the movie makes no overtures either way to whether he actually did come out in the end or not. And that’s valid, haha.

Myriam

Yes! Honestly, I think I prefer this more. Not that movies that do depict coming out to family as a big step are bad by any means, but its refreashing to have a queer movie that isn’t about just having homophobic family.

em

Oh, yes, same.

It’s also interesting how our different perspectives are informing how we read this movie too, heh.

Myriam

Oh absolutely! I see that in almost every movie we watch together. I think it mostly stems from coming from such different backgrounds. Which I think is really good! Different perspectives can be so awesome!

em

Yes!! (We’re starting with yes’s again, haha.) And I love how we still end up generally agreeing on how we feel about the movie, even if the reasons we liked it might be slightly different!

There’s probably a deep metaphor that I can add here, but all I can think of to write right now is: and that’s neat!

Myriam

It is neat! We’re like two sides of the same coin! The same very queer coin.

em

[/fingerguns]

I feel like we should say something about the central relationship of the story (between Birdy and Jia-han), but I can’t really think of what to say other than seeming platitudes!

Like it was cute, and sweet! …Up until it imploded oops.

Myriam

Yes! Very cute and sweet. However, I was very uncomfy during the shower scene. I can’t put my finger on if that’s just the ace in me talking or if there was something actually not right with it.

They were going to slip and fall! And he was already wounded!

em

Oh, yes, I think we both agreed that the shower scene was uncomfortable.

He was going to get his cast wet!! You shouldn’t get your cast wet!!

Myriam

Yes exactly!

em

In my notes, I literally wrote, “Are you supposed to shower with a cast? Is this shower sex scene a comment on internalized homophobia? Discuss.” And I think I was being facetious, but still.

Myriam

I feel like there was also not obvious consent expressed in this scene, if anything, hesitance. Which I could be remembering totally wrong too.

em

Yeah, it felt very out of place in this movie, which up to this point had some very artfully shot scenes of tension and intimacy.

Myriam

Yes! I don’t think it really added anything, or took away anything. I don’t think the movie would be changed at all if it wasn’t there, tbh.

em

Agreed.

Myriam

Haha we have very big talk for two non-film-makers who are also ace /lh /hj

em

LOL, well, I’m sort of a writer!! So there.

Myriam

for all I know this could be a major point in the movie for allo folks!! 📷

em

Maybe, but I feel Some Kind of Way about non-Asian non-queer folks watching this movie and finding scenes like that titillating, but that’s a whole other essay, haha.

Anyway, putting all that other stuff aside, I did like the final sequence in their high school life, where Jia-han literally skips school to run off to an island and Birdy just follows him there. And Jia-han screams into the sea, and they go skinny dipping. It’s very classic but also well-executed.

Myriam

Yes! I am however getting second-hand uncomfort just thinking about the sand pictured in it.

(Yikes, the amount of sand that must’ve gotten into their pants after this.)

em

LOL wow don’t remind me of that sand!!

Myriam

You shouldn’t go skinny dipping on a beach! It’s not comfy.

em

Must’ve been a nightmare to put their clothes on again after that.

Myriam

EXACTLY!

em

Oh, and they still had open wounds, didn’t they? Since it was just after their fight. Wow, ouch.

I think we’re being too realistic for this movie discussion, ahaha.

Myriam

LOL. Well, it is supposed to be 70% autobiographical. Maybe the sand and wound parts are what they took creative freedom with.

em

Movie: poignant coming-of-age scene Us: “The sand, it burns!!”

LOL the 30% fiction is all the stuff that makes us go, “Wow, yikes.”

Myriam

Yes, yes, exactly!

em

Anyway, anyway, is there anything else, or can we finally talk about the best part (in my not-so-humble opinion): the ending? Hehe.

Myriam

Onto the ending!

em

YES. OK, so the ending kind of blindsided me, because I was not expecting a three-decade timeskip that literally brings the film into the modern day, but that’s what we got!

And I loved it! It was such the perfect capstone on the movie, because while the previous sequence seemed to imply the same old, same old with a queer coming-of-age story ending in separation/heartbreak, first love not working out, etc. etc. This timeskip felt like the director going like, “Oh, fuck that,” and just absolutely refusing to end a queer story on a bad note. Or even on a bittersweet one!

(They're adults now! And they've reunited!)

Myriam

Yes!!!!

This was very sweet!

em

It was “happy ending or nothing”!! And that’s just, like, the queerest thing!

Myriam

Ah yes, the queer agenda. Happy endings.

em

YES.

And, like, even putting aside the really sweet reunion, there was also all these bits about how much things have changed with queer rights since 1987!

Like, OK, here’s some more final context, in case folks didn’t know: Taiwan is the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage! And this happened in 2019, while the film was being made!

Myriam

Yes! That’s so cool!

em

And so at the end, when Jia-han is talking to Birdy, and he says, “Look how much things have changed since then,” it made me feel such a swelling of emotion. Because it felt like the director was literally saying, “Hey, look, we’ve made it, and while not perfect, the world has ended in a much better place than we could’ve imagined when we were teenagers under a totalitarian regime.”

Myriam

That’s such a beautiful sentiment in such a sad way!

I feel like that applies to a lot of things in a lot of places. Right now we seem to be in a very transitional period when it comes to getting better at not being a horrible society.

But then again, aren’t we always?

em

Yes, and there’s this very lovely quote that the director said in regards to the passing of the marriage equality bill by Taiwanese parliament:

“When I saw people celebrating on the streets, I actually felt a little bit sorrowful because for the people from my generation—who were born in the ‘70s, for example—it may be too late for them,” he says. Many were not able to catch what he calls the “train of happiness.” “I would like to highlight some of the unfortunate stories that may have come too early so they didn’t get to see the celebration that we see today.”

But also! At the end of the movie, with the reunion, I feel like he’s also saying, “It’s never too late.”

And, this might just be the Chinese side of me, but when Birdy admitted that he had loved Jia-han all along back in high school, I was so happy and awed that the director wrote that. Because such a blunt statement of emotion isn’t Done in Chinese culture. You’re not supposed to just Say That Out Loud. But the fact that he did, and that it was just so matter-of-fact, was powerful to me.

Myriam

I’m honestly at a loss of anything to add, besides: YES! Haha

I love that quote, I think it might be my favourite that we’ve come across while researching this!

Before we wrap up, do you want to exchange final ratings? that something people do during movie reviews, right?

Unless you had something else to say!

em

Ooh, ratings, I didn’t even think about ratings until you mentioned it.

I have a strange rating system that involves decimals, ahaha, and rating everything proportionally to everything else I watched.

What would you rate this movie?

Myriam

Hmm… I don’t think I could rate it all in one LOL

I’d say…

Acting 9/10 Cinematography 8/10 Writing 6.5/10

em

What a low rating for writing! LOL

Myriam

I think the only reason I rate it so low for writing is because of how similar it feels to a lot of other movies I watched LOL

em

Oh, there were definitely a lot of “classic” Taiwanese coming-of-age set-pieces, true. I think I’m giving extra points because the director is queer, ahaha. [/biased]

We’re going to have radically different ways of rating things, haha.

Myriam

oh gosh, well, what’s your way and I’ll match that 📷

em

No, no, I think it’d be funny if our rating systems are completely different! Just highlighting how differently we approach things, haha. And that’s valid.

Myriam

LOL perfect then!

em

Anyway, I think… Hm… An 8.8/10 for me.

Extra points awarded because that ending was so good.

Myriam

Oooh yes. I agree.

8.8 is a very good number! I think

em

Haha, thank you, thank you!

Any last words before we finish?

Myriam

Don’t shower with a cast on!

em

LOL

I had something serious too! And now it feels weird to follow that up with something serious. /lh

Myriam

LOL

em

Well, whatever, I’m going to do it! Because love is radical, and queer love even moreso. And that deserves to be said with 100% sincerity!

Myriam

YES

[netflix-and-chill-hour]

006 // in-the-feels Taiwanese movies

Taiwanese films are known to have really depressing and sad endings and this post is dedicated for that. Personally, I have never cried watching any sad movies but I could feel that it is sad but not sad enough for me to cry. However, I would usually observe the people around me who is watching the same movie and see how badly they cried to judge how sad the movie is. Thus, I will be sharing some sad films that I’ve watched that will make you cry your eyes out so prepare a tissue box because we are going on a hell of a depressing journey. Actually no, you won’t cry reading this because I will be explaining why I didn’t find the movies that sad.

1.     More than Blue (2018)

Sad Level: 8/10

To me: 1/10

Sypnosis: Cream, a bright personality with a dark streak somehow manages to make a connection with the secretive K. As high school classmates, they share their loneliness, get close quickly, and fill the emptiness in each other. Cream moves into K’s place and they depend on each other like a family or lovers. Years go by, and K works for a record company and Cream becomes a lyricist, but they still live together, neither a couple nor friends. Diagnosed with leukemia, K is hesitant to reveal his illness because he does not want to hurt Cream by leaving her alone. Not knowing any of this, Cream starts dating another man, eventually accepting his marriage proposal. As a Taiwanese remake of a Korean film, More Than Blue is familiar with twists and a melodramatic story, but it stimulates tears by strongly evoking Taiwan′s unique emotions. (Source: BIFF2018)

A remake of 2009 South Korean film with the same title, the story tells a tragic love story about two people who love each other for years and never confessed to each other. I honestly really dislike both main characters, but I do understand their actions and why they are that way. I feel like I didn’t find it sad because the whole time, I just thought everything was kind of stupid (sorry) and I could not relate to any of the characters. It is kind of like a modern-day Romeo and Juliet because (spoiler alert), after the male lead died, the female lead committed suicide even though she was married to this innocent man. And the fact that the female lead has another guy in her heart while marrying that innocent man is just so unfair for the guy. I can’t remember much details about the movie as I watched it a while ago but I just remember not enjoying the movie at all and really disliking the female lead a lot. Heard the OST is pretty good so you should go listen to it though. Also, I’ve talked to many people and they seem to enjoy the movie and they actually cried watching it so if you like sad movies, you can give it a go. Sorry I had to spoil you the ending but if you watch the movie, you would probably feel it (the ‘sadness’) more.

2.     Your heart engraved herein (2020)

Sad Level: 7.5/10

To me: 4/10

Sypnosis: In 1987 when the martial law period ended, two Christian high-school students, Jia Han and Birdy, met at the school band led by a Canadian priest. One day, they were granted a day off to Taipei for the late president’s funeral. The two took a chance to explore the city and theaters, finding themselves inspired by brotherly love and freedom.

This movie was alright and you can stream it on Netflix. It wasn’t exactly a sad movie and the ending was pretty bittersweet which I like. The thing about Taiwanese films, I realised, is that they usually have a time skip at the ending and you will see what’s up with the main leads after many years. This is actually a queer film and I could actually feel one the character’s feeling of not being able to express how he truly feels to his friend especially when he thinks that his friend is not gay. It was kind of sad to see his crush dating another girl too. However, I feel like the other male lead was kind of giving mixed signals to his friend which confused his feelings even more. Overall, I really like the Taiwan’s 80s aesthetic and old cinema vibe. I also really enjoy seeing them dreaming and being so passionate about their hobbies. The soundtrack which has the same title as the movie is also really good and I recommend you to listen to it!

Also, enjoy the beautiful promotion posters for these films! I really like the way they designed the posters

[kalbong-tiu]

Who to Vote in the Upcoming Presidential Election

Warning: I'm not a political analyst, I mean not just yet, so puns are not intended intentionally.

BBM

Federal Party

Federalization of the Philippines

Those people who managed to outlive FEM's Martial Law era must be a bit scared of this guy, his only son and heir apparent. The inevitable question however is this, 'What if the apple falls short of the tree it was clinging into'? The legitimate voting public born after that disputable event in the history of Phil. politics must be scrambling hard by now for any subjective bit of information to satisfy their innocent sensibilities and will likely still end up clueless and foolhardily biased nonetheless.

VP-LeGeR

Liberal Party

Liberalism, Social Liberalism

Typically a naturally bred-in the-bone Filipina, a newbie in the field of dirty Philippine politics and the only candidate outside the Nationalista party's grip, her political experience and platform is highly dubious and implausibly weightless. That, if she will survive the onslaught of eventual accusation and counter-accusation from her distractors in the next quarter prior to the election period. Or, being the lone wolf in the pack, her candidacy is bound to fail with predictable certainty unless of course she will come up with the tried and tested aid of divine intervention strategy, which is highly unlikely. Nonetheless, appeasing the masses after her excessively contradictory performance as the current VP is also tantamount to primarily dishing out her floundering attempt for the presidency, especially with the administrations strong constituency up NoMa and the rest of the voters down SoSo. Millennials against the rest of the ruralist is a fight to watch and a good betting prospect.

MM. FraMDom

Aksyon Demokratiko

Progressivism, Liberal Democracy

Young, ambitious and...what?

He may win in Tondo alone but it doesnt mean the whole country will eventually accede and follow through unless Facebook will crash down in the next six months or had MaRox edged out Du30 in 2016, he might have the chance. Erap made it through and he interestingly went to playing 'jueteng' in Muntinglupa.

Social disorganization anyone?

Watch out for this guy in the next twenty years, though.

Sen. BdlR

Hugpong ng Pagbabago

Regionalism

Idi Amin is already dead and gone and the world would be much better place to live if we will not resurrect him. Diplomacy-wise, there will probably be a throwback to African politics in the mid seventies if this guy miraculously wins and we're not even that close to that continent. Watch out criminals though, Du30 is still alive and killing, I mean, kicking!

Sen. EmPaq

PDP-Laban

Democratic Socialism, Left-wing Populism, Phil. Federalism

Clearly a nuisance candidate(?) that does not need any introduction or a review whatsoever. What was he thinking anyway? The probability of aliens voting for this guy is a big possibility otherwise there would be an exodus of Filipino immigrants to any country willing to accept residency status because of lack of govermental certitude and confidence in democracy if he succeded. Boxing will become the national sport of the country and its not far to expect a PPV match after every calamity.

Sen.PaMoLac

Partido Reporma

Anti-communism, Social Conservatism

Other than the English interjection 'bang' which implies the sound of a discharged gun, 'ping' is a bit milder but still lethal, a clear miss, discernibly.There is just something not right for any former carrier military entity to govern a country democratically although for the last 32 years that is, in part, precisely what happened in this country. Military government is passe, eg; Myanmar, and the phrase 'old soldier's never die, they just fade away' is a dreadful consequence to consider anyway.

Synopsis:

Apparently the catchphrase for this upcoming election is federalism, societal change and populism, words associated with every dictator who came to power directly or indirectly in the past and it is, in this democratic society we figuratively believed we're in, utterly scary. But there is nothing to worry about as this upcoming 2022 PresElec. is evidently a race solely between a sole Liberal farmer and a horde of Nacionalista stooge of a billionaire and we already know who will win, eventually. Unless of course if the Chinese had their way or the Americans decide to invade the country. That, however, would be unprofitably counterproductive yet hilariously funny.

Abb:

NoMa- North of Manila

SoSo- South of Sorsogon

[tanadrin]

Legal Systems Very Different From Ours (Because They Do Not Exist)

(I forgot Scott had already done this, lol)

AZAREN

There is the land of Azaren, far to the north; a rugged, windswept country, it was settled by hardy explorers in an ancient age of migration, who have always been disdainful of central authority, and permit themselves to be governed only to the most minimal extent. As a consequence of this skepticism of government, there is also a general skepticism of public law. All law in Azaren--except the few scraps of administrative and procedural law necessary to operate the government--is private, and there is no criminal law. All disputes between parties are resolved by what we would consider in other countries civil suits, governed by strict rules involving standing. Theft, arson, even murder may all go unpunished, unless there is an interested party willing to file suit to obtain redress. The Azarenes by and large consider this system exemplary of freedom and justice, and we cannot help but admit an attraction to the cleanness of its philosophy.

A key component of Azaren justice is the principle that no entity is above the law; no entity, however powerful, is so majestic that it is immune from suit. This meant that gods, natural forces, even celestial bodies have been sued (though principally in more superstitious days long past), and where by the weight of evidence, or the simple failure to appear, have been duly issued fines, which remain on the public register of debts waiting to be paid. And naturally, Azaren countenances no doctrine of state or sovereign immunity. This principle, especially due to the absence of public law, extends also to relations between Azaren and other states. Naturally this principle extends to sublunary bodies like Azaren's own government: Azaren recognizes to doctrine of state or sovereign immunity, and not a few political revolutions have been wrought through cunning arguments in the courtroom. And note also that Azaren conducts no foreign policy as a unified whole--for that would require an intolerable tyranny imposed on her people, that is to say some form of tax to pay the salaries of a diplomatic corps--but what individuals and groups of individuals see fit to conduct. So from time to time, an individual or group of individuals together will decide some foreign state has wronged them, and, as is Azarene custom, will petition their courts for redress; and despite the diplomatic protestations of the representatives of that government, that any such proceeding is a clear violation of precedent in the community of nations, that by dint of its sovereignty no state may be sued in the courts of another, the Azarene court will hear the suit. And should the plaintiffs prevail, an order will be issued for the recovery of damages.

And it is for this reason and this reason alone that Azaren has any armed force: in case of a judgement entered against a foreign government, the militia of Azaren is authorized to confiscate property--in Azaren or abroad--belonging to that government (and if need be, its citizens) until enough has been seized to cover the amount owed. Whereupon, whatever the state of the field of battle, however close the foe is to total capitulation, they return to their ships instantly and retire to their home country.

GKNAI

The land of Gknai is ancient, possibly one of the longest-inhabited regions in the world; and as it is nestled deep in often-overlooked mountain valleys, it has enjoyed a history of uncommon peace and tranquility, well-fortified against the ambitions of neighboring princes; it has indeed earned its epithet of Many-Fortressed-Gknai; and in later millennia, this reputation for indomitability has served by itself to safeguard its borders.

As a consequence of its long, long history, it is said, Gknai is uncommonly bound by the pageantry of Tradition. Just as other countries have monarchies that have withered away into irrelevance, performing a few desultory functions of government under the strict control of their ministers, Gknai has its own titular kings and princes. Indeed, it has them by the wagonload. The difficulty of warfare in the region and the bombasticity of ancient aristocrats means that every valley is thick with Kings and Over-Kings, and Lords President, and Grand Dukes, and even Emperors. Most Sublime Hierophants tend their vegetable patches across the road from Thrice-Exalted Tyrants, and the multiplication of titles is not helped by the fact that under Gknaian traditions, every child inherits some share of the honors of their parents.

The Gknaians have never had a single political revolution to sweep the old order away, only centuries of incremential change. Therefore, each of these titles, in the abstract legal sense, still has some privilege attached to it, however slight it may be. Nor, if they wished to abolish their cumbersome system, is it clear how they might legally do so: there is no legislative authority in Gknai but custom, and for every amendment to the law some precedent, even if very weak, must be found that may be expanded and elaborated upon and carefully argued for until it is generally agreed upon in the whole land. Gnkaian legal codes incorporate much of this commentary, and a Gknaian law library is thus a fearsome thing indeed.

The most curious relic of Gknaian tradition is a form of trial, still in general use, called gopi-gai ogmo, or Trial By Endurance. It was argued by an ancient Gknaian scholar that wealth, strength, and even legal persuasiveness were poor proxies for the righteousness of a cause, and so poor criteria for deciding a lawsuit. For with wealth often comes prestige, and undue influence over the public; with strength, assured victory in the trials by combat; and a well-spoken orator might convince even the best of judges to decide a case in contravention of the law, if his eloquence and flattery are sufficient. Better, said this scholar, to align public interest with individual preference, and a hint of utilitarianism: clearly, the side that *wishes* to win more, should prevail. And how to decide that more efficiently, than with a test of endurance?

This is the form of the test: a hillside of a valley is chosen, one warm in the morning and cool in the evening, but not too hot or too cold; and the plaintiff and the defendant are seated upon it, gazing down at the valley below; and the judge and officers of the court withdraw to observe. That is all. Whomever remains seated and motionless the longest is judged to desire victory more. To stand, speak, cry out, laugh, smirk, or fall down is to forfeit the case. Neither of the parties may be spoken to; neither may be disturbed in any way. The only modification ever made is this: in matters deemed especially urgent, sometimes the parties are made to stand instead.

Judgement, naturally, usually takes days. One especially notable figure, Hrakal the Vexatious Litigant, widely feared for his tolerance of boredom and inclement weather, successfully lodged no less than three dozen lawsuits against his neighbors, until he met his match in Tatavru the Stubborn. That particular proceeding lasted more than two weeks, until an out-of-season snowfall gave Hrakal frostbite, and caused him to relent. I have also heard of a legendary conflict over a spite-fence in the valley of Upper Dabbar, where, it is said, the parties sat immobile for *three years*, sustained by surreptitious nighttime meals and the kind of intense mutual hatred known only by neighbors who share a property line. Another interlocutor I spoke with, an older woman, said that this was a corrupted version of an older tale, altered for believability's sake. In fact, she said, the dispute was *never* resolved. The parties sat immobile until the vegetation grew thick on their laps and shoulders; and if you visit a certain hilltop in Upper Dabbar, you can still see them, two seated figures covered in grass that have now become part of the hill.

BOSSUL

In the city of Bossul, all important questions must be settled by a consensus agreeable to all parties. Although apparently cumbersome, this system has many virtues. The government of Bossul enjoys approval ratings usually seen only in the most tyrannical of dictatorships, and though the city's martial fury has been inflamed many times, it has never actually gone to war, for there have always been one or two heads cool enough to refuse to support it. Alas, every occasion of government is nearly interminable as a result: even the most trivial meeting of the least prestigious committee can drag well into the night; and nothing about the culture or institutions of Bossul does anything to restrain the impulses of busybodies or know-it-alls who have, in every other culture on the planet, driven such consensus-driven systems into the dirt. Yet Bossul's persists, for uncertain reasons.

One, perhaps, might be the custom of Utabani-mo-Kalutabani, which might very roughly be translated into English as "Agreeing To Disagree." When a consensus *cannot* be reached--for instance, in an intractible legal case--a temporary truce may be enacted in the form of Utabani-mo-Kalutabani. In short, each side continues to live their life, pretending that they have won. Thus, from time to time, you may explore the city of Bossul and find such oddities as two different families, each on the opposite side of an inheritance dispute, living in the same apartment and pretending the other does not exist. You may find an employee, who has sued for wrongful termination, coming to work every day at a company that insists she does not work there. You may even, on occasion, find someone walking the street as a free man, whom the police insist that they currently have in their custody.

It is a strange custom, and one cannot help but wonder if it is of any practical use at all.

MOZICK

Mozick is a small island in the Hraspedain Sea, rainy in winter but temperate in summer, which like Gnkai has a deep respect for the usages of its past. In Mozick, this is something of a religious conviction, for their society is organized around the pronouncements of the Great Oracle of the Smoky Mirror, who lived and died more than a thousand years ago.

Such was the inerrancy of the Oracle's predictions (it was said), that the Oracle was trusted utterly in settling disputes and prosecuting criminals. Usually, the Oracle heard arguments before pronouncing judgements, but this was considered a formality; many times, a judgement could be given as soon as the parties entered the courtroom. And such was the faith the people had in their Oracle, that they feared what would become of their society when she died; so she set down in an enormous volume a list of judgements--thousands of them--in cases yet to come. They named no parties, nor any details of the case: only Guilty, Not Guilty, Liable for a sum of 400 Mozickian drachmas, etc.

The procedure in Mozick is thus: when cases are brought before the court, the time and order of each filing is carefully noted. Once a year, amid solemn ritual, the Book of Judgements is opened, and a judgement for each case is read off, in order. It is an article of faith in Mozickian law that the judgement is never wrong, though at times the wisdom of the Oracle has, the Mozickians admit, seemed... startling. There was, for instance, the legendary case of Uckmar the Arsonist, caught in the act of burning the Temple of Ytrabel-Sheh; the sentence read aloud before the prosecutors was "Defendant to go free, be compensated 10 drachmas." But, the legal scholars carefully explain, Ytrabel-Sheh was the god of rain, and an unusually wet summer that year had caused the slugs to flourish in Uckmar's garden, devouring his tomatoes. The arson was, perhaps, justified, or considered just compensation; the 10 drachmas were for emotional damages. So the careers of legal scholars in Mozick are made, harmonizing the decisions of the great Oracle with the principles of justice.

A careful accounting of judgements is important to the system--once it was discovered that one judgement had accidentally been used twice, necessitating a redistribution of three years' worth of punishments and fines; fortunately, no death penalties had been handed out. But the Book of Judgements is finite. And one day--a day that soon will be in the expected lifetime of Mozickian lawyers now practicing--those judgements will run out. What does this portend? Will Mozick be conquered? Sink beneath the sea? Will--as some quietly hope--the Oracle return? No one knows. But each year sees more of the judgements used up than the last, and soon the book will be empty.

[wannacontribute]

Crazy, the most dangerous moment may come

Trump finally started. He ordered the dismissal of the current US Secretary of Defense Esper, which means that Trump’s butcher knife is officially raised, and then he will perform a series of crazy actions, which also means that the United States is very likely In the event of civil strife, the whole world may also be in danger.

While dismissing the current U.S. Secretary of Defense Esper, Trump appointed Miller, director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, as the acting U.S. Secretary of Defense. Esper’s departure and Miller’s appointment are both very dangerous signs for the United States. It is very likely that Lampe will continue to challenge the results of the US election. Once his goals are not achieved, he does not rule out ordering Miller to use the army to suppress the domestic opposition.

Trump has always wanted to fire Esper because Esper hindered the implementation of his crazy plan. The Trump Organization has been implementing a coup plan in the past, that is, if he loses in the election, he will announce that he will not recognize the election. As a result, legal proceedings were initiated against the general election. If even the US courts do not support Trump, then Trump will take an extreme repressive action, which is to declare martial law in the United States and then use the military to suppress those who oppose him.

This plan was exposed by people close to Trump long before the election, and it also sparked discussion in the American media. Moreover, Trump was completely unreasonable and could do any extreme and crazy behavior. Out, because it is impossible for him to accept failure.

But Trump wants to implement this plan, there is a major obstacle, and that is whether the US military will implement his orders, especially Esper has repeatedly refused to implement Trump's orders, even though Esper is Trump The appointed Secretary of Defense, but as a civilian official, he is still relatively rational and abides by the traditional American morals and laws. Therefore, in the face of a Trump who does not abide by laws and moral standards, he is doomed to contradictions that cannot be reconciled.

As early as a few months ago, the anti-racism riots in the United States were in full swing. The White House was surrounded by protesters. Trump was forced to hide in the White House bunker to avoid danger. This triggered ridicule by the American media and the public. Trump also Known as the Bunker Boy. At that time, Trump ordered Esper to use American troops to suppress the rioting crowd, which caused huge controversy.

In the end, everyone knows that Esper rejected Trump’s order and believed that he could not aim his gun at the American people. At that time, Trump was furious and almost fired Esper, but because the US election was approaching, if The dismissal of the US Secretary of Defense at this time is likely to cause huge controversy, lead to instability of the core team, and also lead to the loss of votes for US military personnel. Therefore, Trump finally had to bear it.

Now that the U.S. election is over, Biden is far ahead of Trump. Trump has already lost in the presidential election, but he still refuses to admit defeat and is totally unwilling to accept defeat. He wants to regain his presidential throne through a similar coup. Therefore, the support of the US military is very critical, but the premise is that there must be a US Secretary of Defense who is completely obedient to him.

In the past few days, there has been a lot of rumors in the United States that the current U.S. Secretary of Defense Esper will resign and his resignation letter has been written, but at the last moment, Esper retracted his resignation letter because many people in the United States persuaded him to Staying. If he resigns at this time, Trump will appoint a person who is extremely loyal to Trump as the acting secretary of defense of the United States. In this way, Trump is likely to suppress other opposition groups and seize the president by force. position.

The hardcore members of Trump’s side, including his personal lawyer Giuliani, have been clamoring to send Biden and others to prison by force. Trump’s other eagle dog, U.S. Attorney General Barr, also requested an investigation into the U.S. election at this time. The vote fraud incident, it is obvious that this series of actions all show that Trump has begun to launch the final madness.

In particular, McConnell, the leader of the U.S. Republican Party, also made a special speech today, that is, he did not recognize Biden’s election as the president of the United States. At this time, his speech represents the attitude of the Republican Party, which will lead Trump to take further steps. Adventure and extreme action.

Once Trump fires the Secretary of Defense Esper, he will also fire the US FBI Director Ray and the US CIA Director Haspel. Once they fire these three people and appoint people who are completely at Trump's orders, then The US military and intelligence agencies are completely in Trump’s hands. In this way, Trump can do whatever he wants. This is what the Trump Organization has always pursued, because they are particularly afraid of being liquidated after they fail. Do everything possible to fight to the death.

Especially today, Pfizer announced that the effective rate of the new coronavirus vaccine is as high as 90%. The announcement at this point made Trump very angry. He believed that he was being persecuted by some people and believed that they deliberately delayed the release of the new coronavirus vaccine. The purpose of the news is to oust him. Trump and his son publicly bombarded Pfizer about this, thinking this was unacceptable.

Trump looked particularly angry and could not accept defeat. In addition to this incident, the Trump Organization believed that this was a conspiracy. He had to overthrow this conspiracy and overthrow the results of the US election, so he needed American troops and intelligence. The judiciary has achieved this goal for him, and an alternative coup against the United States may have already begun.

In addition to setting off an alternative coup in the United States and overthrowing the results of the US election, Trump may also launch a foreign war and fire US Secretary of Defense Esper, hoping that someone who fully implements his orders will take power in the US military, not only suppressing opposition in the United States The faction also asked the acting secretary of defense to set off crazy actions to the outside world. Once the United States enters a war outside, Trump can also become a wartime president in a special period. All of this has been analyzed and predicted many times before the US election. , And now it has become a terrible reality step by step.

At this time, there is a country that becomes very dangerous, that is, Iran. Trump does not rule out launching a military strike against Iran, which will trigger a war, making it possible for him to continue to be the president of the United States during the war. After all, launching a war against Iran can achieve him. The purpose of this is to please Israel at the same time, and Iran’s strength is far weaker than that of the United States. It is suitable for Trump to launch military strikes abroad. Of course, it does not rule out that Trump triggers military conflicts in countries or regions other than Iran.

From the moment Trump fired the US Secretary of Defense, Biden has become dangerous, the United States has become dangerous, and the world has become dangerous because of this. At this time, Trump has been completely gambling and will continue to do it. Crazy and extreme things. This is a person who cannot accept failure. It is also a person who drags the United States and the world into the water if he fails. The entire United States and the world must stop Trump’s madness and extremeness. , Dangerous behavior.

[palamig]

#junkterrorbill

TW: politics, police brutality

I have been absent from this website for a very long time, and a lot of devastation has happened since then. I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope all of your families are safe. As much as I’d like to be concerned about Covid, the events unfolding in my country prevent me from doing so. 

I’m a Filipino, born and raised in the Philippines. I lived in the countryside before moving to Manila for college and eventually law school. I’m on my last year as a law student, hence my absence. I’m taking the bar examination next year (supposedly this year, but due to Covid, the Supreme Court moved the exam date to next year.)

I’d like to say I’m passionate about my (future) profession. Learning the law has been nothing but enlightening to me in many ways. But things right now are making me question why we’re learning the law, when the people expected to uphold it are the same ones breaking, insulting, and abusing it. 

If you don’t already know, the Philippine Congress has passed the Anti-Terrorism Bill—a bill that will supposedly crack down on the (almost non-existent) terrorist problem in my country. The President certified this bill as urgent, and now it only needs his signature before passing into law. 

The law gives this “Anti Terrorism Council”, headed by our President and some of his closest cabinet officials, the authority to determine who is a “terrorist.” If you are suspected of being a “terrorist”, you can be arrested anywhere without a warrant, and then jailed for 2 weeks or more, without being allowed to contact anyone since the police confiscate your phones immediately upon arrest. Under our law, the police can only detain you for 3 days, after which they have to bring you to a judge. If you’re detained for longer than that, they have to pay you 500,000 pesos (or around $10,000) per day you’re illegally detained. Under the Anti Terrorism Bill, you can be detained for as long as the police want, without the police having to pay you damages if you’re detained longer than what’s legal. 

Under the law, a “terrorist” has a vague meaning: you’re a member of a non-government organization (women’s groups, organizations lead by indigenous people, etc.) that’s known for voicing out your opinions against government policies, or even if you’re just a regular person who has said anything that the government feels will “destabilize” them. They can tag you as a terrorist, tap into your phones and computers, track you down, and throw you into jail.  Worst case scenario, they can shoot you on the spot in the name of “self defense.” For regular people (who aren’t public officers), that’s 12 years to life imprisonment). All that, legal, under this law. 

The senators who are “defending” this law, are telling us that we just have to trust the law enforcement authorities. 

But the thing is, we don’t trust our police. At all. 

The Duterte administration has been notorious for red tagging. The police have been accusing innocent people of being drug pushers, and without the benefit of a court trial, shooting them dead, like wild animals, under the name of this administration. Thousands have been killed in Duterte’s infamous “war on drugs” if you’ve heard it. An author from the New York Times wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning article back in 2016 about the “collateral damage” of our country’s inhumane drug policy. Most of the victims of police brutality are people from the slums, members of the urban poor, who are barely even being paid minimum wage. Because they’re defenseless, they’re the easy and the usual targets of both this administration, and the people who support it. The worst part is, there are people out there actually happy that thousands have been killed. To them, our country feels “safer.” (All thanks mainly to our President’s propaganda). 

Just recently, a few police officers killed a retired war veteran, Winston Ragos, who they claimed was violating quarantine protocols (”violation of quarantine protocols” is their trendy new reason to justify arresting and abusing people). The killed him and claimed they did it out of self defense, even though it was five armed men against one. More importantly, Winston Ragos was mentally ill. He developed PTSD when he served the army. 

We’ve started protesting against this bill both online and physically. This morning, police raided one of our universities (University of the Philippines-Cebu) and arrested students who were peacefully protesting. Police said they were violating quarantine protocols, but couldn’t really explain what part of our COVID law they violated. What the President’s “troll army” has been trying to circulate is that these student protesters are members of the New Philippine Army, a group of communist insurgents which the government has, since the beginning of time, been using as a reason to justify military presence and abuse. They used the imaginary threat of communist insurgency as a reason to declare martial law back in 1972, and they’re using it again to abuse their power and abuse the people.  

I’d like to add that the Philippine National Police are notorious for planting evidence. But a lot of these cases are not being reported. Based on 800+ reports submitted to the UN High Commission On Human Rights, they found that policemen had been planting the same guns in different crime scenes back when they were still implementing the “war on drugs.” But because police officers are almost immune in my country (except perhaps one or two who are sacrificed to save the agency’s face), no one (at least, not in the government) said a thing about it. The rumor back then was that the police were given a quota of kills and get bonuses if they meet the quota. Animalistic. I know some high ranking officials from the national police and from the army who’ve resigned because they did not like the violent way Duterte is leading his men. 

I’m scared. We’re all scared. There is virtually no one in this government we can trust. Not in the Duterte or his cabinet, in Congress, or even in our Supreme Court (a handful of the new justices were appointed by this President). In the government, the voices of the opposition are few and far in between, drowned by the majority who are allies of the President. In the past few years, the government has made a spectacle of silencing and humiliating those who speak out about his human rights abuses.

We’ve reached the point where people actually celebrate when others are killed, humiliated, or when they voice out against injustice. They rejoiced when the government forced one of our biggest TV companies to shut down, putting thousands of people out of work at a time they need to be working and earning money. They bullied and made fun of the actors who spoke out against the shutdown. Reason for the shutdown? Simply because the TV company refused to air Duterte’s campaign ad, and chose instead to air the anti-Duterte campaign ad of an opposition senator which exposed Duterte’s misogny (he always makes rape jokes and even admitted to the media that he molested his helper when he was young) and violent tendencies. Now, they’re rejoicing at the sight of student protestors getting arrested, protesters who are disappearing without a trace. 

I’m sorry this has gotten long and complicated. So many things have happened and I can’t put them all into words, let alone in one post. And I haven’t even started talking about the fuckery that is this country’s response to the pandemic. And the even bigger fuckery that is our justice system. Philippine politics has always been dirty, but at these times, they’re at its dirtiest. They’re blatantly bending our laws to serve their own personal interests. 

For the longest time, I’ve always believed in humanity. I always tried to see the good in people, no matter how naive it sounds. But this administration, this President, has brought out the ugliest, darkest sides of humanity – and people continue to defend and glorify him.

I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe from the virus. We’re doing the best we can to defend our rights and to save our country. Please have my country in your thoughts. 

[foxy-voxy]

Hi.

I’m not well due to, well, everything.

I’m not actively suicidal but I’m not okay. At all. Yes, I’m taking my meds. Obviously they aren’t working optimally, but I don’t think they’re meant to counteract the utter bullshit that is happening on all fronts right now.

I have a lot of stress right now and I’m not trying to divert attention away from people who have it worse. I have a home. Food. Roof over my head. Electricity and internet. Etc.

But I am looking for work. I’m attempting to stay on top of my own classload while managing my children’s schooling because of COVID-19.

We’re not even going to talk about the state of the housekeeping, it’s best left unsaid. I had beef jerky and nutella for dinner because I can’t muster up the wherewithal to cook.

Mr Voxy has had to go back to work this week, to make car parts for cars we will never be able to afford. He made more on CARES act enhanced unemployment. Our president is on the verge of declaring martial law. People are in imminent danger. I’m having trouble seeing the point in going on even though I know there are people depending on me. Like my kids. And having a bipolar mom has fucked them up enough already, they don’t need a bipolar mom who committed suicide. I think I’m still of more use to them alive at this point. I hope.

Still reading? I need to do the things I need to do but when those are done I want happy, fluffy, feel-good fic to read. Please rec me some. Or write me some if you feel moved to, that would make my year.

[christianluismparagas]

APO ON THE WALL   

   The poem written by Bj Patino which is the "Apo on the Wall" is one of the amazing poems I read. This made me realize a lot of things like having power in the society really helps us to be more respectful. At first, I thought it was a simple poem between the father and the persona but as I continue reading it,it made me realize that it is not just a simple poem. It is full of lessons that anyone should know, it pinched my heart as I go by looking for more.It gives me curiosity on what is really with that poem, I found out that this Apo that he is pertaining with is our former president Mr. Ferdinand Marcos and the persona's father is his soldier. Include the fact that parents are not strict just because they don't want their child to be happy,they are like that because they want to protect them and have a good future for their children.         A lot of people have a hatred about Apo or Mr. Marcos but we can’t deny that even though he is known as the “worst’ president because of martial law, he didn’t let his country suffer in poverty. The message of the poem taught us that it's not because they did something wrong or we didn't like it, it's bad that we also judge them,let’s also remember the good platforms and the things they did for us. And the relationship we had on our father won’t change the fact that they want the best for us. Fathers have different ways of disciplining their children but there is only one reason, they want their child to be aware of what is happening and they love them no matter what happens.

  This poem has given knowledge to the readers and has already been read.This poem  gave us learnings and enlightened us more on what really happened when Marcos was still in charge of ruling our country. It also brought good awareness among the readers especially among the children.It is not only a poem that contains lessons but it also leaves a history for us. It will serve as a guide and foundation for the youth of today and for generations next to us.