#fix your own nazis in big government problem first

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Credit: Jordan J. Lloyd

I've been trying to dive deeper into politics, discover the genuine roots of our society, the origins of our beliefs, and the consequences of our economic system. It's a big, long, wide journey and through multiple sources such as articles, images, videos and multiple social media platforms, I've been trying to educate myself more on important subjects.

Communism, capitalism, libertarian, conservative, the left, the right, the history, the impact. It is scary to commit to everything because once you start, you simply cannot stop, once you start waking up your conscience about the horrible reality, the lies, the truths, you cannot put it back to sleep. You can't just ignore prejudice, especially when you're extremely conscious of it's omnipresence. I have continually tried to build my own opinions all while actively creating bullet point arguments in my mind because I just know that at some point I will have to defend my thinking, and I want to do it right.

Now, I am so far from being enlightened, I am a beginner and an amateur in all of those themes, but I am trying, which is the only way to start and grow.

So to tell you about my beliefs, I am a militant human rights activist, I believe in equal opportunities regardless of gender identity, sex, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race and disability. This is a fact, not a belief, but the system was obviously not built to protect all people, its wasn't created to serve everyone equally but to grant a privilege to some and harm others. The current state of the world is not a slip, an accident or a misfunction of our brilliant system but a testament of it operating remarkably well. I believe that equity leads to equality, and I believe that we cannot "fix" methodologies that were immorally created with absolutely no honor whatsoever. I believe in reproductive rights, in legal, safe abortions for anybody who needs one. I believe in the decriminalization of marijuana. I believe that the death penalty is a despicable punition that should be banned as soon as possible. I believe in defunding the police and the military. I believe that it is a shame that I even have to talk about police brutality, I don't want to have to say that it is one of the most horrible things our world has originated, I feel extremely dense when I do because it seems like the most obvious certitude and I refuse to believe that this is a controversial statement. I believe that everything I have just stated, along with many more, isn't anything grand but the bare minimum, the bar is low, and yet, we still have the fight for basic human decency.

Humanity has become an option. We have normalized supporting people that represent everything wrong in this world under the name of tolerance. The left has never claimed to be tolerant towards hateful beings, We have never accepted homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism and sexism. We cannot, for exemple, accept nazis, as too much tolerance inevitably leads to intolerance. This picture explains it perfectly:

I consider myself a communist/ socialist. The two terms still confuse me a little, some say they are the same, some say they differ quite a bit. What I know is that socialism is the transitional period between capitalism and communism. At the end of the day, the final result and goal is a stateless, moneyless and clasless society that will provide to each his need.

Our capitalistic society has brainwashed us way more than you may think. It is the root of so many of our issues, the underground demon of our problems. Every idea, thought, belief, and misconception of ours were all affected by our current economic system. It has sold us the billionnaire dream which is one of the most toxic things capitalism has offered. We have looked up to billionaires for way too long, why are they so idolized? Most of them come from high upper class families that can easily afford to invest in their inventions and creations. After starting up their companies and occasionnaly stealing other's people ideas to ultimately get undeserved merit, they then can start to properly exploit their hardworking employees's labour. And for unlimited hours and a minimum wage which probably won't even suffice you to survive, you will have to either pick up more shifts or a second or even third job, especially if you have a family to support. All while the CEO barely does any of the work and gets all the praise and money. So no, they don't all come from really poor families and have built everything for nothing.

The worst thing is that we've been so gaslit and brainwashed that we're proud of our own exploitation, we are wired to think that to be successful we have to suffer, work 10 jobs we all hate, constantly pick up extra hours, have 2 hours of sleep, have no free time to do anything we love, waste our entire youth, be depressed our entire adulthood, to finally have a few pennies to spend when we're eighty. We so strongly believe that this is the only right way to be successful that I don't think many of us have dared to question it's authority, and even if we do, we quickly accept that this a truth, a fact we cannot change and this is just the way things are.

We have capitalized water, food, land, forests, oceans, space, and everything in betweeen. Money is social construct and we have deliberately let it take over our lives. To think about the wasted opportunities and the misery that we have to endure so others can enjoy life truly angers me.

Also, communism is not an ideology that has every actually taken place. Despite what they say, there was never actually a communist country. However, every nation that has attempted a socialist system, for exemple Burkina Faso, has thrived. But of course, once capitalist countries noticed that, they decided to murder it's leader. So in conclusion, the only reason socialism failed is because of capitalism and it's interventions.

"As President (1983-1987), Sankara initiated economic reforms that shifted his country away from dependence on foreign aid and reduced the privileges of government officials; he cut salaries, including his own, decreed that there would be no more flying in first class or driving Mercedes as standard issue vehicles for Ministers and other government workers. He led a modest lifestyle and did not personally amass material wealth. President Sankara encouraged self-sufficiency, including the use of local resources to build clinics, schools and other needed infrastructure. [...] President Sankara promoted land reform, childhood vaccination, tree planting, communal school building, and nation-wide literacy campaigns. He was committed to gender equity and women’s rights and was the first African leader to publicly recognize the AIDS pandemic as a threat to African countries. Although Sankara became somewhat more authoritarian during his Presidency, his ideas, and the possibility that they could spread, were viewed by many as posing the greatest threat. President Sankara was assassinated during a coup led by a French-backed politician, Blaise Compaoré, in October 1987. Compaoré served as the President of Burkina Faso from October 1987 through October 2014, when he himself was overthrown."

Via:https://africandevelopmentsuccesses.wordpress.com/2015/02/28/success-story-from-burkina-faso-thomas-sankaras-legacy/

I have been reading and watching some amazing human rights activists, notably Angela Davis, Malcolm X and James Baldwin. The people that were villainized, labeled as violent and radical, when every single word that came out of their mouhs were pure facts. They are probably some of the most eloquent people I have had the pleasure of hearing. Every sentence, every argument, every single detail made so much sense and opened my mind to so many new realizations. This is the perfect exemple of how the media tarnishes the reputation of wise black women and men. I would strongly advise you to research more about them.

"Socialism & communism are demonized in the west to the point of erasing influential individuals' socialist advocacy. Heres a short list of people you may not have known were socialists/ communists:

MLK

Albert Einstein

Nelson Mandela

Frida Kahlo

Tupac Shakur

Mark Twain

Malcom X

Oscar Wilde

Bertrand Russell

Hellen Keller

Pablo Picasso

George Orwell

Shia LaBeouf

John Lennon

Woody Guthrie

Socialism & communism are not dirty words. Some of the most brilliant minds of our history were socialists and communists. Embrace it." Via @sleepisocialist on twitter

So what else can I say, capitalism has ruined our society and the way we act and think. I know a lot of people refuse to support communism because they think it's too much of a perfect ideal utopian world for it to ever actually exist. And to that I say, first of all, so you agree, it is a wonderful theory, and second of all, a world without racism, sexism, homophobia or any kind or discrimination could also be perceived as "too ideal to actually exist", but does that mean I'm giving up on talking, educating myself and others, protesting and trying to build a better future? Absolutely not. This is the objective, it would be so dumb to think that we just couldn't achieve that so let's not even try.

I want to talk more in detail about communism, theory, human rights, etc... but I don't want to make this post any longer. I will however be posting more about it soon enough.

I know this is a little different than what I usually post, but I want to speak, tell you all my own opinions, I don't want to just repost activism related stuff. I'll continue to do that, but not exclusively. I know it won't get as many interactions as my other posts, but this is what I needed at some point in my life, and if I could make understanding some basic informations easier to some people, it'll already be a great accomplishment.

Thank you for reading.

[ourplaceinthecosmosphff]

Chapter 22. Compromise

“no' might make them angry but it will make you free.

- if no one has ever told you, your freedom is more important than their anger.”

― Nayyirah Waheed, Salt

[*TW: death/violence/bomb threats, neo nazi/mysoginistic hateful language]

It wasn’t the first time I removed my shoes in the middle of the grand hall, one hand to the wall, eyes to the stairs, legs shaking. I grabbed hold of my sandals and raced up the staircase three long, thin steps at a time.

In my room, I threw the shoes on the bed and rushed to the closet, putting my hair up as I did so I could then reach back and unzip my dress, but it was a futile effort. In anger, I recalled needing Lourdes’ help to zip up before dinner.

I took a deep breath and tried it on my own; but it was useless. I tried again, but on the third time all I could hear was the ressentment in Christopher’s voice when he talked about fucking me after my brother’s funeral in front of both our parents. The anger when he asked who was it that I started seeing after we broke up. More than that, I suddenly recalled every instance where I wanted to protest against something he had said or done, but thought better of it.

“Maggie?” Lourdes’ voice awoke me to the anger I was feeling. “I can’t fucking–” One look at me, and she hurried to my side, removing my hands from the dress so she could unzip me. “I got you.” She said. “There. Nothing we can’t fix, right?”

I felt the fabric loosen and pulled the suffocating halter high neck off. The tears started falling before I even realized they had been there at all, and I felt so frustrated for crying that it only made me want to cry more. I allowed my knees to buckle as I fell to the floor, hands around my neck, breathing heavily.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Lourdes said, calmly. “It’s okay.” She passed an arm around my shoulders and hugged me close, pulling me into her chest. “Nothing we can’t fix.” She repeated.

With her bony, small arms around me as a safe port, I cried the loss of the past nine years, and all the years we almost had.

--- ---- --- I had never in my life felt more alone. And yes, maybe I was being dramatic. Maybe I was amplifying a minor problem into a bigger one as a reflection of my deep anxiety about my new title and role, but the truth is it didn’t feel like that. It felt like – in fact, I was alone in my closet, looking at eight different dresses I had just put on and taken off, thinking about Louis telling me I dressed like our mother. How could I make sure I was being myself? How could I know any of my choices were my own and not just what he described as some subconscious need to be the ‘good daughter’?

There was only one person I knew to call for help with going against family expectations: Constance Parrish Von-Bernstein.

“I’m flattered.” She said when I face timed her, still half dressed on my closet floor. “You never have this type of crisis. I need to bask in it. Maybe I should make a wish.” “This is serious, Constance.” I reminded her, sighing. “I have a chance to be heard by the very people who have been pushing me around not only for the past five months, but essentially my whole life. I need to be heard, to tell them, no. To demand what I want. But I can’t even pick something to wear without feeling like a fraud. How am I supposed to be the Crown Princess when I can’t even dress myself?!” Constance looked put off; weirded out, but definitely like she saw the seriousness of the moment now. “Okay…” She started, slowly. “Well, what’s the issue exactly?” “I feel like I’ve been doing what everyone else wanted me to do my whole life, so how can I stand up for what I want now?” I laughed, humorless. “How did you do it? You wore nothing but black all through our teen years, you started dying your hair pink at eighteen, you ditched University and everything else your parents tried to push you into doing to become a musician! How?! How do I do that?!” She smiled, amused. “Well, Maggie… I guess first and foremost we need to accept there is a big difference between being the first member of my family in nine generations not to go to Sorbonne to live my dream of playing guitar in the subway, and knowing what to wear as the Crown Princess.” “I gather from your tone you think my issue is easier. It certainly doesn’t feel like it.” I scratched my head, pensive. “Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to trade positions with you, either. But you were just juggling parental expectations. I am juggling the whole country’s.” “Yes… I can’t argue there.” “So, again… how?!” She sighed, propped her phone up against something and leaned back staring off into a wall as she considered the question. “You need to know what you’re willing to lose.” She said, determined. “What does that mean?” “Well, I wore black as a teenager because it was one of the few things I could control. But I still had to wear whatever my mother told me to at more important occasions. Christmas, family occasions, formal events with your family… there was no way she would risk letting me decide what to wear to those.” As she recounted, I searched my brain to find the memories of a grumpy, teen Constance looking as pretty in pastel as the rest of us in tea parties and polo matches. “At eighteen, I received the first pay out of my trust fund from my paternal grandparents, so I knew even if my mother decided to disown me, I could afford to live on my own. So I dyed my hair pink.” “Wait, I–” I shook my head. “I had no idea that’s what you thought would happen! Your mother would never!” “Well, we both know she would.” She smiled, amused but also slightly sad. “She hasn’t, though. Which is good, I guess. We did have a lot of fights about it, not just the hair, but Sorbonne and everything else, too. The first pay out of the trust was supposed to be for University, and I used it to buy a scooter and a new guitar.” “You live a pretty simple life, though. And it’s your money, you should do what you want.” “Exactly!” She replied, excitedly. “But that’s my point, your family is dependent on taxpayer funding, right?” “Well–” I stuttered. “Not quite. We’re funded by the Royal Trust.” “Which is funded by the government with allocation of tax funds, right?” “Well…” “Chérie, I’m not trying to get evidence for the republican party here. I’m making a point.” “Yes, okay.” I shrugged. “Yes, some of our funds are from the Royal Trust, and a lot of it is private funds from family inheritances, private property, and investments–” “Okay, so.” She continued. “If you get to the meeting and tell them you want something, and they say no. What’s stopping you from insisting? From doing it anyway? It’s not a crime to go against them, right?” “Well–” I reflected. “What I mean is, I waited to dye my hair until I had my trust fund so my mother couldn’t hold my finances against me. Money was freedom. So, if your family threatens to no longer fund you, what will you do? You don’t have a job anymore.” “Well, I…” I sighed. I never had to think about money before. “I do have a trust fund, too, from my great-grandfather. And I’m twenty-five, so the inheritance from my maternal grandfather should be available to me now.” “Well, there you go. So, what can they do if you insist on having it your way?” She asked, with a grin. “Throw you in jail?” She was right. Money was freedom. “I guess there’s only the main question left.” “Which is?” “What do I wear?!” I asked, making us both laugh at the despair evident in my voice. “It’s not just about the clothes.” I justified, more to myself than to her. “I’m afraid I’ll get there, and they’ll be looking at me like I’m a child who should be off playing with something unimportant instead of trying to play pretend with the adults.” “Maggie,” Constance started, laughing, “you’re a Harvard graduated lawyer. You have a solid, successful career you left for this. They need you, you don’t need them. In fact, you’re doing them a favor.” “I’m not sure that’s how they would describe it.” “They can dress it up however they want, facts are facts.” She shrugged. “You know how to stand up for yourself and get shit done, because you’ve done it before. You worked on the corporate world for years. So, stop acting like they’re doing you a favor by allowing you to be there, and start using your experience to shove it in their faces that you’re way overqualified for this.”

She was right; I had a solid, sucessful – if short – career, and at work, I dressed as a lawyer, if anything to remind people I was not just a princess. So I spent the rest of the day repeating the mantra to myself: Constance is right. Constance is right. Constance is right. With that in mind, I dressed pretending I had a big meeting at work: a short sleeved, high neck, satin Jason Wu dress with simple black heels and gold and black earrings.

Then I went to work.

In my mind, this battle would take place around a long, imposing conference room table, where I’d sit in the middle, with all relevant parties around me. The reality was less corporate: my father’s office. High ceilings, chandeliers, antique paintings and vases around the room, and, of course, the victorian furniture. Dad and I sat in armchairs by the fireplace, side by side, his main staff took their seats on the couple of sofas to our sides, and the others, after the three chairs around my father’s desk were taken, brought in extra chairs from other rooms.

One thing I noticed straight away.

“Where’s Cadie?” I asked dad on a low tone, as everyone took their seats. “I thought it would be in poor taste to discuss her with her in the room.” He explained. “You’ll notice Auguste isn’t here, either.”

Present in the room were around a dozen more people, most of whom I had known all of my life, though some more closely than others. That was the case with my parents’ private secretaries, the title we gave to our chief of staff, Clemment Montennon and Madaleign Qadir. I also recognized Abelard Brodeur, my father’s senior aide, Ulysses Caron, the Head of Security, and Edwald Dupont, Head of the Palace Communications Office.

My father made introductions of those I hadn’t had too much contact with before, like Caesar Bisset, head of Outreach Relations, who explained his main role was to coordinate and plan our charitable and humanitarian endeavors, and Alexander Halden, who was liason of relations between the palace and the government.

All of them sat in the sofas, all of them (but Madeleign Qadir) were balding, old, white men with mustaches and resting judgy faces. The people sitting in the chairs in the back, I realized, were their junior aides, with notepads and pens, ready to take notes or provide useful material during the meeting.

I started to feel more at home at once: hierarchy was familiar to me. I had been the lowly intern once, trying to remain as quiet and invisible as possible in the background, writing as fast as I could, desperate to prove myself in the first opportunity to the older men who held my faith in their hands.

I reminded myself that wasn’t the case here. I was the future Queen of Savoy, they worked for me. They needed me. I held my head high and squared my shoulders back.

“Thank you all for making room in your schedules for this meeting.” My father started, in French. “As this meeting was set somewhat suddenly, perhaps we should go over our goals for today before we start. In truth, I believe today is a culmination of what has been…” He paused, and heaved a long, heavy sigh. “Some tremendously difficult last few months. As we’re all aware, after we lost the Crown Prince last year, as my eldest child, Princess Marie-Margueritte became Crown Princess Marie-Margueritte.”

Discreetly, I fidgeted with my hands so the nail in my right thumb was gently scratching my left palm. I gulped, trying to swallow the familiar knot on my throat. ‘I have to be able to talk about this without crying. I need to talk about this to get through this meeting. I can’t cry in front of these people.’

“We took a few months to allow us all to grieve properly, as a family, and also as a country. There was also the need for the Crown Princess to make the necessary arrangements to leave her private career behind and, as we discussed around the time of the funeral, to put distance between her previous image and the new one she must take on in order to fulfill this new role.”

So they had discussed this at the time of the funeral. A need to ‘put distance’ between who I was and who I needed to become. And I wasn’t even included.

“But it is a new year.” Father continued, with renewed energy. “Crown Princess Marie-Margueritte and I have had a private discussion and we have decided the time has come for her to take a more active role in the process of preparation for her future as Monarch.”

He paused, allowing the words to settle. I still stared at my own hands, trying to breathe deeply and slowly. ‘Preparation for her future as Monarch’ sounded so… crucial. Important. Fatal, almost.

“So,” he said, now more upbeat, adjusting himself in his seat, “with that in mind, we arrive at the agenda for this meeting as discussed by the Crown Princess and I. We are to discuss and decide on the plans regarding the Crown Princess’ future work, security, and office in her new role as the heir apparent.”

There was a pause. I waited. My father looked at me, then at the others.

“Perhaps it would be useful to start with providing the Crown Princess with an update on what the current situation is with regards to the public opinion.” The king added. “Edwald?”

Mr. Dupont, Head of the Communications Office, a man reasonably young in comparison to the others, pushed his glasses up his nose with his pinky, opened a folder in his lap, and began to speak.

“Right. Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness. We are still monitoring what the press knows in regards to the Crown Princess’ extended stay in Britain. As of now, seems we were able to get the Crown Princess back in the country without them finding out, but we will continue to stay alert for any rumors in that regard.”

“Do they know about Princess Lourdes-Abigail’s suspension?” My father asked. “As far as we are aware, sir, no.” Mr. Dupont replied. “We do have at the moment, though, requests for comment on a poll the Sunday Gazette ran online where 71% of respondents didn’t agree with the statement: ‘the Royal Family has kept an active working role after the death of Crown Prince Louis-Adolphe’.” My father sighed, gravely. “Did we give them a comment?” “No, sir. An online poll of no impact.” Mr. Dupont returned. “Most people just vote to see the estimated results, or because they’re bored.” “Good.” He nodded. “Go on.” “Regard–” “Wait, of how many?” I interrupted. “Pardon?” “How many people answered the poll?” “71%, ma’am.” “No, 71% of how many people? What’s the total of respondents?” “Oh, uh.” He looked through the papers on his folder again. Behind Mr. Dupont, an aide got up from his chair and handed him a couple more sheets of paper. “Ah, right. The total number of respondents in the poll was 61,359, ma’am.” “Were they given an abstention option?” “No, ma’am, only agree or disagree.” I nodded. Mr. Dupont went on. “As I was saying–” “Sorry,” I interrupted again, “One last thing, promise, do you have the analytics numbers?” “The–?” Mr. Dupont seemed confused. I looked at the aide behind him, a young man with freckles. “Sir? What’s your name?” His eyes grew wide. “M-me?” I smiled. “Yes, sir.” “Matthew.” “’Ma’am’”, his boss corrected. “Matthew, ma’am.” The aide repeated. “Do you happen to have the analytics data on this poll, Matthew?” “Uhm. Well, not a full analytics report, ma’am. But I do have a print out of the webpage, so I have a sharing estimate for social media.” “What are you talking about?” My father asked, confused. “Analytics is a… a tool to interpret patterns of data from basically anything.” I summarized. “On websites that run polls, it could be useful to know how many people viewed it as many might have just viewed it, but not voted, which doesn’t mean they weren’t influenced by it. And any new article online has an option for the reader to share it on their social media platforms, so that’s what Matthew will tell me next.” “Well, the data is rounded up, we don’t have the details.” Matthew explained. “Well, then we can skip it.” My father said. “That’s a point for another meeting, Margueritte. Let’s focus on our agenda today.” I wanted to argue, but before I could gather the courage, Mr. Dupont went on about me next, which was distracting enough to make me let the subject go. “Regarding the press on the Crown Princess specifically,” Mr. Dupont continued, “The months following the funeral saw a record high number of press profiling her biography, and of course there were the, uhm, ‘viral’ issues.” “Viral issues?” I asked, when he used a strange tone on the word ‘viral’. “The…mainstream section of the world, ma’am, meaning those outside of Savoy and who otherwise seemed to be uninterested in the story of The Royal Family of Savoy, were very interested to discover it’s new heir was a former military servicewomen–” “I–” I stuttered, “I only did the minimum service of 6 months.” “They don’t seem to care about the specifics.” He replied. “They did show a lot of interest for the picture of you in uniform during a drill, which was released through the palace at the time.” He added, shrugging slightly. “The Americans, specifically, seemed excited about your time in Harvard and New York, and a lot of articles were written with testimonials from people who, at least, claim to have studied with you at the time.” “Oh.” I said, uncomfortable. “What–what did they say?” “Positive things.” Mr. Dupont replied, short. “Though, at home, despite the King’s vow of faith in Her Royal Highness during the Crown Prince’s funeral, Savoyen press remains… unconvinced of your… capabilities.”

I looked at my father, who was staring at his hands, absentmindedly. So this was why my father had used his eulogy to public declare his confidence in me in the role. Not because it was true.  It was a PR move. No wonder he didn’t want to answer my question afterwards.

“What ar-” I stuttered. “Do you know any specifics of their criticism?” “They seem to worry about your work record the most, ma’am.” He replied. “Not a lot of royal work, some rumors of controversial stances as a lawyer, and uh. Not enough… How to best describe it? Personality, I suppose.” “They think I’m boring.” I helped. Seeming uncomfortable, he nodded. “International press definitely doesn’t, though.” He said. “And they have greatly influenced public opinion at home. It is very likely our national press is… upset they haven’t been given any insight on what your future will look like.”

‘And who’s fault is that?’, I thought, bitterly.

“Speaking of work,” I started, “Shall we talk about that next?” “Before we do,” my father said, before looking at Mr. Dupont, “what about the new development from last night? Where do we stand?” Confused, I looked around the room, but other than Montennon, Qadir, and Mr. Dupont himself, everyone else seemed confused as well. “We are closely monitoring the situation, but not rumors as of yet, sit.” He replied. “But I reiterate it would be best to get ahead of it.” “What happened last night?” I asked.

My father fixed me with such a dry expression I felt almost unbearably embarrassed for having forgotten: the Chris breakup.

“Oh.” I said, awkwardly. “Right.” “We’ll get back to you, Edwald.” My father told him. “Now, what need we discuss regarding your work, Margueritte?” “Well,” I started, pausing quickly to take in a deep breath, before reaching down at the ground for the folder I had left under my chair.

I opened it to find the copies I had made of the proposal I prepared the previous year while using anything I could to distract myself from the grief, and passed it around the room.

“This a summarized version, but I can have a more detailed one made tonight if you wish,” I prefaced, walking back to my seat after handing them each a copy, “I used a business proposal model, so forgive me if I might have missed any important information.”

The proposal detailed causes and organizations I wanted to focus on. I was patron of a handful of charities currently, and if I was to work full time as a royal, priority number one was to get that number up. It was work that I liked: useful, helpful work that made a difference in people’s lives.

But most importantly: it was a way of honoring my brother. I had experience with ‘easy’ causes: elderly care, childcare, things that were easy for anyone to empathize with, things that anyone would agree matters. To put it simply: things that wouldn’t ruffle feathers on the press.

This time I picked causes that mattered to me, and it mattered to me to make the kind of impact that my brother would have.

“This is impressive, ma’am.” Said Caesar Bisset, the Head of Outreach Relations. “Truly inspirational.” The others nodded, appreciatively. No one said anything else. “But?” I prodded. They looked at each other. Mr. Bisset gulped, smiling uncomfortably. “Some of these causes, although greatly important, would not send the right message, ma’am.” “What causes do you see a problem with, exactly?” I asked, as calmly as could be. “Not me, ma’am!” He corrected, quickly. “I mean, to the public, to the press, there could be a lot of misunderstanding around some of these areas.” “Such as?” “Margueritte,” my father started, with a careful smile. “As you know there is still a large amount of people in Savoy who identify as catholics, and as the representatives of the faith in the country, we have a responsibility.” “I understand.” I assured him, lying. “But I would still like to hear the specifics of what the issues would be.”

He looked at Mr. Bisset, who nodded.

“Well, ma’am,” he started, “as an example, take this idea, item two, where you express a wish of becoming a patron of Flag House, an organization devoted to providing support to homosexual youth…” “They provide counseling for those with unaccepting families, housing for LGBT people living in an unsafe and unwelcoming environment, and even classes to get them on a path towards a career or to further their education.” “Yes.” He nodded. “And the issue of homosexualism is still somewhat–” “Homosexuality.” “Pardon?” “You said ‘ism’.” I explained, sighing. “That’s a terminology used for diseases and health issues. The correct word is homosexuality.” He nodded. “Oh. Right. Still–” “And they don’t just work with gay people.” I expanded. “The LGBT community is wide. Trans people’s life expectancy is 35 years-old in Savoy, and they are around 65% of all sex workers and 73% of all unhoused people in the country.” “No one is saying the organisation isn’t good, Margueritte.” My father argued. “But there is a reason we don’t just announce patronages. There’s a lot of research that goes into this, a lot of prep work–” “And that’s what I want to do.” I replied. “We could be halfway done with the prep work if we had set the wheels in motion the first time I did this research, but I sent August this material in November last year and never heard anything.” Mr. Montennon, Auguste’s boss, who would have told him not to get back to me, fidgeted in his chair. “The issue would simply be too polemic, ma’am.” “So would be standing up against slavery before the 19th century, but King Willem III did it anyway.” I replied. “It’s not exactly the same, sweetheart.” “Why not?” I asked. “Look at the research I just gave you. Our job is standing up for the marginalized, today the most marginalized community in our society are the unhoused, specially trans sex workers of color who are kicked out of their homes at a young age due to bigotry.” “Our job is to serve the country.” My father insisted. “But part of that is knowing what the country needs from us. And largely, Savoy is just not ready for this type of work.”

He uncrossed his legs, and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees to look at me.

“Margueritte, you have a difficult job ahead of you. I know that like few people can. So let me assure you, the most important thing to succeed here is knowing how and when to compromise.” He paused, intensely. “And when not to. This is not something we can compromise on.”

I heaved a long, unsatisfied sigh. I wish I could have told him of Louis. I wish I could have told him how much this mattered to him. How much he spoke of his own privilege, of knowing that no matter how big the fear of being rejected was, he knew he would never need to fear for his safety like so many in his community did. I wish I could have told my father this, as I knew it might have changed his mind.

“So, Mr. Bisset, from this proactive document my daughter has given us, what do we think would be a good fit for her to work with?” Mr. Bisset looked away from my father into the paper in his lap again. “Well, sir, we would need to tweak a few of the specifics, but this suggestion for a partnership with some of the Universities in Savoy for a series of discussion panels on important issues for the population has a lot of potential.” “Ah,” my father replied, appreciatively. “Progress!” I gulped, suppressing a roll of my eyes at the condescension. “Won’t that just make me look more boring?” I asked. “I want to do it, but it would be better to balance it with something else, too, wouldn’t it? How about the patronage of the Claire Bauton Foundation?” Mr. Bisset nodded. “Women’s issues is a wonderful topic, ma’am, and would be a good fit as the public is very interested in the prospect of Savoy’s first Queen in her own right in over three centuries. I’ll do some research on it.” “Perfect.” My father said, happily. “Next?”

I sighed, fidgeting with my own hands; mouth dry.

“Perhaps we might go over the Crown Princess’ household, sir.” Montennon said. “Seeing as we are discussing work, her team would have to coordinate with Bisset on any upcoming projects.” He nodded. “Let’s. Please, Clemment, would you explain to us again the reason for appointing Auguste Authier as the Crown Princess’ Private Secretary.” “Of course, sir.” Montennon replied. “Ma’am, the gist of the matter comes down threefold. One, tradition.”

C. C. Montennon had been my father’s Private Secretary for almost two decades. He knew me from when I was still a bony, annoying child, but that wasn’t the reason he spoke ‘down’ at me. In fact, he had a gift of always appearing uppity whenever he said anything at all, even to royalty.

Montennon explained that traditionally, royal Private Secretaries were trained by their predecessor, the senior Secretary working for the Monarch. That way, every Monarch had a secretary that had been trained in the staff of the previous Monarch by the previous Monarch’s Secretary.

“This way every Private Secretary has the most complete knowledge one can have of the royal household and work.” He said. “So that fewer mistakes are made.”

I considered his words for a while. The logic seemed fine, it was the execution that I had an issue with.

“The second point, of course,” he went on, “is the matter of nationality.” “Seriously?” I interrupted. “Because Cadie is American?” “Ms. Mendel’s nationality could send the wrong messaging if she was selected for the highest position in your household, ma’am.” “Will I have to pretend I didn’t go to University in America, either?” “Margueritte, please.” My father said, scratching both eyes with his hand. “I think it’s a reasonable question considering this logic.” I argued. “The role of the Monarch, ma’am, and thus the role of the Crown Prince–uh, Princess is to represent and lead the country to the best of his–sorry, her abilities.” He explained, repeatedly stuttering on the need to correct himself, “and to hire a foreigner to such a high position would indicate you did not find a Savoyen of equal ability or trust.” “Or alternatively,” I argued, “that I hired the best person to the job and promoted her when the opportunity arose.”

Judging by the looks they all exchanged, I could see that was a battle lost.

“In order to do good work I have to be the one to choose my own staff.” I insisted. “It makes no sense otherwise. I assure you I am perfectly capable of hiring the objectively best person for the job.” “I assure you, ma’am,” Montennon insisted, “I have been overlooking Mr. Auguste Authier’s training for the past ten years and he is the most qualified man to prepare you for the difficult role ahead.” “You said it was threefold. What’s the third reason?” I asked Montennon. He sighed. “Well, ma’am, it’s hierarchy. Much of the Royal Family works as any business, and Auguste Authier has seniority. He’s been a member of the Royal staff longer and it would be inappropriate to promote Ms. Mendel to a higher position when she hasn’t earned it.” “As the person who she’s been working for since being hired I’d argue she has.” I contradicted. “Auguste has been training for a decade to assist the next Monarch, Margueritte.” My father told me, softly. “Cadence is too young. What if we compromise by looking into training her as an aide, Clemment? She would be a good assistant to Auguste, don’t you think? I’m sure they would work well together, right?”

I was sure they wouldn’t; Cadie was only a few years older than me, and Auguste was almost old enough to be our father. He had never respected Cadie’s abilities or my choice in hiring her. That was part of why I didn’t want to work with him in the first place.

“It would simply be too disruptive to disregard the plans that have been in motion for years regarding the staff of the next future Monarch.” Montennon finished. “But that hierarchy, those plans, were established when my brother was the heir.” I said, bravely but, also, timidly. “Not me. If we have to adapt to a new heir, and the new heir has to adapt to the work, it makes sense that the hierarchy and plans have to be adapted too, right?”

They seemed in no rush to reply. The silence floated around the room for a few seconds before my father sighed.

“It’s not how this works, I’m afraid.” He said. “Should we move on?”

And that was that. Another compromise. One word from the King and that matter was, apparently, closed.

Mr. Caron, the Head of Security, cleared his throat and sat a little taller as he began to speak. “Sir, if I may?” My father nodded his way, and he went on. Looking at me, an intense expression on his face, he said, “Ma’am, while we are discussing staffing choices… The occurence in Britain with your detail on the train…”

I tried to brace myself for a scolding, dreading everything around me, wishing I could go to my room.

“I wish to assure you no such thing will ever happen again. The officers in question have been severely reprimanded, suspended and will retake training upon returning to work. We take the incident extremely seriously and hope this won’t permanently shake your confidence in your security.” I stuttered, awkwardly. “Oh, that–That’s fine. Really, I’m fine. I didn’t even know they’d been suspended.” “Their only job is to keep you safe, and they lost you for three days.” My father remarked, calmly, not looking at me. “They are lucky to keep their jobs.” “Right.” I nodded, nervously. “Of course… Speaking of which. The… incident, as you called it, was indeed unfortunate, of course, but since the topic has been brought up, I suppose it is as good a time as any to talk about my security detail in general. The truth is I was already uncomfortable with it before.” “Uncomfortable, ma’am?” Mr. Caron asked, “Regarding the officers? Their competence?” “No, not at all.” I shook my head. “I mean, I spent the previous decade and a half with Joyce as my primary officer. She went with me to America, to University, and in every job I ever had.” He nodded. “Of course, ma’am. The bond that many years of service creates is, of course, highly valued in this field. It is essential for the work we do.” “I’m glad you think so.” I smiled. “Because I would like for Joyce to be reinstated as my primary Protection Officer.” Mr. Caron took in a long breath, watching the wall behind me. “Ma’am, though I appreciate how difficult such a structural change is, the fact is that Ms. Espinoza–uhm, Joyce, that is, simply does not have the proper, more advanced, specified training an officer for this position needs.”

“Why is that?”

The room was quiet. One by one, they all exchanged a look with the person closer to them and then looked at me.

Mr. Caron spoke. “Why is what, ma’am?” “As a member of Palace security staff, why doesn’t Joyce Espinoza have the proper training needed to work for a senior royal?” “Oh, well, ma’am, see…” He started, “Our officers receive personalized training for the specific work that they will be assigned to. That way every royal family member can be sure they are in the right hands for the level of security threat they are under.” “But…” I started, “Doesn’t that just create a gap in the abilities of the staff? Don’t you then just have some officers who are qualified for harder jobs and some who aren’t?”

They were quiet. Mr. Caron opened his mouth to reply but closed it again, pensively.

“Margueritte, this meeting is not meant to reevaluate how we do staff training.” My father objected. “Maybe it should.” I argued, causing him to look at me, brows raised. But he ignored my point. “We are here to discuss your staff and the fact is Ms. Espinoza does not have the proper training to keep you safe.” Before I could argue, he added, louder, “That is not something we are compromising on. Not your safety.”

I sighed.

“Ulysses, do you have the security file on the Crown Princess?” Mr. Caron looked at my father with wider eyes. “Y-yes, sir. I have the raw file with me, but it hasn’t been… filtered.” “Good. Show it to her.”

Awkwardly, Mr. Caron received a separate, larger file from the aide sitting near the window. He got to his feet and walked over to me.

I opened the file to an identification page; it contained most of my personal information from my full name, age, hair color and length to weight, height, and identifying marks, like the barely visible, tiny scar I had on my left knee from a bike fall as a child (I noticed the absence of my tattoo). I looked at Caron.

“What am I looking at?” “Well–” He started. “That is what your security needs to have on their minds every second of their working day.” My father answered instead.

When I turned the page, I realized the following pages were separated by date. The first was marked only a couple of days after Louis’ death. It read:

‘Letter received by the Neunant Post. Unmarked. Security camera footage resulted in no suspects of delivery. It reads:

THE THRONE MUST NOT GO TO PRINCESS MARIE MARGUERITE. WOMAN ARE INFERIOR TO MEN AND THE RIGHT ORDER OF CIVIL SOCIETY CANNOT BE UNDERMINED. LET THE GOVERNMENT BE ADVISED: SHOULD THE PRINCESS BE ANNOUNCED AS THE NEXT HEIR THERE WILL BE AN ATTACK ON POINTE CALLOIS BRIDGE. WE ARE AN ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO RETURNING SAVOY TO ITS FORMER GLORY. PRINT THIS LETTER ON THE FRONT PAGE OR PEOPLE WILL DIE…’

With my heart beating almost painfully in my throat, I looked at my father. He wasn’t looking at me. He wasn’t looking at anyone. His eyes were opened, but he was seeing something I could not see.

I turned the page. The next few threats were prints of hate comments on news sites, but they seemed slightly superficial compared to the first. I noticed they had a yellow sticker to the up corner of the page, whereas the first one had a red one. I turned the pages, finding another red one marked about a week after the first. It read:

‘Letter dropped on the gates of Callois Palace among the messages of condolences for Crown Prince Louis. Security Camera footage could not identify the suspect amongst the crowd. It read:

REST IN PEACE OUR GOOD ARYAN KING LOUIS ADOLPHE!!! THE THRONE WILL NEXT GO TO OUR ALPHA PRINCE ADRIEN WHO WILL LEAD THE COUNTRY INTO PROSPERITY. PASSING THE CROWN INTO PRINCE LOUIS ADOLPHE’S SISTERS WOULD TURN THE COUNTRY INTO A RADICAL LIBERAL HELL IT MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN. THE KING MUST ANNOUNCE THE PRINCESSES WILL NOT INHERIT LIKE HIS SISTERS DIDNT. DO NOT DISMISS THIS. IN CASE THIS ISNT ANNOUNCED THE PRINCESSES WILL BE A FATALITY OF THE BATTLE FOR THE SURVIVAL OF SAVOY. YOU HAVE FIVE DAYS.

The following page contained a drawing of a symbol in red paint. Analysis confirmed it was pig blood. Symbol under analysis by the Interpol.’

I gulped, painfully, mouth dry. “Did they ever have an answer for what the symbol was?” Though I wasn’t looking at him, Mr. Caron asnwered softly, “With assistance from the NSA, ma’am, they believe it is linked to a jihadist terrorist organization.”

I turned a few more pages, hands shaking. Dated from a few weeks after Louis’ death, to a couple of months after, to just two weeks ago, they were prints of online messages, discord servers, reddit discussion threads, untraceable Twitter accounts, throw-away emails, sent to official royal email addresses, physical Palace address, personal email accounts of staff members, journalists, and any number of random people who dared say anything positive about us online.

‘THE CROWN PRINCESS ATTENDS BODY WORK GYM NEAR HER APARTMENT MOST MORNINGS AT 8AM FROM MONDAY TO FRIDAY. SHE ALWAYS PARKS IN THE SECOND FLOOR GARAGE. SHE LOOKS HOT IN LEGGINGS TOO BAD SHE’LL GET BLOWN UP NEXT TIME SHE IS THERE’

‘THE USURPER MARIE MARGUERITTE WILL DIE KING ADRIEN DOWN WITH THE FEMINAZIS WHO WEAKENED OUR MILITARY BY INCENTIVIZING WOMEN TO SERVE AND NOW WOULD WEAKEN OUR NOBLE ROYAL FAMILY’S BLOODLINE. YOU WILL NEVER FIND ME BUT YOU WILL SOON KNOW MY NAME I WILL CARVE IT IN HER SKIN. I KNOW THE ADDRESS OF HER WORK AND THE RESTAURANT SHE EATS AT WITH COWORKERS. THEIR NAMES ARE SOPHIE THE DAUGHTER OF THE CORRUPT MEDIA MOGUL AND LARISSA THE UGLY IMMIGRANT. SHE WILL NEVER BE QUEEN’

‘I AM A HIGHLY TRAINED FORMER MILITARY CAPTAIN PRINCESS MARIE MUST NOT HAVE A CONFIRMATION CEREMONY. IF YOU HAVE A CEREMONY WE WILL CARRY OUT A MASSIVE ATTACK AGAINST THE ATTENDEES. I HAVE AT MY DISPOSAL A SEMI AUTOMATIC RIFFLE AND A COLLECTION OF PIPE BOMBS.I DO NOT WANT TO SPILL PURE SAVOYEN BLOOD. I AM GIVING YOU A CHANCE. CANCEL THE CONFIRMATION AND ANNOUNCE THE ABDICATION OF PRINCESS MARIE IN FAVOR OF PRINCE ADRIEN OR ONE WAY OR ANTOHER I WILL MAKE SURE THEY DIE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED’

A few of the pages detailed untraceable phone calls made to official, unlisted numbers inside the palace. There was a collective letter sent by chief editors of the major Savoy newspapers detailing a rise in what they describe as ‘the worst kind of harassing, toxic, hateful comments’ ever before targeted at the royal family in general, but specifically, me.

The next few pages had, chillingly, photographs. It was hard to focus enough to read the text around them, but according to the captions they had all been sent by physical mail or email, some having been discovered by police in ‘intercepted phones’.

“Wha–what are intercepted phones?” I asked, my voice a mere whisper. Ulysses Caron’s reply matched my tone. “Phones intercepted by police during reids, investigations or after criminals are arrested. Some were found internationally and sent to Savoy Police.”

I nodded as though I didn’t have another million follow up questions. The photos were of me, but in cases when I had been photographed with other people, there were pictures of them as well.

They were pictures of me walking my dogs near my apartment, in Tallmound, before Louis died. Pictures of me walking to and from the parking lot at work, both before Louis died and on the day I went to quit. Pictures of me in the gardens of the Palace, in some places we knew people could see from the gates. It didn’t usually bother us as it wasn’t an issue unless they were watching to wait for us.

These weren’t paparazzi pictures, they were worse. Grainy, from farther away, from an upper angle – drones? My head hurt. I felt dizzy. My stomach ached. In one picture, I was walking near the beach with Lourdes in Corsilla.

I looked up at Mr. Caron, realizing the room had fallen into a deep, strained silence as they waited for me to say anything.

“My sister. Is she–is she pictured, too?” Mr. Caron looked at my father before replying. I did, too. He was still quietly looking inwards. “Yes, ma’am.” Mr. Caron said, finally. “Not as frequently. But there has also been a recent rise.” I fought back tears. “And–Did th–Louis?” I stuttered. He nodded, gravely.

I closed the folder with a thud. I looked away, at the windows. The sun was setting outside.

“Don’t you see…?” I asked, weakly. “This is why we can’t train our officers differently.” I looked back at them. “You’re deciding that some of us receive more threats than others and therefore we need different security, but what is stopping anyone who wishes to harm us from harming someone we love to get to us?!” “I assure you, ma’am, all our officers are highly trained to the task they need to perform–”

I got to my feet, breathless. Slowly, I walked around the chair and rested a hand on it, the other now clutching the heavy folder. I thought of my brother reminding me to stand up for myself, and of the reminder Harry had written in the book he sneaked into my bag.

I looked back at them, and sighed.

“You are going to double the number of protection officers in my sister’s detail.” I said, as authoritative as I could. “Double–?” Mr. Caron started. “And Cadence Mendel is going to be my Private Secretary.” I said, as if I hadn’t been interrupted. “Auguste can stay on for support. He can be a… consulting aide. I’m sure his experience will be valuable.” “Margueritte.” My father started. I did not acknowledge him. “Joyce Espinoza will head my security detail.” “Ma’am, she does not have the necessary training–” “Then train her!” I said. “It is not enough for security to be well trained, clearly, as your supposedly highly trained officers were sleeping while I ran off in London. If they had known me, if I had trusted them, like I do with Joyce, I assure you that would not have happened.” He didn’t have an answer. He did look at my father though, helplessly. “Training is not enough, Mr. Caron. Our security is with us wherever we go, we must trust them. Intimacy isn’t a replacer for training, either, so let’s work on both. Okay?” “Margueritte.” My father tried again. “Why don’t we talk about this privately?” “That won’t be necessary.” I replied. “It would have been useful months ago, after Louis passed. Now I don’t need to, anymore.” I looked at him, finally, calmly. “I will do good work, dad. I will. I will do work that I am proud to do, and that Louis would have been proud of, too. And I will be happy to do it. But let it be known that I will do it because I am choosing to do it.” I looked at the rest of them. “I did not want this.” I confessed. “I wish for nothing more than for my brother to be in this meeting instead of me. But I am all you have.”

Still, they were silent.

“Well, I will do it. Not because I have to. What can you do, really, if I refuse to? Throw me in jail?” I echoed Constance’s words, a humorless grin in my lips. “You need me. You have me. So, I am willing to discuss my work. But we will not compromise on my staff, or on my security. Or Lourdes’ security.” “Margueritte.” My father repeated, more forcefully now. “I am a lawyer. A good one.” I stopped him, angrily. “I had my own life before this and I can get it back. Say no and I will just send a resume and get another job next week.” I told them, daringly, shrugging. “I do not need or want the Crown. If you want to take it, this is what I need. If not,” I sighed, heavily, “well, let’s hope Lourdes is ready to be Queen.”

I waited, breathing heavily, anxious, hands shaking. My father said nothing else. Neither did any of the others. I could barely see them through my anger.

“I expect my Private Secretary to get in touch in the next twenty-four hours so we can get to work. If not,” I sighed, “You can expect my abdication letter by the end of the week.”

With that, I turned on my heels, and left the room.

--- ---- ---

Business Bitch Outfit

[A/N: ITS 6 AM AND I HAVE NOT SLEPT. I HAVE WORK IN 5 HOURS. I HAVE A HEADACHE. THIS IS ALL TO SAY PLEASE FORGIVE ANY SPELLING/GRAMMAR/NONSENSE MISTAKES. Seriously, I am so grateful for your patience. I had to move out of my house in 2 weeks into a much more expensive apartment. First time I had to do the whole moving process thing (long story) and it is not great. 0/10 do not recomend. Why do I own stuff? Also my job is not going well. I fully expect to be let go in January. Maybe I am being a paranoid anxious bitch maybe I am being a self aware queen. We’ll see. But it’s definitely the second option. Anyway, I’m all unpacked now and loving living alone for the first time ever. I think that’s all I needed to say. Oh, also, I did some research for the death threat part but -- thankfully -- I am not fully versed on it, so sorry if its a little cringe? Anyway. Let me know your thoughts?! What do you think will happen? Will Maggie’s boss bitch ultimatum work?! Will the dramatic Chris breakup leak to the papers?! Tune in next week to find out! LOVE YOU!]

[theblackbirdsgemimagines]

May I request for the Leona, Vil, Azul and our boy Jack getting stuck in their MC's world and their experience? (MC is with them)

Oh sweet Jesus akdhakdhsk FORGIVE ME OF MY RATHER CYNICAL OUTLOOK ON OUR LIL BLUE PLANET 😬 I think it’s understandable to be more cynical than ever in this Hell Year, lolll

Send these poor, sweet babies back home, they deserve better than to be stuck here of all places 😅 ESPECIALLY JACK AAAAAA SAVE THE BABY 💔

Ok, not even going to play with you... Vil would thrive, lol.

Just give him time enough to stop panicking over all his lost clothes, magic, etc., and find new things that works for him and his detailed self-care routine, and whatever he chooses to do, he will make Fat Stacks in.

He’s the male version of Belle Delphine, here ajdhakdhsj

He appears anywhere, on tv with some company to continue his performer career he had back home, or on youtube/instagram, and he is almost immediately just as famous here as he was in Wonderland.

Can we really blame anyone, tho? Look at him.

And there’s no Neige here!

Also, ‘my’ Vil is definitely the one that knows there are many different ways to be beautiful~. He may be a bit more blunt to his friends if he thinks they’re not quite hitting the usual mark their talents place them in. But that’s only because he cares about them, and wants everyone to see their best, as he does~. He’s an absolutely encouraging sweetheart to anyone else/a beginner at whatever their passion is, though~. And either way, he’s your best cheerleader~.

Of course he still just doesn’t feel himself without his magic, or ability to do potions. I don’t think he’d find the witchcraft in our world would suit him very well.

If he was really stuck for good, of course he’d make the best of it. But if he could go home, especially if you wanted to go back with him, he’d jump at the chance. And always be on the lookout for the chance.

But that being said, I think, aside from all the world’s problems, of course, he’d find it interesting just how similar, and vastly different, things are here.

He donates Ass Loads to so many charities, like honestly.

Rich boy knows his privilege, and lets others ride off his advantages as much as he can. 💜

He becomes friends with James Charles. You know he does.

You can’t be truly fully beautiful if you’re not also lovely on the inside, too, after all~!

Rip Rook wherver he is, he is lost without his Queen 😔

Gosh, in direct contrast to Vil, Leona probably suffers the most over here?? Jahdkshdj

I know they based his sleep habits off a irl lion, but that also sounds just a Tad Bit like possible depression to me (along with a lot of the other ways he’s behaved so far, lol).

Get this sweetheart to some therapy, maybe?? Help him get a lil energy boost at least to help him feel better 💛

He’s going to HATE the work pace people have to maintain just to eat here, 100%.

He enjoys the entertainment the most, though~. Video games, things you can watch online, all those sorts of things~. Might like a few of our sports, too~.

Poor bby struggles with having to work, though, please help him 💔

At least he doesn’t have to live under being Forever Prince, here, and doesn’t have to worry about turning anything he touches to sand. And the lions in the zoos are pretty cool to go see~!

He’d probably love it if he could go to Africa and see what our “Afterglow Savannah” looks like here~. Meet the lions that are in the wild~.

I imagine he and Jack would both lose the ears for human ones, and the tails, too. (😢💔) So he probably feels weird seeing himself like that, and might miss his tail. Especially if it helped him with balance. Give him some time to adjust to it~. There’s these neat new tails people made for cosplay, that can move around on their own, if he’d like one to help him not miss his old one so much~!

I had to really think about what the heck he’d even do for a job, cause he’s so grumpy to everyone, retail’s just OUT, lol. And I don’t think he’d be that great at something like youtube, either ajdhsjjd

It’s hard for him to not just lay around all lazy, rather than think of stuff to do for it/actually get up and go do it. Let alone all the meetings, and interacting with fans, and the like.

So maybe actually being one of the zookeepers would be a good fit for him~. He’d be obligated to actually go, and he’d get to be around lots of different animals~. Might help him feel more at home, too~. I think he’d be pretty good at it, and the animals would probably be drawn to him~ 💛

He’d also absolutely challenge the authority here (or anywhere else that has appalling governments, especially if they’re not run by women). The state of things, and the way women and minorities are treated by white men around the world, and men in general, would absolutely appall him. He so drunk on that respecc women juice, he just can’t wrap his head around what the hell the problem is with those rich assholes in power. Put him in power, and he’ll ruthlessly show them what-for! ALL the others behind him would be women! Good grief, humans!

All in all, he doesn’t mind it here, but would also prefer to be home, where he can sleep more, and Ruggie can run around for him most of the time, lol

Besides, that allowed him to spend more time with you~! 💛

(LOOKIT THAT HAPPY BOY SMILE!!! I’M DEAD 💞💞💞)

Oh, Jack. Sweet, sweet Jack.

He absolutely becomes a personal trainer as a job, here. 1000%. He lives that Exercise Junkie Lifestyle, there’s just no doubt about it.

He’s VERY encouraging to his students, though~! Build up that beef, guys, he has total faith in you~! 🤍🤍

He absolutely loooooooves going anywhere to see wolves. He’d probably really love the wooded mountains in Europe, if you ended up there, or in Oregon/Washington if you ended up here in America~. Definitely Canada, or Alaska, too~! Just give him huge trees, snowy winters, and nearby mountains, and he feels right at home~.

Idk if he’d miss his magic a whole heck of a lot, tbh?? But he WOULD miss his friends and family! It’s just not quite the same here, though he thinks it’s beautiful and interesting to see where you came from~. 🤍

He’s a good boy 😭

Also appalled with the state of so many rulers and governings both in your home, and around most of the world, lol.

He can’t stand seeing so many people suffer like that! How can they possibly live the life that’s the most healthy and happy for them to live, disabled, chronically ill, or not, if they’re suffering under an iron fist all the time?!

He CAN’T stand for it. You won’t stop him till he sees good change starting to finally happen. Especially if you live here! There’s no way he can just sit around and have you be subjected to that!

HE’S A GOOD BOY 😭

You gotta calm him down a lot and remind him there are others just as good and kind as he is, fighting to change things too 🤍

God help people if he gets here anytime within 2020-2021. He’s sucker punching nearly everyone he sees without a mask.

He’s also sucker punching every nazi he sees, too.

My goodness, please show him the movie Wolf Children! He’ll hide the fact he’s crying multiple times through it, but it’s one of his favorite movies here~.

If you do manage to go back to Wonderland, please try to bring a copy of it with you. It’s the one thing he’ll miss most, and keep asking to watch with you again, before remembering it doesn’t exist there. 😭

He also misses his tail and ears a lot. Losing all of that + his senses would be very a very awkward adjustment for him, and he wouldn’t really like it poor bby 💔 Give him lots of hugs to compensate U-U 🤍

His favorite thing to do with you would probably be to go hiking, and stay in a little cabin in the woods, for a week or two~. Somewhere in one of the previously mentioned places~.

(I couldn’t find a chibi gif of Azul to use, rip 😭)

Azul is just straight up becoming a mafia boss, probably wkdhakdjjs.

He’s the ‘good’ kind, though. He’s learned his lesson since his overblot, and he won’t outright kill people for not paying him back, or introduce drugs, or anything like that.

He’ll help people obtain what they want as legally as possible... But that doesn’t mean he still won’t be sly as hell about it, haha~.

He’ll protect loyal/good customers and the areas they live in, too~. In fact, he’d probably reDUCE crime from doing so.

He just learns all the dirty ins and outs of everything about how things run here. And as much as he’ll fight for change as the others would, because there’s no way any of that is an acceptable way for you to live, he’ll work dirty in order to take advantage of the system, to do so. What better way, right? Make the dominos fall from the inside out.

He’s a good business man, he knows doing so would also benefit him, too.

He’s like Bruce Wayne if Bruce Wayne was a rich mafia leader jeehskdje

Need health benefits to work for him? Covered. Need above-average pay to actually afford your bills and other stuff? Covered. Need education to do a job for him? They’ll train you.

He’s also practically a Gordon Ramsey, tbh. Lots of his bars will pop up across the world, if he stays here long enough, lol. But they’ll all help a good number of people, in doing so~.

He also donates as much as he can, too. If he’s gonna become even a fraction as rich as Jeff Bozos, he’s ending world hunger and homelessness every year.

And boy oh BOY will he swindle the rich akdhakdhwj

He will whip them so hard, they won’t know what the hell hit them.

He may have been under restrictions at the college, but he sure as hell isn’t here. Watch out as he spreads his tentacles wings.

And, of course, he adores being anywhere near the coast. Doesn’t matter what part of the world you’re in, he just needs to be by the sea.

All the polution absolutely breaks his sweet little heart, and that’s one of the first things on his list to fix. Dealing with trash back home was much easier... you could just zap it all away at big trash fields. But you don’t have that luxury here.

Being that he doesn’t really like his ocotpus form (bbyyyyyy 😢💔), he probably doesn’t mind the permanent legs. At least he doesn’t have to constantly take a potion to keep them, anymore.

But it’s still awkward to get used to. And he can’t stand that he can’t breathe underwater anymore, or go too far down without dying from the pressure.

He’ll dive as often as he can~. And loves to dive, or snorkle, or just swim~, with you, if you want to join him~.

He does miss his home, if only for the beauty and familiarity it had, despite a lot of bad memories around it. But there’s no doubt he’d thrive here, in a way only he could~.

He totally believes your own version of mermaids exists, and gets excited over anything that could prove it to be true 😅

Plus, he’s just obsessed with how marine life works here in general~. If he can juggle being a freakin maffia boss, and a marine biologist just out of the pure love for it, I have no doubt he’d do it~.

Humans most likely evolved from creatures in the water?? That’s amazing~! So the ocean feels like a distant memory of a second home~! He’d love to bond over that, the romantic~ 💜

[wrongfullythinking]

Twitter and the “Public Forum”

There is a very large looming legal question about whether or not social media sites, such as Twitter, are “Public Forums.”  Most would agree that they are not... at least... not yet.  But the question is... should they be?

First, a look into why it matters.

In a public forum, all First Amendment protections apply.  So you can say any number of very objectionable things (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12634874511090553174) and be protected.  In a private forum, this is not so.  I can kick you out of my house for wearing an Abercrombie shirt, and you have no Free Speech/Expression reason to contest my staggeringly good decision-making.

Second, the public forum cannot be policed for any content that may be stated.  This is why if you go to reserve time at a public park, you don’t have to tell the Parks and Rec department what your event is for.  Just things like how many people, how long the event will last, etc.  This is well-established and well-backed by many years of precedent.

Finally, there is the very serious matter of personal liability.  In certain circumstances, officials can be held personally liable if their policies deliberately and knowingly infringe upon Bill of Rights protections (most often First Amendment protections).  This means that you could literally sue for the property and assets of a person.  (Also, this is why those of us who own either physical property [like a house] or intellectual property [like a book] buy “Umbrella Coverage” from insurances... I recommend State Farm, but that’s totally irrelevant and I’m not getting any kickbacks for that shill =P.)

But hang on... so if the government owns a billboard and rents it out to whomever can pay, can I rent it and post a naked lady?

You could try, and you might win!  What you can’t do is post something obscene.  And yes, whether or not a naked person is obscene is staggeringly controversial.  There’s a 3-part test from the Burger court, a host of vague terms like “average person” and “contemporary community standards,” and “lacks serious artistic/literary/political/scientific value.”  And then there are protections for children, a whole separate piece, as well as child pornography, which is always classified as obscene... except when it is not, like in the cases of naked cherubs in church windows.  So, confused yet?  We’re off topic, but I make this point to explain that even in public forums, where First Amendment rights are fiercely protected, there are still outstanding issues of content censorship.

So, is Twitter / Facebook / Tumblr a public forum?

At this point, the answer is no.  They are privately controlled by companies, not owned by the feds or states or local municipalities, and thus can make almost any policy they want.  The idea here is that the free market dictates the life or death of these platforms... and that idea tends to hold true!  Tumblr itself is a good case-in-point, because it has lost millions of dollars in value due to bad leadership decisions, and at least partially because of censorship.  There are countless examples of others... I remember when Yahoo! was the primary search engine of the internet and Xanga was the biggest blogging platform.  While you can still Yahoo, I’m not sure there are more than a few hundred people on Xanga, if it still exists in any useful format.  So, since places like this are subject to the free market, and thus can die... they should be allowed to make all the good or bad decisions they want about their content.  Or at least, that is how the theory runs.

But really... ARE they subject to the market?  Now we’re getting into the really interesting territory.  If Facebook shut down tomorrow, would it be a problem?  Maybe, but life would continue.  But if Google shut down tomorrow?  Well, millions of schoolchildren are in GoogleClassrooms right now, so that would certainly be a problem.  It would at least cause massive disruption... and Facebook shutting down would cause some disruption.  Likewise, Twitter controls so much speech that instead of publishing headlines from Newspapers, newspapers publish headlines from Twitter!  The 14-year-old looks at that line like “well, duh” and the 44-year old reads that line like “wow, we’ve come a long way,” and the 84-year-old reads that line with just a sad headshake.

So, now we’ve joined one of the most controversial points of the last 20 years... the Fannie Mae “Too Big to Fail” problem.  Basically, a set of banks and big mortgage companies (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) made a bunch of bad decisions in about 1995 - 2008.  [As an aside, whether or not Fannie Mae {technically, the “Federal National Mortgage Association”} is actually a company comes up as an issue... it originated as a government program, but is today a publicly-traded company and has been since the late 60s, though it was delisted from NYSE and is only traded off-exchange].  And the government had to step in.  You can read all about that issue at another time, the bottom line is that actually Fannie Mae has paid back more than it borrowed, but there was a ballooning of the debt ceiling by over 800 billion.  Some people care about the national debt, some don’t, and again, not the subject of this commentary.  The point is that it set a very odd precedent, whereas a company could make extremely bad decisions and then the burden would be placed on the taxpayers to fix their decision, because the company itself was a part of so many people’s lives.  Would social media fall under this guidance?  Unlikely, and I think we would all run from state-sponsored social media... but hey, what do I know.

So... get to the point.  Should they be public forums, or not?

My two cents always comes down against censorship, especially censorship by entities that don’t have my best interests at heart... so basically, everybody else.  I think that it is so easy to self-censor the internet at the personal end (for example, by installing filters and blocking services for objectionable content), that companies should not be unilaterally making these decisions, especially if those companies want to be venues for mass public communication.

Let’s go with another example... let’s say you wanted to call up your buddy and have a nice long phonesex session.  Good for you.  Or just chat with them about the latest Dr. Doe video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgT8WXaPUY), because enthusiasm is important.  Would you be okay with Verizon telling a robot to monitor your call, and then automatically hang up if you said “penis” too much?  Or “Trump”?  Or “Black Lives Matter?”  What about “Nazi,” “Rohypnol,” “Mary Jane,” “negritos” [I’ve got your back, Mr. Cavani], “snowbunny,” or “Insane Clown Posse”?  I think most people would be upset about any of those, and they would rightfully tell Verizon that they will find another provider.  So Verizon doesn’t do that, although it could.  But Twitter does do that.  And the availability of another Twitter is in question.  Will something succeed Twitter?  Absolutely.  But right now, Twitter is under no market pressure, so it is succeeding at taking off its platform any number of conversations that it probably should not be policing.

There’s also a social-justice side of this.  So, let’s say that we all decide Twitter is a bad platform and move to something else.  And that something else costs us 10$ a month.  I wouldn’t notice this fee.  Others would.  So that’s an access issue.  Or, let’s say that some people start migrating to a new platform, and they only tell their friends about it.  That’s okay, right?  Absolutely... but imagine that college student who is trapped at home in a pandemic right now who cannot get any viewpoints outside of what her parents approved of, and previously used Twitter to explore and challenge her upbringing.  If she doesn’t get an invite to the new platform, is she just lost?

And that brings up the Pandemic.  Many, many common public forums have been shut down due to the pandemic.  This alone has caused serious controversy (see: BLM protests on crowded streets where state governors participated, while those same governors implemented executive orders enforcing 6-foot distancing in churches and stores), so the argument for Twitter censorship “but you have many other public forums!” is tough to substantiate during the COVID-era.  And this is a HUGE problem.  Historically, taking away public forums is always an early move of totalitarian regimes.  Taking away rights to assembly and speech follows soon after.  We’re now in Phase 2 there... and our governors keep assuring us it is temporary... while at the same time, encouraging Twitter to take off any viewpoints they don’t like, under the guise of “false or misleading information.”  Soon, they start moving into the schools, and that leads to...

SCIENCE!!!

So, to talk about what rigorous debate means, we need to understand a bit about Science.  And specifically, the philosophy of science, what scientific discourse looks like, and why review and critique are parts of the scientific process.

Point 1: “Scientific consensus” is hogwash.  Yes, we all agree that the Earth orbits the Sun, and the Sun itself moves, but beyond that, there isn’t much scientific consensus.  If you see an article that starts with the phrase “Expert say,” you can go ahead and close your browser window right there.  The rest is bull****.

Point 2: The limits of science are boundless.  Any specific scientific paper is, by necessity and the peer review process, very strictly bounded.  “Whether or not a vaccine is efficient” is an entirely different paper than one titled “Whether or not 80-year-olds with lung cancer should get the vaccine,” and both of those are different than “How the US should achieve herd immunity, and if it is even possible for COVID-19 before significant mutations cause current immunizations to be ineffective,” and all three of those are different from “Do we need to vaccinate our cats from COVID in order to reach herd immunity?”

Point 3: There is no “finalized” science.  The answers are never finished.  What is “cutting edge” science today is out-of-date tomorrow, barbaric and backwards by the end of the year, and grounds for an abuse lawsuit by the end of the decade.  The best examples of this are from Psych treatments.

Point 4: I get very worried when anybody starts to censor scientific content... especially those without any qualifications.  Okay, so this one is a personal sentence (note the “I”), but I’m going to go ahead and guess that Twitter robots and interns flagging posts don’t have any idea the difference between sensitivity and specificity, the background as to why the FDA has never approved an mRNA vaccine previously, the difference between statistical and clinical significance, and how to read a limitations section.  The people who are qualified to do so are peer reviewers... and in the case where those fail (which happens!), the rest of the writer’s peers.  And we do that.  Anything published is open to critique, which leads to the final point, that...

Point 5: Critique and Review are THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS of scientific publishing.  If a piece is published without review, it is called an “opinion” and not science.  Even more worrisome than the censoring of unpopular papers is the censoring of the opinions of scientists on the papers of their peers.  Should someone publish a paper where I believe they overstretched their claims, it is a HUGE part of my job to call that out.  For an agency like Twitter to be able to say “you don’t have the right to say that they overstated their claim, because expressing a concern about a vaccine is against our Terms of Use” is a very big problem for science.

The flipside is that you get into the part where now a company can, through its policy, dictate what science gets done.  For example, lets say I wanted to examine an unpopular question... and I’m a social scientist, so there are plenty of those, but say I wanted to do something semi-controversial but apolitical.  I’ll say my research question is “How do the happiness of those in committed multi-year polyamorous relationships compare to the happiness of people in similar economic and social situations but in closed marriages where additional intimate partnerships would be viewed as grounds for relationship termination?”  There are plenty of ways I could conduct this study and I’ll spare you my methodological musings, but safe to say there are platforms who would not want me to publish my results.  And that’s fine. 

But let’s say that I did publish my results, and a commenter took to Twitter.  And their response was “I read your paper, and I see your conclusion that those in committed multi-year polyamorous relationships score no differently on a happiness scale than those in the closed marriages.  However, I disagree with your use of this scale, because it was tested on populations of retirees, and most of the people in your sample are in their late 20s or early 30s.”

That is an EXCELLENT and VALID critique.  And let’s say that Twitter was heavily into the social justice and had a policy that said “you can’t say negative things about polyamory.”  And they deleted this person’s comment.  Now, Twitter has interfered with the scientific process.  That comment IS PART of the dialogue and that dialogue is part of Science.  Yes, there are other places that those comments could be made, and not be censored... but we should not be encouraging that censorship ANYWHERE.  And Twitter has vastly overstepped the line on this point.  Random Twitter employees have no business removing professional critiques about a study, even if there are other platforms for those critiques.

Other Thoughts

1) Generally, you can’t prohibit meetings in a public forum based on prior behavior.  Thus, “X group was violent in the past” is not a reason to prohibit X group from accessing a public forum for speech.  So there’s no saying “Proud Boys were violent once, so no Proud Boys on Twitter” if it were to be declared a public forum.

2) I’m really not aware of any large precedents for taking a private company and declaring it a public forum.  That may seem redundant (obviously, if there was precedent, this wouldn’t be such a hot-button issue), but it bears specific mention.

[abloodymess]

Spoilers for Jordan Peele’s “Us” so keep scrolling. If you are reading this I am going to speak to you as if you have seen it. I don’t really want to write a “thing” but do want to put some thoughts down. 

**OWEN SUMMARIZES THE MOVIE**

The film’s story centers on a family who appears to be upper middle class (they are educated, have a summer home, drive a Mercedes, and even own a boat (Craw Daddy) ), who are on vacation and on the first night another family that looks a lot like them breaks in and wants the family dead. We learn that this other family are part of the Tethered. We are informed at the start of the movie that there are thousands of miles of tunnels under the US(A) that serve no purpose anymore, but that is where the Tethered live. 

They were created by the government as an experiment to help control us (the people above ground,  who everyone has a Tethered double), but it didn’t work out so the project was abandoned and the Tethered were left to go mad and die off. The Tethered did not die off, they got a leader (Red, played by Lupita Nyong'o), got organized, and got pissed. You would be pissed to if you did not ask to be created and were forced to live underground while being experimented on, only fed raw rabbits, and left to die. All the while people that look and act just like you retain value. So, the Tethered decide to do some untethering and emerge one night and kill most of us above ground folks off. That’s kind of where we end things. 

Oh, and we learn that Red is actually human and nice mom Adelaide (also played by Lupita) is Tethered. When they were kids a switcheroo happened and Adelaide left to have a nice life while OG Adelaide is left to the Tethered and become Red. So Red is pretty pissed about that too, and that Adelaide kind of left her people to rot underground instead of helping in anyway. 

**OWEN SUMMARIZES THE MOVIE**

OK! Now that that summary is out of the way, lets get to the fun stuff. 

“Who are you?”

“We are Americans”

I can’t help be feel the Tethered can be viewed as countless “forgotten/ignored” peoples: the homeless, the poor, AIDS, child laborers, the tuskegee experiments, people we sacrifice for our comfort. These people become invisible to us or we separate them from their humanity. We’d rather they die so we can get cheaper cell phones and lower tax rates, it’s the hard truth that we look the other way and let fellow humans suffer instead of solving the issue that may take some comfort away from us. But you know, we allow them do die. Instead of solving the problem, we do Hands Across America! A distraction that makes it look like we care, but in reality some organizations pocket most of the money and some rich rockstars write a song and get some new Ferraris. We love to profit off of others suffering. We forget about it and it becomes the punchline in a Simpsons episode. People die outside in the richest country in the world every day from lack of shelter, food, medical care, all in which we have abundance of. 

So, what are these people to do? 

(A great visual to tie this together is that the funhouse where Adelaide meets Red in 1986 is called The Shaman’s Quest (or something real close to that) and it is Native American themed, and when they revisit the funhouse in the present it has been renamed Merlin’s Adventure. The only real change they made was to crudely hang a new sign over the old name. It is the same exact ride inside and still has the totem pole and racist insides. To fix the racist problem they just changed the name, they did not get at the root of the problem and of course the funhouse is the gate the Tethered use to come out. Good work guys.) 

“And the shadow grew to hate the girl. It hates her so much.” 

To paraphrase a great quote, “When you make it through, your job is pull more through.” Adelaide being a Tethered and growing up to lead an ideal life, shows that the Tethered are not simply monsters, but a question of nature vs nurture. When we see the Tethered killed they too are people, just people who never got a chance and denied things they needed. They are viewed as monstrous because (besides all the killing) they are denied a voice or a language (education) and are powered by pure emotion/rage. It is very Romero-esque and Us really comes close to Dawn of the Dead in tone and social critique. The haves and have-nots, the rage is building and what other way is it going to come out?  One day we are going to have to pay for these sins, maybe with our friends or children's lives. At the end of “Us” it is only Adelaide’s son Jason that seems to figure out his Mom’s secret, but he lowers his mask and looks away, as if to say even the next generation is going to keep looking the other way. 

“Don’t worry everything is going to be back to how it was before.” 

After going through the entire night and morning of the mass killings, Adelaide kills Red and rescues a kidnapped Jason. Jason is crying and scared and Adelaide says the above to calm Jason down and the line really stuck with me. How when a big tragedy happens (9/11, Ferguson, Riots, Mass Shootings, etc) we always want to go back to how it was before. Back to before we knew about the problem, back to when we were comfortable, we rarely ask how to go forward to solve the problem, we always want to go back. Maybe it was easier for a lot of liberal white Americans to not know what was happening in black communities, maybe it was easier to not know we have a Nazi problem, but now with knowledge we have the burden of responsibility and if we chose to ignore and look away that too is a terrible violence.

Is the violence the people above ground cause with their silence, the immense suffering just below their feet any less cruel then the violence the Tethered impose while trying to break free and claim their humanity? 

[dicecast]

The Problem with Thanos Part 2

So the first video is basically about what is actually wrong with Thanos and by extension, Malthusian theory.   Today I want to pivot to something a bit more complicated, Thanos as a character and why he is a less good character because he isn’t a racist.  

I’ve said before that Thanos is a good character and I think that is basically true but I want to clarify.  Thanos is a good character for you know…Superhero movies, where most of the characters at best are a list of consistent traits with a consistent voice and maybe one or two issues that define them . Thanos’s motivations make sense (they are morally and intellectually wrong but it makes sense), he has a general personality template, and he has more complexity than most marvel villains.  But there is a larger issue with his attatchment to Malthusian economics, namely that it doesn’t make any sense he’d be so attracted to it.  

Let me jump back for a moment here.  See, in real life, the Malthusian notions of population control and necessary brutality for the sake of preserving the world’s resources is an ideology that comes with a lot of baggage attached.  From the start, Malthusians aren’t just saying we need mass purges to keep population in check, it always comes with a larger ideological view point about which people should be purged. Malthusianism in real life was directed at the Irish, Catholics, and the poor, and theories influenced by Malthus would be directed at African Americans, Slavs, and Jews, and today it tends to be used in the context of India, China, and Africans.  While it would be a simplification to say that the Nazi concept of “Useless Mouths” is purely Malthusian, the ideas are linked.  Eugenics, Social Darwinism, Imperialism, and Scrooge esc classicism have always been associated with Malthusian though, and that is why this doctrine is still around despite being debunked in the 19th century.  Its less a factual ideology as much as a world view, one obsessed with “us vs. them” mentalities and beliefs in “Nature is a warzone” despite the fact that this is not how society works.  

      Now in theory you could have a debate about Malthusian population control without dipping into the ideologies always associated with it, but in real life…yeah good luck with that. Malthusian economics are like IQ, or Social Darwinism its some people get into to justify their existing racist prejudice, not an ideology that leads them to racism.  That is why it always falls apart so easily when you apply real science to it, because it isn’t just a false scientific theory, its using scientific jargon to justify the same old prejudice.  

 But Thanos is that, he is a Malthusian without any of the baggage, he isn’t racist, classist, religiously intolerant, or a warmonger.  Thanks to the power of the plot, his population control method is actually unbiased, unlike real life Malthusians he doesn’t target a specific group as deserving extermination.   When Thomas Malthus spoke of necessary population control he wasn’t referring to his own group of middle class Englishmen, he meant the poor, the Irish, and the Catholic.  Thanos is truly “Unbias” in this view of extermination, which is equally stupid but lacks the bigotry that comes with Malthusian theory.  

    Now let’s pretend Marvel actually understood the themes of their own movie and they genuinely wanted to talk about this world view, it is understandable they would want to desperate the idea from the baggage surrounding it, otherwise it is too easy to dismiss it.  So while in real life Malthusianism is linked to a bunch of other horrific ideologies, for the purpose of fiction it might be worth debating it on its own merits rather than as part of something else.  It’s not much of a debate because its objectively wrong, but I get the idea.  Try to argue with the theory on its own terms rather than what it is associated with.  

Here is the problem, I’m not sure if it is actually a good thing to separate these ideologies.  Cause Malthusianism literally doesn’t make sense if it isn’t linked to a larger world view, and more importantly Thanos doesn’t make sense.  What I meant by this is that Malthusianism is basically a rational that bigots come to in order to justify their existing bigots.  You embrace Malthus if you already regard the Irish as subhuman, and you need a justification killing 1.5 million of them.  Or if you already don’t want to pay taxes for social programs that help the poor, or if you already don’t want to send aid overseas or sell weapons to war zones.  It’s not a true ideology so much as it’s a way to make standard selfish bigotry seem more reasonable and palatable.  You don’t become a Malthusian because of the strengths of its argument, you become a Malthusian because you already wanted to dehumanize large groups of people and this is a method lets you not come to terms with your own actions.  And this is why Malthusians aren’t convinced by evidence, cause its less a scientific theory so much has a psychological defense mechanism.  

      And that is the problem, Thanos isn’t a bigot, so his attachment to Malthus doesn’t make any sense.  There is no reason why Thanos wouldn’t listen to anybody who suggests to him that “Hey this isn’t how like…anything works” or do some damn research on the subject.  Which means that Marvel is either

Positing Malthusian theory is correct in the universe of Marvel which is basically saying “In this world, Eugenics is real, but we should do the right thing anyways

Thanos is actually a really dumb guy who fell for the pseudo science and never checked his assumptions.  Which you know...isn’t impossible, but that isn’t how he is presented in the film, instead he is shown as a thoughtful if cruel man.  If his main flaw is not his indifference but instead his stupidity, then the movie did a very bad job of conveying that 

      Now this entire time I’ve been giving Marvel the benefit of the doubt and assuming they were doing this on purpose in order to fight back against Malthusian economics, but lets be honest, they don’t deserve that much credit.  Which goes back to the earlier post, which is that they keep mistaking Malthusian for Utilitarianism.  So it is again presenting killing half the population as “Practical but evil’ vs. the protagonists “Moral but inefficient” but as I mentioned before, this simply isn’t the case.  Malthusian theory of population isn’t just immoral, its actively incorrect.  But that isn’t how the conflict is framed, when Thanos and Dr. Strange argue, Strange is like “This is wrong because Trillions will die” while what he, a scientist, should be saying is “This is wrong because....that would not fix the problem like...at all”.  Because again, Thomas Malthus ideas were debunked in the mid 19th century, the only reason why they continue to be relevant today is that they provide a handy justification for racist practices, and as Thanos is not a racist, it doesn’t make sense that he would believe this.  

This also leads to another uncomfortable bit, in his discussion with Dr. Strange, Thanos says ‘Titan was like most planets, too many mouths, not enough to go around.  When we faced extinction I offered a solution”  That is actually quite similar to the “Useless Mouths” rhetoric used in post WWI Germany.  Historical context.  During WWI, Britain placed German under a blockade which basically put the whole country under siege.  Since Germany’s best chance of winning the war was a defensive conflict, slowly giving ground as the allies lost millions and hoping that the ally states would collapse, the steady lack of resources due to this blockade was devestating to the German War effort.  While France and Britain could endlessly resupply thanks to their colonies and the Americas, Germany steadily ran out of oil, iron, lead, and food, and the civilian population of Germany, largely unexposed directly to the war, slowly starved, particularly in the “Turnip Winter” of 1916.   While there was still food, most of it went to the army, leaving the civilians with nothing. About 763,000 German civilians*, the vast majority of German Civilian deaths during WWI, were due to the famine rather than Allied Weapons.   This is not counting those who died of the Spanish Flue epidemic, and an additional 100,000 civilians who died during the negotiation period.  This blockade would eventually lead to the fall of the Kaiserreich, as the civilian government eventually overthrew the Kaiser and negotiated the surrender of Germany.  

Hitler, a soldier in the trenches and thus not starving, was among many of the German army who felt the civilians had betrayed them, leading to the “Stabbed in the Back” myth.  One of the big right wing talking points after WWI was that “we could have won the war, if only we had killed all useless mouths, or “useless eaters”, Lebensunweertes Leben.  Specifically the disabled, though this theory would also be applied to a lesser extent to Jews, Roma, Homosexuals, Slavs, and leftists.  The term used was basically “Life unworthy of life” and the idea was that the weak Kaiser government should have killed all the ‘worthless” people so that Germany could have won the war, and Hitler’s government used this to justify their own extermination of the mentally ill, the idea was faced with starvation, Germany should have made the “difficult choice” to kill the weak for the strong to survive.  

(I hate this fucking story.)  

   Now obviously this world view is immoral but its also....wrong.  The fact is, even if Germany had killed all of the disabled, they would have lost the war anyways, its not like the disabled were using up oil and bullets that would have otherwise gone to the front, nor would it have fixed Germany’s manpower shortage or prevented the US from entering the war.  The conspiracy, like most conspiracy theories, came about because German soldiers didn’t want to face an uncomfortable truth.  That they had suffered, sacrificed, and fought heroically in a war they never had much chance of winning and all of their pain was in vain. The Useless Eater’s theory was just wrong, it was actively incorrect. 

   Now how does that relate to Thanos?  See I am not calling Thanos a Nazi, unlike Hitler or Malthus, Thanos isn’t targeting any one group, he isn’t saying “We need to kill the Irish, Catholics, Jews or disabled to survive” he is applying that same sort of Life Boat morality in a way real life advocates of it never do, because he is including his own empire and family within the category of “those who can be disposed of”  Thanos is looking at a whole vein of right wing thinking which has always existed as a cover for their real policies and taking it at face value and applying it to its own logical extreme, and there could be value in a character like that but...why is Thanos like this?  Why is he mindlessly accepting stupid theories he really should be smart enough to just dismiss this nonsense.  

And that lead to my larger issue with Infinity Wars, that I don’t think Disney realizes that Malthus was just morally wrong, but was factually wrong.  The conflict is presented as if Thanos’ ideas have merit, and so Thanos is presented as a smart guy who lacks empathy, while the actual problem is that he is incorrect.  And it fits the sort of “Status Que” feel of the MCU, where the Super Heroes are mostly preventing a worse future rather than building their own (Black Panther is the exception to this) 

(cough)

*That number is actually really disputed, there are some that put the number as low as 300,000 so don’t take that as the final word.  I tend to assume higher numbers because I don’t want to underscore the death of civilians, but this is not uncontested.  

[everlarkingjoshifer]

Trump signed an executive order to abolish what he did....

I don’t normally come in here to post long political pieces. However, after the disgusting comments that I’ve read on social media as Democrats held a press conference to speak about children being ripped apart from their parents at the border, is more than I can take. So, because I am pretty fucking annoyed with all the baseless accusations, and major misinformation I would like to dispel erroneous conclusions along with the comments I have been seeing on social media.

Immigrants are taking our jobs!

No Becky, they’re not. Immigrants are bringing in jobs and taking the low wage, often dangerous and non-union jobs that YOU don’t want to take. How about you go pick those strawberries in the blazing heat for as little as 6$ an hour, doesn’t sound very appealing right? So if it’s not good enough for you because you want a cushy job, what makes you think Immigrants want to do it too? They don’t, but they’re so desperate to make a living that they’re willing to do anything so long as they can provide a better future for their own families, something you can easily understand. As a matter of fact, while you enjoy your burrito know that none of it would be possible if it wasn’t for an immigrant who brought in their culture and food to enrich our country. Yeah, that big old Mexican franchised fast food joint? Would not have existed for your high school kids to work at, so while your sitting on your ass enjoying someone else’s culture, know that none of it 

would be possible without an immigrant.

Immigrants are taking our resources and our taxes pay for them to live here!

 Noooo, Immigrant individuals cannot ever receive federal based help such as SSI. They can’t even get health insurance. Some states do hand out some help to aid immigrants but it would only be something as small as being able to use the WIC program which is very limited. (I’ve used it when I had just given birth). As a matter of fact, white citizens are amongst the highest percentage who receive federal assistance and immigrant people pay INTO our social security and taxes without hope of ever getting that money back. If you want to talk about needlessly spending your money on immigrants then you should definitely be against the barbaric procedures that are happening right the hell now. There are companies profiting from your taxpayer money in order to house children that didn’t need to be housed in the first place. It’s all a big scam and those 1 % who don’t really need the money are making millions that you’re paying into JUST because you want to be a paranoid idiot. It’s a pretty simple concept actually, it’s called security theater. Except this theater is of the Third Reich.

They’re bringing in disease!

See, now you just sound like a Nazi, and come on, we’re not exactly one to speak about diseases when you’re refusing to vaccinate your fucking kid because of “big pharma, unfounded conspiracies, and autism”. Cry me a fucking river, Shania. The whole notion of disease comes out of fear of the unknown but we cannot throw a stone at someone else knowing we do the same. We won’t vaccinate and now measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, and many other diseases are on the rise because you’d rather let your kid die than have autism, which by the way has been dispelled at every turn by various scientists.

Obama/ Bush administration were the ones who implemented the law of child separation. 

Oh Brandon, you xenophobic dick. First of all the Obama and Bush administration NEVER placed an order of removal between the parents and their children. What is true is that there is no law saying these current atrocities have to be carried out. Crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor that can get you jailed for up to 20 days or so and then you’re automatically sent to your country of origin. The immigrant parents who are caught with their children are never separated from them and there are no real lasting repercussions. If I was to take your reasoning into account then that would mean people who have had a DUI, or those who have been arrested for public disturbance should have their children taken away as well? Secondly, when the Obama administration implemented certain facilities to house kids it was due to an immense influx of unaccompanied minors who were immigrating to the USA by their damn selves. Most, of these children, were from Central America and were not deemed a threat to the nation after very careful vetting. These kids ranged between the ages of 12-17 years old and they were TEMPORARILY housed or often placed in foster homes with other immigrant adults till the Government could get a hold of their parent. Of course, everything wasn’t always handled perfectly as there were a ton of problems because sometimes the foster parents would refuse to answer their phones to various federally appointed counselors or even gave the Government the wrong information. Some of the facilities in which the children were housed were not as top notch as we expected and there were abuses happening at the time. But by that point, the children were really alone. They didn’t come in with their parents to protect them and sadly things didn’t always go the right way. The few kids who were separated from the adult were either trafficked here or were in deep danger of those adults that surrounded them

They should come here legally if they want to enter the country!

Kathy, you sad simpleton. Looking for Asylum is not against the law. Actually, the ports of entry for refugees are being blocked by ICE agents to deter them from reaching the United States legally. Usually, when an immigrant came to the port of entry looking for asylum they would have to bring proof which then they would be taken to a holding facility where their case was carefully reviewed and then after about a month or so they would either be allowed to stay or leave depending on the severity of their situation. Now, Looking for a way to come to the united states legally especially in countries that are extremely corrupt is very difficult. I myself applied for a visa in order to come to the united states twice and both times it was denied even though I was a 4-year-old child who was about to die of a severe heart condition. If it hadn’t been for a charitable company that had put their name behind me and petitioned for me to travel I would never have even set a foot in the United States and I would never be able to write this because I’d be dead by now. That’s how difficult everything is. The immigration system is so broken and instead of looking for a solution you shining citizens can only proclaim your distaste for a president that hasn’t been in office for over 2 years. Obama, Bush, or Clinton are no longer running the country. Take responsibility for the mistakes YOUR amoral president is making.

But MS-13! 

Ms-13 is a Mexican terrorist group that has been used as a cop out to paint innocent people who are Latino and Hispanic in an unflattering light. Gang members don’t really want to come here, their profit is not here. They are already immensely powerful in Mexico, why leave if things are good for them? It makes no sense and if again I were to take your reasoning into consideration I would say that other countries should never allow an American entry because they could be from the KKK. What makes sense is to have a racist, xenophobic, sexist president using something like gang violence in order to disenfranchise a group of people who don’t match his ideas for the perfect immigrant. Case in point, he very clearly said he would like Europeans (meaning Caucasians) to immigrate here (They wouldn’t. Europe is not perfect but at least it has universal health care among other things.) Mexicans, meaning all Latino because that how you all like to categorize us not realizing that Latinos are very diverse but those of us who are brown in complexion are rapists, killers, we’re infesting the country, we’re bringing disease, we’re animals among other ludicrous things Trump has said about the Latino community and for the record, not all immigrants are Mexican. Most at this point are from Central America. It's the same as not all Asians are Chinese, not all black people are thugs and not all white men who wear penny loafers are entitled pricks who call on their daddies to fix their problems. You see how stereotypes work? Those of you who applaud him while desecrating the flag by wearing it as a shirt or bandana and eating off of flag emblazoned paper plates like to think you’re somehow better and patriotic because you won the lottery by being born here. It’s as simple as that and if you want the immigrants to fix their problems back home maybe tell your government not to meddle in their democratic systems. It’s a cop-out to make yourselves feel better about the atrocities that are happening.  

Build the WALL! 

Yes Brayden, because a wall is gonna stop a bunch of plane riding immigrants to come to the United States. Newsflash, most people who end up here illegally came here legally through a visa but overstayed their welcome. Most of the people who came here otherwise, seek asylum, which is not illegal. There are actually very few people who cross the border illegally and stay here. No one wants to leave their life, culture, and language behind unless it’s absolutely necessary. The wall will stop nothing. Separating kids and now babies from their parents have not deterred the parents from continuing their long arduous trips to the United States. The wall only serves as a trophy for the GOP to pat themselves on the back and say what good little legislators they are. It’s a sign of oppression and a sign of unwelcoming. It’s as if I had a picture of Jesus in my living room but a satanic altar in the next room. It’s counterproductive and we’re the ones who are gonna pay for it. Mexico will pay for nothing even if Trump is holding these children hostages. The procedures are very eerily being carried out in much the same way the Nazi's carried out their atrocities. First, they block all potential legal ways for the marginalized group to carry out their mission legally.  Then, they used false rhetoric and fear monger civilians so that the marginalized group can be dehumanized and therefore easier for the government to carry out whatever it is they are planning without dissent. Then they sanitize the living conditions in which the immigrant group are living in. Finally, they discredit or all accounts that are cited by reputable resources in order to keep the masses confused and ignorant. It's exactly what happened when the Japanese were placed in internment camps.  

Immigrants will never assimilate to our way of life!

Say the people whose grandpappy’s and Nanas never learned English and continued to live their lives the way they did in Poland. English is not a designated American language. No language has been designated to the USA, you morons.

Immigrants should look for a way to legalize their situation.

Ok, how about you fork over $20,000 while working a minimum wage job that you can’t quit from no matter how bad it is because if you do there’s nowhere else for you to work at without breaking the Law. Immigration lawyers are some of the worst wolves in sheep’s clothing I have ever met. I spend about $10,000 just to get a green card while having nowhere else to live but at my Mother in law’s tiny ass house in the middle of the ghetto while pregnant. I slept on the floor with my husband because the place was so small we couldn’t even put a bed in there, much less afford one. When I was about to apply for citizenship my Lawyer up and left after I had paid her the money to file in the citizenship paperwork. She disappeared and I have no way of recuperating my paperwork from her. Thankfully no everything was lost but I am not an isolated incident, there are countless stories of people who have been duped by lawyers and there are more fast food joint in the USA than immigration courthouses. So you guys do the fucking math. It takes so much of you and so long for you to even reach the tip of what American citizens expect from you. 

They broke the law, therefore they should pay the consequences.

We break the law every single day Khayyley, it's not an exaggeration or even something that I'm making up. I live in Connecticut and lord do we have some ridiculous laws like, husbands who cannot kiss their wives on any Sunday. If a cyclist goes above 65 MPH they have be stopped by a police officer and we're not allowed to educate dogs. (lol, what?) Anyway, the point is we don't get citations, incarcerated or even have enforcement carried out for the most menial lawlessness so why should we punish these kids who have done nothing wrong? This used to be the country that was known for checks and balances, the country of separation of church and state. Somewhere along the way, we've lost ourselves and we've become the country of checks and cherry picking. The country that puts babies in cages and we don't allow the staff to offer any comfort. These are not "summer camps" and we shouldn't find a way to sanitize the word cage but we have gone so far off the deep end and our expectations for our leaders are so low that we may as well be licking the ground. These are kids who are screaming for their mothers and fathers who may never see them again just for committing the sin of being born brown, something that they obviously have no control over. It's a harrowing reality but their voices are falling on deaf ears as politicians use the bible to excuse their horrid laws as they smile because they're the ones all cozy with big fat paychecks provided by their citizens. We're duped into thinking that these current politicians have our best interest at heart when in actuality they don't. Just because an abusive parent says they care about you doesn't mean they actually do. The GOP is a cesspool of corrupt, self-serving, amoral group of people with Trump at the head.

 Our Lawmakers are making due with what they were handed.

How, exactly how have we been improving the country? The rich are getting richer while the poor still have to rely on governmental help that is slowly dwindling while those very same poor people have to deal with being called moochers. Our children are dying off at alarming rates because our government wants to continue catering to the NRA's demands as they go about spreading baseless lies and flimsy excuses for mass shootings. Our healthcare system is a fucking joke and we sit idly by as Men in power oppress our women because they don't want to bring a child into a world full of problems that cannot be easily fixed. We cater to our very own terrorists who use the bible in order to justify themselves and call it "freedom of speech" yet we call people color sons of bitches for simply daring to protest peacefully for the flagrant disenfranchisement of his fellow people. We slap the, what about isms and point fingers to others without realizing we're the ones putting them in those positions while simultaneously squashing the education system in order to keep future voters ignorant. Republicans can't be voted in if we have intellectuals willing to question their agendas. It's much easier to have dumb, compliant, narrow-minded morons in order for them to make that money. Can't you see what it is they're doing? They are dehumanizing these people and saying that they're all criminals and or will become criminals in the future so that the white elitists can feel alleviated of all culpability in order for them to be able to sell their soul to the administration that is quietly pocketing civilian's money. Money, that they say will go to charities but never do. It doesn't matter if these kids have television, air conditioners, or even a meal because they have been so traumatized by being ripped apart from their parents that even if they were being housed at the Ritz Carlton the practices would still be inhumane.  

But Trump signed the executive order, stop complaining already.

Wow Tammy, first of all, he didn't need to. Separating children from their parents is not a law, never has been. The separation of children who were accompanied by an adult usually happened if the child was found to have been a product of human trafficking, which by the way, has a very low percentage. Instead, the manner in which these kids are being handled now is more cause for worry because they can fall prey to actual human traffickers. Case in point, the over 1,000 children that were mysteriously lost and haven't been found yet and no one has any clue where or how they might have disappeared. It's insane for you to think that just because these kids are in these prison camps they're somehow being treated correctly. These children only see the light of day for 2 hours and the rest they spend it inside and security measures have been implemented to keep the child from escaping as if they were high-security inmates. They're being treated like prisoners and now they're being forcefully injected with psychiatric drugs in order to keep them from crying. I don't think I need to tell you about the long-term repercussions these drugs can have but I will anyway. It can cause obesity, adult onset diabetes, dizziness, listlessness, and are left incapacitated. Easy prey for any trafficker. it's callously barbaric. These kids are set up for a plethora of mental health problem that will never go away. This new executive order was unnecessary and Trump just needed to feel like a dictator because that's what he truly wants. He doesn't believe in a democracy. He values people like Stalin and Kim Jung Un and insults our allies (sorry Canada!). The paper he signed keeps families together yes, but at the cost of their freedom because they are to be kept in what I would guess to be newly built facilities that will most definitely be paid by us for an indefinite period of time as opposed to deporting them back to their countries after about 20 days. It'll be a real concentration camp and I wouldn't be surprised if gas chambers and fire pits begin to appear all over the United States and all Latino immigrants are rounded up regardless of whether they are legally here or not.

We should worry about our own citizens instead of immigrants who are only a distraction to our own problems. 

You're right up to a point. We should definitely worry about our citizens and maybe worry about our very own problems that plague our nation, yet we don't. We should be working towards implementing Gun control and worrying about human rights abuses towards people of color, but we don't. Instead, we blame those very people that are being needlessly maligned because we'd rather think it's their fault as opposed to us saying that we fucked up, that we cannot do enough to help our own people. Immigrants aren't looking to distract us from our own problems but the GOP sure is using that scapegoat in order to confuse us and turn us into megalomaniacs who claim to care for this country while rationalizing the heinous laws that this administration is implementing. Understand that just because I sympathize with the plight of immigration it doesn't negate my love or even my worries for the problems that are in my country. I love this country and I'm thankful to this country for all its wonderful opportunities. I believe we can be better and I don't think we're perfect but we're definitely capable of being great indeed. It was before and I'm sure we can be now and in the future.

   Listen, all I’m trying to really say is that the things that are happening are beyond horrible and at such an alarming speed that I am scared for the future of my country. This president is giving a pathway for all the fascists to wave their flag and complain about how they suffer at the cost of people they refuse to understand or even get to know. It's giving way for racists to be open about their disgusting assumptions by calling it honesty, and "well I'm just telling it like it is, and everyone else was thinking it, anyway". 

Just like President Snow from the Hunger Games, Trump is using children to shield himself and get what he wants. This is no longer a, “I wonder what a dystopian future would be like.” situation we are there already. This is the Handmaid’s Tale. This the Hunger Games. This is Nazi Germany, and the trail of tears coming to fruition all over again and we’re allowing it. So, come November if you do not vote blue and later regret not doing so then it will be entirely your fault that this once great country will crumble and burn to the ground with only the ashes to left as a reminder of what it once was. Our founding fathers would ashamed of us and we should too. Have a little humanity and compassion but if you're not capable of that, at least know that your stance will follow not just you but your entire lineage till the end of time just like the Nazi regime was because you are most definitely on the wrong side of history.

[jchoneandonly]

Alright, let's give this person an actual reason to tell me to kill myself since they didn't mention anything. (revealing the infinite big brain this person has already)

I have yet to see publicly managed anything work very well. The post office is a shitty mail delivery service, public parks are often dirty and poorly kept. Even national parks are not particularly well kept. This is because the government has absolutely zero motivation to provide good services to you because they can just hold you at gunpoint and take the money they want and they can also just print money (which causes inflation and kills the purchasing power of your money in the bank as well) this is something that has gone rampant in any socialist countries that have existed. Venezuela is doing it, Russia is doing it, nazi Germany did it (in fact people made the German money into a multi tool like toilet paper and wallpaper because it was worth less than those things)

Oh wait but that wasn't real socialism was it? Lol

Yes. It was. Back to the point. The government has no incentive to give you a good product while a private company does. The for profit model is all around better for the parks and from what you've said they're still free to use.

Also, you have no citations backing up the speculation you've made so far. Sources or I'm just gonna dismiss it without evidence. It would be irrational to limit time or photography for a park. Except they do that kind of shit in mount Rushmore which is a public place... Funny that.

I don't see any problem with keeping homeless people off the street and promoting them to find a shelter or alternatively to figure out how to fix their predicament. Although the spikes may be a little much, I understand also that they're trying to keep people safer and prevent too much trouble with homeless people trying to sleep in places where it's not a good idea. This can protect both the people who might be vulnerable to any diseases said homeless persons might be carrying as well as protecting the homeless people from idiots who believe they have the right to harm them for no reason. I think that it would also help if 1, we made welfare into a temporary hand to help people up instead of a career choice that forces you to stay in it and 2, if we stopped letting in illegal immigrants who take jobs these people would benefit from. Is the approach you show kinda harsh? Yes. It is. But if we didn't let socialist idiots like yourself run things we would have less need for these design choices in the first place. Nobody cares about the "type" of person using the areas, they care about how it's being used. It keeps me from sleeping there just as much as anyone else.

Ah. That cute little cartoon of yours is pretty funny actually. It undermines your point because that she'd for most intents and purposes is better than the tree. That said, that cartoon is also wrong about how capitalism works. 1, the guy would have cut down one of his own tree to make that shed. The guy wouldn't just cut down someone's tree and build them a shed unless they specifically asked.

Capitalism has raised more people out of poverty than any other system out there. You can go from homeless to a ceo in a proper capitalist economy because your past and your class are irrelevant to your ability to do the job. Also, in a capitalist system there is no "controlling class" because literally everyone controls at least some capital be it their labor or artistic talent.

Honestly, freedom is more important than equality (yes I know the socialist endgame is a form of freedom, but it's a lot like solar power, it can do great things as long as the ideal is not centralized to a government or power and all participation is voluntary) and capitalism is the best way to attain both. I understand you think I'm just some evil guy in an office or something. I'm not evil and I wish I had an office with a mahogany desk but I'm not. I'm just another guy. I just understand that the government only wants power, and the communist goal you have will only make a gigantic power hungry government with unlimited fuel for expansion. Communism and socialism have never been successful and probably never will. Capitalism has worked wonders and is only hampered by government interference (see the United States for an example).

If you want to see homelessness fixed, giving them free stuff will not give them anything but a temporary hit that will leave them dependent on your kindness. It's the metaphor "give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish, and he will never be hungry again" in action.

Public Space Privatization and Hostile Architecture

For the past few years there has been a troubling trend in how urban designers decide to deal with public spaces, in this post I want to go over what these things are and what they mean.

The first thing I want to go over that’s been becoming more common is the concept of “Privately Owned Public Spaces.” These space are what we would recognize as being public, such as plazas, parks, or sidewalks but have been sold through privatization measures to companies and businesses. This is done so that places that should be for public use can to transformed in a way for the owner to profit, or to create a space that is specific to what they want. Thus this is forcing what they want onto others by removing the universal use of public spaces. For example, in places with cafes or restaurants these businesses could buy the public area and remove the seating around them, only allowing paying customers to use the seating in their businesses. In this way companies can transform public spaces into ones that poses no threat to them, and by extension make that public space less useful to people. In another example these “public” spaces can have strict rules, such as no photography, not being allowed to stay for a certain amount of time, and not being able to use the space in a way that does not financially benefit the owner. Since this is a privatized and commercialized mindset anything that isn’t making money is deemed an unnecessary expense, and thus not allowed.

In public spaces that are still being made to be used by the public though, a new idea of what these spaces should be has taken root. This idea is that these spaces should be made for a very specific purpose and otherwise hostile to the user. An example of this is a recent trend to make “benches” that vaguely fulfil the idea that a resting spot should be available, while at the same time strictly enforce the idea that this is a temporary place and you aren’t supposed to stay. This can be seen in objects such as “leaning benches” that just give people a place to lean instead of actually sit, or specifically designing beaches to be uncomfortable by adding spacers or narrow “arm rests” that are too short to be used. All these are methods to make public spaces less a place of gathering and meeting and instead a transitional place that actively discourages long term use.

This all ties into the concept that goes by many different names, but can be summarized in the idea of “Hostile Architecture.” This is a design philosophy that seeks to make the design of public spaces hostile to its users, or more specifically to discourage usage that is not approved of by the owner. In this way I think Hostile Architecture goes against the very idea of a public space, IE a space that the public can use in a way they see fit. This idea is embodied in the creation of, and response by, the creators of, the Camden bench. This bench was specifically designed in a way that it was only supposed to be used a certain way, and the creators even try to defend it by saying that “[Because] there is no ‘correct’ way to sit on it… it becomes a far more inclusive seat encouraging social interaction.” This notion that they are somehow being creative and helping people by making an uncomfortable bench that isn’t as good as a normal bench by any measure of the imagination, is a perfect example of how this was specifically created as a hostile object. The creators are trying to redefine something that is explicitly negative as something that is somehow a positive because of the connotations of making something explicitly negative means.

But, one of their other responses is an even better look into how this mentality works, “Homelessness should never be tolerated in any society and if we start designing in to accommodate homeless then we have totally failed as a society.“ This brings up one the major points I have about Hostile Architecture, and that is its function to hide problems in society. By creating hostile public spaces it doesn’t fix crime, drug use, violence, and homelessness like the creators of this stuff would have you believe. Instead all this does is make it so problems are less visible on the surface because it’s not as convenient to do them in public anymore. People don’t just stop being homeless because you design benches they can’t sleep on, or put down spikes so they can’t stay somewhere that’s safe. These are problems with society that can not be fixed by commercializing public spaces at the whims of a profit seeking owner, or by making them unusable by anyone but the “right” kind of person.

All of this ties back to one central source. Privatization only helps the wealthy that own the land and helps them to create a situation where they get more money. And ignoring these social problems only creates a situation where taxes to fund social help can be cut because the public perception can be that it’s not really a problem. All of this only benefits one group of people, and that is the upper class that control almost all of the money. By removing things people can use for free they are creating a system where they can be relied on more and more, and people are required to pay for what used to be cheap or even free. Once again I will say this, in the capitalist system there is no room for anything that does not directly benefit the people that own and control society. They will continue to sink themselves into any part of society we let them in, and only by understanding these motives and reasonings can there be any resistance against it.

For something similar, here’s something I wrote about common land.

(Hey thanks for reading, please remember to reblog to help spread the word, and to follow for more stuff. Have a great day comrades!)

[bendthetrendshop]

I Am His Eyes He Is My Wings I Am His Voice He Is My Spirit I Am His Wife He Is My Guardian Angel Butterfly T-Shirt

The spread of this disease count of those briefly but the establishment of travel restrictions aggressive quarantine effort of Americans there returning declaration of public health emergency in establishing the White House Corona task force all reflective urgency that the president has brought to a I Am His Eyes He Is My Wings I Am His Voice He Is My Spirit I Am His Wife He Is My Guardian Angel Butterfly T-Shirt whole of government approach as a former governor from the state where the first mers case emerged in 2014 I know full well the importance of presidential leadership the importance of administration leadership and the vital role of partnerships estate and local governments and health authorities in responding to the potential threat of dangerous infectious diseases and I I look forward missed president to a serving in this role bringing together of all the members of the Corona task force that you’ve established HHS CDC DHS the department of transportation and state that this team has been at your direction as president meeting every day since it was established that my role will be to continue to bring that team. Can this is something I came to understand the words mumbling on the degeneracy these people really need us to we allow it to listen to you understand the words you speak it subtitled up all around in our community when it comes to killing one control of you also want to show you young people how to deal take this thing alive because the record labels out he showed his close beside any kind of deal really well body do that is the reason we manifest old man about his soul to value his own boundariesand was money coming on music alters hospital to putting out there though lot of people are talented out here with music video tells you killing twoand a black full video talk about that you want to do do a drive will reclaim some may make about that doing drive out all the black people to clean until those four years so you know artistic expression is always talking about here also take responsibility later Dillman response ability to get mad at me because I’m saying this five goal I’m good with that Rob lifeboats said the woman the behavior we can do that we will need to address a self hate that is not a issue global self hatred why do you hate your brother sister so much why would they ask you do you have the collective no black person enslaved you know black person destroyed the tiles you built no black person wrongly imprisoned you know black person bug did the things of these few have done a youand you know he had a smoke for them but any little thing a black person tell you you rented to Teddy head off tasting was somebody blackness some good UK standard you angry jealous why you apply also like everybody else yes we all community but we also individual people together make proper choices while salesand we make mistakes okay make mistakes is turn a life around to fix it is not a breath in your body to turn your life around we also have a self hate Africans talk to you will also pay over to you know I’m right about that people South Africa Zimbabwe is coming around to do is limit talk about this you will find you only want try to be left Delta doing that but this is all black people what you doing that Allah self hate like this because you not my tribe best fit what tribe did you try a line or a new Francis to run the 14 nations the Chinese things like Bozeman remains well going to tryand get some some songs also not all America to try Donald us was a way to make the whole system I for that here before that over there you stop the self hate we know another note Dallas cable we remember that this talk will talk about here is about to unify globally stop the tribe grab as we try here to Christian home was a life is on everything else with a black call yourself don’t know if you unify globally put aside the tribalism is not getting is nowhere best that have so little not self hate you may not like me cool as far you may know I’m a personnel you may know I’m always putting me unify on the fact that we black people we disable globally was oblivious of the globally the scholar what is can we fix our issuesand problems globally as as as a unit do we do that only we can we capable what will where the cable also massively done I wentand I would also going to waste my time talking self hate got go Esco ammonia will be facilitating a man be roughly was negative will be around people to want to destroy the black people willing word of physically I don’t do that together tap into old jealousyand envy has stopped you have no reason to be Josie envious of someone in the same position as you globally want you should be Josie envious of that to everything from you took your hoarder labor baby always people that you should be angry about jealous about the same goes in the way they got it when I got editing they can barely keep it. You have to learn what it means to be a barrier breaker yourself in this job you’re about to take America’s first second gentleman and all their although they’re not with us here today to thank Ellen Cole as well I’m a chance to speak to Doug’s mom and dad and Ellen Cole and the really get our kids together let them know what what’s coming hard my grandchildren are about the age of the their children got to speak my campaigns I’ve been a family affair campaign to run so got some news for you are all by is the best part even an honorary buying for quite some time you know I came first to know was through our son bow by their friends they served as the same time it took the same big they took on the same big fights together California bow here in Delaware big fights helped change the entire country I know how much bow respected and her work in that matter a lot to me to be honest with you as I made this decision so now we need to get to work playing this nation out of these crises we find ourselves getting our economy back on track uniting this nation and yes winning the battle for the soul of America my fellow Americans limited use to you for the first time your next vice president nine states Harris floors your old telling you can’t me incredibly honored to ready to less competitive gel with the person to lead us forward’s cell phone of all the relic before the sacrifice determination today is a comment as reoccurrence of transfer everything we can economy and health children the kind of country we live in all online where we the worst public health sensory management plan the worst economic Great Depression a little reckoning with races and has brought coloration of constant to the streets of our country than finding out the leaders of life found people who every challenge we face even more difficult to sign we failed Donald 83 to better sell sell now will be an incredible first lady grateful great height of the extended family and I received

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Rapidly rapidly to say not because then the the media the so called so called media mainstream media will say he said it time I was a I Am His Eyes He Is My Wings I Am His Voice He Is My Spirit I Am His Wife He Is My Guardian Angel Butterfly T-Shirt kinds could have a chemist at time if you don’t hit it they’ll say so I don’t talk about and but I will say that there’s been tremendous progress made over the last month or this week will only a few days ago I will tell you he sounded incredible I was actually surprised at the be like Donald Heller he was ready to like I could I’m very surprised at this is like the old Boris tremendous energy tremendous drive I was very surprised as he call me almost pretty close to where when he got out of the hospital is doing great things to use a sharp and energetic pre incredible these incredible guys a friend of ours and and a friend of mine is our country he loves his country a lot but he loves our country respects our country and they lucky to have them over there place you reach out directly about possible portrayal medical I hope you are well Kaylee are you in the near war with. Democratic Party is also the third anniversary of that terrible day in Charlottesville remember what it felt like to see those neo Nazis close your eyes those Klansmen white supremacist coming out of fields carrying lighted torches faces contorted bulging veins point in the streets of historic American city spewing the same somatic bile we heard Hitler’s Germany in. People suffering joe’s regular aim of the lifeguard along with the black lifeguard is forcing you and we became friends gave me since no learning rights click off the job and got me on the popular war he is solidly republican to joe’s campaign in gamelan function no money or or coffee by my office he was very articulate on the issues for people to say not just noise what can I do to help delaware and a gala ball I don’t like 29 they release soon it was clear he decided not to be a center boys need me too much walk away 73 like to like mass hubert humphrey fritz hollings you know convinced resistant to stay six months remembered to stay six months allow could not have been gems senate turned out to be a wonderful place for him he a real gift for bringing people together three forged rl to join the circle for everything is always a only out it’s hard to glean how ever present lives yes believes great to be my father is a toward himself is going to on mother bravely resides someday will be some the way survived See Other Shirt: September Girls Are Here Only For The Candy Halloween T Shirt

[pepperstrawberry]

Fuck you and your anti-Americanism, God bless America you filthy commie

I debated for a few minutes when I woke whether I would just delete this or not… But really I feel like, just this once, I’m going to address the garbage fire of an ‘ask’ that this is.

NOTE: any further I get like this will be auto erased. I will do this only once.

Lets start simple, shall we? “Anti-American. No wait ‘AmericanISM’. Something right there tips me toward beliving your are some alt-right little shit coward that doesn’t grasp the difference between what a country could be and the mess it currently is (and to some extent has always been).

Look, I’m not going to go into every little detail of how screwed up this country is. First, I’m not a historian. Nor am I an economist. And further, I’m not much of a freedom fighter.

What I do know is that Capitalism is garbage. EA is a great example of that, how we use undocumented immigrants and prisoners for what is effectively slave labor is an example of that. How no one can afford to live on their own on minimum wage is an example of that. Capitalism allows for lobbyist to work for corporations, for those corporations to be considered ‘people’, literally buying votes.

Capitalism is what made it so that instead of adding to what the government is giving schools, allows officials to move around monies when a corporation actually does give, like in the example of the Lotto giving a rather decent chunk of it’s money to schools. It’s a big deal always talked about here in California… but even that was just a way to make it so that the lotto was seen as a good thing, rather then a predatory practice of gambling it is.

But Capitalism isn’t the only evil in America. It just helps to feed and give power to the other issues here. Racism, Fascism, literal Nazis. America has had a horrible history, if we are being honest. From giving any sense of ‘heroism’ to actual traitors in the form of Confederates getting statues made in their honor AFTER the civil war (which is the truely anti-american thing if you really actually think about it. And no ‘fighting for states rights’ and ‘heritage’ are bullshit if you don’t know WHAT rights they were fighting for or what the heritage was. It was racism and slavery. yes, the north had it’s own problems, but rather then say ‘hey, they have slaves too’ it’s ‘we what to keep ours’. Wrong fight. Not something I respect at all) to actually creating our own enemies (you do realize we CREATED Saddam Hussein, right?)

And that is where I come back to “AmericanISM”. That word right there tells me potentially a lot of this nonny. You are very likely the ‘don’t like it, leave’ type of ‘american’. The kid that believes so much in the military without considering the many, many, many terrible things our military has done (i respect individual soldiers, NOT the military at large, just for the record). While I wouldn’t be surprised if you are a woman, or of color, I could easly bet money you are a white dude that doesn’t think critically of the world around you, lapping up the kind of garbage fed to us since childhood from terrible, lowest bidder learning materials, government agendas, and corporate news bullshit. You likely have pride in your love of this country -as is- and the twisted history you have been led to believe, or maybe even the real history and the belief that you are somehow better then everyone else then any actual love for what American CAN BE.

Even our forefathers knew America wasn’t perfect, that their own views were skewed to at least some extent. Where they all good folk, not really, but they understood that. That is why the constitution can be amended, fixed, rebuilt and made to change with the times. But folks into ‘americanISM’ don’t want change unless it specifically benifits their pathetic world view.

America is not the best country. But we have a dream.America is not the safest country, but we can learnAmerica is not the healthiest country, and that needs to change.

I believe in the potential that was created when America was founded. I believe in the idea, the dream of place where humanity can work together and be proud of what they accomplished together.

I believe in the potential that America can be. I am not Anti-American.

I am Anti-AmericanISM. I am anti-capitalist, anti-alt-right, anti-corporate, I am against racism, ableism, discrimination, and intolerance. I am also pro-consumer, and that means being against getting nickle and dimed to death, both on the micro level (micro transactions in full priced games) and in the macro level (the bullshit of how much rent can be just charged. like seriously, the housing in america sucks)

But don’t take that to mean I am tolerant of assholes and shitstains like the garbage fire of a waste of human flesh we have to call our ‘president’.

AmericanISM is nationalism. And nationalism doesn’t care for the people.Capitalism doesn’t care for the people either. It cares for the bottom line.

And I don’t care to believe that what we were force fed in schools and through propaganda is correct. Is Communism the answer? Well, the more I learn about it, the more surprising the history seems to be. But Communism itself may not be the answer, but some form of socialism IS.

And no, we already have some in America. Public schools, infrastructure, police, firefighters, and several other things are already paid for by our tax money. That IS socialism. Us, all together, pitching our cash to make a place better. I am anti-privatizing is some cases. Hospitals shouldn’t be privatized, and our officials shouldn’t be paid so damn much for doing so fucking little for the american people.

This is who I am. God Bless America indeed. But if you think America, as is, should be some how sanctified and raised on some fucking pedestal, you are not paying any attention and IN FACT hate what America can actually be.

I want you, for a second to consider the statue of liberty. Consider what she represents. Who made her, why, what does she have to say, and how that attitude is completely ignored by people like our president.

===========

Okay. Got that out of my system a bit. So a little cleaning up before I move on to better things.

First: NO, I will not entertain any more asks like this. Every single one I get from here on out will be on my auto delete list. More so when on Nonny. I won’t entertain this attitude normally (debating politics is one thing, but starting with ‘fuck you’ and mudslinging out the gate, fuck off) off nonny, I have zero respect for cowards like this guy.

Second: I’m not here to debate my beliefs or views. I’m trying to move more and more of my more politically charged posts to my political blog. Mind you, anything that deals with LGBT will still be reblogged here rather often when it comes up.

Third, I’m much like America in my examples. If I say anything racist, ablist, or in anyway discriminatory, let me know. I want to learn to be a better person. (oh yeah, and if you think ‘you are discrimiating against alt-right/nazis’ is something to discuss with me, sorry, but I don’t argue with nazis. AT ALL. History has already proven there is no discussion to be had. Go fuck off.)

Fourth, I will not be responding to anything from this post. Not because there isn’t a good debate here. I’m sure there is, but because I am really no the one to have a debate. I rarely can speak that well, and am absolutely terrible with reaction posts in this aspect. Anytime you saw me speak well and with any clarity was a rare moment of solid confidence from me. Often I, like many others, will devolve, get off track, and over all just make the argument worse. So feel free to do whatever, just realize that I will likely not respond to this post, or at least not give you the answers you hope to have.

This post was me just clarifying things based on a garbage person’s attempt to get some rise out of me. Well, I indulged you once. and just this once. Hope you liked it.

[that-redhaired-guy]

Thoughts on Gun Control

I wouldn’t consider myself a very intelligent person. In fact there’s quite a few things I am ignorant of. Politics and government are some of those things. So I’m sure most of what I am about to say can easily just be written off as “someone who has no clue what they are talking about.” So be it.

It’s quite discouraging the way our country is so divided today. I realize that with every generation there was a generation of people before them saying how terrible kids today are. I also realize that for as long as America has been a country, and for most of humanity in general, there has been a difference of opinions, which is why our founding fathers wanted a democracy. So each opinion could be voiced.

I think, however, that instead of fighting they probably envisioned a nation of people who would come together and find an agreeable solution. That’s not happening though. Every day it seems like more and more people are sticking their fingers in their ears and just screaming “naner naner boo boo” at even the hint that someone has a different opinion than they do.

Social media has created a world where we are more connected than any time before, and it has also given each person a platform to preach their own gospel. (Like me right now. Yes I can see the irony.) Through the internet people are connecting to more people who share their own opinions. This is natural, no one likes being wrong. Curated social media has allowed people to block out and oppose anyone who disagrees with their world view. Instead of opening doors to new cultures and ideas, people are clinging closer and closer to their own beliefs and creating their own little bubbles.

What brought all of this to my mind is the recent March for Our Lives that was held by students around the country. The opinions on this march are so polarized. Groups of “conservatives” are calling the students idiots and saying they have no idea what they’re marching for while the opposite is praising them.

I’m biased in this as I am on the side of the students. However, I am willing to see the other side of the argument. Which is what we need in this country. People sitting down and discussing both sides and coming together and saying “Hey, you made some good points. I may not agree with all of them but I think we can come together and work something out.” However, I don’t see that happening and honestly, people on both the right and the left are not willing to concede.

This is my opinion, but I think instead of calling these students idiots people should be saying “Hey this sucks that we live in a world where kids can’t go to school and be safe anymore.” Mass school shootings aside, look at inner city schools and how they have to have metal detectors just to make sure kids aren’t bringing weapons in. I think it’s safe to say we have a problem in this country and the ones facing it have a right to express their opinion on it.

Also, quick aside, just because the generation of young people today didn’t grow up during the depression doesn’t mean they’re soft. It just means their struggles are different and relative to the times they are growing up in.

Anyway, let me try and finally make my point. My point is that in order to actually fix the problems in this country people need to stop writing off anything that goes against their own beliefs and come together to seek a solution. The particular solution I feel like writing about right now is gun control, and how it means something different for both sides.

I see people expressing opinions about guns that make it seem like we live back during colonial times or the old west when there were no laws and it was every man for himself. The conservatives seems to think that any amount of gun control will eventually lead to a society where firearms are completely outlawed and the second amendment will go away. There are those who are liberal who feel like all guns are dangerous in the hands of citizens and that those who obtained their firearms legal are just as dangerous as those who didn’t. I think the reality of the situation is somewhere in the middle.

Gun control is defiantly part of the solution to fixing the gun violence we experience in America. No, it’s not going to fix everything and prevent every crime, but its a start. Just ensuring that regulations that are already in place, like waiting a few days before you can take your gun home, are practiced will probably deter crimes of passion committed with guns. 

I also know that “just because it’s a law doesn’t mean that criminals will follow it.” Yeah that’s true, but I think that someone who is wanting to commit a crime will at least be delayed when they have to turn to the “black market” to get their guns. While mass shootings like the one in Vegas or Orlando may not have been totally stopped by gun control, there are plenty of smaller gun crimes that could be curbed with it.

What I don’t mean by gun control however is taking away the second amendment and disarming all citizens. I firmly believe in the second amendment. I own firearms and I firmly believe that other law abiding citizens should be able to own them too. Me personally, I’m willing to give up being able to buy a gun and take it home the same day, or putting it on a registry list, or having to have a permit that says I’m mentally competent if it means that more people are safe in the long run.

And like I’ve said up higher I realize that gun control is not a fix all solution. With the amount of illegal firearms already in use in the U.S.A. it’s going to take a dedicated, brave, and organized police force to help get them off the streets and make cities safer. It’s also going to take a cultural paradigm shift away from violence as well. So gun control is defiantly just a small part of a larger more complex solution, but part of it none the less.

 I also realize that people are concerned that any control of firearms would eventually lead to more strict gun laws, or even outlawing them entirely. I think it’s a slippery slope whenever people compare wanting gun control to nazi Germany disarming its citizens however. If I’m wrong and gun control does lead to an eventual disarmament of american citizens, then I will be the first to admit it and stand in arms against big brother to atone to the second amendment gods.

Changing directions a bit, school shootings seem to be the topic these discussions are revolving around so I want to say something else about them while I’m writing. I honestly don’t think gun control would have much affect on stopping school shootings. They’re a different type of mass shooting than the ones in Orlando and Las Vegas.

I think it would be a start, but I think school shootings are becoming more common because, since Columbine, the idea of a student shooting other students in schools has…entered the zeitgeist so to speak. These kids who commit these heinous acts are willing to take it that far because people before them have taken it that far.

Now, like I said above, I’m ignorant on many of the facts of the school shootings that happened since Colombine. I don’t know how the students who committed them got the guns. I don’t know how much, if any, warning signs there were before hand or really anything like that. So I don’t want to comment on how they should be prevented.

I do believe that we need to elect people who are willing to find a solution though, even at a local level with school superintendents. I think with every shooting that happens there is going to be another kid out there who sees about it on the news and thinks that could be the solution they’ve been looking for.

I know this has been a really rambling post, but like always I see these thing people are complaining about and they’re treating them like there should be a one aspect fix to the problem. Gun violence in America is not a problem that has just one solution but if we keep bickering about gun control and the second amendment then we will never come to a solution.

[lovehaswonangelnumbers]

New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/july-2019-energy-reportup-the-down-escalator/

July 2019 Energy Report~Up the Down Escalator

July 2019 Energy Report~Up the Down Escalator

By Jennifer Hoffman 

After 6 months of solid work and effort, I am looking forward to a second half of reward and blessings. But I know enough about energy work to know that rewards are not always fun and exciting and often involve a lot of additional effort, and they sometimes arrive disguised as challenges. However, in a month with 2 eclipses, a Mercury retrograde, and rare aspects that involve all of the planets and in the midst of a huge collective awakening, this should be a very exciting month indeed. The theme for July is Karma Revisited and Up the Down Escalator. It’s going to be a month with a lot of potential for transformation and new directions but first we have to cover old ground to decide whether we are going to make new choices or repeat old patterns.

The theme for July is ‘Up the Down Escalator’ as it’s a month where we face the temptation to stay in the past versus moving forward into the present, without re-hashing the energy of the past in our daily lives, repeating past karmic lessons, and trying to undo what cannot be undone. Have you ever tried to walk up the down escalator – I have and it isn’t easy to do. The escalator is traveling down as you’re trying to walk up and you have to fight against the motion of the escalator and gravity to make progress. The key to doing it is to run up the escalator faster than it is moving down…

The secondary July theme is ‘Karma Revisited’ and it involves our old friend, the karma wheel. Now karma wheel moves backwards, not forwards, and its job is to pull us backwards into the past so we can choose whether we’ll succumb to the temptation of trying to fix the past, get vindication, and heal our wounds by repeating the past until we get the outcome that satisfies our ego.

We want to get a different outcome for our own reasons, usually to help us overcome the trauma of that situation across this and other lifetimes. But the entire karma cycle process is in place to help us choose whether we will continue to repeat the karma or re-vibe our energy field with a higher frequency so we can move forward, away from the karmic cycles and into a new field of potential. That is our other choice, to end the karma and create a different outcome in that circumstance without getting any vindication, apology, or sense of accomplishment other than that which comes with realizing that we have the power to end karma but we do not have the power to change someone else’s behavior or beliefs.

This is the karmic wheel in action and every journey is collection of choices to replace the energy of the past with new potentials for the present, a relentless push/pull between hoping for the best results for our regrets or ‘letting bygones go on by’ and setting an intention for new potentials.

This is a very busy month on all energy levels. The big energy event this month is the two eclipses and remember, we had two eclipses in January, a powerful beginning to 2019 and those are activated at the beginning of July. So July has a double eclipse effect! The January eclipses are brought forward again in July to add to the effects of July’s eclipses.

While eclipses are part of solar and lunar events that happen on an annual basis, they are also profound portals into new energies that are access points for powerful energy downloads. During an eclipse we get to see the transition from dark to light in the space of a few minutes. Isn’t that what we are experiencing now, the journey from dark to light? We begin with the light, it goes dark, and then the light reappears – light always overcomes the darkness and as I have said ‘Light makes the darkness irrelevant.’ You may want to keep that in mind this month.

Everyone has been talking about the July 2 eclipse because it is the first total solar eclipse since August 21, 2017 which crossed the continental US. What was going on in the US at that time? And more importantly, what was the degree of the eclipse? It was 29 Leo and do you remember what I wrote in that month’s energy report?

Here it is: “The August 21, 2017 eclipse, at 29 Leo, is getting the most attention because its path crosses the North American continent. Many people will be traveling to see the eclipse and watch as it happens. For everyone born with natal Pluto in late Leo, this covers those born from around 1955 to 1962, which is also the generation with strong Indigo energy, this eclipse is exactly on your natal Pluto, signifying transformation at very profound levels.”

Interestingly enough, it is also the natal Pluto degree of government agencies like the CIA and FBI and the surveillance, human testing, and the beginnings of the expansion of Nazi MKUltra energy control technology in the US and around the world. I predict that we’re going to see some ugly truths about these agencies and their activities during the months following the August 21 eclipse and maybe even their very dramatic takedown or removal of a lot of their power. They’re impacted by the 5D energies too and eclipse effects last at least 6 months.”

And we’re seeing a lot of investigation into abuse of power in these organizations right now so is this their end? A lot of things can end during an eclipse cycle, so we’ll have to see.

The second eclipse (they come in pairs) is on July 17 and it’s in Capricorn (same as the first eclipse on January 6) – and lighting up the entire body of planets again and adding another layer to the buildup that lasts the rest of the year until the January 2020 Saturn/Pluto conjunction in Capricorn.

Is it getting exciting yet?

Then we have Mercury retrograde starting on July 6 but the shadow period began June 28. It will be retrograde all month and the shadow period ends August 12, just before the August full moon. But Mercury, remember it is called ‘the trickster’, is going to be in Cancer, activating the south node (karma) and the Saturn/Pluto conjunction too. A lot of powerful transformation and a double karma whammy because Mercury rules karma as well. Are you ready for a few turns of the karma wheel in your life – it turns backwards, not forwards. Mercury also hits the degree of one of January’s eclipses in early July and it’s going to on August 12 so the effect lingers for a month.

Whew, that’s going to be a busy time. Standard Mercury retrograde cautions prevail – double check communications, allow extra travel time, stay grounded and aware of what you’re doing and use this time to review, refresh, relax, rewind, reconsider, repair, and release. Whatever comes up now for reconsideration is an opportunity to make course adjustments

Now Mercury is going to also be interacting with Mars, Saturn, and Pluto all month – imagine a little Chihuahua (Mercury) barking at a huge Newfoundland (Pluto) – and that could cause some upsets. While the Chihuahua is a tiny dog next to a Newfoundland, they can be quite mean and bite unexpectedly. This is a good period to be aware of the little upsets that cause big problems and take of things as they arise – always a good idea with Mercury retrograde anyway.

You could be feeling very motivated and ready for action this month and that would be in line with the energy activity but with Mercury retrograde you may have to take care and be mindful of potential Mercury retro mixups. You don’t have to worry about making the ‘best’ choices, just that they are fully aligned with your intention and energetically congruent with your own joy.

There is no quick fix, magic pill, or magic wand to get through these processes; they are designed for our growth and transformation. Remember to keep the forward momentum flowing and your energy boundaries high. Karma ends when you say it does and your energetic sovereignty is your key to a joyful, joy-filled month now and through the end of this very powerful, dynamic year.

*****

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[thundercakes22]

I do not care if you like Sam. It makes absolutely no difference to me. Like I said, even the implication of Sam being a Nazi is dumb. Maybe you’re not aware but people have been trying to make Sam HYDRA since 2014 and its gotten real old. But whatever. My main problem was this:

I think he should really get a mind of his own and stop following Steve around like a lost puppy, but other than that, meh. 

I care that we respect his agency. I gave multiple examples of him being more than what you described him, which you ignored. What we’re not going to do is pretend one of the three Black men in this franchise doesn’t have a mind of his own. He has is own motivations and backstory (that’s generally underdeveloped but he’s been a sidekick until this point. So is Rhodey’s. We’re hoping FATWS fixes that.)

Now this: 

We can day both were options, signing and not signing, are terrible, but would rather be registered than on the run. If your registered at least you can fight the unfair treatment. You know with how they did in real life? But if you’re on the run they won’t listen to you.

lol please, I’m begging you to do the barest research into the long history of what has happened to people forced to register with any governing body. It is far more than a dangerous precedent. Mass deportation, internment, genocide. These movies do not exist in a vacuum. They’re always political, always have something to say, even if we don’t agree. Refusing to sign is refusing to be complicit in what would come after. It is not unreasonable to refuse to be a part of that. In face, its the very thing Captain America was based on (as Fucked as America’s own history is with it).

And finally Tony. Did I badmouth Tony at all? All I said is that he’s rich and white lol. Am I wrong? A white billionaire who has saved the world multiple times is not the going to be the first to fave the violence of discriminatory laws. That’s not a drag. I didn’t come for your fave. If anything, that was a critique of the system, not Tony. I think he was right in that someone needs to direct the Avengers and they need to be held responsible for their actions. 

Now, I don’t particularly like Tony. You’re right about one thing, I don’t understand why people like his character so much but that’s okay. He’s not for me. I just... don’t bring him up. It’s pretty easy to just not talk about him rather than make rambly posts referencing movies and relationships I don’t understand. 

I could have said there’s no such thing as an ethical billionaire. But I didn’t. 

I could have said I don’t trust war profiteers (even you Iroh, I love you bb but we gotta talk). But I didn’t. 

I could have said that like half the villains in the MCU are people he’s pissed off or screwed over and if he had just handled his shit properly they wouldn’t have had as many issues but again, the whole billionaire too big to see who he’s stepping on thing. But I didn’t. 

I didn’t make this about him. You did. 

Now let’s try this again. You’re the one who said you don’t have time for this. Feel free to walk away anytime you like. I got nothing but time and wifi and a love for picking apart my favorite movies. I don’t see this as useless because I’m just stretching my knowledge of this universe and thinking more about topics I haven’t necessarily given my attention lately. I hadn’t planned to do it in your mentions but again, don’t call for what you’re not ready for. 

You can just be done, dear. 

I could do this all day

Real quick question.... Okay, maybe not so quick. Anyone who has any idea, feel free to answer.

Why does team cap pick allies that they barely know??? Like let's start with Sam,

He's a decently okay guy. I think he should really get a mind of his own and stop following Steve around like a lost puppy, but other than that, meh. He was first introduced in Captain America Winter Soldier. Sam and Steve met each other while on a run and had funny interactions. I can imagine them becoming friends from this, but not superheroing buddies. Because the next thing you know Nick Fury tells Steve to trust no body and Steve took that as don't trust Natasha at first even though you've known her for a while, but trust this guy you conveniently met at the park so close to the Hydra take over. Not saying Sam is Hydra, but you have to admit, it's convenient. He took Sam along with him, trusted him with important information even though they met not even a week ago. Sam could've easily been a secret Hydra agent sent to watch Captain America, but apparently Steve didn't think so.

Now Wanda...

I don't have much to say about her cause it's self explanatory. Enemy one day to ally and fully trusted teammate the next?

She was their enemy the first time they met her and then suddenly she says Tony is evil and Steve just listens to her? A woman who they barely knew for a day and for half of said day spent fighting against them?? Not only did Steve listen to her, he actively ATTACKED his own teammates with her. Like SHE JUST TRIED TO KILL YOU, ALL OF YOU.

I really want to bash Clint rn, but he's not relevant to the point 😔

Finally, poor boy Scott. I dont think he's bad, really! Just naive.

I wouldn't say he was an enemy, but the first time he was introduced he was trying to break into the compound. I don't know what happened between Ant man and Civil War, but apparently even after he fought Sam and went into a very secure facility, stole something that probably belonged to Tony. He was welcomed onto Team Cap? Like "I know this guy stole from our home that probably has very dangerous and expensive items, but he can be trusted!"

Yeah I guess you can say Team Iron Man didn't know T'challa, but the difference with T'challa is that he's a literal king. He isn't some nobody that tried to attack and or steal from them when they first met him. In fact he could be said to be an ally because he is an ally regarding the accords.

Peter is also different from Team Caps allyingship of strangers/enemies. Peter has been in the 'public eye' as his alter ego Spiderman. It's canon that Tony read up on him and did a lot of research before he brought him in(Which cant be said for team cap). Tony knew that he didn't kill and mostly just caught the bad people. Which is what he wanted. It also helps that Peter didn't try to murder or steal from the Avengers!

[saintheartwing]

Okay, about Dumbledore...

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about him. And I’ve got my own issues with him too. But some of the biggest have been, thankfully, compiled in this little “Dorkly” list I found here:  http://www.dorkly.com/post/87458/why-dumbledore-is-harry-potters-worst-character-really

So I thought I’d go through all these. 

1. Abandons a newly orphaned baby at the home of some abusive and neglectful relatives (which he remains totally aware of for a solid decade)

Okay,  first, Dumbledore leaves a note very clearly explaining what happened to Harry’s parents and asking the Dursleys to treat Harry with decency and like a son. They didn’t do as he asked. But here’s the problem. You know what would have happened had they treated him with THEIR version of respect and dignity? HE’D TURN INTO ANOTHER DUDLEY. If THAT’S how they treat the kid they like, and he ONLY turns into a somewhat decent guy because a SOUL SUCKING MONSTER had to show him what a foul piece of crap he was and that was years later after he’d beaten up half the kids in school and the like...yeah, no. I don’t think any of us want Harry to end up like Dudley. 

And as for the “Well he could have lived at Hogwarts”. Yeah, no. One, having a BABY...in a place where kids are using spells on each other all the time, AND there’s dangerous wild animals in the nearby forest AND a psychotic, meanspirited poltergeist is already a risk. But as for the whole “But other teachers and protections would have existed” thing, the minute the Death Eaters find out Harry’s at Hogwarts, they immediately attack. And the castle gets CREAMED. They don’t fight them off until after the Death Eaters are caught off guard after Harry’s death. Voldemort doesn’t even DO anything and the Death Eaters still rampage through the castle grounds, and this is at a time when the Order of the Phoenix AND the kids are PREPARED for a fight. You want them to come after the school when the Order’s been devastated by years of war AND none of the kids have any real training to fight dark wizards? Oh yeah, that seems like a smart idea! 

The point is, it wouldn’t have worked. You’d be putting many more lives at risk by doing this. And on top of that, the Death Eaters never even found where Harry lived because...again...he was in the Muggle World. And wizards like them don’t give a s--t about muggles. So the idea Harry would be hiding somewhere there didn’t cross their mind. They were blinded by their racism the same way Voldemort was when he didn’t bother to think ‘hey maybe this elf I brought with me can do magic i can’t’. 

2.  Keeps letting his friends and allies get arrested and thrown in prison for crimes they didn't commit and never questions any of it

Dumbledore kept Hagrid from being tossed out of Hogwarts completely AND he fixed up Hagrid’s wand by hiding it in his umbrella. Hello!? And Dumbledore wasn’t headmaster when Hagrid got charged. He was just a normal teacher. He didn’t have the power to override the Headmaster OR convince the government to change its mind. They barely listen to him even AFTER Dumbledore becomes headmaster, they’re always questioning him and trying to undermine him. 

Then there came Sirius Black. “But they coulda used a Pensieve”? Memories, as we see, are flawed things. We saw that with Horace Slughorn. It’s easy to modify one’s memory. On top of that, even when Barty Crouch confessed openly using TRUTH SERUM to Dumbledore and Snape and Mcgonagall, the ministry just said “of course he believes he’s telling the truth, but he’s insane, his idea of truth is nuttier than squirrel poo”. So they wouldn’t believe him either way, AND there was no evidence that Sirius changed away from being secret keeper. The only people  who could confirm it were d-e-a-d. They needed Pettigrew to verify any of that...and he’d turned into a rat and run off. 

3.  Despite being in charge of the school and with no real duties except managing the teachers, he somehow fails to notice Quirrell has VOLDEMORT ON THE BACK OF HIS HEAD, that Gilderoy Lockhart is an evil fraud, OR that Mad Eye Moody is an evil impostor.

He clearly DID know something was up with Quirrell and tells Snape as much in the last book with “Keep an eye on Quirrel, would you”. Furthermore, Dumbledore made Lockheart a teacher on purpose to expose him as a fraud and ruin him. He knew that anybody who took the Defense Against the Dark Arts Job ended up quitting or failing badly or the like, so he hired him. How did he know Lockhart was a fraud?  Because he knew two of the wizards whose memories Lockhart erased and easily deduced the truth behind Lockhart's fame and decided to make Lockhart pay for his crimes. All this is on “Pottermore”. You could have bothered to do some research, like I did. 

The complaints Dorkly makes is based on stuff Dumbledore had no way of knowing unless he was omniscient. How would he know Pettigrew’s alive? HE’S NEVER SEEN HIM AS A RAT. So how would he recognize Scabbers? Never seen the Chamber of Secrets? He suspected it was real but he couldn’t find it because he CAN’T SPEAK PARSELTONGUE. 

4. HE JUST STRAIGHT-UP ALLOWS HIS STUDENTS BE ENDANGERED ALL THE TIME

Okay, this one, I get. Dumbledore knows Snape is a former magic nazi who’s still got severe issues and who bullies his students. I get that. And yes. It might not be a good idea to have him on staff even if you do so to keep an eye on a big asset that’s very helpful to you. And what’s the explanation for WHY Dumbledore just lets Snape be such a prick? I would have let this one go except JK Rowling offered up an explanation. 

From a Barnes & Noble online chat Q&A from 2000 (a completely different era of internet):

lhhicks99 asks: Why does Professor Dumbledore allow Professor Snape to be so nasty to the students (especially to Harry, Hermione, and Neville)? jkrowling_bn: Dumbledore believes there are all sorts of lessons in life... jkrowling_bn: horrible teachers like Snape are one of them!

...oh. I get it. “Suffering builds character”. You could MAYBE make a good argument with Harry and the Dursleys and show that sympathy and compassion came from pain and suffering. You could make that argument. I’d get that. I believe that being picked on and bullied can indeed open your heart and make you empathize more with others who’ve suffered like you. But it can also make you VERY ANGRY. It can either open your heart, or make you close it off in a casket of fury. 

This one, I’ll give Dorkly. Snape should have been disciplined more or told to KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF.

5.  Oh how about that time Harry Potter suffered the most intense and horrifying trauma a kid could possibly suffer and Dumbledore responded by IGNORING HIM COMPLETELY FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR?

Dumbledore outright says that he didn’t look at Harry for months or spend time with him because he’s afraid Voldemort would use Harry as a means to spy on Dumbledore, and that he’d try to possess him and the MINUTE Voldemort found out Harry DID mean that much to Dumbledore...he tried to do just that. And all through the year if Harry and Dumbledore so much as LOCKED EYES, the urge to kill Dumbledore rose in Harry, remember? That’s a pretty good reason to be worried about what to tell Harry. But again, Dumbledore, admittedly, could have been more open with Harry. He admits he made a mistake. As he says, “being cleverer than the next man, my mistakes tend to be correspondingly huger”. So at least he owned up to the problem.

6. Speaking of keeping information from others for no goddamn reason, THE ELDER WAND

Ah hem. “ I was afraid your hot head might dominate your good heart. I was scared that, if presented with the facts outright about those tempting objects, you might seize the Deathly Hallows as I did, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons.” Dumbledore’s a fairly decent and noble man and even HE tried to use the Hallows for the wrong reasons. If he outright told Harry about this, the power would go to Harry’s head. It kinda does when Harry finds OUT about the existence of the 3 Hallows. He fantisizes about using them against Voldemort and having no equal and the like and begins to obsess over them. As for the “well he could have just had somebody disarm him sooner”...if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to do things like match Voldemort’s power or do half the amazing things he does in the series. The power would be broken. And I remind you, he figured out quickly that Voldemort intended to have Malfoy kill him, hence why he tried to get Harry to find Snape ASAP. Twice. To kill him while he was weak. Malfoy just got to Dumbledore first. It was just bad timing. He had no way of knowing Malfoy was putting his plan into action. And he couldn’t just have Snape disarm him before he left with Harry to go get the Horcrux because, again, he needed full power. He’s trying to get hold of a fragment of Voldemort’s soul. He needs all his wits and skills.

So there. Except for one of two of these being “Okay, you got a point”, the list of complaints is mostly bull. There’s good reasons explaining all of these IN THE STORIES and IN what JK Rowling said. You just had to do some research. 

[piilukko]

Electoral Shenanigans II – Finnish Municipal boogaloo

Finnish Municipal Election of 2017 is over and the votes have been cast and counted – at last, one might say after seeing months of campaigning and advertising.

Note: if you are entirely unfamiliar with Finnish politics and political culture, you might want to start here, for example, for a crash course how we got to this point and about the so called The Finns Party, our version of the right-wing populist movement. You might also want to check what a Finnish municipality actually it and what does it do. 

Worth noting is that those things are not entirely fixed. In the past municipalities were allowed to things like banning sales of all alcohol. They had the power to set regulations on public order – all of which was replaced by a state-wide Public Order Act in 2003. At moment government working removing healthcare and welfare from municipalities responsibilities and setting up county administration for them – but parties disagree and at the moment no one is 100% certain what a Finnish municipality is going to be in the future. And last and not least: not all Finnish people are entirely familiar with this either. Most of the candidates are ordinary people, not career politicians. The council members get financial compensation, but not salary, it is not their job. Sometimes people campaign and vote based on matters entirely beyond the scope of municipal politics.

Municipal elections are often seen as some kind of “half-way there” elections between parliamentary elections (both the parliament and city and municipality councils have four year terms and nowadays the municipal election really occur in the middle of the parliament term). Commentators often try find if policies on governmental level are having an effect on municipal level, if the voters are sending a message to cabinet ministers and the parties, but probably at least some voters are ignoring those factors altogether and voting purely on local matters. Especially in small town, where people know at least some council members personally – a Finnish municipality can be anything from Helsinki ,with its 600k residents,  to small villages of couple of hundreds residents – and the median is a couple thousands residents.

So, despite we kinda had like over 300 separate elections on the same day, with technically speaking nothing do with each other, maybe we can look some of the themes.

The True Finns lost big time. They are a populist party with a long history of as anti-establishment protest party for conservatives – anti-immigration, anti-European Union, anti-LGBT, anti-environmentalism, anti-whatever those damned hippies, liberals and bicyclists are trying this tme. A party for the honest heterosexual, white, meat-eating, house-owning. car-owning common man (and also the common woman, should she accept the traditional gender roles), we’ll also take good care your old mother struggling on her small pension, as long as you vote us and accept Carl G.E. Mannerheim as your lord and saviour.

Somewhat like Trump? Maybe, the main difference being a different political system and culture, the D’Hondt election system used here has it disadvantages but at least it’s not first-past-the-post and allows for a real multiparty system. True Finns chairman Timo Soini started building the party in the 90′s and started gaining more and more support election by election. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union (which meant old school communism lost most of its appeal) Finnish politics have featured The Big Three of parties. Included are The Social Democrats – a moderate (very moderate) left-wing party). The Centre Party – a party started as the Agrarian League having moderate success in cities but absolutely ruling the rural areas. The National Coalition – the right-wing party, sometimes quite far on the right, I mean not as in nazi far-right, but on the political compass the they are scattered like some one fired a shotgun towards the right side of the chart – but at least they don’t hate people of color, they just hate people of no money. Especially their youth organization often sees no shame in literal minarchism (ironically they started as the monarchist party)

And at least for a moment, Soini was able to manage to transform this triumvirate into The Big Four, with the True Finns actually gaining more votes than the Social Democrats. And if you think I make this sound like a one man project, it truly is, in modern politics in Finland there are no other mainstream examples of the same person leading one party for twenty years.

Well, then they joined the government (as in were not in opposition anymore, if you are unfamiliar with consensus politics) in 2011 and their voters found out that not only they were unable to banish all foreigners (or at least the black people or at least the Muslims) like some of their voters must genuinely have believed. They also found no problem supporting the National Coalition’s and Centre Party’s austerity policies (remember the old mother and her pension) and also were unable to stop the loaning money to Greece (lost story short:most experts agree we are definitely not getting back, Greece is broke) and so their approval ratings made a historically bad dive. 

Not only their voters, many True Finn council members all around the nation lost their faith in the party, saw the writing on the wall or found out their party was full of brownshirts – be it ideological reasons or just hopes to be at least somewhat re-electable, they chose to switch parties mid-term. One famous example was Youtube celebrity Tykylevits, who as a very surprising move secede from True Finns and found the Green Party chapter of his small home town, gaining Greens two seats of 27, a significant feat in the middle of Centre Party country.

So, The True Finns lost roughly speaking one third of their support and I hope this is the start of their end as the natural lifespan of a populist party full of air reaches its finale. We cannot get rid of them altogether, but at least on the national level they will once again be a fringe party. They might go far-right (this time I mean nazi far-right) depending who will be elected as the chairman after Soini decided to not run for the position anymore – and most importantly who will remain, candidate-wise and voter-wise, when it becomes apparent the support for the “working man’s party” is fading. One of the main candidates for the seat is Jussi Halla-aho, a well known anti-immigration and anti-gun control zealot with very little opinions on anything else. Anway, the parliament election is in 2019 and I expect to see them losing similar amount of votes there.

The True Finns in Tampere were a great example of the mess the party is in. Their local chapter chairwoman was expelled from the main party, officially because of a minor economical mishap regarding travel expenses (which the party claim she did on purpose), I think it was really because she was too far-right for a party with parliament seats. Anyway, the chapter chose not to expel her (despite this being clearly against party rules) and instead chose her as one of their candidates. 

On the other hand they spent shitloads of money campaigning (on the local radio stations for example) against the Tampere tramway project, even though the council already voted green for it (48 votes against 18), they are already building the tracks and the city would have to pay reasonable amount of mount (I think 10% of the actual costs of the project?) to several companies if they scrapped the project at this point. And after all, the TF could have just said that they were against the project, the lost in the voting, they accept it and now they will concentrate on other matters.

This is not exactly how you get sensible people vote you, right, even if they agreed with you? They lost five of their ten seats.

The Big Three all got roughly 20% support each, nationwide, and there’s not much interesting to say about that. They all have lots of very loyal supporters and I would be surprised to see very rapid changes in their support nationwide, even thought this might happen in individual municipalities, where it all might be about whether some local popular person chooses to run for the next term or not. The same applies to the Swedish Party which is smaller but get’s the same amount of votes anyway every time.

The Greens won, about everywhere, getting their greatest share of votes in any Finnish election (Pekka Haavisto’s success in the presidential election of 2012 does not count) . They have branded themselves as the opposite of the True Finns – main themes include enviromental issues (including but not limited to climate change), LGBT rights, anti-racism and generally trying to keep the Finnish welfare state with free education and such from disintegrating. Bicycling activists and public transport advocates tend to join the party, first openly gay MP was Green, you get the idea.

For many urban dwellers who don’t care about politics that much, they are becoming the default party – “the Good Guys you should vote if you’re on the side of the Good Guys”. The transformation of a pure nature preservation society to a political party fighting for wide range of issues has alienated some of the hardcore environmentalists but was, I think, absolutely necessary, because the great masses (and not even yours truly) are not willing to accept the strict “eco-fascism” of likes of Pentti Linkola. I’d say they are the 21th century version of the Social Democrats. (The Social Democrats on the other hand, are still the 20th century version of themselves and will gradually lose MP seats because their voters die. Of old age)

One of the biggest surprises was Jyväskylä, where Greens become the biggest party, I think for the first time any city, ever. Might be because it’s midsize city with a rather big university, might be because some very popular candidates with personal following.

...and then there’s the Left Alliance, which started from the ashes of former communist parties but has reform itself to basically “we are just like the Greens, but we are also socialists” – emphasizing the old cliche that while The Greens refuse to define themselves on the traditional left-right scale, many see them as the “park and forest department of National Coalition”. As a challenge, The Left has it “industrial wing”, labour union activists, some of them who might not be willing to sacrifice jobs on the altar of environmentalism, should these two factors be at odds.

And at last, an election where the Left got more votes than last time, hooray! A moderate victory, but a victory nonetheless. Under the lead of very charismatic Li Andersson, it is possible the party may see similar success in the parliamentary election –hopefully the party will never again choose to enter the government with the together National Coalition, a move that was seen by many as selling-out, motivated by the party elite’s lust for “the backseat of a black Audi”, a common phrase symbolizing the prestige, luxury and financial compensation of a cabinet minister. 

(Yours truly voted for the Left so there might some bias in this post)

And then there’s the Christian Democrats, who changed their name to match a certain German mainstream party but are a fringe party still. They’re mostly from certain fundamentalist sects, liberal mainstream Christian usually joining other parties. They managed to get some more votes this time, perhaps because of their new chairwoman, an Olympic medalist in race walking and thus a former national hero. On the other hand, her predecessor was so unpopular she became one of the main memes in Finnish Tumblr and other social media.

Feminist Party, a newcomer, gained one seat in Helsinki, I suppose mainly because their chairwomen was invited to the fringe party panel on the TV and as one might guess, for a good public speaker it’s rather easy to look sane and professional, the other participants usually including libertarians and several communist parties unable to co-operate. 

I have mixed feelings about the party, I think there’s a lot of work to do in animal rights (a newly formed Animal Rights Party participated the same panel), ethnic minorities rights, feminist issues, QUILTBAG issues, environmentalism, city planning, not to mention class struggle, what else, and within this political system and D’Hondt voting, separating all these issues to their own separate parties sounds like the worst possible outcome. But what can i say if some-one feels that no other party is feminist enough? 

On the municipal level there’s always space for smaller players – Helsinki council has 85 seats and it’s all one voting distinct (no gerrymandering is possible) and many councils have local movements not participating in the state-level politics at all. On the parliament level, I fear the Greens, The Lefts, The Feminists and The Animal Rights Party will compete from the same votes and for example in Tavastia Proper only 14 MP seats are available and this might even mean none of them getting any seats. Satakunta and Lapland Distincts are even smaller. Hopefully they at least agree on electoral alliances.

Yarrr, The Pirates managed to get one seat in Helsinki and one in Jyväskylä (see the notion of Jyväskylä being a university town). I don’t share their idea of entire abolition of copyright, but they have a snowball change in hell in implementing it and otherwise many of them offer a welcome addition to politics. Many of them are IT professionals, municipal expertise in those issues (like buying infrastructure and support) has traditionally been scarce.

And finally, the Communists lost. After the mainstream communist parties (yes, that was a thing in Finland) crashed, burned and rose like the Phoenix as the Left Alliance, several people were unhappy with this, mainly because LA was not, well, communist, and promptly founded the Communist Party of Finland again. In the post-Soviet atmosphere, they have never got any MP seats or anything like that, but the municipal councils are another thing for them too and they actually have managed to have several seats in council, most famously in the big cities of Helsinki and Tampere.

Yrjö Hakanen, their former chairman, is popular character in the political life of our capital. I think not all his voters even are communists themselves, after all, in the city council he cannot seize the means of production, but he can and will speak for the poor, the old, the ill and the unemployed. Tampere, on the other hand, has historically been known as the “Red City” and only partly because brick-walled former factory buildings (these days used as museums and office space). But alas, in neither of the cities there were enough votes for the party and then something happened, something that in the 1970′s would have been bourgeoisie daydreaming and still in the 1990′s was hard to imagine – there will be no communists in the council.

The same happened in some smaller towns too and I haven’t checked all the election data, but it might be that last stronghold for literal communist will be Nokia (the city, not the phone company or the tyre company), and even there their seats we reduced from three to one.

(This didn’t not stop Timo Soini from announcing “bicycle communists”, whatever that means, have taken over Finland)

(There’s also “Communist Workers' Party – For Peace and Socialism”, yes, that is their official party name, but that’s an another story and not a very popular one)

EDIT: The Social Democrats lost support. With the True Finns collapsing and “freeing” 3.5 percent points and Coalition and Centre losing one point each. one would think, that one of the old “major” players, SDP, would gain support. No, they lost also a little from municipal election of 2012. Although they are bragging about a rise in popularity compared to the parliament election of 2015, I think that’s comparing apples with oranges.

So I went back in history and checked all the elections, checking all municipal, parliament and European parliament elections compared to previous one of the same kind – YLE and Wikipedia make this very easy – and the result is devastating: sometimes a party wins and sometimes a party loses, but last time SDP gained seats was in 2004. 13 years ago. That was before Youtube, several years before Finns started joining Facebook and so on. (I’m not saying this just for scale, SDP is definitely not a social media party).

This is beyond the scope of this post and this election, but I think, if no drastic changes of party image, organization and leadership are made, The Social Democrats will become a mid-size party, perhaps even a small party, someone has to fill the void and The Greens my guess who will fill a lions share of this void.

And then to the “I am not making this up”-section of this post.

Paavo Väyrynen is Finnish political legend, an MP and MEP for many terms, a minister of several cabinets, a long time Centre party chairman. He has always been and will always be – at least from my point of view, he was elected to the Parliament before I was born. He’s very hard to explain to any foreigner (after all, he’s from the Centre and that party itself is very hard to explain, why the agrarian party is often the most popular). 

He’s a dinosaur from the seventies, a player of games, the trickster of Finnish politics. He gets involved in scandals, is sometimes hit but them but surfaces again like a Whack-a-Mole. He has solid support in Northern Finland. He runs for parliament and refuses to accept the seat he won’t get a minister position. He’s chosen by the party on “suicide mission”, a disposable way past his “best before” candidate for a doomed campaign against Sauli Niinistö, he has fun and manages to bring himself back to spotlight of politics. The party gave him the title of “honorary chairman”, apparently because he was too valuable and popular to let go, but too dangerous and unpredictable to let to interfere with actual politics.

So he started his own party, which made the Centre Party expel him: except by the party rules, the main office cannot do that, the local chapter should expel him and he’s their hero. Party does not want to expel the entire local chapter and the situation remains stalemate.

However, while his new “Citizen Party” is already in official party register and should be able to appoint candidates to all elections, Väyrynen chose to enter the municipal election. In Helsinki. As an independent candidate on the candidate list of... Christian Democrats. Apparently he had composed an army of NIMBYs (mainly against building more apartments to Helsinki allowing it grow), including some far-right activist. The Christian Democrats found out about the nature of these candidates after the candidate list were already fixed, so they just chose to shun these people from their posters.

However, none of the problematic candidates were elected – Väyrynen himself was, with over thousand votes. Now we wonder should he accept the seat, after all, he might have technically difficulties attending council meeting, considering the fact that he is at the moment a MEP.

Finnish politics would be much, much more boring without Paavo Väyrynen.

Pictured: chairman of the Greens Ville Niinistö celebrating victory; Paavo Väyrynen

[phynxrizng]

PREDICTIONS 2017

Predictions 2017 by mistressmyst Predictions 2017 a message from Selacia To view more of Selacia's insight, visit her website, Selacia and the Council of 12 Predictions 2017 In the year 2017, a crisis of trust long in the making will be surfacing across the world. This will have far-reaching consequences for us as individuals and for our entire planet. Continue reading to understand what this means, why we should care, and what we as divine changemakers can do to make a difference. As you read, too, you will learn about the seeds of hope being planted in 2017 and what they mean for you. Background – Crisis of Trust First, some background on the crisis of trust we face. This energy of distrust is more primordial than evolutionary, stemming from humanity’s fear-based conditioning. In other words, it’s very old and more tribal than inclusive. Tribalism has been with us throughout the ages, but in recent decades since the 1990s, the tribalistic “us-and-them” mentality is having a big resurgence. Examples: Brexit, the 2016 US elections, Middle East violence driven by ancient tribal structures, extremist Islam reflecting a tribal-mindset involving warrior pride and hate-fueled jihadism, corrupt business practices including bribes, and a general tendency of superpowers to believe that it’s their role to facilitate regime change in other countries. Regardless of how tribalism manifests, it poses a threat to a peaceful and loving world. A tribal-mindset is black-and-white, with a narrow sense of belonging. Anyone outside the group is suspect, not to be trusted, and a threat. Building trust and cooperation between tribal-based groups is painstakingly difficult. Meanwhile distrust fuels division and causes people to feel even more separate from one another. Distrust and Division Distrust is a learned fear-based response. People learn to distrust others who don’t look like them, don’t think like them, or don’t practice the same religion. Many times, this distrust is in ancestral DNA, coming from centuries-old experiences of the generations. Example: When I do personal DNA intuitive healing sessions for someone trying to cope with discrimination, I often intuitively see DNA-level patterns show up in the energetic field around the DNA. We then can trace things back to times when the person’s ancestors were impacted by religious intolerance, class discrimination, or racism. Being able to see where this comes from and to heal it at the genetic level for ancestors is a powerful antidote for present personal struggles with discrimination. Shift in What and Who We Trust As our society has become more polarized and everyday life more uncertain, there has been a shift in what and who we trust. Last century, for example, it was more common to put our trust in institutions like governments, banks, the health system, and international forums. Today with that trust waning and new technologies available, we are more likely to rely on others outside the system – even strangers. Examples: many now use technologies like Lyft and Uber for rides, Airbnb for hotels, WebMD and Mayo Clinic apps and websites for health assessments, and mobile apps for blood pressure and heart-rate readings. Having a growing array of life tools outside the norm has boundless benefits and can help us to take charge of things that we used to delegate to others. A bonus: as educated consumers, we take back our power and become more actively engaged in managing our lives. A red flag: if we label the established systems as inherently bad in a black-and-white way, our linear thinking can backfire. No traditional system is all bad or all good. There are shades of gray. Sometimes we really need to see a doctor and use services of a bank. Governmental bodies and police forces carry out essential services needed for a stable and workable society. In summary, if you realize that you distrust institutions, be open to seeing both the good and the bad. Reforms of unworkable systems and institutions can occur when problems are brought to light and conscious citizens use their voices and actions to affect change. When we don’t do this, the crisis of distrust escalates. Distrust and Division Distrust and division go hand in hand. We see it every day in society. Distrust shows up in countless ways - as racism, gender bias, bigotry, national extremism, and religious intolerance. Division follows – people feeling separated by race, gender, class, religion, or political views. Contributing Factors When people are afraid enough and misinformed or lied to with propaganda, they are vulnerable to control and manipulation by those in power. In such circumstances, people can be convinced to accept unimaginable atrocities and loss of freedoms. People can be influenced by fake news and a twisting of the facts, feeling divided against their neighbors and even their own families. In extreme situations, people will even kill one another. There are countless examples of this throughout humanity’s history - including in the next phase of history that humanity is now creating moment-by-moment in present time. Response to Distrust When the societal tide turns towards distrust on a big enough scale, people may respond with anger or apathy. If people feel that their voice isn’t heard by political decision makers, they may withdraw from active engagement in typical channels like voting or peaceful protests. This is usually an emotional response, and is self-sabotage because personal power is unconsciously given away. A disempowered group of people is even more susceptible to control and abuse by those in power. Tyrants and power-hungry leaders seeking to make their mark on the world can take advantage of the void created by a disempowered and silent populace. The unsuspecting people may even see the unscrupulous leaders as “saviors” – as though they are the only ones who can fix things. In a distrustful society, people can be convinced of falsehoods by politicians, media, or special interest groups that know how to craft a disinformation campaign. This has happened throughout history. However, today the potential negative impact is substantially greater than ever before. People often get their news online through infotainment disguised as facts. A lie told repeatedly over weeks or months can be accepted as truth. It’s like the public becomes numb to the information, unconsciously reacting to it without question. Cycles of Distrust Throughout history, we’ve had cycles of distrust followed by times of building trust and collaboration. Examples: Italy’s notorious dictator Mussolini in the 1920s capitalized on distrust and used propaganda to fuel his rise to power – founding fascism, dismantling constitutional limits on his power, and creating a police state. From 1941-45, the Nazis under Hitler systematically carried out a mass genocide of Jews. The UN in 1948 adopted a universal set of human rights, sending a signal to oppressive leaders that disregard for human rights is intolerable. The International Space Station, first launched in 1998 to study the Earth and space, was made possible through a trusted partnership between several countries. The tide turned abruptly on September 11, 2001 with terror attacks on US soil –leaving a marker of distrust still witnessed today. Distrust of crisis proportions doesn’t appear overnight, but develops in a gradual process as people lose trust in each other and in the very institutions that keep things working. In an atmosphere of distrust, society does not function well. Without trust and cooperation, basic things like markets and long-term planning are compromised. Chaos reigns, slowing progress in addressing key issues impacting not only quality of life but continued sustainability of life on Earth. Examples: climate, peace, and global resources. The Personal Level What’s unfolding in society is not just something outside of you. There is a very personal level involved. It is about you and everyone you love. Here are a few examples to help you understand the big picture. As you are reading this portion, too, keep in mind that this personal level applies to countless people across the world. Some may be in your family or other circles. Some may be strangers. All represent some piece of the whole – now being played out across the world as a crisis of distrust. Every single one, including you, needs your love and compassion. First, it’s not easy as an individual to live in a society that doesn’t function well due to division and distrust. Daily life routines can be disrupted because of ongoing intensity, uncertainty, and dramas that often are of a startling nature. Not knowing what’s going to happen next can keep you on edge. The unknowns now are greater than most of us have experienced in this lifetime. If you are an empath - sensing the chaotic and nervous pulse of society - these times can be even more challenging. Second, you likely are processing your own pieces of distrust. Some are influenced not only by recent events, but by past life influences recorded in your DNA. You may distrust certain individuals, categories of people, or those who serve society in key roles. Examples of people: politicians, wealthy people, lobbyists, journalists, police, and other authority figures. Examples of institutions and business: government, media, multinationals, big retailers, and things representing the status quo. Third, living in a climate of distrust may catalyze self-doubts and a deeper soul searching about your life purpose and how you fulfill it. Any tendency you previously had to distrust yourself and your decisions may be amplified in this cycle. One way this could play out is an increased worry about the future. You may not trust that things will get better, or that things will get better for you personally. When faced with a deadline to make a life-changing decision, you might distrust yourself to choose the correct option. Fourth, a world filled with distrust and division can feel unsafe. There are countless reasons you might feel insecure. A big one many people fear is a possible terror attack. It’s also common to feel unsafe about potentials for identity theft or cyber bullying. In places with recent regime change bringing dictatorial-type leaders to power, people are insecure about preserving their freedoms. And, of course, in the background for people everywhere is the concern about world peace and the tenuous nature of preserving it given the number of power-hungry leaders. Fifth, a climate of distrust between countries can negatively impact the economy and your standard of living. Example: a tribal-mindset to trade has historically backfired. In 1930 after the US stock market crash, the US enacted the Smoot-Hawley Tariff to raise taxes on imports. The idea was to keep out cheap imports and create jobs. This backfired. US consumers had to pay more for imported products, so they were not better off, and the economy took longer to recover from the Depression. Sixth, resurgence in tribalism is likely to bring to the surface humanity’s ancient unresolved patterns of discrimination in all of its forms. This supreme distrust of the “other” could involve things like race, religion, gender, national identification, and sexual orientation. You may not personally experience discrimination. However, you likely know of someone impacted. As long as discrimination exists, the loving world all of us want cannot fully manifest. Seventh, countries having tribal squabbles can delay or even reverse progress to address climate change. What this means on an everyday personal level is more extreme weather, increased air pollution, adverse health effects, rising sea levels impacting heavily populated coastal areas, species die-off, and an increasingly less sustainable planet for future generations. What’s Needed Next With a crisis of distrust coloring everyday life, it is imperative that we divine changemakers take an active role in transforming our world and our way of life. This is not the time to take a back seat and silently watch as leaders govern through lawmaking and executive orders. We must have a voice. Elements of a Democracy A democracy functions and upholds freedoms when citizens are actively engaged. This means that people become educated on issues and candidates ahead of elections, vote, observe how leaders conduct the business of government, and feel free to criticize leaders without retribution. Criticism can take the form of peaceful protests. Citizens are allowed to assemble freely to discuss views. Elections are free and fair for all. A workable democracy has a free press with regular access to governmental workings and leaders. The government in power does not censor information, news sources, or specific journalists. Divine Changemakers – Making a Difference Here are suggestions for making a difference in 2017 and beyond. As a divine changemaker, you are alive now to make changes for a more loving world. You stand at the forefront of the massive shift happening now. This role is actually encoded within your very DNA. Having this role means that you are on the leading edge of change, experiencing many things before others do, and helping to lead the way forward. Indeed, you are at your best when you are actively engaged in your divine changemaker role. What You Can Do in 2017 Stay conscious and aware of yourself - including your thoughts, emotions, and actions. Extend that conscious awareness outside of you, to other people and world events. Remind yourself daily that your energy matters, and use that energy for good. No matter how crazy things seem, remember daily that you are not a victim. You are a conscious being at cause in life, co-creating your own reality and your world. Use your thoughts and actions constructively to make a difference in big and small things. Be the one in your circles who smiles, finds humor in the bizarre, and applies kindness. Do not give up on yourself or on humanity as a whole. Strive to see the good in yourself and others. Do this even when focusing on someone you dislike. Do this for yourself after you have had a bad day and feel discouraged. Remembering the basic goodness in all people helps you to go on during difficult times. Cope better with unknowns and fears about the future by coming back to yourself in the present. No one knows for sure exactly what will happen next, on a personal level or in the outer world. On a quantum level, there are endless possibilities for what tomorrow might look like. Rest your overthinking mind, then, and put your focus on the present moment. Treat it as the precious time that it truly is. Upset about what you see in the outer world? Get in touch with your feelings and why you have them. Once you are conscious to your feelings, turn your criticism into benevolent action. Rather than simply complain to others, find your positive voice of change and act on it as a citizen of the world. Voice your thoughts within your community, on a grassroots level in your country, and to the political leaders who represent you at all levels of government. As you voice your opinions, visualize your words being received and acted upon. Become one who helps repair division through consciousness and peaceful actions. Invite a knowing of the causes and places that most need you in this role. Add power to your role with daily visualizing and intentions – seeing yourself as a bridge builder and peacemaker. Become vigilant about your intake of information and apply a healthy skepticism. Avoid becoming duped by fake news and political propaganda by becoming astute in digesting news. Slow down, be present, and question what you hear. Avoid getting your news by scanning headlines. Get your news from multiple sources. Insist that it be reliable, with several credible named sources that you can validate. If something seems too outlandish to be true, that should be a big red flag to check out the information. Fair news won’t report only one side. A fair story will be current – watch for stories that recycle information or photos to create bias. Most likely, we’ll be witnessing a number of unprecedented events in 2017. Some may be shocking, some simply surprising. A big underlying theme throughout the year will be unpredictability. Continue reading to find out about the silver linings and the seeds of hope that indeed exist side-by-side with the disarray. Discover what these mean for you. Future Seeds of Hope Regardless of how crazy things become in 2017, life will go on. Your plans and projects can be re-energized within the new energies. Spiritual transformation potentials can be amplified by leaps and bounds. Relationships – new and current – can manifest in ways more supportive of you and your path. One silver lining in 2017 is the potential for new beginnings. The energies will support this. On a personal level, think of this as a blessing for your life and what you want to manifest. Even your established projects having success could benefit from adding something to the mix – like an additional collaborative partner or a new specialty that adds to what you already have. Revive a current relationship by finding an additional shared focus or introducing new ways of being with each other. A second silver lining in 2017 involves change and your response to that change. The acceleration of change is not slowing down. Change is like a palpable force stimulating transformation of all things that need to evolve. Interestingly, while we humans are wired to dislike change, when the momentum of change becomes super-charged and we realize we’re better off going with it, we find ourselves at a beneficial tipping point. At that stage, the sheer force of this momentum ironically can make it easier to adapt and evolve. Think of this year as a crucial time to build a new infrastructure for your life – inner and outer. The energies support this! As you focus on the specifics of what you want to create, you will be planting seeds of hope for your near and longer-term future. This kind of seed planting is happening already during these unique moments on Earth. Humanity as a collective is regularly planting the seeds of the next creations. The key for you now is to become conscious of your personal role in the planting. It’s you taking charge of you and your new directions. It’s you accepting your quantum power to create, change creations, and invent new ones. This is big! Doing this is what your soul wants for you. You are not a cog in a machine, or a hub on humanity’s wheel of evolution. You are an eternal and timeless divine being who can create in boundless ways. Trust this. Trust in your ability to make a difference. Trust in the power of your love to fuel the perfect next steps for your life. Trust in the divine voice within you that knows truth. Know beyond a doubt that you are meant to be on Earth now for a grand purpose that only your soul fully understands. Trust that this is valid, and let it guide you step-by-step throughout the year. REPOSTED BY, PHYNXRIZNG