#wellstone act

[odinsblog]

When the Public Health Emergency ends "for people without insurance, there will no longer be a pathway through Medicaid for free COVID-19 testing, vaccines, or treatment."

“The costs of COVID-19 vaccines are also expected to skyrocket once the government stops buying them, with Pfizer saying it will charge as much as $130 per dose. … People with private insurance could have some out-of-pocket costs for vaccines, especially if they go to an out-of-network provider, Levitt said. Free at-home COVID tests will also come to an end.” (source)

SO so glad that Joe Biden sided with big pharma and blocked the Wellstone Act for greedy corporations like Gilead Sciences back in the year 2000. And SO happy that he was vehemently against Medicare For All. 🤬

The long and short of this is that if you are poor and/or uninsured, you are going to need to pay for your own COVID tests and vaccinations.

Now ask yourself: if an underpaid frontline worker like a food server or grocery store clerk—remember when everyone was calling them “heroes” & essential workers?—if those workers feel sick but don’t have any paid time off and can’t afford to pay for their own test and vaccines, do you think they are going to take a week off without pay, or continue working and possibly spreading the virus? Rhetorical question; this already happens.

Welcome to America. If you’re poor, you’re dead.

[ro-rogue]

i have very mixed feelings about the new bostin confrontation that got john expelled.

it is portrayed as the worst of john's actions in new bostin, his lowest, most violent moment. and while that last part is not untrue, i feel like the confrontation is a lot more complicated than just john going insane.

by that point, john had already been king for a little while, and he was absolutely terrible at it. (i've written before on why i think that is, and even his objectively horrible actions here were not excusable but understandable.) claire decided he needed to be stopped, and she gathered a bunch of their schoolmates to confront him, as her vision had shown. then, instead of trying to talk it out, zirian (one of the people she had gathered, for some reason) immediately attacked john, and everything devolved from there.

now, a few things stick out to me here:

first of all, claire took zirian with her to confront john. the question is: why? john and zirian had already fought on multiple occassions, and last time they fought, john had beaten zirian. did claire think seeing someone john defeated in a fair fight would make him realize he was a horrible person? did she think that if people saw zirian, they too would be willing to confront john? but wouldn't those people then think they were going to beat john up? did she not realize that if people believed her lie enough to follow her, they would be prepared to act on it too? i really struggle with her thought process here.

next, zirian thought that they could beat john if they all worked together. this supports my theory that the kids in new bostin had absolutely no idea how powerful a god-tier was. the wellston kids would never try to gang up like that on pre-ability loss seraphina - they knew she was too strong.

however, they did gang up on john at least sixteen-to-one (in episode 185, the shot with the most classmates shows sixteen people). when claire was telling the story to seraphina, she made it sound like it was completely unreasonable that john assumed that a group of people who all hated him, at least some of whom he had fought before, including the former king, would want to attack and overthrow him. "he refused to listen" is true, and something john has struggled with a lot both before and after the ambush, but to be honest, in his shoes, i also wouldn't have believed claire.

moreover, he is criticized for going too far in beating them up, but imo that mostly applies to claire and adrion, who weren't actually attacking him. the other fifteen kids were very clearly willing to hurt him just as much as he ended up hurting them. besides, they were attacking him fifteen-to-one, with claire standing to the side - what was john supposed to do? hold back?

the answer, of course, is yes: he should've. it was absolutely not right for him to go that far. but we must understand that john was sixteen, stressed, hurt, and facing people who were likely his former bullies, in the sense that everyone used to bully him.

(plus claire, who gathered everyone there, and how was he supposed to know that she didn't mean for it to turn out like that? and plus adrion, who called the authorities on him, which was objectively a good decision, but it can be hard to see it that way when you're the one who the cops are being called on)

in addition to that, if seraphina or even arlo had been ganged up on like that, no one would be surprised if they, too, fucked up their opponents. (remember that turf war back in episode 17/18/something? where arlo clearly wasn't just going to stop hurting rein, not until seraphina physically stopped him?) john was out of control and very much Not Okay, but his handling of the ambush actually seems to be quite typical for a god-tier.

so to conclude, the new bostin ambush/confrontation was more complex than simply john going crazy, and while both he and claire definitely think that he is the only one at fault there and he acted completely irrationally, that isn't actually the case, and uno readers should be aware that we are viewing the story from the perspectives of biased and thus unreliable narrators.

[beardedmrbean]

An Oklahoma mayor’s daughter who is also the wife of the town’s police chief was found guilty on Wednesday of soliciting sex from a 15-year-old student she taught.

Emma Delaney Hancock, 28, will spend the next four years in prison for two counts of soliciting sex with a minor through the use of technology, KFOR reported

She is married to Wellston Police Chief Alfred Hancock, with whom she shares two children, and is the daughter of Wellston Mayor Paul Whitnah.

Hancock, a former substitute teacher in Wellston, began talking to the then-15-year-old boy on Oct. 6, 2022, after the student put his number into her phone on the preface of needing help with an assignment.

Hancock sent a friend request to the minor later that night and the two began a conversation for several weeks.

The messages soon turned lewd when the teen, who remains unidentified, sent a shirtless pic to Hancock over the social media app.

“Are we sending half-naked pictures now?” Hancock responded.

The teen replied: “I don’t know, are we?”

“Are you trying to get me to lose my job?” Hancock allegedly said.

The pair then shared naked photos and sexually explicit videos, the student told investigators in November 2022, KOKH reported, citing an arrest affidavit.

The student alleged that he and Hancock, on two occasions, met in the classroom the then-26-year-old was subbing in and make out inside a closet during the teen’s lunch, claiming the teacher groped him at least once.

The teen claimed Hancock would also allow him to take hits from her vape pen.

Rumors began to spread about the illegal relationship after the teen reportedly told one of his friends, who went to confront Hancock.

Hancock initially denied any wrongdoing but then allegedly admitted to the inappropriate behavior, saying it would “not amount to anything because they were not going to get caught.”

Authorities obtained a search warrant for Hancock’s Snapchat account and discovered videos of the classroom incidents.

She turned herself in on April 13, 2023.

During the trial, Hancock’s husband, Alfred Hancock, testified in support of his wife, saying he believed she didn’t do anything wrong.

“She looked me dead in the eyes and said, there’s nothing [on her phone]. I mean, I believe that there’s nothing there,” the police chief told jurors in October according to NonDoc.com. “She’s my wife. I believe her. I’m on her side.”

Hancock, 28, who goes by Delaney, denied the relationship with the teen and claimed she never sent or received any sexual messages to or from the boy.

She was found guilty of two of the five charges she faced.

She was acquitted of two charges of “lewd or indecent acts to (a) child under 16,” and one of “soliciting sexual conduct or communication with (a) minor by use of technology.”

Lincoln County District Judge Sheila Kirk sentenced Hancock on Wednesday to six years in prison, three for each charge.

The convicted felon will only have to serve four years behind bars if she adheres to the sentence, KOKH reported.

Along with the prison time, Hancock will have to register as a sex offender.

The teen had reportedly turned to online schooling after his relationship with Hancock and the subsequent trial left him uncomfortable.

“It’s just too much,” one of the teen’s family members told KFOR. “So, he’s going to go back online. So, his entire high school years were online. So, we missed all that. The sports events, the prom, walking across the stage.”

[ysines]

im gonna shoot myself if i see one more person say in complete confidence that the hightiers were never held accountable for what they did, that john was punished too severely in comparison, or that the high tiers didnt grow as characters.

johns actions are much more extreme than the high tiers', except maybe arlo. isen, blyke, remi, and most other high tiers were more focused on their own lives than terrorizing weaker people. most of the high tiers' (basically all of them sans arlo) problems were naivete, not realizing the flaws in their system. while johns actions did serve the purpose of showing the high tiers what its like to be weak so that they can realize what is wrong with the hierarchy, johns violence was more extreme than his bullies' and lowkey he was terrorizing EVERYONE, even the people who never did anything to him. johns actions are more extreme, so he gets more extreme repurcussions.

unordinary fans look me in the eye and say that john, who had been terrorizing everyone for at least a month Minimum, shouldnt have to deal w people bsing terrified of him. girl use ur brains. people are scared of john bc he has proved himself unreasonable and cruel, while none of them had problems w arlo (bc arlos actions towards most of them were 1. almost 3 years ago, and 2. considered normal by their society bc as the leader of the school he is also considered the disciplinarian whenever students act up, not considering teachers. his beating up people was different than johns beating up people) and none of the other hightiers had done really anything. cecile isnt innocent btw but none of them had problems w her either bc the few interactions weve seen her have with the common student (juni) seemed friendly..basically the people had little reason to fear the other high tiers outside of their power but john had taken his time making himself a person to fear. fr he was trying to terrify them?? why are we prtending that its unreasonable for them to be scared of him can we please be serious

also johns legal punishment in new bostin and suspension in wellston were both reasonable bc he was regularly hospitalizing people and completely out of control. i dont think u guys realize how strong john is. whenever someone who is seriously described as godlike in power ("god" tier as a term is not that much of an exaggeration by regular human standards) starts going around and beating the shit out of everyone important in a show of power something has to be done. john was EXTREMELY dangerous. also "the punishment wasnt equal" is literally kind of the plot. johns mental spiral at wellston was supposed to expose the unfairness in the system and show how bullies and vicious people should not be able to get away with the things they do to weaker people. we dont think john is that strong bc we're surrounded by the strong in the story, but he is IMMENSELY powerful and should not have been left unchecked. (note, im not saying he deserved readjustment. there should have been a punishment for his literal several counts of felony assault but readjustment was literally psychological torture and he was a month into being 16.)

the hightiers were criticised and held accountable, either by themselves or others. arlo knows full well that he played apart in johns mental spiral and apologised multiple times. remi knows full well that she was naive and should have realized the problem sooner, then takes active steps to solve it and creates a safe space for people of different ranks. blyke literally apologised for shooting at john and had a whole arc of realizing low tier conditions during the x rei outings and trying to be nicer to john and low tiers. idk if isen apologised properly but it is also clear that he knows better than to do what hes done now. the safe house was literally their way of trying to fix their mistakes and be better going forward. aka taking accountability and then working towards being better people??? hello???

also saw somebody say that they acted like the royals had the "moral high ground"... as if they didnt. hello who were the ones actually fixing the problems. who were the ones with real solutions. john was the last in the cast to take accountability and work to be better. john was the schools resident terrorist ??? hospitalizer ??? FELON ??? he has literal FELONY ASSAULT charges fam. and LOTS of them. half his graduating class is actually crazy. since he was rank 427 or something when his ability hadnt come in yet, we can say that there were probably at least 100 people in each grade, since hs is 4 grades. a graduating class is a grade. john beat up 50 people not counting zirian and whoever else in different grades might have attended, not assuming the half the grade thing was an exaggeration. we also arent counting the charges he added at wellston itself. seriously this guy is an absolute menace and the royals were actually better than him morally i dont know why thid is a controversial take in the unordinary fandom. do i have to spell out why "guy with criminal charges for severely injuring 50+ people, probably sending them to the hospital considering he put HIGH TIER remi and blyke in the hospital, who has been terrorizing the school for a while at this point" is worse than "trio of individuals who were raised ignorant to their society's flaws realize the problem and take active steps to fix it, even being so kind as to eventually forgive the guy that put two of them in the hospital like a month prior"

the joker arc is as much johns mental spiral as it is the high tiers' character developments. if u somehow didnt realize that the characters were changing for the better then now u know why fhe english teacher wants you to analyze why the curtain is blue. media literacy come back the kids miss you

[the-reincarnated-princess]

Tell us about your Isen x Evie brainrot

To fit the themes of UnOrdinary, it would make sense that, maybe not right away, but later on, there's one of the most powerful students ending in a relationship with a low tier. Remi and Blyke are together or will be, Sera and John is all but acted, and i dont see Arlo with anyone, and anyway i dont think he would get with a low tier even now that he's changed sides. (Or Arlo x Elaine if we really want to work with teased crushes, tho not on arlo's side again)

But Isen isnt teased with anyone yet, except to have a slight crush on Remi at the beginning, which isnt likely to happen now that she's with Blyke.

So Isen could end up with a lower level, it would fit the themes. Since he had a crush on remi, his type seems to be the assertive, confident girls, with a pinkish-shade of hair.

But he also almost died as a vigilante and he'd probably be happier with a girl who isnt running headfirst in situations.

Who is a low tier with dark pink hair and some confidence but also caution? Evie.

Now let's study the problem from Evie's point of view. She has multiple male friends (Terrence, Dylan, Roland...) none of which are teased with her. I dont think her female friends are teased with her either so let's pretend, for this thought experiment, she's into boys.

She's one of the smartest pupils in Wellston (word of god established it) and she's loyal to a fault (sticking with Sera when she's getting beaten up). But on top of that, she is brave enough to actually get into the whole Safe House establishment. She voted for John to be able to come on the trip, etc. Her character arc since the beginning, much more than that of similar characters (Dylan, Roland, Illena and the other low and mid tiers) has been to stop fearing the high-tiers.

Which is why, re: themes of how it's bad to isolate the tiers from each other, I think if there is a "mixed-tiers" couple at the end of the comics, she'll be one half of it.

And while his tracker ability makes him srtonger than the average, it's not an offensive ability on its own, so Isen is maybe the least threatening of the elite-and-more-tiers in school. So if Evie ends up having a crush on one of the top 10, I can imagine him to be the one she would actually dare to go to and ask out. He's the safest best even if no one that powerful is really safe.

Anyway she is a bit of the narrative mirror of Isen: both are the smartest person in their group (Isen can crack into restricted files and Evie is one of the smartest people in school); both have a more muted hair colour than one of the strongest people in school (desaturated yellow unlike the bright gold of Arlo; desaturated purple unlike the bright purple of Sera) and these muted colours, yellow and purple, are complimentary; both are the weakest person in their group and feel bad about not being able to protect people (Evie is 1.5 and one of the weakest students in school and wanted to learn how to protect herself via martial arts; Isen's ability is useless to fight and he constantly tried to get out of the whole vigilante/civil insurrection thing until pushed to make a stand).

On top of that, with Sera and the Safe House bridging the divide, Evie and Isen now have common friends and acquaintances. And Evie has started gravitating towards Blyke Remi and Isen with the field trip storyline etc.

If we leave the dominion of canon and themes, I just think they'd suit each other so well because I've decided so. The made up versions of them I have in my mind would go well together. Also can you imagine post-canon Isen and Evie, him a journalist, her a politician representing the low-tiers, or something, both still gravitating in the same circles as his elite-tiers friends and family but also bridging the gap with her low-tiers friends and family? Their dinner table being the place where people of all tiers have their place?

That being said, for now Isen's strongest relationships are friends (Blyke and Remi) and that suits me perfectly. I wouldn't mind either of them finishing the series singles, particularly if the series ends before they are out of high school.

[uno-writing]

so I was rereading johns king arc to make myself sad again

and I remembered that I have a big project due in like 1 day but instead of doing it im gonna procrastinate and ask for ✨john angst✨ so I become sadder

anyway hope ur not combining pb and brown sugar again and have been eating radish anon's veggies

🍿🥤🍭🍬🍫🧋🥨🥬🍦🍧🧊🐇🍩🥖📦🌻🥀🥒🧃🍰🌮🔫🌷

The halls of Wellston High were bustling with students, but you didn't pay attention to any of them. Your mind was consumed with thoughts of John, the boy you had fallen in love with. But lately, he had been acting different. He had become more brutal, more ruthless in his quest to become the top dog of the Wellston hierarchy.

You couldn't stand it. You had seen the way he had beaten down other students, leaving them bloody and broken. It made your heart ache to see him like this.

As you walked down the hallway, lost in thought, someone bumped into you, jolting you out of your reverie. You looked up to see John standing in front of you, a scowl on his face.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked, his voice cold and distant.

"I just…I don't understand why you have to be so brutal," you said, your voice wavering slightly.

John's scowl deepened. "I have to be brutal to survive in this school. You should know that by now."

"I know that," you said, your voice rising slightly. "But it doesn't have to be like this. You don't have to hurt people to be on top."

John's eyes narrowed. "You don't get it," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "You don't understand what it's like to be at the bottom, to be constantly beaten down and humiliated. I have to be strong to survive, and if that means being brutal, then so be it."

"But at what cost?" you asked, tears streaming down your face. "Is being on top really worth sacrificing your humanity?"

John didn't answer. He just stared at you, his expression unreadable. You knew then that you had lost him, that he had become too consumed with his own power to see reason.

As you turned to walk away, you couldn't help but feel a sense of despair wash over you. You loved John, but you couldn't condone his actions. You couldn't be with someone who was so willing to sacrifice everything for power.

As you walked down the hallway, you couldn't help but wonder if there was anything you could do to save John from himself. But deep down, you knew that it was too late. John had already lost himself to the brutal world of Wellston, and there was nothing you could do to bring him back.

[deadpresidents]

What other campaign souvenirs do you have with that badge you shared?

It's actually not a ton of stuff. I wish I'd been better over the years about collecting campaign memorabilia because I'm always jealous whenever I see someone who has a cool collection of things.

I have a ton of buttons and stickers from the Obama campaigns, as well as an Obama '08 yard sign that's signed by Obama. I have a stack of Clinton/Gore bumper stickers that I somehow held on to after all these years.

In 2000, I was young and idealistic and caught up in the excitement of the first Presidential campaign I was of legal voting age for, so I jumped on the Bill Bradley bandwagon very early on in the Democratic primaries. Most of you probably have no idea who Bill Bradley even was, but he was the 2000 version of Bernie Sanders once the legendary Paul Wellstone decided against running for President. Deep down, we all knew that Vice President Gore was going to be the nominee, but there was some excitement for Bradley early on even though he didn't win anything and was basically finished by Super Tuesday. I have some Bradley buttons and stickers, and I have an invitation to a Bill Bradley fundraiser that was going to be held at the home of Geoff Petrie in Granite Bay, a wealthy suburb of Sacramento. At the time, Petrie was the General Manager of the Sacramento Kings and he was a close friend of Bradley, so that was exciting for a 20-year-old basketball fanatic. (Oh...for those who really don't know anything about Bill Bradley, I should also note that not only was he a U.S. Senator from New Jersey, but before that he was star basketball player who won two NBA titles with the New York Knicks and is in the pro and college Basketball Hall of Fame.)

Other than that, I have some posters and a ton of buttons from various campaigns. When I lived in Austin and was regularly going to the @lbjlibrary I would often buy handfuls of the assorted campaign buttons that they sold in their gift shop. I don't know if they still sell them, but it was a huge collection from dozens of different Presidential campaigns from various decades. I think the oldest button I ended up with was for Al Smith's 1928 Democratic Presidential campaign. I'm especially fond of my Wendell Willkie button because it's always fun to mention Wendell Willkie. I got a bunch of Nixon and McGovern buttons and even got a Romney button, but it's not for Mitt -- it's for the unsuccessful campaign for the 1968 GOP nomination by his father, former Michigan Governor George Romney. I have a McGovern/Eagleton button from 1972, which is interesting because Thomas Eagleton was nominated as McGovern's Vice Presidential running mate at the 1972 Democratic Nation Convention and then dropped from the ticket for Sargent Shriver just nineteen days later. And of course, I got a TON of LBJ and LBJ-related buttons -- from the 1964 campaign which sometimes featured LBJ and sometimes featured Hubert Humphrey and sometimes featured both LBJ and HHH, and from the 1960 Kennedy/Johnson campaign.

Here are a few of them (the "We Shall Overcome" button is my favorite:)

The coolest bit of political memorabilia that I have are a set of staff passes from the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment proceedings for President Clinton's impeachment in 1998, including one from the day that the special prosecutor, Kenneth Starr, testified. Former Republican Congressman James E. Rogan, who was one of the thirteen Republicans House Managers who actually acted as prosecutors during the Senate trial following the President's Clinton's impeachment, wrote a really great book called Catching Our Flag: Behind the Scenes of a Presidential Impeachment (BOOK | KINDLE) that I reviewed way back in 2011. In the book, Congressman Rogan (he's a Judge in California now) mentioned that he was a collector of political memorabilia and that he was very cognizant of the fact that he was playing a part in a major historical event -- which I mentioned in the review -- and I also noted that I respected how fair his book was despite the fact that he was a major political player in the impeachment and that he was so clearly from the opposite side of the political tracks than I am. His fairness actually resulted in President Clinton offering to help when Rogan was struggling to win re-election to Congress after the impeachment (which Rogan was grateful for, but turned down because it would hurt him more with his GOP supporters than any Democrats on the fence). ANYWAY...after I posted my review, Congressman Rogan contacted me and thanked me for the review and SENT ME SOME OF THE PASSES THAT HE HAD SAVED FROM THE IMPEACHMENT:

Here's the review of Congressman Rogan's book from 2011 (go buy it). Here's a post where I wrote a little more detail about getting the passes sent to me (and about the whole idea of tickets to impeachment proceedings in general). Also, as I noted in that post, if you are a stalker or a hater, don't go to the address on the letter that Congressman Rogan sent me in that photo because I haven't lived in Texas since 2011. (Also, if you're a stalker who looks like Shakira or Tessa Thompson, just send me a message and I'll give you my address.)

[swisshealth24]

Mental Health Parity: Ensuring Equal Access to Mental and Physical Healthcare

Mental health parity refers to the principle of ensuring equal access to mental health and substance use disorder services in healthcare coverage compared to physical health services. Historically, mental health services have been subject to discrimination and disparities in coverage, resulting in barriers to access and inadequate treatment for individuals with mental health conditions. Mental health parity laws aim to address these disparities by mandating equal coverage for mental health and physical health services in insurance plans. This article explores the importance of mental health parity, the evolution of mental health parity laws, and the ongoing efforts to achieve equitable access to mental healthcare.

Importance of Mental Health Parity

Mental health parity is essential for promoting equitable access to healthcare and addressing the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness. Mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, Hyperthermia Therapy in Frankfurt and substance use disorders, are prevalent and can have significant impacts on individuals' well-being, functioning, and quality of life. Access to timely and effective mental healthcare is crucial for individuals with mental health conditions to receive appropriate diagnosis, treatment, and support. Mental health parity ensures that individuals have access to the same level of care for mental health conditions as they do for physical health conditions, promoting better health outcomes and reducing disparities in healthcare access.

Evolution of Mental Health Parity Laws

The journey towards mental health parity has been marked by legislative efforts at the federal and state levels to eliminate disparities in insurance coverage for mental health and substance use disorder services. The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 was the first federal law aimed at prohibiting discrimination in insurance coverage for mental health benefits. However, this law had limited impact due to loopholes and exemptions, leading to continued disparities in coverage. In response to growing recognition of the need for comprehensive mental health parity, the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA) was enacted, which expanded protections for mental health and substance use disorder benefits in group health plans. The MHPAEA requires parity in financial requirements (such as copayments and deductibles), treatment limitations (such as visit limits and prior authorization requirements), and nonquantitative treatment limitations (such as medical management criteria) between mental health/substance use disorder benefits and medical/surgical benefits.

Challenges and Ongoing Efforts

Despite the passage of federal and state mental health parity laws, challenges remain in ensuring full compliance and enforcement of parity requirements. Insurers and employers may still impose discriminatory practices or limitations on mental health benefits, such as higher copayments, stricter utilization management, or narrower provider networks for mental health services. Additionally, disparities in access to Biological Immunotherapy in Cancer, particularly for underserved populations, such as racial and ethnic minorities, low-income individuals, and rural communities. Ongoing efforts are needed to address these challenges and promote full implementation of mental health parity laws, including:

Education and Awareness: Increasing awareness among consumers, healthcare providers, insurers, and policymakers about mental health parity laws and their rights and responsibilities under these laws.

Enforcement and Oversight: Strengthening enforcement mechanisms and oversight of mental health parity compliance at the federal and state levels to ensure that insurers and employers adhere to parity requirements.

Expanding Access to Care: Improving access to mental healthcare services, particularly in underserved communities, through initiatives such as telehealth, integrated care models, and workforce development programs.

Reducing Stigma and Discrimination: Combatting stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness through public education campaigns, anti-stigma initiatives, and advocacy efforts to promote understanding and acceptance of mental health conditions.

Conclusion

Mental health parity is essential for ensuring equal access to mental health and substance use disorder services and reducing disparities in healthcare coverage. The passage of federal and state mental health parity laws represents significant progress in addressing discrimination and inequities in insurance coverage for mental health benefits. However, challenges remain in achieving full compliance and enforcement of parity requirements, as well as in reducing barriers to access to mental healthcare services. By continuing to advocate for mental health parity, raising awareness, and implementing policies and initiatives to expand access to care, we can work towards a healthcare system where individuals receive equitable treatment for both their mental and physical health needs.

[beehiveofblorbos]

assigning unordinary characters equivalents to other fandoms im in:

john -> yuki

I’ve already discussed this, but John and DRA Yuki have cool similarities. I’m not gonna really go super in depth but they’re both protags with a kinda unstable mental state. Yuki is the protag that nearly falls into despair the most by FAR, and John’s anger issues and trauma constantly cause him to act out. However, their kinder sides are what really allow them to make a change in those around them; Yuki in Tsurugi Rei Teruya and John in Sera and even Remi arguably

bonus: fuyuhiko

seraphina -> kamisato ayaka

both are representatives of their family legacy who had to take up more responsibility when a significant event impacted them. for sera that was leilah running away and for ayaka that was the death of her mother. both are well known in their community as role models exactly bc of their power; Sera as Wellston’s goddess and Ace and Ayaka as the Shirasagi Himegimi who her people look up to and praise. both are well off in their society but choose to take a stand against the bad/evil parts of their govt as a result of a relationship w a close friend; for Sera, becoming friends w John showed her how screwed up the hierarchy was and for Ayaka, I mean she saw the effects of losing Visions in her people but Thoma’s near Vision loss forced her to lay low instead of being as active as she was previously

bonus: kyouko, miraculous kagami

arlo -> tsurugi

Arlo and Tsurugi are both characters built around the prioritization of their ideal over themselves as a person. For Arlo, that’s his *responsibility* to the wellbeing of the many and for Tsurugi, that’s the sanctity of the law. They’re both cops at some point too XD very precocious and impressive characters. Both also kinda soften up after someone else shows them there’s a better way to do things

[kiss-my-freckle]

Distorting the senses. Liz kept her face, so she hired a female cyranoid. But she hired a male interpreter in The Wellstone Agency, so... just as they hear Raymond when Katarina speaks, they hear Alexander when Liz speaks. Whoever took Liz to Krilov, he's Kate's male counterpart.

Liz: You and Kate underestimate me. Red: Oh, so she’s here too. Liz: Do you see her? Red: I do, without even having to look.

I’m basically saying Liz was acting as an “imposter male” that’s written parallel to imposter Raymond, and that imposter male was set to take over Red’s empire. 

Major: I don’t care if she’s Queen Elizabeth and screwing her made you king.

[emptycoffeemug]

Okay but hear me out, Vaughn had Wellston's best interests at heart. That doesn't justify creating his own personal Lord of the Flies simulation but it does add some depth to what he's doing.

Vaughn is actually acutely aware of what's going on in the school. He also knows of John's abilities. He works to protect both John and Sera when the authorities come for them.

He's not being lazy or ignoring the situation. He is waiting for the students to find a solution. He already knows the solution, but the students need to find it on their own. Any change in society starts with the youth, and Vaughn seems to be working toward just that. He thinks John will be the catalyst for the change, and he's right. But John goes too far.

Vaughn wanted the high ranking students to use their power responsibly and to look out for those less powerful. And those are John's ideals when he's acting as a cripple. Unfortunately, the only way he manages to spread those ideals is by becoming such a huge threat that the royals begin to see the problem.

That was not what Vaughn wanted. In fact, he stops John on one occasion, warns him that his behavior needs to stop, and was going to put a stop to John's reign of terror when John make his own decision to leave.

Despite John's atrocious behavior, Vaughn treats him much more humanely than the authorities ever did. In fact, I think Vaughn is one of the reasons John was able to grow the way he did. He provides the opportunity for all the royals to grow.

While he does put his students at risk, at least he has a good reason. It's not exactly ethical, but what he does exposes the society's flaws to the students and brings about the changes necessary.

Now before I get anyone saying," If he thought the hierarchy was wrong why didnt he fix it? Why did he wait for things to escalate with John?"

The hierarchy and the royals aren't just a Wellston thing. Vaughn couldn't just change the way the schools worked. The schools are a microcosm of the society they live in and Vaughn couldn't just change society either.His hands were tied. He couldn't force a change on the students. So he gave them more freedom to be just like society, until they could see that the current social order would destroy them. He couldn't fix the problem himself, so he made it so big that the students would be motivated to fix it themselves.

OP isnt wrong about the other adults though. Also, yeah Vaughn's methods are unethical, but if Unordinary has shown us anything it's that no one is perfect and everyone has flaws.

We talked a lot about this in a discord but how tf has no one blamed the actual adults for how much of a dumpsterfire Wellston became–

[odinsblog]

Joe Biden suddenly pardoning so many people and giving them commutations at the very last minute kinda makes you wonder: if he didn’t pardon his son Hunter, would he have even bothered with these other recent pardons? Please don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic for the people who are getting second chances from mass incarceration (let’s not talk about who had a big hand in making mass incarceration a thing), but when and where you plant your flag matters. Why so many people now? Why not earlier, or throughout his presidency? Yes, I know that it is normal for presidents to issue pardons at the tail end of their terms, but this number just screams of a convenient distraction for pardoning Hunter (yeah, yeah, I know that Trump is exponentially worse and will pardon J6 traitors, but he was gonna do that anyway, no matter what Biden did).

Sorry if you’re a liberal sycophant, but EYE am not here to blow sunshine up Biden’s ass. We must hold truth to power. Biden was as disastrous for social justice and democracy as Bill Clinton was, and in fact, history will show that Biden governed as a somewhat “moderate” conservative Republican, similar to Bill Clinton.

And that’s without even getting into how Biden, who valued following norms above achieving justice, ignored all norms and international human rights laws to support Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. That’s without even getting into how Biden changed immigration laws for the worse, and required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico until our immigration system gets around to them—sometimes years or decades later. That’s without getting into Covid and how Biden blocking the Wellstone Act and siding with Gilead Sciences helped make life-saving medicines unaffordable. That’s without even getting into how Biden sued to continue using Trump’s immigration laws that were harder on Haitian refugees (see Title 42).

“Better than being in a car accident” is a shit metric for nominating our political leaders.

This is not rocket science. Democrats competing with Republicans for white conservative votes, while both parties shit on leftists and progressives, is stupid. Republican voters are n-e-v-e-r going to pick a Republican-lite candidate over an actual Republican!

If you disagree, then think about how, under his leadership, Democrats lost all three branches of government to openly racist politicians, many of whom are sexual predators and abusers. Why does the Democratic Party even want the votes of people who lionize racists and rapists?? The very best thing that the DNC could do would be to exorcize all traces of Clintonism and Bidenism, and stop trying to “triangulate” with conservatives.

Biden’s presidency was disastrous—better than Trump, but still disastrous—and where he really decided to use his power the most was even more disastrous.

[strangertooplay]

Broadway World: New Play 'I Was A Stranger Too' To Open in St. Paul

BROADWAY WORLD

www.broadwayworld.com/minneapolis

New Play I WAS A STRANGER TOO Highlights Hope Amid Danger In Asylum System

Asylum seekers and refugee needs in the U.S. and around the world fill the news. But what can one person do?

by A.A. Cristi Jan. 10, 2023  

Asylum seekers and refugee needs in the U.S. and around the world fill the news. But what can one person do?

'I Was A Stranger Too,' a new play by Cynthia L. Cooper and directed by Carolyn Levy, tells the stories of people who are seeking asylum and those who help them. The play will have four performances, Jan 26 -29, at The Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center) in St. Paul.

Drawn from dozens of interviews, 'I Was A Stranger Too,' is set in Minnesota, where refugee resettlement is among the nation's highest per capita. The play follows a woman who, propelled by the memory of her mother's rescue from the Holocaust, is drawn to help asylum seekers. In unfolding monologues, she encounters a rich mosaic of people who are fleeing persecution, anti-LGBTI violence, civil strife and other threats, and individuals determined to welcome them.

"The play takes audience members beyond stereotypes to the power and capacity of the human spirit, sharing the hopes that can emerge from a single act of caring," said Carolyn Levy, director.

Featured in the play are Bethmari Márquez Barreto, Kirby Bennett, Nicole Frethem, Mahmoud Hakima, Megan Kim, Jasmine Porter, Shona Ramchandani, Abigail Ramsay, and Phasoua Vang; Karina Hunt is the Production Manager and music is by Leslie Steinweiss.

Carolyn Levy, director, is a former professor of theatre at Hamline University, where she founded a Social Justice Theatre program. She has worked at Theatre Unbound, Park Square, Penumbra Theatre Summer Institute and the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company.

Playwright Cynthia L. Cooper is a two-time Jerome fellow at the Playwrights Center. An award-winning playwright with productions off-Broadway and across the country and plays in 17 volumes, Cooper lives and is active in the theater in New York.

'I Was A Stranger Too' was selected as a finalist in the Jewish Plays Project, for the Trish Vrandenberg Prize, a semi-finalist at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and is a grant recipient of Rimon (Minnesota Jewish Arts Council), and the Alliance of Jewish Theatres.

Performances will be Thursday January 26 and Friday January 27 at 7 pm, Saturday January 28 and Sunday January 29 at 2 pm at the Neighborhood House (Wellstone Center), 179 Robie Street East in St. Paul. Tickets are pay what you wish (suggested $10).

Performances will be followed by talk backs with experts and community activists in the field.

Info:

Click Here to Buy Tickets

[memecucker]

Under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which governs the transfer of federally-funded research to the private sector, the government retains “march-in rights” that allow it to seize the patents for taxpayer-funded drugs and other inventions when “action is necessary to alleviate health and safety needs which are not being reasonably satisfied” or when they are not being “made available to the public under reasonable terms” and license them to responsible third parties to provide competition. It’s one of the main ways the executive branch could address excessive drug prices without needing action from Congress, which has been deadlocked on drug pricing reform measures for years.

Once finalized, the new rule would say that the government cannot use march-in rights solely because a government-funded drug or other product is being sold at an excessive price. The change has been a major lobbying aim of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and other industry groups that have seen more and more voters tell pollsters that the high cost of prescription drugs is among their top concerns.

“This rule takes away the government’s power to act to curb that price abuse by authorizing generic competition, and we think that’s 180 degrees the wrong move at this time,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of the access to medicines program at the nonprofit Public Citizen. “We expect Biden to use this power during his tenure rather than repeal it, given the scale of the problem.”

The rulemaking was initiated by NIST on January 4, just days before Biden took office. The public comment period for the regulatory change ended on April 5, after more than 81,000 comments were submitted.

The rule “almost slipped through unnoticed because this is not an office that’s frequently in the public light and it’s sort of a technical rule,” said Maybarduk. “We almost had a situation where pharma allies stripped this government power without anyone noticing, but because it was noticed now there is an outcry.”

Although the rule change would apply to all kinds of inventions, it would primarily impact the pharmaceutical industry, which makes heavy use of research from universities that receive federal research funding. Every petition that the government has received asking it to use march-in rights since Bayh-Dole was enacted has pertained to a pharmaceutical, most often around concerns of price gouging, though they have all faced strong industry opposition and been rejected.

Joe Biden has stood against many Democrats for decades when it comes to the government using its power to influence drug pricing. In 1995, he was one of eight Democrats who voted to table a Sen. Paul Wellstone amendment to restore a clause in contracts requiring that publicly funded drugs be reasonably priced, which had been stripped by the Clinton administration at the behest of the pharmaceutical lobby. During the 2020 presidential primary campaign, Biden declined to endorse the use of march-in rights for driving down drug costs, unlike Buttigieg, Harris, Sanders, and Warren, who all included march-in in their drug pricing reform platforms.

[decadentparadisekitty]

me personally i didn't feel that he grew past it in the first part of the comic.

Like, if he was capable of acting rationally due to growth, he would have NEVER pretended to be a cripple. That's not a position from which John could have effected any kind of change. it was a sign that all he knew how to use h is powers for was just to destroy, destroy, destroy.

I mean, he convinced Seraphina that cripples arent just people who she could control. But like...this coming from even a mid tier would've made a similar difference, and he would've been able to protect people who were messing with low tiers fr instead of a solid half of the time.

But that's not what happened. What happened was, a behavioral therapist made him realize that he used his powers for shitty things, and then traumatized him to never want to use his powers ever again. How John was affected was thinking that he should've never been given powers, because all he's capable of using them for is controlling other people.

The fact he pretended to be a cripple from the start is proof that he doesn't have a healthy relationship with his past, and once Arlo beat any sense of trusting most people out of John, John fell apart. He no longer viewed the concept of protecting other people from himself to be of any value.

So, he started using his powers again, not for justice for the weak, but to punish the strong.

I don't think anything about uru-chan's characterization of him felt like an ass-pull for that reason. It's easier to root for pre-exposed john because he never did anything outrightly morally wrong really. But I honestly think even after he starts being a shithead, he's still really sympathetic.

The only two characters in this story with little to no moral blemishes during John's crazy arc are Remi and Sera. Even then, Remi and Sera are prone to violence to get their way, like they're high tiers to their core.

For me, it's incredibly easy to sympathize with someone who's experienced the evil tendencies of a human who thinks he's superior. To just want to throttle everyone who's treated you like dirt, to just be ANGRY and not putting change for the better first because you're just so rationality erasingly ANGRY.

How could anyone in John's position not be absolutely enraged. He gave high tiers a fucking CHANCE, on repeat.

Remember he's viewing them as a group, not individuals. Remi didn't deserve John's wrath, (you wont get a defense of blyke and isen from me im sorry, it's incredibly hard to sympathize with people who changed right when shit started affecting them personally.), but John hated her anyway, because she's still a high tier who still deals with things as high tiers do - shutting people up with raw power if things get bad enough.

Not to say there's something wrong with Remi for that - power should only be used when necessary, and Remi is quite careful. But the fact she can, it just changes dynamics considerably.

HE ALSO HATES HIMSELF FOR THIS

john always felt sympathetic to me in ways the other high tiers just weren't, because he's damaged. He knows what it means to stand at the very bottom, and not just from Wellston.

So... I have mixed feelings about this chapter.

On the one hand, everything’s been cleared up! Where everyone stands has been flat-out stated so that all readers can be on the same page. John is very clearly not a good guy anymore, no matter how sympathetic he was in the past, and trying to argue that he’s not is just wishful thinking at this point.

On the other hand... I’m not too happy with this new direction. John was quite clearly set up to be a sympathetic protagonist, powers be damned, and he was a good one. He had in the past fallen victim to an unhealthy mindset and become a toxic person, which he had recovered from to become more healthy and willing to work constructively towards a better society. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the flashbacks he shares with Sera - he singlehandedly convinced her to reject the trappings of a toxic society. That arc is extremely cathartic to read as a result.

All in all, John was great. He was easy to root for and feel for, and his struggle seemed so organic - he could have just shown off and become king of Wellston, but instead he recognised his weaknesses and played to his strengths, trying to create reform from the ground up, even if it mean he had to sacrifice a great deal of personal comfort and get socially ostracised and beaten up every day.

There’s a reason John at the beginning of the story we so compelling, and that was his motivation. He had recognised a failing and a shortcoming in society, and he was willing to do anything to fix it organically, rather than just jumping at it from a position of power like Rei did, and the superheroes did. These characters showed us why John’s organic approach was so essential in a society so opposed to change, and we respected John for his goals.

This was also a reason why the twist that John was a high-tier was so good - reliably, one who is oppressed will be looking to fight oppression, but John is made so much more interesting because he very specifically isn’t one of the oppressed group. In fact, he’s one of the elite. Everything he suffers, he suffers out of choice and not necessity. Sure, he may have experienced oppression previously (whilst researching John, Isen found records that before his second-year in Bostin, John was very lowly-ranked, perhaps even a true ‘cripple’), but he was very quick to shed that and embrace elite life when his true ability became apparent. Invariably, John at the beginning was an altruistic individual who had grown from his mistakes and decided he would give up everything he could have based on his ability - a high social standing, a universal respect, and a comfy life - in favour of trying to combat the hierarchy. This is what made his friendship with Sera so powerful and great - he worked for it, and worked to help her break out of a toxic mindset like he had done. It’s why Arlo’s betrayal hurts so much - John offered olive branches, tried to make Arlo see that there was a better way, and yet Arlo still looked at him and saw someone to be taken down.

This is why I took such a dislike to the Joker arc. It took everything impressive and compelling about John’s character and took the tipp-ex to it like gritty live-action reebok would have done. The fact that John’s character was boiled down to “lol AGRESSIVE EDGY WHITE BOI” was in part frustrating because we’d specifically seen him grow past this, goddamn it, and because it took away everything that made him so compelling.

Now, we have other characters - namely Remi, Blyke, and Isen - stepping in to fill the role of Plucky Heroes Working to Better Society, with Remi specifically following a similar trajectory to John at the beginning of the story.

Just one problem.

If this was the story that wanted to be told, why did we spend 100+ episodes on John’s character arc, which was erased with the purchase of one (1) mask and some very bad decisions? If Remi was supposed to be the ubiquitous hero, then why didn’t we also start with her as the protagonist? If John was supposed to become an evil dickbag and a villain, why didn’t he start out as a thinly-veiled dickbag who played with others and manipulated them because he wanted to watch the world burn, instead of a sympathetic protagonist who suddenly does a 180?

I know it sounds like I’m bashing unordinary - and that’s not my intention, I really do love the comic, and Remi, Blyke and Isen, I would die for - but this complete butchery of John’s character vexes me to no end, precisely because he was so compelling.

Right now, it seems that the Joker arc is being salvaged, and things are being clarified after the muddle that had thrown the status quo into a cell and mangled it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to shake up the status quo - but the way it was done here also twisted the characters, making it seem like the story was driving them instead of the other way round.

I feel this like from Isen sums it up.

If someone had told me this about John before the Joker arc, I’d have asked them which dark AU this was from. Now, it fits John’s character, but at the same time, John’s character no longer fits him as we knew him. He’s spiralled into anarchy and chaos with seemingly very little reason - sure, Arlo had him beaten up and Sera was picked on after she lost her ability - but given that he’d been taking this shit on the chin and wearing it, that shouldn’t have been enough to make him go full dark side!

However, I do feel the story has taken on a direction I’m more on board with; namely, that students are taking responsibility and trying to better their society. Even so, I still feel a little sad about what we lost. I enjoyed Remi’s line about John, and it’s satisfying to see her recognise that John’s not just some Edgy but Saveable Good Boi UwU (looking at you, Kyle Ron), but still, the wording was a little bittersweet.

I, for one, would have loved it if that were true.

[wojira]

ok ive never gone on unordinary tumblr before but i wanna see if anyone else has noticed this about Seraphina that is still going unadressed

We know Uru chan likes to do some fun little symbolic things with the chat bubble colours (John’s chat bubble changing from white to black for reasons) but there’s something unusual about Sera’s chat colour too. She’s quite visibly the only character who’s chat bubble doesn’t match her hair colour at all, instead its weirdly clashy, with her chat bubbles being much more of a blue-y purple than her actual hair colour which is almost pink with little bits of green.

*below you’ll see her usual appearance and chat bubble, then with her hair being edited to match her chat bubble, then with the chat bubble edited to match her hair

But wait, that middle one. Doesn’t it look familiar?

she and Leilah would look a lot more alike, maybe this is Uru’s way of saying that Sera bases the way she speaks and acts off her sister. It’d add up with John’s chat bubble being white to match his Dad when he acted as though he had no ability. I guess if you try and act like someone else, your chat bubble will eventually match it.

That’s not to say that Seraphina is doing it intentionally like John though, even after standing up to her mother and going back to Wellston early, she still isn’t quite free of the pressures that come with being a part of one of the families with the most powerful abilities of all. Maybe this is the product of Sera being forced to be the daughter they were certain that they had in Leilah before she ran away. Maybe it had the opposite role when Sera left the royals, she must’ve felt a lot like Lelilah after they both left the responsibilities forced onto them, and maybe early on in the series she wanted to be more like Leilah in how she stood up to her parents.