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diaryofawallfly · 2 years ago

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[ After a while, another letter arrives. The stamp is off-kilter and the seal flap appears to have been hastily closed. The handwriting is the same as the last. ]

Mr. Renfield,

If my letter was a pleasant surprise to you, I can say the same for yours. I can hardly believe I was able to reach you. I had my concerns about both the post that far into the countryside and the matter of time.

Your answer was everything I had hoped for and more. That sufficiently answered the question of which way the keep faces and, to be perfectly honest, a harboured curiosity of mine about the view. The sunrise and sunset sound spectacular (and I'm very glad you wrote about the latter, too). The way you described it all as if it's touched by myth- the scenery sounds absolutely beautiful, and the castle must look proud in its place nestled against the mountain. Even in disrepair, it sounds starkly impressive. I would not expect a full history of the castle from you, as I figure it has far too much for one person. I wasn't able to find much online. Perhaps the village might know more, though I suppose you must have already tried that.

As for how I found you, I'm afraid it's not exactly a good answer. A relative of mine was involved with the acquisition of a law firm, and there were a whole lot of old files- boxes and boxes of them- to be dealt with. I've been helping out on weekends, organising those to keep and disposing of ones no longer needed, except I may have wound up reading some of the material before it was to be shredded. (I swear I didn't do anything illegal, I think.) Your name was on some paperwork, and then there was a lost memo about leaving for a trip, and then all mention stopped. I do like mysteries and couldn't help being curious- and please forgive me, I mean no disrespect in likening your lived history to fiction.

If you don't mind me writing to you still, I do have loads more questions. You write like you enjoy reading, do you read a lot? Do you still work as a solicitor? What is the local food like? I'll leave it there for now; I appreciate your consideration and kindness very much.

Regards,

R. Hart

R. Hart,

I am once again delighted to receive your letter and your pleasantries. I’m surprised to hear you learned of me from my previous employer. It has been so long and my stay with them so short that I didn’t ever think so much about me would be left behind.

To think back on it, it’s a world away, a lifetime ago. I cannot imagine how the people and the places have changed. Every now and then I do dream of it, the place that was once home, but it feels as if it was never more than that.

I am no longer a lawyer or a solicitor, no. I have not formally practised in some time and I cannot say I’m too familiar with the laws of this country either. I spend my days now as the caretaker of this estate. Though that must sound contradictory as my previous letter stated it’s disrepair. The south facing stonework has been revealing its age for some time. It has been difficult to find a mason who is both skilled enough to replicate the original details and is willing to travel out to me.

The garden, however– I apologise as these are not the details you asked for but I do hope that you will humour me– is my favourite aspect of the grounds. In the courtyard, I have a selection of native flowers. Most prominently are the peonies, their greenery and blossoms are large and drooping. I also have a few rose bushes. They’re fastidious and keep me busy. Outside the gate, I’ve planted a dog rose on either side. Their prickled vines have done a lovely job hiding most of the fallen stucco. Their summer blooms bring me some cheer.

Here I can tell you about the local cuisine. The dog roses produce a fruit, rosehips. Each year I harvest them to bring to a woman in the village. With them, she will create the most delicious jam and sweet wine. I must ask her for her recipes. I do not know why I haven’t yet. Perhaps I am hoping to ignore how she is aging and how I am not willing to cope with the day when she will not be. She has always been as kind as she can to me. It will be difficult for me to get by without her. She taught me most of what I know about living here when my trip abroad became permanent. She also makes a fine polenta that could warm the heart of a merciless executioner. Most other dishes in the area are made with ground meat of various game animals and winter vegetables, all baked, cooked, or pickled with the most flavourful spices.

For your last question, asking if I read often: I do indeed. The keep has a large library of hundreds eclectic books from all over the world all with different subject matter. I can’t tell you how many I’ve read. I was fortunate to find some of them in English when I arrived. I hadn’t known a single word from the native tongue when I first came here. Thankfully some traders knew German which I learned in university and other travels. Now after many years of residing here I can proudly say I am rather mediocre in my Romanian.

Thank you again for writing to me. I appreciate your time and thoughts spent. I am open to answer any more questions you may have. May I ask a few to you in return? Do you work for a law office or university? Your writing is studious which makes me curious about your background. Where are you from? Have there been any interesting events? I’ve been divorced from the country for so long, I can’t remember the last time I heard any news.

I am fondly awaiting your reply.

𝓡. 𝓜. 𝓡𝓮𝓷𝓯𝓲𝓮𝓵𝓭

#ask #Anonymous #master's call [ ic ]#The Mysterious R. Hart #APOLOGIZES FOR THE DELAY #Many thoughts were needed for this reply #i hope i've kept his strangeness in his words #but if not!!! i am practicing and that is what matters :)#🖤🖤🖤🖤#v: Turning of the Century

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dawnwave16 · 5 years ago

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Legal Bug

Hey there, this is a one-shot I wrote today as it refused to leave me alone! I’m not too happy with the end of it but my sleep deprived brain wanted me to post it before it got lost on my harddrive! Hope you enjoy it!

Marinette knew that her classmate's thought that her only interest was in fashion. She also knew that they didn't think she was very smart. What they didn't know was that she was the youngest student in the class, having skipped two years. While it was true that her primary passion lay in fashion, over the years she had developed a passion for the law as well. It had started when she had seen how Adrian was treated by his father and had been nurtured by sheer necessity after becoming Ladybug.

After seeing one too many people becoming Akumatized due to fear while being trapped in Abusive relationships, Marinette knew that she needed to be able to help them. As Marinette, she couldn't do anything. As ladybug, she was able to find out where they lived and was able to guide them to the right lawyers that would happily take on pro-bono cases. When Lila had joined her class she knew that she wasn't looking at a girl who wanted attention, she was looking at an undiagnosed psychopath with a heavy dose of narcissism thrown in. She also knew that Lila was a pathological liar and that despite what Adrian had to say, taking the high road would not help them in the long run. Marinette knew that with so many enablers in her class she would have to work hard to get out as soon as she could. With this in mind, she threw herself into her studies. She was still Ladybug and she still did her duties as class president to the best of her abilities but she stopped doing all the extra things she had done for the class. Seeing how Adrian had refused to stand up for himself against Lila had made her realise that he would never stand up to his father either and had killed her crush on him faster than anything else could have. When Lila had pushed for her to be ousted as class president, Marinette had simply cancelled any plans she had made for the class, withdrew the money she had set aside out of her own pocket for any outings and dumped all the paperwork on Alya as Lila had said she couldn't run as president. She had then approached the student council and joined that instead as she knew that, while it was unlikely any prospective employer would care about it being on her resume, she wanted the experience. Her duties on the council were slightly less time consuming than the class president duties and she had used that time to push ahead in her studies. By the end of the year, she was a grade and a half ahead of the rest of her class. To hide how far ahead she was, she had asked Mr Damocles not to change her class but to rather let her teachers know that she was much further ahead than the rest of her class and to assign her work appropriately. He had readily agreed however it seemed Ms Bustier didn't read the memo. As a result, she handed all her work into Ms Mendeleiev instead. Ms Bustier got handed copies of her older assignments and any marks received from her were ignored by the school board. Ironically it was having to do this that brought Ms Bustier up in front of the school board for incompetence shortly after Marinette had graduated when Ms Bustier had tried to report Marinette for truancy. It was then that Lila's lies started to unravel but the grip she had on Marinette's old class was so tight that they didn't even notice when things were going wrong anymore. Less then a month after she had officially graduated from high school she had figured out who Hawkmoth was. She knew after the first time Chat had reacted negatively to the idea that Gabriel Agreste could be Hawkmoth, that he wouldn't be able to help her in the upcoming fight against him. So she went to master Fu with an idea. Make her parents temporary holders of the fox and turtle. Her father's build would provide the intimidation factor that they needed to scare Hawkmoth, while her mother could create decoys to distract Mayura. The key part of the plan would be to wait for Hawkmoth to Akumatize someone, then while chat distracts the Akuma, Ladybug, Tartaruga and Hú bù wǔ (Foxtrot) would head to the Agreste mansion to deal with Hawkmoth and Mayura. The took Master Fu as Serpens with them to collect and important documents that pertained to the miraculous as they didn't want to leave those in Gabriel's possession any longer than they had to. It didn't take long to convince her parents to be temporary holders, though neither Fu nor Marinette revealed that it was Marinette asking them for the favour and not Ladybug. They didn't have to wait too long to act on their plan either. Thankfully the Akuma that was sent out was a rather benign one that simply made anyone it hit speak what they were really thinking and while Chat had to work hard not to get hit, it wasn't causing any true damage. Hawkmoth went down relatively fast, to Ladybug's relief but Chat was still hissing angrily when she arrived a full hour later to the Akuma. One lucky charm later and the Akuma was defeated, however, Chat decided to let her know exactly how angry he was at being left to deal with it alone for so long. Marinette, as Ladybug, looked at Chat the whole time he was berating her, not giving her a chance to talk. Eventually, he seemed to run out of steam when Alya showed up for an interview and started to ask questions of her own. Ladybug had put a hand on her hip in annoyance by this stage and when she answered her voice was sharp. “Well, Chat if you had let me speak earlier you wouldn't be left looking like a fool now! To answer your question, the reason I was late is I had a lead on who Hawkmoth and Mayura were and I was acting on it.” Alya was the one to pick up on her word choice. “Were?” She asked. “Yes. Were. While Chat was keeping the Akuma occupied Tartaruga, Hú bù wǔ, Serpens and I were dealing with Hawkmoth and Mayura. They have been defeated and will no longer be attacking Paris. This is the last Akuma Paris will ever see.” Alya and Chat's jaws dropped. “But-” Chat didn't get the chance to continue as Serpens slipped behind him and removed his ring. Soon Adrian was standing where Chat had been just moments before. Alya instantly rounded on him asking questions by the dozen and Ladybug and Serpens slipped away unnoticed. They both dropped their transformation then she looked at Master Fu for a moment. “Master” he held up a hand then removed the snake miraculous and placed it in the box. “I am old Marinette,” he said sadly. “It's time I passed on the duties of Guardian as I will no longer be able to fulfil them. You may be young but you are wise and more importantly, you are ready. I hereby name you as Guardian of the miraculous.” As soon as he finished speaking a soft glow covered both of them. Master Fu smiled at her. “I have ten minutes before the memory erasure takes hold. Please stay safe Marinette, you have been a blessing to teach and I love you like a grandchild.” With that Marinette was left alone in the ally with the bag that held what felt like the weight of the world. When the news reached her a week later that he had died she insisted on being the one to arrange his funeral, getting help from Wayzz on what he'd have wanted. It was as Marinette was trying to decide what she wanted to study that she came across her first big stumbling block. What did she want to study more? Fashion or Law? She debated with herself for almost a week before Tikki, in a fit of frustration, had asked her why she didn't just study both. To Marinette, it was as though her path was suddenly clear. So she submitted her application to ESMOD with the plan to finish her fashion major there before heading to Harvard in the USA. To make sure she could get into Harvard when she finished at ESMOD, Marinette sent her application in at the same time as she sent her applications in at the same time, though she sent a letter with the one that went off to Harvard and was surprised to see she had been accepted into both. The committee at Harvard had been so impressed that she had planned so far ahead that they were holding a spot for her and she wouldn't have to re-apply when she had finished her other degree. Her time at ESMOD flew by with several of her teachers trying to get her to agree to go to work in a fashion house as soon as she graduated but Marinette stuck to her plan. She was using the money from her commissions to pay her way through her courses and for her transfer to America so she had taken to working at a coffee shop whenever she could, in order to have a little extra, just in case! She had also taken up dancing in her spare time, though she knew that that would always only be a hobby. Her time in Harvard got off to a rocky start. So rocky in fact that she reminded a number of the staff of Elle Woods. Marinette didn't let the rest of the student body know that they were getting to her however the staff saw it and decided to intervene. They contacted Elle and got her to come in for a guest lecture. They told her about Marinette and when Elle saw how similar they were she knew she had to help. It was then that a case dropped in her lap that she knew she would need help with. So she went to the Harvard board with an idea, let her take 4 students on to help her with the research and they would get to see how it really was in court as well as gain some real-world experience. The board loved her idea and soon the other lecturers had managed to get all of their first years students to apply. Marinette hadn't placed much hope in getting a position but had read up on the case anyway and she had several questions about what she had read. Soon the shortlist was posted on the announcements board and the news quickly spread around the campus. Marinette had been in a dance class so when she hears that she had been one of the ones chosen, she quickly went to double-check. She didn't want to show up only to find out it wasn't true after all. She was thrilled to see that she had been chosen and

ran to her dorm to make sure all of her notes where in order. The Kwami's all danced around her in celebration and helped get everything ready. Duusu went through Marinette's wardrobe to make sure she had the perfect outfit ready for her which had Marinette smiling happily. When she arrived at the meeting room she was nervous, but she relaxed slightly when given the brief. They were defending a man accused of killing his boyfriend when he had left him for someone else. Marinette had frowned when she heard that, something Elle noticed straight away. “What's wrong, Marinette?” Elle asked. “I'm not sure,” she answered, which made the other three laugh at her. “Probably doesn't understand the case as it doesn't involve fashion.” One said derisively. “It's not the case I don't understand. There's just something that doesn't fit with the police reports.” Marinette's voice was thoughtful and she had yet to look up from the file in front of her to judge any of their reactions. Her classmates were scoffing at Marinette's logic but Elle had a small smile on her face. Marinette had good instincts and Elle couldn't wait to see how Marinette would prove that their client was innocent. “Right Marinette seems to have a lead she would want to follow, what about you three? What's your take on this? If this was your case what would you want to know?” Elle asked. They didn't answer, how could they answer when they hadn't even looked at the case, they thought that they would just be watching the process not that they would be participating. “Ms Woods?” Marinette's timid voice startled them. “Yes, Ms Dupain-Cheng?” “Just Marinette, please. Anyway if our client was going to kill his boyfriend why was there no history of violence? Something doesn't add up here. From cases I saw in France if one partner was going to kill the other, there was generally several warning signs. I mean sure they could have come home one day and snapped but from our client's statement, it was an amicable break up with no hard feelings. Sure our client still loved the deceased but there is nothing that would indicate he could go into a murderous rage. In fact, if I look at his company log here our client was still at work when the crime happened. This company is infamous for having cameras everywhere because they have several high profile people that work with them, was any video footage pulled at any stage?” “Good! That is the type of thinking one would need when taking this case. Did you notice anything else?” Marinette frowned, there was something else but she just couldn't place it. It was only as she was sitting in court behind Elle that the thing that had been bugging her for weeks hit her. She waited for a recess before she said anything. “Ms Woods?” She started hesitantly. “Yes, Marinette?” “The shirt that was found that had the blood splatter on it was polyester, right? The type the new boyfriend wears.” “Yes, the prosecution said it was left behind by our client. Why?” “Well, I've noticed that our client only ever wears silk, linin or cotton designer shirts. Never polyester, so why would he have been wearing a polyester shirt that day? Is it possible that our client is allergic to polyester?” Elle looked at Marinette and smiled. “Why didn't I see that? They're not even the same size! Our client is at least 10 pounds heavier than the new boyfriend!” Marinette nodded then added, “Even if he had been wearing the shirt, it would sit differently on him causing the blood splatter pattern to be different. I know he doesn't have an alibi that can be proven and that this is a long shot but can we please check?” Elle agreed quickly and soon it was proven to have been impossible for their client to have done it. Something more caught Marinette's attention when the man, the new boyfriend, muttered something in French while still on the stand. The judge noticed Marinette's head shoot up with wide eye's and saw Marinette frantically write something down on her notepad and hand it to Elle. “Councillor Woods, your student seems to have something to add would you let her do so?” The Judge asked. Elle nodded and brought Marinette forward. The judge looked at Marinette and motioned for Marinette to speak. Marinette took a deep breath, “I'm sure you didn't mean for the mike to pick up what you just muttered in French but would you please repeat it so that the court can hear it?” The man narrowed his eyes but repeated his sentence quite calmly, he was relaxed as he thought that no-one in the room could French. His confidence took a hit however when Marinette smiled. “If it may please the court, what he just said translates to: 'This worked before, why did it fail this time?' I know you might not believe me but as everything is being recorded I beg of you to confirm my translation with other people who speak french.” The judge looked at her thoughtfully, then spoke: “How do you understand French?” Marinette was confused, “I thought my accent would have given that away, your honour. I am French. I grew up in France speaking French.” At her innocent statement, the witness exploded. “Why the hell he even come home that day the ex was meant to fetching some stupid MDC brand clothes that would never have suited me but that my boyfriend insisted we give back. He wasn't even meant to be home!” The court fell silent, then everyone started speaking all at once. The case got thrown out in much the same way Elle's first case had been and the other three students were stunned. “How did you know?” They demanded, rounding on Marinette as soon as they entered the room that they had all been using. Even Elle was a little curious she had to admit.” “What do you mean? If you talking about the allergy to polyester it was in one of the courses I took for my fashion degree that designers have to be careful to take textile allergies into account when designing.” Elle looked at her. “I knew you studied fashion, but so did I before I attended Harvard and that wasn't in any of my classes.” “I studied to be a fashion designer at ESMOD before I came here. I aim to be able to represent people in abusive relationships to help them get out of those situations. If I want to do that pro-bono I needed to have something else that I could do in order to support myself financially.” Her voice was innocent and honest but they could see the passion in her eyes as she spoke. “Why that area?” Marinette smiled again but this time it was a sad smile. “I grew up in Paris while a man called Hawkmoth was terrorising everyone to the point that people were locking away their feeling simply to stay safe. I saw several people get targetted simply because they were afraid of their partner for one reason or another. Sometimes they were able to get help to get out, but sometimes they weren't. Some of those that weren't couldn't get out because of not being able to afford a lawyer and I want to be able to help those that fall into that category.” For the first time since they met her, her classmates were quiet. They had thought she was there to get the attention of a rich guy who would support her. Elle smiled at Marinette's reason for studying law too then a thought hit her. “Wait, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, MDC, you're MDC aren't you?” Marinette laughed and nodded before answering. “Yes, I am but I wanted to be treated like an equal so I didn't advertise that fact.” Again her three classmates were stunned. This clumsy girl was a world-famous designer? How had they missed that? Elle seemed to get a little more flustered with each moment that passed. “But that means... And you know...” “Ms Woods, are you alright?” Marinette said quietly. “I'm still the same person you thought I was a moment ago. I'm still clumsy and prone to having anxiety attacks if I'm not careful. I'm human just like everyone else.” Technically she wasn't 100% human anymore due to being a miraculous wielder but no-one needed to know that. Eventually, Elle calmed down and thanked them for their help during the case. Their professors would be getting a copy of her reports on how they did as soon as she was finished them. She also promised that she would leave what she know knew about Marinette out of her report. She also wouldn't let that knowledge influence her report in any way. Eventually, Marinette graduated from Harvard, however before going back to France to set up her practice she decided to visit her long term pen-pal in Achu. Ali had been delighted when she arrived and soon Marinette had changed her mind about where she would set up her practice, deciding to stay in Achu full time. Her practice soon flourished as did her design business. However, the thing that flourished most of all was her relationship with Ali. What had started as a friendship and continued when they had agreed to email each other had grown into love without either of them noticing it. They kept their growing relationship out of the news and when they had decided to get married they made sure that news was kept silent too. It was on a rather warm Friday morning that Marinette got an email that she wasn't sure she wanted to answer. She had been invited to her 15-year school reunion. She spoke to Ali and they decided she would schedule a photo shoot in France that week and he would deal with several appointments there too and they would attend. She knew that she would be able to leave at any time so she wasn't too worried about that, however, she was 4 months pregnant, and she wanted to be careful. The photoshoots went well and it was finally the day of the reunion. Marinette decided to wear one of her designs, a simple navy-blue jumpsuit with a mandarin collar, embroidered with a geometric design in shades of blue that made the suit shimmer beautifully as she walked. She paired it with kitten heels, glad that her pregnancy wasn't showing

or affecting her balance in any way yet. Tikki had said that that was normal for all miraculous holders but Marinette still tended to err on the side of caution. When she arrived she saw that it wasn't just her old class that was there, which she was happy about. She had instantly gone to talk to Marc as she didn't want to deal with Alya or any of the others. This strategy had worked until Lila spotted her and decided to make a big scene about her being there. “I was invited Lila, I can pull up the email if you want me to and I can show you a printed copy if you still doubt me.” Marinette's voice was calm as she spoke. “Why would we want you here?” Alya spat. “She's allowed to go where ever she likes Alya, she's an adult.” Marinette turned to the sound of the male voice that had spoken. “Adrian,” she said calmly, giving him a nod of greeting. He was about to say more but Marinette's phone suddenly went off. She frowned then answered it appearing confused. She kept her conversation brief however in the time she was of the phone Lila had spun yet more lies about her. “It looks like somethings never change,” she said with a sigh. “What would a whore like you know?” Alya demanded. “Firstly, my wife isn't a whore. Secondly, as a major name in the fashion industry you'd think you would know better as any time she is seen out and about her name ends up plastered all over the papers.” Marinette leaned back into Ali's arms as he spoke, having felt him come to stand behind her earlier. “Ali,” she heard Rose gasp “But, Lila said...” “I do not know any Lila.” Ali interrupted sternly. “I don't know what she told you but I'd never even heard of her before you emailed me full of stories about her. Stories that a simple google search would and did disprove. It is due to those that I cut contact with you and blocked any further attempts you made to contact me.” Having said his bit, he looked down at Marinette who nodded. They ignored the shouting match that erupted behind them, opting to simply go back to their hotel room. Life would carry on either way and they knew they had a life with their growing family to look forward to.

#legally blonde #miraculous ladybug #smart marinette #hard worker marinette

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trueslove · 5 years ago

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✧･ﾟ: * ( park jiwon , cis female , she / her ) have you seen violet hwang around ? i hear the twenty-one year old is working as an art director . did you know they have 97 love alarm points ? if they ever want to be truly loved someday they should ease up on being temperamental & enigmatic . at least you can say they’re disarming & convivial, too. / love alarm blocked

hello ! im xan and ur watching d*sney channel ... just kidding we do NOT support big corporations who just wanna take ur money 😔 im 22 , from the est timezone ( even though my sleeping schedule ... does not reflect that sjbdwjkbdjdw ) & i go by she / her pronouns ! im gonna be honest this intro is gonna be completely winged so buckle up .... and meet violet 😋

━ ˙ ˖ ☆ quick stats + aesthetics !

full name: violet hwang.

nickname(s): vee, vivi.

zodiac: tba....

sexuality: bisexual.

birthplace: manhattan, new york.

current residence: toronto, canada.

aesthetics: maraschino cherries at the bottom of a glass, driving with the windows down at night, unanswered text messages, black nail polish, the sound of rain hitting the windowpane, kissing and not telling, smiles that don’t quite reach the eyes.

━ ˙ ˖ ☆ backstory !

was born and raised in nyc baby ! she’s a true city girl, grew up in lower manhattan ( the financial district if u wanna get specific ) to a family with lots of $$$$ thanks to her father’s position as a ceo of an investment bank located on wall street

life was pretty smooth until she was 17 and her father got arrested for embezzlement and fraud </3 it was actually a huge scandal for the investment bank he worked for because it was a whole group of higher ups who had been in on these crimes. basically a bunch of already rich men trying to get richer ... disgusting ik /:

her life changed pretty drastically after that ! the hwang name was all over the news, their family was pretty much disgraced by high society in nyc, not a very fun time for anyone but especially not for violet’s mom

after her dad got arrested violet was uhh high key furious with him for ruining their lives with his greed and she wanted nothing to do with him, but her mom couldnt let go. she was still defending him, spending the money they had left on lawyers which included the money the family had set aside for violet’s trust fund that she would have had access to once she was 18 </3

so her plans for college changed pretty drastically JSDBJWBDJW ( goodbye ivy league education ) she actually ended up getting into the university of toronto for visual studies on an academic scholarship

so she made the big move all on her own....moved into a tiny dorm...and vowed to reinvent herself. she didnt wanna be labeled as the daughter of a white collar criminal anymore so she just made it a point not to talk to much abt her past to anyone

her struggles as someone who grew up with $$$$ turning into a broke college student made for some embarrassing but funny moments <3 luckily though everyone else had their own struggles so no one found it suspicious JSBDJWBDJ

when love alarm launched three years ago, violet had just started college so it was really the Big thing anyone and everyone was talking about. since she’d never been a fan of other dating apps, she wasn’t gonna download it but her roommate at the time convinced her ! at first it was fun, just something she didnt take too seriously

fast forward to graduation and she’s snagged a job as an art director for a little local museum, doing freelance art directing on the side to help pay the bills. low and behold one day a photographer hires her to be the art director to a shoot they’re doing for a badge club member who was in a very high profile and public relationship at the time

violet ended up working with that photographer and badge club member a handful of times, enough for her to catch fee-🤢 catch feelin-🤢 i cant even say it .. she’d never rung anyone’s love alarm before, so of course her first time had to be with someone who was already taken </3 safe to say she ... freaked out

she was embarrassed above all else, but also heartbroken bc in her head like ... why would someone who literally is part of an exclusive club based on ppl ringing their love alarm care that she rung theirs ? she didnt think it’d be a big deal to them the way it was to her ( but also didn’t stick around long enough to find out jsxbsjbdjw )

when she was offered the block she didn’t hesitate to use it figuring it’s better if no one knows her romantic feelings ever again like that /: she’d delete the app but a part of her still likes knowing there are ppl out there who DO like her like that so ... Rip truly

━ ˙ ˖ ☆ personality + tidbits !

she comes across as ... kind of a bitch SDJBJWBJWBDW it’s truly not on purpose she just has a pretty serious resting expression most of the time ( so she looks mad or annoyed even when she isn’t ) and she’s pretty difficult to get to know ? not to mention the fact that no one has ever witnessed her ring someone’s love alarm .. so all that combined just makes it easy to assume she’s some sort of ice queen when that’s far from the truth /:

violet really isn’t one to open up too deep to people, but that’s got a lot to do with the past she’s kind of running away from ! so if you’re her friend most of the stuff you know about her is probably surface stuff, but when she’s close to someone she can make that fact hard to realize ? she just has a way with making the people in her life feel important so it’s easy not to be focused on how much you know about her

never bothers to correct the people that misjudge her. if you don’t like her, if you want to make up assumptions and rumors about her, go ahead like violet really won’t stop you which can sometimes make meeting new people difficult </3 if you’ve seen the dating class webdrama chuu was in she’s kinda like oh seyoung’s chara joowon 🤧

if she wants to, though, she’s pretty good at getting people to like her / trust her ! she does this a lot in professional situations, which is why she’s been doing so well as an art director so far despite being so young

she’s also very loyal to her friends ! if you can’t ask for extra sauces at mcdonald’s....if you can’t make a phone call to your credit card company explaining that a $3,000 charge to starbucks wasn’t you.....she’s your girl <3 since she’s relatively not bothered by the way people see her ( unless it has to do with her past ) she’s usually the one speaking up if someone she cares about can’t

after the ... incident ... JSDBWJDBWJ she’s really not a fan of the badge club and everything it stands for ): BUT she continues to do art directing work for a lot of the members when they do photoshoots, or instagram campaigns, or if they have a pop up shop, etc. it’s good money and she needs every penny considering she’s living without support from her family

cannot cook to save her life so she’s always eating out .. this really is why she’s taking those more high profile jobs she can’t budget .. but it’s better, safety wise at least, that she continues wasting her money on takeout aha <3

pretends she’s not a romantic and is all about the ~casual flings~ but really she’s just afraid of serious feelings and the idea of a serious relationship ... it’s the trauma 😔 constantly jokes shes gonna bring the tinder whore era back JWDBWJBDJW she is sick of this true love nonsense ! ( the irony of this url ahaha... )

she’s the most social after a few drinks, since drunk her isn’t burdened by a mind that overthinks literally everything the way she is sober. if you don’t supervise her though she can get pretty carried away and probably get into some kind of trouble so she’s definitely not the person you want to be in charge on a night out !

really wants a dog but doesn’t think she’s cut out to be a pet parent it feels just as scary as the idea of having an actual kid so ... BDWBDJW if you have a pet ? she’s gonna be living vicariously through you <3

━ ˙ ˖ ☆ wanted connections !

the photographer that hired her / introduced her to the badge club member she ended up having feelings for

the badge club remember she had / has feelings for because we love suffering 😈

old roommates from college !! maybe even the one that got her to download love alarm in the first place hehehe

also a current roommate / roommates because your girl can’t afford to live on her own <3

someone she’s confided in about her past ( maybe they judged her for it and had a falling out, or maybe they remain confidants )

an ex bf or gf she dated while she was in school ! she never rang their love alarm ( even though this was pre block ) so maybe that’s why things ended between them. or maybe they never rang each others and it was just a mutual thing where they both didn’t really have feelings for each other and tried to date anyway and it didn’t work. or perhaps they dated and when violet realized she was starting to have those feelings she dipped before she ever got a chance to ring their love alarm bc she didn’t want to be exposed like that and commitment is scary ):

spare best friend ? i’d use a knife emoji to show you how serious i am but i dont wanna scare anyone away aha .. i would just love a best friend plot 🥺

current flings / hookups or past flings / hookups ! i imagine most of them to not be serious but it would be kinda cool if there was someone she’s seeing now that she’s got the love alarm block that she’s actually falling for considering she’s never gonna be able to ring their love alarm hehehehe

people she art directs for !! i imagine she’s got a pretty long list of employers ( from badge club members to regular folk 🤧 ) so it would be cool to have people who hire her for stuff, or who collaborate with her for artistic endeavors since i’ve noticed we have a lot of artsy muses <3

ummm maybe an enemy. but where it’s like .. the hate isn’t even that deep it’s just like oh you dislike me ? well i dislike you FIRST 😠 and they insult each other and try and sabotage each other like five year olds fighting on the playground like it seems super serious to them but to everyone watching it’s like ... can you guys just get over it you dumb babies KSDBSDBWD like they could probably be good friends if they just .. stopped

and you’ve reached the end of this NOVEL of an intro post JDBJWBDJWBDW im literally so sorry i tried not to ramble but ..... its just who i am </3 please come shoot me a message to plot !!! you can use tumblr ims but im way more available / quicker to respond on discord so if u wanna add me there and plot u can find me at junhee mr. soft hands ʕ´• ᴥ•̥`ʔ#8172 i also did not check this post for typos so if u find one ... mind ur business 😭😭😭

#╰ ♡ . 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒅𝒖𝒎𝒃 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒔𝒔 ── ooc ! ┘#lovealarm.intro #HELPSDBWJD finally i finished.....im so sorry in advance this is . so long #also im going out in like 2 hours to eat so if im slow to respond to messages tonight u know whats going on <33333

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queerofcups · 5 years ago

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By the amount of fic I read and how bad my memory is I'm still not surprised that I remember exactly what happens in your fic a superstar, a year on and I'm still so intrigued as to what would've happened next it was so good and such an interesting take on kid fic ugh your mind blows me away with your creativity and conception of plot

oh wow, a superstar! barring something truly unexpected that’s gonna be a forever WIP, so here anon, is what happens next along with a shit ton of backstory

Backstory / Outline

Dan’s been an au pair since he was 20. He’s only had a few families (because he’s so good and they love him) who all swear by him. Families who can afford nannies are, by nature of the job, usually wealthy. Families that can afford an au pair, particularly one of his rate and reputation, are usually quite wealthy. He hasn’t broken into the big Old Money leagues quite yet, but he finds the nouveau riche to be a little more flexible as far as Dan’s style and general deportment.

Of course, working primarily with new money means he’s often working with celebrities. They’re British, so the celebrity culture isn’t nearly as rabid as it is in America.

But he does have a respectable stack of clippings from gossip mags that have identified him as someone’s mysterious new lover or piece on the side.

He doesn’t blink at Bryony’s assignment of one last job: Phil Lester.

Lester’s been making a comeback in the last couple of years, rebuilding his cultural cache after a few years outside of the spotlight. Bryony swears it's a short job, nothing like the last years-long job he just wrapped up.

Dan’s loathe to admit it, but part of the reason he’s hesitant to take on another job, other than wanting a career change, is that leaving families wears on him.

He’s not that breed of caretaker who can separate himself from his families. Some of these kids he’s watched grow from little lumps of cute into real humans with opinions and preferences and it can be hard to let go.

Which is why, when he meets Sophia, he knows he’s screwed because she’s a firecracker of a kid and he falls a little in love with her as soon as they meet.

Note: Sophie’s real first name is Manon

Dan’s bi and ends up helping Phil work through some of his own stuff about being pretty much gay, but having been in love with Margaux

He’s got depression and a touch of anxiety and explains those to Sophia at some point.

He knows he’s in when he realizes he’s been looking up tutorials for styling curly hair online.

Phil

Former youtuber that won a contest to be on a couple episodes of some failing TV show & became a dark horse who ends up getting picked up for a few other shows and eventually (shortly) makes the jump to film.

The industry falls all over themselves to talk about how -nice- he is, how -polite-

It's untreated anxiety that leaves him bordering on panic attacks at every red carpet debut but he never says that.

It gets worse after he’s caught coming out of a gay bar, mouth still attached to some boy

It's not exactly homophobia that drives him out. People are kind and don’t say anything to his face.

But suddenly they want to know things.

How long has he known?

What's his type?

They want him to be a role model and he just wants to live

It's an easy decision. It's so easy to walk away he almost feels guilty. He loves acting, so much it surprised him when he first started, but he knows he can’t stop doing it.

So he stops taking roles. He doesn’t sign any new contracts. He nods and smiles when people tell him he’s making a mistake and he pickets his last checks.

He doesn't go far, just moves to a smaller apartment in London, in a less ritzy area and waitings until people stop trying to follow him home.

It's not a meltdown, no matter what The Sun (?) says. The fame just starts to feel like a cold hand around his throat and he gets out before it starts to squeeze.

There are people who understand and they’re proud of him. That feels awkward too, but nothing like the gaze of the public.

He can eventually go back to school, for video editing, and he has a few things with guys that are short term.

Which is fine. He’s young enough that he’s allowed to be restless and a little freewheeling.

Margaux is...was...is a shock to his system.

She’s a second generation French-American who moved to London so she can be boring in peace.

(She’s French & Creole specifically. Sophia’s legal name is Manon Sophia Ange Siméon Lester. Obviously she only goes by Sophia Lester for the most part. Her maternal relatives aren’t pleased with that)

Margaux’s family was small when they met and only got smaller over the years they knew each other until it feels like it's just them and Sophia.

The thing is, Phil never called himself gay. The press did.

But he would now. Because he knows that there won’t be other women after Margaux. He knows it's unhealthy, but it's better than deciding there will never be anyone else at all.

They were friends. They’d never called themselves anything more than that--not before Sophia and not after.

Sophia is nearly seven with Margaux goes on the trip. They’d lived together on and off, so it's nothing strange for her to be with Phil rather than one of her two remaining maternal grandmothers.

Phil is Sophia’s father, legally, biologically, all the way. But he sometimes feels like the most out of place person in her life. He doesn't know how to express to Sophia how much he loved Margaux while still being a mostly-gay man.

Phil’s weirdness about bisexuality (his own and the very idea) is a sticking point between him and Dan

Sophia knows and doesn’t particularly get why the delineation matters. All she knows is her Dad sometimes acts unsure of his own Dadness.

Margaux dies because of a head injury. She’d gone on an extended vacation with friends and gone bike riding without a helmet and fell. The friends took her to a clinic and she’d gotten a bandage for the scrapes to her forehead, a scolding and a clean bill of health. She’d skyped with them that night and made jokes about ruining her moneymaker. In the morning, she was gone.

People in Phil’s life, his relatives and former friends, characterize Margaux as a funny little deviation that would have just faded into a fun story if not for Sophia. Phil doesn’t argue, because he doesn’t want to upset things)

Dan realizing that Phil loved her is a moment of breaking through Phil’s shiny veneer of untouchable politeness)

When Phil decided to start acting again, he’s not expecting things to progress as quickly as they do. He knows that people were impressed with him when he was younger. He’s shocked to hear words like “critically acclaimed” get thrown around. He was just a kid escaping into the lives of people who had bigger problems than him.

But he reaches out, because he misses it and he’s tired of being a not-widower, hanting everywhere he goes, and the roles come.

And the gaze comes with them. There are small things. A c-plot role, a secondary character. A lead role from a smaller studio. And then a big break comes across his desk. It's a middling role, but everyone that gets top billing comes with an Academy Award attached. And there are explosions in the script. The kind that mean a summer blockbuster. He takes it, and suddenly, he’s on the edges of spotlight again.

Phil knows what he looks like. Internet star turned film star who goes gay, disappears for a few years, then returns, unpartnered with a brown, French speaking, half-American (half black America) pre-teen in tow. He looks like a ton of clicks, maybe a record number of copies sold.

Soph is 11.

He takes the role and calls Bryony directly, because there’s no way he can do this alone.

Part One: Meeting

Dan’s finishing up his first month back home after leaving a family. He’s got scripts on his desk--good, meaty roles that have him thinking he might not take another family on, yet.

Bryony calls, which is interesting. She’s the head of the agency & they’re friendly but not on phone call terms.

She offers him the job. He initially refuses. She admits it's a personal favor kind of job, and temporary and she wants her best on it.

Dan agrees to a chemistry meeting.

They meet up, Sophia charms dan and he still says no.

She comes with a short term nanny because her dad’s running late.

Phil shows up & Dan’s jaw clenches because PHil’s the kind of rung-jumping acting success story that Dan’ resents.

So he’s sarcastic and a little cross because he hates that and the choir boy facade Phil puts on

Maybe he makes a euthanasia joke? Or something about an uncaring universe that goes over Sophia’s head.

Except Phil laughs and doesn't glanced nervously at Sophia the way parents do sometimes when dan gets a little dark.

Phil finally sends Sophia off to buy a cupcake so he can be alone and upfront with Dan.

He explains that it won’t be a long term job, just the 9 months he needs to be in America to shoot and then Dan is free.

“This is just the first time we’ve done this,” Phil says, watching Sophia through the window. “And I want to give Soph the best. She deserves the best. Better than that.”

And Dan’s a goner. He’s still a businessman, so he asks for time to consider and sends his terms of employment to the agency’s lawyer. But he knows he’s going to do it. He makes a mental note to look up a list of tutors if they don’t already have one hired.

Part 2: Getting to Know Each Other

Dan makes the assumption that Sophia is adopted & Phil awkwardly corrects him--this is the beginning of their conflict over the word bisexual.

Phil’s never had an au pair, so he’s uncomfortable with how *there* Dan suddenly is. He doesn’t move into their London flat because there’s not room for him but they start preparing for the move & he’s got experience in ordering houses for that, more than Phil does.

They don’t have any other staff. Sophia will get a tutor in America, but she’s finishing her year in school & Phil lives well within his means, small flat, they cook for themselves and the cleaning lady visits once a week. Dan’s the only one there all the time & despite all his years of experience, he feels invasive. But he also gets to see how close Phil and Sophia are, including watching them do “homework” together, Sophia doing equations & Phil running lines.

They go to America. Phil’s one movie has turned into parts in three movies. In one he’s playing a semi-serious playboy villain who was once the husband of the (superhero) lead. In another, he’s a professor/mentor in a teen dramedy. In the last one, the blockbuster/oscar bait, he’s playing a man whose life is ruined by the rise of the regime the main cast is fighting. Dan thinks the last one is the only one that sounds interesting. But he’s impressed with Phil’s handling of learning all the scripts. They’re surprisingly disparate characters. The playboy is, at his core, a sleaze that covers himself in a fine patina of British politeness. The professor is clearly meant to be someone whose awkwardness translates into the kind of cool kids would find appealing & Phil manages to strike the balance gamely. And the last one is...it's Oscar bait and even though Phil’s part isn’t big enough to get him supporting actor billing Dan can see him prepare to give a career-changing, maybe even life changing performance.

The first two he practices in front of them. Dan gets sick of the lines, finds himself muttering them along with Phil as he makes Sophie’s snacks.

The other one, only Dan sees.

He doesn’t at first. For a while Phil locks himself away in his room and Dan can only hear the muffled yelling of a one sided argument.

But one night he’s sitting, looking out over the city, thinking about going to bed when Phil comes out and asks him, sheepishly, if he’ll listen and tell Phil if he sounds wooden.

Dan agrees and they sit at the kitchen table. Phil takes a long, steady breath and suddenly there are tears. He holds his head just slightly higher, proudly, and there’s suddenly a stoney archness Dan’s never seen on him before.

“And so that’s it,” Phil says, his voice cold, closed off and defeated. “Eleven years and you hand me over to your precious leader.”“Josiah,” Dan says, looking at the script. “You have to understand. I had no choice--”“Coward,” Phil says. It's a simple word but still feels like it pierces Dan’s core.“My darling,” Dan says. “Please.”Phil stands. Dan watches him. “Remember that.” He stalks around the table, his eyes still shining with tears. “When I am on my knees, begging for life, when they’ve made you my executioner.”He steps closer, standing a hair too close to Dan, and says, anguished, “Remember that I was once your darling. Your beloved. Your love.”Dan is rapt, waiting for the next line, but Phil clears his throat and takes a step back. “And then they kiss and Josiah leaves,” Phil says, suddenly back in his own body and self. “What d’you think?”“Wow,” Dan says, hoping his face isn’t betraying his surprise that Phil can actually, really act. “Um. It’s good. Your movements could be a little smoother. They were together, right? So Josiah should be used to getting in--what’s her name?”“His,” Phil says, settling back into his kitchen chair. “Theodore. Theo.”“Woah,” Dan says before he thinks better of it. “You’re playing gay?”Phil quirks an eyebrow, “It's not really...playing?”Dan waves a hand, “Obviously. But that’s a big choice, role-wise. You aren’t afraid they’ll just see you as the gay one?”Phil stares at him, brows furrowed until Dan mouths, “What?”“You do know...about me, right? How my career got started? And why I stopped? I’m already the gay one.”“But you have a choice. I’m not saying you should change your mind. The film industries closet shit is bullshit. But you have a choice.”“Dan. I know. And the choice is what I get to be private about. An actor--a celebrity who isn’t trying to walk back their youthful indiscretion is way more interesting than a mostly gay man with a kid and a dead...Margaux.”Dan feels...so many things. “You can’t hide Sophie. She’s your kid.”“I’m not hiding her,” Phil says, and Dan knows immediately that this isn’t the first time Phil’s heard this exact argument. “I’m protecting her.”

Dan keeps agreeing to run lines with Phil. He never asks for the script, so he learns Josiah through Phil, the early scenes where he’s playful, teasingly sensual, his deteriorating life and mental state and the way he dies.

They don't run those lines when Sophie is home. It's understandable. It's unsettling for Dan, an adult who understands the depths you can get to while acting, to watch Phil muss himself up and drop unceremoniously to his knees, hands clasped behind himself. It's a short scene & Dan knows the public will be outraged with the scene. But every time he reads his own lines, a choked, delicate line of “I have to.”Phil nails it with workman’s precision everytime, He looks slightly past Dan, huffs a soft broken laugh and says, so quiet and tender, so full of betrayal. “You’ll never forget this day, Theo.” Dan doesn’t know what happens in the rest of the movie, but he’d pay the price of admission to watch Phil say that sentence.He’s been convinced, won over, sold & transported.

The fic doesn't end after they hook up for the first time, follows them through figuring out that this can’t be a one time thing and they both want this to last. Phil encouraging Dan to take on acting and not just because they can’t be together publicly while Dan is Sophie’s au pair.

Ending of the fic is Sophie and Dan hanging out at the Oscars (or BAFTAs?) waiting for Phil to come out of the bathroom. It's a few years later (enough years that Dan should probably be freaked out about how many of the actresses he and Soph agree are super hot) and Phil’s up for an Oscar for best supporting actor.

*At some point they get drunk together (after some terrible award show?) and talk about their first and best times with men and Dan accidentally dirty talks to Phil because he’s drunk and reminiscing about some truly outstanding cock he’s had in his day.

#phanfic #phanfiction #Anonymous

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progressivejudaism · 7 years ago

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I have included the entire text of this article. It is worth reading the entire text here from Rabbi Aaron Brusso of Bet Torah of Mt.Kisco, New York’s beloved Armondo:

A week before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer told him he was going to a detention facility, Armando, our synagogue’s custodian for two decades, had come in to work on President’s Day to be there for my family as we held a small service to celebrate my son’s upcoming bar mitzvah.

Afterwards, as we ate lunch, Armando stood at a distance smiling. A week later, when I spoke to him in custody, he said through tears, “I have seen your son grow. I wanted to be there for the big celebration. ”My son, by happenstance of birth, is a United States citizen, and simply by reaching the age of 13 he becomes a full citizen of our religious community. Armando has worked and lived in this country more than twice as long as my son has been alive, has two boys of his own, no criminal record, steady employment and a community of hundreds of families who love him.

Yet in an instant, he was taken away.

Like my son, I did absolutely nothing to earn or deserve my citizenship, it was gifted to me at birth because of a decision my great-grandparents made. I didn’t have to work for it, sacrifice for it, travel for it. It was given to me before I knew to dream of it, before I knew what dreams were.

We enjoy tremendous privilege and access simply because we were born in the right place at the right time. Not so for Armando.

We got a call that Armando had been arrested over the weekend and was in the county jail. He was in a restaurant with family when a fight broke out. The police were called and they arrested a number of people, including Armando. Aside from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he was completely exonerated in court.

But during his time in the county jail, ICE was sent a list of inmates. An ICE officer came to the jail to let him know he was going to be brought into detention.

Armando came to this country nearly 30 years ago. In the 20 years he worked in our synagogue, he paid social security, Medicare, state and local taxes. As far as we were concerned he belonged in every way. But others apparently saw that differently.

As soon as Armando was in ICE custody, our community sprang into action. As a rabbi, it has been particularly moving to see my synagogue live out the value of chesed, or loving-kindness. Community members collected money, secured legal representation and wrote dozens of letters attesting to his character. We reached out to his family and assured them we would be there for them and would not let him be deported.

One family’s letter mentioned that Armando was a guest reader in their child’s preschool classes. Another parent talked about how Armando convinced her hesitant son to get out of the car and go inside for religious school. Then there was the parent who had a medical emergency and had to rush a child to the hospital with only time to ask the closest adult — Armando — if he would get her other son after class and stay with him. I was so used to seeing Armando taking care of our families that I was a bit ashamed of how little thought I had given to him being a father to his own sons.

I accompanied Armando’s son to visit his dad while he was being held at the county jail. Armando looked at his son and said “I don’t want you to stop your education. I want you to have what I didn’t.” I imagined the same conversation between my great-grandfather and my grandfather, just with a Yiddish accent.

The attorney we found worked quickly to put together a plea for a stay of deportation and get in touch with immigration authorities. He put together a character profile, but how do you characterize the look of embarrassment on Armando’s face when the synagogue staff brought out a cake and sang happy birthday to him? Or the way he made our kids feel at home when they high fived him in the hallways? Or the smile on his face when he would explain to people how often he brought his own son to synagogue? “He grew up here,” Armando would say.

The ICE officer, who the lawyer informed us had complete say over Armando’s fate, didn’t return the attorney’s call for days. A week after Armando entered ICE detention, I called the attorney to check in. “An hour ago, he was taken from the detention facility and is being moved,” the lawyer reported. “We don’t know where to. All they know is that he is in transit.” The only way Armando’s family knew any of this was because the attorney had reached out to ICE.

Later that day, Armando called his family from Tijuana, Mexico, his country of birth. He had been brought over the border and left without bank cards, cash, cell phone or ID. He was given no time to gather any belongings or to call his family to say goodbye. As Armando told his son, an ICE officer who escorted him with others to the border told the group, “You’ll all probably get kidnapped.”

When I heard that, I thought about how carefully Armando cared for the families in our community and how unthinkable it would be for him to purposefully cause anyone discomfort or fear. Earlier, when rhetoric around immigration was heating up and people born in Mexico were being referred to as drug dealers and rapists, I had stopped Armando in the hallway; I felt the need to apologize for the cruelty we in the United States had enabled. He shook his head and said, “I just don’t understand why people need to talk like that.”If crossing a border to seek a better life is in and of itself such a crime, why would anyone need to characterize people like Armando as cruel and brutal? If anything, the exaggeration reveals how insufficiently transgressive it is to dream of a better life. If anything is brutal, it’s the enforcement system itself. It is now built for speed and efficiency, for maximum action and minimum thought. When we don’t feel the need to understand a person’s story,

it becomes much easier to taunt them with fears of being kidnapped. In fact, it becomes necessary, because if we all realized immigrants were human beings, who could sleep at night?

But didn’t he break the law by coming here? If we are a nation of laws then don’t we have to respect the law? Good people, people who love Armando have asked these questions. I think it’s important to make a distinction between procedural justice, the idea that the law should be applied equally, and substantive justice, the notion that law should produce good in the world. Right now we are applying the law strongly and across the board. But we also have to own the consequences of doing so. We are breaking up families that include U.S. citizens, depriving them of income and taking parents away from children. We are creating greater dependencies in our society and millions are vulnerable to this fate. Circumstances change. What begins with good intentions can end in cruelty. It is possible for a law to be both legal and cruel at the same time. Like good parenting (don’t drink, but if you do I’ll come pick you up no questions asked) it is possible to send clear, mixed messages.

A pathway to citizenship can be created for those who are here at the same time as laws for orderly entry are reaffirmed. We can apply the law equally and assure that it produces good in the world. We can reestablish the integrity of our communal body without losing our soul. Apparently these kinds of distinctions were appreciated by a judge in New York. Shortly after Armando was deported we found out that the motion for stay of deportation had been granted. Department of Homeland Security acknowledged receiving it, the day after Armando was deported.

Now Armando’s absence weighs on me. Before February, every day rushing to a class, a meeting or a counseling session, I would catch Armando out of the corner of my eye and we would quickly smile and wave. Since he was taken, there have been moments where I thought I saw him and turned, but there was nobody there. A phenomenon even more painful for his sons.

After Armando was dropped off with nothing across the border he made his way to relatives. We didn’t hear anything from him for 24 hours. I finally got a text from his son saying his dad was ok. We have been in almost daily contact with the family since. His oldest son is incredibly positive, but I have talked to him enough to have built up trust.

Through tears he will say that he just wants to get his dad back. Recently, a delegation from my synagogue joined Armando’s son and flew down to San Diego to meet Armando in Tijuana. We wanted to be with him as he walked to the border to seek asylum.

They told us that they did not have the “capacity,” and turned him away.

We will try again soon.

One thing is for sure: our community will not give up. As I crossed back into the U.S. from Mexico, having left Armando behind, I handed over my passport to be scanned. For the first time I did so without pride. I was a citizen, but of what kind of country? The irony is that in enforcing so callously the line between citizen and non-citizen, we don’t affirm, but actually cheapen, the meaning of citizenship.

As citizens, we are all implicated in our country’s behavior. If human beings without our status can be treated, in our names, in such cruel and thoughtless ways, then of what value is our status? The truth is that when Armando was taken, we didn’t just remove a father from his family and a member from a community, we deported a piece of our humanity as well.

The picture I can’t get out of my mind is of Armando and his son holding each other and saying goodbye through tears last week in Tijuauna. This past week I stood next to my son as he read from the Torah for the first time. Fathers have so many hopes for their sons.I hope my son uses his unearned citizenship to make this country worthy again of people like Armando.

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unbreakmyharlem · 6 years ago

Text

"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro," by Frederick Douglass.

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....

...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America.is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Amercans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their mastcrs? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....

...Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. -- Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.

The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 'Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto Ood." In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the year of jubilee The wide world o'er! When from their galling chains set free, Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee, And wear the yoke of tyranny Like brutes no more. That year will come, and freedom's reign, To man his plundered rights again Restore.

God speed the day when human blood Shall cease to flow! In every clime be understood, The claims of human brotherhood, And each return for evil, good, Not blow for blow; That day will come all feuds to end, And change into a faithful friend Each foe.

God speed the hour, the glorious hour, When none on earth Shall exercise a lordly power, Nor in a tyrant's presence cower; But to all manhood's stature tower, By equal birth! That hour will come, to each, to all, And from his Prison-house, to thrall Go forth.

Until that year, day, hour, arrive, With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive, To break the rod, and rend the gyve, The spoiler of his prey deprive -- So witness Heaven! And never from my chosen post, Whate'er the peril or the cost, Be driven.

#frederick douglass #fourth of july

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eloquent-tantrums · 4 years ago

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Response to the Samara Centre's "Flip the Script" MP Exit Interviews (vol II)

Morden, Michael, Jane Hilderman, and Kendall Anderson. 2018. “Flip the Script: Reclaiming the legislature to reinvigorate representative democracy.” MP Exit Interviews: Volume II. Toronto: The Samara Centre for Democracy. https://www.samaracanada.com/docs/default-source/reports/flip-the-script---by-the-samara-centre-for-democracy.pdf?sfvrsn=2d09002f_2

“I laid down the F-bomb a couple times. In the Whip’s office… And the lawyer comes in and says, ‘Well, you can’t do this.’ And I said, ‘I tell you what.’ I says, ‘The House is recessed. We’re the only ones here.’ I said ‘You find a fucking spare for me. And I know you can’t.’ And I walked out. And I went back in the committee room and I just sat in my chair and waited. [They] came in and said, ‘OK. We’ll have your—your amendment will go through.’ (Morden et al. 2018, 23)”

If the picture the Samara Centre paints of modern-day Parliament is an accurate one, perhaps its Members ought to be using more “f-bombs.” Morden et al. open the analysis claiming, “representative democracy is in trouble (Morden et al. 2018, 4).” They capture some astonishing personal insight from former MPs, which they use as a basis to conclude: “To make meaningful change, priority must be given to reforms that can alter the incentive and power structure within Parliament (ibid, 33).” They go on to make the case for beginning with reforming committees, which will “offer the best promise to empower MPs. (ibid)” In this analysis, I will call into question Samara’s conclusions, offering instead that Members can best reform Government toward representative democracy in Canada by using collective action with a hardened focus on representing their constituents. Or as the former Member (quoted above) so eloquently put it, for party Whips to “find a fucking spare for (them)” when MPs “know (they) can’t.” (ibid, 23)

Political parties are, or ought to be, a national example of the power of collective action. Theoretically, they’re filled with experts on campaigning, on rallying for causes, on pushing through bureaucracy, and on forming a united front to make big, important changes. However, after 54 interviews, a key takeaway from MPs in this study was that being a Member of Parliament is having a “job with no description,” (ibid, 4) implying that many who run for office don’t fully understand what they’re running for. Accounts of debate periods in the House of Commons describe them as “scripted, theatrical and playing to an empty house”, as well as “show business for ugly people” who “read from a script with a different conclusion”, making “no attempt to address” one another’s arguments (ibid, 13). While this clearly raises important considerations for how our Parliament functions, one must also ask how new Members seem to simply adapt, or take this in stride, when they’ve spent months or years committing themselves to serving their constituents. According to the study:

Leaders have grown in strength and capacity relative to the party caucus. Unelected staffers to the leader—the ‘boys (and girls) in short pants’—carefully manage the party brand. As the MPs in our first round of interviews explained, any dissent from the party leadership is rare, inconsequential and swiftly punished. Step out of line, even on an ostensibly free vote, and ‘your name’s now on somebody’s hit list.’ (ibid, 9)

Assuming this were just a result of party leadership, one would expect leadership changes to have an impact. Nearly every party in Parliament had faced leadership changes in the studied duration (2011-2015). If those leadership changes did not have an effect, one must ask: at what point do the Members themselves become complicit? Why didn’t this lead to more leadership reviews? Why weren’t they able to caucus around these shared experiences, or the crisis some have claimed is happening, going so far as to describe that Government’s actions as “autocracy faking it as democracy (ibid, 15),” or more aptly, “evil (ibid, 20).”

Morden et al. present a solution that includes a possible “second chamber” for “more opportunities to hold the Government to account (ibid, 17).” But if Members aren’t performing that key aspect of their role in the first chamber, why should we expect any different in the second? They claim this solution could “provide opportunities to reach the public in creative ways (ibid),” but as members of the public, do we really want our tax dollars going to what are essentially in-office campaigns, or do we want our representatives to do their jobs, even if it means stepping “out of line” (ibid, 9)? If anything resembling campaigns must be run while our Members are serving their term in office, why not caucus to change the circumstances that stand in their way, within their own parties and across party lines? Surely if anyone has the capacity to rally their colleagues toward a cause that benefits everyone involved, professional politicians ought to. Referencing a study by Vox Pop Labs, Morden et al. recount that “Canadians want to see clear lines of accountability, but also collaboration across parties (ibid, 11).” While this may be true in part, it seems to be missing an essential clause: “collaboration across parties” for the good of their constituents.

Reforming committees may be necessary, but it ought to be done in a way wherein Members are working on projects that directly impact the issues facing the communities in their ridings. Forming a deeper knowledge of subject matter is great, if that subject matter is related to one’s campaign promises. Reforming debates may be needed, but we need to be able to trust our MPs to use the time allotted to them to fight for us. This leaves Private Members’ Business, which is clearly not a winning mechanism to put bills forward, particularly with MPs hoping not to be called in the lottery system (ibid, 28).

But still, I’d point to PMB as key. Reform this as a practice. The only time an individual party member should need to go out on a limb is when their constituency has a unique need that cannot be met in any other way. But the lottery system must be replaced with collaborative action that focuses on the shared needs of ridings across the nation—not simply a meritocracy (ibid, 32). We ought to be seeing regional coalitions, language coalitions, coalitions for minority rights, for access to clean water and accessible health care, and so much more. To go through these procedures and collectively agree on only one thing, which is to waste time, is an insult to those suffering who held belief that their elected official would make things better. The performative bills, such as whichever one led to “National Appreciation Day (ibid, 29)” have got to stop. The example given by Morden et al. of “the MP who lobbied heavily among other parties, including the Liberals” and “infected and corrupted well over half (Ignatieff’s) caucus to (their) bill (ibid, 30)” should not be a one-off story, but the norm of what it means to work in Parliament. Perhaps if our Members shared this view, there wouldn’t be such hard lobbying required.

The problem at hand is the future of representative democracy. Creating additional bureaucracy like second chambers (ibid, 17) and more tenured committee positions (ibid, 25), sounds not only like more imposition in the face of action, but just as corruptible long-term as the status-quo. While Morden et al. may want to see MPs finding their voice among committees, one has to ask if that fulfils the issue at hand, or even helps define this “job with no description (ibid, 4).” Members of Parliament run for their ridings, bringing promises of change and better futures for their constituents. One Member had this to say:

These people pour out their hearts to us, as witnesses. And spend untold hours on a 10-minute presentation. And if nothing they say makes the slightest bit of difference, we’re making a mockery of the whole system. And it’s evil. (ibid, 20)

The Member in question was speaking to their work on committees. But isn’t that what happens every time they fail to act on promises made to those who put their trust into them as their representative? To those who send emails, make phone calls, campaign for them, or even make sacrifices in order to place their ballot? If Members are willing to be bullied into abandoning what they chartered as their core principles while Canadians in their ridings lack clean water, adequate healthcare, employment, education, shelter, or other very basic needs, it is difficult to find sympathy for their conflicted position, or the fact that “career success only comes with a role in Cabinet, or on the frontbenches of the Opposition (ibid, 33).”

To conclude, I’ll pose a question the Members who participated in this study, as well as any acting or aspiring Members who may chance upon this critique: being a Member of Parliament may be a job, but it’s not a career. It’s a role one ought to take with the utmost humility, with the weight of the thousands of constituents they’ve sworn to support. Is it harder than it needs to be? Likely. But perhaps before you next take a seat in the House of Commons, ask yourself the following: Are you willing to have those constituents’ backs? Are you willing to put in the groundwork on the Hill and caucus for change, even when it’s difficult? Will you be able to boldly say: “You find a fucking spare for me. And I know you can’t. (ibid, 23)”

#canada #parliament #members #democracy #flipthescript #f bomb

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wordsaremything · 7 years ago

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Family Business

Summary: Helena Wayne is a lawyer at her father’s company after criminal law proved too much for her. However, she can’t seem to escape it.

2012 words

A black car pulled in front of the Wayne Building in Gotham, letting Helena out before the revolving double doors. She put her bag on her shoulder and closed the door behind her. Her driver put the window down. "Five o'clock?" he called out to her. "Five," she agreed. Then she paused because her assistant had just run out the door looking harried. "Make that six, Fertie," Helena added. "You got it." Helena approached the door with a raised eyebrow. Her assistant forced a smile. "Morning!" she chirped as if nothing was wrong, but Helena could see that there was. "Morning, Asha," she said, and the two of them pushed through the revolving doors. They waved at the front desk, Helena swiped her company ID, and they continued past the turnstiles to the elevators. "How's everything looking?" "Good. Interns got here early and filed everything left over from last night, so that's all done. I sent them on a coffee break." "I'm sure they appreciate that. Was it done right?" "Checked it myself." "Beautiful. The Magdah case?" "Mag's law office called this morning, and it's Leffler–" Helena sneered at that. "–and he wants to meet with you before any contracts are drawn. I told him your lunches are full and you'll get back to him." "Yeah, when pigs fly. Magdah ought to be happy we want them, they'll be bankrupt in a year without us. I hate small talk over a $20 salad when I could do real work." The elevator pinged on the eleventh floor. "You could get a $20 glass of wine and then pretend to want to pick up the check. You know he'll insist he get it." "This is why we're a team, Asha," Helena continued with a smirk as she walked down the hall towards her office. The term 'her office' was relatively new, but it did have a plaque with her name on it, so it looked official. Being a lawyer at Wayne Enterprises came with its perks.

When inside, she put her bag on the desk and pulled out a MacBook. "And the Cooper case?" Once again Asha looked stressed. She hesitated, and Helena took it open herself to say, "What now?" Martin Cooper was an employee of the family business at the Metropolis branch when the upper floors of the building were taken out by a hijacked plane. The plane –of course– was quickly under control but only after the building was hit. Martin Cooper was injured, as many others were, by the crash but refused to let it end at the Wayne Foundation covering the damages. Instead, he sued the company for unsafe working conditions and he refused to settle. It was stupid and Helena hated it. "The time of the hearing has been pushed up," Asha told her. "To when?" "Today." Helena could have crushed the laptop in her hands if she tried hard enough given the frustration she felt at that statement. But she just took a breath and gently placed it down in front of her. "What time?" "1:30." Shit. Her dad had wanted to be there for the hearings, obviously, considering he was the CEO. But considering he was flying a plane to Iceland at the moment with the League, there was no way he would get to a meeting at 1:30. But there was a backup. "Okay," said Helena with a decisive nod. Asha immediately got out a pen to write things down, knowing that tone right away. "Call my mother. Tell her what's going on and to put on her most intimidating dress. She'll go with me, dad won't mind." Asha gave a nod. "Consider it done. Do you need anything else?" She shook her head. "I have work to do." Asha nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her. Helena sat at her desk, opened her computer, and prepared the Cooper case.

At one o'clock on the dot, Asha knocked and pushed Helena's door open. The latter looked up. "Your mom just walked in," said the assistant Helena smirked. "This ought to be good." The two women wandered into the hallway outside Helena's office and watched. Employees scattered around, trying to clean things, organize, spray air freshener. "Mrs. Wayne has entered the building," said a passing editor to an intern when they walked by Helena and Asha. The former snorted and leaned against the wall. "Maybe we should warn them next time," she muttered to Asha. The other girl smiled. "Then we wouldn't get this." "It's always fun to entertain the idea of making people’s lives easier." The elevator pinged and employees scattered to their positions. Someone even froze at the opening to the break room with the bowl of snacks. The doors slid open and Selina Kyle strutted down the hallway, and she did look her most intimidating. Black Gucci dress, leather Birkin bag, royal purple Jimmy Choos, and a string of pearls around her neck. The woman knew how to dress. Employees mumbled, "Hello, Mrs. Wayne” and various other greetings as Selina walked down the hallway, and she waved and muttered hellos in reply as she went. She grabbed a pear from the snack bowl when she passed. Helena and Asha just waited at the end of the hall. Selina broke into a smile as she reached them. "Hi, baby," she said. "Hi, momma," Helena responded and they kissed cheeks. Selina touched Asha's shoulder. "Hi, Asha, good to see you." "You too, Selina." Helena nodded her head towards her office door led all three of them in. Asha closed the door behind her and loitered there. Helena sat behind the desk and Selina perched right on the desktop. She promptly produced a knife from her bag and started cutting slices from the pear. "I can't believe you let them call you Mrs. Wayne," said Helena. Selina shrugged and ate a slice right off the blade. "It strikes fear into their hearts. And it reminds them who /you/ are, which is the important thing." The daughter rolled her eyes. "Thanks for coming, by the way. I don't want to deal with that employment lawyer by myself and, apparently, I don't count as a representative of the Waynes on my own. I'm just the lawyer." "Does Metropolis even have real lawyers? Nothing ever happens there," Selina said, waving her knife hand in a dismissive motion. "You would think. But this one that Cooper's got is a real jerk. Very hard to get to." "Well," sighed Selina with a swipe of her knife against the fruit, "We'll just have to break him. They don't make 'em in Metropolis like they do in Gotham." A cab ride later, the three women walked into the Gotham City courthouse and made for the hearing room. But then they walked in, the lawyer was there, but a woman joined him. Not Martin Cooper. She didn't look up as the others sat down on the other side of the table. "I don't think we've been aquatinted," Cooper's lawyer said, standing and holding out his hand to Selina, "Gregory White." She shook his hand with a tight smile. "Selina Kyle," she responded, "I'm your company rep today." He sat down and folded his arms before him on the table. "I'll cut right to the chase here, ladies. This case has changed drastically," he said. Here we go, Helena thought. She placed her laptop, unopened, in front of her. "Where is Mr. Cooper? I thought we were serious here, Gregory," she asked, trying her best not to sound bored. But the man was a lawyer. He saw right through it. "Martin Cooper is dead," he said evenly. Asha sucked in a gasp of surprise. Helena stared at him. "Dead? You and I spoke on the phone with him present two days ago," she said incredulously. "The world is a cruel place," said Gregory, showing his palms. The woman beside him stayed quiet when he gestured to her. "This is his wife, Sheila, by the way." "What happened?" Selina asked, glancing at her. Now Shiela did speak up. "He was murdered," she hissed venomously. Selina raised her eyebrows in surprise but did not balk. Gregory White cleared his throat. "Allegedly. We have reason to believe it was a murder," he continued. Helena exchanged a look with her mother and leaned forward on her computer top. Without looking down or shifting much at all, Selina started recording on her phone under the table, which was very illegal. No doubt she would send it right to the husband. "What reasons do you have?" Helena asked. "I believe you have quite the history with criminal law, Miss Wayne," he said. Helena waited patiently for him to continue as she was familiar with this deflection tactic. "Your last criminal trial is what you say secured your job at Wayne. Not the fact that your name is on the building." "We're not talking about me, Mr. White." "No, but we are talking about your job. You know criminal law like the back of your hand, and I have never understood why you settled for corporate," he continued and shook his head, "So you know exactly what the reasons are. A worker suing a multibillion-dollar company for unsafe conditions and multiple damages, therefore exposing the entire operation to the public, and then he turns up dead a day before a court hearing. Does that not sound fishy to you, Miss Wayne?" "You can't really believe that Wayne Enterprises would put a hit out on an injured employee," Selina interrupted. White shrugged. "And we have no reason to believe you didn't." "This is outrageous," Helena declared, "Accusing us of murder on nothing but the fact that you have no leads? Even in Metropolis, there are bad people! This isn't even enough evidence for another hearing–" Sheila Cooper slammed her hands on the table, cutting off the speech. "My husband is dead! There are no witnesses, no ransoms, no traces, only bullet holes! Someone killed him like they were hunting something and only people who want their employees to sit down and shut up would do such a thing!" Helena turned her head and stared, taken aback by the woman's outburst. It was two different kinds of startling. The case had taken a serious term /and/ this woman was accusing her family's company of murder. This was going to get out to the press and the Daily Planet would have a heyday dragging them through the mud. "I'm sorry for your loss, Mrs. Cooper," Selina interjected, "But no one at this company had your husband killed. And if you press charges, you will lose." Sheila Cooper turned red, but her lawyer quickly intervened. "She and I still have more to discuss. We will get back to you officially when a decision is made about anything." Helena stood quickly. "Then this meeting is over. I will be scheduling the next one. Have a lovely afternoon," she said. She picked her laptop in one swoop and headed for the door. Selina and Asha were not far behind. In the hall, Helena dropped back. "Someone murdered him," she said. Selina was already putting the phone to her ear. "I'll check my sources," she said. The Sirens. Between the three of them, they could find out if any hitmen had been hired lately and by who. "I already sent the full audio file to your father. Wherever he is he's already listening to it." "They're going to charge us with murder." Selina nodded. "I know." Asha gulped audibly behind them. "This will go to court," Helena said, squeezing her computer in agitation, "I'm going to be defending in a murder trial." "You shouldn't have settled for corporate," Selina said, and then turned away when the other line of her phone picked up. She walked ahead, and Helena ended up beside Asha. "Why did you leave criminal law?" the assistant asked, hesitantly and curiously. Helena pursed her lips and her whole body tightened as if preparing for impact. "Too close to home."

#wayne enterprises #bruce wayne #selina kyle #helena wayne #batcat

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ladystylestores · 4 years ago

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Trump’s Visa Ban Has Foreign Workers And Families Desperate For Answers

Courtesy of Sraboni Bose

Sraboni Bose with her family.

Sraboni Bose was sitting in her parents’ home in India this week closely reading a proclamation signed by President Trump that restricted the entry of thousands of foreign workers and their families. As she did, she looked for any confirmation that it wouldn’t affect her family.

Her husband, a software engineer, was in Texas and had a current H-1B visa. Check.

She had come to India in February for her brother’s wedding, but had her H-4 visa —for spouses and children of certain foreign workers — stamped and renewed. Check.

Her 5-year-old daughter was set to get her H-4 visa renewed before the coronavirus pandemic prompted the US to halt regular processing of visas. Foreign workers and their families can receive extensions on their stay in America, but if they travel abroad, updated visa stamps are necessary to reenter the US. She had yet to get the stamp.

Bose, 32, read the order over and over, and every time she came to the same fear: Since her daughter did not have her valid visa on June 24 as required by the proclamation, she believes she will not be allowed to return to the US.

“I was devastated. We never imagined this would occur,” she told BuzzFeed News. “How can a 5-year-old affect the economy? She studies pre-K and wants to see her dad.”

Desperate, Bose tweeted about her family’s saga.

“How can A H4 minor waiting for stamping for 4 months in India affect the economy!?? @USCIS @StateDept . We have been waiting in India for four months for her F2F Interview which was cancelled in light of Covid-19. There should be some considerations when the H1 is in USA,” she wrote.

How can A H4 minor waiting for stamping for 4 months in India affect the economy!?? @USCIS @StateDept . We have been waiting in India for four months for her F2F Interview which was cancelled in light of Covid-19. There should be some considerations when the H1 is in USA. https://t.co/nwT0bTMmWE

06:22 AM – 25 Jun 2020

A State Department spokesperson said the agency could not comment on individual cases because visa records are confidential under federal law, and instead referred to the text of Trump’s proclamation.

Bose is just one of thousands of people stuck abroad or who have family outside the US seeking answers on social media in the days since Trump signed his order suspending some employment-based visas for foreigners.

It’s a phenomenon that’s played out since the beginning of the Trump era: a broad order impacting thousands of people who are left confused, anxious, and seeking help or advice online.

The proclamation has spawned hashtags such as #excludeusfromban and #LetMeGoHome. Immigration attorneys who have put out calls for stories or offered advice have been inundated with replies and messages. The State Department has been responding to tweets all week on the order’s particulars. Even some reporters have been sought out for their expertise.

“The administration’s execution of this and other immigration policies shows a complete disregard for the affected populations,” said Sarah Pierce, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “Ideally, a major policy change like this one would have been accompanied by Q&As from relevant agencies to educate the public and efforts to reach out to stakeholders so they were prepared for the change. Instead, we’ve seen the affected population and their advocates reduced to seeking advice on their futures in 240-character bits.”

Trump’s proclamation details how “under ordinary circumstances, properly administered temporary worker programs can provide benefits to the economy.” But under the economic situation following the pandemic, “certain nonimmigrant visa programs authorizing such employment pose an unusual threat to the employment of American workers.”

The order, signed Monday, suspended H-1B visas for specialized highly skilled workers, most H-2B visas for nonagricultural seasonal workers, most J-1 visas for exchange visitors, and H-4 visas for those accompanying workers.

Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the conversations on Twitter were proof of “total confusion, lack of clear guidance, and fear for people’s livelihoods and their futures.”

The outpouring of questions and pleas for help this past week could also be attributed to the large number of people affected and the cumulative impact of yet another immigration order restricting access to the US, said Greg Siskind, a Tennessee-based immigration lawyer.

Siskind said he has received thousands of messages on social media. When he can’t get to a question on Twitter, people flood his LinkedIn, Facebook, and email seeking advice.

“This is the usual botched roll out we’ve gotten used to with this White House,” he said in reference to previous orders like the initial ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries that led to chaos at airports across the US.

Reed Saxon / AP

A woman offers legal services at the customs arrival area as demonstrators opposed to President Trump’s executive orders barring entry by Muslims from certain countries march at Los Angeles International Airport on Feb. 4, 2017.

This time around, he said, the order’s language has tripped up even the most seasoned of attorneys.

“The order itself is written confusingly so even the experts can’t really be sure who’s in and who’s out,” he said.

There are still questions on whether those who have current visas, but leave the US and go abroad, will be subject to the ban if they need new visa stamps to return.

Siskind said State Department officials have said online that these individuals would not be able to return to the US, but “that’s a complete contradiction of the plain language of the order.” He believes that those like Bose’s child could be denied entry.

Gayatri Patankar, a 32-year-old Arizona resident, was one of those who reached out to Siskind on Twitter. She had gone to India along with her infant and husband earlier this year. She had needed a new H1B visa stamp, but was unable to receive it because of the consulate closures. She later lost her job and hoped to return to the US on an H4 visa along with her husband.

“Hi, I came India with 2 month old infant for family reasons and have been stuck here since then. I have been studying/working in USA for 7 years now. We have our home, car and other belongings back in USA. Please help us go back home. This is not fair,” Patankar tweeted at Siskind.

@gsiskind Hi, I came India with 2 month old infant for family reasons and have been stuck here since then. I have been studying/working in USA for 7 years now. We have our home, car and other belongings back in USA. Please help us go back home. This is not fair.

05:22 PM – 24 Jun 2020

She asked for help and guidance on Twitter, she added, because “we don’t know what else to do.��

Sakshi Sharma, a 30-year-old H-1B visa holder who lives in Baltimore, had been thinking about her husband when she went on social media. He had to leave the US for Canada once his student visa ran out.

Because of the proclamation, he will not be able to receive an H-4 visa to accompany her in the US.

“I am personally impacted by the family separation ban. I know friends who visited India to meet dying parents for one last time, leaving newly wedded spouse, home, car, everything in US and are now stuck! This is inhuman,” she tweeted.

She posted her predicament on Twitter because she wanted people to know that the proclamation “separates me from my husband..we have a lot of things planned for our personal and professional life for the next 6 -12 months, now with this ban we have lost all of that.”

Meanwhile, Bose is left with difficult conversations with her 5-year-old daughter on whether they will be able to return to the US anytime soon.

The family has lived in the US for the last three years.

“I don’t know how to explain it to her,” she said. “I told her, ‘Right now the proclamation is not letting us because they think some of us can work and that cannot help them because they want more work. It’s like you’re grounded or in a timeout. You can’t see your dad for another 6 months.’”

Jun. 26, 2020, at 23:40 PM

Correction: Sraboni Bose’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.

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wesfike · 5 years ago

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Some families are struggling to adapt as province reopens

Ontario’s gradual reopening may be leaving low-income families in a precarious spot as parents are asked to head back to work while child-care options and cheap recreational outlets are few and far between.

“It’s a good example of how privileged people get to go to their cottages and summer homes and enjoy their weekends and low-income families are still struggling and asking, where can I take my kids?” Jill Umbach from the Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force said in an interview Monday.

Typical family hot-spots for recreation and leisure remain closed amid the response to a global COVID-19 pandemic. Libraries, public pools, some municipal beaches, and play structures are still off-limits.

“There are not a lot of freebies out there for family entertainment,” Umbach said.

Some have adapted or created virtual programs to help fill in the gaps.

The YMCA is offering virtual workshops and launched YMCA at Home providing free content for mental health and wellbeing, family and children’s activities, and fitness programming.

The Youth Job Connection program started Monday for people between the ages of 15 and 29. The program provides pre-placement training, job opportunities and mentorship for teens and young adults.

Keystone Child, Youth and Family Services teamed up with the Scenic City Order of Good Cheer, The Rocking Horse, and Martin School Transit – who donated $15,000 to kickstart the project – to distribute toys to isolated children.

The program has now provided toys to more than 550 children throughout Grey and Bruce counties. Members of the Scenic City Order of Good Cheer have travelled more than 6,000-kilometres delivering the toys to families in need.

“It’s been wonderful to try and reach out to these kids and young families and try to give them a relatively good quality toy that will give them some entertainment and allow the parents to maybe get a break for a few minutes now and again,” said Phil Dodd, Keystone’s executive director.

The Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library is providing daily programs such as Toddler Story Time, and the Tea & Title book club through their Facebook page.

“I think kids are making do with backyard hoses, with bikes, some of the more simpler things in life right now,” Umbach said.

There’s also an endless amount of entertainment options on the world wide web, but not every family in Grey and Bruce has a quality connection, something that has been increasingly troublesome as more organizations move their services online.

“That’s a challenge for sure in Grey-Bruce, and that’s been a bit of a concern for our technology and reaching out to some of the families that just don’t have the capabilities within their homes to manage a Zoom conference for example,” Dodd said.

Keystone has been using web-video conferencing programs like Zoom and Microsoft Teams to meet with families during the pandemic. Dodd said Keystone has seen a regular increase in referrals coming in over the last few months, and a lot are anxiety-related.

“Young people are trying to find their way in this pandemic situation and dealing with the social isolation,” Dodd said.

As more retail stores reopen, parents are faced with a difficult decision and more questions about going back to work while their kids are forced to stay home.

“Most of the part-time and low-income workers are coming from low-income families, so a lot of them are having to work to keep the stores open,” Umbach said. “It’s one thing for the grocery stores but it’s another thing to say I want Winners to be open. I think we’re in that grey zone right now.”

Dr. Ian Arra, the region’s medical officer of health pointed out in a recent interview that income is in fact the Number 1 determinant of public health and that reopening the economy and local small businesses is paramount to the area’s recovery effort.

With child-care centres still shut down, Umbach said some parents are making the decision to stay home and take care of their children rather than return to work. A decision that is being made possible for the time being with the Canadian Economic Recovery Benefit and a boosted Canada Child Benefit flowing into bank accounts.

“How long can that continue? How do they tell their employer they can’t come back because they don’t have childcare? Are they going to keep their job?” Umbach said. “I think things are going to get harder as we go along, not easier, financially. We’ve had these injections of extra cash.”

For now, Umbach said the Grey Bruce Poverty Task Force is encouraging people to make use of the many resources available to them. She said for a lot of people this may be their first time experiencing a layoff or loss of work, and reaching out to ask for help can be a difficult bridge to cross.

“We don’t like to think that people should have a loss of dignity or pride in having to reach out for support . . . reach out for the support you need rather than going into considerable dept,” she said. “I don’t like to be the negative person, but I do have 30 years of experience in disaster response and when these things hit economically, as well as physically, I think families should check as many resources and they should not feel as if they’re undeserving or not entitled.”

The Grey Bruce Poverty Task Force has a list of local food banks and community groups offering support through the pandemic on their website. Umbach said many of the service groups offer delivery in a safe and discreet manner for those uncomfortable with travelling to a food bank.

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photomattjames · 5 years ago

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<h2><strong><font color="#f79646">Nordic Seaplanes: Flying Sustainably High</font></strong></h2>

Meet two of the pilots who fly a 100% carbon neutral amphibious craft between Copenhagen and Aarhus. Their personal story is quite an interesting one.

“Sorry we’re late,” apologises 24-year-old Nordic Seaplanes first officer Line Fonseca. “A family has gone missing from their boat in Roskilde Fjord and we took a detour to search for them.” It was the last thing I expected her to say. “Didn’t the passengers mind the diversion?” I ask. It was a legitimate question; most of those onboard were commuters paying a considerable price to get to work on time. “No. They were happy to help.” I nod in understanding; it isn’t every day you get asked to take part in the search for missing persons.

We’re joined by Line’s partner and colleague Ulrik Nielsen, 52, and the three of us head over to the couple’s camper van, parked just metres away from the pontoon where the plane docks after landing. “Would you like a coffee?” asks Ulrik. I reply in the positive and sit down to ask some questions. I know from previous meetings that this isn’t going to be any ordinary conversation with your ‘average couple’, and that’s exactly why I’m here.

The pair first met when Line started working for Nordic Seaplanes as an aerodrome assistant back in 2016. She was still training to be a pilot at Greybird Pilot Academy in Aarhus, and she admits it was a little bit of luck that landed her the job. “I saw that [Danish music producer] Remee had posted a photo on Instagram showing a seaplane in the Maldives,” she explained. “I left a comment saying: ‘Did you know one of those is coming to Denmark soon?’ He never replied; but HR from Nordic Seaplanes did!” “What did they say?” I asked, already guessing the answer. “They wanted me in for an interview.” Line smiled. “They’d checked out my profile and remembered meeting me at Greybird once. One of their aircraft had landed at the airport for refuelling one afternoon and I was really excited to see it. I cried like a little bitch.”

If you’ve never heard of Nordic Seaplanes before then you’ve probably spotted their unmistakable aircraft in the skies above – particularly during the warmer months. The twin otter DHC—6-300, with its distinct red and white paint job, flies relatively low over the landscape during its 45-minute journey between Aarhus and Copenhagen. In both cities the plane departs and lands on water – Nordre Toldbod in Copenhagen, and Miljøhavnen in Aarhus – and makes for a far more interesting alternative to taking the train. In fact, the next fastest route between the two locations takes at least three hours by rail – a significant difference for those professionals who are charging by the hour.

I met one such professional, who wished to remain anonymous, during my first flight in 2018. “My colleagues wouldn’t like it if they knew I was receiving special treatment from the boss,” he tells me. “I’m a lawyer for a Copenhagen-based firm, but I live in Aarhus with my wife and kids,” he explains. “This commute means I get to spend more time with them, and the firm actually saves money this way.” “How so?” I ask. “Well, naturally I charge by the hour – even when I’m travelling for work.”

Looking around the 18-seater plane I notice that the majority of passengers are dressed smart-casual, with briefcases or leather laptop bags in their possession. And it’s then that I realise what a fantastic idea this whole concept is. And enjoyable, too. With the ground so close, buildings and landmarks are easy to identify and, in my case, photograph professionally. “Who needs a drone?” I think to myself.

The landing on water is smooth and actually very exciting – much like the takeoff. And within minutes everybody is safely off the plane and making their way to taxis or loved ones. The anonymous lawyer is greeted by his family and returns to shake my hand. “You really should fly with them early in the morning,” he suggests. “The sunrise is just stunning.”

It was during the return flight to Copenhagen that I first met Line. At the time I had no idea she was the pilot; instead I thought she was potentially one of the ground staff whose duty it was to help load and unload passengers and their belongings. I put this observation down to the fact that she welcomed us all onboard and gave us a pre-flight briefing shortly before takeoff. I mean, how often does a pilot or captain do that?

So when we sat down to talk I was taken aback when she told me she had been flying the plane on the return journey. “A young, female pilot… how modern.” I smiled. “We need to talk more. Can I come and fly with you again soon and interview you?” “Sure,” replied Line. “And you can meet my partner, Ulrik. He’s a pilot, too.”

I’m a little stressed out before our second meeting. Somehow I’ve miscalculated the distance from my (new) office to their check-in desk at Langelinie. Half-way there, I receive a phone call from Julie asking me where I am: the flight leaves in ten minutes. “I’m on my way!” I pant down the phone. “I’ll be there in five!” “Well don’t worry about going to the desk to get your boarding pass – just go straight to the pontoon and we’ll meet you there.” Which is how I found myself boarding a flight which literally took less than five seconds to check in for. A first for me in my 37 years on this planet.

I’m the last to sit down and strap myself in before the doors close and we’re on our way. The smell of fuel briefly enters my nostrils before the extractor fans kick in, and all of a sudden we’re accelerating towards Refshaleøen, the small waves below washing over the feet of the plane. There’s a little bit of residue childhood adrenaline pumping through my veins, and then we’re airborne once again. Out of the window I spot the Royal Yacht sailing out to sea, and just moments later, Dyrehaven makes an appearance on the port side. Ancient woodland gives way to motorways and high-rise apartments, suburbs become fields, and suddenly I’m totally disorientated. I reach for my phone to launch Google Maps and marvel at the speed of the little blue dot as it traverses across my screen. In a few moments we’ll be passing over Sjællands Odde and overtaking the ferries that cross over to Jutland.

Upon our arrival in Aarhus I’m introduced to Ulrik, and the three of us walk less than 20 metres to a private area behind a metal fence. There I’m greeted by a little black Italian Greyhound as it tenderly licks my hand and wags its tail. “This is Elga-Olga,” Line tells me. “She lives with us here.” Line sweeps her hand in front of her as she says this and shows me their home on four wheels. “The three of you live right here?” I ask, rather surprised and in awe. Line nods and unlocks the door. We head inside.

I listen as the pair tell me of their lifestyle; of how they get to choose where to call home when they get time off together. I find myself shaking my head in disbelief, and feeling a little bit jealous of their nomad way of life. The image most people have of pilots, I say to them, is an extravagant one: champagne breakfasts in a large house with a pool. Or am I way out of touch with reality here? “In our case, yes,” replies Line. “Flight School wasn’t exactly cheap – I borrowed the money from my sister, and living here enables me to pay her back.”

I want to hear more, but unfortunately time is against us, and we don’t have long to go until Ulrik has to take us all back to Copenhagen. So we make an agreement to meet up the next time they are together in the capital with their camper.

As I stand in line to board the plane I spot a young man carrying a guitar case. It goes in the belly of the aircraft with all the other luggage, and the man and his travelling partner climb the steps of the plane and disappear inside. Coincidentally I find myself sitting just in front of him during takeoff and kindly ask him if it’s OK to pick his brains about why he chooses to fly with Nordic Seaplanes. “Sure, no problem,” he replies. His companion looks at me and smiles. The cool-looking guy with the aviator shades tells me that, as a touring musician, it’s important for him to be rested and relaxed before each show, and that the short flight between the mainland and Zealand really helps. “Are you in a band?” I ask. He smiles. “Yeah, you could say that.” “Don’t the other musicians mind that you get to travel in luxury whilst they have to make do with public transport?” “No,” he laughs. I pap a few arty portraits of him and thank him for his time. “Just one more thing,” I say. “Could I take your name, please?” “Yeah, it’s Mads Langer.”

As it turns out, famous Danish singer-songwriter Mads isn’t the only well-known person to use the services of Nordic Seaplanes. Members of the Royal Family, including Queen Margrethe II herself, have been known to fly from time to time, as well as former PM Lars Løkke Rasumussen. “We get a little bit start-struck sometimes,” Ulrik tells me, “but they all behave like everybody else, and that’s how we treat them, too. Everybody’s welcome.”

My third meeting with Line takes place straight after the brief search operation over Roskilde Fjord. With a bit more time on our hands, I take the opportunity to snap some portraits of the couple and to go a little deeper into their story. Naturally I approach the elephant in the room head on: “What about the 30-year age difference – how’s that working out on a professional level?” The pair both grin. “We both learn an awful lot from one another,” explains Ulrik, who started learning to fly around the time Line first entered the world. “I learnt the old-fashioned way, by saving money and paying for lessons whenever I could afford it.“ I ask him about his career and how he ended up in his current employment. “Well, I started out in my late-20s, flying mail and tourists in and out of the islands of Tåsinge and Ærø,” Ulrik explains. “Then, whilst working as a freelance taxi pilot at Billund Airport, an aircraft from Greenland arrived at for maintenance and I spent the next six months helping to fix it up. I took my seaplane rating during this time and became the only commercial seaplane-rated pilot in Denmark.

“One of the earliest jobs I got was a three-month assignment for TV2. They were filming a show called ‘The Little Yellow Seaplane’, and it was my job to fly to remote islands and areas of Denmark with a TV presenter.

“Then, in 1997, I went on holiday to the Maldives to visit my brother – a dive instructor. I instantly applied for a job with a seaplane company, but they said no and I returned home to Denmark.

“But six months later they called and asked: ‘Can you start tomorrow?’ I signed a two-year contract and stayed for 17.” “Why did you stop working there?” “It was the Boxing Day tsunami; there was no work after that.”

I ask Line what it’s like working with Nordc Seaplanes. “It’s fantastic; they’re a very forward-thinking company. Obviously there aren’t a great many female pilots out there, but on top of that they’re also 100% carbon neutral.” This is something I noticed upon my arrival at the check-in area this time around – a huge poster hanging from the fence to the Welcome Area. According to their website, Nordic Seaplanes have started a collaboration with Thor Heyerdahl Climate Parks and Bio8. The park covers an area of 2,146 hectares of newly planted mangrove forest in Myanmar, and their share of this project means that the CO2 emissions from their flights are 100% neutralised.

The inspiration came from another Danish aviation firm, DAT, whose domestic routes and flights over the North Sea to Aberdeen in Scotland are also carbon neutral.

At the same time, the company acknowledges that there isn’t any miracle cure that will, in a single stroke, make aviation the world’s most sustainable mode of transport, but the mangrove tree helps the world along the way. Fifty per cent of the trees’ biomass is CO2, and as such it absorbs four-to-five times as much carbon as other trees in general.

As I wrap up our interview, I’m beginning to realise just how many potential angles there are to this story. But the one thing I haven’t even asked yet – a subject that repeatedly gets written about when it comes to Danish culture – is how happy they are. I ask Line if she’d recommend her job and lifestyle to anyone else? “Oh, absolutely,” she replies in a heartbeat. “It’s so romantic!” “What’s so special about flying a seaplane?” “Well, I know that a lot of pilots go on to work for commercial airlines and get to fly big planes over long distances,” she explains. “With the seaplane there’s never an opportunity to stick it on autopilot and hand over the controls.” Ulrik nods in agreement as he takes a sip of his coffee. “Planes are getting smarter, but this one is still very primitive. Your constantly physically flying the aircraft, from takeoff to landing, as well as interacting with the passengers and refuelling the plane.” “It’s a proper flying job, Line interjects. Her eyes seem to shine as she says this. “There’s another bonus.” Ulrik smiles. “We know the guy who owns the fort over there,” he says, pointing out the window towards a small, horseshoe-shaped fortress known as Trekroner Fort. “Some evenings Line and I get to moor the plane over there and take a bottle of wine and a picnic with us.” “That does sound very romantic,” I tell them. “Oh, it is,” Line replies, “and that’s exactly why I wanted this job in the first place. It’s my calling in life.”

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bangkokjacknews · 5 years ago

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Thai cops having sex with hookers to 'prove' prostitution charges

Though no Thai government has ever conducted a formal survey, in 2014 UNAIDS estimated that some 123,530 sex workers operate in #Thailand, with sex industry contributing to 10 per cent of the revenue that the country generates from tourists.

Another study in 2003 estimated that Thailand’s sex industry generates an annual US$4.3 billion dollars. While sex work is evidently a pillar of the country’s economy and touches the lives of a great number of people, sex work remains outlawed in Thailand. This contradiction drives sex workers into precarity: they are excluded from government welfare and have no legal recourse if exploited by law enforcers or clients. In this investigative report, Prachatai spoke with sex workers, government officials and NGO representatives to find out how sex workers navigate their grey status under the law. How do they maintain dignity in a society that attributes little value to their work and lives? “Prostitutes just sell themselves” ‘Prostitutes sell only themselves, but wicked women sell the nation,’ a famous Thai Rat newspaper cartoonist once tweeted — as if the business of sex workers merely involves sleeping with clients and reaping the money. Such a prejudiced view overlooks the fact that sex workers who work the market best rely on well-practiced skills like any good businessmen, be that in negotiating, bargaining or advertising themselves well. All these factors are crucial in enticing customers to return. In this industry, standing out is crucial. For most sex workers, most clients come from low-income backgrounds such as taxi drivers, labourers, and young adults. One session may reap only 500-800 baht. Making a living then relies on being able to win multiple clients. Some sex workers operate in multiple locations to maximize client numbers, for example by wandering tourist spots when their usual base is quiet. Kam, a 24-year old independent sex worker, usually waits for clients at her usual spot in Bangkok from early evening until 3 AM. On a good day, she makes between 3000-4000 baht a night. But on a quiet evening where she has only one or two clients — or none at all — Kam turns to advertising her services online. Young and beautiful, Kam could likely find steady employment at a ‘massage’ parlour or even a high-class bar. But she explains that operating as an independent sex worker provides freedom. “It’s liberating. If on any given day I’m busy, or I’m on my period, or if I’m feeling lazy, I just won’t come. I don’t have to ask anyone for leaving. I don’t have to have my pay cut. Nobody else is directing my life. I keep every single baht that I make from clients. Nobody else gets a cut.” But with this freedom comes certain instabilities, least of all the risks of encountering authorities. https://bangkokjack.com/2018/11/04/truth-about-thai-prostitutes/ While images of police officers raiding brothels have repeatedly made headlines in Thai media, officials usually do not obstruct the industry. But at irregular intervals each year, public pressure on the police to show the fruits of their work escalates crackdowns on sex workers. Sex workers themselves have no way of knowing when these periods of heightened surveillance will come — that is, when they may inadvertently appear on front page news. Another inescapable risk in sex work comes in the form of undesirable clients. Sometimes a client may be intoxicated, refuse to use protection, or refuse to pay the fee. In dealing with these situations, workers sometimes risk physical danger. Without legal protections, the best sex workers can do is spread warnings of such individuals by word of mouth. In the face of the risks of working independently, many sex workers trade their freedom for the relative safety that comes with fixed employment in businesses such as ‘karaoke’ bars, ‘massage’ parlours or brothels. Though sex workers with fixed employment can be safe from undesirable clients as there is security staff in their workplace, the threat from state authorities still exists. Illegal trade and ‘legal’ operation So-called ‘karaoke bars’ commonly feature karaoke machines as décor, even though few or no customers visit such venues to sing, but rather to buy sex service. Why the farce? While prostitution is prohibited under Thai law, ‘karaoke bars’ and ‘massage parlours’ can be legally registered as normal businesses. When arrests of sex workers occur at such premises, authorities usually treat the act of prostitution as an exchange between the sex worker and the client — an exchange to which the owner of the premise was not a party. Even so, cases of clients being charged are few and far between, giving rise to the popular quip that, ‘employing sex workers is legal, being a sex worker is illegal, clients get off scot-free.’ Brothel operators are only accused of crimes when simultaneously breaking other laws, such as the employment of underage workers or illegal migrants. In June 2016, an undercover police investigation into a Huai Kwang district massage parlour, “Nataree’, resulted in the arrest of 119 employees, seven of whom were underage (of this seven, six were Burmese migrant workers). While the employees were accused of engaging in prostitution, the brothel owner was accused of crimes related to human trafficking. Undercover police investigations, where officers may pose as customers, have drawn criticisms for being hypocritical, if not themselves instances of illegal behaviour. Questionable behaviour has included the inviting of media to photograph sex workers during sting operations, and officials themselves persuading sex workers to engage in intercourse. Decha Kittwitthayanon, a lawyer and academic, has documented cases where officers have utilised the services of sex workers, before using the discharge and condoms filled with semen as evidence of illegal activity. “The Supreme Court reasoned that having intercourse with sex workers was a necessary and appropriate action for finding evidence of the activities of criminals. They pointed out that officials had no other choice but to use such measures.” Chantawipa Apisuk, the director of Empower Foundation, an organisation that has promoted the rights of sex workers in Thailand for more than 30 years, points out both the cruelty and lack of reasoning behind sting operations. “I don’t think sting operations should happen because things that were used to protect yourself from diseases become instead things that result in your arrest. They simply become wrongdoers.” “But officials say that if they don’t , they won’t be able to make arrests. But that makes me ask, why do they need to be arrested? Everybody has sex. I have sex. So why is having sex for work wrong?” Jet (pseudonym), a former ‘bar girl’ turned volunteer at Empower Foundation, tells a harrowing story where one official went as far as to solicit an underage sex worker. “Once a police officer posed as a client and asked a brothel owner whether there were any workers under the age of 18. When the owner said there weren’t any, the officer asked them to find one, and the owner did so. At first, the girl didn’t dare to go , not because she was afraid of the police, but of meeting a nasty client. “But the officer persisted, kept flirting, acted sweet to befriend the girl until finally, she began to trust him — began to feel that, ‘This guy is a good person. He probably wouldn’t hurt me’. Simply, she grew fond of the officer. In the end, when she agreed to go with the officer, she was arrested. “But do you know the saddest part? The officer that she trusted was the one who interrogated her. He took notes on the interrogation right to the girl’s face.” Unfortunately, arrests of sex workers can have far-reaching complications for their careers. Jet reports that most sex workers who are implicated in sting operations choose to leave the industry. Those who desire to keep working struggle to find work, since employers fear they will draw the attention of authorities. Jet added that sting operations at brothels have increased in frequency ever since the Trafficked in Persons 2016 report ranked Thailand as among those countries with the highest incidents of human trafficking. She also warns the government against blurring sex workers who voluntarily enter the industry with victims of human trafficking. Chantawipa argues that if the junta was committed to ending human trafficking, it would invest funds into exposing the networks of influential people and even state officials who benefit from the market — rather than chasing and arresting petty actors who may not even be victims of human trafficking, but rather voluntarily sell sex. However, the Thai Royal Police have proved unresponsive to criticisms of their sting operations against sex workers. During a meeting with the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a representative of the Royal Thai Police went as far as to deny the issue’s existence. “In the case of sting operations, I insist that the Office of the Royal Thai Police has never included them in official policy, and has never supported officers to use such measures,” claimed Maj Gen Kraibun Suadsong. This article was first published in Thai on Prachatai and translated into English by Catherine Yen. – You can follow BangkokJack on Instagram, Twitter & Reddit. Or join the free mailing list (top right) Please help us continue to bring the REAL NEWS - PayPal Read the full article

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thegirlempire · 5 years ago

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Modern Day Slavery: A Glimpse Inside The Red-Light District of Kolkata

Within this world, lies an industry like no other. An industry that lures in billions in black-market revenue by stripping human beings of their freedom through sexual exploitation. This inhumane trade, known as sex trafficking, is thriving due to its serious demand from buyers globally. These scourging buyers are what initially fuel this market, and continue its viability. This criminal multi-billion dollar industry uses “violence, threats, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will” (Polaris 2018). The United Nations defines sex trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploitation [including] prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation’’ (UN 2002). Following this definition, a person that has not yet reached the age of 18 is considered to be trafficked. Victims are trapped psychologically, emotionally, physically or financially by their traffickers. In most cases, people are unaware of the tactics used by the sex traffickers to lure them in or people are unaware of the signs of sex trafficking to identify the victim. In regards to that data, there is a lot that isn’t calculated due to the surreptitious nature in which sex trafficking is conducted. Sex trafficking does not care to discriminate against gender, race, religion, or age; each human being on this earth is vulnerable to this trade. This lingering threat of modern slavery has affected the lives of millions, with more than “20.9 million adults and children are bought and sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor and bonded labor. Almost 90% of these victims, are exploited in the private economy by individuals or enterprises” (ILO). In order to eradicate this heinous trade, it is crucial that we analyze the predisposing factors that aid to continue the viability of this trade, and delve into the mechanisms that fuel this trade.

(The street to get to the New Light Shelters)

From the rurally isolated regions of Moldova to the crowded strip known as Bangla Road; this abhorring trade is everywhere and it’s raking in billions. Wherever in the world you are, chances are the sex trafficking network is conducting their business there underground. In impoverished areas of India, young girls are often sold out to brothels in Kolkata, New Delhi, and other populated cities by their own family members or relatives to escape poverty. Where poverty is running at an all time high, women and children are easily persuaded or lured in by false promises of a bright future and end up in potentially dangerous to fatal situations. West Bengal is known to be one of the largest sex trafficking hubs, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in Delhi, West Bengal holds 44% of the national total of human trafficking cases reported. 3,579 cases of human trafficking reported within West Bengal excluding the plethora of cases that goes unreported due to the corrupt tactics these traffickers use to hide their tracks and the money traffickers use to purchase silence. West Bengal’s capital, Kolkata, has shown to be quite involved in this dark lucrative trade, with Kolkata being “a source, destination point, and transit point for human trafficking, this city is sent thousands of women from rural areas in Bangladesh, Nepal, and other neighboring countries (New Light). In Kolkata, a lot of private business endorses sex trafficking, and have women change their names and identities to work in brothels. The women smuggled into West Bengal often reside in different houses until they are safe for transport or in the basement of brothels. From hiding in cramped cabinets with trick doors to being tied down in a truck, these women are transported like meat during the darkest hour of the night. The Red Light District of Kolkata, called Kalighat is where sex trafficking is the most dominant.

(Photos from inside the Red-Light District)

(Posing with Urmi Basu, Founder and CEO of New Light)

Having my mother’s side of the family primarily residing in Kolkata, I often visit. The older I became, the more perceptive I became. That being said, I noticed the amount of missing women and children that filled each corner of the newspapers. The stories were endless, but the more frightening aspect of it all was when I asked people from Kolkata about it, they responded by telling me how what gets published doesn’t even account for half of the women and children being trafficked. Feeling helpless on my own trying to tackle and eradicate the sex trafficking rings, I united forces with the New Light Organization of Kolkata. New Light and its founder Urmi Basu who have created several shelters to help promote gender equality through education and life-skill training, thereby reducing the violence and abuse that women and children face. One of their shelters that I had worked in, Unmochon, focuses on rescue, restoration, and rehabilitation for sex trafficking victims. Other shelters take care and educate the children of sex workers, providing them with a new path and giving them a shot at having a safe life in this world. Personally, I’ve talked to a lot of women that feel trapped because they feel as if they have no purpose. A lot of them were forced into the trade, and now just stay in the trade because they feel as if they have no option. Some of the women in the shelter have children, and I ask them about alternative occupations they can consider. Most of them have told me how factory work is dangerous and how they won’t get paid well. Thus, they resort to sex work to care for their children.

“Puja, a 30 year old woman reported ‘There are no options. I have no skills. I cannot read. What else can I do?’ Aishwariya, a 35 year old woman stated, ‘It’s a fact – I have tried several places. I have no education. I am willing to work, but there are no opportunities. You need to have family to find jobs here [Kolkata]’ (Rose, Madison Leigh).”

What I learned from my time at Unmochon is how many of the women there who were trafficked believe they have no other alternative than sex work. “Mashis” meaning “Aunts” in Bengali often coerce these women into believing that it is in their best interest to continue as a sex worker. The Mashis are comparable to pimps, they work as a middleman to train and groom the women and young girls that are brought in. These Mashis who are usually older sex workers or brothel owners use “friendship, sympathy, and other veiled threats” to convince them that they have no other purpose in this world than sex work (New Light). These Mashis use diabolical tactics to gain the trust of women and young girls, even go out hunting on the streets to recruit more sex workers. Inability to support or raise their children, abuse, harassment, and forced labor are some of the other barriers that pose a threat to alternative employment. The coercion from the Mashis and other superiors along with the perceived risks often sway sex workers to remain in the field. Women working outside of the household is often looked down upon and stigmatized within impoverished and low-income areas of Kolkata. Poverty is something that these women want to escape from, and a lot of these Mashis persuade women and young girls to leave their lives as they know it for an economic pursuit. Those who have been trafficked for sex work see other lingering threats such as harassment and ostracization in the factory, abuse from superiors, and grueling long hours for near to none pay. “In factories, you can get treated badly. Men there can abuse you. It’s better [than sex work] but the money is no good and it is not safe” a trafficked study participant, Deepti said (Rose, Madison Leigh). It is ingrained in a lot of the men in India that women are disposable, and the gender inequalities rampage India like a swarm of mosquitos.

Gender inequality along with sexist ideology has been ingrained within our society and continues to create more and more challenges for women. The tremendous disparity in power and status of men and women within the impoverished areas negatively paints women as inferior. This sexist ideology that plagues India with ideas such as women being disposable, or that a women should not walk alone without a man by her side. I’ve seen these preposterous ideas be tossed around within the impoverished Red Light District of Kolkata. Because I am a women, and chose to work against this horrific injustice, I’ve been made a target.Vividly, I can recall my journey to Kalighat to work in one of the New Light Shelters where I decided to embark on that journey alone. I was greeted with a ball of spit to my face by a man, who opposed the idea of a woman working. Since that incident, I have been assigned a bodyguard when I choose to work in Kalighat, because of the outpouring threats I’ve received. I was later than scolded by one of my cousins who lived in Kolkata about how I shouldn’t have walked there alone, and that though it was in the day-time it could’ve ended much worse. From the Netflix Documentary, India’s Daughters, you see the statements made by the rapists and the rapists’ lawyer in regards to women. M.L. Sharma who worked as the defense lawyer for the rapists responsible for the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in 2012 states, “In our society, we never allow girls to come out from the house in the evening with any unknown person,” AP Singh his co-lawyer goes on to state that women must be accompanied by a family member or husband when leaving the house. M.L. This promotes this heinous rape culture that puts women at risk and greatly oppresses them. This ideology that women cannot leave the house without a man, creates this dependence that women have to rely on a man. This also enforces the idea that women have to stay in the household, in the kitchen, this hinders them from working and doing what they are passionate about - whatever that may be. Young girls are often prevented from attending school because a lot of people in impoverished areas in Kolkata believe that a boy’s education is worth more than a girls because the girl will end up being married off and kept in the kitchen. The amount of child marriages that All these sexist ideologies that roam free in India turn women into walking targets and punching bags. M.L. Sharma goes on to say that “a woman means I immediately put the sex in his eyes. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman.”

In impoverished areas within India, the disparity in gender equality is vast. The division of roles between a man and a woman. The common ideology that a woman has to stay put in the household and bear children while the man goes to work and support the family is far outdated. The lack of representation of women in the workplace, creates more barriers for women to break through. Besides the disparity in income between men and women, “more than 75 percent of CEOs include gender equality in their top ten business priorities, yet gender outcomes across the largest companies are not changing” (ILO). I’d like to delve into benevolent and hostile sexism that further fosters rape culture, and you can see both among the workplace within West Bengal.

Benevolent sexism is based around the belief that women should be taken care of, and that the gender differences are there in order to protect women. This further fuels the idea that women are incapable of working outside of the domestic roles that have been forced upon them. Men patronize women and act as their superiors and protectors, but feel inclined to keep them domesticated and further strip them away from the opportunity of breaking any glass ceiling. This ideology has been weaved throughout the beginning of time, where these acts of prejudice have been masked as protective actions when in fact it is demeaning and denouncing of women. This underlying sexism, that often goes unnoticed aids to men being perceived as the superior gender. Hostile sexism unlike benevolent sexism is seen more throughout the world, and often goes noticed but fighting against it just fuels it more. Hostile sexism focuses more on the role women are supposed to play in society. Benevolent sexism is often seen throughout the factories, and the amount of disapprovement from the men leads the women to deal with a gargantuan amount of harassment and pressure to leave. Society within the impoverished areas of Kolkata are flooded with benevolent sexism that creates barriers that keep women in the domesticated roles. With both hostile and benevolent sexism, women are perceived to be incapable of anything outside of the domestic roles that were placed upon them. The difference is that hostile sexism targets those that challenge the male power and the idea of men being the superior gender. In regards to the personal experience I share before, of being spat on by a man while walking to work in the shelter. It is a classic example of a woman challenging the sexist institutions by going to work outside of the domesticated roles to educate other women and being seen as a threat thus being attacked. I was seen as a threat to male superiority, and a lot of men within the Red-Light District of Kolkata are against me for going to not only work but for educating other women to do the same. Hostile sexism intensifies when it sees a threat of something or someone trying to challenge male authority. Traffickers often use hostile sexism to silence the victims and any party that is deemed as a threat to the trade. This hostile sexism could lead to the increased physical and mental endangerment of the victims. Both forms of sexism contribute to the inequality of women and foster this rape culture. It is vital that we identify these stereotypes, and forms of sexism to be able to deconstruct it in order to obtain equality in our society. The idea floating around India that women cannot walk without a man by her side has created a dangerous environment for women to walk alone within India. The idea that if a woman dared to trek alone in India, that she was asking for whatever happened to her is preposterous. Nothing could justify rape or any act of sexual harassment, women should be allowed to walk freely on this earth without the threat of being violated. It’s been normalized especially within the impoverished areas that women are disposable. It is vital that we identify these stereotypes, and forms of sexism to be able to deconstruct it in order to obtain equality in our society.

The gender inequality has been ingrained within the history of India, stemming back to the period of British colonialism where women and young girls were snatched from impoverished areas to sexually satisfy the needs of troops in Mumbai and Kolkata. It is evident of the direct relationship linking the areas in which the British ruled during the 1900’s and the areas in which sex trafficking is the most prevalent now. From this, we can see the economic theory of supply and demand being applied in the worst possible way. From the troops during the time of British colonialism within India to the men that migrate to commercial cities like Kolkata for work, the demand for sex workers is created. Responding to the high demand, the traffickers go through any means to fulfill the supply by kidnapping and luring in women and young girls. The traffickers that took the women and young girls from their homes took advantage of their economic status, showing us that women and young girls that belong to poorer families are the ones most at risk. Within the impoverished areas, it is common for couples to want a son, because women are often looked at as useless. From my time in Unmochon, I’ve met women who have been sold by their own parents or a family relative because they were desperate to earn money or didn’t want to pay a dowry from them to get married off. In Unmochon, I’ve also been informed of the heightening femicide rates, and how finding out the gender of the baby has been banned in India because of the amount of people that had abortions when they found out they were having a girl.

A predisposing factor that often connects these victims of sex trafficking are a past of abuse and family issues prior to being taken into the trade. As said before, a lot of women are lured into this trade by Mashis using sympathy or lured in by false promises of a promising future. Struggles with poverty, family violence, lack of education, abusive marriage are all predisposing factors that these victims share. “Padma, a 29 year old from West Bengal stated, ‘My husband would beat me and I didn’t have food for my daughter. I needed a way to get out. When I left my husband, I had to earn money and I entered sex work.’ Padma’s experience shows that women who met the criteria for trafficking by entering sex work under the age of 18 were still influenced by family violence and marital disruption. In these narratives, family violence prompted women to seek employment or leave their homes, where they became vulnerable to coercion” (Rose, Madison Leigh). Some of the women see sex work as their only way out, thus escaping the violence at home and entering a whole other world of injustice. This proves to be a public health concern in Kolkata, India. While working in Unmochon, I often think about how the lives of the victims’ lives could have been different if they had access to resources and an opportunity to thrive. I praise the founder of New Light, Urmi Basu, for granting them a chance to thrive in this world and to heal from the society that has failed them. The world has ultimately failed these women, the supply and demand factor of sex trafficking has been ingrained in society for centuries. The viability of this horrendous trade is continued on and fueled by the rape culture and discriminative stereotypes that hinder women from being equal to men.

The question lies, how can we deconstruct this male hegemony and liberate these women from this world of injustice? I believe the solution to this stems from education, it is solely up to the future and how we teach the future generations. To enforce this education that discerns women as equals to men, and to many this may seem radical, but it is necessary. It is necessary to break down this rape culture, and eradicate the consequences of sexism. Holding a human as a sex slave, or a woman feeling she has no other purpose other than sex work, as a society we should be ashamed of ourselves. This has gone on for too long, and the Indian government has done nearly nothing to deconstruct these limitations and threats towards women. It’s often said in West Bengal, that if you are wearing short clothes or walking alone, that you are asking for whatever happens to you. M.L. Sharma states in the documentary, India’s Daughters, that “women are like gems, as precious as diamonds. If you throw a diamond into the street, the dog is bound to snatch it.” Women are more precious than diamonds, we are priceless and the rapists that think of women as disposable, they are the scum of this earth. It is vital that we delve into the roots of this issue, and start teaching the impoverished areas of India about sexual education, consent, HIV/AIDS, and everything surrounding rape culture. It should be implemented by the Indian government, the Indian government has to stop relying on non-profit organizations like New Light to clean up the mess they’ve made.

The Delhi Gang Rape Case of Jyoti Singh is a prominent example of how men perceive women as disposable. The rapists penetrated Jyoti Singh with an iron rod and removed her organs with their hand and then dumped her on the side of the highway. This brutal rape shouldn’t have occured in the first place, all because she was walking with someone who wasn’t her family, “an unknown man,” they thought they could slaughter this innocent woman. This specific incident frightened me not only because of how monstrous it was but because of how much support in India there was for the rapists. Though there was an uproar of protests for Jyoti Singh’s life that was loss, but there were also an uprise of support and defense for the rapists condoning what they had done. To condone or encourage what has been done to Jyoti Singh is inhumane, and the rape culture that plagues India hasn’t died down in fact it’s heightening.

Consent is what defines the sexual act as rape or not, the lack of understanding of consent stems from society and lack of sexual education within schools. The schools in West Bengal do not grace upon the subjects of consent and pleasure because they are deemed to be taboo and teaching them to children and young teenagers are deemed to be radical. To fight against rape culture, it is crucial that we teach the components and dive into consent and pleasure. Consent and pleasure should be normalized rather than rape being normalized throughout Indian society and the media. People shouldn’t open their newspapers and flip through the incidents of rape and acts of sexual assault happening and become numb to it. It’s importance that we don’t psychologically become numb to these heinous acts, it should enrage us and push us to fight for a change. It will be a challenge to mold and change the perceptions of people like M.L. Sharma that bleed male authority and dominance over females, but the groundworks can be laid down through education. Non-profit organizations such as New Light Organization does exactly that, by molding and teaching the children of sex workers about consent along with other life-training skills that will give them a shot at life. Their mission is for the children is to get them out of what was unfairly paved for them by society.

West Bengal has been India’s epicenter of human and sex trafficking, and a factor of this is because of how close West Bengal is to Bangladesh. With Bangladesh overcrowding, victims are often smuggled through to Kolkata and other areas in West Bengal. Usually there is a middleman that smuggles these women and young girls via boat to avoid the military crackdown at the border of Bangladesh and West Bengal. The women and young girls are transferred like packages of meat, as they are relocated from brothel to brothel. “Khartoun, one of the victims rescued by cops in Cox’s Bazar, told Al Jazeera news channel that she was locked up for three weeks and sold to a Bangladeshi man, who she said, sexually abused her for 12 days. The channel said the man who bought Khartoun returned her to the women who sold her after 12 days. She now lives at the Kutupalong refugee camp” (Ray, Shantanu Guha). Along with Kalighat, Sonagachi is another Red Light District of Kolkata where women are herded from disclosed locations and used for sex. The nationwide demand for these women runs high, the underground sex trafficking ring is much larger than I could have imagined. People are either in it for the profit or to fulfill their sexual needs. “For each girl, the middleman get approximately Rs 50,000, while the women are sold in the brothels of Delhi, Ghaziabad and Agra for at Rs 2-3 lakh” (Ray, Shantanu Guha). The middleman gets paid around $800 for the women they bring to the brothels that end up getting sold for $200,000 to $300,000. To put a price tag on a human being is despicable, and the people that prosper out of this trade are twisted creatures.

With the dark trade flourishing and the demand being high, the government still hasn’t been able to crack down on this illegal enterprise. This is a crime against humanity and the conviction rates for rapists are proven to be low, and a lot of the rapes go unreported along with the number of missing women and young girls that have been sold through this trade. With the “total number of missing children in West Bengal being 368 in 2001” and growing to “8,599 in 2010 and in 2001 the number of missing women was 196 whereas in 2010 it was 6,514,” it alarming to how high the reports have gone. (Kolkata Mary Ward) Though this indicates that the government has started registering it more, there is still a lack of conviction and reports. The predisposing factors that these victims share show how we can help rehabilitate and prevent them from falling into the trade. Identifying the predisposing factors and analyzing them can help us focus on how to stop people from being trafficked. It’s also crucial that we breakdown the manipulative ways that traffickers use to lure in the victims, so that we can train people to be more cautious about falling into the heinous trade. There needs to be a reform in education especially sexual education and it needs to be enforced within society. The media along with the government need to promote a safer environment and cannot condone these crimes against humanity. The government should be fulfilling the role that non-profit organizations like New Light organization is. Both the government. private corporations, and overall businesses should research their financial risks. Businesses should have in depth background checks to ensure the goods that they are selling or anything in regards to their business is not connected to sex trafficking or produced by the hands of the victims. This will help lessen and breakdown sex and human trafficking, when the demand for the goods are less. The Indian government should sponsor organizations and implement programs to tackle this issue and promote businesses that fight against sex and human trafficking. Having worked in the New Light shelters for three years, I’ve grown connected to the women and young children that they have rescued. This is a public health and human safety issue and it should be at the top of the government’s priority list, and the fact that there has been little to no effort made on the part of the India government is shameful. The amount of help that Urmi Basu along with the entire New Light team have made on the lives of these women and children are profound. If the Indian government applied some of the mechanisms New Light uses to combat sex trafficking, the efforts would go far.

Works Cited:

“Sex Trafficking.” Polaris, Polaris, polarisproject.org/human-trafficking/sex-trafficking.

“Unmochon.” New Light | Unmochon, New Light Organization, http://www.newlightindia.org/unmochon.php

“About New Light.” New Light | Unmochon, New Light Organization, http://www.newlightindia.org/about-us.php

Banerjie, Monideepa. “West Bengal Records Highest Number Of Human Trafficking Cases In 2016.” NDTV.com, 30 Nov. 2017, www.ndtv.com/india-news/west-bengal-records-highest-number-of-human-trafficking-cases-in-2016-1782177.

“Forced Labour, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking (Forced Labour, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking).” Danger at Sea - Working in the Fishing Sector, www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang--en/index.htm.

“This Is What It's Like to Be Sex Trafficked in India at 14.” Global Citizen, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/india-sex-trafficked-brothel-kolkata/.

Rose, Madison Leigh. “Sex Trafficking In Kolkata, India: Employment Histories And Perceptions Of Risk.” Https://Elischolar.library.yale.edu/Cgi/Viewcontent.cgi?Referer=Https://Www.google.com/&Httpsredir=1&Article=1248&Context=Ysphtdl, Yale University, Jan. 2012, elischolar.library.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1248&context=ysphtdl.

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS REPORT. Department of State, United States of America, June 2016, www.state.gov/documents/organization/258876.pdf.

“Human Trafficking in India and West Bengal.” International Conference on Anti Human Trafficking Initiatives: Theory to Practice, kolkatamarywardsc.org/international-conference/human-trafficking-india-wb/.

Ray, Shantanu Guha, “Bengal New Epicentre of Human Trafficking.” The Sunday Guardian Live, 14 Jan. 2018, www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/12400-bengal-new-epicentre-human-trafficking.

#riseup #womenempowerment #womansrights #girlpower #girlinnovators

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thechroniclesofdaraliss · 7 years ago

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100 Shadowrun Campaign/Session Ideas

In one of my more daring attempts at running one-shots, I stumbled across a system called Shadowrun. While I was hesitant to try a system that blended science fiction and fantasy, it turned out to be a truly amazing system. A relatively new addition to the RPG community (released in May of 2007), Shadowrun blends the elements of these beloved genres and turns them into a system that allows you to be anything from a spellcaster to a hacker. However, with the blending of two polarized classes of tabletop, it can be difficult to come up with scenarios to play. It’s for this reason that I’ve compiled 100 session ideas that I’ve either field tested or one day hope to try myself. Enjoy!

1) You have been hired by the government to steal a “universal hacking module” from foreign soil. If you’re caught, there’s nothing they can do to protect you. Bring it back, and you’ll be rich. The twist? The government wants the module, but doesn’t want to pay up.

2) A villainous Decker has been taking over the city via the Matrix. He also challenges the Runner community to try and stop him/her.

3) You have been approached by a wealthy and bizarre collector. He says that for every exotic species you capture in the Wastes, he’ll pay you handsomely. 4) As a war overseas rages on, families have been losing their sons and daughters. Some are confirmed dead, others are missing in action. The military’s resources are stretched thin and the government can’t be bothered. Therefore, Runners have been called to bring these lost soldiers back home, no matter what the cost. 5) An underdog corporation ahs been struggling to make ends meet. With every success, there’s a bigger corporation that’s stampeding their fortune into the dirt. In light of this, you have been tasked with helping this company keep its resources and to battle Runners who work for the opposition. 6) After a grueling battle between the Police, Yakuza, and the Mob, Runners have been asked to act as mercenary forces to tip the scales and to help end the war. 7) A cloning facility has been repurposed from an organ farm to a military installation. This way, armies can be made cheaply and at impressive intervals. 8) Along the coast, there are cyber pirates that are cutting off trade to and form other countries. Their numbers are too numerous for the military, and Runners are asked to step in 9) A massive earthquake shatters the city and the masses who lived in docility and comfort must entrust their lives to Runners. You must defend them against looters, escaped criminals from jail, and out of control technology 10) You have been hired by a corporation that specializes in entertainment. Meany of its stars have been receiving death threats and producers have been notoriously difficult to work with. Provide security for the talent and “convince” the producers to see things the director’s way 11) Technomages are extremely rare and mysterious people. No one is sure how they have the ability to interface with technology without any gear, but this hasn’t stopped the government from hunting down test subjects. Either aid in the hunt for Technomages, or help them escape. 12) You are a part time Runner, part time rock star. You work for the corporations and they supply you with enough Nuyen, drugs, and excess to last a lifetime. But one day, they deem you “too dangerous for public consumption” and you try to figure out what’s gone awry. 13) The space program has been recently taking in Runners to explore new planets, moons, and asteroids. The reason being that many believe runners to be expendable. Time to prove them wrong. 14) You have been tasked with finding a lawyer that’s gone missing. His wife is especially keen to find him. She tags along, and you locate him. But it turns out she’s trying to kill her husband to kill a case. She’ll also kill you to ensure there are no witnesses 15) The party is a platoon of soldiers from the last “Desert War.” While you fight for your country (or paycheck) by day, you make your real living at night as the owner of nightclub owner, drug lord, or leader of a crime syndicate. Being a Runner is just how you eliminate the competition 16) There’s a sniper claiming the lives of seemingly unrelated people across the city. That is until you see that each of them is carrying part of the formula for a new drug that’s going public. 17) A legendary Runner has asked for your help protecting him and his girlfriend until they get married in a month and retire. Is this an honest attempt at starting a new life, or is he saving up money for nefarious purposes? 18) As part of a deal between the police, you are to infiltrate a gang by joining their ranks. You are to locate their leader, and to turn him into the police. In exchange, all charges against you will be expunged. But the gang leader has been keeping his identity hidden for a reason: he/she is responsible for an infant son and they are trying to escape this life 19) An Occult Investigator reaches out to the victims of a recent massacre. She finds that the golden boy/girl of the local police precinct is not only the one who stopped the massacre; she’s the one who started it. But why? 20) You try to get your own corporation off the ground with a new concept. Instead of hiring runners to do your dirty work and having a primary business, Running is your primary business 21) You have been tasked with repossessing high-priority items from “special cases.” Some of these include war vets with stolen weapon prototypes, or rich kids who make a game of stealing cars. 22) Robotic Concubines have been reprogrammed to kill anyone who takes them up on their services. 23) Corrupt cops have been bought off to move criminals across the city with a police escort. You have been tasked with finding proof of this criminal enterprise and to add a little extra “screw you” message to the cops participating 24) Criminals have been fighting for ownership of the airways above the city and on the outskirts for years. But now they are hiring Runners to claim them by force. The Six Syndicates are buying up anyone they can, and this means rivalries will come to resolution and friendships will be tested 25) A series of bodies have been turning up dead in the city. Only they’re not dead, they’ve been burned to a crisp. But why? 26) You’ve been hired to bring in ship with a manifest of explosives. Only when you arrive, you see it’s a liquefied alien that consumes whoever falls into its grasp down to the last cell (typically used in criminal execution). 27) Find and acquire the best street racing vehicle for the city’s most notorious gangster, street racer, and Runner 28) A culture of Robotic Humanoids have decided they want to escape their lives in the city. Police declare this to be an attack on the public and are mobilizing. It’s up to you to either help the Robotic Runaways or to aid the police in their capture 29) A public transport vehicle has been hijacked by a Runner with a terminal illness. You are to find a way to either board the vehicle and kill him or to find a way to calm him down so no innocents are killed 30) A Holo-Cube holds all the data on every Runner that has gone into Witness Protection in the last 50 years. It has been stolen, and the government wants it back. If it stays in the wrong hands, no Runner is safe 31) It turns out that your most trusted employer was only an informant for the police. He was hiring you with police funds so they could get you to go to jail on life sentences. Break out of police custody and make this man pay for betraying you 32) A drug dealer has left his Syndicate and has made off with 100 lbs of the latest drug they’ve been developing. The bounty is staggering and every Runner wants a piece 33) A series of hybrid creatures have escaped a research laboratory and every Runner in a 100 mile radius has been tasked with capturing them and returning them. They also have a hefty reward for each creature you capture. 34) A ship of death row inmates suddenly changes course and Runners are tasked with capturing or killing some of the most dangerous criminals in the country 35) Someone has discovered a way to assassinate targets in real life by using the Matrix. You have been hired to find who it is and kill them 36) After a Runner is killed, the entire mob has become the latest target for a legendary band of Runners called the Sinner Saints. But for a job this big, they’ll need some help. Enter the party 37) A Street Samurai has been collecting debts for the Yakuza. But when a young boy’s mother is taken in to help pay for some of these debts, he pays you a massive amount of Nuyen to bring her back and to take the fight to the Yakuza 38) A Rigger has been using their technological prowess to create bots that steal data and destroy the source so he/she controls all of the data in the city 39) A Runner sends a message from the local jail saying that he’ll/she’ll give his/her life savings to anyone that can help break out of prison and escape execution 40) Some Runners have been operating beyond their brief, stealing from their employers. 41) A local criminal racket has been capturing young men and women and selling them to smugglers. You investigate and find that they’re being turned into mindless concubines through horrific surgical procedures. You are then tasked with taking the operation down 42) When traveling through a nearby town, it’s rumored that there’s a street killer on the loose. He’s targeting powerful fighters (war vets, heroic cops, Enforcers), and now he sets his sight son your party 43) It turns out that local graffiti is actually code for where to let loose with bombing attacks. The local gangs are desperate to find out who it is, and you have been hired to do so. This is even if the bomber is within their organization 44) A group of Net Divers have abandoned their physical lives and opted to live a life of their own design. But over time, they convince others to do the same, and all the newcomers are ending up dead 45) You’ve gone as high up as you can in the Mob. But now that you’re one of their best Runners, the time has come to “make your bones.” Time to make a killing and to become a blood brother of the mafia. 46) You are called to the employ of a wealthy man who runs a small town life a feudal kingdom. Everyone pays tribute, or is killed. As Runners, you must either help this tyrant accomplish his goals, or help the townsfolk escape to a more civilized part of the world. 47) A series of murders are baffling the police, and so a bounty has been placed on this killer. Runners are searching everywhere to find him, but even Runners are getting clipped when they search for him 48) A tournament has been issued to see who should take up the most harrowing Run in years. The last man/woman standing gets the job 49) A scientist from Hong Kong has hired your team to escort him out of the city. Everyone is after him from the police to the mafia 50) A businessman has hired you to break two prisoners out of an aircraft set for a “death by exile” destination. Little do you know that he hopes you’ll free his wife and son from a false charge 51) Robots all across the city have been reprogrammed to attack humans on sight and to cry out for freedom. You’ve been tasked with find out out where the signal is coming from and to take it down at the source 52) A mega corporation wants you to test out some new weapon prototypes on Raiders in the “Badlands.” Some of them perform better than any gun on the market. Others explode when you pull the trigger 53) Death threats have reached the executives of a mega corporation. It starts with a woman falling from the sky to her death. They also say anyone who interferes with them will meet the same fate. Therefore, they hire your team 54) A factory has been using chemicals to turn people into obedient slaves. It’s up tot eh party to break the selves out of custody and to revert them back to their original state…if possible. 55) A team of Mages have joined forces in order to protect their ill and much-respected matriarch out of jai. But they’re short handed and need some Runners 56) A Street Shaman has been selling his wares peacefully for many years. But when he/she is picked up by police, he breaks out and is trying to escape the city 57) After crash landing en route to your next job, you land in a vast desert with only a handful of stones. Stepping in the sand even for a moment could mean being devoured by Sand Burrowers. You must repair your ship and defeat Raiders to either complete your job or to get back home 58) A crime lord has shut himself off from the rest of the world and some bounties have come up for his head that Runners can’t resist. Defeat his small army and bring the reclusive don in…alive 59) A mega corporation has resorted to using technology to engineer famine to communities that don’t pay their taxes or “security fees” in full and on time. You’ve been hired to infiltrate one of these famine-inducing installations and blowing it sky high 60) A robot has been sold to Junkers in the furthest reaches of a canyon system outside the city. You’ve been hired to infiltrate the territory, kill the Raiders protecting the unit, and recollecting the robot 61) An Info Broker wants to meet you at his home in the middle of the wilderness. But when he is shot down on his doorstep, you must hack his computer and escape with the information you’ve gathered 62) One of the wealthiest men/women of your century has their massive high-tech crypt been infiltrated by grave robbers and hackers. It’s fallen to you to recover as much data as possible and resealing the crypt 63) A massive reptilian creature has broken out of its confinement cell and is attacking everyone in the facility. You’ve been called to subdue the creature by any means necessary 64) A wealthy cyborg has been under investigation by police for years. But when his/her most valued employees and family members go missing, you’re tasked with finding out why. Little do you know that he/she is trying to turn everyone into robots by force! 65) A casino-district has expanded so immensely that its taken the form of a prospering city-state. The only catch is that they’re hiding thousands of slaves beneath the surface to create cheap energy 66) An AI makes contact with you, and it is shown in the data that it’s a 150-year-old distress signal. You go down into the city’s catacombs and realize that years of sunlight deficiency and reliance on cheap drugs to prevent illnesses has turned these subterranean dwellers into mindless corpses of human beings 67) You meet at a nightclub, and it turns out that the job comes to you directly. Rival gangs have been at each other’s throats for years, and now Runners are being called in because there’s talk of a massive bomb in place to end the war once and for all. You need to find it if it’s there, and deactivate it 68) You are tasked with taking ot the Barrens and capturing escapees from a local prison, alive if possible. The downside is that they’re armed with heavy machine guns, desert vehicles, and jacked up on combat painkillers 69) You are asked to draw police attention for as long as possible so a member of the Senate can escape a prison with another group of Runners. The catch is that you’ve been tasked with keeping the man alive. The other team has been hired to kill him 70) You are called to gather a stolen shipment for the Natural Resource Alliance. They claim it to be ration bars that are vital to the continuation of a desert colony. But it turns out the shipment is 200 slaves, all from different races. You must decide whether to deliver them and get paid or free them and be hunted 71) An entire hospital loses power and all of its life support patients die instantly. An Occult Investigator looks into it, and is possessed by every soul that died. She becomes an avatar hell bent on killing all of the physicians until the perpetrator gives themselves up 72) A recent breakthrough in bioware has crafted some of the most powerful soldiers in decades. Bulletproof, super strong, and crazed soldiers are to be used in warzones, but are first tested on Runners 73) A Mage sends a message, pleading that any Runners that come to help her husband and daughter will receive and untold fortune. You arrive at the location she specified, and she is killed in cold blood by a small army 74) A group of small time thieves graduate from rooftop burglary to penthouse safecracking. You apprehend them (or have a Mexican standoff with them), and it’s revealed they’re doing this because people are depending on them, not because they’re greedy 75) A con man is taking the town by storm. With a smile, he can get anyone to do exactly as he wants. Yet for all his victories, the ground is shrinking under his feet. The police give you an offer to bring him in for some serious Nuyen. Meanwhile, he offers you an apprenticeship/partnership for getting him out of dodge 76) A master hacker has called you into their service to plant a “bug” in a strategic location in the city’s wiring for the Matrix. Little do you know it’s a Master Control for the entire system, and he/she won’t hesitate to bring the city into total anarchy 77) A massive airliner has been hijacked by an unknown force. It’s up to you to discover what it is and to make the aircraft land safely. The twist? Your client is on board 78) A cult of terminally ill humanoids turn to a vampire in desperation to extend their meager lifespans. In a matter of days, he has complete control of the city’s destitute 79) The Runners are asked to be the third party in a harrowing conflict. Help kill a investigation for criminals or help complete the investigation for the police. The twist? You to notice that people are dying on both sides before they even meet in combat. It seems that two master assassins are at play. The Runners are targets, and the root of the problem lies in these two killers hiding in plain sight 80) The police have had enough of the local biker gangs. These mobile maniacs have been attacking innocent people, dismantled cars they make crash, and give the police death threats daily. The authorities have tried everything, and now you have to take the fight to them 81) There’s a mysterious client known as Shade. He only comes to certain Runners and offers the job a lifetime, payment to last five generations of your family to live in luxury. But the job is always so dangerous, not a single Runner has come back alive when they finish the job. Now he’s hiring you 82) A serial murderer has been polluting TV for months with his horrible acts of violence. The bounty on his head is now set at 100,000 Nuyen. He then messages you privately, saying that he’s the one that set the bounty. He wants you to come at him with everything you’ve got. All your guns, gear, and the whole crew. Take him down…if you can 83) One of your most trusted contacts ahs fallen victim to a gambling debt. He/she has three days to before the debt has to be paid. If they don’t, their whole life and all their loved ones go up in flames. It’s up to you to help pay the debt, save your friend, or find another way 84) After a botched attempt at robbery, your crew must lose your pursuers and find a way to lay low. Your usual hangout has been destroyed, and all of your usual contacts are being interrogated or killed. Whatever was in that safe must have been valuable. But what is it? 85) A collector is hoping to scavenge what remains of an enemy military vessel from the last war. But as you delve into it (sunken submarine, downed aircraft, or broken-down artillery carrier), you find that it holds several systems to defend itself as well as a terrible secret 86) A Street Shaman has found a way to bind a summoned spirit to his/her power indefinitely. He/she performs the spell to bring down a massive and influential gang they were part of that left him/her for dead. You have been tasked with either stopping the ritual or contributing to the rampage 87) A boss from the Triad has fallen out of favor with the rest of the organization. His advanced age and suspicious release from an extensive jail sentence raises too many questions. After a botched attempt on his life, you are to find him and take him down 88) A government official has been kidnapped and taken to an aircraft heading toward Hong Kong. The military is fighting the aircraft in an attempt to buy Runners some time. Meanwhile, it’s every crew for itself as you try to get the reward for bringing the official back before other Runners do 89) A friend or fellow Runner has been hit with a grievous wound during a job. He/she pleads that you get them medical attention, but the only available medical help is short handed. You need to break into pharmacies, hospitals, or black markets to bring your friend back from the brink of death. You’ll get a bad rep for stealing from such targets, but it’s their only shot 90) While spending some leisure time in the Matrix, you sense that there’s a digital ghost glitching in and out of the code. You bring it to a tech-savvy friend (or you do it yourself), and find it’s a disembodied astral presence that’s calling to be returned to their body. But you don’t even know where to start. There’s just a lien of areas where the code keeps being sent and pulled under the digital tide 91) Crazed sorcerers of a bygone age are creeping up from the gutters of your city and are taking down “false mages” everywhere. Desperate, the arcane community calls for the help of Runners everywhere to protect them and to discover the source of this infestation 92) You’ve been working the prison circuit for some time now as a Runner. The pay is good, the benefits are better than most, but you’ve been bored of late. Luckily, a prison break occurs and the escapees are gifted combatants. Is it too good to be true, or are you just glad to have some fun again? 93) A Runner believed to be long dead has suddenly come back with a vengeance. He’s stolen from the city’s most powerful mega corporation, assassinated a mob boss, and has performed a Datasteal fro 10 million Nuyen. Could it really be the same Runner from 50 years ago, or is it someone else? Either way, the corporations, mob, and government want answers 94) A Street Samurai known as the “Demon of Japan” has come into your territory. He has been killing government officials from his nation, and you’ve been hired to kill him. But when he tells you his side of the story, it becomes clear that these men were the cruelest people imaginable and their governmental stations were granted as rewards for their horrible deeds. You must choose whether to get paid or get even with the government 95) Doc Wagon is an organization that has long dedicated itself to the well-being and medical care of Runners. So why are Runners turning up missing when they enter their care? 96) While in the middle of a job, you see that a child is at the mercy of six armed thugs. But it soon turns into a battle that the child is winning. The twist? Your job is dedicated to finding an assassin stationed in the ghetto. You think it’s a man stationed in Apartment B6, but it’s really the young boy. The man in the apartment is just his caretaker 97) After a gang of Raiders robs a food and munitions train, the Runners are tasked with taking them in. But when you meet them in the field, you see that they are affiliated with the Mad Marauders, a fiefdom of smugglers, thieves, and murders that put city dwelling criminals to shame 98) Some Runners are looking to get their start, and so they turn to a seasoned pro: you. They’re willing to pay handsomely for your aid, and they’ve even promised connections for future jobs if you pull through. Is it too good to be true, or is this really your chance to teach a new generation of Runners? 99) A local gang has taken to recruiting children. They’re easy to convince to join a life of crime, they get a slap on the wrist for most offenses, and they rarely leave the gangs they join. Their families want them back, and the gangs leaders want to keep them. You’ve been given an offer from both sides. Choose between either freeing the children, or having them on your side in the coming gang war 100) An entire organization of Runners is trying to build an empire by Runners and for Runners only. However, they need to pull off a job before this is possible. They will need to get governmental permission, a ton of Nuyen, and will have to take over the town of Beggar’s End. It’s a tall order, but if accomplished, Runners will be in business for themselves, not just governments and crime syndicates.

#shadowrun #campaign ideas #session ideas #rpg #gaming #tabletop rpgs #the chronicles of daraliss

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woundvest7-blog · 5 years ago

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2:00PM Water Cooler 7/25/2019

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune

“2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination” [RealClearPolitics] (average of five polls). As of July 24: Biden flat at 28.6% (28.6), Sanders up at 15.0% (14.8%), Warren up at 15.0% (14.6%), Buttigieg up at 4.8% (5.0%), Harris down 12.2% (12.6%), others Brownian motion.

* * *

2020

Sanders (D)(1): “Tensions Between Bernie Sanders and MSNBC Boil Over” [Daily Beast]. “The backlash from Sanders-world reached a new high on Sunday, when MSNBC analyst Mimi Rocah, a former assistant U.S attorney for the Southern District of New York and occasional contributor to The Daily Beast, launched a personal critique of Sanders during a segment with host David Gura, saying that he makes her “skin crawl” and that he’s not a ‘pro-woman candidate.’… A senior campaign aide said the campaign believes there are possible biases in the network, but instead of shunning MSNBC they’ve been aggressive in getting their people booked. Sanders has been on the network at least nine times this cycle.”

Warren (D)(1): “Elizabeth Warren Wants to Stop Banks From Dominating Trillions in Payments” [Bloomberg]. “At issue is the development of real-time payment systems that would allow consumers and businesses to instantly access money that’s sent to their bank accounts. Everyone agrees that creating such networks is necessary. But they’re at odds over whether it’s a good idea to let big banks, which already have one up and running, reign supreme….. [Warren] wants the Federal Reserve to join the fray. The Massachusetts lawmaker, along with Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and two House Democrats, plans to introduce a bill Wednesday that would require the Fed to build a competing system. They say they want to make the U.S. payments infrastructure a public utility and prevent big banks from gaining a monopoly.” • Good!

Warren (D)(2): “Warren Is No Hillary. She’s Also No Bernie” [Jacobin]. “Characterizing Warren as a ‘neoliberal‘ or, even more stupidly, a ‘Clintonite,’ some misguided online Bernie Sanders supporters seem to be trying to cast her as the archvillain in the sequel to 2016’s horror flop, Hillary. With Warren’s advocacy for aggressive government regulation, her support for redistributive programs, her sharp critique of antisocial corporate behavior, and her rejection of individualistic folklore (remember ‘You didn’t build that‘?), she’s emerged as a relatively mild but nevertheless quite serious opponent of neoliberal ideology…. However, while Warren isn’t a neoliberal, Sanders supporters aren’t the only ones making shit up. Her own supporters have been spinning a series of fictitious narratives rooted in classic neoliberal identity politics, using feminism and anti-racism to discredit Sanders’s socialist agenda… One of these curious neoliberal narratives is that only sexism could explain why people support Sanders over Warren, since the candidates are exactly the same politically. Earlier this year, Moira Donegan, writing in the Guardian, asked, ‘Why vote for Sanders when you can have Elizabeth Warren instead?’ While Warren calls herself a “capitalist to my bones,” Sanders is a lifelong socialist.”

* * *

“Biden tries to set the stage in Detroit” [Politico]. “CNN’s broadcast, which begins at 8 p.m., will also feature an introduction of the candidates and playing of the national anthem.” • The debates are already enough like a sporting event, so what next? A military flyover?

“Can’t Buy Mohammed bin Salman Love” [Foreign Policy]. Last month, credible reports emerged that the U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg was courting campaign investors linked to Saudi Arabia. In June, Buttigieg held a fundraiser in the home of Hamilton James, a major Democratic donor and the mastermind behind a $20 billion deal to generate Saudi investment in U.S. infrastructure. Buttigieg is not alone. The Intercept revealed that former Vice President Joe Biden’s American Possibilities PAC includes investment from former Democratic Sen. John Breaux, a lobbyist for the firm Squire Patton Boggs, which is registered as a representative for Saudi Arabia.” • Classy!

Impeachment

“Mueller testimony fails to move needle on impeachment” [The Hill]. “[S]ome of the most vocal impeachment proponents said they don’t expect Mueller’s halting testimony — in which he asked legislators to repeat their questions on multiple occasions and often declined to answer questions at all — to lend any significant new power to the effort… More than 90 House Democrats have come out in favor of an impeachment inquiry, according to a tally kept by The Hill. But impeachment backers are still mostly progressives and amount to less than half of the 235-member caucus. Only a half-dozen Democrats representing swing districts have joined the push — and even they all hail from districts carried by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.”

Ouch:

Watching the dry prose of the Mueller report leap to life in the form of hours of committee hearings reminds me of when I was a fundamentalist kid and they tried to make the Bible fun using claymation. Now kids could SEE that Amminadab was the father of Nahshom, who begat Uzziah

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) July 24, 2019

“You Can’t Beat Trump without Throwing a Punch” [National Review]. “[Democrats’] desire is that the president should be removed from office, perhaps that the result of the 2016 election itself could be abrogated. And that all this could all be effected while they remain passive observers and commentators. Perhaps they would only be the formal executors of a judgment made elsewhere…. In other words, pro-impeachment Democrats wanted Mueller to make the decision for them, to take responsibility for moving public opinion in their favored direction. This is not how impeachment works under the Constitution, and it is not how political conflict works anyway. Just as spectators of the political game, it should be obvious by now that this is the signature mistake that all of Trump’s opponents have made. A fear of direct confrontation with Trump and his base leads his opponents to hope that Trump can be defeated without hard fighting….This is a vain hope. Like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Hillary Clinton before them, House Democrats will lose any contest with Trump so long as they are unwilling to sustain political damage in the act of inflicting more damage to him.” • Hard to argue with any of this.

RussiaGate

“These Questions for Mueller Show Why Russiagate Was Never the Answer” [The Nation]. The best question: “3. Why didn’t you interview Julian Assange? “The uncertainty in Mueller’s account of how WikiLeaks received the stolen e-mails could possibly have been cleared up had Mueller attempted to interview Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder insists that the Russian government was not his source, and has repeatedly offered to speak to US investigators. Given that Assange received and published the stolen emails at the heart of Mueller’s investigation, his absence from Mueller’s voluminous witness sheet is a glaring omission.” • Lawyers believe that you should never ask a question if you don’t already know the answer. So what does Mueller’s refusal to interview Assange say about his trust in the DNC?

Realignment and Legitimacy

“There Are Reasons for Optimism” [Noam Chomsky, Catalyst]. A long, long interview, well worth a read. Chomsky concludes: “A lot of things have improved and they’ve improved by active, organized, committed people who went to work on it and changed the world. That’s a reason to be optimistic.”

Stats Watch

Jobless Claims, week of July 20, 2019: “One of the Federal Reserve’s two central pillars policy — employment — is showing increasing and unusual strength” [Econoday]. “Labor conditions in July [may] have been at least if not more favorable than conditions in June.”

Durable Goods Orders, June 2019: “If manufacturing is the Federal Reserve’s central focus, they have less to be worried about. [Econoday]. “It’s a rare 1.9 percent jump in core capital goods orders that points to new confidence in the business outlook and the release of prior pent-up demand for new production equipment.” • What you want to see in a capitalist economy, even if most of turns out to be going to robots. More: “Revisions and the Boeing 737 aside, this report is an echo of the strength of last week’s industrial production report where manufacturing posted its strongest performance of the year, and it diminishes the need for Fed rate cuts and will have to be put into broad context or explained away by Jerome Powell at his press conference next week should the Fed indeed lower rates.”

Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index, July 2019: “Weighed down by increased uncertainty due to trade concerns and weaker domestic demand, Tenth District manufacturing activity unexpectedly slid into mild contraction” [Econoday]. “Today’s survey from Kansas joins yesterday’s Richmond Fed survey in showing manufacturing in contraction in their respective region, scaling back expectations of a general rebound in the nation’s flagging manufacturing sector that were aroused by last week’s positive Philly Fed and Empire State surveys,”

International Trade in Goods, June 2019: Exports fell very sharp[ly] with imports down. These are among the weakest results in 2-1/2 years and outside of isolated gains in May” [Econoday]. “Capital goods are the US’s strongest exports and these fell… Import contraction was deepest in industrial supplies…. Facing a sudden rush of improving economic data — whether employment or retail sales or core capital goods — the Federal Reserve will be able to point to declines in global trade as a justification for what appears to be an approaching rate cut at next week’s meeting.”

Retail Inventories [Advance], June 2019: Retail inventories contracted unexpectedly [Econoday]. “However unfavorable for the GDP calculation, low inventories at a time of strong consumer demand and what may be, based on this morning’s durable goods report, improving business demand point to the need for inventory building which would be a plus for third quarter employment and production.”

Wholesale Inventories [Advance], June 2019: Wholesale inventories rose lower-than-expected [Econoday]. As above on inventory building.

Retail: “Amazon Has ‘Destroyed’ U.S. Retail Industry, Mnuchin Says” [Bloomberg]. “U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin alleged that Amazon.com Inc. has “limited competition” and harmed the retail industry as the Trump administration announced a broad antitrust review into whether technology companies are using their power to thwart rivals. ‘If you look at Amazon, although there are certain benefits to it, it destroyed the retail industry across the United States, so there’s no question they’ve limited competition,” Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC Wednesday.'” • And just think! If Kamala Harris had prosecuted Mnuchin, he wouldn’t be saying this today!

Housing: “Nearly 250,000 NYC rental apartments sit vacant” [6sqft]. Early numbers from the Census Bureau’s Housing and Vacancy Survey show that the number of unoccupied apartments throughout New York City has grown significantly over the past three years–a whopping 35 percent to 65,406 apartments since 2014, when the last survey was taken. As the Daily News puts it, “Today, 247,977 units — more than 11% of all rental apartments in New York City — sit either empty or scarcely occupied, even as many New Yorkers struggle to find an apartment they can afford.” One reason for the growing vacancy rates, as the article states, is the city’s high rent, which has risen twice as fast as inflation….. Many of the 75,000 temporary apartments are pied-à-terres–think weekend or vacation homes for the rich–a number that’s expanded from 9,282 in 1987.”

Tech: “Twitter, Unable to Control Its Worst Elements, Rolls out a Site Redesign” [Fortune]. “The social media site began testing the new version of its site back in September 2018. The new look better resembles the site’s experience on modern smartphones. At the start, the new look was optional, and only available to some. Now, the redesign will be mandatory for Twitter users, disabling their ability to switch to the social network’s legacy layout.” • Amazingly, press coverage of this debacle has been universally positive; neither the designers nor the press seem to understand that phones (tiny screens, touch) and laptops (bigger screens or even monitors, mouse/keyboard) are different media. Hence the grotesquely oversized menu, the big type, the wasted screen real estate, the extra steps, and so on. The good news is that there are workarounds to the so-called “mandatory” redesign, if design is the word I want.

Tech: “How to switch back to the old Twitter layout” [ShackNews]. • The new Twitter laptop redesign really is ghastly. This technique works, though it’s not clear for how long.

Manufacturing: “Boeing says 737 MAX crisis could temporarily shut down Renton production” [Seattle Times]. “Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said Wednesday that though the company’s “best estimate” is that the 737 MAX will return to service in October, a slip in that optimistic timeline could mean the Renton 737 production line would be temporarily shut down. ‘That’s not something we want to do, but something we have to prepare for,’ he said on Boeing’s second-quarter earnings call with analysts and the press. Such a drastic step would mean temporary layoffs at the plant, which employs more than 10,000 people. ‘A temporary shutdown could be more efficient than a sustained lower production rate,’ Muilenburg said. ‘That’s what we are thinking our way through.’ Wednesday’s call also included worrying news for Boeing’s Everett factory: The new 777X that rolled out of the factory in March will not fly until next year because of delays in fixing a problem with the plane’s GE-9X engine.”• A firm with enormous quality assurance problems considers screwing over its workers…

Manufacturing: “Southwest ceasing operations at Newark airport because of 737 Max delays” [CNN]. “Southwest Airlines is ceasing operations at Newark Liberty International Airport because of the continued grounding of the Boeing 737 Max. The airline announced Thursday that Boeing’s (BA) “extensive delays” in getting its 737 Max plane back in service, Southwest has to stop flying in and out of the New Jersey airport starting November 3. Southwest called it a financial decision, saying its financial results at the airport have fallen below expectations, and it had to “mitigate damages and optimize our aircraft…. The airline operates 20 flights per day from Newark to 10 cities, including Phoenix, Austin and Chicago. Southwest (LUV) will still continue to fly from two New York area airports including LaGuardia and Islip on Long Island.” • Newark or LaGuardia…. I’d have to give it some thought.

Manufacturing: “Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours” [The Register]. “Some models of Airbus A350 airliners still need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours, despite warnings from the EU Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) first issued two years ago.” • Funny to have the famous Help Desk reponse — “Please reboot your machine and try again” — appear at such a high level. To be fair to Airbus, the problem was fixable. The article has interesting information on how Airbus aircraft are wired up.

The Biosphere

“Moody’s Buys Climate Data Firm, Signaling New Scrutiny of Climate Risks” [New York Times]. “The rating agency bought a majority share in Four Twenty Seven, a California-based company that measures a range of hazards, including extreme rainfall, hurricanes, heat stress and sea level rise, and tracks their impact on 2,000 companies and 196 countries. In the United States, the data covers 761 cities and more than 3,000 counties.” • I’m reminded of the scene from The Big Short where Mark Baum visits Standard & Poors:

“I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle.” [Vox]. “All too often, our culture broadly equates “environmentalism” with personal consumerism. To be “good,” we must convert to 100 percent solar energy, ride an upcycled bike everywhere, stop flying, eat vegan. We have to live a zero-waste lifestyle, never use Amazon Prime, etc., etc. I hear this message everywhere…. While we’re busy testing each other’s purity, we let the government and industries — the authors of said devastation — off the hook completely. This overemphasis on individual action shames people for their everyday activities, things they can barely avoid doing because of the fossil fuel-dependent system they were born into…. If we want to function in society, we have no choice but to participate in that system. To blame us for that is to shame us for our very existence.” • Amen.

“Special Report: A Cloudspotter’s Guide to Climate Change” [Reuters]. “When Gavin Pretor-Pinney decided on a whim to inaugurate the Cloud Appreciation Society at a literary festival, he never expected it to draw much attention. Fifteen years later, more than 47,000 members have signed up for a group that could have been dismissed as another example of quintessentially British eccentricity…. Global climate models are a computational mesh that use grids of the Earth that are tens to hundreds of kilometers wide. Clouds and the complicated processes they are made under are smaller in size and present a ‘blind spot’ in climate modeling, says [Tapo] Schneider, the Caltech climate scientist…. [T]he Cloud Appreciation Society decided not to get involved in the climate change debate. Asked what he made of his fellow members’ reluctance to include climate advocacy in the Cloud Appreciation Society’s work, [Walt Lyons, an atmospheric scientist and former broadcast meteorologist who belongs to the society] pauses for a moment. ‘Just appreciating clouds is a big job, because people are reconnecting with nature,’ he says finally. ‘If more people could begin to understand what they’re about to lose…’ He walks away and settles his bill with the cashier.” • Great metaphor, there. A sad ending! A very good article on clouds; the Cloud Appreciation Society is the story hook (or, I suppose, barb). Well worth a read.

“Sacramento UC Master Gardeners to host annual Harvest Day gardening event in Fair Oaks” [Sacramento Bee]. “Gardening is incredibly rewarding, but it can also frustrate, especially when a plant is struggling or bugs are plaguing your garden. But there’s help available: The Sacramento UC Master Gardeners are here to help and give advice at their annual Harvest Day event.” • Master Gardeners are a great resource.

For rail fans, a thread:

Trains are running at reduced speeds tomorrow, because of all this heat causing the rails to buckle.

Inevitably this brings out people asking “why doesn’t this happen in Spain/Mexico/other hot countries”, so it’s time for a thread about railway track. https://t.co/YlwCUiaVAl

— Alex Chan (@alexwlchan) July 24, 2019

“Real Estate Agents Trying To Gentrify Run-Down Earth By Renaming It West Saturn” [The Onion (RH)]. “With Mars almost sold through, demand for the good spots on Earth is only going to heat up, much like Earth itself.”

Guillotine Watch

Get used to it:

Tonight I tweeted a pic of a Georgetown party hosted by @maureendowd, attended by @SpeakerPelosi, @SenSchumer and DC journos. In the old days it would’ve been a benign big-shot brag. No more. It was viciously ratio’d by left and right. I deleted it. All establishments are hated.

— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) July 25, 2019

Here’s Fineman’s deleted tweet:

pic.twitter.com/0I7M89N5Th

— Walter (@Waltersghost1) July 25, 2019

Class Warfare

“If You Hate Capitalism You Will Love This Map” [Vice]. “The Black Socialists of America (BSA), a coalition of ‘anticapitalist, internationalist Black Americans,’ just launched its Dual Power Map. The map promises to plot every single worker cooperative, small business development center, community land trust, and dual power project in America so ‘you can support them right now.’ But what are any of these things? What is dual power? Why should you care? At its heart, dual power is a socialist strategy concerned with helping people who are unable to have their needs met by capitalism. The strategy calls for ‘counter-institutions’ that not only meet the needs of those left behind but are run by those very people. It also calls for people to protect and develop these institutions into forms of social, economic, and political ‘counter-power’ through social movements or organizing efforts.” • Good press for BSA. I’ve been following BSA for awhile and they seem quite disciplined.

From an actual organizer on the shop floor, a thread:

I want to share some thoughts on rank and file work. I am going to avoid the touchy debates and focus on the experience of embedding yourself in a workplace to carry out work.

— Comrade Scalawag ✊🌹 (@ComradeScalawag) July 21, 2019

The labor aspect of the Gulf tanker seizures:

The tanker's owners are registered in Britain in order to be defended by her military and diplomatic power but the vessel is 'flagged' to Liberia in order to avoid British employment and health and safety legislation. And of course to avoid having RMT organised ratings on board. https://t.co/05cvtrfy3c

— Eddie Dempsey (@EddieDempsey) July 22, 2019

“Baby Boomers are staying in the labor force at rates not seen in generations for people their age” [Pew Research Center]. “The relatively high labor force participation of Boomers may be beneficial both to them and the wider economy. Some retirement experts emphasize working longer as the key to a secure retirement, in part because the generosity of monthly Social Security benefits increases with each year claiming is postponed. For the economy as a whole, economic growth in part depends on labor force growth, and the Boomers staying in the work force bolsters the latter.”

News of the Wired

The stuff of nightmares:

Two franchises can play at that… pic.twitter.com/WCuJyycxRi

— ρhαετh��ṉ (@PhaethonTweets) July 24, 2019

(You may have to click “View” to see the “sensitive content,” for some nutty reason.

I like these stories:

Do good recklessly is my new motto https://t.co/u6sXHC0jlN

— dr. phoenix calida is bearly black (@uppittynegress) July 25, 2019

At the university cafeteria, the person behind me in line paid for my food — just randomly! So I have done the same for others. Not every day, but often enough. Its a small tradition and maybe not reckless, but I like it.

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (JN):

What a pleasing prospect!

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser. So do feel free to make a contribution today or any day. Here is why: Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of small donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals. So if you see something you especially appreciate, do feel free to click this donate button:

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This entry was posted in Guest Post, Water Cooler on July 25, 2019 by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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Source: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/07/200pm-water-cooler-7-25-2019.html

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