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hazbinextgeneration · 3 years ago

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Into The Casino Ch17

(Warning: Slightly suggestive content at the end.) The next day was something to make better. She slept in that day and for some reason Lou didn't have the energy to bother her for some reason, probably wanting to let her rest up after what happened, but eventually she did drag herself out of bed and start towards his office, but with noticeable bags under her eyes and visibly yawned as soon as he saw her walk in....He wasn't sure what compelled him to do it, but he sent her back to bed. Despite her light protests, he firmly told her he would have Cyber take care of anything she had to do that day and to GO back to bed. She...didn't argue much after that, but Cyber was slightly surprised to hear the reason why he asked her to take over the pet's job for the day, and she was still a bit confused over yesterday's incident, so she asked. "Uh. Sure thing, Boss. But are you feeling alright?"

He stopped midway looking through the forms and deeds to his new winery addition and looked at her. "Whatever do you mean? I feel the same way I do every morning, a bit groggy but nothing a couple cups of coffee can't fix." She rose a brow. "Well, I know that." He went back to looking at the papers but stopped when she asked the next question. "It's just that it's not like you to just outright attack someone out of nowhere, and in front of everyone no less. You don't like people seeing you angry..And you got real angry real fast." She lightly leaned her head forward. "Are you feeling ok?" He didn't move for a moment, but blinked back down to his papers and resumed like it wasn't even asked. "Well-...I guess Im just a little frustrated with the state of decay the stupid man left the winery." He sighed and gave a geneuine light scowl. "It'll cost me a small fortune to completely fix the dam place..but nothing unfixable." "...You've been frustrated before and you've NEVER acted out like that unless someone was attacking you first. Are you sure you're ok?" "...Cyber, this discussion is OVER." And he meant it. But Cyber was more than just observant. She was a super computer with legs and a voice. So for the next couple of days she observed his behavior and made lots of mental notes. More and more suspicious behavior ensued. Not at first because the following one or two weeks was pretty uneventful with Amalfia easing her way back to working and doing her work as Lou's new personal assistant. The two would talk a couple times a day, mostly about progress with things like staff's progress, Midnight's reports she'd hand in, and typical things a regular boss employee relationship would have. Sometimes he'd give her a small compliment here or there, but it still wasn't out of the ordinary for him. She did however notice his happy tone and there wasn't...there wasn't anything underlinging in it. It was hard to explain but when he called her lovely or smiled back at her smile he..it wasn't the usually smile and compliment he would give. It..actually looked like he was happy. Truly one hundred percent happy dishing out compliments like they were free hand outs, and she would've just passed all that off as normal Lou behavior as well if she hadn't seen it. Lou could give genuine compliments to employees who did a good job if he wanted to sometimes, but the amount of ones he was handing out? She would've chalked THAT one up to him fast forwarding the plan he was so excited for, IF she hand't caught it. It was only a few swings. But one day she he made her giggle at a small joke he said...It- HIS TAIL!! It wagged. It only swished maybe two or three times, but there was no denying the small movements the green tail made. .....She started to slowly put two and two together. And she now had a sneaking suspicion of what exactly was going on. Buuuut she had to be SURE before she made any true descisions. Which also didn't take two long. She came in one day bright and early- Only for Lou to shoo her away and tell her to handle the floor by herself and make sure nothing bad happened. That was normal. Sometimes he wanted just a day for himself, so she did. But a couple days later he did it again. ....And then again a few days after that. Which rose her suspicions further so when he told her again for the fourth time a little while later she decided to ask him why. He paused for a few suspicious seconds, before calmly turning to her like it wasn't and smiled at her. "Oh, Cyber. Ever the questioner. I deserve a few days off for my work don't I?" Her brow rose. "Well, yes. But you usually don't just take a whole day off and then another just a few days later. Seriously, are you feeling ok? Maybe we should have Midnight look ya over." He waved her off maybe a bit too quickly. "I assure you I haven't felt better. Now go on would you? I have a very specific thing I want to do today and I don't want to be bothered unless ABSOLUTELY needed." She hummed and did as she was asked. And if her calculations were correct as she was multiplying all this together, he should be doing it again within the next three to four days. And wouldn't you know it? He DID!! But this time with a twist, he asked her to take care of Amalfia's work for the day as she had been given the day off as well for them to discuss her position and things. She wasn't surprised this time, as he had that same smile he usually wore around the unicorn come up and she smiled. The sudden protective urge, smiling, tail wagging, strange behavior- Did she really need anymore evidence? But she didn't confront him and just smiled and went along with whatever he asked of her now. She'd ask about it when the time was right. And speaking of our cupid struck demon boss- Lou suddenly felt as if someone had opened his cold hard chest and poor lovely warm honey and cream in it. He was in a MUCH more better mood than he had been in for a while and why wouldn't he? Midnight made progress with a lot of her experiments. Including testing out those angelic fossils. Turned out they could still destroy a demon, which was fantastic! And plus that also disposes of the threat of someone taking her or scaring her off for the moment. He didn't know why but the sudden thought of having her to himself just delighted him to no end! Especially after she blatantly disbelieved Charles for him! That one thought added to the sheer excitement of it all! No one stood a chance now, she was practically in the palms of his hands. Sometimes literally. As she still enjoyed dancing with him and hearing him sing, and he was very happy to oblige. After all how could he turn away such a cute face and sparkling eyes that begged at his performances and was left staring in amazement at him. All giggling and red faced and-....All the while the warm feeling in his chest grew. There was no forcing this away now. Now while it happened so many times. He took a day off to try and busy himself to NOT feel this way and another after he felt it flair up. But for SOME reason he couldn't fathom for some reason, his brain calculated that he would absolutely adore spending the entire day with just the two of them spending time together and listening to her giggles and strange questions she'd ask him about hell. Such curiousity.~ Cyber didn't inquire anything else about him so that's a plus. In the meantime the warm feeling only began to grow and one day he had the bright idea to try and take his plan a step further. One day when he greeted her, instead of just holding her hand or shaking it, he did what a natural gentleman always did with a respectable young lady in his day. ...He placed a kiss on the back of her hand. Her reaction was instant, her face and the tips of her ears turned a bright pink deeper than he had seen before and he chuckled. His own heart giving a couple beats, ESPECIALLY when he saw the ring he had gifted her...oh I don't know. Maybe a year and some months ago now still on her finger. She had good taste.~ But he was, for once in his afterlife NOT realizing what had been going on until one day. It was just business as normal. Shifting through different papers, a few deals he managed to wrack in, and Cyber chilling right behind him. He was just sitting there, minding his own business. When he suddenly turned to a dark purple paper, and smiled. Oh how cute. It was almost the same purple as her ey-.....He suddenly froze. He couldn't explain it, but it was as if everything came back and hit him like a giant boulder at once. His eyes slightly widened and the papers slowly dropped from his hands to the desk. Oh....OH NO!! IT COULDN'T BE!! ...But it WAS!! Her smiles, and giggles, and polite words came rushing back to him and his stomach sank. He groaned and reached both hands up to cover his face all of a sudden and Cyber immediately blinked and leaned over to look at him. "Hey. Are you alright?" At this point. He didn't know. "....Shit. Cyber, I think I've fallen for the unicorn." "Mm-hmm. I know.'' "....." He whipped his head to her with a surprised look. "What the hell do you mean you know?!" She shrugged. "Lou, I ain't blind to the obvious. It was clear you started liking her after the small rage episode. It just took me a bit to piece it together." Well she wasn't being rude or smug about it. Just rather calm and straight like this was any other normal conversation. He just huffed and forcefully grabbed his papers and busied himself by looking through them again. "Well a little infatuation barely means anything really. You know as well as I do I've had a few, but none got in the way of business, just like this one won't. With time it'll pass just like all the other's and it won't change any plans." "...None of your 'infatuations' ever made you throw a chair at someone before-" "Cyber. This topic is closed!" He was absolutely sure this small crush would leave now that he realized what was going on..but oh he couldn't have been more wrong. After all he saw her everyday. Her big smile and sparling eyes accompanied by her giggles were- NO! No. no. Stop it! You're trying to get her OUT of that part of your brain. Just start thinking of Rita everytime you see her. The old bird brain was just the thing he needed to run those thoughts off. Only...Everytime she came in now and he thought about Rita, his mind would slowly revolve around to her in that pretty ball dress which would then revolve around what happened at...the...ball....DAMMIT!! He slammed his face in frustration onto the desk at one point and Cyber offered to give him an ice pack which was much appreciated since he made it clear he was NOT just going to give into these stupid feelings without a fight. ...Which is why he still took days off with her to see her smile at him- And her consideration surprised him, just the other day she asked him a question he didn't even know he wanted. "Hey. What brand of coffee do you want?" He blinked up at her a bit confused. "Black of course. I don't like all the fancy sugars and creamers much. Just a couple drops weed killer and I'm good to go." She giggled. " I know. But we have so many different kinds. Costa, Tim Horton's, Nescafe, Folgers- I want to make sure you get one you like." He blinked and gave her a small wave off. "Surprise me. Just make sure it's black if you please." She happily nodded and left as he waved her off and he was left with just his racing mind and warm feeling growing even more prominent in his chest. Oh Cyber was giving him a smile he knew the exact meaning behind. It seemed no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get the thought of purple sparkling eyes out of his image. And he SHOULDN'T be happy at the sight of her wearing rose print rose sweater and..wearing the rose in her hair that he had gifted her yesterday. And she shouldn't be allowing herself to be so comfortable around him..She...had stopped flinching so much around him and seemed genuinely more comfortable, except for actual large crowds since the incident. So for some reason he loved the great idea of keeping her to himself and keeping her away from so many prying eyes. More than once he fantasied about having a giant fantasy garden. You know. The kind with regular plants but also having things like a small stream, fairy bridge, a small gazebo and having her all dressed up in pretty greens and hair full of flowers and her just living there like some beautiful secret garden hide away-.....Which he would immediately snap out of and scold himself over. Cyber did start noticing his strange behavior more and offered the brilliant advice of just talking to her if he really felt like that. Maybe talking about his feelings would make him feel better. He severly doubted it and still thought this would all just crash and burn like all the others, but her advice still did make him think. Especially one night when the two were spending some quality boss employee time together to work on this new building project he was almost done fleshing out. He was admittedly a bit tired and his hand hurt from just doodling out the plans and signing so many things in one day. But as he sat there waiting for her to respond, some questions poured into his mind. Like- How does one decide another's worth? How does one predict another's personality or their impact they leave behind? Well unless you can see into the future and know for sure what you're dealing with then you're in for surprises. Which is what happened to him not too long ago. He could admit(just to himself) that he never expected to be surprised by someone he originally perceived as an easy pawn to his own needs. He never expected to be the one drawn to something so opposite of himself. But here he was, one moment minding himself the next- She didn't even know he was watching as she shifted through the small stack of papers in her hands. Her purple eyes narrowed and scrunched snout in thought. Suddenly her purple eyes lit up and she turned to him. He adverted his eyes just in time to not arose suspicions. "Everything seems organized already." "Is it now?" She nodded before leaning arcoss the desk to show him the neat stack of papers to him. His eyes glazed over the newspaper in his hand, raising a brow at her work. But...they both had done enough work for today and his hand was starting to feel sore after all that bland paperwork and holding the dammed newspaper for so long. "Excellent! Now, why don't you put those away, Pet? Im sure you'll be busy with other things tomorrow." She rolled her eyes but leaned away. "Ok. I get the hint." He chuckled but sat back. A slight pang of pain shot up his left arm from the movement of his body but gritted his teeth and bit it down in front of company. Just a slight cramp from signing nothing but papers all day. Anyones arm would be sore....Come to think of it. How long had they been at this paper pushing fiasco? A couple hours by the way his wrist was feeling. He reached it out to grabb at the mug on the desk when another throb coursed through his arm. A single hiss escaped his gritted teeth which caught her attention. Her brow rose and she gave him a questioning look. "Are ...you alright?" His grin came back up. "Of course. Being tired is no problem..." His eyes glanced too the cup for a moment. "..Why don't you make yourself useful and get me some more coffee, Flower? Im going to need more energy if Im going to deal with this." "Alright. You're the boss." "And don't forget that.~" She rolled her eyes but received the mug whilst standing up. Grin still present on his face. She gave him another look before laying down the papers with her other hand and turning around. He waited for her back to turn and she was walking away before grimacing and holding up his sore wrist up to his face with a hiss. His muscles were cramped and tight when he moved the red digits. Just great. He rotated the pained appendage causing more pain and his eye to twitch in irritation. Mumbling to himself, he carefully set the wrist back down onto the desk and reached his good arm over to grab the papers. Slapping them down in front of him and staring at the words typed upon them. Eyes furrowed in irritation. He didn't notice the return of the lady who stopped momentarily upon seeing his annoyed expression. She frowned slightly upon noticing it. Did she do something wrong when she organized them? Or was he not happy with something written on it? She gulped down the rock in her stomach and put a smile on her face. "Hey." He flinched a bit and looked up at her. She held up the now warm mug. "You're drink's ready." He grumbled and made a motion for her to come in. She did but tilted her head to look at his face. "Is everything ok?" "Lovely," he grumbled. She placed the mug by his free hand and straightened back up. He didnt make an attempt to grab it at first and instead glanced up at her. "Amalfia...Would you give me a moment? I have something to take care of." She gave a puzzled look, but it was probably best not to argue when Lou was in a bad mood. So Amalfia turned and began making her way out. He initially cursed under his breath and subconsciously reached for the mug as he always did when he was irritated- ...The sound of a demonic cry and shattering glass made Amalfia jump and spin back around towards the desk to a very.....panicked scene. The plant demon hissed and clutched onto his wrist, the mug shattered in bits on the floor and liquid spilt all over the desk and by the looks of it him. Well she wasn't one to stand by while her boss was in pain. Hurrying over, her hand grabbed his shoulder. "Oh my god! Are y-?" His head snapped to her. "IM FINE!!" She immediately let go and stood back a couple steps back from the flashing red eyes. Taking a couple of deep breaths, he blinked and slowly slumped back from the tense pose he was in, giving a more calm look. The two stood there for a moment before Lou cleared his throat and excused himself from situation. Still clutching his wrist. Leaving her just standing there confused and...a bit hurt as he walked out of the office clutching that hand of his. When he got there he spent a good while just hissing and trying to sooth the pain in his arm. The pain hadn't reduced surprise, surprise. But instead hurt more if that was even possible ironically. Which irritated him further. The calm darkness of the room brought some ease to his mind at least, couldn't say the same for his hand, which was stiff as a board and slightly burnt from the hot drink spilling all over everything, but that one was on him to be honest. He sighed and stretched his body out slowly. It was going to be a long night with this problem. He almost didn't hear the knock at the door but looked up anyways. "...." Sighing he rubbed his face. "If this is a report for anything, it can wait until morning." There was a small silence, and he thought whoever it was left, when the doorknob turned and the door opened slowly with a creak. The plant demon rose a brow but stared in slight surprise when a white face poked into the entrance, she gave him an uncertain look before asking- "Do you still want me to leave?" "Uh...N-No. No. Don't just stand there." He gestured a hand. "Come in. And close the door behind you." She did but slowly. The door was closed with a click and she stood there silently. He regarded her with a raised brow before looking back down to his wrist. "Is there something wrong?" She didn't say anything for a moment but looked down in guilt. "Im sorry. " "Excuse me?" "I said Im sorry. I didn't know you would burn yourself...Im sorry." She turned her guilty expression down and her ears folded back. "I-I should've checked how hot it was before I gave to you. It's my fault. Im sorry." Silence. "Don't be." ...She blinked and looked up at him. "w-wha-" "You heard me. Don't apologize for something you didn't do." He glanced up at her from his sitting position. "It wasn't your intention to harm me was it?" "What?! N-No!" "Well there you go." "Why are you holding your wrist like that?" He gave her a questioning look and she pointed to his arm. "Are you ok?" He didn't answer, only mumbled and look down to his cramping muscles, hissing as they slightly moved. She cocked her head to the side for a moment...before slowly walking her way to the bed. When she was close enough, she held out a hand towards him. When he didn't pull away she gently took a few steps closer and softly grabbed his good arm. Her eyes flashed confused worry at him. "Does it hurt?" When she reached her other hand towards his hurt wrist, he gave a sudden inhale of pain and stopped. "Its...sore. Nothing I can't take care of myself." "I can see that." "I've suffered worse." "I don't doubt that, but you're more stubborn than a hellhorse." He gave an offended look but froze when she came around to the other side of him and sat down, gently taking his hand in hers. He gave her a confused look and she smiled. "I have an idea. My father used to have bad cramps and aches, and his assistant used to fix them easily. I-I can try it. If you'll let me try that is?" When he didn't answer, she delicately pressed down on the sore flesh of the palm. Immediate pain spiked up his arm but he bit down any hisses and instead opted for digging his free hand into the mattress. Amalfia didn't seem to notice as she continued to carefully press down onto the tender flesh in strides. After a minute, the tightness in his palm decreased and he was left with a dull pain. She noticed his body loosened up on that tense aura and smiled. "Starting to feel better?" He hummed. "I suppose." His red eyes glanced over her working hands before trailing up to her face. "....You're solution is acceptable." A snort. "Just acceptable? Your way would've left you in another hour of aches and pains and acting like Midnight when one of her potions explodes." The comparion made him chuckle. "My dear. I am more capable of controlling my emotions than her." Purple eyes glanced up at him in amusement. "Oh? So acting like a baby because of a little cold air is capable control?" "Ill have you know that cold wind has severe damage on plant life, I have a right to be upset." She giggled. "Well, you're the boss." "And don't you forget that." "I haven't." She stopped and gave him a look. "To be quite honest, I think you're not given enough credit as far as Im concerned." His ears perked up at her answer. "Oh really?" She nodded. "And what do you mean by that, Pet? Id love to hear from you." She rolled her eyes. "And inflate your ego? I don't think so.....But I will say you're more agreeable and understanding than most men I've met. And actually know what you're doing. Not to mention tolerable. I don't see how you can deal with all the stuff around here with Disease and-..." She stopped upon seeing the smirk on his face. "...What?" "Don't let me stop you. Please, continue.~ But I believe you forgot a few of my better qualities.~" This sent her into a small giggle fit. Making him smike wider. "You know I have those qualities. Helping me deal with the idiots I work with....But not you. In all honestly, your work is quite admirable. " "....You really think so?" He paused for a moment, looking into those dark purple eyes staring back at him. She patiently stared back. Those purple eyes blinked and looked down to the feeling of those red digits closing around her own hand. Pink rushed to her cheeks and her body flinched when something touched her cheek. The red eyes holding neutral emotion towards the situation between them. "Yes." They were so close now and those red digits were holding her face so gently. Pushing some hair some her obviously turning pink face and he gave a chuckle. She looked so cute all flustered like this. But the calm of those red eyes and the sudden closeness was..exciting. And she thought she new exactly what this meant- So when that smile came close, red eyes slightly closing, the flustered pink face quickly turned away, releasing itself from the red digits holding her cheek lovingly and making the man pause in his actions. The red eyes blinked and quickly noticed the shy and uncomfort in her eyes. "Oh...I'm sorry." He tilted his head to try and look at her. "Was that too much? I should've asked." "N-No. I-It's ok. You didn't know," She assured him bringing up the hand that he wasn't hold and pushing some of her hair away. Her whole face radiated red and she dared not at him out of embarrasment. "I-It's just...b-b-been so long since- Well I had this kind of attention. I g-g-guess Im just a little caught off guard from it." "Hm. Yes. That-...would be very understandable." The two sat there in silence. Other than the heart beat she heard in her ears as her heartrate picked up and it felt like her pretty white face was on fire. Probably looked the part too, she wondered if she looked at all like a burnt pancake. But to him, his own cold heart was picking up a few paces fueled by the fact that she hadn't yanked her hand away and wasn't making at move as if she wanted to leave. Now if could've been because his face was also heated and cooking his brain, or maybe it was because his heart currently had cupid's arrow through it and he was under that spell but-....He asked his next question like his tongue was glued to his mouth. "Amalfia..." She hummed and glanced to him for a moment. "May I...kiss you?" It was quite obvious she was caught off guard with his question when she jumped and whirled to him. "W-W-What?!" She stuttered out. Frozen in a flustered state. He smiled and swallowed the lump in his throat. "I asked..if I may kiss you? You don't have to agree, I just want to make sure you are absolutely comfortable with such close contact." She couldn't make an coherant sentences as she stumbled and fumbled over her words. Her whole face turning a beat red he didn't think was possible and she squeaked. He chuckled at it until she unintentionally forced out the smallest littlest, ''....ok...." His smile became brighter as his only hand slowly came up to hold the back of her head and she still stop him from doing that. From leaning himself forward. From closing the distance and making contact with the sweet bliss of that warm feeling throbbing throughout his entire being, and she didn't flinch. Didn't pull away. Just..stayed...Those purple eyes wide in surprise before the closed. Until that free hand came up to wrap around his shoulders and pulled him forward- **************************************************************************************** BEEP! BEEP BEEP!! "......" A groan cut through the darkness and he groggily reached a hand out. The sharp red digits skimming along through the darkness and eventually tapping along a wood surface. The annoying beeping noise was soon done when those red fingers slapped down hard on the stupid machine that was making the stupid noise. Also known as a clock. The same hand came back and to rub the face of the person it was attatched to. The plant demon groaned and slowly opened those groggy red eyes up towards the familiar ceiling. It was blurry for a moment as his tired body just laid there for a while, senses slowly starting to come back as well as feeling and he groaned again. Blinking until his sight was finally ok enough to see things clearly. He HATED mornings. Always left him feeling tired and his body feeling sluggish....but oddly enough he felt more tired than usually. With a grunt he slowly pushed himself up into a sitting up position. He sat there for a moment before reaching up and rubbing his face again with a sigh, before running those red digits through his already pretty messy hair, his red eyes slowly blinking to the mess of clothing on the floor..And rose a brow. Did the maids forget to collect the dirty laundry? Well, what was he paying them for then!? He would be sure to have a talk with them when- He froze. Something shifted next to him...and he slowly looked to his right. Someone was right next to him. And that someone was currently cocooned in a blanket burrito with only the top of her face showing. Her nose and ears twitched slightly and her eyes still peacefully closed as the demon sat there and stared...before quickly looking back to the laundry. And freezing. Everything from last night slammed into him at rocket speed and he felt....Calm. Which was weird since you would think one would be panicking in his situation, but he felt oddly calm. Smiling and reaching over to pull one strand of white hair away from her face. Her eyelids squeezed themselves for a moment before slowly opening...the groggy purple pupils blinked at the red finger in front of her before becoming confused. Slowly looking up and freezing when the sight of the plant demon, smiling with his head in his hand, smiled at her. "Good morning, Darling.~"

All characters except Amalfia belongs to @palettepainter

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a-reasonforthoughts · 5 years ago

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My thoughts on the Rise of Skywalker, because quarantine forced me to finally watch it. !!!!Spoilers!!!!!

Growing up, Star Wars was my childhood. My sisters and I read all the books (including the comics) and we packed the Essential Guides with us everywhere. Because for our deep love of the Extended universe, when the last few movies came out we had... mixed emotions. I didn’t even see the last movie when it came out after hearing some less than stellar reviews. So here’s my review, or rather my reactions to the Rise of Skywalker. (Yes, I actually sat down with paper and pen and watched this movie.) Title craw: The DIABOLICAL First Order.

‘The Emperor has returned.’ Wow, the are expecting us to go along with a lot aren’t they.

Cool. Kylo wrecking everything.

Yay, a planet that isn’t snow, desert, or forest. Hold on tight kids, they’re throwing us right into this one. We’re already at Palpatine’s house. Ew. Whats with the tank?

Whoa eyes! What’s up with his lips? Can someone bring this fossil a drink?

Imperial March playing while a Star Destroyer rises in the back ground. Is this Vader’s old ship? Rey is “Not who we thought she is.” Thought she was “Nothing”?

Ew, what is Klaud, and why is he here?

Who are all these people on the Falcon? “How do we thank you?” “Win the war.” aren’t you all on the same team? Why do you need to thank him? Cool, another planet thats not snow, desert, or a forest. Never mind.

Oh great, Rey’s here. Looks like the Lightsaber is fixed. I know the names of a bunch of these plants! When Luke was training with the ball thing (Training remote) he was just trying to deflect the shots. Rey’s trying to take down the whole forest.

You sure you want to destroy that thing Rey? There can’t be to many of them laying around Who are all these people? Why’s the Falcon on FIRE?! Since when is “Light-speed skip” a thing? Seriously. Who are all these people? I thought after the last movie there was only like, 10 of them left. Hey! It’s Merry from Lord of the Rings!

What’s this old orange doing here?

“Sith Way-finder” Sigh. Are Poe and Rey a “thing”? Are Finn and Rey a “thing”? Why’s everyone here but R2? There he is. Why did they not bring him?!

Now I’m watching a Planet of the Apes crossover.

That guy who was on the same team is dead now. His blood is clear so the rating doesn't go up. Well, Hux is certainly different.

Someone must have taken his hair gel because his hair was never this poofy before. Is this a Holi Festival, or Burning man.

Why are we learning the name of this random kid? Rey just walked away from her, what was that? Yay! The force link is still there!

Kylo is giving off stalker vibes. It’s nice to see him growing into his role of Supreme Leader. Looks like everyone hates him. Wait- Who is this guy?! Why are they following a stranger!

It’s LANDO Oh, so Rey know’s who Lando is, but thought Luke was a myth. Makes sense. Boom. First order is here.

Lando: “My flying days are over.” Why? “Give Leia my love.” Ew. Wait, why is Lando out here? Did Luke just leave him? He said he came here with him. Has the emotional issues of being abandoned by Luke led him to never fly again? Is this a parallel story to Rey’s abandonment? What’s the motive here movie! They made it even harder for these Storm Troopers to see out of those helmets.

3PO is getting a lot of lines. Rey *is distracted* Ship *Blows up* Now they have sinking sand. WAS THAT ALMOST A CONFESSION?! This guy just says, “The Falcon is not responding.” when asked, and they’re like “Don’t be such a downer!” Oh yay, they survived. Kay, we’re just brushing over Finn’s almost confession. I’m sure they’ll come back to that later. *Cough* Okay, that flashlight bit was funny.

How do you know that’s the guy you’re looking for? That could be anybody’s skeleton! How’d they find a knife that neither Luke, or Lando (who might have been here for 20 years) could find! Rey’s making friend’s with the basilisk.

She just transferred some of her life force to the snake! Why!? This old ship they found in the desert still works. “Chewie, tell Rey we got to go!” Why can’t you do it? You’re not doing anything. Axe. Here comes lover boy. How to Breathe, the movie, by Rey.

Trailer shot.

Was he just gonna run her over?

Cool, she’s pulling the ship out of the sky. Uh oh, helmet’s off, there goes her focus.

Now they’re playing tug-a-war with the ship. It’s the light saber fight all over again. Whoa!!! She juST LIGHTING’D THE SHIP! Kylo Looked freaked out for a second! She just told Finn she had a vision of her and Kylo together, and he looks like he’s gonna cry. 3PO tells them how horrible and dangerous it is to override a droid’s programming. “Let’s do that!” That droid looks like a yoga wheel and a hairdryer.

Rey to the new droid: “Someone treated him badly. It’s alright, you’re with us now.” Yeah, just don’t watch what we’re about to do to this other droid.

Looks like we’re adding another girl to this love triangle (hexagon?) She’s not supposed to be a Mandalorian is she. (So help me-) I hate you and I’m going to turn you in *Hit’s her over the head and pulls out a lightsaber* Okay, lets go.

Why they so mad at Poe for being a smuggler? Wow. They are forcing C-3PO to do this. Backup his memory to the hairdryer! It’s got to have a reason for being here! C-3PO “Oh! I just had an idea of something else we could try-” ZAP! ...Was that supposed to be funny? These writers need to learn what humor is, and when to use it. Why are we focusing on Poe and his old girlfriend the Power Ranger? Wah! What’s up with 3PO’s eye’s? Is he a Sith droid now? Why does he have that function?!

Rey, you’re boyfriend’s here. They wiped 3PO’s memory and he doesn’t know who anyone is, but he’s still polite. Poe angrily points “That’s gonna be a problem!” Our heroes ladies and gentleman. I hope the First Order just blast them. That Admiral’s badge just let them in? Like no one reported that missing?? Wiped 3PO’s memory and they’re getting the dagger anyway. Worst rescue ever.

Vaders Helmet has had a hard life. Rey has a vision in every scene she's in.

More ‘Rey’s family history’ with Kylo “Tell me where you are,” She’s in your room dude.

R.IP. Vader Helmet

That Stormtrooper behind Kylo must be so confused. *Sees helmet, breaks link* “She’s in my quarters!” Told you so. Why is Hux the spy? When did this happen? What does he think the outcome of this will be?

3PO just wandering the halls with a crossbow.

“You are a Palpatine.” Wanna be a Solo? Is this like his fourth proposal? OooooOOOOooo, that was cool! Kylo standing in the blast of the Falcon’s engines was a moment we needed!

Yikes! They took out Hux fast! They didn’t want to question him or anything? No?

The Death Star was blasted to smithereens, why is it here? How is it here?

They made that dagger to line up with the wreckage? I’m pretty sure things that are constantly beat by the ocean will move or erode over time. Who even made that? What was the purpose?!

Yay, another scavenger Who’s also a ex-Stormtrooper, because why not.

That’s a horse covered in a rug. Rey’s out trying to kill herself again.

“There’s another Skimmer!” Wonder who that is. He is literally following her to the ends of the galaxy.

Wait- The throne rooms still in one piece?! The chair and everything?!!! Dark Rey- YIKES! TEETH

I thought he stopped the holocron with his foot, I was really surprised when fingers formed and he picked it up.

Kylo acting so cool as she’s trying to slash him to ribbons. I see Merry again! Wait- What’s Leia got to do? And why does Maz know? They’ve never explained what this strange orange is and what she can do.

Finn’s in deep- Wait how'd he get out here?????

Leia don’t distract your son while he’s fighting for his life!

SEE!!!!!!!

“I wanted to take your hand. Ben’s hand.” You think he’s going to leave you alone after that?

Why is Rey just a total mess in every movie.

Chewie mourning Leia is a good touch. It’s nice to see the reaction of someone who ACTUALLY knew her. Whoa! They got Harrison Ford to come back! That must have taken a lot of bribery (or blackmail).

Has almost dying given Kylo/Ben the power to see non-Force user ghost, or is he just going nuts? So this is just a rehash of Han’s death scene.

Aw, he called him Dad- Hey don’t throw that away, you need that!

He’s nuts. Those red helmets look stupid. Aaaaand it’s the Death Star again Merry in the background! Why’d they make Poe the General? Lando finally got off that planet

“General.” “General.” She’s burning his ship. Good luck Kylo/Ben.

You know how hot that fire has got to be to burn metal “A Jedi weapon should be treated with more respect.” You brat.

Why did he have Leia’s lightsaber here? “...it would be picked up again, by someone who would finish her journey.” Oooookay, but why not just have her take Luke’s old Saber? It’s gotta be laying around here somewhere.

I know it’s symbolic and all that he’s raising the x-wing, but there’s no way that thing still works.

Alright, 3PO’s memories are back. Why’d we have to go through all that? I spy Merry again! How does Poe know all this stuff about Exogol? He’s just a fountain of information over here!

“Now we take the war to them!” That’s literally what you’ve done every movie ever No one is questioning how Lando got here. Isn’t this a secret base? *Dr. Evil voice* ONE MILLION STAR DESTROYERS

Who even wrote this story line? Finn’s going with his gut and everyones just going along with it. Not like you could all die or anything. They brought the rug horses with them

How are they breathing in space!? Those red troopers still look stupid.

What’s this crowd chanting? Are they speaking Parseltoungue? “I never wanted you dead.” That’s why I told Kylo Ren to kill you.

Hang on- his plan is ‘You be the empress, and I’ll just possess you. Grandaughter.’ EW. Why would she want that? How is that a tempting offer? Someone’s gone senile. Direct quote: “I got to go do something!” “I’m coming with you!” Why do these people get attached so quickly?!

“Luke was saved by his father. The only family you have here is me.” Yeah, but I got a boyfriend who follows me everywhere!

Ben runs and jumps: “Ow.” We finally get to see the Knight’s of Ren in action! (Where have they been this whole time?) “Once you kill me I shall become apart of you!” So she could just, not kill him. Right? Oh yeah, here we go, now we got a showdown!

Well, that was anticlimactic

WHAT IS HAPPENING Poe just realized he's the worst General ever.

YO. Don’t tell your troops there is no hope! What is wrong with you??? Why isn't Lando the General? He is a lot more qualified!!!

Wait a minute!! Where were all these people when LEIA ORGANA called for help????

Wedge Antilles!!!!!! So all the life force sucking was just so Palpatine could up grade his outfit? *Flings Ben into a pit* Palpatine is so done with the Skywalkers Hey, I know these voices!!!! Aaaaand now he wants to kill her. So whats our big moment? TWO lightsabers!

Why did the make that the big epic moment? Why didn’t they have Ben run over and they do it together- It would have been perfect for his story arch! Rey: “And we” Together: “are all the Jedi!” Now she's dying. Why? Not even the writers know So Finn’s Force sensitive. Cool I guess? This is a really touching moment for them, even more so if they did anything other than fight this entire movie!

This kinda feels out of nowhere

I’M SO MAD RIGHT NOW

NOW SHE’S SMILING AND FINE. HE JUST DIED Merry’s here again and I can’t even be happy about it Now Finn has to chose between Rose and the new girl Poe’s trying to start something with his Power Ranger old flame, and she's like “Not a chance.” Now everything’s all happy like BEN DIDN’T JUST DIE. ARE WE NOT GOING TO ADDRESS THIS?????????? Oh hey, it’s the Lars farm. Nobody else moved in after all these years? Now she's burying the Skywalker lightsabers in the place they all hated.

WHY IS BEN NOT HERE!!!!!!! HE WAS A MAIN CHARACTER FOR THESE MOVIES AND THEY DID HIM DIRTY!!!!!!

Well I guess they had to wrap this mess up somehow

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taebadam · 5 years ago

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hello! i have had the privilege to see jagged little pill twice now and first of all: words cannot truly explain how amazing this show was. just. wow. but i remember when i was first getting into the show i searched desperately for descriptions of staging, choreography, etc. so here’s a (probably way too detailed lmao i’m sorry) synopsis of the show. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. seriously. im about to tell you literally everything i remember so retreat now if that’s not what you want. ok here we go. oh boy. (also i’ll be using actor’s names for ensemble members who don’t have character names and then character names otherwise)

CONTENT WARNINGS: sexual assault, homophobia, racism, sexism, addiction and overdose

here’s act 1:

ok i loved the whole thing for sure but honest to god one of my fav bits is the first minute of the show. the STAGING. so as the lights come up and the overture starts we see a mostly still dark stage with all the ensemble members facing backward w a spotlight on yana (my love wow) in the center. she’s the first to turn around as she delivers the opening line: “swallow it down.” the rest of the ensemble begins to join in and turn around one by one starting w ezra (!!!! i love ez so much they are the best you cannot convince me otherwise) and the build begins. they move in closer to yana, chanting “around and around” and then all come in with “WAKE UPPPP” and they all bend down in this beautiful moment where the bass just. drops. and then in comes the band holy SHIT. so the band is on these really cool moving platforms that come in from the wings and as the bass drops and the ensemble starts jamming out they come on stage and it’s just truly incredible. they sing some of the overture like this w stunning choreography and then as you oughta know’s theme comes in jo runs in and joins the ensemble but it’s really slick you don’t really notice at first until the second part of the chorus when she breaks away and comes center stage, singing on top of the ensemble as they start to break apart behind her and pull out these stunning moving panels that are like 15 feet tall w projections on them. jo runs back through the panels right before they meet in the middle and close behind her revealing the words “jagged little pill” as the overture comes to a close.

the panels now open up and reveal a couch with all four healys sitting on it w santa hats and reindeer antlers galore, posing for a christmas card photo and yelling “merry christmas from the healys!” we have mj, the mom, steve, the dad, nick the perfect son and frankie the adopted, black daughter. mj then goes on with her monologue about how great their lives are while they all sit there with frighteningly fake smiles pasted on their faces while the ensemble plays carolers behind them. soon the stage morphs to show us steve’s office on one side of the healy living room and frankie’s room on the other as mj begins to write in the card about her perfect little family. she discusses steve’s new position as partner (while he chugs a bottle of pepto-bismol), nick’s acceptance to harvard (they recreate the moment he opens the email) and then finally frankie and her best friend jo. as mj talks about frankie and jo she mentions how they’re upstairs right now doing a “little craft project” and off to the side you see them working on a sign that says “FUCK FASCISM” which jo holds up w pride. then (lmao) mj talks about frankie’s friendship w jo and how she loves “female friendships” and how she remembers “the days of discussing clothes and boys” and meanwhile to her left frankie and jo are literally just full on making out in her room clearly romantically involved and it’s just so fucking hilarious.

then mj begins to discuss her car accident from the previous year and how she’s battling it w “natural remedies.” meanwhile, the ensemble, truly the conscious of the show, sings right through you while looking on from behind her. she begins to discuss her hot yoga and the stage begins to turn red, the music growing as we see all four healys in their own sections of the stage, each acting like everything is fine but doing something that shows its not (like nick is always doing push-ups. rip derek honestly lmao) as the song comes to a close.

we now transition to the breakfast table where mj is setting out pancakes. steve tries to kiss her but she pulls away, saying she’s “not a big morning kisser.” they talk for a bit, including the iconic exchange between mj and frankie: “when my friends and i wanted to save endangered sea lions we sold brownies on the quad. well, actually they were blondies” “of course they were blondies. even your brownies are caucasian.” aaaaand that line kicks off all i really want. such a powerful song. frankie stands up on the table and the band and ensemble come back in, just completely rocking out and blowing us all away w their choreography and energy as they surround the family, dancing around, on top and under the table. in the build-up to and then during frankie’s line “i’m frustrated by your apathy” the ensemble surrounds her with various protest signs. i can’t remember all of them but some highlights include “our future is dying,” “black joy matters,” “my body my choice,” “don’t be a fossil fool,” “white silence costs lives,” “no human is illegal,” “stop separating families” and “no ban on stolen land” while frankie carries one that says “does my period scare you.” it’s stunning. fast forward now to the “why are you petrified of silence? here can you handle this?” line. wow. frankie stands on the table, staring down mj in front of her and holds up a sign that says “fear has no place in our schools.” the ensemble all lays down in front of her w their arms crossed over their chests like they’re corpses and the screens behind her show projections of memorials for victims of gun violence in schools. the whole theater is silent for a solid thirty seconds. incredible. then they continue. another heart-wrenching moment is when it gets quiet before the final climax of the song and frankie goes “and all i really want is a wavelength.” she’s reaching out across the kitchen table to mj, who’s looking away from her at nick. mj’s arm rests on the table and as soon as frankie’s about to touch her hand mj moves to touch her own face, still looking the other way, not even realizing what frankie was doing. and their last belts. wow. mj and frankie are center stage, yelling at each other as they scream the final lines before frankie stomps off to go to school and mj is left alone in the kitchen where she swallows a pill— her pain meds for her car accident injuries.

a brief side note: let’s talk about the ensemble real quick. first of all they had input in a lot of their outfits and my fav is ezra’s which has a huge pink triangle on the back (they’re trans). i mean. wow. but also what’s important to know is that a lot of the main cast have sort of dancer body doubles? they have dancers who are supposed to represent them, be their alter egos and this comes into play a lot in the choreography and staging. mj’s double is heather, frankie’s double is ebony and jo’s double is ezra. i bring this up here because when frankie sings “i am fascinated by the spirit to a woman. i’m humbled by her humble nature” the ensemble lifts up ebony behind her and spins her around while frankie takes the same pose on the floor in front of them. absolutely genius.

and now we’re at school! we see bella, nick and andrew briefly discussing the party that will be happening tonight and then we zero in on jo (played my lauren patten my actual favorite human on this earth holy shit) and frankie, hanging out during what’s supposed to be a meeting for SMAC (social movement and advocacy committee) which frankie started— but rn they’re the only two members (also jo came in w a sign that says “let my people flow” and a picture of a pad because they were planning on protesting for the school to provide free menstrual products). jo and frankie have a sweet conversation featuring some hilarious comments from jo. frankie complains about her mom and jo responds “your mom is iconic. she’s one salad away from a psychotic break i live for it” then “at least your mom yells at you. mine prays for me. dear jesus. please don’t let my only child be a gay. especially not one of those obvious gays who wears performance fleece and utility sandals. in the name of fox news amen.” frankie is immediately concerned for jo and, for just a second, we see jo’s vulnerability and we know she must be really hurting but just as quickly she brushes it off: “i don’t care. i’ve been out of fucks to give since the early 2000’s.” really just phenomenal acting from lauren. wow. and now we have hand in my pocket! such a wonderful song. most of it is fun and uplifting (including a cute kiss between jo and frankie) but there was one part that really stood out to me. when jo sings “i haven’t got it all figured out just yet” she kinda stops for a moment and her face falls just slightly and frankie stands behind her, concerned, as the ensemble members dancing behind them all pair up and hug one another (including jo and frankie’s doubles: ezra and ebony). but just like that jo is back to singing and dancing and laughing, hiding her pain and uncertainty. at the end they do this adorable slap dance thing with the ensemble around them and everyone’s cheering and the lights are rainbow (yup thats gay) and it’s just so wholesome i love it.

now we go back to mj. we see her at the pharmacist’s office, trying to get a refill for her painkillers but being denied as she’s out. she then goes to a cafe where she runs into some other moms (laurel, jane and heather) and it’s hilarious. they’re all wearing the exact same outfits and sound so so fake. at one point ebony who is playing the barista asks if she can start a drink for anyone and one of them goes “i’ll take a skinny flat white” and ebony goes “how appropriate.” mj is clearly uncomfortable this whole time, especially when one of them makes a racist comment about frankie. after this she goes behind the cafe where she meets up w a drug dealer (played by john) and gets more of her painkillers. now comes smiling. this song is stunning. the whole song we see mj’s day moving backwards, all the way back to the morning when she took her first pill and she stares at herself in the mirror, clearly struggling. the whole song she and the ensemble all actually act everything out backwards, featuring ezra jump-roping backwards and antonio walking backwards while drinking coffee. true talent honestly lmao. and they move the sets so smoothly it’s amazing.

ironic!! so cute. so funny. the context is that frankie is reciting a poem to her class and they’re critiquing it but phoenix defends her. the desks are on wheels and the choreography is adorable. and frankie and phoenix’s voices WOW. and heather plays a stoner high schooler. this is not important it’s just so funny. after ironic there’s a moment in the hall where frankie and phoenix are still talking and so clearly flirting. jo walks up behind them but only sees frankie (on one side of the stage) at first. she starts to move towards her but then notices she’s talking to someone and gets a glimpse of her flirting w phoenix. jo’s face falls and she kind of falters, trying to decide whether to walk up to them and ultimately decides not to and walks off. lauren patten’s mannerisms in this whole show are just truly stunning. i really felt for jo everytime she was on stage. she’s so clearly putting up this sarcastic, uncaring front but really she’s just awkward and scared and lonely and lauren really does a phenomenal job making that come through— down to the fidgeting and awkward steps and nervous ticks that, once you notice them, make it clear who jo really is even though she doesn’t want to show it. yes i love lauren patten is it that obvious.

oK ANYWAY. back to mj. we see steve call to say he’s gonna be home late and they have a v passive aggressive conversation and then so unsexy happens. rip steve honestly. then perfect. mj and nick are decorating the tree. there’s a great line where mj goes “you need to make decisions for yourself” and he tries to put an ornament on the tree and she goes “no not there” and it’s so funny. but she just keeps going on about how he’s the only thing she’s done right and how proud she is of him. he asks “what if i hadn’t gotten in” re harvard and she goes ”you were always going to get in.”a couple of sympathetic sighs from the audience. then nick sings perfect and it’s honestly heartbreaking he’s so good and you feel so bad for him, always terrified that if he ever messes up his parents won’t love him anymore. that transitions right into lancer’s party.

here’s the thing about lancer’s party. this is the party where bella is sexually assaulted by andrew, kicking off her powerful storyline as a survivor and nick’s storyline about coming to terms w why he didn’t do anything at the time. but here’s why it’s so chilling, if that wasn’t enough: bella and andrew’s interactions at the party are not emphasized. in fact, if you didn’t know about the plot beforehand, you may not really notice anything at all. but it’s there. oh wow is it there. EVERY SINGLE TIME bella has anything to drink, andrew is the one to give it to her. she goes to talk to her friends and andrew grabs her hand and casually pulls her away. he puts his hand on her waist a little too often. he tries to get her alone one too many times. he barely leaves her side. but if you’re not looking for it, you may only see one of these just slightly ~off~ actions and think “hm that’s a little weird” and then move on. they’re not always center stage. they’re not always in a spotlight. they’re just part of the party. and we as audience members don’t stop to pay attention to them, even if we see something off. we’re not urged by staging to see it as important or vital to the story. and we don’t notice anything until it’s too late. the show puts us in the position of a bystander, like nick, who sees this all happening and does nothing. and this really comes back in the second act and punches you in the gut like. just wait.

anyways while the party is raging phoenix and frankie go outside on the swingset (!!!) and have a little heart-to-heart. they talk about their dysfunctional families and how frankie is adopted, a black girl in a perfect white family and how her mom “doesn’t see color” but she wishes she did. she talks about how her parents adopted her when she was little and how she’s been “fucking up their lives ever since.” phoenix comments “i have this theory that perfect families only exist in orange juice commercials and utah.” it’s funny and cute until it’s not. they start talking about how it’s not like they don’t love their families, it’s that they wish they were better kids. they think they’re not good enough and if they were different, everything would be better. phoenix says “if i were a better kid i’d have it all figured out. i could fix things at home. my dad might still call me.” and frankie agrees, adding “my mom might still love me.” and cue that i would be good. absolutely. heartbreaking. i cried so much. but it gets even worse when jo comes in. she enters on stage left w her mom, without her beanie and her flannel tied around her waist wearing a bright pink blouse. “there. i wore it.” she says, visibly shaking and looking away from her mom, almost curling in on herself. she takes the blouse off with unsteady hands, holding it behind her and still looking away. her mom yanks it out of her grip and jo flinches, “i don’t know why i even try, joanne.” as her mom leaves the stage jo quickly puts back on her beanie and flannel, looking terrified and heartbroken, and begins to sing “why won’t you accept who i need to be.” she crosses the stage to stand near phoenix and frankie, shaking and fidgeting the whole time. at the climax they all come to the front, frankie in the center, and just sing their hearts out and they just all look so— desperate. sad. lonely. it’s really just gut-wrenchingly beautiful and sad and just ugh. wow. and as jo starts to walk off stage and the lights fade phoenix asks “do you have a boyfriend?” jo freezes. “a boyfriend?” frankie repsonds, “no.”

now we’re on to the next day and jo is bringing coffee for her and frankie as she meets frankie at the swingset. they talk about last night and jo once again jokes and brushes off the church social she had to go to w her mom: “did you know that god forgives gay feelings as long as you don’t act on them? thanks for the life hack father tim.” then they discuss the party and jo pulls out her phone, showing that people had taken pictures of bella without her shirt on while she was passed out and had posted them all over social media. frankie immediately insists they go visit bella right that second to make sure she’s ok and tell her that they’re here for her. jo follows, in awe of frankie’s bravery and passion. as they head to bella’s we see andrew and nick doing their morning workout, andrew talking about how bella was “all over him” while the ensemble surrounds them, singing “this could get messy.”

we get to bella’s where she’s sitting on her couch in a flannel and sweatpants under a blanket. she eventually tells frankie and jo what happened, how she passed out in an empty room and woke up a few times to andrew assaulting her while she was unable to even talk much less fight back. as she begins to tell her story (it’s truly haunting, she sounds so just dead and done kathryn gallagher is amazing) a soft sound can be heard— the theme from predator. the soft “ooh” from the very start of bella’s song in the second act rings through the otherwise deathly silence as she softly starts to recount the horrors of the night before. frankie and jo immediately tell her that’s rape and she responds “what? no. i’m just a fucking idiot.” they try to assure her she’s not and urge her to go to the police. her response is heartbreaking: “are you kidding me? like i’m really gonna say andrew montefuray… everyone like worships his whole family. there is literally a statue of his grandpa downtown. plus, they never believe anyone anyway.” jo responds “we believe you.” she then reveals that nick saw something at the party and didn’t do anything and frankie goes to confront nick about it. he responds by telling her bella’s always overdramatic, that he shouldn’t be expected to look out for everyone. frankie looks devastated. mj walks in on their fight and, in response to frankie telling her bella was raped, says “you can’t just go calling the police every time a girl gets drunk and there’s some he said she said. these things can happen. i wouldn’t go making this your cause of the week.” cue wake up. frankie sings the opening lines directly to nick and mj, looking both furious and horrified. as the song builds the ensemble joins in and off to the side we see an interrogation room. frankie and jo come in w bella, trying to support her through what looks like a stressful interrogation w an intimidating male police officer who is constantly frowning and interrupting. we don’t get any dialogue from this as the song is happening around them but we see bella look more and more embarrassed and devastated as frankie and jo only look more angry. they eventually leave and andrew takes a seat and has what looks like a pleasant conversation w the policeman that ends in a friendly handshake. at the climax of wake up, after the interrogations, the whole ensemble is on stage and with them are the two moving panels/platforms. the main cast stand on the panels, and the ensemble moves them and flips them, revealing characters that were on the other side in switches so fast it’s incredibly impressive and overall a truly mesmerizing scene. the last line is frankie, alone in center stage with the ensemble behind her looking at mj who is in front of her staring out into the audience as frankie yells “wake up.” stunning.

the last scene of act one is forgiven. wow wow wow. mj goes into the church and begins to pray. she prays for her kids, for her marriage. then she begins to discuss something else. she goes “the last time i asked you for something…. well. you remember back in college. even after that night— that was my fault.” her voice breaks a little, sounding weaker and more scared by the second and once again the soft, ominous theme of predator can be heard in the distance. the same theme from when bella was accounting her assault and the theme that will come back in act two. chills. every time. mj starts to break down then, asking for help w her addiction. she admits she’s having a hard time stopping and begs for assistance. cue forgiven. in comes part of the ensemble— but only the non-male members of the ensemble. stunning. she begins the song and the ensemble moves the church pews and panels in a wonderful bit of choreography as the song grows. by the second chorus bella appears from the back of the stage and slowly walks up to join mj as the non-male members of the ensemble move the pews to surround the two of them. mj and bella stand back to back in front of a semi-circle of the non-male ensemble standing on benches. they chant “sinner! witch! whore!” while mj continues to sing and they point at bella and mj at each word, the lights flashing. it’s haunting. then bella joins the ensemble and they leave as mj moves to exit the church. she’s outside now, snow falling around her as we reach the climax of the song and the rest of the cast joins her on stage one by one. i couldn’t tell this was the case on the cast album but on that last chorus each main character gets their own line over the ensemble as they enter the stage. steve starts, “we all had delusions in our heads,” then nick, “we all had our minds made up for us,” then frankie, “we had to believe in something. so i will,” then andrew “we all had our reasons to be there” then bella, “we all had a thing or two to learn,” then finally jo, “we all needed something to cling to. so we did.” we could talk about how meaningful all of those lines are to each of those characters for hours honestly. and now the whole ensemble begins to join and the chorus only grows, everyone just singing their hearts out as they belt (ELIZABETH’S VOICE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK) and they end with a haunting final note “amen.” and that’s the end of act one. holy fucking shit.

#jlp #jagged little pill #jagged little broadway #elizabeth stanley #sean allen krill #derek klena #celia gooding #lauren patten #kathryn gallagher

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bloodfcst-a · 5 years ago

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alright, so. i beat remake last weekend, but i didn’t want to come out with my newfound yufi information + meta right off the bat. i think this is an appropriate time to do so now, though. naturally, i’ll tag as spoilers, but if you need anything else, let me know.

also, my verdict? i am so glad i went into this blind, without any hype or expectations or people from fandom whining about it. yet again, i am so happy + i had an incredibly joyous experience. this game fed me + also took over my life in a way i’ve not been possessed in some time so like......... good for it.

also no, i truly don’t miss hearing everyone’s hullabaloo + i don’t wanna hear ur complaints of “ it didn’t say when part 2 is ” so like miss me with that.

also warning: if u didn’t know already, fandom is WILD towards y.uffie for some reason and i also addressed that, so like if you’re from vii fandom u might seriously wanna read this bc... it’ll be pertinent to u understanding my feelings behind it. i did address some questionable topics like the underaged oversexual portrayal + beastality that’s popular for her and i am NOT HERE FOR IT so if u came for that................. issa no from me dawg. when i say unbearable.... i mean it. fandom grossed me out. y’all wild.

anyway. thoughts below !

some things that were CONFIRMED for me were:

> midgar is lax around its anti-wutai rhetoric in its most important parts ( namely, hq, wall market, and avalanche ). for propaganda’s sake among the common people, it stands to create a united front. but in consumerism & in strength, they consider the wutai equals just as anyone else.

see: tseng in the turks; madam m in wall market; the supplier for avalanche.

i would even argue that sector 5 / wall market is the safest place in midgar for wutaians, given don corneo’s obvious fetishism ( and that really............. isn’t saying a lot ).

i’m not going to entertain that it’s an “ admiration for culture and architecture ” in true weeaboo fashion given that of all positions he could give madam m to hold, her duties are to screen women that would be appealing to his aesthetic and to run a massage parlor where the highest bidder gets to have a happy ending. she is literally the “ asian parlors are actually fronts for brothels ” stereotype except in this sex trade, all women go to don corneo. i will have no apologists in this house.

i have more developing thoughts on madam m like how she might be doing the sex trafficking part in her own self-interest / as a type of self-preservation, like the don might say “ well if u don’t want to be a wife then u better find some for me ” but... 1) this isn’t the post for that and 2) that logic does not explain why chocobo sam and andrea rhodea are also apart of the ring. but in my opinion, you can tell she’s not crazy about it bc as soon as aerith mentions it to her she becomes so wildly upset that she breaks character. i don’t think she’s a sell out. i think she’s an exploited and fetishized woman in a tough place, and i feel for her.

despite this, it’s clear that because of his obvious ‘ preference ’ they’re [ wutaians ] held at a higher standard ( i.e., he doesn��t dispose of madam m immediately like he does with every other woman who is unfortunate enough to meet him ), so i’m willing to go out on a limb and say despite the high amount of shinra foot traffic that goes through wall market ( and we know this bc everybody who is everybody from SOLDIERS to Turks go to honeybee inn ), a wutaian would probably be fine there.

> wutai is the strongest world power by natural means. without SOLDIER s & g programs, midgar’s biggest claim to fame is to reach first-world status as a metropolis by siphoning mako via its reactors. without its reactors, the whole town would either be: 1) slums, like below the plate; or 2) as common as every other area in the nearby vicinity ( i.e., kalm, costa del sol, nibelheim ). by siphoning mako energy, midgar truly is unnatural, so... hm...

corel could have been a contender ‘cause they use fossil fuels ( and look at how successful gold saucer is! ), but the failed reactor really threw them out the loop. costa del sol + icicle inn are both partially shin-ra owned / managed, so i’m not counting them.

> infiltrating midgar / shinra isn’t difficult. nor is navigating throughout the sectors. while there is the mention of the ID scan on the trains, we see this is not applicable on foot ( freely able to walk through sectors 5, 6, 7, and 8 as party; jessie + co are able to go above the plate to go to her parents’ house despite already being listed as AVALANCHE and that their fake IDs had already expired ). given that yufi entirely travels on foot because of her airsickness / motion sickness, she’d be undetectable. also note that the first 59 floors of shinra hq by stairwell are not monitored... and neither was the front door, so she could easily sneak in whenever the need called for it.

> established multiple points of contact between rufus + yufi ( and by extension, the turks + yufi ). i’m really going into this in the next section ‘cause... their dynamic became so much more interesting. but we already know that at minimum, there was contact bc she had the phs rufus had provided to godo + was using it to communicate with zack for treasure.... but let me hold off on this bc there’s one more thing i want to add here.

regarding the turks: it’s established that even if a person is someone of interest to shin-ra, they won’t necessarily act on attacking or abducting immediately ( see: aerith ). we already know they’ve known yufi since she was a child, and if they’re working with rufus they’d know what she looked like as she aged, so the excuse of “ she looks different than when they worked with her in wutai ” is out the window. it’s more than likely that they’re enabling her to continue her business with rufus + have probably assisted her with not being caught.

> yufi’s clothes are absolutely normal for her age. it always annoyed me that somehow tifa’s clothing was like considered “ impractical but acceptable ” because she’s a legal adult and because cishet men were too drawn to the boobies to complain. but then yufi was either like HELLA sexualized as a minor ( the amount of ecchi / hentai that exists of underage y.uffie despite there being of-age content [ i.e., her portrayals in advent children + dirge of cerberus ] is.......................................... ridonk ) OR she was like hella slut-shamed and i’m out here like.... hello??? what kinda anti-wutai rhetoric is this? anyway. i’d like to call attention to kyrie, who looks like she’s wearing like 60% of y.uffie’s dirge of cerberus outfit. if anything, this only reinforces that yufi’s fashion choices are.......... legit normal, age appropriate, and anyone who wants to argue otherwise can shut the fuck up.

if you’re really gonna ask “ how come her shorts are unbuttoned ” like go check your privilege. the short answer is probably that rufus stole all of her damn belts to make into his coat. the long answer is that a youth traveling the world SOLO she is probably slim on money to be frequently shopping for clothes ? and the clothes that are available in the slums vs on the plate are probably not great quality ( idk if y’all have ever shopped at a freesized open market before but like... buttons pop off INSTANTLY sometimes and those seams will tear if u stretch the wrong way. like fast fashion but like........ hella wild ). she could find better clothes above the plate, but given the anti-wutai rhetoric up there... probably not a wise choice.

since you’re looking at her outfit anyway.. can i bring your attention to her sweater, and have you note that it’s made of the same material as cloud’s? i.e., she’s wearing shin-ra/SOLDIER brand quality? ( need further proof that it’s SOLDIER? zack and angeal wear the same one ) probably gotten from either a trip to hq or........ someone on the inside............ but obviously cropped to fit her. she might’ve even had it for some time. now let’s keep looking.... i’m willing to bet the latter, and here’s why! ( prepare for galaxy brain time )

now for standard SOLDIERS, they’re assigned colors. we know third class / infantrymen are blue; second class are burgundy / red ( think kunsel ); and black / dark blue for first class. don’t nobody wear green.... in this whole damn universe.... as a main character.... except child y.uffie. HMMMMM. here’s the sweater again to compare.

i’m just saying.

now, the ideas INTRODUCED to me were:

> there is only one AVALANCHE, but it is splintered into different factions.

now i always wondered like, how come they just picked up the name AVALANCHE when it was established already. like idk i don’t think people would be like “ ah yes we’re the n.azis and we’re different than the other ones, but we wanna evoke the same fear ” u know what i mean?? usually u would carry the same ideology... but it was always so apparent that barret held different views and goals than elfe, so i was always so confused.

but not anymore. now it’s established that they’re the same group, begun in midgar + just carrying out different methods of “ fuckin’ shit up for the shin-ra ” over the last 10 years, spreading the word about the danger of reactors + it’s suckin’ up the lifeblood of the planet to anyone who would hear. now that makes sense. in the same chapter that this is established, however, they also claim...

> yufi as a benefactor to AVALANCHE.

now this shit had me like AAAAAAAAH. now there is no damn way you and i played the same game if u didn’t see this. they literally say “ AVALANCHE is being provided weapons by someone to fuck shit up, in return for all the materia in midgar. ”

who would want all the materia in midgar? HMMMMMMMMM.

> with that point established, let’s go back to rufus + yufi having multiple points of contact. so i already introduced the idea that rufus clearly has to have contact with yufi bc he’s the one spouting all the secrets to shinra treasure via the PHS. and yufi has claimed ownership of the phone by literally labeling it as “ treasure princess ” so there is no question that he thinks he’s talking to godo versus yufi.

but we also know that rufus is the person behind AVALANCHE. my man has TIME on house arrest, obviously. we also know that he’s on house arrest in junon, not midgar. now, if he’s out here giving them logistics like places to go to spout their rhetoric, and yufi is providing weapons ( remember, wutai is the strongest power by natural means, and apparently hq is free real estate to explore, so she’s got multiple ways to provide gear without it being an inconvenience to her ), so it’s.........pretty obvious to say that the way she would go in connection to AVALANCHE would be through rufus. also, remember she has bad blood with AVALANCHE because of their actions in wutai, so... she’s not gonna be keen about them anyway. it seems much more practical for someone who already views them ( and tbh, lots of people ) as tools ( rufus vc: “ i own you ” ) to accomplish one’s tasks to help her connect with meeting her own goals ( “ all the materia in midgar ” ).

this would also explain why yufi is found hanging outside junon.

if you opted to grab her outside nibelheim... you might argue that it’s because nibelheim is obviously suspicious + truly the evidence at how shady shin-ra is, given the whole place was rebuilt + is filled with actors to hide the fact that the whole place burned to the ground + was once the site of jenova + currently remains the site as hojo’s secondary lab + other secret, vincent valentine with the protomateria slumbering. she could have been tipped off by rufus as “ there’s another treasure here ” but like... there’s no way she would have known it was vincent. even zack is like “ idk wtf is happening here so i’mma leave this alone. ”

also, i love that rufus uses “ heir to the throne ” verbage, which is so akin to yufi also being “ heir to the throne ” & look at them: spiteful children rebelling against their useless ass dads to create new world order + to destroy the old shin-ra company. i love that for them.

so in conclusion........ this game FED ME. god i wanna play it again and again. i beat it on normal and got everything except 1 treasure and 1 task from chadley. i also need to do all the combat simulators. but given i did what i could in.... 3.5 days, i’m not too upset by it. this game has so much replay value and... i can say i’m glad i bought it twice.

g.amestop give me my freaking shinra badge i’ve damn well earned it.

oh and two more things going forward:

> nanaki continues to sound old as hell. which duh, given advent children. but u know how they established him as a young teen in the og + so it made sense for y.uffie and nanaki to be friends ‘cause they were mentally the same age? i don’t...... see how that works now.

also.....y’all could have missed me with this shit already but STOP SHIPPING HIM WITH YUFI. NOW UR ONLY ARGUMENT IS GONE. STOP. i saw some art of nanaki & y.uffie fucking in the tags + floating around google and i was like....... WHY!!! and then there’s also weird hybrid art like what if they had a kid or something and i just........ STOP.

i have flashbacks of when i first started writing on tumblr + how i was bombarded by furries wanting to fuck bc of this. like deadass king dedede from kirby. later on i also saw sonic & even alligators ( not an alligator man.... tho i did see king k. rool + donkey kong as well........ i hated y’all for a hot minute ). it’s not even “ monster fucking ” it’s bestiality and I’M BEGGING YOU TO STOP. y’all can truly MISS ME WITH THIS.

however, u know, bigby wolf + everyone from castlevania could easily get it. stardust platinum where ya at. if i had to pick it would be....... more humanoid than a penguin or a “ lab rat dog ” u feel?

> i am not crazy about y.uffentine. look. i know it exists. i know it was big bc fandom was like “ optional character ship ftw! ” + then dirge of cerberus came out and y’all went wild ( to be fair, i get it, it was the only ship outside of NANAKI and BEING KIDNAPPED/ASSAULTED BY SHINRA SOLDIERS AS A CHILD that people could feasibly comprehend for y.uffie for some reason............................................................... it was an actually “ NORMAL ” person........ ) but like. i’m sorry. it’s not doin it for me. i’ve seen like two other y.uffie blogs out here that actually stick to canon so like if u want your y.uffentine that bad, like maybe ask them. but please don’t ask me.

ok i’m done for real now! thanks for reading !

#♝ meta.#♚ verse iii . travail.#spoilers /#ffvii spoilers /#remake /#remake spoilers /#ffvii remake spoilers /#idk if y'all need this tagged as anything else.#let me know if u do!

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years ago

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Survey #473

“please don’t make any sudden moves / you don’t know the half of the abuse”

Who are the 3 people you love the most? My mom, Sara, and Girt. Last person you slept in the same bed with? Sara. When is the last time you took a picture of yourself? It's been quite a long time. When was your first kiss? March of 2012. Have you recently been sick? No. Don't jinx it, especially these days. What song are you listening to? A slowed down version of "Heathens" by twenty one pilots. I REALLY like it. Do you drink soda often? Every day. :x Would you ever move somewhere like Hawaii? NOOOOOOO. I would NEVER survive living in the tropics. Have you ever had to call 911? Why? Twice for my mom. Once we thought she was having a heart attack, and the second time she had such bad abdominal pain that she was almost entirely immobilized. It was that day we found out about the cancer. Do you get out a lot? God no. Name 3 things you really like about yourself (not physical). I have a lot of empathy, I love and care a lot about animals, and I care a lot about what other people feel and always wanna make people feel better. Name 3 things you hate about yourself (not physical). My anxiety is #1, then there's how lazy I can be, and how I jump to conclusions. Would you ever consider having an abortion? If I was raped, it was ectopic (that barely even counts as one, though...), or it greatly endangered my life, yes. In which state/country were you born? North Carolina, U.S.A. Have you ever had to be put on medicine for a mental disorder? Yeah, quite a lot... I've gone through probably around three dozen different psych meds since middle school. White chocolate or milk chocolate? Milk. I can eat white chocolate in small doses, but it's generally too sweet for me. Have you ever been to an amusement park out of state? Yeah, Disney World in Florida. Would you consider yourself a crafty person? No. I'm much better at putting stuff on paper than creating stuff with my hands. What would you say is your favorite color of all time? Baby pink! Have you ever been responsible for someone’s death? Y E E S H no. Do you ever spend the night with your significant other? Not yet. We're still iffy about sleeping in the same spot though because of my sleep apnea nightmares. My new mask seems to be working great, though; I haven't had a nightmare in like a week (and keep in mind they're usually every single night), I'm just WAY too scared to lash out at him in my sleep. I need a longer period of proof it's functioning well. Do you know a lot about serial killers? No. Have the police ever been looking for you? Yes, actually. One time when my sisters, a friend, and I were at the beach, we went walking by the shore at night, after we thought we told our parents we were going. Apparently, we didn't, or they didn't hear us, because my mom was an absolute collapsing wreck and called the police to search for us. We got back to the hotel so confused, and I'll never forget how Mom was crying. Where do you get most of your accessories from? I wanna say Hot Topic? Do you cuss more than anyone else you know? Yes, actually. Have there ever been any serial killers around your hometown? Idk. Did your parents live in a different country before you were born? No. What’s something you’ve experienced that very few others have? I'd say going to a psych hospital five or six times isn't exactly common. I am so fucking glad those days are over. Do you know anyone who’s related to a current or former world leader? Not to my knowledge, no. Do you do your own taxes, or do you hire a professional? I don't have taxes. Do you have a home security system? No, but damn do I want one. What’s something you don’t think people take seriously enough? Our environmental crises, like global warming, deforestation, fossil fuels... basically just anything that involves us murdering the environment. People just don't fucking care because it's not "personal" enough, I guess. Or a fast-acting downfall. It's slow, insidious, and because of that, people think it's no biggie because it won't affect them in their lifetime and shit like that. Have you ever gotten sick from someone else’s cooking? Yes. My stomach is very, very sensitive to food it hasn't had before, especially if it's a complex recipe with lots of ingredients. What was the last kind of cheese you ate? American, on a turkey sandwich I made the other day. Have you ever abused any substance? Just Pepto Bismol. When I was in middle school, I was absolutely convinced every single day that I was going to throw up (no, I didn't actually feel sick every day; it was anxiety and just concocted in my head), so I would go to the bathroom at some point every day in school to take a pill. The habit only stopped when we ran out one day and Mom didn't get a new bottle immediately. I had to face the school day without it and, obviously, was just fine. What was the last fun thing you did? Caught up on some Tarantula Collective videos, probs. Have you ever dated someone who had a child from a previous relationship? No. Is there any drama currently going on with your family? Nah. What was the last fruit or vegetable you chopped/sliced up? An apple. When you take a nap, do you nap in bed or on the couch? In my bed. Have you ever been called a whore? No. Pretty far from one. What kind of phone do you have? It's a Tracfone. I'm ready to get a new, better one. Do you like hot chocolate? Love itttt. Do you know anyone with an STD? Yes. Are you afraid of deep water? Not as much as most people, it seems. Do you get dizzy easily? I naturally have alarmingly low blood pressure, only made worse by medication, so trust me, I sure as hell do. Have you ever been thrown up on? LKAJSDLKFJAKLWJEKLWJERLK NO Have you ever thrown up on someone? Maybe as a baby? How many times have you thrown up from being so drunk? Zero. Does the sound of fireworks scare you? No, not if I know it's coming. Otherwise I'll probably jump a bit, fearing it being a gunshot. What’s your favorite firework? I don't know how to identify fireworks, ha ha. But generally just the really big, colorful ones. Have you ever been beat up? No. Have you ever seen a jellyfish? Only in aquariums. Do you cry when you get angry? Yes. I cry to cope with a ton of emotions. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? Plan on it. What do you think people really think about you? That I'm an awkward, reclusive, leeching lowlife without goals I'll actually chase. God, that's painful to think about, what people see from the outside. What’s your favorite part about Thanksgiving? Nothing. I don't like Thanksgiving. I have to spend it every single year with horribly conservative, bigoted fucks. I hate Thanksgiving food, too. How many best friends do you have? One. What kind of car is your favorite? I don't know. Sleek, elegant ones. Do you prefer pens or pencils? Pencils. When did you go to sleep last night? Not 'til like... around 4 in the morning. Do you know anyone who’s had a stillbirth? I'm sure I do. I know MANY people who have had miscarriages. Are there any redheads in your family? I don't believe so, no. Which YouTuber do you feel like you relate to the most? Ummm maybe Morgan Adams, except I'm not funny lmao. What theme do you want for your wedding? Gothic. What theme would you choose for a baby’s nursery? Purely hypothetically, I'd probably choose pastel colors and baby animals for a daughter, and then little cute dinosaurs for a boy. Does your first crush know that he/she was your first crush? No. Do you know your first crush’s middle name? No. Who do you wish you could go on another date with? I'm happy only going on dates with my current boyfriend. Which family member did you get your height from? My mom. We're pretty much the same. Do you feel stupid regularly? ALWAYS. What style of wedding dress do you want? Most likely a ball gown one with a sweetheart top. Definitely subject to change, though; I honestly just love wedding dresses and would want to actually see how I look in varying styles, except mermaid. Mermaid gowns look AWFUL on 99% of people imo. Who was the last friend of yours to have a baby, and what’s the baby’s name? My high school band friend Marcus, his wife had their first baby just the other day. I'm blanking on her name right now. Who is the cutest baby you’ve seen on social media recently? Bindi Irwin's daughter Grace is like illegally cute. What is your opinion on Arby’s? I hate that shit. What is your favorite doughnut? Just an original glazed from Krispy Kreme fuckin does it for me man. But I just love donuts in general. Do you have a hot tub? If so, where is it located? We poor, hunny. What is your favorite party game? I don't really have one, given I don't exactly go to parties. Do you or your parents rake your yard? It doesn't need to be raked. My dad used to occasionally when my parents were still together. Have you won anything recently? No. How often do you make Excel tables? What for? Never. What was the last baby animal you saw in the wild? Umm I want to say I saw a young squirrel dash out of the road semi-recently? Do you like drag queens? If so, got any favourites? Drag queens are, well, fucking queens. I love them. Trixie Mattel is high on the list. How about drag kings? You know... somehow it never struck me that this term existed???? I'm dumb. But anyway, I think it's still awesome. I don't know any (I think?) though. Would it bother you, if your partner had cut contact with their parents? If he had good reason to, it wouldn't bother me. His father is no longer living, but I could not even imagine him cutting contact with his mother since he helps the woman so much and cares a shitload for her. As someone who relates to what I know of her and what she's gone through, I'd definitely be concerned if he cut ties with her. It'd almost feel like an insult to me, too, if that makes sense? Like I'd be scared I was next. Have you ever wondered whether you were adopted? As a kid, yes. I sometimes thought my mom didn't love me as much as my sisters, so I had an episode where I wondered. Have you ever grown a berry bush? No.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''heathens'' by twenty one pilots

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magic5ball · 4 years ago

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Nature Trail to Hell Arc II: Watt Outta Hell (14)

Chapter 14: We Get on Up (Out of Hell, that is)

The way to our escape route was… odd, putting it light.Raposa took us to a corner of the cathedral, drawing out a kitchen knife tied by the hilt to a thread of dental floss.

F-Bomb, naturally, asked the real questions:

“What the fork is that?”

“Throximundeer, the World Reaver.”

When neither of us dignified that with a response, she went on: “I named it when I was ten, okay! But the name’s not important. THIS, on the other hand, IS!”

Wedging her knife under the corner of a wall, Raposa… well it’s hard to say, but to me it looked like she had peeled back a corner of the wall like it was paper, exposeing an inky black void under it.

“Alright guys, here’s the deal: we’re about to enter the abyssal zone. Not exactly a place for the faint of heart, even for residents of this craphole, so I’m gonna have to ask you to close your eyes and pretend not to hear anything.”

Seeing as our peepers were shut, we had no choice but to link hands, eyes shut with Raposa as she went into the void. What followed was a walk so long it made the hikes I had to do at Camp Sham seem like a trip to the bathroom (which, based on the way my camp bunk had smelled, was pretty much EVERYWHERE to the point where it was less a loo and more an omnipresent deity). Except the whole time, I felt somethings brushing up against me, whispering in my ears. Made my skin go cold, let me tell y! F-Bomb wasn’t doing much better. Guy sweated so hard I was surprised he didn’t turn into a puddle. When the Hell Princess finally let us open our eyes, it was in front of an automatic sliding door I’d recognize anywhere. Inserting Throximundeer into a keyhole and turning, she grunted.

“Welp, here we are, guys. Welcome to Hell’s very own Goodwill.”

But instead of white shelves and the scent of day old deodorant, instead the inside held a canyon so vast it made my Dad’s buttcrack look like the Mariana Trench. . The whole time, we had to stay on this narrow path on one side of the canyon where one wrong step could potentially send us falling to… actually, I don’t know how far down we would fall. It was too deep to see the bottom. But what was most baffling of all was that, despite being so deep underground, there was a giant sun in the crimson red ‘sky’. When I asked Raposa about this, she let out a teenagery sigh.

“It’s my Moms. They always, always, always leaves that stupid light on! I try to tell them we don’t need it, Mom. We could always just use torches Mom! It’s much scarier anyways, Mom! But noooooooo! They always gotta say things like ‘No good running around in the dark like that! Wouldn’t want you to stub your toe, sweetie!’ Bad for my eyesight, she says. Sweet Porcelain God, it’s like they think I’m 15 or something!”

“Moms?”

“Nine to be exact. They’re a handful, but I love ‘em!”

F-Bomb and I gripped hands in a way that was ball-blowingly manly, trying not to lose balance. To distract myself from my newfound fear of heights, I looked at the giant red rock face opposite us. There, embedded in the sediments, were the preserved remains of forgotten treasures”

The Lighthouse Alexandria.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Shrinky-Dinks.

Greek Fire.

And the further down we went, the more ancient the hand-me-downs got, until...

“Dinosaurs!”

If it weren’t for F-Bomb grabbing my arm, I might have jumped off the cliff from sheer joy then and there. There they were, the greatest scenes from the Mesozoic, preserved in rock, just out of reach. There was even a vintage copy of ‘Dinosaur!’ (And believe me, F-Bomb really had to reel me in from that one!)

“You know kid, they weren’t all wiped out.” Corrected Raposa “Some were turned into birds.”

“Sellouts.” Muttered F-Bomb.

After that, we walked along in silence, deeper and deeper into the canyon until at last we reached the bottom, right next to a fossilized Chicago Cubs player holding a world series trophy.

“Welp.” Said Raposa “We’re here.”

And there, in the deepest, darkest part of the canyon, where the sky seemed nothing more than a sliver cracking through the midnight gloom around us, something emerged from the shadows, something…

Soft and fluffy.

Now it was F-Bomb’s turn to go nuts. “Sailor Moon!” he cried.

And it wasn’t just her, either. Lying next to her was none other than my trusty machine gun!

“SweetPorecelainGodareyouokay?!” he dashed over to her, inspecting for any torn fabric or other possible injuries.

While he had his happy little reunion, I took my gun back. Thanks to my little black hole, it fit perfectly in my pocket. All well and good, but…

“So where’s the Sex Masheen?” I asked.

Raposa pointed to a dimly lit area behind F-Bomb. A giant wall, about as high as the roof to my school’s gymnasium stood in our way. There was no door, but the thing was covered in disorganized, multi-colored squares. I couldn’t believe it.

“A wall of Rubik’s Cubes? A WALL OF STINKING RUBIK”S CUBES?! WE RISKED OUR LIVES FOR THIS?!” Though most of my irking stemmed from my past. Because for every Christmas for as long back as I could remember, I’ve always gotten one of those stupid cubes, no matter how hard I tried to be good. It was like Santa’s way of saying I’d been a bad boy instead of just giving me that baby dinosaur already! Turned out even in the darkest pits of the Underworld, those dumb toys were inescapable.

Raposa craned a pointed index finger upward. When I followed, my jaw darn near hit the ground (I should get insurance, seeing how often that happens.) Towering above us, higher than a thousand school gymnasiums was what could only be described as some sort of snake, except it didn’t have any head and was covered in a buncha arms and legs constantly grasping for something. The only thing protecting us from this abomination was some kind of enormous red bubble the thing was constantly scratching at, kinda like those play tubes guinea pigs play with. Except it was the size of freakin’ Empire State Building and could potentially raze an entire city just by walking. (Seriously though, why can’t the pets back home ever be that awesome? Take notes, Petco!) One thing was certain: It didn’t look like a masheen at all. So while that may not have been a worst case scenario, I still kinda felt ripped off.

Raposa coughed to get our attention. “So, uh, yeah. This is Sex Masheen. Funny story about this guy. So we were hosting our annual First Circle of Hell Rabies Awareness Fun Run-“

“So can it take us to the surface or what?” Interrupted F-Bomb. “Looking at that dang thing is making Sailor Moon nervous.”

“Yeah, and why’s it called a ‘Sex Masheen if it doesn’t have anything to do with sex?”

(Granted, this was back in the days when I thought ‘sex’ was kissing a girl on the lips, but even then, I had Ben Franklin slippers back at home sexier than that... thing!)

“To answer the first question: yes, it can take you to the surface. The second: the name Sex Masheen just sounded really cool at the time, okay?! So anyways, Sexy over here hasn’t left because it’s been trapped in a bubble. But not just any bubble- a F*CKING Bubble, which has the strength of, like, a billion regular bubbles.”

“And I guess you made that, too?”

“Excellent deduction, my dear F-Bomb! And right here-“

She pulled out the longest, thinnest needle I’d ever seen from a pocket on the leg of her denim jeans. “-is the only needle in the entire universe pointy enough to pierce it. When I do, you’ll have maybe five seconds to grab on before the big guy penetrates its’ way to the surface.”

“And you know this because-“

“Look you little prick. You want to go topside or not?!”

Let me tell you, F-Bomb shut up right quick after that.

“Alright, alright!” She pointed the needle at the giant bubble “Like I said, once this thing pops, you’ve got maybe five seconds, ten tops, to hop on this thing and ride out of here! You ready?”

F-Bomb and I looked at each other, ready to go where no lost soul had gone before. We nodded.

“Righteous! Sex Masheen going live in one, a two, a one, two, three, four!”

What followed was a pop loud enough to break the sound barrier. The ground rumbled. F-Bomb and I knew we had to act fast. Bursting through the wall of cubes, we found ourselves briefly intimidated by the barrier of arms and legs just twitching around in the air in front of us. Didn’t last long, though, because one of the arms got the idea to nab Sailor Moon, and before you could say Moon Prism Power, they were all vying for a piece of the Moon pie.

“Hands off the waifu, ya creeps!” shreiked F-Bomb, holding Sailor Moon hard as he could. Naturally, I followed suit.

Have you ever been on the outside of a plane as it took off? Well, neither have I, but what I felt after Sex Masheen took off must have been pretty similar. A few seconds into flight and I worried the skin was gonna get peeled right off my body. As the abomination rose into the air, I took one last look at the pit of the Underworld below us. Looking back at me was Raposa. All well and good, until I noticed the rocket launcher in her arms. Where she got it so quick, I’ve got no idea, but the important thing was she had it pointed right at us.

“Nobody’s allowed to leave the Underworld…” she chuckled, clicking the trigger.

A speedy projectile shot right at us. F-Bomb and I tried to move, only to find Sailor Moon locked tight in the Masheen’s grasp. Even if it would make F-Bomb mad, I wanted to slam my head multiple times against the pillow. Why didn’t I see this coming!? Of course a Princess of the Underworld wouldn’t just let us waltz right out of her turf!

My griping was cut short by something hitting me in the face. Something that smelled of fresh cotton and lavender. With a free hand I unfolded it: a white t-shirt (made with 100% organic cotton, if the tag was to be believed). Printed on the front, in bold black letters, was the phrase

I ESCAPED FROM HELL AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT

“…without getting a souvenir t-shirt first!”

I would have fainted from the craziness of it all, if the Sex Masheen hadn’t chosen that moment to pierce the surface and send twenty pounds of muscovite schist into my open mouth. Below, Hell became nothing more than an Arkansas sized hole in the ground, then a New Jersey sized hole in the ground, then a little dot in the distance. All well and good, until I realized sooner or later we had to get off this thing, especially after the thin air started making my head woozy. F-Bomb and I tugged at Sailor Moon, trying to get off before we became the first dinosaurs in space (not all it’s cracked up to be. If you’ve tried those astronaut ice cream bars, you know space travel is overrated). It wasn’t until I started beating the hands back with the butt of my machine gun they finally let go.

A wave of relief swept over us as we escaped a future of freeze-dried crap and no internet connection, only to be replaced with the realization we were now freefalling from a height where we could see California. You ever talk into a fan? You know, the old ones that chopped up your voice? Well, that’s what freefall felt like, except so strong you’d think the wind was trying to dismember you. As for me, I did what any ten year old would do in this situation: spread me limbs out and SCREAM!

“THIIISSSSS IISSSSS AAAWWWEEESSSOOOOMMMEEE!”

And that is how I got over my short lived fear of heights. Fortunately, F-Bomb had done some quick thinking and converted Sailor Moon into an air surfboard, otherwise we might have plummeted right through the planet and wound up on the other side in Fiji. (Wouldn’t have been so bad, now that I think about it). Anyways, we air surfed at 500 miles an hour to the ground, F-Bomb steering, me looking for a landing space. And wouldn’t you know it, right below us was a white trampoline! That could break a fall (I hoped). I had F-Bomb steer us around in circles, spread weight, anything to slow our descent. But just as we were about to land, F-Bomb noticed something.

“Hate ta break it to ya, Turd, but did you know trampolines aren’t covered in tiles?”

I didn’t even have time to answer before we crashed through the roof to wherever we were. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was the Sex Machine, now just a twinkle in the distance, still charging into space.

Now, at this point, you’re probably thinking this story isn’t true. That I made all this up to get an extra hundred words on my ‘How I Spent My Summer Vacation’ report. And you’re (sorta) right, but I will say this: if you ever go to a public pool in New Jersey, you might come across a kiddie pool that smells suspiciously of fire and brimstone (well, more than usual, at least). Amazing what folks will do with giant holes they find in the ground.

And that was the last I heard of the Sex Masheen. Last I heard it was chugging along to Uranus to do Lord knows what. But that’s its’ story, not mine.

As for F-Bomb and I? Well, let’s just say our troubles were only beginning…

Nature Trail to Hell Part II: Watt Outta Hell: End

#My writing #Nature Trail To Hell #hell #velociraptor #dinosaur #goodwill #sailor moon

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timalexanderdollery · 5 years ago

Text

Bernie Sanders wants to take fossil fuel companies to criminal court

Aji Piper (right), is one of the plaintiffs in the Juliana v. US lawsuit where a group of young people are suing the federal government for pursuing policies that contribute to climate change. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Civil climate lawsuits are already underway as cities and children demand accountability from polluters and the government.

At the fifth Democratic presidential debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterated one of his most aggressive proposals on climate change: As president, he’d like to see fossil fuel executives criminally prosecuted.

“The fossil fuel industry is probably criminally liable because they have lied and lied and lied when they had the evidence that their carbon products were destroying the planet, and maybe we should think about prosecuting them as well,” he said.

We will prosecute the fossil fuel executives who knowingly destroyed the planet. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/usTGGYqlpp

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 21, 2019

And he’s not the only one to raise it. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has also proposed legislation to hold corporate executive, including heads of fossil fuel companies, criminally liable for causing harm to the environment.

Filing criminal charges against coal, oil, and gas companies for causing climate change would be uncharted legal territory. There’s almost no precedent, and it’s not clear which laws the companies have broken. But that’s not the only way to challenge fossil fuels in the courtroom.

Several climate change lawsuits against fossil fuel companies and governments are now proceeding to trial and one suit may even yield a verdict soon. Other Democratic presidential candidates have voiced support for holding fossil fuel companies accountable in civil court. And the courts may soon produce legal precedents that could radically reshape the future of greenhouse gas-emitting industries.

Earlier this month, attorneys delivered closing statements in People of the State of New York v. Exxon Mobil Corp. over allegations that the world’s largest publicly-traded oil company misled investors about the impact of climate regulations on its future business.

Meanwhile, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced this month that his city and county will sue fossil fuel companies for damages stemming from climate change, following a similar announcement from Maui County.

Last month, the US Supreme Court declined to stay a lawsuit filed by Baltimore against oil companies, bringing the case closer to the discovery phase where plaintiffs can request internal documents from the defendants.

And in Canada, a group of 15 youth recently filed a new suit against the government. The case, La Rose v. Her Majesty the Queen, alleges that the Canadian government violated their rights and the rights of future children to a stable climate by enacting policies that led to greenhouse gas emissions. A similar new case is also underway that targets the government of Alaska.

Meet the La Rose v. Her Majesty the Queen plaintiffs. These 15 plaintiffs are filing their lawsuit against the federal Canadian government today. pic.twitter.com/P4D69enHJQ

— Our Children's Trust (@youthvgov) October 25, 2019

These cases are part of a rising tide of litigation instigated by young people, local governments, cities, and states seeking to hold private companies and governments accountable for contributing to climate change, misleading the public about it, and profiting from it.

Once viewed as a longshot tactic for spurring action on climate change, several of these lawsuits have overcome attempts to dismiss them. However, many are applying existing laws in new ways. And some courts, including the Supreme Court, have voiced their skepticism about the merits of these cases.

At stake is billions of dollars in liabilities for fossil fuel companies and legal precedents that could burst the dam and pave the way for even more lawsuits. So it’s worth paying attention to how these climate lawsuits are proceeding. Here are some of the bigger recent developments.

Children are suing the government of Alaska for promoting fossil fuels

A new variation on climate litigation is gaining momentum in Alaska, where a group of 16 young climate change activists is suing the state for violating their rights under the state constitution. The plaintiffs in Sinnok v. Alaska, several of whom are members of indigenous groups, allege that Alaska’s government promoted fossil fuel development despite knowing the consequences of climate change.

“The state of Alaska has known of the profound dangers of climate change for decades, and in the midst of that knowledge and in the midst of that climate crisis, enacted an energy policy that makes things worse,” said Andrew Welle, the counsel for the plaintiffs and a staff attorney at Our Children’s Trust.

Last month, the Alaska Supreme Court held an appeal hearing for whether the case will proceed to trial in state court, and parties are waiting for a ruling one way or the other.

The Alaska lawsuit echoes Juliana v. United States, also backed by Our Children’s Trust, and underway in a federal court in Oregon. But there are some key differences.

Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

The Juliana v. United States case is a major climate lawsuit that has already drawn the attention of the US Supreme Court as well as international climate activists.

For one, the Alaska suit is aimed at the state government rather than the federal government. Also, plaintiffs say that climate change is already leading to problems like coastal erosion that is forcing communities to relocate, and exacerbated wildfires as temperatures rise twice as fast in Alaska compared to the lower 48.

“A lot of this is not about the future damages,” Welle said. “A lot of it is about harms that are happening now.”

While the Sinnok suit is narrower in scope than Juliana, it could serve as a model for similar litigation in other states.

The New York attorney general’s office walked back key claims in its climate fraud lawsuit against Exxon Mobil

New York sued Exxon in 2018, alleging that the company misled investors by exaggerating how well it was planning for a future where greenhouse gases could be regulated. Essentially, this case was not about holding Exxon liable for climate damages, but securities fraud.

The high-profile case involved testimony from Exxon CEO and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said the company took climate change seriously and conveyed those risks accurately to their shareholders. The New York attorney general’s office revealed in 2017 that Tillerson used the alias Wayne Tracker to internally discuss matters, including climate change, during his time as CEO.

But during closing arguments earlier this month, New York Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Zweig said the state was dropping its claims of common law fraud. Instead, it was narrowing its allegations to violations of the Martin Act, which does not require proof of intent to deceive, or proof that an investor made a decision based on allegedly misleading information.

Analysts said the walkback highlights the weakness of New York’s argument. “They never had much of a case,” James Fanto, a professor at Brooklyn Law School who specializes in securities law told Bloomberg. “They are falling back on the weak case of investor confusion.”

It shows just how tricky it is to establish malfeasance, even at a company that has long studied climate change internally while publicly playing up uncertainties and doubt about the connection between burning fossil fuels and rising temperatures.

However, Exxon is not in the clear. Numerous cities and local governments are still suing the company for contributing to climate change, many invoking public nuisance statutes. Some of those claims have already been dismissed while others, like the suit filed by Baltimore, are working their way through state and federal courts.

Last year, Exxon announced that it would back a carbon tax initiative from the Climate Leadership Council, a Republican-led lobbying effort, with the provision that the company receive immunity from climate liability lawsuits. But in September, the group said it would drop the legal immunity language from its proposal, which means the current iteration would allow climate lawsuits against fossil fuel producers.

However, the wheels of justice grind slowly. Some of these lawsuits have been underway for years and may have years to go. And many of these climate cases are playing out in state courts where a president wouldn’t have much influence. But for those that enter the federal courts, a president could shape the outcomes with judicial appointments, and also show how the government defends itself when it’s named as a defendant.

In the meantime, several important decisions will likely emerge in the coming months in cases including Juliana, Sinnok, and the New York complaint against Exxon.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2KJdEG6

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corneliusreignallen · 5 years ago

Text

Bernie Sanders wants to take fossil fuel companies to criminal court

Civil climate lawsuits are already underway as cities and children demand accountability from polluters and the government.

We will prosecute the fossil fuel executives who knowingly destroyed the planet. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/usTGGYqlpp

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 21, 2019

Meet the La Rose v. Her Majesty the Queen plaintiffs. These 15 plaintiffs are filing their lawsuit against the federal Canadian government today. pic.twitter.com/P4D69enHJQ

— Our Children's Trust (@youthvgov) October 25, 2019

Children are suing the government of Alaska for promoting fossil fuels

Last month, the Alaska Supreme Court held an appeal hearing for whether the case will proceed to trial in state court, and parties are waiting for a ruling one way or the other.

The Alaska lawsuit echoes Juliana v. United States, also backed by Our Children’s Trust, and underway in a federal court in Oregon. But there are some key differences.

Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

The Juliana v. United States case is a major climate lawsuit that has already drawn the attention of the US Supreme Court as well as international climate activists.

“A lot of this is not about the future damages,” Welle said. “A lot of it is about harms that are happening now.”

While the Sinnok suit is narrower in scope than Juliana, it could serve as a model for similar litigation in other states.

The New York attorney general’s office walked back key claims in its climate fraud lawsuit against Exxon Mobil

In the meantime, several important decisions will likely emerge in the coming months in cases including Juliana, Sinnok, and the New York complaint against Exxon.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2KJdEG6

#Vox - All

0 notes

shanedakotamuir · 5 years ago

Text

Bernie Sanders wants to take fossil fuel companies to criminal court

Civil climate lawsuits are already underway as cities and children demand accountability from polluters and the government.

We will prosecute the fossil fuel executives who knowingly destroyed the planet. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/usTGGYqlpp

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 21, 2019

Meet the La Rose v. Her Majesty the Queen plaintiffs. These 15 plaintiffs are filing their lawsuit against the federal Canadian government today. pic.twitter.com/P4D69enHJQ

— Our Children's Trust (@youthvgov) October 25, 2019

Children are suing the government of Alaska for promoting fossil fuels

Last month, the Alaska Supreme Court held an appeal hearing for whether the case will proceed to trial in state court, and parties are waiting for a ruling one way or the other.

The Alaska lawsuit echoes Juliana v. United States, also backed by Our Children’s Trust, and underway in a federal court in Oregon. But there are some key differences.

Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

The Juliana v. United States case is a major climate lawsuit that has already drawn the attention of the US Supreme Court as well as international climate activists.

“A lot of this is not about the future damages,” Welle said. “A lot of it is about harms that are happening now.”

While the Sinnok suit is narrower in scope than Juliana, it could serve as a model for similar litigation in other states.

The New York attorney general’s office walked back key claims in its climate fraud lawsuit against Exxon Mobil

In the meantime, several important decisions will likely emerge in the coming months in cases including Juliana, Sinnok, and the New York complaint against Exxon.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2KJdEG6

#Vox - All

0 notes

gracieyvonnehunter · 5 years ago

Text

Bernie Sanders wants to take fossil fuel companies to criminal court

Civil climate lawsuits are already underway as cities and children demand accountability from polluters and the government.

We will prosecute the fossil fuel executives who knowingly destroyed the planet. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/usTGGYqlpp

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 21, 2019

Meet the La Rose v. Her Majesty the Queen plaintiffs. These 15 plaintiffs are filing their lawsuit against the federal Canadian government today. pic.twitter.com/P4D69enHJQ

— Our Children's Trust (@youthvgov) October 25, 2019

Children are suing the government of Alaska for promoting fossil fuels

Last month, the Alaska Supreme Court held an appeal hearing for whether the case will proceed to trial in state court, and parties are waiting for a ruling one way or the other.

The Alaska lawsuit echoes Juliana v. United States, also backed by Our Children’s Trust, and underway in a federal court in Oregon. But there are some key differences.

Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

The Juliana v. United States case is a major climate lawsuit that has already drawn the attention of the US Supreme Court as well as international climate activists.

“A lot of this is not about the future damages,” Welle said. “A lot of it is about harms that are happening now.”

While the Sinnok suit is narrower in scope than Juliana, it could serve as a model for similar litigation in other states.

The New York attorney general’s office walked back key claims in its climate fraud lawsuit against Exxon Mobil

In the meantime, several important decisions will likely emerge in the coming months in cases including Juliana, Sinnok, and the New York complaint against Exxon.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2KJdEG6

#Vox - All

0 notes

ntrending · 6 years ago

Text

Can industrial farming be a force for good?

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/can-industrial-farming-be-a-force-for-good/

Can industrial farming be a force for good?

Big Ag to the rescue. (The Voorhes/)

Large-scale farming has a well-earned rep as America’s top eco-villain. But what if the industry could change to be more sustainable? Unthinkable? Turns out, shifting to accommodate our planet is the entire history of agriculture in the United States. Below, how industrial agriculture transformed in the face of environmental disaster in the 1930s—and how it can change to accommodate Earth’s uncertain future.

Look to agriculture’s past…

An essay by Ted Genoways

Amid the faded photographs and yellowed clippings in the attic box that holds the sum record of my ancestors, one item stands out. It’s a short article from The Wichita Weekly Eagle, boldly headlined: “Sam Genoway’s Farm Tractor.” Sam, a distant cousin of mine, was apparently so happy to see his name in the paper that he didn’t bother to make sure the writer got the spelling correct. But the story wasn’t really about him anyway. As the title would suggest, the focus was Sam’s tractor. “People have found out how many different kinds of work he can do,” his wife, Carrie Mae, told the reporter, “and they come from miles around.”

It was May 1917. America had declared war on Germany, and President Woodrow Wilson classified wheat, what Sam grew, as a “material of war.” The Department of Agriculture made the grain’s production a national priority, and Henry Ford announced he would mass-produce tractors in time for harvest. That season, Sam and his Caterpillar 45 plowed hundreds of acres. “I don’t expect this to last such a great while,” Carrie Mae said, “as the people who hire him soon decide they need a tractor of their own.”

She was exactly right. The number of tractors on U.S. farms went from about 50,000 at the start of 1917 to nearly a million by the end of the 1920s. With the additional horsepower and savings in man-hours, tens of millions of rocky acres became fresh farmland. Farmers ripped up trees and brush, pulled out boulders, dug irrigation canals, and built miles of new roads. Most important, tractors broke up dense topsoil to yield wide furrows and soft seedbeds. American farming surged.

But when European grain producers reentered the global market, U.S. agriculture found itself perilously overproductive. Crop prices fell to record lows, and people who had bought tractors and equipment struggled to keep up with the interest on their debts. Farmers abandoned or fallowed 33 million acres of newly opened ground just as the drought of the 1930s arrived. Unprotected and unplanted, topsoil dried up and blew away, forming “black blizzards.” From the Texas Panhandle to southern Nebraska, from the foothills of the Colorado Rockies to the rolling prairie near Garden Plain, Kansas, where Sam lived, tens of thousands of families lost their farms in what came to be known as the Dust Bowl.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt entered the White House in 1933, he appointed Henry A. Wallace as Secretary of Agriculture to tackle the problem. Historians often argue that Wallace, founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Company, pulled farms out of the Dust Bowl with corn that resists drought. But FDR went much further. To reduce dust storms and soil loss, he paid foresters to plant more than 200 million trees around fields. He signed the Soil Conservation Act, establishing subsidies for landowners to restore native plant life. What really rescued agriculture was policy that protected resources and rewarded those who revised wasteful practices.

That clipping about Sam’s tractor reminds us that American ingenuity has solved countless crises, but it has created many as well. Our history, like how the Dust Bowl formed in part thanks to technology outpacing stewardship, should guide our decision-making. Large-scale conventional agriculture, or what we often call “Big Ag,” can make massive investments in research to improve yields and reduce its impact on Earth’s resources. Present-day farmers have access to more data, more research, and more support than any previous generation. But without considering the unintended consequences of getting bigger and growing more, we risk creating the next generation’s problems.

Examples of this go well beyond the Dust Bowl. New irrigation systems helped farmers survive the next drought in the 1950s, but it also depleted aquifers. Genetically modified seeds made it possible to plant more crops on fewer acres, but it also led to declining soil health and food with lower nutrient value. Feedlots and enormous hog and chicken barns, often referred to as “concentrated animal-feeding operations,” expedited meat production and freed up farmland, but they’ve also driven the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and contaminated communities’ drinking water. Now, as engineers move toward self-triggered irrigation, self-driving combine harvesters, and animal confinements with self-feeding systems, there’s a great opportunity to improve profits—but also the risk that production will once again pose unforeseen threats to precious natural resources.

Sam, bolstered by federal policy, weathered a decade of hardship and privation. Stories like his are a reminder that Americans can chart a better course through trying times ahead, but only if we learn from past mistakes. Big Ag is a powerful force. We must ensure it is a positive one, for farmers and for the uncertain future of our planet.

…to fix its future.

Practical solutions to industrial agriculture’s biggest problems, by Nick Stockton.

Water

Overconsumption, pollution, climate change, and the increasing demands of a swelling population are drying out key agricultural regions like California, the Mediterranean, and Central America.

Mind the overspray. (Richard Ellis / Alamy stock photo/)

Problem: Regular droughts

Solution: Early-rising plants

Since the 1940s, farmers from Texas to South Dakota have relied on the Ogallala aquifer during sporadic dry spells. Now parts of the reserve are getting dangerously low. Agriculture giants Monsanto, Syngenta, and DuPont have engineered plants capable of muscling through drought, but those seeds cost more, and farmers don’t always get the yield they need to justify the price. The problem is these dry-spell survivors often can’t turn off their drought mode fast enough once the weather shifts. The longer it takes for the crops to reopen the pores in their leaves, which close to prevent precious fluid from evaporating, the less likely they are to take advantage of growth-boosting moisture. But some plants, like an alfalfa relative biologist Roger Deal at Emory University studies, boast genetic material that helps them become fully functional mere hours after rainfall. Future plants modified with this type of superpower won’t be dinner anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t someday end up on your plate. Research into the genomic goods that help plants “remember” to go in and out of drought-survival mode could help engineers design seeds that make faster transitions, thus increasing yield and making them smarter purchases for farmers.

problem: H₂O overuse

Solution: Probes to test the waters

You can’t ask vegetables or grains when they’re thirsty, but you might be able to decipher how many drinks your soil’s serving up. Beginning in 2013, a group of Kansas farmers took on a five-year challenge to reduce their groundwater consumption by 20 percent. By stabbing electronic probes into their combined 170 fields, the experimental growers were able to check on the moisture content of their soils and turn on the sprinklers only when the terra firma was truly too dry to sustain their crops. In the end, the thirst-by-proxy method paid dividends: Water-watchers grew 98 percent of the corn yield their neighbors did, but used 23 percent less liquid. That’s good news for both our water stores and our farmers: Easing up on the pumps helped probe-users end the season with 4 percent more cash.

Soil

The U.N. estimates intensive agriculture has seriously degraded one-third of Earth’s productive land—and continues to ruin about 24 billion tons of dirt each year. With innovative soil supplements, our food system can tread more lightly.

Big agriculture. (The Voorhes/)

Problem: Fertilizer fallout

Solution: Basalt of the earth

Industrial fertilizers help us grow lots of food for humans and livestock. A 2015 study from the University of California at Berkeley showed that conventional yields were, on average, 20 percent higher than those of organic farming. On the flip side, relying on these chemical boosters degrades soil quality and food’s nutrient content. Organic field dressing is better but works slowly. Maybe there’s a third way: rocks. Basalt’s got what plants crave, like calcium, iron, and magnesium. Adding broken bits of the volcanic stone to the soil also sucks up carbon and helps with moisture retention. Sound like snake oil? California’s Strategic Growth Council, a committee that directs grant dollars toward sustainability projects, doesn’t think so. In 2018, it spent $4.7 million to test basalt fertilization on acreage across the state. One of the biggest challenges is pulverizing the material to just the right size: Big chunks don’t break down quickly enough, and small grains cost too much to make.

Problem: CO₂ emissions

Solution: Coral reefs on land

Agriculture expels roughly 15 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gases; even tilling soil releases troublesome amounts of CO₂. “Cutting down on emissions is fine, but it’s too late to rely on simply reducing fossil fuel use,” says Mark Rasmussen, director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State. Rasmussen’s proposal is coral-like carbon capture, which means essentially growing “reefs” underground. At sea, these ecosystems consist of the exoskeletons of tiny marine creatures, which harvest carbon dioxide from the ocean to build their shells. Rasmussen’s team wants to leverage soil’s naturally occurring microbes, which can process carbon dioxide in the same way. Researchers would seed these microbes in the soil, where they’d turn emissions into calcium. The faux reefs could even sit under nonarable land, sucking up atmospheric CO₂ without the risk of denting any farm equipment.

Problem: toxic runoff

Solution: Helpful germs

The Gulf of Mexico has a corn problem: Growers across middle America fertilize crops with gobs of synthetic nitrogen. The runoff drains into the Mississippi River, which eventually flushes into the Gulf, hundreds of miles away. Here, nitrogen-hungry algae bloom into massive “dead zones” that suffocate other marine life. Mexico might have a corn solution: Plant biologists from the University of California at Davis and the University of Wisconsin at Madison found several wild strains of Mexican corn that produce their own nitrogen. The plants form above-ground roots that secrete a gel containing symbiotic bacteria. These microbes convert atmospheric nitrogen into necessary nutrients. The scientists have cultivated the self-nourishing varietal in both Wisconsin and California, observing similar results. They are currently investigating whether we can engineer high-yield commercial corn with similar talents, thereby reducing America’s need to fertilize its No. 1 agricultural product.

Animals

Americans get nearly two-thirds of their protein from meat, milk, and eggs, but raising billions of beings creates a feast of unsavory problems. Algebra and algae are here to help.

A menu tweak could quell cows’ methane burps. (Daniel Acker / Bloomberg via Getty Images/)

Problem: Poop lagoons

Solution: The other brown energy

It’s common for livestock farmers to dump animal feces into open-air “lagoons,” a practice that’s especially dangerous when heavy rains overfill these pools, adding dung to the flood waters. During 2018’s Hurricane Florence, for example, manure from dozens of North Carolina hog operations spilled out of such basins. Even without the help of natural disasters, lagoons can leak or overflow into local water supplies. Good thing poop ponds aren’t our only option. Large bacteria-filled tanks known as anaerobic digesters can transform waste into methane gas. Agriculturalists can then convert the fumes into electricity they can either sell back to the grid or use to power their operations. In 2018, the EPA’s AgStar Financial Services cut more than 4 million tons of greenhouse-gas emissions by offering cheaper microdigesters to smaller farms. That reduction was the work of just 248 digester projects, a tiny fragment of the country’s more than 2 million farms.

Problem: Destroyed soil

Solution: Moo math

Many cattle ranchers pack their land with as many cows as it can hold. This is a losing strategy. Crowds graze so quickly that pastures can’t regrow their best grasses. This exposes bare soil to the elements, causing it to lose nutrients and volume. Overstocked areas also worsen the landscape’s overall ecology by leaving little room for other plants and animals. The answer might be as simple as determining exactly how many cows can graze on a piece of land without doing damage. Texas A&M; University researcher Monte Rouquette raises cattle on experimental plots, calculating how rainfall, soil composition, and other factors impact a landscape’s ability to support a number of livestock. He also catalogs biodiversity and how herd numbers impact the quality and quantity of the meat. While his models are specific to East Texas (his home, and home to millions of cows), his algebraic approach could work elsewhere, and he shares his models with the USDA.

Problem: Cows’ greenhouse gases Solution: Kelp help

When cows eat, they burp. A lot. In fact, for all the talk of farts, bovine belching is responsible for around 70 percent of cattle methane issuance. What’s more, the combined burps of Earth’s billion-head herd constitute roughly 14.5 percent of the planet’s total greenhouse-gas emissions in a given year. University of California at Davis animal scientist Ermias Kebreab and his team found that mixing red macroalgae into their dairy cows’ feed resulted in a 60 percent drop in methane-loaded…emissions. The desiccated seaweed addition seems to inhibit enzymes produced by gut microbes in the mammals’ first of four stomachs, and at least one of these enzymes appears to be instrumental in the formation of methane. At first the ruminants ate slightly less of the fishy feed compared with their usual supper, but a smidge of molasses to cover up the unfamiliar smell helped ease them into their new better-burp diets.

Problem: Invincible bugs

Solution: Keep the uber-sects apart

Farmers of decades past could lose entire seasons of crops to insects like rootworms, whiteflies, and aphids, but early solutions brought their own problems, like the pesticide-driven decimation of our bee populace. Researchers have explored other options, including modifying crops so they can help kill pests, but that backfired too. These engineered plants never slay all their targets because some invaders carry inborn resistance to the bug-harming proteins. Once the modified crop culls the rest of the swarm, those unpoisonable leftovers have only each other to make babies with. Presto: a new generation of better, badder creepy-crawlers. Researchers at the University of Arizona have gotten around this by planting unmodified seeds in genetically altered fields, which lets some nonresistant bugs survive and mix their susceptible DNA with their tougher buddies’. This method is labor intensive, though, so the Arizona group teamed up with some scientists in China to try crossbreeding. They bred altered cotton with an unmodified version, resulting in a variety that spawns a 75-25 mix of resistant to nonresistant plants.

Problem: chemical fertilizers

Solution: In living clover

Soil already contains lots of nitrogen, but it’s missing the few molecules that let plants turn it into nutrients. Many cattle ranchers spray pastures with waterway-polluting chemical fertilizers to ensure their herd has plenty of tall, lush grass to eat throughout the season. That’s good for the cows but damaging for our soil and marine life. Clover could provide a spray alternative. The roots of this cover crop house symbiotic bacteria that convert nitrogen into the chemically “fixed” variety plants can use. Researchers at Texas A&M; University figured out a way to put clover to work for their grasses: They seeded fields with the legume in late fall, before the grass sprouted. The cattle then noshed on the trefoil and pooped fixed nitrogen, helping the following season’s grass flourish. Not only did this method reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers, it also extended the grazing season as animals munched on the yummy new greenery.

This article was originally published in the Summer 2019 Make It Last issue of Popular Science.

Written By Ted Genoways, Nick Stockton

#Science

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radioleary-blog · 6 years ago

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Burning Flags and Hosing Native Americans

11/30/16

"Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag," Trump wrote this week, after a college student in New Hampshire burned a flag to protest the election, "if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!"

This from the guy who called for registering Muslims and imprisoning his political opponents. “If these people don’t like things the way they are, they shouldn’t burn the flag, they should do what I did, and burn the Constitution!” Trump said, “You think I could get away with all the crazy shit I have planned for this country if I just burned a flag? No way, I’d be in a prison cell right next to Hillary. So the Constitution had to go. You say flag burning is protected by the First Amendment? Let’s get rid of it. Shoot the First Amendment with a gun from the Second Amendment. A Bill of Rights? They sold you a bill of goods! It’s a Bill of Wrongs, folks, that’s all it was. A Bill of Wrongs.”

Trump released his statement through what has become the official White House press briefing source: Twitter. Oh, he loves his Twitter. Probably because 140 characters is just about the upper limit of his attention span. And 140 characters is the perfect length for saying something stupid, and saying it loud. With a lot of exclamation points!!! Trump loves Twitter because he knows he never has to provide details or logically support his arguments in 140 characters. Of course, he couldn’t support most of his bullshit with logic if he spent ten years writing them into a Russian novel. Hmm, I wonder, what would the title be of a Russian novel written by Donald J. Trump? “The Gulag Mara Lago” ? “One Day in the Life of Ivanka Denisovich” ? “Abortion: Crime and Punishment” ? “War and Pussy” ? Actually, Napoleon plays a prominent role in “War and Peace”, and Trump reminds me a lot like Napoleon. Except Napoleon’s hand is always thrust into his shirt, whereas Trump’s hand is usually thrust into a woman’s pants.

And Trump’s other hand is always on Twitter. And since he’s limited to 140 characters, the Donald doesn’t even have to demonstrate he understands the issues he’s tweeting about. Trump somehow manages to always tweet with the same grandiose level of outrage, bluster and threatening huffy-ness on absolutely any topic, especially when he has no clue what the fuck he’s talking about. Just try him, on any topic:

@surrealDonaldTrump: “Quantum Theory? It’s a hoax invented by the Australians! Scott Bakula is a great actor!! Why no Oscar, academy? Shame!!

@surrealDonaldTrump: “Picasso and Cubism? There must be penalties for (so-called) artists who support Fidel Castro’s ideas! Cubism!! And only 90 miles from our shores!

@surrealDonaldTrump: “Handel’s Messiah at the Met? No gingerbread house! No scene where Handel and Gretel get cooked in the witch’s oven? The Met got it wrong!! Boring - cut funding!!

Of course, what he’d really like to do is get the whole Constitution down to 140 characters or less:

@surrealDonaldTrump: “We/ people -perfect union, just perfect!! More guns- 2 Corinthians. lower corporate tax rate!! No illegal alienable rights- a selfie evidently: life, liberty, etc.”

Trump is the first Twitter President, but he’s also the first internet troll President, and that’s what’s scary; that a man who is always so angry and eager to get into a Twitter war is now able to get us all into a very real war just as fast, and just as furious. The fast and the furious, or maybe the fascist and the furious. What keeps me up until 3 AM? Worrying about what the hell Donald Trump is up to at 3 AM! He gets up at 3 AM not because he thought of something brilliant to say that couldn’t wait till morning, but because he has to pee twenty times a night. He’s not having a “Eureka!” moment, he’s having a “urea” moment. Because no matter how rich and powerful he is, he’s still an old man, with an old man’s prostate and bladder that are just about as worn-out and unworkable as his economic policies. And both his bladder and his economic plan rely entirely too much on a “trickle down” theory that never, ever provides any relief.

So he wakes up every night in the middle of the night, mad at the world and fully capable of any act of irrationality on Twitter. And now, on the world stage. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up one morning and find out we’ve been at war with China for five hours already. I can see the Joint Chiefs of Staff pleading with him, urging him not to go to war, “Mr. President, we can’t risk a nuclear confrontation, it’s madness! The stakes are too high!” To which Trump replies, “Wrong, General, my steaks are very reasonably priced! Believe me. Very high quality steaks.”

Then our military leaders would be begging him to stop the war. “Please Mr. President, there are 1.2 billion Chinese with a standing army of 200 million men! Our troops are being decimated! We told you hours ago to give the order to retreat! If we are to survive as a nation, you must give the order to retreat!” To which Trump replies, “Wait, you said ‘retreat’? My bad. I thought you said ‘retweet’!”

“But seriously, General, we should retweet. We can still win this on social media.”

Hosing Native Americans

I’m deeply disturbed by what’s going on with the DAPL. To us that stands for Dakota Access PipeLine, but to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, it stands for Damn Americans Plundering Land.

Now I’m a big fan of oil, a really big fan. Fossil fuels? Love them so damn much. They keep me from freezing to death every winter, when New York state turns into the planet Hoth from ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ for five months. More like ‘The Empire State’s Back: A No Hope.’ And even those giant Imperial Walker “AT-ATs” moved a hell of a lot faster than Northway traffic in winter.

So I love oil. I loved dinosaurs as a kid, and now that they’re fossil fuel, I love ‘em even more when they’re driving my ass around in my car. So I understand why we usually look the other way while the robber barons take the land to take the oil, and play the villain in this never-ending Western horse-opera that keeps our lights on. We usually don’t really care that there’s never a Lone Ranger to ride to the rescue and shoot the gun out the villains hand, we’re willing to let the good guys lose if it keeps our cell phones charged. And hey, how the hell did the Lone Ranger always manage to have a non-violent resolution to every conflict...by using guns? I don’t think he ever killed anybody, but he was always shooting and waving those guns around like a guy with flashlights on a runway waving in a 747. It probably was less of a moral stance than the fact that silver bullets were ridiculously expensive. But this really painted an unrealistic expectation for an entire generation of TV-watching kids; that hostile confrontations are more likely to be resolved peacefully once you break out the guns. Everything will be just fine! What could possibly go wrong with teaching kids that random gunfire solves most problems?

And The A-Team? They were an even worse example, they fired guns all day long and nobody ever got hurt. Every episode, the A-Team ended up in a ten minute shoot-out with machine guns at close range, and they still never managed to successfully shoot somebody. These guys were supposed to be ex-military? What branch, the Kiss Army? They must have fired ten million rounds of ammunition over five seasons, but they never managed to kill a single goddam bad guy. Not even accidentally. You’d think someone would at least get hurt tripping over the mountains of spent cartridges. No one ever got seriously wounded or maimed, either. Never a realistic depiction of the awful consequences of close-quarter machine gun fire on the human body. Never a bad guy laying there screaming at the end of the episode, writhing in a spreading pool of blood, desperately trying to cram his intestines back into his body as the A-Team smoke cigars and high-five each other in a freeze-frame over the closing credits. No, when the show was cancelled the body count was still zero. No wonder these guys were kicked out of the military, they were just wasting valuable ammo and helicopter fuel! I guess B.A. stood for Bad Aim. Was it poor eyesight? I think maybe they called them The A-Team because that was the only letter they could read at the top of the eye chart.

But I digress. Back to the pipeline. So the oil companies dig and bulldoze, raze and deforest, drill, lay pipe and pump. That’s where the oil comes from, and we write it all off as Progress. Although, in all fairness, “drill”, “lay pipe”, and “pump” is also where orgasms come from, so let’s not rush to judgement.

The DAPL is a 1,172-mile, $3.8-billion pipeline, which would transport up to 570,000 barrels of oil a day. It’s nearly finished except for a section scheduled to go under the Missouri River. Native Americans of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe are protesting the pipeline, saying any oil spill will contaminate water sources that serve over 17 million Americans. So last week, authorities attacked the tribe with water cannons in sub-freezing temperatures, which put 17 protesters in the hospital. You think we’ve really advanced as a society? In 400 hundred years of Native American relations, we’ve only gone from intentionally giving them smallpox, to intentionally giving them pneumonia. Slightly less life-threatening, I guess, but not a big improvement. Who knows, maybe in another hundred years we’ll only intentionally give them a head cold. Not a bad one, but one that may cause them to call in sick to work and lay in bed all day catching up on TV.

Authorities defended their use of the water cannons. “We warned them repeatedly,” Morton County Sheriff ‘Buffalo Bill’ said at a press conference, “It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again!” Sheriff Buffalo Bill then tucked his penis between his legs and tweaked his nipples for the remainder of the press briefing.

And do we truly appreciate the sheer fucked-up-edness of using water cannons on people who are protesting to protect water? What Federal Agency was behind this? Did they call in the Bureau of Irony Enforcement? What was the plan, was this psychological warfare, to hose the Native Americans until they say, “You know what? Fuck water. I’m going back to the casino. We have towels there, and our odds of winning are better.”

This is like, say, if there was a protest by PETA, and the police came to break it up by throwing cats at them. “This is a legal order to disperse!” Raawr! “You must leave the area immediately!” Mrowwl! “Sir, the protesters are deploying countermeasures, they have balls of yarn!” “Hmm...get me that big tomcat named Pepper, we’ll see how they like it when he sprays!”

This whole situation shows that we as a people can no longer effectively stop large, powerful corporations like the oil industry from doing whatever the hell they want to us and our land. They determine public policy, and they have lawmakers and law-enforcement to back them up. They aren’t even afraid of lawsuits and litigation from this tribe, and this tribe is called the Sue! Sure, they spell it ‘Sioux’, not ‘Sue’, but everybody knows the Sioux were the most litigious of all the tribes. The Apache were the most renowned warriors, but the Sioux were legendary litigators. Man, they were a formidable legal opponent. Their raiding party would ride silently into settlements under cover of the night, and as the settlers awoke, they would hit them all at once...with subpoenas.They were ruthless; issuing restraining orders, ‘cease and desist’ orders, and injunctions (I think that’s actually where the offensive slur injun comes from; injunction).

Then they would tie them up. In court. For years. Led by the great Sioux warrior, Red Tape. They still talk about the greatest Sioux leader, Chief Council, and his partner in the firm, Running Billable Hours. The Sioux were the tribe that successfully negotiated a class-action settlement against the Iroquois League over faulty tomahawks, and they are the tribe that got the zoning variance for the Grand Canyon. They were also, by most accounts, the nation’s first litigators to use peyote to consult a Spirit Guide during jury selection, but Alan Dershowitz later perfected the technique. It’s sad how little of this you learn in school these days.

But take heart! As I write this, an estimated 2,100 U.S. military veterans were bound for the frozen Standing Rock reservation to aid and support the Sioux and their allies battling the oil baron villains. Maybe I was wrong, it looks like there are a whole hell of a lot of Lone Rangers riding to the rescue. Of course, Tonto was really running the show.

If anyone was offended by any of this, please don’t Sioux me.

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citizentruth-blog · 6 years ago

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In a Growing Economy, Why Are Workers Falling Further Behind? - PEER NEWS

New Post has been published on https://citizentruth.org/in-a-growing-economy-why-are-workers-falling-further-behind/

In a Growing Economy, Why Are Workers Falling Further Behind?

Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez spearheaded a resolution to allow fossil fuel PACs to donate to the Democratic National Committee, a reversal of a June vote banning such contributions. Despite the notion, this is meant to be a defense of union workers, activists and other advocates have recognized this as an excuse to allow fossil fuel executives to donate and buy influence within the Democratic Party. (Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Jobs, jobs, jobs! Growth, growth, growth! Winning, winning, winning!

That’s the story we get from our beloved president, Donald J. Trump, at least. As many of us can attest to, though, what he says may not be (or is rarely) the gospel truth.

In an August 13 post in his nascent online newsletter, Popular Information, journalist Jedd Legum discusses how, indeed, GDP growth is strong and unemployment is low. Sounds great, right? While not to discount these trends, the issue is that wages aren’t rising to accompany them. Legum writes:

There is something fundamentally broken about the United States economy and no one is doing anything about it.

Unemployment is low. GDP growth is strong. But official government data released on Friday show that real wages for American workers have gone down over the last year.

Nominal wages, the dollar amount workers see in their paychecks, have slowly crept up, increasing 2.7% between July 2017 and July 2018. But that has not kept up with inflation, which rose 2.9% over the same period.

The economy is growing. Workers, however, are falling further behind.

This sounds awfully doom-and-gloom coming from Legum, but as he indicates, he has the data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to back him up. What’s more, he identifies key reasons why workers aren’t reaping the benefits of a robust economy through their take-home pay.

First of all, before we get to why wages are stagnant or declining, there’s the matter of the Trump tax cuts. After the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law, the White House promised that “the median U.S. household would get a $4,000 real income raise.” That hasn’t happened, though.

To make matters worse, Trump and his advisers are apparently not interested in revisiting their policies to assess their potential flaws. Instead, Trump has—in characteristic fashion—doubled down on his assertions. He has ignored any evidence to the contrary, boasting that our paychecks are bigger and America is booming like never before. That’s especially not true in the case of our “booming” nation, but why let facts get in the way of a good story?

As Legum is keen to point out, however, trends in wage stagnation relative to inflation are bigger than Donald Trump. (But shh—don’t tell Trump that. In his mind, he is the sun around which we revolve.) Regardless of who is president or which party is in power, wages have been effectively stagnant for decades.

Based on this phenomenon, Legum insists that if people are complaining of an economy “rigged” against them, they are, well, right. Despite America’s status as one of the richest countries in the world and in an era of increasing profits, fewer people are enjoying those additional rewards. Cue the conversation about the 99% versus the 1%.

Accordingly, as Legum asks in his introduction, what gives? The answer is a complicated one, though there are some major culprits in the eyes of economic analysts. The first is employer-based health insurance, of which costs are on the rise. Because of escalating health care expenses, employers are less likely to raise wages. Because they are concerned about coverage and costs, employees are less likely to seek employment elsewhere. Consequently, employers are less inclined to negotiate on wages for fear of a departure. It shouldn’t surprise you to know that lower-wage workers also are disproportionately affected by these rising health care costs.

Speaking of negotiating for higher wages, a decline in union membership mediated by deliberate attempts to undermine organized labor has weakened the bargaining power and wages of union and non-union workers alike. Without significant union membership, there is insufficient reason for non-union employers to raise wages to compete with those of union firms. This is to say that it is not a zero-sum game involving the wages of union and non-union workers.

Compounding the problem of wages in America is that productivity is lagging despite advancements in technology. Legum speaks to the theory that American companies are simply not investing enough for the long term, instead opting to turn revenues into dividends or stock buybacks that inflate stock prices. Meanwhile, as he also indicates, wages have increased more slowly than productivity, so this is “only a piece of the puzzle.”

All of these factors lead up to Legum’s central point. While wage stagnation is obviously complex, there are yet remedies which can be effected. On the health care front, Medicare-for-all and other single-payer models at the state level have been suggested as ways to make employer costs more manageable. For unions, there are possible interventions like majority sign-up or multi-employer bargaining. For productivity’s sake, where private organizations fail, public investments in infrastructure can help pick up the slack.

The problem with these remedies is that they aren’t being implemented, or as Legum puts it, “no one is working to fix the problem.” Re the Trump administration, in many cases, these solutions aren’t just being ignored—they are forsaken for policies that deliberately move us backward.

We all remember the attempts by the president and a Republican-led Congress to kill the Affordable Care Act. They haven’t yet proven wholly successful, though this doesn’t mean the GOP will stop trying. Trump also celebrated the ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, characterized by many as a major blow to public-sector unions. As for infrastructure, Trump promised it would be a priority of his tenure in office. Heretofore, like most of Trump’s promises, it has yet to come to fruition.

In closing, Legum writes, “Politicians of all stripes speak incessantly about the American worker. But until they tackle the wage crisis head-on, it’s hard to take them seriously.” The absence of references to a specific political party here implies that both Republicans and Democrats should be taken to task for their role in subverting the wage growth of the labor force in the United States.

For the GOP, which has long kept the interests of big business close to heart, this is no big surprise. On the other hand, for the Democrats, the putative party of the people, the charge is that they have failed workers by not more vigorously defending organized labor, not to mention too eagerly embracing corporate lobbies/wealthy donors and their influence. This is the sort of inaction from lawmakers that the average voter is arguably justified in raging against. With the criticism from the left, there is an added sense of disappointment that a party which traditionally has embraced working-class Americans appears to have so readily abandoned them.

As Judd Legum underscores, these trends which have contributed to wage stagnation amid a growing economy were in motion before the rise of Donald Trump. His ascendancy is perhaps an all-too-logical consequence of their elaboration. As numerous publications and pundits observed, working-class whites, who came out in force for the business tycoon in 2016, were a key source of his support.

Before the election, the voting bloc of whites without a college degree was reportedly shrinking, and polling data had Hillary Clinton with one foot in the White House. Meanwhile, a group of individuals who disdain professionals because they perceive themselves to be disdained, while holding fast to the aspirational model embodied by Trump, was instrumental in swinging the election to the Republican presidential nominee. If Democratic strategists were convinced they could all but ignore this subset of the electorate (and key segments of the Rust Belt), it turned out they were wrong.

It’s political realities like this which make the recent decision by Tom Perez and the Democratic National Committee to reverse a ban on donations from fossil fuel companies rather alarming. Ostensibly, this was a move made because input from labor suggested a ban on fossil fuel money was an “attack” on workers. In reality, and as the activist community has observed, this 180 is designed to allow fossil fuel executives to keep donating to (and buying influence within) the Democratic Party.

The DNC’s about-face is particularly galling given that the prohibition on fossil fuel contributions—which specifically targeted corporate PAC donations—only came about this past June. Defenders of Perez’s proposal might be wont to point out that the Republican Party accepts substantially higher amounts of cash from the fossil fuel industry than the Dems do. There’s also the aspect that Democrats in contested districts/states feel they need to take a more moderate stance when it comes to energy production.

Still, as Kate Aronoff, contributor to The Intercept, quipped, “There are no jobs on a dead planet.” The DNC’s recommitment to an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy is a regressive turn of events at a time when more urgent action on climate change is needed, and when the Trump administration is doing its part to reverse as many regulations designed to safeguard the environment as possible (see also Scott Pruitt as the original pick for the EP-freaking-A).

Moreover, the rationalization of taking fossil fuel PAC money as a defense of organized labor is an altogether cynical one. Apparently, being a rank-and-file worker/Democratic Party supporter and having enthusiasm for an energy plan based on renewable sources are mutually exclusive. If you care about your job, evidently you give f**k-all about the planet.

To reiterate, the problem of stagnant and declining wages in America is a complex one mediated by a number of factors. At the same time, a little leadership from our elected representatives could go a long way in convincing us we are on the right track in trying to ameliorate the situation. Unfortunately, legislative gridlock and intentional concessions to corporate interests inspire little confidence we’re moving in the right direction on this issue.

Why Donald Trump Will Be The Greatest Jobs President of All TIme

#economy #Jobs #labor #Labor Unions #middle class #Unions #US Economy #working class

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ootb-posts · 8 years ago

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On the Road to BeeCon 2017: Interview with John Newton

We are happy and honoured to have John Newton once again talking at BeeCon this year. And only that, this time we also got the chance to steal some time from his busy agenda for an interview, where he talks not only about the topics of his keynote, but also about movies, anthropology, books, machine learning, and secret projects.

Being the father of Alfresco, and with all the knowledge and ideas you have about content management, we could have you giving a full seminar at BeeCon, but we have to limit it to one talk. Given the limited time, how do you choose your topics for each presentation?

It's based upon trends that are going on in the industry and what interests me at that particular time. The Digital Transformation theme started with my time on the AIIM board where we had active discussions on where the industry was going. Lately, I am very intrigued with the rapid pace of evolution in machine learning and its impact on artificial intelligence. I hope to talk a bit about that at the next BeeCon.

Your presentations always feature a theme. I remember Bruegel and Renaissance Painting (BeeCon 2016), Star Trek (Alfresco Summit 2014), Back to the Future (Alfresco Summit 2013), Monty Python (Alfresco DevCon 2012), and James Bond (Alfresco DevCon 2011). How do you pick them? Is there any theme that you liked better than the others?

Sometimes its based upon the last movie I saw or the last thing that I saw on television before I started working on it. I try to find something with a lot of characters, images and situations that I can warp into fitting whatever I am working on at the time. My favorite was probably Star Trek because it was such an important influence on me when I was growing up.

What new feature are you working on at Alfresco which you are most excited to deliver to the market?

I am fascinated by how close search and machine learning are in terms of how they process information and their impact on understanding the content that we store. Also, machine learning and deep learning are evolving so quickly and will automate many things that are manual today. I think deep learning will change the way that we think about both content and process and automate the mundane and tedious elements out of both. It's hard stuff though to comprehend how it works. I wish I paid more attention to my mathematics and statistics courses in college!

In 2015, Alfresco announced support for Amazon Aurora. Has that platform been well received? What else is Alfresco doing with Amazon AWS?

A substantial portion of our new customers are deploying on AWS. Aurora is what we recommend when they deploy because it just has so much redundancy and performance built in and it's often not that much more expensive than MySQL RDS.

We are looking at a lot of services that customers can use on AWS if they choose to use that platform, but not at the expense of our on premise customers or other users of other platforms like Azure. It's a tricky balancing act sometimes. I will be talking more about it at BeeCon.

What use case for Alfresco has surprised you the most, and caused you to think "Mmm, I never thought you could use Alfresco for that!"?

It's so secret that I would have to kill you if I told you. ;-)

At Alfresco DevCon 2011, you described laptops, tablets and smartphones as the kitchen (where content is prepared), the dining table (where content is consumed), and the snacks (where information is quickly referenced). Does that analogy still hold? How has the consumption of content on mobile devices evolved?

That was an analogy that I got from Citrix that I thought really applicable back then. Tablets were so new and growing so fast. Since then tablet growth has slowed, but the whole planet is adopting smart phones. The more appropriate analogy was one that I was thinking of as well back then.

Look at the form factors. Phones are about the size of rock or hand ax. Tablets are the size of a hunting kit or book being the right size to carry under your arm or slung in a bag over your shoulder. Laptops and desktops reflect the size of the desks and writing tablets that we had to concentrate on writing down communication or grander thoughts. These are very human and evolving form factors, only the sizes remain the same.

I think phones (really they are so much more than that now) will continue to be used in task specific ways, just in a universal form factor. They will become the principal way to consume information for the world. Tablets need to improve on input, which I think will evolve to encompass recognizing gestures and eye movements. When that happens, they will take the role that paper notebooks have, recording our work and our lives, and become more of a source of preparation of content. Until then laptops have stopped evolving, but still play a crucial role in content creation.

Boy, that's a long winded answer.

You have had an interesting and successful career at multiple fast growth software companies. If software was not a career choice for you, what else do you think you would have done?

I came very close to going into the US Navy. I wanted to be an aviator like my dad and I was a midshipman (naval cadet) while I was at Berkeley. I tried to figure out how I could do computer science and still fly. I couldn't, so I took the hard, but worthwhile choice of starting my software career. I also was very early on in both databases and computer generated graphics. I actually considered working in the early days at Pixar and Silicon Graphics. However, the choice of following my professors into Ingres was really a no brainer.

I always wanted to start a company since I was about 8 or 9 years old, so suspect that I would have done something entrepreneurial anyway. Even so, my "minor" (Berkeley didn't do minor degrees) was in Anthropology. This was the time that physical anthropologists from Berkeley had discovered the Lucy fossils in East Africa, so it was a very exciting time. My interest in evolution was very much tied to my interest in artificial intelligence. Both of those have really gotten me interested in Behavior Science and Economics. I am seriously considering doing part time study in the subject.

What is one dream project you have thought about pursuing apart from your professional life?

I discovered an obscure and little known story related to Francis Drake's voyage around the world. I thought it was so fascinating, I started writing a screen play. When I am not reading about machine learning and behavioral science, I am taking online classes on screen writing. It's a pure folly.

What books have influenced you such that you would recommend them to the Alfresco community? We are interested in both professional and non-technical books.

I recently read a book called "Deep Work". It's written by a professor of computer science about how he doubled his research output. It's about how do you get a sense of "flow" while you are doing work. The number one take away - turn off email and get off social media cold turkey.

I also think that Daniel Kahneman's book "Thinking Fast and Slow" is one of the most important books of our time. It describes so much about how people make decisions and the role that biases play. It shows why it is so easy to get people confused and what it would take to get people to do the right thing.

I wish that I could recommend a book on Deep Learning, but a good one simply does not exist. I am reading the authoritative book on Deep Learning by Ian Goodfellow et al from the Open AI institute. It's comprehensive, but not very approachable. He writes it from a theoretical mathematician's point of view not a programmer's point of view. After rereading it about three times, I finally get it.

"Capital in the 21st Century" is a monotonous and tedious book with an annoyingly patronizing tone. However, the concepts of inequality are really important and Thomas Picketty is probably the biggest advocate that something must be done. He demonstrates in the book that inequality over the last several centuries is usually solved by war, depression or both.

What is a memorable place that you have visited in your travels?

OMG, I have been to 65 different countries, so it is almost impossible to say. I had never been to Japan while I was at Documentum, but finally got to go with Alfresco. It was so impressive that I took the family on a three week trip to Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara. Beijing is never what anyone expects, but I certainly will not forget the Forbidden City. St. Petersburg, where my son spent a semester in university, is quite a beautiful city and an eerie mix of Helsinki and Moscow.

But maybe the most memorable was a trip my son and I took to Albania. We took the hydrofoil from Corfu to Sarande and went to the ancient Roman and Greek settlements in Butrint. During the Roman Empire, Albania was known as Illyria. Butrint was known as Buthrotum and there was a thriving community by a large lake. During the Middle Ages, the lake became brackish and was largely abandoned. During the Communist period, the site was excavated, but no western visitors were allowed. It's now sort of like an unspoiled Pompei, but not destroyed, only abandoned.

John Newton will be giving his keynote "Alfresco Vision" at BeeCon 2017 on Wednesday 26th of April, at 09:30, in the Auditorium. Don't miss it!

#orderofthebee #beecon

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carbonandhappiness-blog · 8 years ago

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Trump’s Executive Order on Climate Change Is Lazily Conceived; Likely to Be Effective Nonetheless

The President’s Executive Order on Climate Change, formally referred to as “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth” outlines 8 target areas for deregulation, changes in accounting methods, and scaling back of environmental reviews. Some of these 8 are more specific than others, and each is well summarized at the 'Climate Deregulation Tracker' resource compiled by Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law: http://columbiaclimatelaw.com/climate-deregulation-tracker/trump-issues-executive-order-on-climate-change/.

On a legal basis, this could have been much worse. The implications of the Executive Order are not good, by any means. But there are plenty of “smoke and mirrors” at play, as well. And as I will speak to later in this post, the real danger lies in what comes next --- as there have already been deceptive bills introduced in Congress that would give very real, legal consequence to the Order’s aims.

On a whole, owing to the American public’s lack of education and engagement on climate issues, I’d classify this Executive Order as “lazily conceived, but likely to be effective nonetheless.”

There are a lot of similarities to the healthcare plan complexity, but instead it will be the American public (and not a political party) who harms themselves by failing to bear down and face these complexities.

It will become apparent pretty quick (in just these summaries, alone) how complicated climate regulation can be. Trying to be as concise as possible without losing the necessary context, the 8 target areas of the new Executive Order are the following:

1. Clean Power Plan (CPP): The order directs the EPA to immediately review the Obama era’s key regulatory centerpiece on emissions mitigation (the CPP established carbon dioxide (CO2) emission limits for existing fossil fuel-fired power plants). The order states that “if appropriate”, the EPA should initiate a new notice-and-comment rulemaking to suspend, revise, or rescind the plan. [This is first and foremost a “smoke and mirrors” market signal. Here lies an easy scapegoat “victory” for the Trump administration, based solely on jobs-based rhetoric. In reality, the coal sector employs less people in the U.S. than the fast food chain Arby’s and there are more PhD’s in the state of West Virginia than coal miners... However, the intended effect of the draft CPP is already happening in many states due to changing market forces alone. States have always had the power to define their own energy future under the CPP, and many are moving forward in the same manner regardless of the new Executive Order. You can find state-by-state targets, draft rule reductions, and progress updates at E&E’s Clean Power Plan Hub.]

2. Emission Standards for New Power Plants: Similarly, the order also directs EPA to review the emission standards for NEW coal-fired power plants and to rescind or rewrite that rule “if appropriate”. The order also directs the Attorney General to request a stay of the case involving these standards pending EPA’s reconsideration of the rule. [This exemplifies the “short term-ism” mindset of fossil fuel interests, allowing them to move forward with development of coal resources, knowing legal battles could last years hung up in courts and could outlive the Trump era.]

3. Methane Regulations: The order calls for the review (and potential rescission or re-writing) of several regulations aimed at reducing methane emissions from oil and gas operations, those for the oil and gas (private) sector and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s public agency methane waste rule (aimed at curbing methane emissions from oil and gas development on federal lands). Again, the order also directs the Attorney General to request a stay of cases involving these rules pending their reconsideration. [Recognize a pattern, yet?]

4. Social Cost of Carbon, Methane and Nitrous Oxide: The order disbands the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Carbon and rescinds the federal estimates for the social cost of carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide. [This has tremendous implications for future regulatory actions on climate change in the U.S., to be discussed further in this post... if you’re impatient just jump to here: http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/03/the-hidden-impact-of-trumps-energy-executive-order-000384].

5. Environmental Reviews: The order revokes the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)’s guidance on climate change in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews. [The CEQ Guidance has led to often-interminable delays in leasing and permitting decisions on federal lands, currently preventing extensive fossil development on federal lands.]

6. Coal Leasing Moratorium: The order directs the Department of Interior (DOI) to amend or withdraw Secretarial Order 3338, which called for a programmatic environmental review and modernization of the federal coal leasing program, and to lift the moratorium on federal coal leasing. [This goes hand-in-hand with the President’s rhetoric on coal development and E.O. target area #5, above.]

7. Other Obama-era Plans and Orders: The order revokes several additional plans and orders, including:

President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and accompanying Strategy to Reduce Methane Emissions;

Presidential Memorandum on Power Sector Carbon Pollution Standards (2013);

Executive Order 13653, Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change (2013);

Presidential Memorandum on Mitigating Impacts on Natural Resources from Development and Encouraging Related Private Investment (2015);

Presidential memorandum on Climate Change and National Security (2016)

[Very concerning among these is the abandonment of Climate Action Plan and E.O. 13653, both of which were targeted towards climate impact preparedness and adaptation to issues already being faced – such as coastal erosion due to sea-level rise and increased heat-wave mortality… Metaphorically speaking, if the whole Trump Executive Order was a moving car and the rest of the target areas in this Order were aimed at removing fuel economy standards, artificially reducing gas prices, and recklessly increasing speed limits, Order Action #7 would aim to remove the car’s safety belts, airbags, and cloud the windshield.]

and… 8. Reviewing Regulations for Energy Production Impacts: The order instructs agencies to “immediately review existing regulations that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources and appropriately suspend, revise, or rescind those that unduly burden the development of domestic energy resources beyond the degree necessary to protect the public interest or otherwise comply with the law.” [Vague, much? Don’t ignore the predictable nature of the private sector to capitalize where possible.]

Okay, wow, we made it to the end of that list and you are still here…

The bad news (okay, the bad news on top of bad news) is that this is just the beginning.

Remember when I said that the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) is important? Well here is the reason why:

The House of Representatives has already moved quickly and quietly to pass an Act that would prohibit the EPA from writing any regulation that uses science that is not publicly available. On the surface, sure, this sounds very reasonable. But once you start digging in a bit you uncover the insidious motive of this Trojan Horse: “This [Act] would prevent the EPA from using studies based on people’s medical records, which are technically not “transparent” because the EPA is legally and ethically mandated to keep health data confidential.” It would make it harder, even impossible for the EPA to use public health studies to finalize science-based public health protections.” Kind of the EPA’s job, right?

Guess what the name of Act is? Answer: The Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act, or ‘HONEST’ Act. (You seriously can’t make this stuff up… http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press-release/honest-sab-bills-undermine-science#.WN_wyjvys2x)

The possible legal fallout out of decisions around the Social Cost of Carbon are of great concern, as the tactics here are insidious, and not well understood by the public. To a large part of the American public, the SCC remains the “most important number you’ve never heard of”. [Oversimplifying a bit, the SCC is the cost-benefit quantification of carbon dioxide emissions (taking into account the negative impacts of pollution – primarily public health impacts, damages, and decreased productivity under changed climate conditions). On an incremental basis (of cost per metric ton of carbon emitted), this value (federally recognized at $37/ton until Trump.’s new Order) was used in previous regulations and guidance that shaped industry standards and guidance materials in many areas including national vehicle fuel economy standards, cement manufacturing pollution limits, mercury air pollutant limits, energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial appliances, and the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to name just a few.]

While there is a great range of uncertainty revolving around the actual value for SCC to be used (quantifying it requires projecting socioeconomic conditions decades – even centuries – in the future and modeling to uncertain levels of climate impacts), many believe that this value is already being undervalued. A 2015 study by researchers at Stanford University even published a paper saying that the SCC could be as much as 6 times greater than those used during the Obama administration, which were meant to be conservative.

It is therefore alarming that Trump’s executive order altogether eliminates the [Social Cost of Carbon] working group and effectively turns over the job of cost-estimation to individual agencies. The order also scraps all the technical underpinnings for the Obama group’s work, and tells agencies to estimate carbon costs by following the guidance of a Bush-era regulatory document from 2003. “In the event that federal agencies have to monetize the costs of greenhouse gas regulations, the order specifies that they should follow OMB Circular A-4, which contains general guidelines on how to conduct cost-benefit analysis in rulemakings but does not provide specific direction on how to calculate the costs of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Although the new Executive Order does not immediately change existing guidance, one must think about the future of climate action post-Trump. Should the HONEST Act pass, the inability to use public health data to form SCC values would be incredibly damaging in any efforts to put in place a price on carbon – a strategy that has become increasingly appealing to fiscally-conservative GOP members that want the market to fight climate pollution (instead of federal regulation on individual industries such as coal, cement, steel, etc).

But enough on Social Cost of Carbon already. How about the dangerous decision to leave millions of Americans vulnerable to climate impacts? This is truly backward thinking. If climate change is real — regardless of the cause — why not prepare for the costs and damage of it? Not to mention, we can already see the impacts.

While the proposed federal budget already proposes cuts to similar climate adaptation funding via NOAA Sea Grant programs and Coastal Resilience Grants, revoking the Obama-era Climate Action Plan and Executive Order 13653 (“Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change”) may prove to be a shot in the foot. “Given the president’s focus on building infrastructure and his desire to cut federal spending, many analysts said it would make sense for him to maintain or even expand programs to reduce the cost of disasters (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-27/trump-said-to-toss-obama-s-orders-to-prepare-for-extreme-weather).

As someone who was fully expecting a lot of these proposed changes that come with the new Executive Order (such as the attack on Social Cost of Carbon and the Clean Power Plan), the attack on climate adaptation action items is one that actually threw me for a loop. Take a look at the changes that have already occurred on EPA’s website, and you’ll see that the website changes emphasize adaptation. Coupled with new language framing climate change as an adaptation issue, the early changes seemed to indicate that the EPA could continue its climate work but with less of a focus on reining in the underlying cause of climate change. The first changes on Jan. 22 included a page formerly called “Federal Partner Collaboration,” now dubbed “EPA Adaptation Collaboration”: http://www.climatecentral.org/news/epa-climate-web-pages-change-21133

Two “lazy” parts of this Executive Order may be lost on a disengaged public. While environment-based organizations (such as Sierra Club, NRDC, Greenpeace, etc.) will be pushing buttons here, there is the risk of losing a greater amount of public pressure from civil society simply for not engaging on the legal fine print.

#1: The new Executive Order does not in any way clarify what a replacement of the Clean Power Plan may look like. There is a major difference between the CPP and the nation’s healthcare plan in this regard. Since the CPP went through an intensive rule-making process with lengthy public comment periods, revoking the rule cannot legally be done without a replacement rule (which itself must have a similarly lengthy period made available for public comment). In essence, dismantling this rule will require just as much effort as it took to put it in place. If the healthcare debacle was any indication, the commitment to see this through is still not visible in any manner. (I, personally, expected to see a more developed attack strategy at this juncture).

#2: Another area where this Executive Order gets lazy is that it does not go after the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding, something that many conservatives were hoping for. This has become an interesting behind-the-scenes development that has actually brought new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt quite a bit of heat from the right. The Endangerment Finding declares that greenhouse gas emissions threaten human health and welfare and makes the EPA legally responsible for regulating carbon dioxide. Without it, these gases wouldn't be air pollutants in the eyes of agency regulators and EPA couldn't make companies reduce them. Therefore, by leaving this fight off the table for now, the long-term outlook (beyond the Trump presidency) does not look good for climate denial folk. In essence, they saw perhaps their best opportunity to stymie future federal climate regulation erased --- and by the guy who is personally on record saying that he does not believe carbon pollution is the major contributor to climate change! Pruitt himself, as the Republican attorney general of Oklahoma, joined 14 other states in an unsuccessful attempt to undermine EPA's endangerment finding in 2012. A monstrous betrayal of the best kind?

It is not a small detail to overlook. But then again, the evening news doesn’t come close to reporting to this degree of detail. (Overall, climate change coverage on the major non-cable networks dropped from a combined 146 minutes in 2015 to just 50 in 2016.) The fights here are far from over. “A cadre of conservative climate skeptics are fuming about the decision [to not pursue the Endangerment Finding at this time] — expressing their concern to Trump administration officials and arguing Pruitt is setting himself up to run for governor or the Senate. They hope the White House, perhaps senior adviser Stephen Bannon, will intervene and encourage the president to overturn the endangerment finding... Trump administration officials have not totally ruled out eventually targeting the endangerment finding. Conservative groups have petitioned the EPA to look at reopening it, one source said, and the agency may eventually be compelled to respond to the petition.”

Another part that gets lost in all this discussion of what is actually in the text of the Executive Order is what is missing from it. Namely, the campaign promise of Trump to remove the U.S. from the Paris Agreement (or even worse, the UNFCCC process altogether). It was reported that there was a large division within members close to Trump that the U.S. should withdraw. Members urging the President to keep the U.S. in the accord included Secretary of State and former Exxon CEO, Rex Tillerson.

Per an article published in the Economist back in November, “even if Trump honours American’s commitment to the Paris accord, it is unlikely that his administration will galvanize action” (well there’s an understatement...), yet “the idea of the world’s second-biggest polluter free-riding on the efforts of others has some countries mulling counter-attacks – one proposal, a carbon tariff on American exports, could lead to damaging trade war… The main practical way a Trump administration is likely to weaken the Paris agreement is by avoiding America’s commitments to pay large sums to help other countries cope with climate change.” They certainly need it. And, so far, Trump has made it very clear that funding of international efforts related to climate change are to be tabled under the “America First” mentality.

Intertwined with all the climate denialism, the “America First”, energy-independent, nationalistic rhetoric is abundant (inside and outside of the Executive Order). Within the Order, there are obvious clues that there is to be a large increase in oil and gas development on federal lands. This could mean very bad news for some national parks, and was probably the primary reason for all the rhetoric surrounding the Clean Power Plan. (Remember, the full version of the Clean Power Plan was already hung up in courts, not likely to go anywhere making this an easy, visual “win” for the Trump administration – and a nod to the oil and gas sector (i.e., “drill baby, drill” v2.0).

However, “there are limits to what Mr. Trump’s embrace of fossil fuels can achieve. For all the trillions of dollars-worth of oil and gas that he hopes will be fracked on federal lands, no one will sink a well unless it is profitable to do so. That needs oil prices to be substantially higher than they are now.” http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21710807-or-without-america-self-interest-will-sustain-fight-against-global-warming-climate

#climate change #climate #Clean Power Plan #CPP #energy #America First #Paris Agreement #Social Cost of Carbon #EPA #executive order #HONEST Act #climate denial

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