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ourownsideimagines · 5 years ago

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Hit Me With Your Car, Then Hit Me With Some Feelings (Crowley x Fem!Device!Reader)

Characters: Anathema, Crowley, Aziraphale, fem!Device!Reader

Requested: Yes

Requested by: Anon

Point of View: Second Person

Summary: (Name) Device wasn’t always a fan of her ancestor’s prophecies, but when they bring her together with a certain demon she has no complaints.

Warnings: I might have cursed?

Words: 2595

A/N: I’ve been playing Blush Blush all day and almost didn’t finish this I’m so sorry- I was up to 11:30 writing this lol

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You had never had the best relationship with your family. You were the younger of two children, and your older sister Anathema always got the largest bit of your parents attention.

And it was all because of that damn book.

You had been raised on The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, a book that spoke about the future, though it wasn’t always legible. It told of the impending apocalypse, which, if it was true (and sometimes even you doubted), it would be happening Saturday evening, in the village of Tadfield in the United Kingdom. It also spoke of how your sister would help try to stop it. How she would end up with a well endowed man - not that you exactly wanted to think about that. It was disturbing the kinds of things Agnes wrote about, in your opinion. Your mother seemed none too bothered by it, and after years of studying the prophecies, Anathema didn’t either. At least, not on the outside.

“She’s never lead us wrong before,” She had told you. “I’m not going to pay her back with doubt.”

You knew hundreds and hundreds of the prophecies by heart. Your mother had forced you into memorising them, like one would memorize a play script. You would practice until you could not get it wrong. Anathema always seemed one step ahead of you, though. Always knew the mistakes you made, pointed out when your words were wrong. There was a part of you that envied her, a part of you that hated her, and a part of you that wanted to keep her safe because as much of a pain as she was you cared about her. You cared about all your family.

The prophecies that spoke of you said nothing much about your help in the stopping apocalypse - one spoke of a tall, red haired man who would become important to you. Another spoke of a car, and an accident, and your...

You didn’t particularly want to think about it.

All you knew was, despite the fact you didn’t actually know your part in stopping the end of the world, you were flying with Anathema to the UK, where you would stay at Jazmine cottage in Tadfield.

That was how you ended up in a field, late in the night, with the book, using your tools to look for the Anti Christ. Anathema had taken the day search this time, which you would no doubt have to do tomorrow despite how tired you would be when you wake up. And the cycle would continue until you found the Anti Christ, or the world ended. Whichever came first.

“Darksome Night,/ And Shining Moon,” You leaned down towards your telescope, and tried to adjust it, only to get a view of some trees. “Damn it.” You hissed. Then, you looked skyward. “I understand you want us to stop the apocalypse,” You spoke sharply, the way you always did when speaking to Agnes. “But you could have given us more to work with.”

You spent another 15 minutes in the empty field, the only light coming from the moon above and the IPad in your lap. It all felt hopeless - you couldn’t get any kind of accurate fix. Anathema would be upset, no doubt, but you knew she wouldn’t be upset with you. At least, you hoped she wouldn’t be.

You gather up the item you had brought - the book, your IPad, your journal, the small telescope, and your blanket. You dropped them carefully into the basket attached to the old bike Anathema had brought with you guys from home, and began your journey back to Jasmine cottage.

Every time you got on the bike, you worried the accident Agnes predicted would occur. That you would be covered in “Heavenly light” as Agnes put it, which most of the family had guessed to mean death. You didn’t particularly want to die. But tonight you decide you weren’t going to let fear control you - you were going to enjoy your late night ride back to the village, the cool wind blowing through your hair as you biked down the path.

And that’s when it happened. You’d closed your eyes to take in a deep breath of air when, from out of nowhere, a big black car appeared on the dirt road you were crossing. You let out a scream as your bike slammed into the side, sending it and yourself flipping over the hood and into the grass on the other side. You let out a pained gasp as you hit your head on the hard dirt, followed by the snapping of your wrist. Your vision danced with stars that you weren’t sure were the ones in the sky or the ones in your head. You could faintly hear the opening and closing of car doors, followed by two men speaking in hushed tones. Then, one of them called out;

“Let there be light!” And snapped. You were suddenly engulfed in what you could only describe as an ethereal glow, you cautiously hold your good hand up to block your eyes.

“How the hell did you…” A wave of pain washed through you, and it felt like your skull had split in half. “Fuck, my head.” You groaned. There was another snap and the light extinguished itself. There was a moment before someone was at your side, and in the darkness you could just make out their silhouette - it was a man, from what you could tell, in a tan coat.

“There we are, no broken bones.” He murmured, and the pain you’d been feeling in your wrist vanished. You gently lifted your head so that you could get a better look at him. He looked like a kind man with blond hair so light it was almost white. He helped you to your feet, and you groaned through the ache of your bones. When he began guiding you towards the road, you protested softly.

“My bike.” You said.

“Oh!” The man turned, and before you could follow he was beside you with the bike - but it didn’t quite look like your bike. “Amazingly resilient, these old machines.” He said, but you couldn’t take your eyes off the bike. “Where did you need to get to?”

“No!” Protested another man who stood by the car you had hit. You noticed the shock of red hair atop his head, and how he seemed to blend into the night. “No, we are not giving her a lift.” He argued. You nodded quickly.

“It’s alright, really. I don’t need a ride.” You said.

“Oh, my dear, after what just happened I believe it’s the least we could do.” The blond man reassured you with a smile. There was a part of you that felt safe, but another part of you felt like you were forgetting something.

“Out of the question, we don’t have anywhere to put the bike.” The red head argued.

“Except for the bike rack.” Said the blond man, turning back to the car. “Do get in, my dear.” He told you. You watched as the blond man took your bike to the back of the car, where there was in fact a bike rack, and secured your bike. You stumbled gently to the car, where the red headed man held open the door, though from what you could tell he was doing so unwillingly.

“I’m so sorry for hitting your car.” You told him. You brought your hand up to your head, and felt something wet slick your fingers. “I’m usually much more,” You winced. “Much more careful.” There was a silence as you brought your hand out to see what was on your fingers, but the red headed man tore your gaze up with a cough. When you look back down, your fingers were clean, like nothing had been on them at all. You looked back up, and the man looked a little more relaxed, but still obviously upset.

“Where are we taking you?” He asked.

“Oh, just, um, back to the village, if that’s no trouble. I can give you directions.” You said softly. The man nodded, and offered you a hand to help you inside the car. You settled down, trying to make sense of whatever it was that just happened. The men slid into the front of the car, the red head in the driver's seat. The blond man turned to you with a kind smile and passed you all the items that must have fallen out of your basket when you hit the car. You thanked him, and the car seemed to come to life without any sort of key being turned.

The radio began to blare the familiar tune of Queen’s “Bicycle Race”, which made you turn your head curiously to look back at your own bike.

What about it was so… off?

You looked forward again. You gave directions. A turn here. A turn there. Then, it hit you.

“Turn left-” You stopped. “Gears.”

“Pardon?” Said the blond man.

“Gears.” You said again. “I don’t… I don’t think my bike has gears but…” You looked back again. “How hard did I hit my head?”

“Oh lord, heal this bike.” The red head man sang beneath his breath, so low you almost didn’t hear it over the music.

“I got carried away.” His companion grumbled. You saw the roof of the cottage and let out a sigh.

“It’s just up here - the cottage with the lights on.” Anathema must have been awake, you assumed. You gathered everything up in your arms. The car came to a stop, and the blond man got out. He helped you out of the car and brought you around the front, where you discovered that your bike had already been removed from the rack, and was propped against the brick wall.

The gears you’d seen before were gone.

“See, no gears.” The man said. “Just a perfectly normal velocipede.”

“Bicycle.” The other man corrected him, having popped out of the car.

“Thank you, uh, for the ride.” You said. “I’m so sorry again for, uh, hitting your car. I hope I didn’t cause any damage.”

“None.” The red headed man said. “All’s well that ends well. Let’s get on, Angel. Get in.” He slipped back into the car, and you quietly moved your bike inside the wall, watching as the drove off. You secured the bike with a chain, and entered the cottage.

“How did it go?” Anathema asked. You let out a deep sigh as you set everything down.

“I’ve got nothing new. No leads. The signal got totally swamped.” You told her. “Though I did had a strange encounter on the way back.”

“Strange how?”

“Well, I was on the bike, and then,” As you explained it to her, Anathema looked more and more interested, and perked up when you mentioned the red headed man and the crash.

“It must be the accident Agnes warned about.”

“I guess, but-” You began, but Anathema cut you off.

“Wait. (Name), where’s the book?” She asked.

“What do you mean it’s right-” You stopped dead when you realised that the book was not among the thing you’d brought back into the cottage.

It was still in the car. And those men were long gone.

That was almost a month ago, before you’d learned Crowley and Aziraphale’s names, before you’d decided to move to London, and days before the two supernatural beings, along with your sister, her new boyfriend Newt, the Antichrist and his three friends ended Armageddon. You had felt rather useless through the whole affair, but had gained one good thing out of it - friendship. Specifically, a friendship with Crowley the demon.

He hadn’t been to keen on friendship at first, the lingering memory of you crashing into his beloved car with your bike still there. But he had warmed up to you, had even assisted in getting you properly moved into your own cottage, away from your sister and Newt.

Today, you were sitting with him, having tea when your sister arrived. Crowley, who had been basking in the sunlight coming in through your windows, sat up and put his sunglasses back on.

“Hello, Anathema.” You said. “I wasn’t expecting you until three.” You told her as you stood to give her a hug.

“I decided to come over a bit early. Hello, Crowley.” She said.

“Afternoon.” Crowley nodded to her.

“I brought the herbs you said you needed, along with the tarot cards you left at Jasmine.”

“You’re a saint, sis.” You said as she handed them over. “So, what are you and lover boy up to today?”

“Oh, nothing much. Probably going to take a walk. Maybe drive out to a field and have lunch.”

“You’ve gone soft,” You joked. “The Anathema I knew would have never gone on such a romantic outing.”

“Well, now that the prophecies are all played out, I figured it was time to start making my own decisions.”

“You told me,” You sat back down in your arm chair. “Staying long?”

“Probably not.” She looked over at Crowley, not with distaste, but also not happily. “I can see you’re already preoccupied.”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t wanna hang out with my sister.” You reminded her. Anathema shook her head lightly with a laugh.

“No, no, I really should be going now.” Then, she paused. “(Name).” You hummed gently, and then she began speaking to you in spanish. Your mother had taught you to speak both at a young age, and for a moment you didn’t understand why. Then, when she finished, you felt your cheeks heat up, becoming a blushing mess as Anathema bid you farewell and quickly exited the cottage,

“What was that?” Crowley asked, taking his glasses off again and setting them aside.

“It’s, uh, nothing.” You rushed out. “I’m gonna, uh, I’m gonna go get some, uh, some food. Cheese.” You turned quickly, retreating into the kitchen. You couldn’t believe her sometimes.

You rummaged through your fridge, hoping to buy yourself enough time to calm down. You grabbed the cheese you had stored in the fridge and all but slammed the door shut. You let out a deep sigh, and reentered your living room. Crowley had gotten up, and was currently amusing himself with your lamp. When he saw you enter, he cleared his throat.

“Hey, (name),” He took some steps closer to you, and you could feel your cheeks heating up even worse than before. You cursed yourself, and Anathema, internally.

“Yeah, Crowley?”

“Do you know how long I’ve been alive?” He asked. You stopped to ponder this before realize that, no, you had never actually asked. You shook your head. “Six thousand years.” He told you.

“Wow, didn’t realize you were such an old fart.” You attempted to joke, laughing nervously to yourself.

“Do you know what I’ve learned to do in six thousand years?” He asked innocently.

“What?”

“To speak Spanish.” This caused your blood to run cold. If he wasn’t lying, and you were certain he wasn’t, then he understood what Anathema had said. You wanted to scream with every bone in your body, but you didn’t. “And she wasn’t wrong.”

“W-what?”

“I said she wasn’t wrong.” He repeated himself. “She’s actually very… nice and accurate.” He joked.

“So you…”

“Yes.” Crowley’s eyes never left yours. You gulped.

“Well, uh, in case you were wondering, I, uh, I-” He cut you off, pressing his lips gently to your own.

You made a mental note to thank Anathema later.

#good omens #good omens x reader #crowley x reader #crowley x fem!reader #crowley x device!reader #crowley x reader good omens #crowley x fem!reader good omens #crowley x device!reader good omens #crowley #crowley good omens #anthony j crowley #x reader #x fem!reader #x device!reader #reader insert #good omens reader insert #my writing #reese writes #the ineffable queue

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twitchesandstitches · 5 years ago

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When it comes to Cartel members, these are the ones that comes to mind: Jabba the Hutt, Darth Maul, Lockdown, The Thief Guild, The Dark Brotherhood, most of the villains from the Saints Row games, dark eldars, drows, Jack O'Lanterb/Hobgoblin, Gallywix, The Shadowed One and his Dark Hunters.

These are good examples! note that the cartels are, as the name implies, a very large group. think an assortment of various bad guy criminal organizations competiting together and working together for maximum profit. they can run the gamut from ‘actual horrible criminal stuff but on a big scale’ to ‘evil supervillains’ in terms of vibe or style, so there is room for literally anyone to fit there.

note, too, that characters are not neccesarily mutually exclusive to a given group if they’ve already been sorted there: for instance, while Black Hat has been mentioned as aligned to the Cobalt Stingers, he can also work with the Cartels because he just dont care. Conflicted loyalties mIGHT apply but anyone with the cartels is gonna be so bad, it wont matter to them.

For your suggestions:

jabba: he was tailor MADE for this! I’d say that the hutt crime family (but not ALL hutts, as this AU doesn’t really do ‘all given species are like this or that’ Always Chaotic Evil thing) are a very powerful force within the Cartels and can make a claim towards having founded its basic organizational principles. Tend for the more mundane profit-making stuff, rather than the superpowers and expansion mods. Very much the traditionalist old guard who scoff at the new fads.

Darth Maul: Hmm, an interesting choice! He strikes me as being a fundamentally selfish or at least uncaring mercenary sort, so he is likely a member of a group of enforcers who are hired out to different Cartel interests to serve as they will, though they pick their clients; Maul prefers missions that suit his own mysterious plans and ideas of fate, but for the most part, he’s just amassing personal wealth and views the job as conquest. MIGHT be planning on training more Sith, but his underlings have to prove themselves.

(This mercenary group is technically a large pool within the Cartels of different characters, ranging from supervillains to characters from more realistic mercenary varieties but powered up for the AU; they’re not really part of one group and each have their own specific loyalties, but as a whole, they’re called the Enforcers and they’re the most powerful figures short of the Cartel leaders, who are powerful due to their influence. And LARGE, for the crime ladies!)

Lockdown: Similar to Maul, and probably around 60 feet here, and mostly based on his Animated incarnation, but is loyal to the Quintessons as in Age of Extinction (presumably as they are payrolling him; Quintessa is the leader of the Quintessons present in the Cartels, and she is keeping him on retainer). He is also an Enforcer, and ultimately loyal to no one. His past is mysterious; his car mode indicates Iaconian ancestry, but he adamantly denies ever being a Decepticon, so he is most likely a former Autobot himself who lacked convinction to stay with the cause. TEnds to specialize in hunting down and... ‘harvesting’ body parts from synthetic/robotic beings, and works for the euphemistically named Chopshop, which processes robots, mechanical aliens, and cyborgs for a cybernetic industry. Their cybernetics are haunted as hell; he emanates ghostly energies from all the murderousness imbued in his body, and his augmented body radiates a ghoulish aura.

Thief’s Guild: Only familiar with the one from Skyrim but the other broader ones count, but let’s be fair here; the idea of a Thief’s Guild counts here, all fantasy versions of an organized crime operation, and the most powerful family of the local branch where the protagonists operate is the Black-briar family. Tend to run the smuggling, theft and other such criminal enterprises and get very territorial about it! They are branching into controlling governments as well.

Dark Brotherhood: Much as with the Thieve’s Guild, they also incorporate various fictional versions of hidden underground organizations of assassins who kill for more; some of them work like the Elder SCrolls version who are called forth by dread rituals, while others are just ‘pay us, we kill them’ precise mercenaries. Their leaders are numerous and often changing; generally the most accomplished assassin and organizer is the one who commands the local branch.

Saints Row villains: Oh yes, absolutely! Probably more small-time criminal syndicates but obviously influential; the Deckers, for example, now operate in infospace and places like the Digital World.

Dark Eldar: A founding member of the Cartels, and one of their biggest demographics; the Cartel’s most influential culture among its people is heavily influenced by the Dark Eldar, complete with the horrific fates suffered by those who are captured by them (except that Slaneesh does not eat their soul; the Dark Eldar women do instead for the pleasure of it).

Drow: Currently the Cartels are their most visible center of operation, and there’s a lot of interplay between them and Dark Eldar characters.

Jack O LAntern/Hobgoblin: An Enforcer but one who is making serious headway into the main families; no one is sure who he’s trying to court for inclusion. No one is sure exactly what he is; usually while on the job, his head transforms into a flaming pumpkin, and other times, he appears to be a goblinoid. But its very hard to tell if he is using special powers, has magical abilities, or is some kind of spirit. Nobody knows much about him and he’s something of a mystery, but he has some kind of enmity with Task Force member Venom.

Gallywix: A source of shame to goblins across the multiverse, he nonetheless holds a significant position as a leader of one of the largest families in the Cartels; his primary interest is in promoting the welfare of his people and securing them a solid spot, similar to what the gnomes have managed. He has some ties to the goblins who are part of the Endowed Fleet’s Horde, though mostly familial, and they REALLY don’t like him, viewing him as giving their people a horrendously bad name and deliberately playing up the worst stereotypes and myths said of their people.

Shadowed One: An ancient being whom claims to have arisen in the chaos following the Cataclysm, few are in a position to dispute this or the considerable power he holds; a mechanical being of uncertain origin (though some speculate that he is kin to the Matorans, the native inhabitants of a world called Mata Nui), and who created an elite force of soldiers and servants known as the Dark Hunters. These efficient killers and soldiers obey all orders given to them, and their ruthlessness makes them highly prized soldiers. the Shadowed One commands much influence through them alone, and while he’s a fairly secretive individual, holds much more power in the Cartels than the others like; thus the other families tend to work together just to hold him back, even if they don’t particularly care for each other.

#queued #replies #anon replies #crossthicc AU #/#//#///#crossthicc cartels #Anonymous

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gordonwilliamsweb · 3 years ago

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‘My Time to Live’: Through Novel Program, Kidney Patients Get Palliative Care, Dialysis ’Til the End

After a decade of living with chronic kidney disease, Vonita McGee knows her body is wearing out.

At 63, McGee undergoes dialysis sessions three times each week at a Northwest Kidney Centers site near her Burien, Washington, home to rid her blood of waste and water. She has endured the placement of more than a dozen ports, or access sites, in her arms and chest as sites became scarred and unusable. Late last month, doctors performed surgery to install yet another port near her left elbow, but no one is certain it will hold.

“Because of scar tissue, I was told this is my last viable access,” she said.

Without ongoing dialysis, McGee knows she could face death within days or weeks. But, unlike many of the nearly 500,000 U.S. patients who require dialysis, McGee said she’s had help making peace with the process.

“I know that things are coming,” she said. “I’m in awe of death, but I’m not afraid of it anymore.”

That’s largely attributed to a novel effort in Washington state that embeds palliative care within a kidney center whose clinics treat patients living with kidney disease; and then later pair dying patients with hospice care without forcing them to forgo the comfort that dialysis may still provide.

Traditional hospice services require kidney patients to abandon dialysis, a decision that hastens death, and almost inevitably comes with acute symptoms, including muscle spasms and nausea.

McGee is one of 400 patients enrolled since 2019 in a first-in-the-nation palliative care program housed at Northwest Kidney Centers, a Seattle-based operation with clinics throughout the region. The organization founded the first dialysis center in the U.S. — and the world — nearly 50 years ago.

Chronic kidney disease, or CKD, encompasses five stages, from mild damage in the organs’ functioning in stage 1 to complete kidney failure in stage 5. Most patients start preparing for dialysis — and kidney failure — in stage 4. Dialysis does not cure kidney failure. The only other option for treatment is an organ transplant.

Dialysis patients typically face distressing physical, emotional and spiritual symptoms throughout their treatment, ranging from pain, shortness of breath and intense itching to depression and panic. The symptoms can grow dire as years pass.

But only a fraction of those patients, 4% or fewer, ever receive specialized palliative care that can effectively target those issues, said Dr. Daniel Lam, the University of Washington nephrologist and palliative care expert who launched the program with the help of a two-year, $180,000 grant from the Cambia Health Foundation. Attention to palliative care in nephrology has lagged behind its use for advanced cancer, for instance.

That’s especially true for Black patients and other minorities, who are disproportionately more likely than white patients to require dialysis, but far less likely to receive quality palliative or end-of-life care.

“We’re trying to address this current and projected gap,” Lam said. “What we are doing is asking people how do they want to live their lives and what’s most important to them.”

If McGee’s condition deteriorates to the point that she has a prognosis of six months or less to live, she will then be a candidate for a related partnership between the kidney center and the nonprofit Providence Hospice of Seattle, which would allow her to continue to receive dialysis even after hospice care begins.

While the goal of both hospice and palliative care is pain and symptom relief, hospice has traditionally been regarded as comfort care without the intent to treat or cure the primary disease. The nuance with dialysis is that it is central to keeping a kidney patient’s body functioning; discontinuing it abruptly results in death within days.

“The goal of this program is to provide kind of a smooth off-ramp from curative dialysis to the end of their lives,” said Mackenzie “Mack” Daniek, who co-directs the hospice.

Most dialysis patients face a harrowing choice between continuing dialysis or receiving hospice services. That’s because the Medicare hospice benefit, which took effect in 1983, provides palliative care and support for terminally ill patients who have six months or less to live — and who agree to forgo curative or life-prolonging care.

That rigid requirement could change in the future. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has approved an experimental model that will allow concurrent care for some patients starting next year. But, for now, Medicare will not simultaneously pay for dialysis and hospice care for patients with a terminal diagnosis of kidney failure.

Hospices receive a daily per-patient rate from Medicare, typically $200 or less, and must use it to cover all services related to the terminal diagnosis. Dialysis can easily cost $250 a session, which means only the largest hospices, those with 500 or more patients, can absorb the costs of providing concurrent care. Only about 1% of the more than 4,500 hospices in the U.S. meet that mark.

The result? About a quarter of dialysis patients receive hospice care, compared with about half of the general Medicare population. And their median time spent in hospice care is about five days compared with more than 17 days for the general population. This means that dialysis patients often receive aggressive medical treatment until the very end of life, missing out on the comfort of targeted end-of-life care.

“What’s happened through the years is when a dialysis patient is ready to stop treatment, that’s when they come to hospice,” said Dr. Keith Lagnese, chief medical officer of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Family Hospice. “They’re forced to draw that line in the sand. Like many things in life, it’s not easy to do.”

Lagnese said the Seattle program is among the first in the U.S. to address palliative and hospice care among dialysis patients. His UPMC program, which has experimented with concurrent care, allows patients up to 10 dialysis treatments after they enter hospice care.

In the Washington state program, there’s no limit on the number of sessions a patient can receive. That helps ease the patient into the new arrangement, instead of abruptly halting the treatment they’ve been receiving, often for years.

“If they’re faced with immediately stopping, they feel like they’re falling off of a cliff,” said Lam, the program’s founder.

In McGee’s case, she’s had the benefit of palliative care for three years to help negotiate the daily struggles that come with dialysis. The care focuses on relieving the physical side effects, and emotional symptoms such as depression and anxiety. It also addresses spiritual needs, which McGee said has helped augment the comfort she finds as a member of the Baha’i religious faith.

“They provide mental support, and they inform you what you need to do to do things properly, and they’re your liaisons,” McGee said. “Basically, I was just living before without knowing the information.”

When she considers her degenerating medical condition and the possibility that it will become too difficult, even impossible, to continue dialysis long term, she said she welcomes the option to ease into the final stage of her life.

“Do I feel scared? At one point, I did,” McGee said. “But they are assuring me that my rights will be honored, they will be advocates for me when it happens. By having that support, it gives me my time to live.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

‘My Time to Live’: Through Novel Program, Kidney Patients Get Palliative Care, Dialysis ’Til the End published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

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stephenmccull · 3 years ago

Text

‘My Time to Live’: Through Novel Program, Kidney Patients Get Palliative Care, Dialysis ’Til the End

After a decade of living with chronic kidney disease, Vonita McGee knows her body is wearing out.

“Because of scar tissue, I was told this is my last viable access,” she said.

“I know that things are coming,” she said. “I’m in awe of death, but I’m not afraid of it anymore.”

Traditional hospice services require kidney patients to abandon dialysis, a decision that hastens death, and almost inevitably comes with acute symptoms, including muscle spasms and nausea.

“We’re trying to address this current and projected gap,” Lam said. “What we are doing is asking people how do they want to live their lives and what’s most important to them.”

“The goal of this program is to provide kind of a smooth off-ramp from curative dialysis to the end of their lives,” said Mackenzie “Mack” Daniek, who co-directs the hospice.

“If they’re faced with immediately stopping, they feel like they’re falling off of a cliff,” said Lam, the program’s founder.

USE OUR CONTENT

This story can be republished for free (details).

‘My Time to Live’: Through Novel Program, Kidney Patients Get Palliative Care, Dialysis ’Til the End published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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anangelicday-mrwolf · 4 years ago

Text

Wolfsbane : Noblesse Fanfic (post-ending)

(previous chapter)

Chapter 27 – Return of the Man in the Iron Mask

“Damn it...”

Kentas wiped the edge of his chin with the back of his hand, hair manifest due to his shifting.

“I knew their previous invasion would be a warning, but I was hoping that would be the end of it.”

“Seriously? This is Union we’re talking about, albeit fallen. I would’ve been surprised if that really was the end of it.”

“Well, I was personally hoping for a surprise.”

Whereas Kentas’s lips offered halfhearted jokes for Juraki, his fists remained taut.

‘Just when did this all start taking the wrong turn?’

The werewolf warrior with brown hair stiffened his shoulders in preparation, glaring at figures with shiny tints of metal and curves of Homo sapiens.

If he were to pick on a point where things took a wrong turn, he would opt for the day when Union’s biological weapons tiptoed around the werewolf realm.

‘I should have tracked down and crushed their heads by all means.’

Juraki mirrored Kentas’s movement, clenching his claws tightly as he kept his fierce gaze on the weapons, at least tenfold the number that they saw during the first assault.

They remembered how just a couple days ago, things were as peaceful as they could be, as usual.

Or perhaps they wanted to believe things were peaceful, even after the unwelcome visit from the Union’s biological weapons created against heads of noble clans.

Which was why the preexisting warriors including Kentas and freshly selected warriors were much more sensitive than usual.

Ironically, they had failed to detect the ominous sign.

They had failed to turn their heads to the sky in time, when the sun was setting rather too fast.

The atmosphere changed when some of the warriors who miraculously happened to be patrolling the boundary zone realized they were not to blame the sun for returning to its bed a little too early for the day.

The calm made way for the storm when the said warriors learned that they were to blame a massive body of dark clouds, so massive it would have swallowed the entire burning body if it were set on a celestial course, for the darkness that dawned a little faster than usual.

Panic rose when they noticed the clouds were amplifying themselves as they watched.

They screeched emergency into air when they grasped the clouds were actually enemies, mimicking shape and movement of clouds before they scattered and made their deadly dive towards the targeted area.

Luckily the automatic alarm installed on the boundaries of werewolf realm worked flawlessly, which brought other warriors before it was too late.

Thus the combat was taking ahold of werewolf boundaries for days, wasting werewolves of their time and energy.

The only thing that forced the warriors on their feet was the resolve that not a single enemy will be allowed to set foot beyond.

Alas, their resolve and effort were not enough to keep their land uncontaminated by the Union creations.

BOOM.

Juraki’s and Kentas’s eyes flickered towards the direction from which pregnant sound and impact were delivered.

They were dying to rush towards wherever that required their presence, but they knew that would allow their foes to make fatal infiltrations, which would result in unrepairable losses.

To top it off, taking down the biological weapons as fast as possible was not an option, either.

Kentas noted how the ones he was looking at could cause greater damage than the initial visitors, in spite of their similar appearances and smaller sizes. They were also faster than the ones in Kentas’s memories, and that was not all.

“Goddamn it, not again...!”

Juraki’s forehead was violently crumpled as he witnessed how concocted pieces of alloy and human flesh began to squirm in dirt.

This was the biggest problem – these models were capable of self-recovery, getting back on their feet no matter how many times Juraki and Kentas rendered them defeated, giving the two werewolves an impression that they were facing off against machines possessed by phoenix.

Most importantly, this time the weapons were orchestrating their side of the battle so well, as if they had trained under a maestro of battle tactics before they were dispatched.

Each and every single one of biological weapons attacked and relented exactly when it needed to, measuring time of each assault with deadly precision, therefore proving itself an annoyingly threatening intruder.

Neither outright force nor joint attack could leave meaningful damage on them, and Kentas could instinctively see how this would go – unlike warriors from early generations, including himself, Juraki, Garda, Dorant, and Lunark, the rookie warriors would be helpless against these weapons.

Chances were gruesomely high that the young warriors struggling at other boundary points had already turned to corpses, partially due to the fact that since who-knows-when they could pick up auditory productions of battle from within.

In the meantime, apparently the weapons decided they should no longer give Juraki and Kentas more time, charging sparky beams of calamitous energy from their mouths while rearranging themselves in new positions.

That was when awfully uncanny, sinister aura permeated through the air, piercing through Juraki’s and Kentas’s backs in a flash.

Immediately afterwards, pointed pillars of dark purple endowed to one and only human being in the world rained upon the area.

Pow.

Wham.

Stab.

Hit in vital points that would have knocked them out if they were average human beings, the biological weapons peppered the earth with their entire forms, like puppets hanging from stakes.

Although the scene was more than enough to spook them out once again, Juraki and Kentas found themselves smiling from the bottom of their hearts.

Their smiles grew into full beams of glee upon the entrance of the producer of the stakes.

“You know, there’s one thing that humans are not at all fond of – hanging up in the middle of conversation. Though I doubt this is something that is applied only to my kind.”

Frankenstein shrugged, rinsing the tip of his fingers clean of the dark purple aura with a mere wave.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’d thought I made myself obvious enough just now – you hung up on me a few days ago, when you were relaying to me the details on the invasion of weapons against heads of noble clans. So I decided to pay a visit. Looks like I made it just in time.”

Kentas and Juraki nodded their heads almost ardently.

However, the weapons were already raising themselves back up to run recovery on the damaged parts.

“See, that’s the thing with these fiends – they have self-recovery feature, and they can pull it off pretty fast.”

“And I’m not sure if there is a mastermind behind them, but they turned quite smart. It felt like we are standing against an army instead of weapons.”

By then almost every weapon reassumed its stance, and Kentas and Juraki automatically stationed themselves by Frankenstein’s either side.

‘Does this mean the battle is not over yet? But things would have been over already if Lord Muzaka took action.’

Pushing aside his puzzlement for a moment, Frankenstein lifted his hand. After all, he came here to serve as a cavalry, and he intended to do his job right.

And soon enough, thousands of dark purple spears bore through biological weapons, and this time they caused explosions, as if there were bombs planted within the weapons.

Nothing was left upon the devastated earth, after a flurry of nose-scorching flame and murky spasm of photons.

“Nobody can pull off a recovery if there is nothing that can be recovered.”

We should be grateful that this devilish human being is not a threat to us, Kentas and Juraki made a mental agreement.

“Now I will run along and see what’s happening inside. You two go ahead and help the other warriors.”

Frankenstein scurried to his next destination – the largest laboratory in werewolf land, guarded by Muzaka alone.

“Boy, am I glad to see you today. Did I mention how gorgeous you look right now?”

“...Say that one more time, and I will pull out every single fang in that mouth of yours with my bare hands. Anyways, what happened? How come I see those things still mobile before you?”

Muzaka made a rueful smile before he started talking.

“If it were normal circumstances, I would have shown them that I was made a werewolf lord for a reason. But that would have cost us the facilities and defense system we just managed to rebuild, as well as the new server.”

Frankenstein knew that by new server, he meant a brand new server specially built for QuadraNet.

“This Yuhyung guy told me through Adne that he installed some sort of network transmission modem, whatever that is, that will allow smooth connection among servers for Lukedonia, KSA, your place, and our land. And he basically pled us to be careful with that thing, since it is vulnerable to shock or quake above certain magnitude. Unfortunately, delicate and cautious ain’t my sort of thing.”

Frankenstein could not agree more; though Muzaka’s power makes a perfect example for preternaturally catastrophic, it is very far from delicate.

A single punch would be more than enough to rid the weapons once and for all, but it would be no different from using a nuclear bomb to exterminate a mere hoard of flies.

“Which is why I’m SO GLAD to see you, Frankenstein,” said Muzaka, with eyes full of trust and even respect.

Normally Frankenstein would have retorted with annoyance, as if he had dropped his favorite ice cream right onto his feet. This time, nevertheless, the man was anxious.

In fact, he had been anxious even before nearing the werewolf realm.

He took off Dark Spear’s name from his list of strategies long ago, but his power is based on the cursed weapon. Even he could not tell what kind of side effect he would create for himself if he were to use his power.

Which is why he had to scold himself dozens of times as he saved Kentas and Juraki early on that he is peeling a bunch of cherries all at once with a scimitar the size of a fin of the blue whale, for a very simple move that did not even meet demands to be called “a move.”

Now that he was to repeat the job, Frankenstein could feel another anxiety attack.

However, he also knew that he should not let anyone see what is stirring inside him.

“So, want me to step down the stage? I feel like kicking back and enjoying the show.”

“Do nothing – I beg you. Lest you join those soon-to-be-made-metallic-meatballs-on-stick.”

As he concentrated, Frankenstein picked up something rather unusual in sight; nonetheless, he did not show it and commanded his dark purple aura as usual.

*****

With Frankenstein lending a hand, the skirmishes on werewolf land were finished oh-so-smoothly.

So oh-so-smoothly that someone would have laughed at how easy it was.

And with following jobs to deal with aftermath of the invasion – including but not limited to counting the numbers of the fallen and injured, calculating the total amount of damage, and clearing the debris and leftover of what once constituted local infrastructure – everything went correspondingly, no different from how Frankenstein remembered according to centuries of his experience with warfare and its likes.

That is, everything except for one.

When everyone removed their eyes from him at one point, Frankenstein moved himself to the back of the stage, to start his pursuit of someone he had been keeping himself keen about ever since he reached the wolfkind’s lab.

*****

In the forest distant from wolfkind’s lodging area, its trees and bushes so thick not even the most oblivious of all werewolves would care to stroll within, stood one biological weapon that was still in one piece.

It was standing so still, not even a flash being emitted from its body like the average biological weapons. Anybody could have mistaken it for a statue, a very fine fabrication of a biological weapon.

However, the man who was about to crush the scene was not willing to take a second to savor the fact.

BOOM.

With thundering noise, Frankenstein’s fingers grabbed the weapon’s throat, its face molded in a fashion as if it was wearing an iron mask.

And for first time ever, Frankenstein could hear a sound from a biological weapon, close to a human moan out of fluster.

“Did you think I missed you on purpose? This is what people call strategy.”

The blonde man spat with his characteristic smile full of devilish vibe, which did not last long.

“Who are you? What took you until you joined the rest of your squad at the lab? And one more thing – you recognized me just before I destroyed your friends.”

“......”

“Don’t play innocent with me. I know you recognized me. Never have I seen a biological weapon void of human reason or conscious cocking its head at someone in recognition. And I don’t think you are a type like the 8th Elder, reason and conscious left intact on purpose.”

“......”

“Are you the one I’m thinking of?”

For a moment no sound was to be heard, until the weapon’s fingers strangling Frankenstein’s wrist loosened.

The moment Frankenstein released his hostage, the weapon made a straight plummet towards his feet, to plaster itself on earth with metallic clank.

Which reminded Frankenstein of something – the moment from Crombell’s era when the so-called “man in the iron mask” that led him to Crombell’s hologram met his demise.

Or Frankenstein had thought he met his demise, before he reappeared in the exact same looks.

‘...It’s him. Did he manage to find a way to synchronize himself with biological weapons?’

Then Frankenstein recalled how these weapons were smaller and adorned with faces like iron masks, like the man in his head.

‘So did he weaponize the remaining bodies he was to use? Just how many spare vehicles did he keep in his garage?’

Frankenstein mediated upon the revelation: the Union agent he had thought he will see no more is alive.

‘And the way he was standing before I pounced on him was like... Like he was transmitting something in his head. Am I being delirious?’

He decided he is not; no hypothesis can be delirious when it comes to Union.

He already knew the man in the iron mask had multiple artificial bodies he could move into and synchronize; he did not want to rule out the assumption that he is also capable of transmitting his memories or knowledge in forms of messages.

‘And if that’s what he was doing, it means he obtained something from this place – something that is worthy of being transmitted to Union. What could it be?’

(next chapter)

By “man in the iron mask,” I mean this guy - and yes, he is back. In my fic, his appearance is different, but Frankenstein recognized him because of his mask-like face and the way he collapsed when he “died” again, reminiscent of the fashion he’d always collapse every time he died. In a few weeks I’d get to post the chapter I was dying to compose and post, and I can’t wait for it lol. I hope you’d stay tuned!

#korean webcomic #korean webtoon #fanfic #noblesse #frankenstein #frankensteinxlunark #lunark #wolfsbane

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newstechreviews · 5 years ago

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Jaya Kumari worked as a cook and cleaner for a couple in an affluent New Delhi neighborhood until two weeks ago. She lost her job when the family she worked for decided to leave the crowded capital and move to their hometown 200 miles away as the coronavirus began to spread in the city.

Then, on March 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now Kumari and her husband, a taxi driver, are stuck indoors in New Delhi with no income and no way to earn money. “We will use up the little we have saved to get through this,” she says. “What happens after that, I leave it to God.”

Modi’s hasty announcement of the unprecedented lockdown gave hundreds of millions of Indians less than four hours to prepare. In an address to the nation, he said “Forget about leaving home for the next 21 days. If you cross the threshold of your house, you will invite the virus home.” It has thrown much of the country into chaos.

Modi assured Indians that essential services would continue, but was vague regarding how people would be able to buy food and other necessary items. As a result, people rushed to shops to stock up before the decree took effect. People were seen lining up outside stores late into the night and traffic congestion was reported from across the country.

The lockdown has also triggered a massive exodus of migrant laborers and wage workers from cities back to the rural villages they are from—where many won’t have to pay rent and food is cheaper. Many migrants were seen defying the curfew. Some have told news outlets that they are walking up to 500 miles to get back home. Videos of chaotic scenes at train stations showed people struggling to get on their last train home, some crying uncontrollably as they missed them. Overcrowding at public transport stations have raised concerns about further spread of the virus. Modi later apologized for the hardships caused by the lockdown, but said the measures were necessary.

Bhuvan Bagga–AFP/Getty Images Migrant workers and their family members lineup outside the Anand Vihar bus terminal in New Delhi on March 18 to leave for their villages during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown.

Mass congregations like this carry the risk of spreading COVID-19 even further, says Oommen C. Kurian, head of the health initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, an independent think-tank based in New Delhi. He worries that migrants might carry the virus to rural areas, where health infrastructure is weak, or even non-existent.

“The lack of clear risk communication from top leadership and mixed messages from across the system spooked the poorer migrants who chose to start uncertain journeys,” Kurian says. “The exodus of migrants may have spread out the virus far and wide, adding another layer to India’s problems.”

Most experts agree that a lockdown in India is necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19. A

As of March 30, India has reported more than 1,200 cases of COVID-19. Given its densely populated cities, experts worry that the country’s fragile health system will not be able to adequately respond to a spike in cases. So far, India has administered more than 38,000 tests. While the country initially faced criticism for its low testing numbers, the number of tests has been ramped up in the days following the lockdown. Experts say India should use the time bought by the lockdown to test more and find and contain hotspots.

“Prevention is a stronger strategy, given the acute shortage of hospital beds, ventilators and protective gear,” says Shamika Ravi, Director of Research at Brookings India, referring to the need for a lockdown. “To understand how this will play out after the lockdown, we need to get more aggressive with testing.”

Keep up to date on the growing threat to global health by signing up for our daily coronavirus newsletter.

But for the majority of Indians, social distancing is a luxury they can’t afford. Many face hunger and starvation in the absence of daily wages that have been disrupted as the world’s seventh-largest economy grinds to a halt. On March 26, India announced a $22.5 billion relief package to help the country’s poorest people sustain and feed themselves. The government plans to use existing welfare schemes to roll out the relief measures, which include free food distribution and cash transfers to millions of low-income families across the country.

As part of the relief measures, low-wage earners like Kumari will get 500 rupees (less than $7) per month for the next three months. That’s a fraction of the 4,000 rupees ($53) she was making before she lost her job. As of now, her husband is not eligible for any of the measures announced as his income doesn’t qualify him as the “poorest of the poor” covered by government assistance. Kumari worries that the money from the government will not be enough to feed her family of four if the lockdown continues.

Most of those who come under the purview of the new scheme belong to India’s massive informal economy, which employs about 424 million Indians, some 90% of the workforce, according to data from the country’s finance ministry. That’s a population greater than the combined size of the U.S., the U.K. and Australia. Auto rickshaw drivers, milkmen, vendors who sell vegetables and snacks from carts are all part of this economy, Most live on daily wages, do not receive any benefits and work jobs that do not exist on paper.

“This crisis shines a torch on the fragilities of the Indian economy that must be attended to,” says Samir Saran, president of Observer Research Foundation. He praises the government’s decision to use existing welfare schemes for the poor to provide immediate relief, but says much more will need to be done when the full implications of the lockdown become apparent.

“These immediate measures are only intended to blunt the worst short-term effects and should not be thought of as a stimulus,” he adds.

To make matters worse, India’s economy was already struggling—with slumping growth and rising unemployment. Even some businesses that are thriving elsewhere in the world are hampered in India.

For instance, Mumbai’s famous dabbawalas (lunch box carriers), have worked rain or shine to deliver people’s home-cooked lunches to their offices, schools and colleges for almost 130 years. They have braved heavy floods and terrorist attacks, but services were halted due to coronavirus even before the lockdown was announced, forcing 5,000 delivery men to stay at home.

“Even if we resume operations, it will be pointless because everyone is staying at home,” says Subhash Gangaram Talekar, president of Mumbai Dabbawala Association, referring to how dabbawalas have been affected even as food delivery services around the world are surging in popularity at the moment. “Who will we deliver the dabbas [lunch boxes] to?”

But shutting down a country like India for longer periods will be difficult, given the poverty levels prevalent across the country, says Suyash Rai, a fellow at Carnegie India, an international center for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. With so many livelihoods disrupted, he believes that the government might struggle to keep the country’s poor afloat.

“There is the question of where the government is going to get the money to keep the country running in case of an extension [of the lockdown,]” Rai says. “It is important to identify the hotspots during this lockdown and reopen the remaining parts of the economy while finding ways to work within this COVID world.”

For many, waiting out what could be a miserable, prolonged crisis is the only option.

Prakash, who goes only by his first name, is an autorickshaw driver in Thiruvananthapuram in the southern Indian state of Kerala. His daily income started seeing a dip two weeks before the lockdown was announced. Kerala was the first state in India to report cases of COVID-19 and panic set in long before it spread to other parts of the country. Before the outbreak, he was concerned with paying for his son’s college expenses. But, as he stays at home with no daily income, his main concern is putting food on the table. He estimates his savings can last for a month. After that, he’s not sure what he will do.

“The virus doesn’t worry me as much as the uncertainty that waits on the other side of this crisis.”

Please send tips, leads, and stories from the frontlines to [email protected].

#Blogger

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doe-wiegenliedofgreen · 7 years ago

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Chapter 3, Section 1--The Diva’s Waltz; Scene 1

Wiegenlied of Green (VG), page 122-133

🍀 Michaela ~The Country of Elphegort, "Aceid Center District/Inn"~

Aceid was the largest city in Elphegort. Also the capital, the place was split into five districts--the east, north, south, and center. The townspeople gathered in the central district. It was popular to have business transactions in the southern district, which had a road running through it that lead to the Kingdom of Lucifenia, so there were a lot of booths and stalls lined up in it. The western and northern districts were filled with neighborhoods for relatively affluent citizens and nobles. There were a lot of poor people in the eastern district--it was such a rough place that the average citizen hardly ever went there.

Clarith and I were currently staying in a small inn in the center district. The missus was the midwife who had delivered Ayn, and was allowing us to live there out of that good will. After sending us there, Ayn then headed for Toragay, where Earl Felix's mansion was located.

"That naughty brat's really grown into a fine young man," the inn's owner said, rubbing his balding head and watching Ayn head off. Apparently Ayn's mother had died when he was quite young, so the missus had acted as a mother figure to him once.

They had taken lodging fees for business, but took us in cheerfully enough. As both of them were immigrants--that is, not Elphe people--they looked upon Clarith with no biases.

We were drinking tea one night in the foyer, around one week after we started living in the inn.

"As expected it's very hard for immigrants to do business in this country," the missus grumbled while tallying up the inn's proceeds.

"There are people like Mr. Keel who have success despite being immigrants, though. I think it's just a matter of your business savvy," the old man replied. It sounded like the inn wasn't taking in a lot of profit.

"Mr. Keel is the one living in the big mansion in the northern district, right?"

"Oh, you're well informed aren't you? Yeah, to immigrants like us that man's like a ray of hope!"

At my question the old man seemed to become pleased at being asked about a person that he respected, and told me various things about him.

Among all the people who did business in this country--nay, in the whole Evillious region--there was no one who didn't know the name Keel Freezis. The Freezis Firm that he managed was a large company that had branches in Lucifenia, Marlon, Holy Levianta, and of course Elphegort too.

Even further, due to having joint control of all beneficial information under the trade association made by his joining forces with other firms, he was a success at gaining vast profits too. His authority even reached to the royalty of several countries; due to buying a court rank he was endowed with political influence that rivaled that of the aristocracy, or even greater.

It's said that Keel was originally a Marlon citizen born in the island country of Marlon over the sea, and when he was young had his hands in considerably crooked dealings. Because of this his life ended up being targeted, and so for his own safety he fled to Elphegort with his girlfriend.

Said girlfriend was the current Madam Freezis.

"They've got three children between them, and my wife helped with the birthing of all of them. Nowadays Mr. Keel is the greatest merchant in Elphegort, and the whole Evillious region. Even his mansion is a several story building larger than most lesser nobles' houses, like a palace."

The old man proudly cooed about it as though he was talking about himself.

"With a mansion that big, he's probably got a lot of servants. …--That's it!"

"Hm? You hit upon a get-rich quick scheme, little miss?"

The words that I had inadvertently spoken aloud had led me to a brilliant idea. When I clapped my hands together, the old man poked fun a little questioningly. He had a habit of connecting everything back to business, and as one could expect I could tell he wasn't really paying attention to the words of a "little miss" like me.

The inn's management apparently wasn't so good, so I too was starting to get a little worried about money. The moderate cash that I'd gotten from Elluka had started to run out, and thanks to fleeing from the village like we did, we didn't have anything we could sell. We needed some employment, and fast.

We were persistent, but this inn didn't have the means to hire anyone on, and thanks to the influence of this year's poor crops the whole town was in a bad economic state. Me aside, of all the various places we searched there wasn't anyone who would hire a Netsuma like Clarith. We had wanted to work together if possible, but in our current situation, about to run out of the wherewithal to take care of ourselves, we might not be able to do that. The old boss was a good man, but when it came to money he was fairly strict. If we weren't able to pay our lodging fee, he'd chase us out without mercy. Worse comes to worse, I would have to go out to work on my own.

"Hey, has there been any talk of them looking for new servants at Mr. Keel's mansion?"

At any rate I needed to research Keel for my search for the "Vessels of Deadly Sin". If I was able to get in there as a servant, I'd be killing two birds with one stone.

"That's right, you'd been looking for some work like that, hadn't you? How'd it go?"

"A servant of Mr. Keel's is coming over tomorrow, so I could ask them about it for you?" came the happy proposal from the missus, listening in to the conversation while counting up the coins.

As I was told, in this inn they dealt in black Rollam bird feathers in their spare time, so every month a servant from the mansion would come to purchase them. I had no good memories of the black Rollam bird, but it seemed that in Elphegort their feathers were a precious commodity, and among other things used to make pens.

"I would like that very much! Thank you miss!"

"Ha ha, you can thank me after you've safely gotten hired."

Keel and his wife weren't Elphe people, so if things went well they might be willing to hire Clarith on with me. When I nimbly walked up to our room at seeing this ray of hope, Clarith was already sleeping in bed. She seemed to be worn out from walking around looking for work every day. Deciding that we'd talk about it when she woke up the next morning, I fell asleep.

The one who arrived at the inn the next day was not a servant, but Madam Freezis.

Not knowing her face, naturally I was filled with admiration at the thought that even a servant from the Freezis household was so elegant and refined.

"I've come to receive your goods today. Everyone else is too busy to come down here," the madam explained with a dignified voice, quietly taking a seat close to the reception desk. Very flustered at this unexpected guest, after directing me to make some tea the missus hurried to the storeroom.

Without meaning to I took a long, hard look at her face while bringing her tea. She held an extremely unapproachable air, clearly different from that of the people in the village. I had heard that the madam was a prominent noble in Marlon, and that even now that she was the wife of a merchant she had not lost that high-mindedness.

"…Are you taking an interest in my red hair?" The wife said after drinking one mouthful of tea, grinning.

"Ah--…I'm sorry for staring…"

She didn't change her smile at my wincing. She had to be used to being looked at.

"Ha ha, that's alright. I imagine it's rare to see someone who isn't green-haired in this country."

"No, that's not it. It's just, you're very lovely…I was charmed by you."

“Oh? I'm glad. Thank you. But you are far lovelier than I am. So much so that I was shocked when I first saw you. Your voice is lovely too."

"Thank y…Uhm, you have my gratitude for the compliment."

"Ho ho. You don't have to be so formal. From the look of your hair, you're a natural-born Elphe aren't you? You don't seem to be a relative of the couple running this place. And…you hold a strange air around you. It feels somewhat like you're something from beyond this transient world."

Maybe when you become the wife of a merchant, you get better at reading people. She couldn't have seen through me, that I was originally a spirit, but I was a little alarmed all the same.

"Due to some circumstances I've had I'm staying here for a bit."

"I see. It must be tough, with you so young."

She herself looked to be pretty young. She should be middle aged from what I'd heard of her personal history, but due to her youthful face I couldn't really gauge how old she was.

"I myself had it hard when I was younger. The period after I had first come to this country was especially difficult."

"Yeah, Elphegort can be a pretty harsh country for immigrants, huh? It's amazing that despite all that the Freezis Firm has been so successful that nowadays there's no one who doesn't know about it. Lord Keel's mansion is so big that even from far away I know it at a glance."

I indirectly brought up the topic of her mansion. I didn't have any confidence in my conversational skills, but it was worth a try.

"Thank you. But the mansion being big is a problem of its own…Several of my veteran servants have quit recently, and I'm short of hands one way or the other…It's a little embarrassing, but that's why I came here today."

"So that's how it was, huh…?"

Her slightly troubled smiling face looked like that of a younger girl.

Even so, them being short on servants was quite welcome news.

"Um, if it's alright by you…me and one other person are actually looking for work right now…"

The madam rested her chin on her hands with her fingers by the corner of her eye, expression turning serious--perhaps inferring the intention behind the conversation.

"I see. And…you're wondering if I would be willing to hire you on?"

"Yeah…"

The madam looked me from head to toe, as though evaluating me. I started getting nervous, my hands shaking.

"You said there was one other person. Who would that be?"

"She's out right now… Although I think she'll be back shortly."

Right before I was finished talking, the entrance door opened. It was Clarith. When I saw her discouraged expression I guessed that she hadn't found any work today either.

Before Clarith could try to say anything upon seeing the madam there, she stood and walked closer to Clarith.

"Is this girl the other person? Are you two friends?"

"Uh, erm, yes."

Overpowered by the madam's sharp gaze, Clarith began to back up. Whenever she drew closer, Clarith would simultaneously take another step back. If they kept going on like that, they'd end up going right outside the inn.

"White hair and red eyes…A Netsuma, huh? First time I've ever seen one."

At those words, Clarith's feet came to a sudden halt. The wife smiled at her reassuringly, and then turned back to once more sit in her chair.

"…Come to think of it, I haven't heard your names yet, have I?"

"M--my name is Michaela. And this is Clarith."

Clarith timidly arrived at my side, and looked to me with a questioning expression.

"That's a good name. Alright, I shall let you work at the mansion. But only Clarith."

I once again took in the breath that I'd let out.

"Uh, but that's…we had wanted work, together…"

"You want to work happily with your friend? Work isn't such an easy-going thing as that."

"But…Why not hire me too?"

"Because I hate Elphes."

An incredibly blunt, single sentence. As she spoke, for just a moment she seemed to glare at me with eyes full of anger.

"…That's just a joke. In this country there are a lot of people who can't take up employment solely because they are foreigners, more than just Netsuma. In order to help them out even just a little, I hire such people as servants in my own home. Michaela, you are an Elphe. So I think you will find some other means of employment. And--" The madam let out a breath and then looked over my once more. Clarith made an anxious face, as though finally grasping the situation. "You're just a little too beautiful. With you by his side my husband might possibly be tempted to cheat on me. And, while this is little more than my intuition…I feel as though you might bring some unnecessary trouble upon us."

Her eyes were stone serious. Something did come to my mind as well--because I had the whole issue with the "Vessels of Deadly Sin", I couldn't refute her claim.

At that point, with me silent, Clarith went in front as though trying to protect me and deeply bowed her head.

"Wait, please! Please let Michaela work with me!"

"Surely you've suffered at the hands of Elphes, haven't you? Why are you supporting her?"

The wife made a disbelieving expression. She had evaded the point earlier, but I was sure that her declaration of hating Elphes was in fact the truth.

"It's true that I've been continually oppressed by the Elphe people. But she…Michaela has treated me with kindness. I'm truly grateful for her."

"Nevertheless--and I told you this before--you do know that playing bosom buddies isn't fit for work, right?

"I know that what I'm saying is selfish! But…" Clarith continued her entreaty with a tone that was clearer than I had ever heard of her until now, her head bowed. And then finally, she murmured, as though reflecting on it, "I want to stay with Michaela for as long as I can…"

Clarith continued to keep her head down all the more, and I lowered my head to beg with her. After a heavy silence, the madam spoke as though lifting her head up.

"…I understand. I shall let the both of you come to the mansion. But I warn you, the work at the house will certainly not be a leisurely thi..."

Before the madam could finish speaking, Clarith raised her head with a smile that took up her whole face, and hugged me.

"Thank goodness! We can work together, Michaela!"

"Clarith…!"

I hugged Clarith back, each of us sharing in our joy.

And so Clarith and I decided to work at the Freezis estate. Being a servant there was a live-in position, so we packed up what few possessions we had and left the inn.

"Let's go, Michaela," Clarith said, tightly grasping my hand.

<<prev------directory------next>>

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a-good-life-love · 5 years ago

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AIG, Deepest Equity and Venture Capital #19 Deepest Equity AIG : Maurice Greenberg’s half in currently’s Wall Avenue Journal nearly provoked an assault of apoplexy. I’m not obvious if I’ve be taught such a slanted, self-serving editorial in a protracted, long time. I’m rather timid that the WSJ would post such pandering drivel. Be that as it might additionally objective, every person knows that the Mountainous Mo controls gobs of AIG shares both at once and through his administration of CV Starr, so let’s factual grunt that we know where he’s coming from. When he starts out with the bailout-inconsistency argument, he manufacture of had my ear. Nonetheless when he went on to praise the Citigroup kit whereas chastizing the AIG deal, I couldn’t again but call bull $ hit. To this level, the authorities has confirmed the whole lot but a consistent manner. It did not give assistance to Lehman Brothers. Nonetheless it did push for a a lot-publicized and now abandoned concept to choose on haunted resources. The authorities also pushed for a punitive program for American Global Personnel (AIG) that advantages most intriguing the firm credit default swap counterparties. And it is now procuring redeemable, nonvoting most fashioned stock in some of the nation’s largest banks. The Citi deal makes sense in lots of respects. The authorities will inject $ 20 billion into the firm and act as a guarantor of 90% of losses stemming from $ 306 billion in toxic resources. In return, the authorities will receive $ 27 billion of most fashioned shares paying an 8% dividend and warrants, giving the authorities a doable equity ardour in Citi of as a lot as about 8%. The Citi board will salvage to be congratulated for insisting on a deal that both preserves jobs and advantages taxpayers. Nonetheless the authorities blueprint for Citi differs markedly from its initial response to the most indispensable firms to trip liquidity crises. A form of firms became once AIG, the firm I led for decades. ****************** The maintenance of the role quo will result within the loss of tens of hundreds of jobs, lock in billions of dollars of losses for pension funds that are critical AIG shareholders, and wipe out the savings of retirees and hundreds and hundreds of diverse customary People. Here will not be what the broader economic system needs. It is a lose-lose proposition for every person but AIG’s credit default swap counterparties, who will seemingly be made entire below the recent deal.The authorities could additionally objective aloof as an different note the same suggestions it is making utilize of to Citigroup to win a resolve-resolve topic for AIG and its residents. First and primary, the authorities could additionally objective aloof present a federal guaranty to fulfill AIG’s counterparty collateral requirements, which salvage consumed the overwhelming majority of the authorities-offered funding to this level. ****************** The reason of any federal assistance will salvage to be to take jobs and allow non-public capital to purchase the placement of authorities once non-public capital turns into available. The development of the recent AIG-authorities deal makes that not means. The function of authorities could additionally objective aloof not be to power a firm out of industry, but rather to again it end in industry so as that it might probably proceed to be a taxpayer and an employer. This requires revisiting the phrases of the federal authorities assistance to AIG to preserve up away from that firm breakup and the devastating penalties that can practice.Hank, you’ve purchased to be kidding me. The US taxpayers saved Citigroup’s life , and for that we could additionally objective withstand 8% of the firm. THAT known as a “punitive program” in Hank’s parlance for the US taxpayer . In my world must always you attach a firm you like ALL the equity, not 1 / 12th of the equity. The truth that the taxpayer gets as a lot as 80% of AIG – now that starts to construct sense. I have faith the Mountainous Mo’s competition that “The reason of any federal assistance will salvage to be to take jobs and allow non-public capital to purchase the placement of authorities once non-public capital turns into available.” Nonetheless that has nothing to realize with submit-restructuring equity ownership. He then pulls on the heartstrings by announcing “The maintenance of the role quo will result within the loss of tens of hundreds of jobs, lock in billions of dollars of losses for pension funds that are critical AIG shareholders, and wipe out the savings of retirees and hundreds and hundreds of diverse customary People. ” Neatly, Hank, that’s 100% on you. YOU could additionally objective aloof salvage knowing issues thru sooner than constructing a firm and a culture that gambled it all – and misplaced. You dispute that retiree, that pensioner how you screwed them. That’s known as integrity. This thinly-veiled demand personally getting bailed out is both insulting and offensive. And I’m not taking a interrogate for it. I’m obvious that my fellow US taxpayers aren’t, either. Deepest Equity : The daisy chain of secondary sales of PE LP interests will practically absolutely stagger up. It is definitely one of those tiresome-motion practice wrecks that’s painful to understand. The calculus is easy to realize: public equity values plummet, PE values are stickier and descend more slowly, PE as a share of total resources rises to unacceptable ranges, precipitating a wave of sales of PE LP interests. An intriguing feature of this dynamic is autocorrelation, where PE values are tiresome to regulate notwithstanding the public market comparables that are available. If industrials are down 40%, then don’t you believe you studied a portfolio of PE holdings within the industrials sector could additionally objective aloof alternate well past 40% down attributable to illiquidity? This isn’t the manner many PE funds opt to seek the area, however. Regardless, the secondary market is factual that – a market – and the reductions being positioned on marquee funds like KKR and Terra Firma like this actuality. Pensions and endowments salvage to dump stuff, and are attempting to realize so at a half of their foundation. Nonetheless even at fire-sale prices it is laborious to transfer the merchandise. In the subsequent few months we’ll interrogate factual how determined these investors are. Would possibly presumably well well also we interrogate KKR alternate at 30 cents on the dollar? It’s that possibilities are you’ll additionally mediate of. And upsetting. Venture Capital : I attended an intriguing brownbag currently with my mates at betaworks. A huge piece of the discussion became once around funding in currently’s hostile atmosphere. Here are some of the tidbits that came out of the dialogue: Be ready to reside alongside with your recent investment syndicate. If that possibilities are you’ll additionally mediate of, salvage a deep pocketed investor as piece of your syndicate. Elevate 18-24 months of capital, no less. This might be performed thru a mixture of capital raised plus a low cost of working burn. Restructurings are getting gruesome. Traders, whether internal or originate air, are traumatic both haircuts from the closing spherical plus and a precedence return of capital such that they are fully repaid sooner than someone else gets anything. Appears to be like to be, smells and appears to be like like a cram down. Here is why having 24 months of capital within the financial institution upfront is so important. In these down occasions coalitions win fashioned between Management and New investors vs. Weak investors. This mis-alignment of interests can lead to gridlock and push a firm to the brink. There became once a ways more but these were the excessive gains. Even with currently’s difficulties there became once aloof lots of pleasure about recent firms and recent suggestions, with the boldness that cash would formulation to those who in actuality deserve it. In brief, there’s hope. By: BinaryoptionstradingsignalsRelated ProductsLoading products..

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womenofcolor15 · 5 years ago

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POURING INTO OUR FUTURE: Oprah Donates $13 Million To Morehouse College For Scholars Fund

Oprah dropped millions on Morehouse College to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program. More inside…

After soaking in all of the #BlackExcellence at Tyler Perry’s star-studded gala for the grand opening of his historic Atlanta studio, Oprah stayed in town to give a very special gift to an HBCU.

The media mogul paid a visit to Morehouse College – which is a historically black men's college located in Atlanta – to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program. Thirty years ago, Lady O donated $12 million in scholarship money to help young, black men pay their way through school.

Yesterday, Lady O surprised Morehouse students with a $13 million donation to continue the scholarship fund, pushing her total investment to $25 million, which is the largest endowment in the College’s history. Nice!

“I felt that the very first time I came here,” Oprah said. “The money was an offering to support that in these young men. I understand that African American men are an endangered species. They are so misunderstood. They are so marginalized.

“Where and when I can lend support to try to change that image, I do,” she stated. “That is what Morehouse is doing. It is saying ‘This is who we really are.’”

Watch her surprise announcement below:

Here is video from today's surprise announcement. Oprah Winfrey donated $13 million to continue the Oprah Winfrey Scholarship Program, pushing her total investment to $25 million, which is the largest endowment in the College’s history. pic.twitter.com/5tcs6Pfu5m

— Morehouse College (@Morehouse) October 7, 2019

During her visit, Oprah met with 47 Oprah Winfrey Scholars that she welcomed as “sons.” She also attended a special luncheon with Morehouse College faculty and staff, the Board of Trustees, and other dignitaries. An oil portrait was unveiled to honor the philanthropist for her generous support of Morehouse over the years. The young men presented her with red and white flowers, thanking her for pouring into their future.

Swipe through below:

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Spent a day marinating in black excellence with these gorgeous, promising, young men at @morehouse1867. They honored me with roses, a song, and a portrait for a scholarship fund I set up 30 years ago. Can’t wait to see what they do with their future.

A post shared by Oprah (@oprah) on Oct 8, 2019 at 5:40am PDT

While chatting with the students, Oprah pledged to continue to fund the program so it could support the education of future men of Morehouse. Over the last 30 years, the scholarship program has funded the education of almost 600 scholars, giving them opportunities for global experiences that would open their classrooms to the four corners of the world, said Morehouse President David A. Thomas.

Oprah Winfrey spent the afternoon at Morehouse College today for the 30th anniversary of the Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program. She announced a $13 million donation to the endowed scholarship she created in 1989. Her total gift to the program since it was founded is now $25 million! pic.twitter.com/yO9OL90soK

— Morehouse College (@Morehouse) October 7, 2019

An impressive number of Morehouse Men have benefited from Oprahs $12 million initial investment in the program since 1989. Among them are: Mayor Randall Woodfin, a member of the Morehouse Class of 2003, who, at age 36, was elected in 2017 as the youngest mayor of Birmingham; and Oluwabusayo “Tope’” Folarin, a 2004 alumnus who graduated from Morehouse with a perfect 4.0 grade point average became Morehouse’s third Rhodes Scholar, and is now an award-winning writer.

Activist/Journalist Shaun King was also a receipt of Oprah’s donation and he shared his gratitude on social media:

View this post on Instagram

30 years ago @Oprah gave $12 million to Morehouse and asked that it only go to students that were “diamonds in the rough.” I was one of those students. Alongside over 500 Oprah Scholars across the years, most of us would not have made it without her. Today she just gave $13 million more to make sure future diamonds in the rough can make it through Morehouse. Thank you so much @Oprah. We love and appreciate you.

A post shared by Shaun King (@shaunking) on Oct 7, 2019 at 4:32pm PDT

After the event, some Morehouse students caught up with the media queen to nab a selfie and she had jokes:

View this post on Instagram

When #Oprah clowns your cracked cellphone screen! Swipe up in stories to read about O’s $13 million donation to #MorehouseCollege!

A post shared by TheYBF (@theybf_daily) on Oct 8, 2019 at 9:27am PDT

Shoutout to Lady O!

Photo: Oprah's IG

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2019/10/08/pouring-into-our-future-oprah-donates-13-million-to-morehouse-college-for-scholars-fund

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howtohero · 7 years ago

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#030 Teams

There comes a time in every superhero-endowed world when the world-ending threats become such a frequently occurring phenomenon that it becomes too much for any one super-powerful person to handle on their own. When this happens team-ups become more common, and they last for longer. Resources are shared, support-squads are introduced, hideout slumber parties are had. Often, through the course of these bonding activities, an idea will emerge. Why spend so much time running around trying to contain and repel massive threats on an individual level when the world could be so much more efficiently protected if heroes formed a united front? And that, my reader(s?) (I was gonna say friends but I feel like it’s still too soon for that, y’know?) is how a superhero team is formed (I’m not even joking, the amount of superhero teams that were formed at slumber parties will literally astound you.)

Superhero teams are good for many reasons. For one, resources are shared, that’s huge. Make sure you invite one of those billionaire-with-issues™ superheroes to join your club. Then they’ll pay for everything. Imagine how much neat stuff you could have if a billionaire was paying for everything. You could have a team robot dinosaur. You could have infinite snacks (this is especially good for speedsters who have lightning fast metabolisms, and superhero guide writers who like to snack {see I told you we’d address that Snackery Schechter thing eventually.}) You could finally put that annoying outer-space-headquarters vs. under-water-headquarters debate to rest. With a billionaire on your team, you could have both! In addition to resources a team of superheroes could (and should) pool together the intelligence they’ve gathered over the years about different supervillains, vehicles, hero networks, doctor buddies, the whole shebang.

A large superhero team also means that you can develop a good shift system where different heroes can be on duty at different times that suit their busy work and social schedules. It can also ensure that you have the manpower and resources to devote one person to monitoring deep space for early warning signs of extra-terrestrial attack. Imagine how many alien invasions you could just nip right in the bud if you’d just go out and make some super-friends. If I’m reading these projections correctly it’s probably at least a thousand (if the terms “probably” and “at least” make you feel like there are no actual projections, congratulations, your gut was spot on for this one.)

But forming a large superhero team brings it with it some problems as well. For example, how do you choose who gets the biggest room in the space-base? I mean sure ideally all the rooms should be the same size for maximum fairness but mistakes happen. The space contractor accidentally made one room that was the size of three rooms. He said he was very sorry. But very sorry isn’t going to fairly determine who should get it! Sure, maybe you’ll say the physically largest person on the team should get it. But that only makes sense if you’ve got a giant robot or an ogre or something on the team. Most superhero teams don’t. Just because there aren’t so many giant robot or ogre superheroes out there (I can only think of like fifteen ogre superheroes off the top of my hand and they prefer to work alone or form their own mini ogre-hero squads {the Swamp Guardians, the Lean Mean Green Team, the Ogre-Achievers}). Plus, an argument could be made that the team leader should get the biggest room. After all he or she needs the extra space to effectively lead. He or she earned triple the amount of space because of their extreme leadership skills. But then you get into a whole discussion about how you determine leadership of your team. Or if you should even have a leader? Which is really what I meant for this paragraph to be about until things kind of got away from me. (Look, I’m just saying you should hold some kind of obstacle course or game-show type competition to determine who gets the accidental triple space room in the space-base. It’s the only fair way. Maybe that’s how you should determine your team leader too…)

The next thing you have to worry about is infighting. Superheroes fighting amongst themselves can lead to mass confusion and potential disaster. A system should be devised within your team in which decisions on important superhero policies can be reached in a civil and peaceful manner. A democratic, voting-based system would probably work best. (Or maybe, and, just hear me out here, an obstacle course or game-show type competition). But really it’s up to you. Devise a system where the position of “Grand Superhero Decision Maker” rotates throughout your ranks so that important decisions are made based on the whims of a different hero every month or so. Capture an allegedly psychic fish (look the fish has been right about everything so far but I’m still a little skeptical) and allow that to guide your every decision. Crowdsource that noise and let the public dictate superhero policy through social media. Really it’s up to you (unless you want it to be up to me, that’s another route you’re free to choose, hit me up.)

You also need to make sure that the presence of your superhero team is a comfort to the world. Because let’s be honest a giant team of superheroes might be a little scary to some folks. Let’s look at this from the rest of the planet’s perspective, superheroes are great, they protect the world, they punch bank robbers who wear absurd costumes as if stealth isn’t a factor they’d seriously considered, they look cool (for the most part.) But a large team of superheroes can be an intimidating thing. Now there’s an entire army of people with incredible powers and abilities and for the first time ever they’re actually coordinating and conducting themselves in a semi-efficient manner. What would happen if they decide they don’t like the way the normal people government and armies are conducting themselves, surely there would be nothing the general, mortal, populace would be able to do to stop them. Now, I’m sure the odds of that ever happening are slim (the psychic fish says it’s unlikely but, y’know, again, it’s a fish, so,) but it’s a legitimate fear and if you take the time to acknowledge it and attempt to minimize it, it can go a long way to avoiding future problems. The first thing I recommend doing is splitting up your team. Most of them should continue operating within their own cities and unofficial jurisdictions while a rotating skeleton crew should remain in your headquarters in order to monitor for threats and to coordinate your forces in the event of a serious problem. With your resources divided in this way it would be hard to mount a successful and coordinated coup or uprising. You should also hold your organization accountable in some way. Inform the people of the world that you, as an organized force, serve at their pleasure and that if they’d prefer for you to disband you would. Obviously this doesn’t mean you should hold yourself accountable to the whims of any random group of people (unless that’s how you choose to conduct your team). But you should pay attention to the wants and needs of the populace your team has sworn to protect.

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agritecture · 8 years ago

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Four Bold Predictions by Andrew Blume

I’m feeling a bit exposed in penning these predictions. Admittedly, the safer bet probably would be to gamble your money against them. While a voice in my head tells me not to publish what I have to say; a much louder voice in my head has totally drank the kool-aid of urban agriculture.

That louder voice is full of optimistic energy, the sort of stuff that is foundational for genuine change. So perhaps my title is someone misleading; I don’t necessarily prognosticate these four points will happen in the future – but rather – I dream of a world where this is our future:

1. By the year 2037, it will be mandated that all students take cultivation, nutrition, & wellness courses during their primary or secondary school education.

I think it’s safe to say that every parent in the world wants their child to be healthy. I have a hard time imagining a parent would ever say, “No thanks, I don’t want my child learning about how to become a healthy human being.” What I can easily see though, is how the devil is in the details.

Who will pay for these school programs and what will they really look like? Those are valid questions indeed, and I will circle back to my opinions on the larger topic of public governance during my 4th and final prediction; for now however, I want to stay on my point that the mindset and political will for this education reform will develop.

Stephen Ritz, a personal friend and the undisputed champion of cultivation in education, is already pioneering this path. If you ever have heard him speak, you know his momentum is something like a freight train of green values. Yet Stephen’s Green Bronx Machine isn’t the only community pillar fighting this good fight: there is also Teens for Food Justice, Community Healing Gardens, the Kitchen Community, and countless other organizations. Behind these community organizers’ continued action and advocacy, the momentum for teaching our growing children to become children who grow will continue.

Click here for info on Stephen Ritz’s book, The Power of a Plant

As our friends on the frontlines of education plant more seeds, the movement towards healthier children will mature. Connective tissue will be formed through new data and evidence. Studies and analytical comparisons of classrooms where students grow will prove that these children are learning about more than just plants. Waistlines will shrink, behavioral issues will decrease, and perhaps most importantly for fueling this change from an administrative point of view, test scores will increase.

Since traction begets traction, this data will be necessary to form the political will for reformation of our education system to incorporate cultivation and wellness into the curriculum. However, alongside the political will, a mature industry will need to be in place to ballast the change.

So to overcome the potential speedbumps of this evolution between now and 2037, the urban agriculture industry will need to develop to support a political push. Which brings me to my second prediction…

2. Urban Agriculture Will be Totally Mainstream Within Ten Years

For the time being, gardening is hard work. Understandably, a vast majority of people don’t have the time, resources, or discipline to get outside and cultivate their own sustenance. Yet seemingly every day, a new kickstarter or major company announces a step towards trailblazing a new path forward in our sprouting sector.

Those new products, companies, and implementers will push the boundaries of how and where people garden. Farmbot, Agrilution, and the food computer are all great examples of ways to easily garden that would not have been feasible even five years ago. These revolutionary cultivation solutions will popularize “Agritecture”, the merging of agriculture and architecture. As people start to see Agritecture design amenities pop up in trendy real estate developments, a snowball of more people and investment will be attracted to the field. As that snowball grows, innovation via augmented investment is inevitable.

The Farmbot is capable of taking the work out of gardening.

Steve Jobs was the prophet of end-to-end user experience. With significant advances in materials science, machine learning, nanotechnology, and biotech on the horizon, our sector can and will converge with the forefront of innovation. At that point, end to end user experience will integrate into maintaining domestic and commercial Agritecture installations.

At the risk of sounding like a naïve millennial, I imagine a connected future where cultivation can be as easy as pushing the popcorn button on your microwave. Once we have that level of end-to-end UX integrated into how we cultivate, once it really is that easy, Agritecture concepts will be in every home, restaurant, office, and structure with wifi. So to circle back to my first prediction, why wouldn’t it be in our schools too?

3. Kimbal Musk’s achievements will be noted in history as on par with his brother Elon’s

I know what you’re thinking. Talking about the next Elon Musk is so cliché. It’s like talking about the next Apple… But hear me out:

Elon is currently undisputed champion of innovation for this generation. He is the man behind Paypal, Tesla, Solar City and SpaceX - which means he has had a hand in disrupting currency, mobility, energy, and even the final frontier of outer space - four seriously complex sectors for one entrepreneur to redefine.

On top of all of those reasons to be skeptical that Kimbal will genuinely rival Elon, I have never met Kimbal, nor do I pretend to know much about his venture Square Roots. While my employer Blue Planet Consulting did complete a successful consulting engagement with Square Roots, I was not directly involved in that project in any way.

So why am I audaciously prognosticating that Kimbal Musk – a man I’ve never met – will one day rival his brother Elon; a proven once-in-a-generation entrepreneur? I have a simple answer to that: My religion is food.

I found this religion because, like you and every other human being on earth, I eat everyday. During this daily experience of consumption, I attempt to be mindful that I am merely an organic body ingesting other organic matter. This organic matter that I am absorbing and metabolizing will fuel not just my corporeal body, but my spiritual mind as well.

Yet eating isn’t the only ritual in the ‘religion of food.’ Procurement of ingredients, dining selection, and cooking are also critical cornerstones. In these processes, we create authentic bonds with ourselves and our loved ones.

Yet many, lack the ability or discipline to tap into the potential of the emotional capital in our kitchens. The constant battle to avoid choosing to ingest food that is easy, inexpensive or mouthwatering seems difficult or impossible for many; while for others, the choice for healthy food simply doesn’t exist. For anyone who falls in the above two categories, from what I can tell, Kimbal is on a path attempting to help.

In this way, I’m placing my bet on Kimbal more as a wager on the sector of food, rather than as a gamble on an individual. I am confident that an improved food system will generate massively positive outcomes, and since I’ve seen Kimbal place a stake along the same line, I trust he will go far.

So Kimbal, if you’re reading, I’d like to work alongside you in improving the food industry! I feel that your cowboy swagger is exactly the type of leadership our movement needs if we are to elbow a new mentality into the callous food system we’ve inherited. Let’s talk sometime about the path forward for how you can catch and even surpass your brother’s impact imparted on our species?

4. There Will Be a Turning Point in History Known as The Organic Revolution

Americans today are living Donald Trump’s America. It’s a bizarre world where all of our public resources seemingly channel away from logic or compassion. Yet Donald Trump and those infected by the 1980’s consumerism-at-all-costs mentality will only be in the driver’s seat of America for a limited time. In time, there will be a changing of the guard, and millennials, the largest consumer class in history, will be guiding the path forward.

Just as I have a significant amount of faith in food as my religion, I have conviction that our millennial cohort is more caring and capable than any before us. We were raised as the most linked generation on earth. Our connections and communities in the virtual world endow us with fresh power to realize whatever we can imagine.

Ideas can and will spread through our cohort at the speed of light. Thought leaders shaping those ideas will transcend beyond the confines and conventions that bounded those before us. New ways to crowdsource helping our fellow citizens will emerge and our future leaders will use those channels to more effectively rally resources. The empathy and means to help one another will be more available than ever before!

Our current 240-year-old system of governance was founded during an epoch of pen and paper, horse and carriage, slavery and mercantilism. Since inception, it has morphed time and time again. The current incarnation is perhaps among the ugliest, however as a bright green eyed millennial, I still believe the next manifestation of structure can leap us towards utopia.

Somewhere in between the polar opposites of what we have now and the singularity-minded future we have the potential to develop, we will require a new lexicon to describe our movement. What better way to define that approach than as The Organic Revolution?

By Andrew Blume 4/19/17

Follow Andrew at @ABlumeTweets

Motivated to join The Organic Revolution? Follow @Agritecture for articles, events, and more.

** Author’s note: During certain points in this post, I referred to “agritecture concepts or the agritecture Movement.” I use the term agritecture not necessarily in reference to the Agritecture Platform that I co-manage with Henry Gordon-Smith, but rather because I feel the term agritecture is simply the most practical term. I often find terms like vertical farming, urban agriculture, building integrated agriculture, and other related lexicon to be overly narrow or clunky. **

#Andrew Blume #Four Predictions #Future #AgTech #Singularity #Kimbal Musk #Elon Musk #Agritecture #PlantCube #Farmbot #Food Computer #education #policy #Organic Revolution #original content

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shandragdotson · 6 years ago

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The Rapid Depreciation Of A Harvard Education: How Private School Grads Can Still Save Themselves

When I was applying to colleges in 1994, I thought only extremely smart or talented people attended Harvard. I had heard stories about the rich buying their kids’ ways into Harvard, but I was unaware of the details.

As a public school kid with an OK SAT score, a 3.6 GPA, and unspectacular extracurricular activities (tennis team captain vs. eradicating malaria in a small village in West Africa), I decided to save myself hundreds of dollars in application fees and apply to mostly local state schools like UVA, Mary Washington, and William & Mary instead. Paying less than $3,000 a year in in-state tuition even back then felt like a steal.

After graduating from William & Mary, I got a job in the international equities department at Goldman Sachs in NYC. That’s where I got to interview hundreds of Ivy League and other elite private institution graduates as part of Goldman’s consensus-driven interview process where even grunts get to interview candidates.

We ended up rejecting over 95% of the candidates due to poor fit. It wasn’t that they were not smart, because they were. We only wanted people we could sit next to for 12-14 hours a day. It obviously helped if they had an international background, spoke multiple languages, and had a passion for equities. But we were mostly looking for great teammates.

Rejecting the majority of elite private college graduates made me realize they are no different from you and me. For the next 13 years, I’d compete with these folks on the ruthless battlegrounds of finance and smash them to bits most of the time because of my hunger. Coming from a non-target public school background with middle-class parents, I wasn’t going to squander my opportunity for financial independence.

Today, I am a small business owner with business owning friends. Recently, some of us have noted a growing negativity towards alumni of elite private schools. This is a problem (or a solution) for parents who plan to spend lots of money starting in grade school in the hopes their kid will attend a school like Harvard. This is also a potential problem for private university alumni who might unfairly be judged by the masses.

If you are one of these alumni, don’t be upset about the trend against the 1%. Instead, read with an open mind and pay attention as your future or your kids’ future might depend on it.

This article will address:

1) Why there is a growing negative perception about private university graduates

2) What we’ve learned from the Harvard / Asian-American discrimination lawsuit

3) What you can do to fight back against the negative perception

The Harvard / Asian-American Discrimination Lawsuit

One of the reasons Harvard University fought so hard to keep its admissions process a secret was because it didn’t want the world to judge it for how it picked winners and losers. Due to social media and the internet, they knew that the jury of public opinion would come down on them like a guillotine.

Here are some interesting things we’ve learned so far from the Asian-American discrimination lawsuit against Harvard:

~5.9% overall acceptance rate

~33.6% acceptance rate for legacy (67% of students are not legacy)

~40% acceptance rate for children of donors

~70%+ if both legacy and donor

~86% if recruited athlete

Think about these statistics for a bit. If you are simply born into a family where one of your parents or grandparents went to Harvard, you have a 5X greater chance of getting into the University than someone who has no legacy status.

One can argue legacy admissions help create a stronger university culture, and that there should be some preference. Maybe a 1X boost to 11.8% would be fair. But a 5X preference seems excessive.

Meanwhile, if you donate money to Harvard, which already has the world’s largest university endowment at over $35 billion, your child’s acceptance rate chances go up by 7X the average admissions rate.

Based on intimate conversations I’ve had with a Harvard undergraduate and business school alum who also was on their fundraising committee for a couple years, between 2000 – 2010, you could donate between $250,000 – $500,000 and effectively help give your child a 7X advantage. Today, he says the donation figure is “in the millions.”

Now imagine you are a legacy candidate whose parents are also rich enough to donate millions of dollars to Harvard. You’ve got a 12X greater chance of getting into Harvard than some smart kid with great extracurricular activities whose parents are not as rich or connected enough to help. You are practically a shoe-in.

This is not a meritocracy by any means. This is affirmative action for the rich and connected – the very people who need the least amount of help.

Another interesting thing we’ve learned from the Harvard / Asian-American lawsuit is that the overall acceptance rate at Harvard and other Ivy League institutions was much higher in the past. For example, Harvard admitted 92.4% of applicants for the class of 1941 (1,092/1,182) while 14.6% were admitted for the class of 1992. (~2,107/14,430 with 1,605 enrollees.) See: The Chosen

In other words, it should be more impressive if you are a younger Harvard alumnus than if you are an older Harvard alumnus.

With the number of international students applying to US universities growing, it’s only natural to expect the acceptance rate to continue shrinking despite the reality that education via the internet is now free. In other words, the overall madness of paying enormous sums of money for a depreciating pedigree continues unabated. However, I believe this situation will eventually change, at least here in America.

But What About The Brightest Students?

We should all accept that Harvard and other private institutions have the right to craft their classes however they see fit. After all, as private citizens, we have the right to apply to wherever we want.

However, Harvard and other private institutions should at least acknowledge they use race, legacy, money, and athletics as determinant factors in their subjective crafting of an incoming class. To tell the world they they do not discriminate against Asian-Americans is an insult to our intelligence. They should own their decisions to discriminate with pride!

Source: Harvard, WSJ

But the real fallout may rain on those private university graduates who actually have no legacy connections and no donor parents. The majority who simply got in due to merit.

Further, what about the legacy and donor graduates who may have been able to get into Harvard without receiving massive, non-merit based advantages? They may be unfairly sullied as well.

As the reputations of such private universities decline with the wider understanding of how the system works, there is one clear solution to help the most deserving private university graduates:

Clearly state on your resume or job application: not a legacy or a donor graduate.

By clearly stating you got no help from what society hates most about the aristocracy, you distinguish yourself and enhance your accomplishment.

You may feel that highlighting you are not a legacy and not a donor might come across as too forward. It will, especially if the hiring manager comes from a private university whose parents did donate and go to such a university. This is why you must do background checks on your interviewers before making your case. Faced with a legacy or donor interviewer, consider not highlighting your merit.

It is also possible the privileged hiring manager wants to help you out because s/he feels guilt for gaining such an unfair advantage. There are people who continuously struggle with their privilege, unable to discern whether it was their talent or their parents that helped them get to where they are.

Given words matter, perhaps this is an even better way to highlight your merit on your resume: first generation XYZ university alumnus. By definition, if you were the first, you are not a legacy. Although this doesn’t solve any suspicions of you getting ahead through massive financial gifts by your parents.

Given only ~40% of Americans have a 2-year college degree or more, less than 1% of all Americans will have attended elite private school universities.

In other words, a supermajority is on your side so do not be afraid to stand up for meritocracy!

The Gatekeepers Agree

As a small business owner, I want to hire the most collaborative, smartest, efficient, and hungriest person available. I do not care where you went to college. There is no room for nepotism in small business because the financial buffers are too thin not to hire the best.

All I care about is your attitude and willingness to learn and get things done. Are you going to be a prima-donna pain in my side? Or are you going to stay hungry and keep on hustling?

If I can find an Ivy League graduate with such attributes who got in 100% due to merit, I’m going to hire that type of person all day long, all else being equal. But if I can’t, then I will have to be more thorough in my interview and search process.

I’ve spoken with a couple friends who both employ over a hundred people, and one friend who employs over 3,000 people about the Harvard lawsuit. They all actively welcome graduates of elite private universities to somehow signal they are not legacy or donors. Two went to public university, while one went to an elite private university, but didn’t rely on money or connections.

Old money industries, like banking, private equity, venture capital, money management, and management consulting, are filled with elite private school alumni who will continue to have their biases, so tread carefully. But new money industries like tech and biotech are extremely focused on meritocracy. Over time, I’m confident old money industries will slowly remove their biases as well, starting by casting a wider recruiting net beyond specific private universities.

One of the end goals of going to college is to get as good a job as possible. If the gatekeepers are changing the way they hire, you best believe universities will change the way they accept students.

Related: Industries That Can Pay More Than $1 Million A Year

The Long-Term Trend Is Away From The Elites

In order live an easier life, you must recognize trends and adapt. Despite the massive accumulation of wealth by the rich in the latest bull market, the long-term trend is turning sour against the wealthiest people in our country who’ve received the most benefits.

The internet democratizes knowledge and access. Therefore, over the long-term, college degrees will be devalued. Elite private university degrees will be no exception.

Nobody wants to help the rich and powerful get more rich and powerful anymore because nobody roots for the armored gladiator with a sword versus a naked gladiator fighting with only his bare hands. Further, more people will be empowered to create their own fortunes through entrepreneurship or freelancing.

Some of the rich and powerful are clinging on to elite education as the last bastion of the aristocracy while the commoners are using battering rams to break down the gates.

If you will be or are an alumnus of Harvard or other similar institution, I encourage you to do the following:

1) Don’t voluntarily tell anybody where you went to college. If people ask, talk about the state or city where you went to school and then quickly change the topic.

2) Stay humble. Instead of talking about your wins, discuss your struggles. People already assume you have everything.

3) Build your giving resume (time and money). Eventually, people will find out about you. And if they realize you’ve received all this help while you’ve done little-to-nothing to give back, you will be skewered. Besides, helping other people is the greatest gift on earth.

4) Stop working at companies that create useless products or take excessive advantage of minimum wage laborers. Don’t let your education and family wealth go to waste. If you’re oblivious, you’ll know once you see your company being questioned on the news about their labor practices.

5) Let your kids earn their way through life. One of the worst things you can do is take away your kid’s sense of pride and accomplishment by giving them everything. Let your kids deserve what they’ve earned.

In Search For True Meritocracy

Source: Harvard. Compare the top decile percentages to the actual share of admitted class

Nobody should blame parents for giving their kids every advantage possible to get ahead. Meanwhile, no kid should be blamed for receiving every advantage possible either. They have no control over their parents.

There are plenty of fantastic people who graduate from elite private schools. Let’s just not fool ourselves into thinking there aren’t extreme biases in the system that put the majority of people at a competitive disadvantage.

We will never have a true meritocracy. The only thing I’ve found that comes close is being a solopreneur. But we can take steps to help even the playing field by fighting for our beliefs. It would be foolish to ignore the uprising.

As an Asian-American with no private school pedigree and no multi-millions to give, I’ve decided to keep Financial Samurai running as insurance until my little boy grows up and tells me he wants nothing to do with learning about or running a location-independent small business. Even then, I’ll probably keep Financial Samurai going just in case he realizes dad is right.

Readers, do you think the reputations of elite private schools will decline once the world knows exactly how rigged the admissions system is? How would you advise graduates who weren’t beneficiaries of donor legacy to standout? Why don’t private institutions own the fact they use race, money, and legacy to craft their class now that the information is out there? If you are a parent, what will you do to help your child get ahead?

The Real Reasons Why Asian Income And Wealth Is The Highest In America

Would You Accept $1,000,000 For The Opportunity To Go To Public School All Your Life?

How To Compete In A Rigged Game

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The post The Rapid Depreciation Of A Harvard Education: How Private School Grads Can Still Save Themselves appeared first on Financial Samurai.

from Finance https://www.financialsamurai.com/the-rapid-depreciation-of-a-harvard-education-how-private-school-grads-can-still-save-themselves/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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lollipoplollipopoh · 6 years ago

Video

youtube

👵🏼 🇱🇧 The Widows' Sanctuary in Lebanon | Al Jazeera World by Al Jazeera English Filmmaker: Hala Mourad In the heart of Lebanon's second-largest city, Tripoli, is a "Khan", an ancient guest house dating back to the period of Mamluk rule in the 14th century. The city fell to the Ottomans in 1516 and, under the Muslim charitable practice of "Waqf", the Khan was donated to the community to house widows unable to support themselves. The Islamic philanthropic tradition of Waqf dates back to the Prophet Muhammad's time and is intended to be "in perpetuity". Waqf in Islamic law was developed in the medieval Islamic world, but bears a resemblance to English trust law. Every Waqf was required to have a waqif (founder), mutawillis (trustee), qadi (judge) in addition to its beneficiaries, with continuity being "secured by the successive appointment of trustees or mutawillis." Now called the "Khanka", few Tripolitans may be aware of the guest house's existence, or its governance by the Ministry of Endowments. When this film was made, the Khanka had fallen into disrepair and its 12 rooms offered its residents only the most primitive accommodation. "Everything leaks here," says Khanka resident Um Fadi, a mother of three. "We wake up in the morning to find our mattresses and clothes completely wet. My little daughter fell ill because of this problem." While the widows depend on charitable donations for sustenance, some of them do menial jobs like cleaning apartments and cooking for meagre pay. Everything leaks here. We wake up in the morning to find our mattresses and clothes completely wet. My little daughter fell ill because of this problem. Um Fadi, Khanka resident Many of the widows have quite sad stories to tell. One of them, Um Ahmed al-Tahesh, had seven sons and two daughters, but moved to the Khanka when her husband died in the Lebanese civil war. "I had a very good life. We lived well and I had a housemaid. My husband was killed in Beirut and my life was turned upside down," she says. Her children have all grown up with their own families to care for but Um Ahmed doesn't mind her place in the Khanka. "Yes, it's a small room, but at least it shelters me. I don't mind sleeping on a mattress on the floor." Life in the Khanka can be lonely, isolated and uncomfortable for the widows and their families. But sometimes the residents are there by choice. When the ministry conducts an audit, it discovers that all but two of the residents, Um Ali Sikkari and Um Fadi, actually have family capable of supporting them. The rest are asked to leave. "Any woman who has a house or another shelter will be discharged from the Khanka," says supervisor Sheikh Nazih Musa. "This Khanka is exclusively for widows who have no financial support and no place to stay in." Charity in this part of the world has its limits and if the terms of the Waqf are breached, residence in the Khanka is unceremoniously terminated, regardless of one's age or time served. Since this film was originally made in 2016, the Ministry of Endowments announced that it would renovate the Khanka to better serve the needs of its residents in 2019. - Subscribe to our channel: https://ift.tt/291RaQr - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://ift.tt/1iHo6G4 - Check our website: https://ift.tt/2lOp4tL More from Al Jazeera World on: YouTube - https://ift.tt/2bwus2u Facebook - https://ift.tt/2bFCW4Z Twitter - https://twitter.com/AlJazeera_World Visit our website - https://ift.tt/2bwuzLt Subscribe to AJE on YouTube - https://ift.tt/2bFDsA1

#youtube #video #news #aljazeera

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newstechreviews · 5 years ago

Link

Most experts agree that a lockdown in India is necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19. A

Keep up to date on the growing threat to global health by signing up for our daily coronavirus newsletter.

“These immediate measures are only intended to blunt the worst short-term effects and should not be thought of as a stimulus,” he adds.

To make matters worse, India’s economy was already struggling—with slumping growth and rising unemployment. Even some businesses that are thriving elsewhere in the world are hampered in India.

For many, waiting out what could be a miserable, prolonged crisis is the only option.

“The virus doesn’t worry me as much as the uncertainty that waits on the other side of this crisis.”

Please send tips, leads, and stories from the frontlines to [email protected].

#Blogger

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abitnotgood · 8 years ago

Text

stay strong, noisy majority

Going to vacate a while as I need to focus on activism and the Pride march. But before I go, I’d like to leave a message for any of you sat here in the US with me on how you can help.

1. Don’t Leave. I know it’s terrifying and Canada looks sooo inviting right now (or Denmark or Iceland or anywhere-but-here) and I, too, live in a state of constant waking nightmare. But those of us who can, need to be brave and we have to keep fighting back or they win.

1a: Unless your life is in immediate danger. Then Run. Please run. Get out now while it’s still an option. Take care of yourself and do the one thing that will make them the angriest: Thrive.

2. Arm Yourself with Facts. Win every argument. Don’t back down. Remind everyone you know who voted for Trump exactly the type of government they are supporting. Make them question their loyalty to this new president. Confront their racism and misogyny head on.

3. Join your local Rebel Army. By that I mean, find your meetup groups, your twitter accounts, local marches. Get active however and wherever you can. We are the noisy majority.

4. Hope. Please hold on to hope and don’t let the fear and negativity seep into your bones. Take breaks when you need them, distract yourself with the things that make you happy. We’ll be here when you’re ready to come back. Four years feels like an eternity, but let’s make sure it ends at four (or less).

https://twitter.com/Impeach_D_Trump

http://www.scientistsmarchonwashington.com/

https://twitter.com/womensmarch

https://twitter.com/NatlPrideMarch

https://twitter.com/RogueNASA

https://twitter.com/altUSEPA

Take care of yourselves and each other. <3 [Info dump below the read more]

"THIS IS NOT NORMAL. THIS IS NOT OK. Suzan Eraslan has taken up the herculean task of listing all the insane things that have happened in and around the Trump presidency. it is important to list these things as they happen so we don't normalize them. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the DOJ’s Violence Against Women programs. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Minority Business Development Agency. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Economic Development Administration. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the International Trade Administration. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Division of the DOJ. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Electricity Deliverability and Energy Reliability. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. * On January 19th, 2017, DT said that he would cut funding for the Office of Fossil Energy. * On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered all regulatory powers of all federal agencies frozen. * On January 20th, 2017, DT ordered the National Parks Service to stop using social media after RTing factual, side by side photos of the crowds for the 2009 and 2017 inaugurations. * On January 20th, 2017, roughly 230 protestors were arrested in DC and face unprecedented felony riot charges. Among them were legal observers, journalists, and medics. * On January 20th, 2017, a member of the International Workers of the World was shot in the stomach at an anti-fascist protest in Seattle. He remains in critical condition. * On January 21st, 2017, DT brought a group of 40 cheerleaders to a meeting with the CIA to cheer for him during a speech that consisted almost entirely of framing himself as the victim of dishonest press. * On January 21st, 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer held a press conference largely to attack the press for accurately reporting the size of attendance at the inaugural festivities, saying that the inauguration had the largest audience of any in history, “period.” * On January 22nd, 2017, White House advisor Kellyann Conway defended Spicer’s lies as “alternative facts” on national television news. * On January 22nd, 2017, DT appeared to blow a kiss to director James Comey during a meeting with the FBI, and then opened his arms in a gesture of strange, paternal affection, before hugging him with a pat on the back. * On January 23rd, 2017, DT reinstated the global gag order, which defunds international organizations that even mention abortion as a medical option. * On January 23rd, 2017, Spicer said that the US will not tolerate China’s expansion onto islands in the South China Sea, essentially threatening war with China. * On January 23rd, 2017, DT repeated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing him the popular vote. * On January 23rd, 2017, it was announced that the man who shot the anti-fascist protester in Seattle was released without charges, despite turning himself in. * On January 24th, 2017, Spicer reiterated the lie that 3-5 million people voted “illegally” thus costing DT the popular vote. * On January 24th, 2017, DT tweeted a picture from his personal Twitter account of a photo he says depicts the crowd at his inauguration and will hang in the White House press room. The photo is curiously dated January 21st, 2017, the day AFTER the inauguration and the day of the Women’s March, the largest inauguration related protest in history. * On January 24th, 2017, the EPA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to freeze all grants and contracts. * On January 24th, 2017, the USDA was ordered to stop communicating with the public through social media or the press and to stop publishing any papers or research. All communication with the press would also have to be authorized and vetted by the White House. * On January 24th, 2017, HR7, a bill that would prohibit federal funding not only to abortion service providers, but to any insurance coverage, including Medicaid, that provides abortion coverage, went to the floor of the House for a vote. * On January 24th, 2017, Director of the Department of Health and Human Service nominee Tom Price characterized federal guidelines on transgender equality as “absurd.” * On January 24th, 2017, DT ordered the resumption of construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, while the North Dakota state congress considers a bill that would legalize hitting and killing protestors with cars if they are on roadways. * On January 24th, 2017, it was discovered that police officers had used confiscated cell phones to search the emails and messages of the 230 demonstrators now facing felony riot charges for protesting on January 20th, including lawyers and journalists whose email accounts contain privileged information of clients and sources. h/t Janice Cable If you plan to share, please copy and paste rather than share. You'll reach more people EDIT- I'd like to add that January 25, 2017 he (DT) confirmed immediate construction of the wall, which he claims Mexico will pay for." **EDIT** * On January 26th, 2017 - Trump's Ex. Order has Quietly removed the US from EU privacy Agreements. * On January 26th, 2017 - DT now insisting Congress (ie: Taxpayers) will foot the $25 Billion wall project, even though undocumented border crossings are at a 40 year low. * On January 26th, 2017 - DT "voter fraud" investigation will ONLY be investigating states he lost. Just in case you though he cared about Democracy and not his Ego. (also taxpayers will pay for this investigation)

#politics #impeach trump

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