#whats WRONG WITH THE US CANADA BORDER ITS TOO STRAIGHT

[crunchycrystals]

countries are fake why are we even doing this

[undercut-mcqueer]

I used to want to know more about dbh but i was too lazy lol. Then i heard from multiple accounts the fandom sucked so i stopped wanting to

good on you anon, it's... bad. like. probably the worst fandom i've been in?

putting this under the cut bc i uh. went on a really salty rant and its long af sdmfsdlkf

like one of the most popular characters is a literal racist cop. yknow the character that was literally just THERE to bully one of the protagonists because he's an android, right? like a straight up piece of shit asshole character but nah. everyone loves him. he's fucking worshipped. and GOD FORBID you like north (one of markus's friends/potential girlfriend) because SHE SUPPORTS VIOLENCE AND VIOLENCE IS BAD.

like... yall literally. worship a character that tried to KILL another character because they are an android and then say a sexually abused android is WRONG to want revenge on humanity for what they did to her?

and dont fucking get me started on rk900. that bitch was there for less than 20 seconds in ONE of multiple endings and for some reason hes widely shipped with the racist cop, and thrown into just about every piece of fanwork ever. and theres also two fan films about said racist cop and the character that's literally just a recolor of one of the protagonists and might as well be an oc from deviantart.

like. this game has such a diverse, interesting cast of characters and everyone chooses to obsess over the asshole and the oc. what about the mentally unstable, abused android who just wants a friend? what about the human woman and her son who actively help androids cross the border to canada to seek safety? what about markus's friends, what were their lives like before jericho? there's so MUCH to explore in this game, and yet you only get the same content repeated over and over.

now excuse my shitty ramblings i just really, really hate the dbh fandom smfsdlf they ruined one of my favorite characters for me. i used to adore connor (and i still do like him) but now it's hard to think about him or write about him without thinking of the game and fandom he originates from.

thank FUCK the umbrella academy fandom isn't like this. can y'all imagine if people just started shipping harold jenkins and christopher the cube? and then someone made two fucking films about it???

[urmomsstuntdouble]

ok not sure how comprehensible this post is gonna be but! regarding the languages discussion, here are my thoughts about the anglo americans. be warned this post is long as fuck, but thank you so much if you do read all of it, and i’d love to hear your thoughts about it as well! 

so i just wanna start with alfred’s name- alfred. i think he may be named after alfred the great of wessex, who may or may not have been the first king of england. he wasn’t technically the king of a unified england that we’d think of it as today- he was the king of wessex, as his title implies, but there was a point at which he was “in charge” or however you want to put it of most of present day southern england. anyway this presents the first of his issues with his identity. he’s permanently tied to britain beyond just his culture and most common language- his name is a reminder of who he “belongs to.” of course most people don’t know that and they just think it’s a little odd that this 19yo miles morales type is called alfred but eh, what are you gonna do. 

then you have the fact that there’s no official language in the US, which makes things a little harder for him. he’s never sure what language he’s supposed to be speaking in, as the human representative of america. he thinks it should be english, seeing as that is the lingua franca, but there’s times when he just doesn’t vibe with english as a language. i mentioned before that he struggles with keeping his (spanish) dialects straight (which @cupofkey summed up as immigrant-kid-syndrome and that’s exactly it), although its not limited to just spanish. he also has a hard time keeping other shit in line, to the extent where his thoughts are a messy jumble of languages, concepts, images, and feelings. this is most evident when he’s nervous, because his accent will get super thick and he’ll start just saying the words that pop into his mind, even if they’re in another language or straight up not words at all. the only peson who can understand him when he’s doing this is canada. both of them are countries of immigrants, although they are different in who immigrated and when, so they dont have the exact same nervous tick language, but it’s close enough that they can communicate well. it’s sort of like a more global version of europanto? might sound something like this to an outside observer, but again, more global (also for the video they dont start talking until 1:17). 

america and canada also have a sort of inextricable bond because of the first nations people. the first tribe that comes to mind are the members of the okanagan national alliance, which straddles the present day border of british columbia and washington state (this is also something america shares with mexico). it’s caused a lot of pain between them personally, and with the okanagan nation. just as the border itself is vague- though the us-canada border is more respected than the okanagan borders- the parts of their identities are also vague. they feel bits and pieces of themselves ebbing and flowing, and matt and fred have gotten into arguments about it because they struggle to define their identities and they just want to be able to explain themselves to themselves. but you know that often winds up causing friction with the okanagan nations, because whatever issues with identity regarding their indigenous people fred and matt are having. they’ve got it worse, only in a sort of..negative image. like whereas fred and matt feel it on the fringes of themselves, making it so they cant tell where they end and other nations begin, the okanagan nations feel themselves being slowly eroded. none of them want each other to suffer, though, because the okanagan people can be americans and canadians and okanagans all at the same time. 

this also applies with the american border with mexico, seeing as there’s some areas in the southwestern us where spanish is spoken more than english. when he’s down there, freddie finds it easier to communicate than when he’s speaking english. chicano is his language just as much as english is- he just sort of became able to speak it when the west was colonized, and he already knew spanish for business purposes, so there ya go. there are some issues with that though because the spanish in the west is primarily from mexico and central america, whereas the east is more from the caribbean- like how miami has a large cuban minority. so he’s got a weird sort of chicano english too, because it’s no longer “pure” chicano. pure is a very loose term there because there is of course variation within southwestern chicano speakers. angelinos don’t have the same chicano as nuevomexicanos. anyway i think he’d get it mixed up with spanish proper or spanglish a lot because of the similar phonetic rules. i’m not sure about any indigenous tribes who have land that straddles the us-mexico border, but that’s probably not alfred’s biggest worry with That Border. actually no i think he might purposefully talk in an aggressively chicano dialect whenever someone in the government wants to talk to him about the ice concentration camps. like he usually doesn’t try that hard to keep the wrong language out of his mouth but he will go Full Chicano, just to make them uncomfortable and to try to get the point across that he can literally feel the physical pain of the people trapped at the border in those camps. but this also causes some tension with the countries of origins of those people, seeing as they can also feel that pain. there’s quite a lot of discourse between america, mexico, guatemala, honduras, and el salvador about that, because none of them quite know what to do. they argue again about whose pain it is and how they should, as nation personifications, deal with it.

another thing that he struggles with where matt is concerned is with his indigenous languages. the languages of his northernmost people are the most at risk and endangered, and some are actually in the process of dying. he hates that, because as much as he wants to act like he speaks just SCE and quebecois, he doesn’t. he knows all of his people’s languages, and it makes him feel like he’s losing his identity a little bit when his indigenous languages start fading away. the worst part about this is that he doesn’t even always know it’s happening until the fading feeling kicks in, so sometimes he’ll just make a point of going up to the northwestern territories and try to hang out with the oldest inuit people he can find to try and have a chat. and it’s ROUGH communicating at first but when he can get back into it he feels more solid and defined. i think this isn’t unique to him, and that the other countries in the americas do this too, but bc of the way civil rights work in canada, it’s a little different for him. because indigenous canadians are recognized as a certain class of citizen, indigenous canadian governments have a collective legal bargaining power and could theoretically ask for legal protections from the ottowa government for their languages. however, this doesn’t apply to the northwest territories, so that’s why matt goes there specifically to talk to old ass indigenous people. their languages aren’t protected legally in the same way that french and quebecois are, so he sort of takes it upon himself as mr canada to do preserve the languages and history. it’s especially sad when a language dies out forever, because then he’s one of very few people who still speak it and if he wants anyone else to know about it he’d have to teach them. but since the language is dead, there’s no one for him to get help from. the people who once spoke it are gone or use other languages now, and it’s all very weight of the world on his shoulders. i think this makes him very sad, because of the weirdly smug left wing anti-american nature of canadian nationalism. like he understands exactly the sort of pressure freddie is under but also has a cultural pressure to not say anything about it or even offer to help. 

this is also why he has the most boring and basic idiolect out of perhaps the entire anglosphere- even arthur has a distinct posh dialect that he uses most of the time. matthew talks like a textbook. a very polite and anxious textbook, but a textbook all the same. and matthew williams actually kind of likes what alfred jones has going on, but canada doesn’t. canada fell into british hands after the end of the 7yr war, which happened to be the war that sparked the american revolution (speaking of which the ages for america and canada make no goddamn sense, ask me about it if you want more detailed thoughts). loyalists fled to canada, and developed a superiority complex around the idea that they weren’t ungrateful. then it was about how they weren’t slave owners- which isn’t entirely true- and in the present day, even in hetalia canon, canadians often define themselves in relation to america. that is, they are better than americans because of xyz political thing. right now, to quote the anime, it’s “our free healthcare and lack of gun crime, eh.” this also poses some difficulties for canada in terms of culture, though, because if that much of their national pride comes from being better than america, what do they have to make a name for themselves? for anglo canadians, that’s a more complicated question. for quebeckers, it’s that the’re not anglo canadians. but quebec is also annoying as fuck and canada actually has nightmares about there being a successful secession movement there, so. i don’t know what the average anglo canadian thinks of quebec seeing as im not an average anglo canadian, but i do know that i hate their accents so now matt does too, although he will respect their right to have their language protected by the ottowa government (because quebec, that’s why). 

anyway i do have one last thought and that’s that nobody will ever really know america or canada like they know each other. they struggle with a lot of the same issues regarding language, but america has just sort of given up. in some ways, matt’s jealous of him, and in others he’s so glad he’s not the united states. but they do understand each other a lot as the anglo americans, and as some of the number one destinations for immigration out of the entire world. so yeah, i dont have any specific strong conclusion ot this post, but would absolutely love to hear your thoughts about languages in the americas! shit’s wack in this neck of the woods my dudes. 

oh actually one last thing. i think america and canada struggle a bit with their identities because they dont fit into any one specific group, linguistically or otherwise. they feel a bit isolated from the rest of the world specifically due to the intensity of the melting pot effect, and even within their own countries sometimes. people will be like oh you’re too white or you’re too black or you’re too dine or too much whatever other culture, so they often feel isolated from that stuff because they are all of those things, and have a deep connection with all of it. anyway they’ll always be there for each other

[ajadedflame]

JADE > BIO > STATS // TEMPLATE SPRINGBOARD >

REMEMBER THINGS MAY POTENTIALLY DEVIATE FROM WHAT IS SHOWN IN THIS BIOGRAPHICAL. DEVELOPMENT OF MUSE IS ALWAYS ONGOING AND PREFERRED IN ACTUAL PLOT.

STATISTICAL BIO

FULL NAME NAME: Jade Grace Winthrope

NICKNAMES: Jai

AGE: 27

D.O.B: April 9, 2012

BIRTHPLACE: Howell, MI

CURRENT RESIDENCE: Detroit, MI

PLACEMENT: Apartment 3rd floor

GENDER: Female

PRONOUNS: She/Her

ORIENTATION: Heterosexual

AFFILIATION: DPD

JOB TITLE: Forensic Analyst

FACE CLAIM: Shailene Woodley

HAIR COLOR: Brunette / Sometimes Dyes Blonde

EYE COLOR: Green

HEIGHT: 5′8″ / 170 cm

BUILD: Slim

LANGUAGE(S): English

ACCENT: American

TATTOOS: Small Vine // Left Wrist

PIERCINGS: Ears

STYLE: Casual Dress, Comfort, Chiffon, Lace, Moderate formal: Blouses, Long sleeved Tops, jeans, fashionable trousers, athletic // yoga, sneakers & flats, sun dresses, heels & long dresses in formal settings only; Accessories: watch, studded earrings, earphones, phone, forensic data pad

USUAL EXPRESSION: Pleasant, Open, Smiling

ADDICTIONS: Tea (Chamomile, Earl Grey, Herbal, Oolong, White)

ALCOHOL USE: Not a heavy drinker at all. Will do it on occasion and/or socially

DRUG USE: Nope // Not if you count Advil for headaches

EXTRAS:

SIGN: Aries

ELEMENT: Fire sign but personally leans toward Earth

MBTI: ESFJ

TEMPERAMENT: Phlegmatic

ALIGNMENT: Neutral Good

HOGWART’S HOUSE: Ravenclaw

FACTION: Erudite

PRIMARY VICE: Envy // at times Jade envies people who have no care in the world, no problems or worries and sometimes wonders if it would make her life easier to feel the same way

PRIMARY VIRTUE: Charity // she tries to be generous and kind to people even if some might not deserve it

FAVES:

WEATHER: Spring

COLOR: Green

MUSIC: New Age, Alternative, Folk

MOVIES: Adventure, Romance, Film Noir, Science/Criminology Documentaries

SPORT: Does Yoga count?

BEVERAGE: Tea

FOOD: Pasta // Italian cuisine

ANIMAL: Dogs, Horses

POSITIVE TRAITS

Determined

Friendly

Honest

Romantic

NEGATIVE TRAITS

Impulsive

Pessimistic

Quick-Tempered

Stubborn

GOALS

Working efficiently for DPD

Networking with colleagues

Acquiring further knowledge/on site skills in forensics

Cracking a big case with extensive DNA analysis

Connecting with more people

Finding love // romantic at heart

FEARS

Losing family

Not being good enough at her job

Unable to find her true purpose in life

friends turning their back // she had a bad past experience

Losing any person she cares for

HOBBIES:

Yoga / Jogging

Book collecting: Physical, Classic Lit, Science Textbooks, Criminology &     Forensics Encyclopedias

Sketching: A little here and there for relaxation

Swimming: If only she could get out of the city to a beach

Horse Riding // grew up on a farm with two chestnuts

FAMILY:

MOTHER - Rebecca Winthrope née Stevens (Status: Alive)

FATHER -  Matthew Winthrope (Status: Deceased) // car accident

SIBLINGS -  N/A (She’s a lonely only)

PETS -  pup beagle named Buster as a child

RELATIONSHIPS:

EX COLLEGE BOYFRIEND - He will remain nameless.

FORMER BEST FRIEND - Natalie Baker // Hasn’t seen her since college days

DPD  ASSOCIATES - Varies but most she gets along with.

OC’S - Jade is an OC herself. Give her OC friends, platonic, enemies, etc.

BIOGRAPHICAL

EARLY:

Jade grew up out of the city in a ranch house surrounded by Michigan’s natural beauty. Her parents made a living farming produce for the buyer’s market even as economic hardships set into the futuristic state. She was often surrounded by nature, growing fond of the few horses her father trained on the side and kept on the farm. As a young girl it was too easy to develop an affinity for equestrian and she loved to groom those two chestnuts. They were her biggest animals growing up and not just in size. Taking care of them was a lot of work but the family also called a mini Beagle named Buster part of the family.

Her childhood was honestly simple living. No bustle of any city to deal with at the time. Everything was fairly normal, close to both of her parents and several cousins who would come visit during summers from across the border in Canada.

Being a small town kind of girl had its perks in ways. Her early life is not exciting. There were not any  hardships she could honestly say had a negative impact on her growing up. While some might see this as her having the easy life, Jade is grateful. There are so many things could have gone wrong. Luckily for her she didn’t have to go through that.

LATER:

A dream was making it to college to study forensic sciences. She honestly got hooked on the subject at an early age. Honestly she is quite the film noir buff and while she didn’t head into detective work it did start to push her in that direction. Jade did her absolute best in college. It wasn’t easy by a long stretch. Focusing on work did cause some personal problems to pop up. Her boyfriend really began pressuring her constantly about their relationship. She wanted to keep things straight and not wind up an unwed single mother whose career tanked before it even began. If he honestly loved her he could wait and stop adding more onto her shoulders.

Unfortunately Jade discovered her best friend and him fooling around behind her back. It hardly stopped there. Natalie, former best friend in current life events, decided to spread rumors about Jade being the offender in this non love triangle. It was a bundle of lies that cemented Jade’s caution in developing new friendships. With everything else piling on, receiving news about her father in a serious car wreck, she just had it. Natalie was her friend since they were kids but it seemed that friendship meant little. She didn’t take any excuse her boyfriend, who will remain nameless, gave her. Jade did herself a favor and broke up with him. It certainly was the easiest thing she could do at the time as her father’s condition deteriorated. He died from the accident and it made her realize the importance of life.

While it was difficult it showed her that she should focus on the now. It made her more determined. Even if her relationship with her father grew a bit more distant as he got older she never loved him any less. Maybe it had something to do with her branching out into the big city. He just thought she wasn’t cut out for it. Even before his death, right at the cusp of her private problems there was something missing. Jade could never hold a grudge against him but she’s angry she never had a chance to finally talk about it. Instead he died before she could even make it to the hospital.

After this she threw herself into her studies. Keeping in touch with her mother was spotty. It wasn’t due to the fact she didn’t want to be there. She tried every step of the way but her mother was having a bad time of it. Depression set in and it was one thing Jade couldn’t fix. College changed her in ways. It wasn’t just life experiences there. It was all that changed during her time there. Family life certainly altered after what happened. Maybe it made her a little stronger. Who knows? She still doesn’t know herself.

CURRENT:

Jade has landed a job in the city which is completely different than her childhood roots. While she’s been out of the country for a while, especially when attending WCCCD in downtown Detroit, living in the city itself is quite the change. Currently working as a forensic tech analyst for the Detroit Police Department, she applies herself to the best of her ability and honestly loves what she does. It was always a goal of hers to make it somewhere to offer her skills in criminal analysis. She is content with the position and aims to help in whatever cases come her way.

She had a lot of opinions about the whole android revolution. Living in the center of it all in a nice but affordable apartment high rise sure put her in the thick. Watching everything unfold on the news was far too surreal. Jade always held a soft sympathetic spot for androids and was all too happy to see them win their freedom and rights.

DEPENDING ON VERSE SHE COULD HAVE INTERACTIONS WITH ANDROIDS DURING THE REVOLUTION, ESPECIALLY THOSE AT THE DPD SINCE SHE WORKS THERE. IT JUST DEPENDS ON WHAT HAPPENS DURING PLOTTING. OTHERWISE SHE WOULD HAVE JUST BEEN A WITNESS TO IT AS EVERYONE ELSE NOT DIRECTLY INVOLVED.

The forensic analyst is very pro-android. She sees them as people, sentient beings who are alive with the same purpose as humans. Getting to work alongside them is eye opening. She wants to help any she can in all honesty. She has strong opinions on this so it’s natural for her. While it might not be her job, she can certainly give as much as she does to the DPD to those outside on the street just searching for something.

Working on current cases gives her ample opportunity as more involving androids come into the equation. Using the latest tech to do her job offers the needed help but Jade finds it a challenge she’s been looking for. Currently she is mixed up in a serial killer case, using tech skills in order to synthesize evidence to track them down. While they know little of this individual’s identity, Jade is attempting to apply new standards of technology to connect and track to the perpetrator. Some factual evidence suggests they could possibly be android. This makes things difficult as she tries to decide which method is best used.

[karazor--el]

Supergirl's Nicole Maines Is the Trans Hero the World Needs

Trans actress Nicole Maines is seeking justice on Supergirl.

The CW’s Supergirl is showcasing the power of the press, says Nicole Maines, who plays reporter Nia Nal (a.k.a. Dreamer). “This is really a season about portraying journalists as superheroes,” she explains. “When we have a president who’s trying to vilify journalists, then you guys really are heroes.”

When the show’s creative team was planning the fifth season, Maines says they wanted create an enemy “that the Super Friends couldn’t necessarily fight with their fists or with heat vision.” The show’s writers found their adversary in the leader of a human supremacist group who’s “fanning the flames of hatred and bigotry in National City.” Even after he’s imprisoned, the city continues to be ravaged with problems. “How do you fight fear? “ Maines asks. “How do you fight ignorance and hatred and bigotry? That’s not something you can punch.”

The parallels are all too real given the constant attacks on immigrants, reporters, and trans people like Maines. At 21, the actress has already had a life of fighting the kind of bigotry she tackles on TV.

In 2007, Maines first challenged her elementary school over bathroom access. The case went to the Maine Supreme Court, which ruled in 2014 that denying a trans student access to a bathroom that matched their gender identity was unconstitutional. Since then, she’s advocated for LGBTQ rights, appearing in the HBO documentary The Trans List and in the book Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family. At 17, Glamour named her Woman of the Year. She’s also received honors from HRC and the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

These days, her acting career is taking center stage on a show that could not be more relevant. Her screen work is reminiscent of Wonder Woman’s Lynda Carter — who is, ironically, now Maines’s costar on Supergirl, playing U.S. President Olivia Marsdin.

The show delivers plenty of timely issues, including immigration. Maines, who accepted the role before she even knew the storyline, says, “I knew that I was going to play a trans woman and I knew I was going to play a reporter and I knew I was going to play a superhero.” Once she found out about how they were going to draw a parallel to America today, she knew this was “a story that needs to be told.”

“This is what we need in a superhero show,” says Maines. “We have a show about… otherworldly refugees coming to Earth, coming to National City. What would that look like? It would look like you know a lot of people saying aliens are coming to take our jobs, they’re dangerous. The exact same conversation we’re having with immigrants today... How do you make sense of it all? How do you combat people’s fears?”

Without a doubt, Supergirl is attempting to challenge the hearts and minds of its viewers. “I think superheroes are a great way to talk about these issues because superheroes are a huge staple in American culture and something everybody’s familiar with,” Maines says, adding that by using superheroes to talk about things like xenophobia or homophobia, it can make such topics more approachable in real life. The camp aspect of it all keeps it light.

“I am not reading my news app and crying and freaking out,” admits Maines, “At least I’m seeing this through Supergirl. At least that’s how I cope with it.”

Using fantasy as a tool to talk about political issues isn’t new. Films like Iron Man, Captain America, and Superman have managed it successfully — using historical enemies, like Nazis, and even setting the time amid the backdrop of the Cold War. Superheroes have always existed at the intersection of culture and politics, but Maines says it hasn’t always resonated with everyone, especially radical right-wingers who’d rather take politics out of superhero movies. “People are only upset about it now because, for the first time, they are on the other side of it,” she explains. “The enemy is potentially at home. It’s not overseas, it’s not someone you can point at.”

Playing Nia makes Maines an even bigger role model as well, and she feels that love on social media. While she feels enormous pressure being the first trans superhero, Maines admits it’s easier because she’s not the first trans character on TV.

“We are exiting the era of television where trans characters feel a need to explain themselves,” she says. “Where all trans characters are the trans characters and that their role on the show is to educate other characters…[and] the audience about what it means to be trans. I don’t have to be necessarily the trans superhero. I can be a superhero who is trans.”

“What an amazing trajectory to know in 50 years we can go from being a completely isolated community and being thrown in jail for wearing the wrong article of clothing to being on television in a super-suit, and being seen by everyone,” she adds. “Not just people in our community but people outside of our community, people across the country, across the world are seeing us.”

Maines hopes that Hollywood will now be more open to cast trans actors in trans-specific roles, mainly because of the effects it has off-screen.

“One of the arguments that I see is, ‘Well it’s acting, it’s pretending.’ Well yes, but you also have to take into account how that is reading to someone sitting on their couch watching — someone who has never seen a trans person before. If you cast a man and put him in a dress and say this is what ‘trans’ looks like, well then that’s where we get the whole ‘men in dresses’ argument. That’s why I feel it is so important, because we are actively combating that narrative that trans people are somehow pretending or playing dress-up.”

While she thinks equal opportunity for gay actors, for example, should be a consideration, the rest of the arguments aren’t the same. “No one is going around saying that gay people are straight people pretending to be gay to get into gay functions. No one is saying that. There’s not that harmful narrative reinforced [when compared to the trans narrative].”

Though Maines is quickly racing to the top of the Hollywood A-list, she can’t help but be anxious, especially since she’s now part of an industry with so much rejection. That’s why she’s choosing to “stop, smell the roses,” and “be very, very happy, be very thankful.”

Of course, that includes finding love. At 21, Maines is “single as a Pringle,” she jokes, and the men she meets in Vancouver (where Supergirl is filmed) are often outdoor adventurers.

“I feel like all the guys in Vancouver are like, ‘Let’s work out, let’s go skiing!’ And I’m like, ‘Let’s not.’ After a 16-hour day, the last thing I want to think about is working out. I’m going to sit on my couch in my sweatpants eating ice cream and…rewatching The Office.”

Her family back in Maine have been a great support, especially in helping cut through red tape so she could continue her hormone treatment while filming abroad. She jokes about the difficulty of working with insurance in the U.S., living in Canada part of the year, and no longer being able to have her mom mail hormones across the border to her on set. “Look at me smuggling estrogen across the border,” the baby-faced Maines quips. “I am the face of crime.”

Maines’s new vampire movie, Bit, premiers soon. “It’s freaking great,” Maines boasts. “I play a transgender girl from Oregon who visits her brother who is an actor in Los Angeles, and she falls in with a gang of intersectional feminist vampires in Los Angeles — and it is amazing.”

Hollywood clearly has a new superstar on the rise. And to whoever is casting the new Avatar: The Last Airbender reboot, Maines says she’s waiting for their call. Oh, and she’s game to do a Star Wars flick too.

“Superhero and Jedi,” says the young starlet, exposing her inner geek girl. “Those are where the goalposts are.”

The Advocate Magazine.

[steves-on-a-plane]

Don’t Get Attached (Pt 19)

Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five / Part Six / Part Seven/ Part Eight / Part Nine / Part Ten / Part Eleven / Part Twelve / Part Thirteen / Part Fourteen / Part Fifteen / Part Sixteen / Part Seventeen / Part Eighteen /

Words: 1274 Connor x Daughter!Reader W/ Dad!Hank Anderson Summary: Reader pushes Connor to find out what happened to the Deviants after Jericho exploded. When her tells her they're at an abandoned church, she insisted they check in on everyone.

“Because I don’t love those other thousand androids!” He finally burst out. His hand rose to meet yours, pressing it further to his cheek. “I love you, [Y/N].”

“Connor I…I don’t know what to say.” You stammered after failing to find the right words.

“Don’t say anything.” He advised, leaning forward. You obliged tilting your face upwards to greet him as your lips touched.

Like most of Connor, his lips were unexpectedly soft and warm. His hands traced the curves of your body and settled on your hips. He gripped them gently and used them to pull you close to him. You held his face in your hands, cupping his jawline. Eventually you moved your hands up to his hair. You combed your fingers through his hair and occasionally grabbing fistfuls of it. You only broke apart when you were short of breath.

“I need oxygen.” You reminded him, staggering backwards. He held onto you, remembering your bad leg.

“Of course.” He nodded. “Will you allow me to take you home now, Please?”

“Can you talk to Markus and the others? Can you tell me if they got out safe?” You asked, nervously biting your lip.

“If you still need oxygen, it may be wise for you to not bite your lip just this moment.” Connor advised. You understood what he was implying and decided to tease him. You continued biting your lip and offered an unapologetic smile. “[Y/N], do you want me to tell you about Markus and the others or do you want to go back to…” He leaned forward, his lips hovering just above yours.

“Tell me about the Deviants first.” You decided. Connor nodded. He immediately straightened his back and stood up.

“Marcus sent me an address. It is an abandoned church not far from here.” He told you. “Any Deviants who were able to escape Jericho are encouraged to regroup there.”

“We should go.” You encouraged him. “They might need our help.”

“[Y/N], I really must insist that I take you home.” He was less enthused.

“I propose a compromise.” You suggested in your best imitation of Connor. “You can take me home after we check on the Deviants from Jericho.”  

“Y/N, please…” Connor looked back at you. He blinked his eyes several times while he tried to determine the best course of action. Navigating one’s own emotions was far more difficult that he’d anticipated. While rationally he knew the safest course of action was for the two of you to go directly home, he also wanted to help the other androids. He knew that he could help, he was the only one who knew Cyberlife’s inner workings well. He had a plan, but that plan would only work if he knew you were safe.

“Connor, I’m not going to budge on this.” You insisted, breaking him from his thoughts. “If you won’t take me I’ll have to go myself.”

“[Y/N], I promised Hank.” He pleaded with you.  “He’ll be home by now and he’ll be worried about you.”

“I’ll be safe as long as I with you.��� It was the truth. You’d always known that Connor would never let anything happen to you and now that he was Deviant, he’d be more protective than ever. “We’ll meet Marcus at the church and if they’re safe, I’ll go home without any complaints. I promise.” You vowed, sealing it with a kiss.

You and Connor entered the church, both painfully aware of the loud creak emulating from the door as he opened it. Most of the androids looked around as you walked in. They resumed what they’d been doing when they decided neither of you were a threat. Even at a glance you could tell that not everyone from Jericho had survived. Marcus approached you looking somber.

“Connor. [Y/N].” He greeted you with a pair of nods. “I didn’t think you’d come.”

“It’s my fault the humans found Jericho.” Connor reminded him. “I want to help but I can understand if you’ve decided not to trust me.”

“You’re one of us now.” Marcus told him. “Your place is with your people.”

“There are thousands of Androids at the Cyberlife assembly plant.” Connor volunteered. He was nervous to describe his plan in front of you, but Marcus needed to know that the androids had options. “If we could wake them up, they might join us and shift the balance of power.”

“You want to infiltrate the Cyberlife Tower?” Marcus was skeptical. “Connor that’s suicide.”

“They trust me.” Connor disagreed. “They’ll let me in. If anyone has a chance of infiltrating Cyberlife, its me.”

“If you go there, they will kill you.” Marcus was certain.

“There’s a high probability.” Connor didn’t argue. He cast a sideways glance in your direction. “But statistically speaking, there is always a chance for unlikely events to take place.”

“I can’t guarantee her safety.” Marcus said, indicating you.

“I’m not asking you to.” Connor agreed. “She’s going home.”

“How can you expect me to just go home after telling me that you’re going to try and infiltrate Cyberlife?” You argued. “I should go with you.”

“You should go home, [Y/N].” Marcus told you. “You’re not an android. This isn’t your fight.”

“You’re wrong.” You told him. “I’m not an android, but this is everyone’s fight. Your people need to know that some humans can be trusted. Not all of us want to see android kept in camps or disassembled. Let me help.”

Marcus seemed hesitant. He knew that all humans weren’t inherently evil just as all deviants weren’t inherently dangerous. He knew that you could be trusted. You had stopped Connor from shooting him back at Jericho. But he was already feeling guilty about allowing Connor to sneak into Cyberlife. Would it be fair to ask more of you? Marcus glanced over his shoulder. You followed his glance to the android family you’d met before.

“I thought they would be safe with us.” He told you. “Now, I think the best thing to do would be to get them out of the city. Can you do that?”

“[Y/N]…” Conner warned you, placing a hand on your shoulder. You’d promised him you’d go straight home.

“No.” You told Marcus. “It’s too risky and there’s very little chance they’d make it across the border. Canada’s been anti-android since before this all happened. I doubt they changed their minds.” Marcus nodded. He looked disappointed. “But, I can keep them safe. They can come home with me.”

“[Y/N], you apartment is in the center of the city.” Connor reminded you. “It would be too dangerous to take androids there.”

“Not my place; Dads’.” You shook your head and explained to Marcus why this was a good plan. “It’s on the outskirts of the city, I can take backroads most of the way and no one will think to look for them once we’re there. My dad’s a cop, and he has a bit of a reputation for hating androids. Connor tell him.” You elbowed Connor.

“It’s more efficient if I show you.” He explained. Connor rolled up his sleeve and exposed his right forearm. He offered it to Marcus. The Deviant leader linked up his own arm and the two androids began sharing information. You could only assume Connor was sharing footage of your father from before when he hated androids and now that he’d come around to Connor. When the information share was complete, Marcus looked back at you.

“Are you sure that you can get them there safely?” He asked.

“Yes.” You promised.

“Alright. I’ll introduce you.” He began to walk away and motioned for you to follow him.

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[geekydane]

More than a machine - Connor x reader - part 13

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 •  Part 4 •  Part 5 •  Part 6 • Part 7 • Part 8 • Part 9 • Part 10  • Part 11 • Part 12 

You sat with Josh and felt the painkillers, that Josh had stolen somewhere, finally hitting the spot. You had eaten the poor sandwich he found and there was only a little left of the diet coke he got from a vending machine he hacked on his way back.

“I owe you, Josh. The pain is almost gone. I can actually move my shoulder without crying now.” You said with a half-smile to the android. Josh frowned at first, but gave you a light chuckle.

“I can’t imagine how it must feel like to… feel pain. Physically that is. You were lucky that it went out on the other side. Think if we had to remove it! We would have to dive right into you flesh and…”

“Thanks Josh. I don’t want to think about that.” You interrupted him and pretended that you would be sick just by the thought. That made Josh lighten up a little and he started to joke around with the android woman on the other side of him. Finding a little light in the middle of this mess was just a miracle.

Your eyes landed on Markus as he was making his way up the stairs where the altar once stood in the large church. He had been talking with people all around the church since Connor left. You guessed that he was still trying to figure out what to do. There wasn’t really much to do other than try again and again to convince the other humans to set them free. Many androids were captured and destroyed in camps all over the city. You had to at least try to rescue them. You knew it was their fight, but all other humans had to see that human can support androids too. You would be right there next to Markus, Josh or even North. So you listened when Markus spoke up.

“Humans have decided to exterminate us. Our people are packed in camps right now, being destroyed. Time has come to make a choice. One that very well may determine the future of our people.” Some of the androids around you roared as a respond to what Markus said. Some of them yelling for blood like North had done, while others were calm and collected.

“I know…. I know you are all angry. And I know you want to fight back. But I assure you, violence is not the answer here. We are going to tell them peacefully that we want justice. If there’s any humanity in them, they will listen. And if not, others will take our place and continue this fight. Are you ready to follow me?” There was a collective roar around you and everyone that was able to, stood up to cheer.

As the cheers slowly died out and the main crew of Markus, North and Josh stood discussing the last few things before leaving, the giants male android that was with Kara and Alice, stood in front of you and reached out his hand. Luther, you recalled Kara calling him.

“Can you help us before we leave?” He said as you took his hand and stood up.

“Sure. Anything.” Kara and Alice were too kind and too fragile to go into a war like this, so if you could help in any way, you would do it. Luther didn’t let go of you. He was supporting you as you walked. You were too grateful by his action, that you didn’t tell him that you didn’t really need his support, you were just limping a little. He guided you to Kara and Alice. Alice stood with her arms around Kara’s legs and looked smaller than before.

“We need to get out of here before hell breaks loose. I don’t want Alice to get hurt.” Kara said. She sounded stressed out and with good reason. People around you started to move towards Markus; ready to follow him.

“What can I help you with?” You said determined.

“We need to go to the Canadian border. We met a woman, Rose that is just like you, that helps androids. She said that it is safe for us in Canada. We need to find a way to get there.” You looked around for a moment. You didn’t know where this abandon church was, but if it was anywhere near the harbour where Jericho was, there wouldn’t be too far to the nearest bus stop.

“I have to admit I don’t know exactly where we are. But I know that the infrastructure in the city is amazing. If we are anywhere near the harbour you should be able to catch a bus from one of the main road further west. If they are still driving that is. I don’t know if the rest of the city has declared state of emergency.”

“Thank you y/n. I hope you are right with the busses.” Kara said and hugged Alice to her side.

“Please be careful out there. The police are everywhere and they might be checking everyone when they pass.”

“I will make sure they get to the border.” Luther said and you knew that he meant every word.

Right before everyone started to leave, you saw the three of them leave out of the other end of the heavily damaged church along with a few others that wanted to that the chance and get to the Canadian border. No one would blame them because what Markus was about to do had a very small survival chance. With just one action by a few hundred androids he had to turn the opinion around for the whole population of America. But you trusted Markus like everyone else around you did. So you followed along with the androids up to Woodward Avenue.

-------------------------------------------------------

It was late at night. Close to midnight you thought, by how the moon was rising on the sky. A sudden sound of propellers was around you and you flickered with the memories of the clearing of Jericho, but looking up you saw a small helicopter with a news logo on the side. It was the media that had gotten a hint and wanted to cover what was happening. No matter how this ended, it would be written about in the history books.

When you turned the corner on Woodward Avenue you gasped when you saw the police forces standing there. They were ready to greet the androids with fire. You were walking right behind Markus and were waiting for him to react, but he didn’t do anything at first.

“Surrender immediately or we will open fire!” Screamed one of the armed men and you could feel Josh walk closer to you for the next few steps. Markus stopped and then the rest of you stopped as well.

“We don’t want confrontation. We are protesting peacefully.” Markus yelled back at the soldiers.

“I repeat, surrender now or we will open fire!” The same man screamed as the ground started to shake. You looked worrisome around to see two huge tanks drive up behind you and the androids along with many armoured vehicle. They blocked the path behind you and you were now stuck in the middle.

“There is no going back now.” Markus said as much to himself as to all of you. Many of the androids looked nervously around.

“We are here to demand the immediate liberation of all androids detained in camps across the country. We are not leaving until out people are free.” Markus said loudly again, so the soldiers could hear. You limped a few stepped further up closer to Markus as the blitz from a camera came from your left. You looked passed the barricades that was places along the pavement and a dozen of journalises where standing there with cameras and microphones to get the best cover of the action.

“They have a human with them!” One of them suddenly shouted.

“Its y/n! From the first protest down town!” Yelled another. It made a lot of movement in the soldiers that were still pointing their guns at the protesting androids but looked like they were lost. They waited until someone stepped in the middle of them and barked an order that only they could hear. Afterward they all stood straight and one of them yelled the stupidest thing you had ever heard.

“Let the human go!” You were close to laughing and shook your head. You stepped forward, up next to Markus so they all could see.

“I am here by my own free will. I am here to fight for the androids rights! I am only limping because of YOU!” You pointed at the soldiers and they all looked confused again as they looked at each other.

“Let her go or we will open fire!” The commander yelled again and they threw your arms in the air in disbeliefs.

“I am here on my own!” You screamed with all you had in you. It was shrill but you wanted them all to hear.

“Fire!” was yelled before you could react. Luckily for you, one of the androids jumped to you and threw you to the ground as the first bullets flew. The pain from you shoulder was much greater than what the painkillers could keep away but your mind were somewhere else. A lot of androids got hit, but only few of them fell to the ground. You looked at those who were the unlucky once and started to tear up. The android that helped you were the WR400 you once helped. She was the second one you had taken in after Markus. She looked at you with a smile and you were glad to see that she was still alive. But when she got up to follow the rest that were still marching towards the soldiers, you could see that she had a bullet hole in her back. She had saved your life.

“Fire!” Were yelled again and more androids fell around you as they continued walking.

“Are you going to open fire at unarmed protesters?” Markus said loud but calmly to the armed men and you could hear the flicking of cameras sounded from the barricades again. The media were loving this and it was a good way to show who was right and who was clearly wrong in this.

The moment after Markus took a decision and sat down on the ground. All the other androids followed around you. You supported yourself on your good arm as you sat up along with them. The reporters were talking fast, taking pictures and filming while the helicopter was still hanging over you. You were sure that that was the reason for the commander of the soldiers to make them hold the fire.

Hurry up Connor.

--------------------------------------------------------

tags: @vda-writes @mundane-cup-noodles @superanonymousreader @aya-fay @dragonempress123 @talle-2002@jamiethenerdymonster @i-resent-this-hellsite @i-do-wat-i-want @syrinxgm@queerfandomtrash @missjayi @belleknows@veerniks @dylan-o-yumm @wonderlustedchild@cliche-female-protagonist @omegachizu @black-and-white-eyes

[starrynite7114]

Things you never knew: One

A/N: Hi everyone! Slightly new to the Mayans fandom, but I’ve decided to write an Angel multi-chapter story. This is my first time dabbling in the Mayans fandom, hopefully you guys will like this story! It’s gonna be a wild ride. 

“Ace,” Michael greeted me. “Per your request, Aurelio,” a smirk appeared on Michael’s face, happy to finally give this prick what he deserved.

“Ailee, come on, Maquina is a friend.” Aurelio did not even let me ask the questions, he knew better. He always knew that the worst gang of them all was the government, but Maquina made the CIA and FBI look like reasonable people, like saints.  

But then again, Maquina basically did the dirty work for the CIA and FBI.

“Friendships end,” I took my gun out from the holster, looking at Michael. “Where’d you find him?”

“Attempting to cross the border,” Michael replied. “To Canada.”

“Canada? Not Mexico?” I questioned.

“I have family in Canada.”

I nodded my head. “Why are you running? Thought you didn’t do anything wrong.” She twisted the silencer on the muzzle knowing that even though there were no occupied buildings for miles, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

‘Sloppiness causes unnecessary deaths.’ Theo’s voice rang through my head.

“Ailee, come on, we’ve been in business together for 4 years, I’ve done all Maquina has asked of me.” Aurelio pleaded, struggling through his restraints.

I’ve killed so many people before that it was a routine at this point. It was my job. Way back when, I had a set of codes that I abided by, which seemed a bit hypocritical since I was an assassin. But even assassins had a code of ethics to assure that our way of living remained hidden. Maybe in some ways we tried to justify our kills, but we always tried to avoid killing an innocent person. After all, we had to have some ounce of humanity left in us.

At least I did or I used to.

Nowadays, I killed with no qualms. The codes I used to live by was just not something I believed in anymore. With every body that dropped in front of me, with every life I took, my humanity begun to chip away.

I nodded my head and took the gun. I pointed the gun at Aurelio, sliding my finger inside the trigger guard, placing my index finger on the trigger. He begged for mercy as I observed him. His face was full of cuts, blood sliding down the side of his face. His left eye was swelling from all the punches he received.

For a moment, I felt that mercy that was once there. The one that let some people go due to their family ties. The one that cried whenever I took a life. The one that begged for forgiveness from God for all the sins I’ve committed.

I shouldn’t show a sign of weakness. I shook my head, getting rid of the weakness that no assassin should ever have. Mercy was for the weak; I trained myself to be able to rid of such thoughts.

My feet begun moving towards the man, placing the gun on his forehead. “Sorry, it’s nothing personal. You just helped the wrong guy.” I pulled the trigger, his blood splattering on my clothes and face.

I didn’t even blink.

Insane, isn’t it?

The man dropped on the floor as I put my arm down. Michael handed me a towel and I wiped my face. He then handed me a sweatshirt so I could cover my shirt. I took it, slipping it on my body.

“At least your jeans are black,” Michael pointed out making both of us laugh.

“Isn’t it always?” I looked at Michael and gave him a small smile. “Clean this up?”

“Don’t I always?” He replied returning my smile with that smirk of his.

I nodded my head and walked out of the abandoned building we used to kill or torture the living shit out of people. Cliché, I know, but abandoned warehouses/buildings were the best places to rid the world of some people that no longer contributed much to society.

I wasn’t exactly proud of my job, but it was what I was good at. Oddly enough, I was never a troubled child, I got straight A’s, a model student as one might say, but for some reason, I drifted to this lifestyle. Fighting absolutely fascinated me. Action movies were my favorite movie genre. But at one point, I was a college student, a so-called “normal” person. Then one day, I dropped out. College wasn’t for everyone and it certainly wasn’t for me. My parents were absolutely devastated, but they weren’t going to be devastated for long, they were killed the next day.

It wasn’t an accident, even though that’s how everyone tried to paint it.

It was an assassination.

And that’s how I was introduced into this world.

My parents worked for this organization, they owned the organization.

It was the government’s loophole to diplomacy. Mercenaries. Though, we were whatever the assignment needed, whether it be an assassin, a mole, etc. At the end of the day, we worked for the government. However, we did partake in independent contracts as well.

Maquina.

It was the name of the agency my parents owned. My siblings and I were in shock when we first found out; we didn’t know that this was what our parents were doing. My father’s older brother, Jin, was technically the one who owned the company, but my father sacrificed plenty for the company as well. When my parents had us, they weren’t as active, but once in a while, their business trips constituted of assassinating someone.

Their lives were what movies were based on and it was absolutely fascinating.

My older sister, Evangelina didn’t want to be involved, at least not in the killing aspect. She was a lawyer and was content with her job, but she was the in-house lawyer in the event there were some difficulties. But Evangelina usually handled the contracts for Maquina with the US government and our allies. John, much like Evangelina, didn’t want to be involved, but much like Evangelina, he had a part in the company. The odd numbered children was far away from the killing aspect of the agency as possible.

But Vince, the second oldest, and myself, the youngest, were immediately immersed. That was the catch though, my siblings feigned their surprise, it was only I that was kept in the dark. All of my siblings knew, because when they reached a certain age, my parents told them about it. I was a week away from them telling me of their true occupation.

Vince, much like myself, was an assassin. The best in the agency, that was no surprise since apparently my dad was some sort of legend. Though, its not like he was competing with anyone when the agency began.

Make a long story short, Vince died two years after my parents did and that’s when I took the mantle, to continue the family name. It sounded absolutely insane, there were much safer jobs, but when Vince died, a part of me died with him and the ruthless aggression began.

For some time I continued to follow the code, it was Vince’s code after all. But as the sadness and anger consumed me, things changed.

Killing helped ease the pain.

Evangelina and John knew what I did for a living that much was obvious, but they did not approve of it whatsoever. They never tried to run my life, they didn’t start now, but they always threw caution my way.

I, Ailee Cruz, have been living this life for about seven years now.

It was my daily routine.

I go in the agency, get my mission, and leave. Though some missions took longer than others, lately I’ve been local since I’ve earned my due. Seniority gave you the opportunity to pick certain missions for yourself. If it looked interesting, it was yours, if not, it was given to someone else. Seniority was hard to earn in this life since most people don’t make it very far. I was fortunate to have made it this far, but then again, I’m the best, I’m untouchable.

And others just leave this life behind. It wasn’t a job you kept for very long. Some people who made it through the years end up leaving and this wasn’t a movie, they don’t tie you down for life. Once your contract was up, if you desired to leave, you may leave. They even help you find a new job. It was the benefits of being paired up with the government.

It wasn’t the agency that haunted you, it was the sins that you committed that did. It was absolutely difficult not to make enemies in this type of setting. I’ve made some, but they were all six feet under, not my doing, it was their own doing.

I looked at the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the shining monuments of San Francisco, but all it did was bring pain to me. Vince jumped from that bridge. His body was never recovered. It wasn’t suicide, he was trying to escape someone. I was never able to figure out who had it out for my brother and it angered me, I wanted to avenge him, to make sure that whoever killed him suffered. But nowadays, I was far too busy to even try and look for whoever did it. The revenge didn’t fade, I just didn’t want to open old wounds. I finally had some hold of my life, I didn’t want to lose control once again.

“How was it?” A voice broke me away from the bridge.

I looked beside me and a laugh escaped my lips. “You’re lucky I don’t have a gun on me or I would have shot you.”

Xander, my fellow agent and brother-in-law, chuckled. “So, how was it?”

“Would you like to see my shirt?”

“No, you’re fine,” he shook his head. “A new assignment came through for you.” He held up a folder.

“From my uncle?” Aurelio was a personal favor I handled for my uncle. It was odd that he didn’t tell me of this other mission he wanted to assign to me.

“No, it’s an independent contractor.”

I nodded, holding out my hand. He placed the folder in my hand and I opened it, the profile and pictures in the folder shocked me.

Who the fuck did Angel Reyes pissed off?

I knew of Angel’s affiliation with the Mayans, it was hard to miss when I saw him often when we were growing up. Vince was never attracted to that MC lifestyle, but it’s not as if our lifestyle was any better. If anything, we were worst than the MC.

Angel was a former friend of Vince’s. We all grew up in Santo Padre together. He remained close to Angel, but I honestly haven’t seen the guy since my brother’s funeral. He tried to keep in contact with me, but I didn’t need any more reminders of my brother’s absence.

It was with me everyday.

“Angel Reyes? Since when did mechanics become targets?”

“This isn’t exactly high profiled case. At least he isn’t a politician, you know those are a pain.” Xander pointed out. “They specifically asked for you. And we both know that Angel Reyes isn’t just some mechanic.”

“Peculiar.” I shrugged and closed the folder. “Consider it done.”

“Wait, are you serious? You’re going to do it? He was extremely close to Vin-,”

“Don’t,” I cut him off. “Don’t say his name. This has nothing to do with him.”

“But Lee-”

“This is a business, what we do is not for the weak of heart.”

“Ailee, don’t be ridiculous, you know it’s more than that.” Xander sighed, I’m sure he was frustrated with my indifference. .

I was the best at what I do. I’m a ruthless killer with no sympathy for the person I had to kill. It was a sad life.

Could you imagine feeling no remorse when you see a lifeless body fall before you? When I use to hear stories about murders, I would always think that whoever committed such a crime had to be insane, but I was wrong.

I’m a perfectly sane person.

I just craved blood.

The adrenaline I felt when I killed another person, I would just watch his or her body fall, thinking in my head that I had one less person to worry about. This life I live, you’re always on alert, especially if you make enemies on the way. Sure the government technically protected you, our identities were more concealed than the Navy Seals, but some people make mistakes and they make enemies. I made that mistake once, but I cleaned it up.

The praise you received, the respect you acquire when you put another notch on your belt. It’s the best feeling in the world.

So then the question was, why do I do it?

In the world we live in today, you either kill or be killed, I choose to live a longer life.

I sound insane, I know. It’s like I’m contradicting my previous statement, but I’m not.

I’m a perfectly sane person.

“You don’t have to come with me, it’s a personal contract, you can stay put.” I slipped contract in the bag that I was carrying. “You were never a big fan of Angel, shouldn’t be an issue for you.”

“If I knew Angel was connected to your humanity, I would have definitely approved of Angel.”

“There’s no turning back now.”

[micahrodney]

Thread; Chapter 3 - Over The River

The following is a commission for Matthew Caveat Zealot.  Neil screamed, and started forward.  His head collided with something hard, but it wasn't his claustrophobia-inducing ceiling. As the foam-padded leather made contact with his face, he realized he was no longer in bed.  The young man was sitting upright, belted into the rear passenger seat of his father's Plymouth Voyager.  

“Whoa-” Neil's father cried in response, nearly losing control of the vehicle.  “Are you okay?”

Taking stock of his new reality required some mental recalibration.  Last he remembered was spending the evening with Damian.  The people-pleasing and worldly youth had been attempting to get Neil to broaden his horizons – and more relevantly his palate – by eating some chicken dish called Tom Kha Gai.  Afterwards they went back to Neil's place and may have had a bit to drink.  He vaguely recalled getting a voicemail from his father.  His dreams were vast and vivid, but as he tried to scrape together the scattered fragments of his vision they faded away.  More importantly was the rather noticeable gap in events.  

Neil took a deep breath as his father began to steer the vehicle towards the side of the highway. The digital clock above the tape deck read 5:45 PM. A large highway sign revealed that they were just 60 miles outside of St. Clair, Michigan.  They were 300 miles from his dorm room.  

To his left was his sister, Dawn. She was the younger of his two sisters, but she still had two years on him.  While the older sister, Kim, had been the spitting image of their mother, Dawn looked more like their father.  Her hair was naturally chestnut brown, though it was presently dyed black with electric yellow streaks, the better to match her grunge aesthetic. Dawn's usual attire was comprised of leather jackets and jeans, though she was wearing black sweats for the road trip.  

Occupying the passenger seat, into which Neil had just rammed his head, was his brother Travis. His beard seemed to have grown two inches since they had last spoken.  The boisterous one in the family was oddly quiet today, wearing a plain forest green sweater.   This was also a far cry from his Hawaiian shirt obsession.  

“Neil?” His father asked, after putting the car in park on the shoulder. “You good?”  

“I'm sorry, I just had a nightmare I think,” Neil explained. Maybe he was still having a nightmare.

That, or he had somehow lost several days of his life. They were on their way to his mother's memorial, which meant he had somehow fast-forwarded his life by about three days.  Which begged the question:  how the hell did that happen and why could he not remember any of it?  

“It's a nice change of pace, dude,” Dawn said, her attention split between her Gameboy, Walkman and the stick of gum she was chewing on. “Honestly you've been kind of a zombie since we picked you up.”

“Oh yeah, says the Borg,” Travis teased.  

“Don't hate my tech.  It makes the real world way more bearable,” Dawn retorted, resting her temporarily-misplaced headphone back over her ear.  

Neil took special notice of the word 'zombie' and decided to expand on that thought. “Have I been acting weirdly?”  

“I mean I figured you were just sad because of... you know,” Travis gestured towards the others in the car.  

It had to be especially hard for him, now sitting in the spot where their mother had for most of their lives, until the accident.  Three years had passed by in a miserable blink.  What were three days in the grand scheme of things?

“This is gonna sound weird,” Neil began, and that was putting it mildly. How exactly did one ask the question he was going to ask?  

“That would be a first,” Dawn quipped sarcastically.  Clearly The Smashing Pumpkins were not excluding her from the conversation.  

The proud patriarch Kevin Brown turned to Neil and gave him that same kind and understanding gaze that he always did.  His gentle eyes, that distinctive cleft in his chin, and a soft smile that won over even his mother. Neil could trust this man, out-of-touch as he was, with anything.  

“What day is it?” Neil asked.  

“Neil, you're scaring me now.  Are you okay?”

“Dad, please.  What day?”  Neil insisted.  

“It's Friday.  We picked you up from your dorm this morning,” Kevin said. “Neil... you're not on drugs are you?”  

“No, dad it's not like that,” Neil scoffed.  “I just-  I don't know, I haven't been sleeping right lately and everything is all... hazy.”

“Dude, it's dad.  If you're on something he won't get mad at-”

“I'm not on anything!” Neil shouted.  The confusion had devolved into frustration and Travis's well-intentioned comment was doing nothing to abate it. “Just because you fucked up your scholarship-”

“Hey!” Kevin interjected soothingly, reaching back to place a bracing hand on his shoulder.  “Easy now, there's no need to go off on your brother like that.”

Travis had turned back to face the road.  A few cars passed them, one even blaring on its horn unhelpfully.  Dawn popped a bubble between her teeth.  

“Now listen, son. If you say you're not, then you're not.  I trust you completely,” Kevin said.  “We'll take you to a hospital when we get to St. Clair and have the doctor check you out, okay?”  

“A hospital,” Neil nodded.  “Yeah, that's probably a good idea.”  

“Maybe they'll put you in a straitjacket,” Dawn smirked.  

There was no malice behind the comment.  Underneath the would-be nihilist's harsh exterior was a tiny grain of affection for her family, especially her younger brother.  This was her twisted way of trying to calm him down and make him feel at home.  And, oddly, it was working.  

“Sorry, Travis,” Neil said.  “I'm just really... I don't know.”

“You don't have to apologize,” Travis said, still not turning around. “It's a hard time for all of us.”  

He had the biggest heart of any of them, but it was also the most easily wounded.  When they were younger, Neil had been intensely jealous of the theater kid brother of his.  He was the center of attention, and by a wide margin the “favorite” child of their father.  As a result, the two boys fought constantly and viciously.  

Things only started to change when Travis left for college and started to mature.  But with the maturing mind came evolving tastes. He was a self-described “party animal”.  And one night he had partied too hard on the wrong side of LA.  Within a few weeks he was absent to all of his classes, and a no-call no-show termination at work.  

They found him on the UCLA campus between two bushes.  It had taken a lot of work, but their father had managed to turn a five-year jail sentence into two months of rehabilitation.  Being a lawyer's son had its perks.  The true penalty was the loss of his football scholarship.  That and the expression on their mother's face when he confessed to her he was an addict.  

Neil regretted his words now.  Apart from being the one big taboo in the otherwise accepting family, making such a cheap shot at his brother made him feel unclean.  When Neil had first found out, he was a little too keen to finally have something to one-up the perfect son with.  Teenage hormones were no help, and he hadn't developed a proper sense of empathy yet.  

“There but for the grace of God go you,” their mother would always tell Neil.  

That was bullshit as far as Neil was concerned, in the infinite wisdom of a adolescent.  He was better than Travis.  He was smarter. He didn't fall into the stupid obvious traps that all drug users did.  The mandatory D.A.R.E. Program had done a number on his concept of nuance.  But even as Neil railed on his brother, all their parents could do was just shake their heads with a mixture of disappointment and sad amusement.  

Disappointment.  That was a potent word. And that's what Neil felt like:  The family disappointment.  In spite of Dawn's fashion sense, Travis's past, and Kim's taste in men, Neil was the one who didn't fit in.  And it was nobody's fault but his own.  

---

St. Clair, Michigan was the homestead of their mother.  It was as far removed from Voxton as you could be.  The scenic town was nestled in the isthmus between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.  It was founded along the St. Clair River which flowed somewhat unimaginatively into Lake St. Clair.  

The river was one of the geographical borders which marked the edge of the continental United States.  Across the river to the east was Canada, should one feel inclined to attempt a crossing in the frigid waters.   Neil had only been here a few times in his life, and never while his mother was alive.  For some reason it was her dying wish to be interred in the family plot a few miles up-river, but she'd never expressed any interest in visiting the place.  

This was their fourth trip to the charming post-card worthy dell, where every street corner looked ripe for a postcard and every citizen seemed to come straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting. The skies were blue, the horizon dotted with lighthouses and the only noise was the sound of motorboats gently cruising down the river.

“How are you feeling, Neil?” His father asked, when they parked the car outside their hotel.  While Kevin Brown dressed to the nines when he was with clients or in court, he preferred a casual look; khaki's with a crimson-and-grey striped cardigan.  

“I think I'm okay for right now.  Still a little fuzzy on the past few days,” he replied.  

Fuzzy, but details were coming back to him.  It was rather odd, more like he was recalling an episode of a television show which he'd fallen asleep during.  He seemed to have some vague idea of stumbling  to his classes for the week, but there was something hollow and robotic about the memories.  They had no spark to them, no authenticity.  It was like he was on auto-pilot, which may have very well have been the case.

For a moment he did consider the possibility that he had been drugged.  But the only people he had been with in the past week were Damian and his classmates, none of whom had the means or motive to do so.

“We'll have a doctor check you out anyway,” Kevin said, in the way that brokered no argument.  “There's a nice new facility just south of here in East China.  Only opened up a couple years ago.”  

Modernity was Kevin Brown's sole rubric for quality.  

“Daddy!” Came an overeager feminine voice from the opposite end of the parking lot.  

Kim, the oldest child, was eternally dressed like was late for a board meeting.  Straight out of the 80s with a shoulder-padded salmon pantsuit and her dyed-blonde hair in a perm that framed her slightly chubby face.  She had come a long way from the auburn-haired teen in overall's Neil had a vague memory of from his childhood.

She was tailed by her current boyfriend, a middle-aged trucker who chose to mark this momentous occasion by putting his least-stained plaid shirt.  The corners of his stubbled mouth were still dripping with chewing tobacco residue.  

“Honey!” Kevin said, embracing his daughter.  “And this must be uh...”

After disentangling herself from her father, Kim lifted a hand gesturing vaguely in the direction of the gentleman.  “This is Rocky.”

“Pleased to meet ya, sir,” said the trucker, taking Kevin's hand.  

“Uh, likewise Rocky,” Kevin replied, shaking it hesitantly.  He was presently engaged in trying to calculate the staggeringly narrow age-difference between him and the man now dating his first child.  

“Guys how are you all!” Kim said, pulling all of them in a group hug.  

Only Travis truly returned the hug.  Neil was trying not to suffocate under the noxious fumes of whatever perfume she was wearing, and Dawn with her slender frame had managed to slip out of the grasp entirely.

“Glad to see you haven't changed, sis,” Travis teased. “Still pushing papers?”

“Papers nothing, little bro.  Real estate has never been this good.  You know I don't know what that guy in the White House is doing right now, but if keeps it up, I'm gonna be filthy rich,” Kim laughed in a way that she surely thought was musical.  

“Maybe you can buy some clothes that come in colors  that don't belong in an old folk's home,” Dawn remarked, her attention somehow still fixed on the Gameboy which should surely have been running out of battery by now.  

“Oh you,” Kim sighed, giving Dawn her own special hug.  A sour-sounding electronic chirp seemed to indicate the gesture had cost Dawn a life. “I love your hair!  I bet this is such a fun time in your life.”

That was the saccharine-sweet way of saying “this is just a phase”. There was definitely a wide line between the two older children and the two younger.  Travis had been made humble by his fall from grace. Had he not, he would have turned out exactly like Kim.  Brimming with sunshine and not a drop of it genuine.

“So,” Kevin said, cutting in.  “The ceremony begins at noon tomorrow.  We have to run Neil to the hospital real quick.”

Kim let out a dramatic gasp.  “Oh no!  What's wrong, little man?”

“It's nothing big,” Neil replied, dodging another attempted hug.  “And it's kind of a private matter.”

Kevin caught the comment and nodded his approval.  “Dawn, Travis are you two going to be okay here at the hotel by yourself?”

Dawn nodded and began walking towards the hotel.  If she had enough AA batteries, she could have survived in a cardboard box.  

“I think we'll be okay, Pops,” Travis said.  “I hope you feel better, Neil.”  

Neil patted Travis's shoulder in a conciliatory way, and the two parted.  He was unable to dodge the second attempt at a hug from Kim, who pushed her head into his shoulder, even though she had to lean down slightly to do it.  

“Feel better, buddy!”  

“Thank you, Kim,” Neil grunted, more than a little embarrassed.

---

The doctor's visit was about what could be expected.  There was nothing wrong with his brain, according to a CAT scan and an MRI.  Kevin Brown's money always did the talking about both procedures were tackled over a five-hour period, despite a warning from the doctor of potential complications with the readings.  

His father was brilliant and humble, but he knew exactly how to get what he wanted. To benefit his children he would go to any lengths.  After Neil had been poked, prodded and had an unseemly collection of fluids removed from and added to his body, the final diagnosis was remarkably unhelpful.  

“Stress-induced narcolepsy?” Kevin asked.  “My son wasn't asleep, he just doesn't remember anything.”  

“That's the best conclusion we have right now.  Some patients with narcolepsy can also experience somnambulism; sleep-walking.  It's uncommon, but it has happened,” replied the stoic, but clearly annoyed Dr. Faust.

“I just,” Kevin sighed in frustration. “I don't understand.”    

“Sir, your son's brain chemistry is fine,” Dr. Faust explained. “Apart from a little sleep deprivation his scans are perfectly normal. Furthermore the toxicology reports show a clean bill of health.  Only that came back was a little bit of underage drinking.  It's not drugs, it's not some form of mental disorder.  The truth is, sir, I don't know what happened to your son.  The best thing we can do is keep an eye on him and if he has another attack like that, bring him right in so we can examine him.”  

“This is unbelievable,” Kevin fumed, his docile nature slowly ebbing away from stress.

“It's okay, Dad,” Neil said, placing a hand on his father's shoulder. “Let's just go, it's midnight and we have the memorial tomorrow.”

Kevin was willing to stay there all night if he had to, but Neil's pleading had worked. He put his jacket back on, without bothering to roll up his sleeves and straightened his tie.  Ever requiring the last word, he turned back to Faust.

“I hope you're right, Doc,” Kevin declared.  “Come on, Neil.”  

[dailyaudiobible]

01/10/2018 DAB Transcript

Genesis 23:1-24:51, Matthew 8:1-17, Psalms 9:13-20, Proverbs 3:1-6

Today is the 10th day of January. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It's great to be here with you as we hit the center of the week. And I’m excited to take the next step forward in the Scriptures today and every day for that matter. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Genesis chapter 23 verse 1 through 24 verse 51.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word and for all that it invites us to consider, in all the ways that it turns things and shakes up things inside of our lives, in the way that it tills the soil of our hearts so that it is ready to yield the fruit of the spirit in our lives. And today we are invited to trust You with all of our heart. And, so, we begin that process by confessing that we haven't done that and our paths haven't been made straight because of that. You've invited us to not rely on what we think we know, but trust You with all of our hearts, in all of our ways to know You, which is what we were talking about yesterday, to know and be known by You. If we will do these things, if we will trust You with all of our heart, and not rely on what we think we know, but, rather, to know You and to acknowledge You in all things in, then our paths will be made straight. Your Holy Spirit will lead and guide us. And that is what we ask for today. That is what we ask for this month. That is what we ask for this year. That is what we ask for our lives. Come, Holy Spirit. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what's going on around here. Couple things.

This Sunday, which is the 14th of January, we’ll be in the Louisville Kentucky area. I'll be speaking at New Song Christian Fellowship Louisville. And, so, if you are in Kentucky, you are in that area, love to see you. Come say hello. You can get all of the details at dailyaudiobible.com in the Events section. And, so we’ll look forward to that this weekend.

I also want to remind you of the Daily Audio Bible Shop. That’s also at the website. In the Daily Audio Bible Shop are a number of resources for the journey through the Bible this year. We have our Daily Audio Bible journal and a number of bundles paired with Black Wing pencils and all kinds of writing paraphernalia to, kind of, move through the year, journal your life, as you move through the Bible this year, as well as a number of other resources. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop while you're at dailyaudiobible.com.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, humbly, thank you. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning DAB family this is Deborah from Providence Rhode Island. I’ve been a listener since 2006. And during all that time with during pod deliveries, when Jill was giving birth to Ezekiel, and when Brian was hurt, even the death of his family members, they never missed a beat they were always on this line. So, we have to show our appreciation and give to this program and continue to give financially. Yes, we are praying for them. Thank God. But we need to give financially, those of us who can. And those of us who think it’s you know… Five dollars a month even or ten dollars a month at least isn’t that big of a deal. I know it’s tough times for a lot of us. But if we can spend five dollars a day on coffee or some other nonsense that we don’t need, ten dollars a month to hear the word of God by these dedicated people is not a big deal. And those of us who can give more, please do. Because as we see the cost, it’s not cheap. I don’t know, I’m not technologically savvy, I have no idea what I’m talking about, but you see how the thing was down the other day. So, they need more finances I guess to get more bandwidth or whatever. I don’t know. Please people, let’s give as much as we can. God bless you Blind Tony, Slave of Jesus, Victoria Soldier, Pastor Gene, Dennis Johnson Jr., Rebecca from Michigan, all of the regulars and __ the people. I used to call it a lot. I know I don’t call it a lot. I don’t call it all the time. But I’m so grteful for __ that do. God bless you. Thank you. You again Brian and China’s doing an amazing job on Chronological. God, bless. Have a great day.

Good morning daily audio Bible community. This is Robin from Florida and I’m calling about the December 31st __. I’m humbled __ by everybody that called in, there were four people, John, Jordan, and to others whose names, I’m so sorry… But the one was a __ warrior. And I couldn’t believe how much you remembered or wrote down and shared with regard to wanting to know how prayer requests have been answered. It was amazing and I’m very, very blessed and honored to be here this year. This will be my first year actually walking through the Bible from beginning to end, Lord willing. So, I just wanted to wish everybody a happy New Year, and I concur with John, Brian, God bless you for your efforts. You’re a tremendous gift to all of us and your wife as well. So, thank you very much both of you. This is a big commitment and very time-consuming I’m sure. So, it’s a great honor to be part of it. I’d like to end with a prayer request and a short prayer. I have a sister, only one sibling. We lost one of our parents over the last several years. She’s older than me. And she doesn’t speak to me anymore. And it’s a long, long story. We all have those. But she’s not a believer. And I haven’t phoned in for her. First, in that area and then for our relationship to be restored. Her name is the Dichelle and she lives very close to me. And it makes it even more difficult. So, please, lift our relationship up. And if it be God’s will, that she would be saved and our relationship would be restored. And now with a prayer. Thank you, so much for listening and for the prayer. Lord God, thank You for this beautiful Florida day, not a cloud in the sky, cool temperatures, and just surrounded by beauty as I sit here in my yard. I am surrounded by Your word and love Your word. I’m grateful that…

God blessed 2018 DAB family. This is __ from Canada. What an absolutely enriching year 2017 was around the global campfire. Brian, as our shepherd, you have kept us accountable, nourished, guided and grounded with the word of God fresh every day. God has given you vision, insight, and amazing ability for commitment. All glory and praise to God. Thank you, for all you do. And may He continue to shine his grace upon you and your family. Thanks also to Sarah Jane and her team and to all those involved in launching new app. China, you are a rare gem young lady. The interview with your dad made me very emotional. I will be journeying with you on the chronological walk. You are definitely an inspiration to me. I bought a chronological Bible more than two years ago and I’ve just barely touched the cover. So, thank you. And glory and praise to our God who has given you the ability and courage to take this forward step of faith. My praying dabblers, I’ve always wanted to attend the More Conference, but couldn’t for various reasons. This year will be different, so, I covet your prayers that the Lord will allow me to go. And finally, I love this community that transcends all borders. Where else would __ and Canada be praying for __ , pastor Gene in Florida praying for is little Sharee in Canada, Blind Tony calling in words of inspiration, and Annette from Oklahoma City, keeping a smile on her face and just the sound of her voice. Guys, you get the gist. DAB is a wonderful kind, community. We pray, love, encourage, rejoice and cry together because God is with us. Love and blessings everyone. Keep smiling.

Hi this is Eunice from New Jersey. And I just want to say hi to my Daily Audio Bible family. I want to thank you all for praying for me. For those who don’t know me, I’m from New Jersey and was diagnosed with advanced cancer and I was really given a death sentence. But there was a lady who called in around December 18th. I didn’t get your name, but you really prayed and you said everything that I needed, everything that was in my heart. You prayed that my life be a testimony to my doctors, to my coworkers, to my friends and my family, that my family be there for me. You prayed that God give me strength through all this, and wisdom to carry it all. You said that you loved me and that I wasn’t alone. And, so, I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I also wanted to thank a gentleman, also from New Jersey. I believe his name is Jay, but I could be wrong. You, really touched my heart. And it’s not just you too, I know that there are other people in the Daily Audio Bible family who have been praying and I just want to thank you all. I love you all. I wanted to thank Brian and Jill for even creating this community. And I just want to say that China, congratulations on the Chronological order plan that you have. And I just want to say to everyone that I really…even though I’m depressed…and even though it’s hard to deal with what I’m going through right now…I also know God works everything for good for those who love Him and for those who are called according for his purpose. So, even though I’m depressed, also rejoicing in the fact that God is given me this life, including what I’m going through right now. So, I just ask you to continue to pray for me and I’ll continue to pray for you. I love you all and thank you again.

Hi DAB family. This is Joyce in California and I just wanted to say thank you so, so much to my family. You’re are also precious to me. Your prayers just poured in and it was just amazing. I have never felt so calm, so protected, so loved. And I got so much work done and it was supernaturally efficient because of your prayers and because of the love of God in my life. You guys, thank you so much, because that month of December should have been the hardest month of my life and what was my birthday and Christmas and all that, but you guys just made it the most joyous and most beautiful month of my life. And you guys, this precious DAB family has been the greatest blessing of my life. Thank you so much. And I just wanted to let you know that my test results will come back in January, probably the third or fourth week of January. So, I’ll be calling in and letting you know what’s going on. So, anyways, I’ll also be updating on the DAB Friends, Facebook friends page. So, if you want to find out what happens just go there too. I love you all so much. And I want to thank you for prayers for reconciliation for my family because that actually happened this Christmas and in early January, this week. So, anyways, my time is running out. I just want to say I love you so much and I’ll call back with that story some other time. Okay. I love you. Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone. I just love you so much. Okay. Bye-bye. Okay. This is Joyce in California.

[swawesome-wow]

If you wanted people to be informed, you'd have mentioned Palestinian terrorists and Hamas. You'd have mentioned the suicide bombings and hundreds of murdered innocent Israelis. You'd have mentioned the Palestinian leadership that first declined coexistence in 1948 and rejected every offer of peace since then. You'd have mentioned lies and propaganda and blood libel against Jews, thought in Palestinian schools. You care about playing the victim. But it's an old game. And you'll lose.

I wasn’t going to take the time to respond, but it’s summer break, and I refuse to let you hide behind anonymity and not learn a little something while you’re there.

1. “If you wanted people to be informed, you’d have mentioned Palestinian terrorists and Hamas. You’d have mentioned the suicide bombings and hundreds of murdered innocent Israelis.”

Oh yes, how could I forget to talk about Palestinian terrorists and Hamas. The thousands upon thousands of innocent Israelis killed. Wait, what’s that? 1,213 Israelis have been killed since September 29, 2000. 9,478 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000. I have never claimed that Palestinians have not killed innocent Israelis. Those numbers are only since the year 2000. Israel has occupied Palestine for 50 years, give or take, as you yourself aptly admitted by bringing up the conference in 1948. There is immense loss on both sides, though one has lost nearly 9x as many lives. However, comparing it numerically is extremely reductive, not only are you wrong numerically, you’re ignoring why people have been slaughtered on both sides, and what brought everyone to this point. There is no “justifying” the murder of Israelis by Palestinians, there is only understanding why these killings happened, holistically, and understanding the context.

People refer to it now as the Israeli-Palestinian “Conflict, Divide, etc.” But before recent, heavy political and monetary support of Israel, it was called the Palestinian Genocide, for good reason. 

2. “You’d have mentioned the Palestinian leadership that first declined coexistence in 1948 and rejected every offer of peace since then.”

Let me make this very, painfully clear. 

Palestine does not owe coexistence to Israel. Israel is an occupying state, an oppressive state, and one that has committed genocide against the Palestinian people. 

To bring it down to your level of understanding, the Palestinians were there first. Palestinians of EVERY religion, including Judaism, though I’ll touch on that later. The Palestinian leadership has been lamentable, no one is denying that. But let me put it this way:

Let’s say America was invaded today, by, say, Canada. (Sorry Canada, you were the first country to pop into my head, since I owe half my citizenship to you.) After things calm down enough for the leaders to meet, Trudeau says to *shudder* Trump (or even Obama, in this fake scenario, would make the same decision), “Hey man, I know you were here first and everything, and I know we bloodily invaded you, but like, let’s just coexist, like on that bumper sticker you guys are so fond of.” Do you honestly think the President of the United States of America, would EVER agree to something like that? Seriously? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. Even 50 years later, America would still be fighting for its freedom from its maple-drenched oppressors. So why are you holding Palestine to such ridiculous standards? 

I am truly saddened by the violence that has stemmed from this entire situation, but until Israeli soldiers stop wrongfully arresting, imprisoning, and killing Palestinians, even children, I don’t think you can possibly hope for “peace.”

My grandmother, a few years back on a return visit to Palestine after she fled so many years ago to Canada, was stopped at the border wall (yes, there is a wall there, in case people were unaware) for eight hours, for no reason. She was not charged with anything, neither were her daughters, my aunts, that were with her. Her crime was being Palestinian. I wonder what that sounds like. 

Oh yes, and because of that wall, the already pitiful economy of the Gaza Strip has crumbled, and they have no way of rebuilding it. Even if Palestinians find jobs in Israel, they’re backed up for hours each day just trying to get processed through the wall in either direction. They’ve been economically choked off from the rest of the world, yet Israel continues to receive monetary aid as if they’re in desperate need.

3. “You’d have mentioned lies and propaganda and blood libel against Jews, thought in Palestinian schools. You care about playing the victim. But it’s an old game. And you’ll lose.”

Once again, I need to make something crystal clear. So listen up. \

Palestinians do not hate Jews. They hate the Israeli government. Not Israelis, not Jews, the Israeli government, because that is the body that is responsible for Palestinian suffering. 

Since I was in elementary school, any time someone found out I had Palestinian parents, they immediately made quips or even stated directly that I must hate Jewish people. I had someone say “oh, so you’re anti-Semitic.” I’ve had people ask me if myself or my parents are terrorists (and I used to be Christian, now I don’t practice anything, my point being that I can’t imagine how hard it is for any Muslims). This misconception is so widespread that it’s toxic, killing any reasonable discourse on the subject by people stamping me with the anti-Semite sticker. So, I’m sorry, I haven’t had the chance to play the victim. Let me know how that goes for you. 

What I said earlier, about all religions coexisting? Let me elaborate.

For the thousands of years that Palestine has existed, Christians, Muslims, Jews, ~whatever~ lived side by side, happily and comfortably. Another misconception is that the Israeli movement came from within Palestine, which is just plain misinformation. This is a very, very reductive explanation of what actually happened, forgive me for not being more detailed:

When the second World War ended, there were thousands upon thousands of displaced European Jews (mostly German as you might imagine, but elsewhere as well). When Europe (and America) tried to figure out where to help these people relocate, no one wanted to take them in, deciding it would be too difficult to reintegrate. Palestine had the room and the kind heart needed to take them in, so that’s where many were relocated, en masse. But it was a finite time that Palestine agreed to host these refugees as refugees, they would eventually need to either integrate with the Palestinian people (gain citizenship, etc), or decide where they would want to move, if not stay there. But the relationship began to change, as some began to perpetuate the idea that they belonged there all along, and that the Palestinians were the ones that needed to leave or integrate elsewhere. As with most conflict, religion took a match and set it to kerosene, as suddenly Jerusalem was the center of the occupier’s claims to the land. While I won’t try to argue about it as I’m not informed enough on religious history, I will say that it is entirely possible to create a religious homeland without literally invading the country and creating a religious state. Church and state are separate for a reason, and have to cooperate, not override one another. 

So there are plenty of Palestinian Jews that understand and are outraged at the Israeli government, though they have been left out of intentional eviction, arrests, torture, and killings. 

COMIC RELIEF BREAK that is actually somewhat related but I promise it’s funny:

One time my mom was telling me about something that happened over in Palestine to friends of our family so word made it back to us. Like I said, the three major religions were living pretty happily together, especially where these friends lived. The IDF was evicting all the Palestinians from a neighborhood to allow Israeli settlers to take over. Our friends were one of the families kicked out, and they were best friends with the Jewish family next door! So when the IDF came knocking on the Jewish family’s door to offer them the keys to their best friends’ house, (they were Jews so they were allowed to stay with the new Israelis coming in), the husband of the family was FURIOUS. He started to back-talk, offended at the very thought, but his wife (the really clever one in this story) shut him up and took the keys. The husband couldn’t believe his wife would betray their best friends like that, but she just rolled her eyes in a “you idiot” fashion. They had the keys now, and they promptly gave them back to their best friends so they could reclaim their property! I always thought that story was hilarious :D

While I am disgusted at the thought that you could somehow compare this entire subject to a game, if that’s the only way you can comprehend such a vast discourse, I’m happy to oblige the metaphor: The only “loser” here is the one who can’t think for themselves and hasn’t done a little goddamn research, you soggy walnut. 

Speaking of research! Here are a couple of resources for those who have been following along! I honestly can’t say that the second is an unbiased source, however if you’re looking for straight statistics and numbers, check out the first link! It’s where I got the exact numbers I used above. If you want the international law/human rights perspective, check out the third link. Thanks y’all!

http://ifamericaknew.org

http://www.globalresearch.ca/israels-genocide-towards-palestinian-arabs/5591341 (thanks canada)

https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective (really good source explaining the international law and human rights perspective on the issue)

[wellmeaningshutin]

Short Story #114: Maternal Instinct.

Written: 5/28/2017                                                  A Week Under the Influence

It wasn’t clear how long it had taken for the whole ordeal to be over, it could have been a matter of minutes or a matter of days, but the important thing was that it had finally passed, her children were finally dead. This wasn’t what she wanted, if she could have had her way she would have full custody and wouldn’t have to worry, but if we’re speaking in hypotheticals then she also wouldn’t have an addiction to alcohol, or serious debt. Sure, she thought about taking her children to Mexico, maybe Canada since they were about the same distance away from both borders, but she could have been caught before she even reached those places, and what quality of life would they have if they made it? She hardly had enough money as it was, and it would cost her a good amount just to reach the destination, so by the time she ended up in the neighboring country she would be broke, without a job, wouldn’t know a single person there, wouldn’t even speak the language, especially if she ended up in Quebec. Then what? What sort of life would that be for her children? And if that wasn’t an option, what else was she supposed to do? If her children ended up with their biological father, they would never have a chance of having a happy life, they would become fucked up for all eternity, so she decided to keep her kids pure, innocent, happy. Great intentions didn’t lead to a great execution, and she was horrified by the effects the drain cleaner had on her poor kids. It seemed simple enough, it seemed like they would only feel sick and then die of fever like symptoms, but that’s only because she acted on impulse, and confused the effects of cleaning products with a poison that she had seen on television. However, she was right when she decided that it would be better to be drunk for the event, but she was only lying to herself when she said that it was the only reason that she was getting drunk, mainly because she had already polished off a bottle of white wine only several hours before, and was still feeling the effects. Lies were unimportant now anyways, because she knew that it was almost her turn to pass. If she continued to go on living, then she would have to do so in prison. She would get the death sentence, would have to deal with the public harassment and dehumanization, the awful television movies that would be inspired by her crime, but the worst part would have to be that she would see her ex-husband play the role of the loving father, the good guy, the real victim. On top of all of that, she would have to detox, and would have to deal with the awful feelings, physical and mental, that would surface, it was a zero sum game. The only reason that she didn’t die with her children, after they stuffed themselves with pizza and ice cream, was because she had to make sure that they were all dead. If one of them survived, she had to make sure that she would put them down, which is the reason that she had a hammer in her lap during the dinner. It was crude, but she was drunk, and it was arguably more humane than what the drain cleaner had done to them, even the aftermath was incredibly upsetting. Coated with blood and thick chunks of stomach lining, the table itself seemed to be worse for her to look at than her own kids, who only looked like they had fallen asleep at the table. However, she wouldn’t have to look at the ghoulish scene any longer, because it was finally her time to depart. She wasn’t sure if there was an after life, or what it would be like, but she figured that even if it was just the glittery void that she had known before birth, it would be better than being conscious. So, she raised her cup, filled with drain cleaner, as a sort of toast for her children, but before she was able to drink she heard a noise, it was her phone. Due to intoxication, she decided to put her cup down and answered the phone, hoping for one moment of brutal honesty, one that she believed that she could never afford when she was live, but constantly indulged in during her black outs. “He-hello?”, was said cautiously, she forgot to check to see who was calling. “Janet? Hello?” “Hey mom, wha-hows it going?” Her mother was too sweet, she couldn’t bear to go off on the woman, and she wasn’t even sure what she could complain about. Paying for lawyers in the divorce, helping to get full custody, helping babysit, or just driving, when was too drunk, her mother did too much for her, and was the only person who she truly felt bad for, since the woman would fall apart after the loss. “Why, I’m nearby. Do you remember Gladys? I was just at her house, and she made so much food for me, we couldn’t even eat it all. It was a lot. She told me that I should take it home for myself, because she had made it for me and me only, but I could never eat that much. It will go bad before I can even take a couple bites of it.” “Wait, who is-” “Gladys, Gladys, you know.” “Saying her name isn’t going to help me remember, you have to-you really gotta you know, explain all of these thing mom. I’m not- I can’t read your mind.” “She’s my lover, or whatever is closest to that. What do the kids call it these days? What’s the word for somebody who cooks you food, and you have sex with, without being mutually exclusive.” “Okay, woah, okay that may be too much to-” “It’s 2017, and you’re upset that I’m-” “No, I just don’t want to, whatever, so you-” “I’m almost there, I’ll be there in a couple minutes, bye!” Click. Out of a mix of intoxication and mortification, she stared straight ahead and felt an overwhelming sense of dread, stronger than what she felt while she watched her kids as they were about to take their last drinks. There was no way that she could take an early exit now, her mother had a house key and could walk in on her as it was happening, could see blood come out of from her eyes, nose, mouth, as she spasmed and the cleaner liquefied and tore apart her insides. Janet knew for a fact that no parent could bear to see their child go through that, and she knew that it would look worse with the scene around the table. So, she had to think fast. She realized that she still had the hammer in her lap, she could just try to bash her own brains in, but who knew if that would be effective enough, and that required too much precision from somebody who was three wine bottles deep. Then she had a better idea, which didn’t have any time for criticism, and she immediately got to it. First, she made sure to fold up the table cloth, blood, pizza, stomach lining, plates, drain cleaner, ice cream, all bunched up in the inside. Then she took it out to the backyard and sort of just left it by the back door, knowing that disposal didn’t really matter. After accidentally knocking the screen door off of its hinges, and having to pull one of her arms out of it, she desperately tried to remember where the wash clothes were in the kitchen, and had emptied seven drawers before she found the one she was looking for. It was then time to lift up each of her children’s faces to wipe off any blood that may have remained on there, praying, before she lifted each head, that none of the blood would have started to turn to crust. Luckily it was fresh enough for that not to happen, but unfortunately her only daughter’s forehead had a large gash when her head slammed into the corner of the table. The doorbell rang. Not having any time, Janet grabbed a bowl that had fallen to the floor, and placed it on top of her daughter’s head. Before she could answer the door, it had already swung open, and she was face to face to face with the two images that she saw of her mother, who was apparently wearing her glasses. Normally the woman had trouble seeing anything, making it difficult for her to tell her grandchildren apart, or to read anything on her phone, making her rely on calls only, even though half of those calls were to the wrong people anyways. Janet had completely forgotten that the dear old interruption had to always wear her glasses when she drove, or else she would continue down the same road for hours, or constantly take right turns in a state of confusion, causing herself to drive in circles.Thinking as well as she possibly could, Janet snatched the woman’s glasses off of her face, and threw them a a nearby wall, or at least she tried to throw at the wall, but ended up sending them directly into the floor where they didn’t shatter, until Janet had another burst of inspiration and stepped on them. “What was that for?!” Her mother asked, audibly upset. “Uh, you know, I uh thought it was a- well- it made sense when I-” “Oh well”, shrugging, “I guess I should just be happy that you’re still able to walk.” It never once crossed Janet’s mind that her mother could be an enabler. “I’m going to go ahead and put this in your fridge if you don’t mind. Where are the children? I’d love to see them right now.” “Oh, kids, yeah they’re in the-”, pointing towards the kitchen, “right over there.” Careful to walk without stumbling, Janet followed behind her mother, hoping that the blind old broad wouldn’t be able to tell that the children looked horrifying. Fuck, she thought as the old woman took her time to move, what the fuck am I supposed to do if she finds out? Should I just hit her over the head with a hammer, make sure that she doesn’t even find out, so she could die without even knowing the horrors that are waiting for her? Should I let her hit me over the head with the hammer, just so that she can get some sense of revenge, and I can be comforted in my death? Or, why do I keep, why is the hammer my only option right now? Why not a knife or something? Should one of us stab each other, would that be better? Or could I just steal her car, and drive somewhere, so I’ll eventually crash into something? Or, wait, maybe I’m at invincible levels of being drunk, maybe survival is guaranteed. I have hands, maybe I could use my own hands. Doesn’t being drunk make me stronger, can I bend her spine in half, and- no, no this is getting off track. God damn she’s so slow. Maybe she’s slow because of the food that she’s carrying, maybe I should help her. No, no that requires too much effort, that’s too much for me right now. I won’t help her, but I’ll kill her, maybe, or she’ll kill me. Where’s that hammer at anyways? Wait, don’t I own a gun? Why didn’t I, god fucking- “Ohh, there you children are. Here, I’ll just put this right here on the table, and then I’m going to come and give each one of you a kiss.” Janet didn’t know if she should scream or intervene. She threw up instead, and the sound of it hitting the hardwood reminded her of when her children threw up on the table, blood, stomach lining and chunks everywhere, and it only made Janet retch even harder. Her mother heard her daughter get a ‘second wind’, which is what Janet called it when she retched, then no longer felt sick, allowing her to drink more. The Tupperware containers were placed onto the kitchen table, and the mother came to assist her inebriated daughter, who was happy to have bought some time. “Okay darling”, her mother said with a hand on her back, “when you get all of that out just lie down on the couch, get real nice and horizontal, then I’ll come over and bring you a glass of water. You don’t need to tire yourself out, I don’t need any help with the children.” After helping her daughter lay down, then leaning in, speaking in a whisper, “Have you talked to them about living with their father yet? It’s a real shame that they have to go live with that horrible, evil man, but you can’t just keep them in the dark about it.” Janet had no idea of how she was supposed to respond to the question, so she simply decided not to. “You have to prepare them for everything, you can’t just make them find out for themselves. I’ve read up on the subject, or, I’ve listened to audio books on the subject, and I think it would be best if we taught them all of the warning signs, so they would know when his behavior would become.. Well, inappropriate. We need to make sure that they won’t be afraid to talk to the authorities if something does happen, just so that he could lose them and I could get custody. They’d be safe with me, and it would be no problem at all.” “No, uh, mom I wouldn’t want you to go through all of the trouble. I wouldn’t want to put you, put you through that. You’re a good person, and I love you, but-” “But nothing, I’d love to have them. To be honest”, looking away from her daughter, “I’ve been lonely for quite some time. I’m not sure if all of these casual hookups are for me-” “Mom, please-” “Sure, I’m a little grateful of the freedom that I’ve had since your father passed, and if I didn’t have you, and the children, why, I’d wish that I never met the man. Women can do so many beautiful things, they know what they’re doing.” “No-” “With men its very selfish, but with women its. Wow, have you ever been with another woman before?” “Is this really the time to-” “I swear, its like a parade of orgasms, its like-” Putting her hands in her face, “Go talk to the, to the kids or whatever you came to do. I don’t want to deal with this right now, or ever. Just, go. Go away from me right now, let me get some, let me rest and relax.” “Alright dear.” As her mother got up to walk towards the dining room, Janet breathed a sigh of relief and was glad that she was able to have space to recover. However, when she heard, “My, you children are awfully quiet tonight”, a sense of panic spread through her body, and got her off of the couch, even if it did almost make her retch again. “Now say hello, don’t be shy.” Janet clumsily slunk into the entrance of the dining room, and said, in her best child voice, “Hello grandma”. At first she was panicked and worried about it being obviously fake, about her mother catching on, but when the words came out it turned out that she was drunk enough to pull the voice off. “Now”, her mother said in a stage whisper, “what’d I tell you about calling me grandma? That’s only for when Janet is around, call me mom.” Again in that childish voice, “Hello mom.” Janet stared at the back of her mother’s head, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Then her gaze traveled over to the table, where the remains of her children were sitting upright, were very pale, and she had to look down at her feet in order to not make any noises, but also to make sure that she kept her balance. “Kisses will have to wait, I have some important news for you kids. Now, like I promised you kids, my sweet angels, you’re finally going to get away from this house and that wretched woman. You’re going to have to live with your father for a little while, but he’s promised to give custody over to me just for a little bit, I don’t think he wants to see you kids. Oh my, that was the wrong thing to say wasn’t it? Its just that, the man isn’t right in the head, and, uh, well look on the bright side, you’re going to live with your mother very soon. Isn’t that exciting? No more terrible Janet.” “Yaaaay!” What the fuck. What the fuck. What a fucking, what the, how could she? “What if mom hears-” “Now, haven’t I told you to call me mom? I’m your mother, and if you forget that again you’ll go right to your room without any dinner or desert. You can starve while you think about the mistake you made. You wouldn’t want that now would you, Janet?” Is, is she talking to me, or.. Why did she look at Tabitha when she said that, is she just, just confused? She could be, could be, could be. “Grand- I mean, mom, my name is Tabitha.” “Now, don’t make me raise my voice right now. I’ve told you a hundred times, now. James, how many times have I told her?” “A hundred, mom.” “That’s right. You need to remember this or I’m going to lose my good mood: you’re name is Janet. That was the name of my sister who died, back when I was your age. She was a wonderful girl, so I made sure to give the name to my first born, to make sure that her spirit would live on. But my daughter is a rotten woman, who drinks and drinks” you fucking buy me wine, you talked me out of going to rehab, you constantly tell me that its fine, that, that, what the hell is going on “and never shows you kids any love, not like your mother does. So you will take her name instead, you will be the woman that my sister was meant to be.” “Okay mom.” “Now-” and at that moment, James, the oldest boy, had slumped forwards until his head slammed onto the table. This time, the old woman spoke loudly, almost shouting, “Oh my, James, are you alright?” Janet, the second Janet, stomped on the floor, alternating feet, to mimic the sounds of somebody walking, then said, “Did something happen mom?”, pretending as if she had just come into the room to see what the fuss was about. “Oh, nothing dear. James just seems to be a little tired, that’s all. We’ll let him sleep, its no problem. Go back and rest, take your time to recover. Do you need anything to drink? I could bring you some wine if you want, that will relaz you.” “I don’t know, I was thinking about cutting off for a while. You know, I’m-” “Oh, don’t do that! You have no reason to stop, its not like you have a problem or anything. So what if you get a little tipsy every now and then, just go out and live your life. Now, go lay down and I’ll bring that bottle to you. “ So, now that her mother was focusing on her, Janet had to stumble back into the living room to plop herself down onto the couch, while contain her anger and confusion. As she stared up at the ceiling, she could hear the woman talk, but the words weren’t clear at all, it was just muffled noise. How long has this been going on, why is this, how could- then, yelled from the kitchen, “Dear, I can’t seem to find any clean wine glasses, so you’ll have to make sure to drink from the bottle. Make sure to finish it though, or the whole thing will go bad overnight because of all of the bacteria.” When she was finished speaking, she had just walked into the living room and handed the bottle to Janet, who was actively trying not to break the bottle over the old woman’s face. You fucking, look what I did because, I wouldn’t even be in this situation if it wasn’t for, she then screamed in her head for some time. Janet had decided that she wouldn’t try to kill her mother, she would have to do something much, much worse. For a second, she thought about the hammer, but she couldn’t think of what she was supposed to do about that, and then she had her great idea, but she would have to act fast. As her mother was saying something inaudible to the cold and unresponsive children, Janet piped up, “Mother, could you take James up to his room? He seems to be tired, and I feel oh so, so so so bad for- I’ve kept them up and its a school night and-” “Alright dear, no problem, I was just about to do that anyways.” Then, as she walked into the room holding the dead kid, “My, he seems to be very cold, almost icy.” “Oh yeah, he, uh, he’s had a cold for a while. I guess I forgot to tell you that, but its no worry, just make sure to make sure that he’s bundled up in extra layers when he’s in bed.” “And”, smelling the air, “it seems as if he has soiled himself.” “Yeah that’s the, don’t you know what colds do? There’s no need to embarrass the poor boy, just make sure to clean him up and tuck him in, then I’ll be up in a while to kiss him goodnight, but, but not on the lips though. I wouldn’t want to catch the-” “Yes dear, I understand. I’ll be back down in a little while.” When her mother was up the stairs, Janet decided to get to work, and leapt off of the couch, knocked into the coffee table, and rolled over while it crashed into the floor. There was a faint hint of pain in her right side, but she ignored  it, and her mother’s calls of concern, because she had work to do. Stumbling to her feet, then looking around for the wine bottle, Janet started to sweat, started to panic, she wasn’t sure if her plan would work, but there was no time to think about it, she would just have to believe that it would work, and that’s all that mattered, because if things fell through she would have no way of knowing, she would be turned off. She stood still for a second, and was able to spot the wine bottle, which was emptying itself onto the hardwood. She scooped it off of the floor, almost falling into the couch while doing so, then clumsily ran towards the kitchen, knocking over Tabitha and her chair as she passed through the dining room, causing there to be two separate thuds, and for the bowl to land on the floor, and roll into the kitchen alongside a disoriented, but determined, Janet. When she was inside of the kitchen, she made her way to the sink, where she emptied out the wine bottle, and when it was only half way empty, or what she believed to be half way empty, she tilted the neck up and looked around for the drain cleaner. Footsteps made their way down the staircase. Her mother was shouting something, but she couldn’t hear over the sound of her own heartbeat. Hands shaking, palms sweating, she surveyed the room until she found the bottle of cleaning supplies on the counter, next to a pizza box, and made sure to move carefully towards it. Her mother had entered the dining room, and was making some commotion about Tabitha, and Janet believed that her daughter could buy her some time. When she was by the pizza, she had to fight a drunken urge to start eating, to soak up the alcohol, and instead began to pour drain cleaner into the bottle, making sure to fill it all of the way. It was one of those rare moments of drunken clarity where she was able to focus solely on that one task, and nothing else, not even the idea of screwing it up, allowing her to perform her task perfectly. The bottle had been full. Her mother stepped into the room to find out what the hell was happening, shouting something about “the children, the children”. Janet looked her mother in the eye, and her mother looked at the fuzzy outline of her “rotten daughter”. “Dear, what’s going on?” She asked, trying, and failing, to keep her composure. “What’s wrong with the children? You didn’t let them drink any wine, did you? Please tell me that you weren’t passed out, that you even-” “Fuck you”, those were her last two words before she began to down the bottle. Do to muscle memory, experience, and skill, Janet was able to drink half of the contents before her mother swatted it out of her hands, believing that her daughter was just acting out in a drunken rage. However, when she knocked the bottle out of her daughter’s hands, some of the contents spilled onto the older woman, and she began to feel her skin burn. Then, before she could figure out what was happening, before she could even say anything, Janet stumbled towards her, grabbed her shoulders for balance, then started to retch blood onto the horrified older woman, who was confused not only by the blood, but due to the thick, black chunks that it seemed to contain. Janet’s nose began to bleed, she tried to speak but she emptied the contents of her stomach, and pieces of her stomach, onto the woman who was screaming in her face. Her legs buckled and she dropped to floor, clutching her stomach as she felt the intense and regrettable pain of her insides liquefying. She no longer wanted to speak, she wanted to scream even though she couldn’t, but her blood soaked mother was doing that for her anyways. Her eyes began to bleed, her consciousness began to fade. She wondered if this was the afterlife, if in the after life you only feel pain. In her last moments, she had completely forgotten about her plan, had forgotten what she was trying to do in the first place. The idea of trying to frame her rotten mother had never crossed her mind, she was just praying that her insides would stay solid, at least for a couple seconds.

[rolandfontana]

How to Avoid China Prisons: Know YOUR China Risks

Toxicologists will tell you that everything is toxic; it is just a question of quantity. I will tell you that every foreigner and foreign company is at risk in China; it’s just a question of how much.

The New York Times just did a story on two Americans in “the latest in a series of prosecutions that add to a growing sense of unease among Americans and other Westerners in China.” The two are “being investigated for “illegally moving people across borders,” a crime punishable by at least two years in prison and a fine, though it appears all they really did is recruit English teachers to come to China. I say “appears” because I have no facts regarding this particular case, but that is what I have gathered from reading about it.

The article goes on to note a couple of well-publicized detentions of Americans in China and how the US State Department has issued a travel advisory, warning Americans “that they may be prevented from leaving China is they go there”: In June, a Koch Industries executive was held in southern China and interrogated for several days before being allowed to leave the country. Last month, a FedEx pilot was detained on charges of weapons smuggling. Though he was quickly released on bail, he remains under investigation and has not been allowed to leave the country.

The article then quotes me as follows:

“China has become a risky place,” Dan Harris, a lawyer at Harris Bricken, a firm that specializes in investment with China, said in an email. “If you are going to do business there you had better know what the laws are and you had better follow them, because China is not going to let anyone slide, especially not an American or a Canadian.  Little things that were virtually ignored for years are leading to foreigners going to jail.”

Like pretty much every country in the world, China enforces its laws unevenly. It is not uncommon for China to enact a law and then not enforce it for a few years and then all of a sudden start zealously enforcing it. Conversely, China will sometimes zealously enforce some of its laws for a while, and then relax its enforcement. A great example of this was how tough Chinese law enforcement was in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It is also always the case that some regions of China will strongly enforce a particular law while other regions do not. China enforces many of its laws depending on who is violating them.  For example, China has always been tougher on foreign companies than on domestic companies in enforcing its business related laws.

Right now what you need to know is that China has never been tougher in enforcing its laws against foreign companies and individuals, especially those from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, it has taken it up to eleven.

Let’s talk for a minute about English teachers in China, and if you think that because you are not teaching English in China you can stop reading now, you are WRONG. English teachers in China are THE canary in the coal mine in terms of China’s treatment of foreigners.

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post, entitled, Do NOT Teach English in China and Why EVERYONE Should Read This, highlighting the following problems English teachers face in China:

Teachers are being drug tested using their hair samples. Many are testing for cannabis and being jailed for 30 days or more and then being deported. This is happening to newly arrived teachers who insist they did not consume any cannabis since arriving in China. Listen up everybody, cannabis can show up in hair testings up to (and even sometimes beyond) 90 days after you have consumed it. So if you are going to be teaching in China and you do not want to spend time in jail and get deported, please, please, please go at least four months without consuming ANY cannabis before you go there and please, please, please do not consume any cannabis while there. None. Zero. Zilch. 没有. Aucun. Keiner.  PLEASE. Invariably, the schools use this as a reason not to pay the teacher whatever is owed.

Teachers are being checked (or reported on) for having an improper visa for China. The teachers are then being tossed in jail and then deported or just deported straight away. Invariably, the schools use this as a reason not to pay the teacher whatever is owed. It appears to have become very common (as a cost cutting measure) for schools to have teachers come to China and start their teaching on tourist visas, all the while claiming this is perfectly legal — it isn’t. The teachers believe this until the day they are arrested. Near as I can tell, the schools rarely if ever get in any real trouble for this but the teachers sure do.

I eventually concluded that it is simply too risky to take an English teaching job in China and encouraged people to go elsewhere:

I have reached the conclusion that the best thing an English teacher can to do protect themselves from the sorts of things mentioned above is not to take a teaching job in China in the first place. Go elsewhere. And if you are teaching in China now, leave now or just resign yourself to your fate. I wish I could give better advice than this but I cannot. Sorry.

Living and working and doing business in China is way more legally complicated than ten years ago and tolerance of foreigners in China (particularly for Americans, Canadians and British) is down. This means that the likelihood of you going astray of Chinese law is considerably higher as well. When you then add in that China’s ability and desire to catch foreign companies and foreigners operating illegally in China is higher now than it has ever been, you can see why it is critical that your company and you are operating in China within the law. If you are not already operating legally, you need to start doing so now and if you cannot, you probably should leave China or not go there at all.  This is the new normal for China. See Want to Keep Your Business in China? Do These Things NOW. 

When similar things happen to foreign company employees in China, it almost never makes the news and there are two good reasons for that. First,  companies do not want the publicity. Second, if your company or employees are in trouble in China, it is a really bad idea to publicize that fact because all that does is cause the Chinese government to get its back up and become even less likely to back down. Trust me though when I tell you things are indeed happening behind the scenes to all sorts of companies and people in China.

Despite all these issues for foreigners in China there are still plenty of foreign companies operating illegally in China, oftentimes because they believe they have “no choice.” These companies commonly note that they’ve been doing what they are doing for years and there are plenty of other foreign companies doing the same thing and nobody has gone to jail. Our China lawyers’ response to these companies is usually something like the below:

You are violating Chinese law by operating this way. China is in open conflict with the United States/Canada and your company will be violating the law in a sensitive area — the Internet — the PRC government has identified as a national security issue. Today’s New York Times discusses what is happening to Americans in China these days and the sort of mistreatment it discusses is far more prevalent than the media lets on. American businesspeople are either afraid to publicly discuss what is happening or they do not wish to do so, but we hear similar stories from American companies all the time. They usually act surprised and a little perturbed for getting into trouble for doing “the same thing we’ve always done.” When we say, “ yeah, but what you were doing is illegal” their response is often something like, “well they [the Chinese government] always did allow it and it’s not like we are the only ones doing this.”

How will it be/look if someone from your company gets detained or if you get shut down and essentially banned from China?

Your company competes with [large Chinese company] in [Chinese city], a city completely controlled by [large Chinese company]. I can easily imagine [large Chinese company] inspecting your url, noting __________________, and then convincing the local authorities to crack down on you in a big way or in such a way to end you as a competitors and to scare away others. This is China….

What exactly should you do to avoid becoming a Chinese shut-down, deportation, or arrest statistic? What exactly does all of this mean for your company if it is doing business in China? What can you do to reduce your risks?

If past performance is any indicator of future performance — and we really don’t have anything else to go on, so we have to assume it is, you should do the following, and fast:

Make sure your WFOE or your Joint Venture or your Representative Office actually exists and is still licensed to do the business it is doing in China. Make sure it is current on its capital obligations. See Doing Business in China Without a WFOE: Will the Defendant Please Rise.

Make sure your WFOE or your Joint Venture or your Representative Office is actually properly licensed to do business in every city in which it is doing business. It is shocking how often this is not the case.

Make sure your company is doing everything correctly with its employees. Consider an employer audit and note that our China employment lawyers have never done an employer audit without finding multiple problems.

Make sure your company is current with its taxes. If you think it may not be, it almost certainly is not.

Review your lease agreement and the relevant zoning rules. Are you renting from a real landlord? Is it really legal for your business to do what it is doing where it is doing it?

Have a trusted China contract lawyer review your contracts related to your China operations to make sure each and every one of them is legal.

Conduct due diligence on your suppliers/manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and e-commerce platforms. Your risk is going to be influenced by the company you keep.

China has many business crimes that are not crimes in the West. Know these.

Make sure your IP has been properly registered and that your company is not violating a China company’s IP rights.

If your WFOE or your Rep Office or your Joint Venture share is American or Canadian owned, consider forming a new company (“Newco”) in a country with good relations with China and selling the WFOE Joint Venture share or Rep Office package to that Newco.

I could go on and on. None of the above are new, but with what is going on in China today, their importance and their urgency has increased exponentially. Get fully legal. Now.

But what is your risk if you do get legal and what is your risk if you don’t? The answer to this depends on many factors, including who you are, where you are from, what you and/or your company are doing in China, what you have said about China online, and your China history. These are some of the main factors we typically look at in assessing China risks.

What are you seeing out there?

How to Avoid China Prisons: Know YOUR China Risks syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[courtneytincher]

Hard Questions on Immigration Demand Straight Answers

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- America’s immigration policies are broken, and there’s little sign in Washington of a bipartisan desire to fix them. President Donald Trump rages on about the crisis at the southern border, but has failed to come forward with plans that would end it. When it comes to effective proposals, Democrats haven’t been much better. Most of the contenders for the party’s presidential nomination can’t even bring themselves to admit that illegal immigration is a serious problem.Both parties need to answer three questions. First, what does the U.S. owe refugees and asylum seekers who are desperately seeking the safety that their own countries can’t provide? Second, how many immigrants, and what kind, does the U.S. need to strengthen its economy and advance the well-being of all its citizens? Third, how should the country resolve the status of the 10 million or so undocumented immigrants already within its borders?Undoubtedly, the U.S. needs to do more to help genuine asylum-seekers. International law requires it, and so do the values to which the country was dedicated. In 2017, the U.S. granted asylum to about 26,000 applicants. Moving forward, that number should double. Reaching that goal is not a matter of making standards more lenient, but clearing a backlog of several hundred thousand cases pending before U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services and the immigration courts. It will mean adding many more judges, clerks and asylum officers at the border.The rules need fixing too: Layers of ill-adapted laws, administrative tweaks and court rulings have created incentives for filing asylum claims that lack merit, paralyzing the system and pushing the most desperate to the back of the line. Addressing all this will be costly. Congress just passed a bill appropriating $4.5 billion to deal with the border surge, mostly for care and shelter. The 30 new immigration judge teams the bill covers (at a cost of $45 million) won’t dent the asylum backlog. To speed legitimate asylum claims, get rid of bad ones and keep up with future trends, the U.S. should hire 10 times that number.As for refugees, the U.S. should set the annual ceiling at 120,000. With the number of refugees worldwide remaining at a historic high, that figure — slightly higher than the Obama administration’s 2017 ceiling of 110,000 — would be commensurate with the country’s historical commitment to a compelling humanitarian purpose. Trump has lowered the ceiling for those admitted annually by nearly three-quarters, to 30,000 — and in 2018, the country let in just 22,491. In 1980, a much smaller U.S. economy admitted 207,116. To match that level with today’s larger population, the U.S. would have to admit some 300,000 refugees.The fact is, the U.S. can be doing far more than it is now, and should work with other governments and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to this end. After all, the program more than pays for itself: By one government estimate, from 2005 to 2014, refugees contributed $63 billion more in revenue than they cost in expenditures.Simple self-interest, as opposed to moral commitment, should guide policy on economic migration. Sustaining the dynamism of the U.S. economy requires more immigrants at every level of skill, but especially those with talents in high demand. Immigrants alleviate demographic pressures while also bringing disproportionate ambition and entrepreneurial energy. A remarkable fact: Immigrants or their children established nearly half of today’s Fortune 500 companies. For all these reasons, the U.S. needs to attract more foreigners who wish to become Americans.Shifting toward a system that pays greater attention to skills and to the needs of the labor market would raise the nation’s return on immigration and make larger numbers of entrants of all kinds more politically feasible. In 2017, the U.S. issued 1,127,167 immigrant visas, but only about 7% went to workers themselves, not including their dependents. Moving forward, it should grant at least 1.4 million each year in total, and make half of these skills-based, changing that percentage as economic conditions demand. The points-based system used by Canada offers a good model.This leaves the question of the undocumented. The president has called for “millions of illegal aliens” to be deported. That would take decades, cost tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars, hamstring the U.S. economy, and cause untold disruption and heartbreak. The U.S. is a nation of laws — one reason why the country exerts such a pull — and certainly ought to uphold its immigration rules. But this needn’t exclude a path to legal status and, eventually, citizenship for those entrants who are otherwise law-abiding. Innocents brought to the country as children deserve immediate dispensation.A crucial element of this approach, though, is better enforcement of the law in the future, so that the issue doesn’t resurface as an intractable problem. Strengthening the border will require investment in roads and barriers in urban areas, better lighting and sensing technology, and new equipment for screening at ports of entry. A biometric entry-exit system could track the visa overstayers who’ve outnumbered illegal border-crossers in recent years. And expanding the E-Verify system for vetting newly hired workers will be essential: Currently, only about 800,000 businesses are enrolled, or less than a third of the 3 million or so U.S. businesses with 10 or more employees.Trump is just plain wrong on immigration. He sees a vital economic asset as a liability. But most of the Democrats running to unseat him are choosing not to grapple honestly with the issue — that is, with the need to secure the border, uphold the law, and limit humanitarian commitments to what is both affordable and politically feasible. Public recognition of the benefits of immigration has risen lately, but so has the polarization that makes workable remedies impossible. Enough. Posturing will no longer do. Immigration poses hard questions — and demands straight answers.—Editors: James Gibney, Timothy Lavin, Clive Crook.To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg Opinion’s editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net, .Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- America’s immigration policies are broken, and there’s little sign in Washington of a bipartisan desire to fix them. President Donald Trump rages on about the crisis at the southern border, but has failed to come forward with plans that would end it. When it comes to effective proposals, Democrats haven’t been much better. Most of the contenders for the party’s presidential nomination can’t even bring themselves to admit that illegal immigration is a serious problem.Both parties need to answer three questions. First, what does the U.S. owe refugees and asylum seekers who are desperately seeking the safety that their own countries can’t provide? Second, how many immigrants, and what kind, does the U.S. need to strengthen its economy and advance the well-being of all its citizens? Third, how should the country resolve the status of the 10 million or so undocumented immigrants already within its borders?Undoubtedly, the U.S. needs to do more to help genuine asylum-seekers. International law requires it, and so do the values to which the country was dedicated. In 2017, the U.S. granted asylum to about 26,000 applicants. Moving forward, that number should double. Reaching that goal is not a matter of making standards more lenient, but clearing a backlog of several hundred thousand cases pending before U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services and the immigration courts. It will mean adding many more judges, clerks and asylum officers at the border.The rules need fixing too: Layers of ill-adapted laws, administrative tweaks and court rulings have created incentives for filing asylum claims that lack merit, paralyzing the system and pushing the most desperate to the back of the line. Addressing all this will be costly. Congress just passed a bill appropriating $4.5 billion to deal with the border surge, mostly for care and shelter. The 30 new immigration judge teams the bill covers (at a cost of $45 million) won’t dent the asylum backlog. To speed legitimate asylum claims, get rid of bad ones and keep up with future trends, the U.S. should hire 10 times that number.As for refugees, the U.S. should set the annual ceiling at 120,000. With the number of refugees worldwide remaining at a historic high, that figure — slightly higher than the Obama administration’s 2017 ceiling of 110,000 — would be commensurate with the country’s historical commitment to a compelling humanitarian purpose. Trump has lowered the ceiling for those admitted annually by nearly three-quarters, to 30,000 — and in 2018, the country let in just 22,491. In 1980, a much smaller U.S. economy admitted 207,116. To match that level with today’s larger population, the U.S. would have to admit some 300,000 refugees.The fact is, the U.S. can be doing far more than it is now, and should work with other governments and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to this end. After all, the program more than pays for itself: By one government estimate, from 2005 to 2014, refugees contributed $63 billion more in revenue than they cost in expenditures.Simple self-interest, as opposed to moral commitment, should guide policy on economic migration. Sustaining the dynamism of the U.S. economy requires more immigrants at every level of skill, but especially those with talents in high demand. Immigrants alleviate demographic pressures while also bringing disproportionate ambition and entrepreneurial energy. A remarkable fact: Immigrants or their children established nearly half of today’s Fortune 500 companies. For all these reasons, the U.S. needs to attract more foreigners who wish to become Americans.Shifting toward a system that pays greater attention to skills and to the needs of the labor market would raise the nation’s return on immigration and make larger numbers of entrants of all kinds more politically feasible. In 2017, the U.S. issued 1,127,167 immigrant visas, but only about 7% went to workers themselves, not including their dependents. Moving forward, it should grant at least 1.4 million each year in total, and make half of these skills-based, changing that percentage as economic conditions demand. The points-based system used by Canada offers a good model.This leaves the question of the undocumented. The president has called for “millions of illegal aliens” to be deported. That would take decades, cost tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars, hamstring the U.S. economy, and cause untold disruption and heartbreak. The U.S. is a nation of laws — one reason why the country exerts such a pull — and certainly ought to uphold its immigration rules. But this needn’t exclude a path to legal status and, eventually, citizenship for those entrants who are otherwise law-abiding. Innocents brought to the country as children deserve immediate dispensation.A crucial element of this approach, though, is better enforcement of the law in the future, so that the issue doesn’t resurface as an intractable problem. Strengthening the border will require investment in roads and barriers in urban areas, better lighting and sensing technology, and new equipment for screening at ports of entry. A biometric entry-exit system could track the visa overstayers who’ve outnumbered illegal border-crossers in recent years. And expanding the E-Verify system for vetting newly hired workers will be essential: Currently, only about 800,000 businesses are enrolled, or less than a third of the 3 million or so U.S. businesses with 10 or more employees.Trump is just plain wrong on immigration. He sees a vital economic asset as a liability. But most of the Democrats running to unseat him are choosing not to grapple honestly with the issue — that is, with the need to secure the border, uphold the law, and limit humanitarian commitments to what is both affordable and politically feasible. Public recognition of the benefits of immigration has risen lately, but so has the polarization that makes workable remedies impossible. Enough. Posturing will no longer do. Immigration poses hard questions — and demands straight answers.—Editors: James Gibney, Timothy Lavin, Clive Crook.To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg Opinion’s editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net, .Editorials are written by the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

July 12, 2019 at 12:30PM via IFTTT

[investmart007]

WASHINGTON | AP FACT CHECK: Trump ignores strong points in US trade

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/339ZQz

WASHINGTON | AP FACT CHECK: Trump ignores strong points in US trade

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is presenting a skewed portrait of how the world does business with the U.S to rationalize his escalating trade dispute with allies.

At the same time, he’s glossing over aspects of the U.S. economy that don’t support his faulty contention that it’s the best it’s ever been. The complexities of health care for veterans are also set aside as he hails a new era in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ system.

A look at some of his statements over the past week and the reality behind them:

TRUMP: “Last year, they lost 800 — we as a nation, over the years — but the latest number is $817 billion on trade. That’s ridiculous and it’s unacceptable. And everybody was told that.” — news conference Saturday at the Group of Seven summit in Canada.

THE FACTS: Trump’s bottom-line number in his dispute with trading partners is wrong. The U.S. ran a trade deficit last year of $568.4 billion, says his administration’s Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis, not $817 billion.

Trump refers only to the deficit in goods. Last year, the U.S. bought $811 billion more in goods from other countries than other countries bought from the U.S. But the U.S. had a surplus in trade in services, which brought the actual trade deficit down.

He made a similar error in a tweet Thursday, saying “The EU trade surplus with the U.S. is $151 Billion.” It was $101 billion.

The U.S. is more competitive in services than in goods overall, and services are a big part of the trade equation. Trump glosses over that aspect of trade.

___

TRUMP: “Why isn’t the European Union and Canada informing the public that for years they have used massive Trade Tariffs and non-monetary Trade Barriers against the U.S. Totally unfair to our farmers, workers & companies. Take down your tariffs & barriers or we will more than match you!” — tweet Thursday.

TRUMP: “Farmers have not been doing well for 15 years. Mexico, Canada, China and others have treated them unfairly. By the time I finish trade talks, that will change. Big trade barriers against U.S. farmers, and other businesses, will finally be broken. Massive trade deficits no longer!’ — tweet Monday.

THE FACTS: Whatever his beef with farm trade with specific countries, he’s wrong in suggesting U.S. agriculture runs a trade deficit. The U.S. exports more food products than it imports, running a $17.4 billion surplus last year. It’s long been a bright spot in the trade picture and it’s why many U.S. farmers are worried about losing markets as Trump retreats from, renegotiates or disparages trade deals.

U.S. farmers do brisk business with the three countries he complains about in the tweet, two of them under the umbrella of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump is threatening to leave if it’s not recast to give the U.S. greater advantage. The U.S. exported $20.5 billion in agricultural products last year to Canada, the largest market for U.S. farmers. That made for a modest deficit of $1.8 billion. The U.S. exported $18.6 billion in farm goods to Mexico, running a deficit of $6 billion.

The U.S. has a lopsided advantage with China on farm goods, in contrast to manufactured products. It sold $21 billion in agricultural products to China in 2016, for a surplus of $16.7 billion.

The Agriculture Department says exports of food products have grown “steadily over the last two decades.”

Trump’s unrelievedly negative view of the EU may be grounded in a substantial trade deficit with the continent, but his administration’s trade office takes a longer and more benevolent view of the relationship.

“Two-way U.S.-EU trade has been roughly balanced over time,” says the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, “and the very high levels of foreign investment accounted for by each in the other’s markets means that the trans-Atlantic economy is arguably the most integrated on Earth.”

___

TRUMP: “We have the strongest economy that we’ve ever had in the United States — in the history of the United States.  We have the best unemployment numbers.” — news conference Saturday.

TRUMP: “Best Economy & Jobs EVER, and much more.” — tweet Monday referring to achievement in his first 500 days in office.

THE FACTS: May’s unemployment rate of 3.8 percent is not the best ever. And the economy has seen many periods of stronger growth.

The lowest unemployment rate since World War II was reached in 1953, when it averaged 2.9 percent, almost a full point lower than today. The job market is certainly strong, with unemployment at an 18-year low, and if it drops another tenth of a point, it’ll be the lowest since 1969.

Yet the jobless rate was at or below 4 percent for four straight years back then, from 1966 through 1969, and wages were rising more quickly. The cost of items such as college and health care was much lower then.

Overall the economy has yet to show it can sustain growth in excess of 3 percent, as Trump has promised.

In the 1990s boom, still the longest on record, the U.S. economy expanded at an average annual pace of 4.3 percent for five years, from 1996 through 2000. In the 1980s, growth averaged 4.6 percent annually from 1983 through 1987. While the economy has picked up from 2016, its best showing since Trump took office was 3.2 percent in last year’s third quarter.

___

TRUMP: “Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats. Border Security laws should be changed but the Dems can’t get their act together! Started the Wall.” — tweet Tuesday.

THE FACTS: No law mandates that parents must be separated from their children at the border, and it’s not a policy Democrats have pushed or can change alone as the minority in Congress. Children are probably being separated from the parents at the border at an accelerated rate because of a new “zero tolerance policy” being put in place by Trump’s own administration. Announced April 6 by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the policy directs authorities to prosecute all instances of illegal border crossings, even against people with few or no previous offenses.

Administration officials are quick to note that Sessions’ policy makes no mention of separating families. That is correct. But under U.S. protocol, if parents are jailed, their children are separated from them because the children aren’t charged with a crime.

So while separating families might not be official U.S. policy, it is a direct consequence of Sessions’ zero-tolerance approach.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 650 children were separated from parents at the border during a two-week period in May.

___

TRUMP: “I have to tell you, the Coast Guard saved 16,000 people. … Saved 16,000 people, many of them in Texas, for whatever reason that is. People went out in their boats to watch the hurricane. That didn’t work out too well. That didn’t work out too well.” — hurricane preparation briefing Wednesday.

THE FACTS: There is no indication the Coast Guard was busy saving the lives of foolhardy hurricane gawkers drifting off the Texas coast. Texas officials are baffled at Trump’s words and the Coast Guard does not back them up. Some of the most powerful images from Hurricane Harvey were of flooded Houston streets swarming with volunteer boaters who answered the call of overwhelmed first responders and used their personal watercraft to rescue families from their homes.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Edward Wargo of Houston said the service didn’t take note of how or why people got stranded during Harvey, but said most rescues appeared to occur within city limits and neighborhoods. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said he had “no information one way or the other” about Trump’s claim that people were on the water to watch Harvey. But the outgoing speaker of the Texas House, Republican Joe Straus, rejected the idea.

“The people who took their boats into the water during Harvey were not storm-watchers,” Straus tweeted. “They were heroes who went toward danger to rescue friends, neighbors, strangers. Texans helping Texans in a time of desperate need.”

___

TRUMP: “In the campaign, I also promised that we would fight for Veterans Choice. … It seemed like if they’re waiting on line for nine days and they can’t see a doctor, why aren’t they going outside to see a doctor and take care of themselves, and we pay the bill? It’s less expensive for us, it works out much better, and it’s immediate care. And that’s what we’re doing.” — remarks Wednesday during the signing of a bill intended to give veterans more access to private health care as an alternative to the VA system.

THE FACTS: The care provided under the Choice private-sector program is not as immediate as Trump suggests, nor does it always work out much better. Currently, only veterans who endure waits of at least 30 days — not nine days — for an appointment at a VA facility are eligible to receive care from private doctors at government expense. Under a newly expanded Choice program that will take at least a year to implement, veterans will still have to meet certain criteria before they can see a private physician, such as when a local VA facility does not offer the services required or veterans face an “unusual or excessive burden” to getting the care they need.

Waits for a private doctor are not always shorter. The VA has said its medical facilities are “often 40 percent better in terms of wait times” compared with the private sector.

There also is little evidence that providing private care to veterans compared with treatment at one of VA’s 1,300 clinics and hospitals will be “less expensive.” Experts generally agree that VA care is less costly due to economies of scale. A congressional commission in 2016 determined that giving veterans more flexibility to see doctors outside the VA system would probably increase costs, due in part to growing demand from veterans who are drawn by the idea of picking their own doctor.

___

TRUMP: “This bill speeds up the claims process, increases the health services, expands access to walk-in clinics, and fights opioid addiction.”

THE FACTS: It’s not clear whether a newly expanded Choice program will speed up the claims process.

A Government Accountability Office report released this past week found that despite the Choice program’s guarantee of providing an appointment within 30 days, veterans waited an average of 51 to 64 days; the process took as long as 70 days. Investigators faulted bureaucratic inefficiency and understaffing at VA, which contributed to delays in making referrals and scheduling appointments. They warned of continuing problems of long waits under a newly expanded Choice program until the VA is able to more easily exchange veterans’ medical records with outside physicians; the VA has said achieving that could take years.

Pointing to faulty data, government investigators said the VA “cannot determine whether the Choice program has helped to achieve the goal of alleviating veterans’ wait times for care.”

___

TRUMP, on expanding the Choice program: “This has been for years; for 30, 40 years, they’ve been trying to get this done, and they haven’t been able to. And we got it done.”

THE FACTS: It’s not done. Trump signed into law a bill that would loosen restrictions for veterans seeking medical care outside the VA system, but it’ll take at least a year to implement and its actual scope in expanding choice to veterans will depend on the next VA secretary, who has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. A successful expansion of private care will also depend on an overhaul of electronic health records at VA to allow for a seamless sharing of records with private physicians. That overhaul will take at least 10 years to be complete.

Limited money for the program could also hamper its effectiveness. A group of senators is seeking to pay for the law by adding new money to cover the VA private care program, but the White House has been quietly working to block that plan, saying it is “anathema to responsible spending.” The White House is insisting that added costs of the newly expanded private care program be paid for by cutting spending elsewhere at the VA, something that major veterans groups generally oppose.

__

By CALVIN WOODWARD and PAUL WISEMAN, By Associated Press

___

[teaandjay]

Numbers, slumbers and the trip’s wonders

When we came back from the last big trip, quite a few people asked us if we knew how far we'd travelled, how many places we'd stayed and various others. So this time I decided to keep a record of what we've been up to. Nerdy, yes... interesting? We'll see.

Getting around

Most of the time, the humble bus has been our friend - over the last year or so, we've taken 138 of them. Buses have come in many forms, from fancy pants Cruz del Sur buses in Peru that are a bit like planes with wheels, to the overnight one we took to Rurrenabaque in Bolivia that was basically a shed with an engine and a few seats. In total, we've racked up a total of 660 hours on buses, with the longest being 22 hours from El Chalten to El Bolson in Argentina.

We've taken a few other choice modes of transport - three flights, a fair few boats and even a motorbike-powered mini train thing into the Colombian jungle. Add in all these, and you get a grand total of 823.5 hours spent just getting from A to B - or just over a month solid in other words.

We've had a crack at working out the distances, too. In our 293 days in South America, we racked up 30399km, while Central and Mexico worked out at 87 days and 7542km. Add in the flights from London to Rio via Rome, and back from Mexico via the US and Canada, and that gives a grand total of 57611km and 856.5 hours on the road, over the water and in the air over the course of 380 days.

Staying the night

As the trip is officially our honeymoon, lots of people are keen to know where we've been sleeping. Dorms, mostly, is the answer. Like the buses, there's plenty of room in that definition, from bunk-filled shacks on the beach in Uruguay to super-fancy minimalist pod-style efforts in Guatemala. All up, we've spent 216 nights living it up in dorms.

We also worked out that we spent 3 nights in hammocks, 11 nights in tents - how horrific - and we've also done 22 night buses, plus the out and back plane rides. How romantic.

The best bits

Top three countries Mexico - we saved the best for last and Mexico delivered in spades. It's a perfect combination of people, sights and food (ding-ding-ding)! We have probably never travelled in a friendlier country.

Colombia - everyone told us we'd love it and they weren't wrong. Colombia is a country transformed from the dark days of the early 90s. We loved the jungle, the people and the ruins. Shame about the food though. 

Nicaragua - this little surprise ticket was our favourite in Central America. The landscape is full of lakes and volcanoes, distances are wonderfully short and of course, there's Flor de Cana in bucketloads.

Top three views The top of the Union Pass, Peru - this trip has been rich in incredible scenery so this top spot has been hard earned. But this pointy-peak, turquoise laguna vista is absolutely breathtaking. Literally, as it turns out, as the top of the pass is at 4750m. 

The Fitzroy Range, Argentina - we waited four days for this incredible range to make its appearance and it was 100% worth it. The Patagonia of your dreams. 

Two Brothers, Brazil - there are many wonderful views in Rio de Janeiro  but this one, which is just 40 minutes from the top of Vidigal favela, allows you to see the famous cityscape without the crowds.

Top three cities Mexico City - right up there with any of the big hitters we've visited, the DF has it all. Beautiful light at 2000m, Aztec ruins and a street food scene to rival anywhere in the world makes this a city I'd live in, let alone return to. 

Rio de Janeiro - what a place to start our trip! It's just as amazing as it looks on the telly but it's also full of little secrets. 

Buenos Aires - everyone loves it, and for good reason. Europe meets North America with a healthy dose of Latin vibes in BA. And the steak is unforgettable.

Top three hikes The Santa Cruz, Peru - in a trip that seemed at times to be nothing but hiking, this one reigns supreme. It's cold and it's hard but it's the best one we've ever done. 

The Lost City, Colombia - oh so sweaty. The ruins are really fantastic and the trek itself is as brilliant as it is challenging. 

Cathedral Peak to Refugio Frey, Argentina - one of the best day hikes we've ever done. The cable car ride at the beginning allows you to get straight on with the views over to Tronador and the rock scramble is great fun.

Top three swims Finca Paradaiso, Guatemala - possibly the only place on earth where a hot water waterfall lands in a cold river pool. The setting is gorgeous and we had it to ourselves, making it the best shower we've ever had. 

Dzitnup cenotes, Mexico - it's really scary to swim in a very dark pool in a cave, but you really have to give it a go. There are fish, and they do nibble, but this is a swimming experience we'll never forget. 

Random swimming hole, Uruguay - Pablo the Horse Whisperer took us here on our trusty steeds, Carmen and Dave. I'm not sure what it was called but it's in the Quebrada de los Cuervos National Park. It was so beautiful I went in in my clothes.

Conclusion What. A. Year. This trip has taken us from Rio de Janeiro to Mexico City via some absolutely unforgettable sights. We've had the pleasure of travelling fairly slowly and almost all by land and this meant we could enjoy watching the continent change gradually over borders, mountain ranges and vast plains. It took a while to save up the cash for 54 weeks of non-stop exploring and there's a lot we could have done with that money. I can't think of anything that would have provided us with so many experiences, challenges and discoveries. Most of all, I can't think of anything that would have been more fun.

Over and out... until next time.

Tom and Jess