#women to stop being summarily executed

[sentientcloudofmusk]

Not to break fetish blog character, but like, i just saw a LOT of shit about palestine and just fuckin

Idk how people are chillin with the Israeli government when parcels of bombed gazan soil are being sold to American and Israeli investors while innocent women, children, and men die constantly to a flailing governmential body that is either A. So incompetent that it should not be trusted by those who value peace or B. Well aware of the innocent being lost and is very purposeful with its desolation.

I want to reconnect with my heritage. I feel as if im the last link between my family and the jewish roots we once held, but in this landscape, simply CONNECTING to jewish communities to find a place, to find the history shed by my great gandmother for her protection, that simple act, would cause so much strain that i dont think my soul could take.

From the river to the sea. I hope peace for the peoples of Palestine and her neighbors is coming swiftly.

[cjrae]

Series: Reaction to a reaction - Episode 17.

At some point, you just have to stop clogging the comment section with their character limits and hit "reblog" like an adult. @i-guess-im-into-this-now, let's have some fun!

1.) "Maomao sees Jinshi first thing in the morning and is stunned by his beauty. She's annoyed at herself for being so affected by this man."

Yeah. You don't spend this much time thinking about just how pretty someone is if you're not attracted to them. This is one of the things I enjoy so much about their dynamic is that Maomao is attracted to him and is SO MAD about it! Something that comes across better in the light novels is that the very first thing about Jinshi that Maomao is attracted to his voice. Kaiji Tang, the English language voice actor brings this aspect of the character to life. You can see that first moment of mutual attraction all the way back in Episode 2, when he steals one of her chocolate snacks. You notice he stands behind her, where she can't see him, but his presence is felt while speaking words of appreciation in her ear and ghosting his breath over her neck. It's the first time in the episode that the animators don't show her shuddering in disgust - instead she's caught wide eyed and frozen at her own reaction.

2.) "Before Maomao commits to altering Jinshi's face, she can't resist putting some lipstick on him. Just to see. A little experiment if you will. One that now lives rent free in the minds of not only Maomao, but Gaoshun and Suiren too. I would give anything to see Jinshi in full glam in this show."

**LAUGHS IN MANGA** Next season. Trust me, it'll be worth the wait. Or you can read the manga, chapters 47 & 48, titled "The Moon Fairy."

3.) "Basan is here, hanging back and watching Jinshi live out another one of his fantasies. Will Basan become jealous? One can only hope!"

I think it's pretty clear that Basen has absolutely no interest in Maomao. I do love the moment when Jinshi catches him and smirks, letting Basen know that he's not blending into the background nearly as well as he thinks he is.

4.) "Gaoshun thinks that Jinshi can't afford to be so focused on Maomao. Maybe he's worried about how Maomao makes Jinshi more susceptible to manipulation from people like Lakan. Or maybe he means that with Jinshi's status, that it can't be allowed."

I mean, we are talking about a setting where the men of the imperial family are encouraged to plant as many "seeds" as possible in the garden. At least it's not an Ottoman harem setting where once the crown prince ascends to the throne, the remaining male heirs are summarily executed. Just as the women of the Rear Palace are expected to be chaste and share a single man, there's an equally powerful expectation that it's the man's duty to spread his attention around in order to perpetuate the line - and speaking from a purely political standpoint, assuming Jinshi's identity is as theorized, that is a duty he is pointedly NOT doing.

5.) "I've come to realize that this show is going to be much, much longer than the single season I'm on. The progress of this romance is like the slowest slow burn."

Well, if it follows the pace of the light novels, we'll be talking about the start of a mutual relationship at the end of Season 6. A therapist would not help with this fear of intimacy - Maomao would just shut it down. You mentioned in an earlier review that one of the things Maomao likes about Jinshi is the fact that he pushes her and I think you absolutely nailed that. At this point the fastest way out of the River of Denial is through.

Plenty will happen in the intervening time, though. I think part of why this story has grabbed so many people is because the romance is the emotional through line of the story, but it's not the driver of the plot. That frees up the plot (and the antagonists) to have motivations other than thwarting True Love that create an environment for these two to struggle though together.

6.) "She says she could have taken Jinshi to some place in the Pleasure District if this was what he was interested in. She sounds disappointed in Jinshi, or maybe she is disappointed in herself for the jealousy she feels."

Yeah...she is NOT happy about being attracted to this man, and as she talks about how much she loves and respects Luomen, it's worth paying attention to the qualities about her father that she both immensely respects and is extremely frustrated by. It's very telling.

7.) "Jinshi is stunned, or perhaps horrified to realize what it might take to lower the value of a courtesan."

Well, it's a complete inverse of how the women of the Rear Palace are valued and an interesting continuation in the comparison of palaces and brothels. Both are places where women's sexuality are commodified, but the goals are opposite. A high class courtesan's job is to either be completely unavailable and pure in order to provoke expensive fantasies of having her, vs a consort's job to get pregnant with male heirs as many times as possible. It is literally Jinshi's job to facilitate as many pregnancies in the Rear Palace as possible and to intervene with any factor that could terminate one, because a consort's value is in her ability to bear children.

This story has a lot of interesting things to say about how the ability to control your own reproductive cycle (on behalf of both men and women) is connected to the ability to find true human relationships.

8.) "Lakan is bad news."

The next three episodes are going to be SO MUCH FUN to watch you react to. :D Next time, on the Apothecary Diaries: Maomao's actual trauma!

The Apothecary Diaries

S1E17 First Watch

Here's where I watch The Apothecary Diaries for the first time and give my thoughts, analysis, predictions, and occasionally I stumble into a joke.

To start at the beginning:

Episode 1

My character/locations cheat sheet

Suiren - Jinshi's attendant

Lakan - master strategist

Basan - an officer who works in the palace

This episode opens with Jinshi asking Maomao for help with makeup, and Suiren decides that this is a great time to leave these two alone. Maomao believes that to make Jinshi any more beautiful would cause men to go to war.

Maomao: If this man in all his heavenly glory were to put on makeup... Are you trying to topple a nation?

Jinshi: Where'd that come from? On second thought, I would rather you don't tell me.

Is he? Not that he's trying to use his looks to do it, but it's an interesting thought. Is Jinshi interested in toppling a nation? Or perhaps dethroning an emperor? What an interesting thing to ponder. Also, is Jinshi worried that Maomao suspects him capable of insurgency?

Jinshi very much cannot afford to be found talking about toppling nations. I'm sure that the people in power who know who he really is, are already keeping an eye on him to see if he will make a play for the throne. Perhaps it is one of the reasons he was sent to manage the Rear Palace. If he makes a single misstep that could be seen as disloyal to the emperor, it would be enough to depose of Jinshi.

Ah! Jinshi wants some freckles! No, he wants to look like a completely different person. I'm sure he has a reason for wanting this disguise, but to Jinshi who has been the target of so much sexual harassment, being able to look common must feel like having a shield. He and Maomao can probably relate on this. Unlike Maomao, Jinshi can't do this regularly, his beauty is a tool that he is required to use. I also don't know that he would choose to change his appearance regularly. Even if he sees his beauty as a curse, I think he's comfortable enough with his appearance that he doesn't want to regularly alter it. Maomao does offer a more permeant solution, and Jinshi turns it down. His refusal could be because he needs his beauty as a tool, but I would guess that he doesn't want to change himself. All of that said, he's looking forward to this disguise that Maomao is going to prepare.

Maomao sees Jinshi first thing in the morning and is stunned by his beauty. She's annoyed at herself for being so affected by this man.

Jinshi: What's this? Why are you already wearing a scowl? Maomao: It's nothing. I was just noticing how lovely you are yet again. Jinshi: A little early for sarcasm.

Jinshi has tried to use his appearance on Maomao before, and it has failed every time. She's made it clear that she's not interested in him because of how he looks, so to get a comment like this one, he's sure she's teasing him. Which she is but she's also serious. It's interesting that Maomao is letting Jinshi know that she sees the physical appeal of him, when she never has before. And it's happening in an unguarded moment when Jinshi isn't trying to preen or seduce. I wonder why it's happening now. Perhaps it is just something that has been growing.

Maomao does something that disturbs everyone in the room for different reasons. She grabs Jinshi's wrist and sniffs him. Jinshi is blushing, the action a lascivious one to him. Suiren and Gaoshun interpret it the same way, but are shocked to witness it. Maomao explains that his disguise needs to start from his scent.

Jinshi ponders how well Maomao understands the world of the courtesan. He considers Lakan's suggestion to ask Maomao about how to lower a courtesan's value. Will he work up the nerve to ask? Jinshi isn't one to shy away from difficult conversations, however this is a loaded question. Asking it could reflect poorly on Jinshi. We shall see.

And does Maomao know anything about makeup? The gal was an apothecary that worked in a brothel. I'm sure she's an expert.

And she is. Her brilliance mixed with her experience means she's a master of disguise. She uses various methods to completely overhaul Jinshi's appearance, down to the most intimate details such as scent and sound of his voice. During Maomao's work to transform Jinshi, she takes time to admire various parts of Jinshi's body, such as the smoothness of his hair, the clarity of his skin, and the tone of his physique.

Jinshi is enjoying having Maomao's full attention on him and her hands all over his body, and he's going to think about this day every night before he goes to sleep. Maomao will probably also think about this day. It's a rather convenient excuse for both of them to enjoy some intimacy that they won't allow without the pretense. Meanwhile, Suiren can barely handle the multiple indignities that Jinshi has to endure to don this disguise.

Before Maomao commits to altering Jinshi's face, she can't resist putting some lipstick on him. Just to see. A little experiment if you will. One that now lives rent free in the minds of not only Maomao, but Gaoshun and Suiren too. I would give anything to see Jinshi in full glam in this show.

Nothing gets past Maomao and she finds the callouses on Jinshi's palms, surmising that he must train with weapons, which she notes is not a typical eunuch activity. Add that to the mountain of evidence that Jinshi is more than a eunuch official, that Maomao will promptly ignore.

Oh hell yeah! Suiren and Gaoshun are teaming up to send Maomao on a date with Jinshi. He couldn't possibly be seen with his usual companions, that would be too suspicious. Maomao points out the obvious, which is that she is also a well known attendant of Jinshi's. No problem, Maomao can be given a disguise too. And what Gaoshun couldn't? These two could not be more transparent. It's too bad that Maomao can't read this kind of obvious play when it relates to herself.

Maomao is dressed as a pretty young lady from a good family. And she is accompanied by Jinshi who is going out as her attendant. Jinshi loves this role reversal, and Maomao is teaching him how to play his part well. Who they are performing for isn't clear.

Basan is here, hanging back and watching Jinshi live out another one of his fantasies. Will Basan become jealous? One can only hope!

Jinshi is getting progressively more upset that Maomao is drifting in her own thoughts instead of chatting with him. He gets all pouty when Maomao says they have nothing to talk about. His fantasy date isn't going how he imagined it would.

Maomao picks up some meat skewers and after removing the cotton from his mouth Jinshi tucks in with fond memories from "camp." I'm assuming he's talking about time spent with the military. Maomao notes this isn't typical of a eunuch. I wonder what is even left on the list of things about Jinshi that resemble a eunuch.

Suiren and Gaoshun have a discussion about Jinshi and Maomao while they're out. They are pleased with themselves for setting up this outing, but Suiren is referring to Maomao as a toy, as Gaoshun used to. She talks about Jinshi as a boy and how he would fixate on one thing, and how Gaoshun would struggle to find something else to shift his attention. Gaoshun thinks that Jinshi can't afford to be so focused on Maomao. Maybe he's worried about how Maomao makes Jinshi more susceptible to manipulation from people like Lakan. Or maybe he means that with Jinshi's status, that it can't be allowed.

I've come to realize that this show is going to be much, much longer than the single season I'm on. The progress of this romance is like the slowest slow burn. Jinshi and Maomao have been stuck at an impasse for ages. Whenever they do make progress it's in the smallest increment possible that takes more brain power than I have to process and tease out. But I've digressed.

Basan looks like he's starting to enjoy this assignment now that he's picked up some meat skewers, and he can now enjoy both a juicy meal and the juicy conversation he's overhearing.

Jinshi is hurt that Maomao seems to want to get away from him as soon as possible. He asks her very earnestly if she enjoys her life in the palace. She really does, but she is worried about her father.

Maomao reveals more about her father Luomen. I think Jinshi is starting to put some pieces together about what position Luomen might have held. He'll need those clues when he gets closer to figuring out Maomao's true identity.

And it is good to see Maomao open up a little bit. She so rarely talks to Jinshi or anyone about her past, her hopes or her fears. That she does so here, with Jinshi is a step towards friendship.

Maomao sees the restaurant that Jinshi has an appointment at and notices all the ladies hanging over the men outside. She says she could have taken Jinshi to some place in the Pleasure District if this was what he was interested in. She sounds disappointed in Jinshi, or maybe she is disappointed in herself for the jealousy she feels. That she both thinks Jinshi is a eunuch and that he want to visit a courtesan is... interesting. Not that I don't think a eunuch couldn't have fun at a brothel, mind you, but still, her ability to misread a situation is always interesting. I'm confident that Jinshi is not here to meet up with someone for the reasons Maomao thinks. He may be here to meet a courtesan, but if he is, than it is to gather intel.

Honestly I'd support Jinshi if he were here for a hook up. He's committed to no one at this point, and at this rate he'll hook up with Maomao by about the time he is old enough to functionally be a eunuch, so have at it. Go wild Jinshi.

Jinshi finally gets up the courage to ask a terrible question: how to reduce the value of a courtesan. Maomao answers as I expected, you either take her purity or worse yet, you impregnant her. I'm gonna be sick. Lakan is so terrible. Just why is Jinshi so interested in this topic? Is this all to find dirt on Lakan? Does Jinshi suspect Maomao's origins are from the courtesan that Lakan "decreased the value of?" Does Jinshi have his own motives for wanting to decrease the value of a courtesan?

Jinshi is stunned, or perhaps horrified to realize what it might take to lower the value of a courtesan. It's a surreal conversation between these two. Maomao has to wonder why Jinshi is even asking the question. I can't think that she would believe Jinshi wants to use this method to decrease the value of a courtesan, but perhaps she thinks he might be interested in purchasing someone's contract? I don't know what Jinshi hopes to do with the info. Is this something he hopes to figure out to help him against Lakan? If he was hoping the answer would help him find a way to help Maomao, he now knows it's a method that he won't be willing to use. I really can't see him trying to take her purity or impregnate her. If those things were ever going to happen, he would want them to be out of mutual affection, which is still lightyears away.

I kept expecting this outing to be fun, and parts of it are, but there is so much that is undefined and unsaid between these two that there is an unsteady tension throughout the whole outing. Ultimately, the date fails to change any of it. Maomao does open up a bit about her father which is amazing. We so rarely see her talk about her life or her hopes or goals. Jinshi listens intently. And that is kind of the highlight of the day to me.

Obviously the final conversation about how to reduce the cost of a courtesan is important too. But without seeing the end of that conversation I can only guess what impact a question like that might have on these two's relationship. Because the implications of even asking the question aren't great, and I don't know where Maomao's mind is. What does she think Jinshi capable of? I tend to think she knows and trusts Jinshi pretty well, but when there is emotion involved her judgement gets all screwy.

And we haven't yet learned what Jinshi is up to. He wanted to come here in disguise for a reason. I assume he is trying to get information to help him against Lakan. At least, I hope that's what he's up to. Lakan is bad news.

To start at the beginning: Episode 1

Next Episode:

Coming Soon!

[blackjacketmuses]

hc; ango 1

Ango’s family is fairly well off, upper-middle class. A very traditional family with very traditional values, his mother does not work and his father is a businessman at a successful company. He has an older brother, who is a lawyer. From a young age, Ango was taught that the best he could ever achieve is a comfortable job in business or at an office, marry a quiet, obedient traditional girl, have children, and live a normal, unassuming life. Be traditional, be one of the crowd, don’t stand out, just live and go on with a normal, average existence.

That was foiled summarily when he was fourteen and his ability manifested. This coupled with Ango slowly beginning to realize he wasn’t interested in women started to put strain on his familial relationships, and when he graduated high school with top marks, he applied and was accepted to a college far away from home --- he fled from Tokyo to Yokohama, to go to college there.

A scant few months after he entered college (majoring in history and anthropology), he was scouted by the government due to his ability, and pulled into the Special Abilities Department for both his keen intellect, his sense of perfectionism, and...okay, mostly his ability. He was put through training quickly and immediately stationed in an accounting firm that worked for the mafia, working there until given the go-ahead to act. A situation was half-caused and half-fabricated in which Ango and some others (government plants and patsies both) were stealing mafia funds, and after staged chaos (the plants killing the patsies and fleeing separately), Ango fled alone, staying out of the mafia’s grasp for six months before he was ‘caught’ (really, allowed himself to be caught on orders) and recruited by Mori, as intended. He was nineteen.

A year after this, he was sent overseas for two months to Europe for a mafia deal, and while there was contacted by the government (and the mafia itself) to get in touch with and infiltrate a terrorist group named Mimic. After this, he was spying on Mimic for both the mafia and the government as well as spying on the mafia for the government.

Not long after he returned, the Dragon’s Head incident began, and despite Ango’s protests, the government hired Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, a strange criminal with an ability, to staunch the conflict. In the end he only created a lot more deaths, and the government covered it up.

After this, Ango met Oda and Dazai during the cleanup, and they became friends. As this was just around the time Dazai became executive, a few casual conversations were had about Dazai’s partner that led Ango to do research on the situation himself and learn of Chuuya’s circumstances and the Rimbaud incident via his ability. Because of this, he was relatively prepared for Chuuya approaching him to help him find Verlaine, Rimbaud’s partner. Verlaine was working for the government, and after getting permission from his superiors, Ango aided Chuuya in finding and confronting the man.

During the incident, Ango made a point to collect all the belongings of each dead mafia agent and use his ability to make a proper record of their lives, memorializing them as he felt guilty for such a huge loss of life that the government was complicit in. even if they were mafia members, they were still human beings that deserved remembrance and respect, and a loss is a loss. At first his thorough records went unappreciated, but eventually he was allowed to continue.

Ango came to treasure the time at the bar with his two friends, caring about Oda and Dazai deeply and, though he could never lay himself bare to them --- too wrapped up in secrets and mixed loyalties --- the time he spent talking about inane and superficial things, just casually, able to be a normal person laughing with companions, was the most important thing in the world to him, something he would treasure beyond anything else. A glimpse of the life he could have had, laughing and joking with friends after a long day at work, like any other normal businessman.

Eventually, the mafia and the government’s chess game came to a head with Mimic being lured to Yokohama, and Ango’s cover within the terrorist organization was blown. Because of this, he got in trouble, and Oda was lured to meet Gide, which would lead to Oda’s death. During the incident he was captured/tortured by Mimic and rescued by Oda, but just before the government came to collect him and his cover was blown on all sides.

After this, he went back to the government and was witness to the deal in which Mori sold Oda’s life in exchange for an operation permit, and after that continued in his desk job at the government. Out of heartbreak and guilt for what happened, when Dazai confronted him after having left the mafia, he directed him to his boss, chief Taneda, and arranged for Dazai’s past to be erased via the 7th Agency branch of the government, so that he could start over and keep his promise to their dead friend. He also helped Dazai arrange a grave for Oda at a quite seaside graveyard.

Ango logically knows he was just a pawn in the Mimic incident, but he can’t help but feel deeply guilty for being involved at all, as it led to Oda’s death and the shattering of the friendship he’d valued so highly. While he and Dazai are on better terms than they were immediately after, and still know they can rely on one another, he knows they can never have what they once did, and it’s painful. He has subordinates, but he has no friends, and he knows it’s in part his own fault. He’s very lonely.

He only barely knew Chief Taneda when the Mimic incident occurred, given how quickly he was funneled into the undercover operation. At the time of the incident, Mori was more his boss than Taneda; he knew Mori better, after all --- he'd spent basically three years with the mafia at this point despite technically working for the government the whole time. While the meeting the day of his capture was a warning about what would happen, he was still captured, and though he knew he would be rescued those armed men was the first time he'd ever really seen the special ops team: for a moment he thought they were going to kill him before he remembered they were picking him up. And when they came, he didn't want to leave Oda -- he entertained the idea of defecting to the mafia on the spot, for Oda, but he knew he'd die if he did, so he went along quietly.

Despite the risk to his own safety, he did everything he could to help the two of them deal with Gide, even knowing that it was a trap and regretting that he couldn’t do more, hoping that Oda wouldn’t take the bait and knowing Mimic did need to be stopped. Even so, it hurt to know that he could never go back, being in that bar one last time and knowing everything had changed and broken forever. Knowing this might be the last time he saw Oda. Knowing that he’d never be able to see them again, not with the lines now drawn, knowing that Dazai would likely never forgive him. He contemplated suicide for a time (including by showing up at Lupin in the first place, half hoping Dazai would kill him), before deciding against it, because he had to stay and help Dazai make it out and then make sure he could fulfill Oda’s last wishes.

Ango had a huge, huge crush on Oda, and it broke his heart even more when his cover was blown and whatever could have been was made into something that could never be. And even worse when Oda died, because he knew of his own complicity in it. He misses him so much, and tries to do his best to carry on in his memory. To take over the department to keep his final wish of drinking with Dazai again, and to take care of Dazai for both their sakes.

[emweaver]

NaNoWriMo - Day 26

Project: Remember the Stars Session word count: 2,132 Total word count: 47,843 Notes: Had a bit of a crisis earlier today, in which I lost all inspiration for continuing with my novel. Got that fixed by writing a flashback vignette for one of my characters (Gerry), which yielded just over fifteen hundred words. You can read the (completely unedited) result below. 

Excerpt Full Vignette:

The apartment felt cold and empty, even with the warm sunlight streaming through the thin curtains and the warm breezing coming in through the open window. But even the warm and sunny spring day was made dark and dreary by the news that played out on Gerry's television screen. She sat curled up in a chair, the old crocheted blanket wrapped around her as she shivered, the feeling as if the world had ended crashing down around her. They were saying that the government was no more, that every single elected official had been arrested, and that in the coming weeks it would be decided on a case by case basis which one of them was a traitor and who was not. Those who were convicted would be summarily executed, while the rest would either be let go or given a position under the new Regime. The new Regime. It all seemed so unreal, like something out of a nightmare or a bad movie. People couldn't just take over like that, and proclaim themselves in charge. Some news stations were calling it a bloodless coup because no one had been killed yet. At least no one of importance, but even now, Gerry could hear the sirens screaming outside the window and knew what that had to mean. She looked at her phone again, picked it up, and dialled Metha again, and once again got redirected straight to voicemail. "Call me, please," she said, repeating herself for the sixteenth time this afternoon. "I'm worried." She hung up, got the remote and switched channels, flicking through each one of them until she ended up on the local news broadcast where they were reporting a demonstration happening at the courthouse. Police were there, and she leaned forward, trying to see if she could spot Metha, but it was impossible to tell one officer from the other when they were in full combat gear. Some were taller, some shorter, but Metha was average height and there was no way of telling if she was there. Gerry gasped when a rock flew through the air, hitting the shield of one of the officers, the crack audible even through the noise coming through the television, through all the screaming and shouting. "Please…" she begged of the phone, glancing at the blank screen, "call me…"

The riots and resistance had lasted only a few weeks before the Regime had sent in the troops, cracking down hard on the demonstrators whether they were peaceful or not. There had been deaths, far too many of them, and many more injured. Thousands had ended up in the temporary holding pens when the jails ran out of space, and the news started talking about whole districts being emptied out so that they could be turned into prison camps. All the time, Gerry had worried about Metha. Her fiancee had only been home a few times, and then only to shower and to get some sleep, and then she'd been gone again, before they could start another argument about the morality of Metha continuing to work as an officer when the police department was clearly being used as the Regime's enforcement agency right alongside the soldiers that had been called into the city.

Those weeks turned into month, and Gerry had long since gone back to work herself, tending the bar at the Hound and Swan, though it was an uneasy and frightening time. More and more people stopped coming, and there were rumours of others being arrested and then never seen again. Gerry tried talking to Metha about it, but Metha claimed not to know anything, that all she could do was follow the orders that came down from above. She wouldn't comment on what happened to those who were arrested, or where they were taken after. More and more, Gerry felt that her girlfriend had changed, become someone else. She was no longer the person she'd fallen in love with, and it scared her to no end. She ended up doing what Metha did, and buried herself in work, going in early to help open the bar and then staying late to close, and do the cleaning afterwards. All that meant that she rarely saw her fiancee anymore, and when she did it was usually in passing since Metha had taken the graveyard shift. Voluntarily. That had pissed Gerry off at first, but as the days wore on, she found herself caring less and less, her mind starting to circle around pulling the ripcord and splitting from Metha to find some place of her own to stay, or maybe move in with one of her friends until things settled down.

When the news started to report on the transfer of prisoners from the temporary camps what they were calling Zones, Gerry had begun looking for a new place. Even that had been difficult. Access to the internet had been limited, and she'd had to ask through her network of coworkers and friends if anyone knew of an apartment to rent, or if there was a room she could stay on. She'd even asked the other Jerry if she could stay on his sofa, only until such time that she found a place of her own. That was just pure desperation, and she knew it, because Jerry's place was hardly more than a studio apartment with an alcove for his bed, and though she knew he wouldn't try anything with her, they would be at each other's throats in no time at all if they had to live together, even for a few days.

A few days after talking with Jerry, she came home - late as always, and expecting the apartment to be empty - and was greeted by two officers wearing the new uniform of the police force the Regime had dubbed the Guardians. Instinct took over and she tried to back out of the apartment, only to find her way blocked by two more officers in the same getup of body armour, helmets with visors so toned you couldn't tell if the person behind it was male or female, and all of them armed with batons, pistols, and cans of what could have been either pepper spray or mace. "What the hell…" she said, turning this way and that as she was forced into the middle of the living room. She saw Metha there, standing in the doorway to the bedroom, a duffel bag in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. It took Gerry far too many seconds that Metha was wearing the exact same uniform as the others, save the helmet which was clipped to her belt. "Geraldine Carla Thomás, by order of the New Regime, you are hereby arrested on the charge of selling and distributing fraudulent goods," Metha said, reading from the sheet in her hand without looking at Gerry. "You will be remanded to Houghton Jail pending trial, unless you wish to confess your crimes at this point?" "What? Metty, what the hell?" Gerry said, eyes wide and terrified as she tried step forward to take her fiancee by the shoulders and shake her, to put some sense into her head. One of the other officers - Guardians - stepped in and grabbed her arm, holding her back with a grip so forceful to leave a bruise. "Let the fuck go of me, you bastard!" Trying to break free of that grip only brought on more force and suddenly she was on the floor, with a knee painfully jammed into her back, between her shoulder blades. "I ask again," Metha said, standing above her now, looking down with an expression set in stone, "do you wish to confess?"

She hadn't, of course. But the feeling of utter betrayal and hurt was what stayed with her even throughout the sham trial, and the additional charges of attempted assault of a Guardian, which - in the end - had resulted in a guilty verdict and a sentence to the camp called Zone 17. None of that mattered, the false charges, the conviction, not even the time spent in an overcrowded jail cell with others who were similarly framed. All that mattered in those hours and days was the excruciating pain of being betrayed by the one person she'd love more than her own life. Who she should have seen slipping away from her, but hadn't tried to do anything about. She'd neglected Metha, had neglected their relationship, and this was the price she paid. When they came for her, she had lost her soul, her heart and her spirit broken, and so she had followed quietly when they took her to the transport, hands cuffed in front of her with a chain leading to the cuffs around her ankles. She was sat in the back of the transport with three other women, and four heavily armed and armoured Guardians. When a duffel was dropped at her feet, she recognised it as the one Metha had packed and she broke down, crying. Life as she'd known it had ended, that much she understood, and there was nothing at all that was going to change that. All she could do now was decide whether she was going to live or die…

[thisdiscontentedwinter]

The Kelso Mutiny

This is basically going to be a (very badly) paraphrased post of the things I learned today at the museum lecture. The letter was given by Ray Holyoak, who is doing his Ph.D. on this, and so my apologies to him for undoubtedly screwing a lot of this up. 

The When: May 22, 1942. 

The Where: Kelso Field. Now an outer suburb of Townsville, during WWII, Kelso was pretty much out bush. 

The Who: The 96 Battalion, US Army Corp of Engineers. They were black troops, commanded by white officers. 

The How Shit Went Down: When the 96 Battalion arrived in Townsville, things were pretty good to start with. They were camped near the town, they weren’t segregated (I’m not giving Australia a pass, more on that later!) so they were allowed to go the the cinema, and ride in the front of taxis, and drink in the public bars, and socialise with the white girls. Now the majority of these troops were black and from the southern US States, so it must have been a hell of a culture shock to be welcomed by a white community. 

The How Shit Went Wrong: Racial tensions were brought to the fore by white American soldiers who didn’t like the see the black American soldiers getting equal treatment. At the same time, the white officers of the 96th, who up until this time has been decent guys, got transferred to New Guinea, and new officers were brought in: white southern officers. 

The black servicemen of the 96th were moved out of Townsville to encampments in Kelso. No cinema, no clubs, no beer, no women, no beach, no shops, no fun. And to top it all off, their new officers treated them like shit. 

The Inciting Incident: Rumour has it that a black sergeant was killed by a white officer. An uprising breaks out. A bunch of guys machine gun the officers’ tents. The officers--lucky for them--weren’t in them at the time. The riot lasts from 10 pm to about 3 am in the morning. Hundreds of rounds are fired. Guys in neighbouring camps, hearing the gunshots, set fire to the munitions dump because the think the Japanese have invaded. A negotiator is fired on. Officers are taken hostage. 

The Australian Army is sent to man roadblocks to stop the mutineers from coming into Townsville if that’s what they’re trying to do. They have to send the Australians, because they know if they send the Americans, it’s going to turn it into even more of a powder keg. 

The Australians are told to shoot anyone who approaches the roadblocks. Years later, one of them says nobody had any intention of firing more than warning shots, because these men had come to our country to help us, so we weren’t going to shoot them. 

It’s a moot point because the mutineers never reach the roadblocks. 

The next morning, it’s all over. Most of the mutineers have laid down their arms, but many have fled. Because, of course, we all know what happens to mutineers in wartime... 

Except, in this case, we don’t. 

The Rumour: Rumour has it that a bunch of these men were summarily executed. That’s just a rumour and has never been proven. Of course, the entire mutiny itself was just a rumour until 2012 when the report that Lyndon Johnson gave to President Roosevelt proved that it had happened. This was at both a critical time in the war (everyone thought the Allies were kind of fucked at this point) and also a critical time in US civil rights (this was during the March on Washington Movement, which was calling for the desegregation of the military, and better work opportunities for African Americans). If the news had got out of black troops mutinying overseas, it could have destabilised both the military and the nation. 

The Cover-Up: The day after the mutiny, Mr. Kelso, the local farmer after whom the area was named, got a knock on his door. When he told the US Military Police that he’d heard the war games the night before he was told by them that he’d heard nothing. Neighbours of Mr. Kelso’s, of Italian decent, were also visited by the Americans and advised to keep their mouths shut, or they’d be sent to an internment camp. They kept their mouths shut. 

Roosevelt sent Lyndon Johnson to Townsville to investigate. Lyndon Johnson took the report by US journalist Robert Sherrod and said he’d take it back to Sherrod’s editors in DC. It didn’t go there. Instead, Johnson turned it into Roosevelt as his own report, and it’s the one that went undiscovered until 2012. 

But in that first report are apparently references to a second report--one that hasn’t been uncovered yet. So we know the mutiny happened. We know it was covered up. We don’t know what happened to the ringleaders, because the investigation was shut down. We don’t know what happened to the rioters who fled into the bush. We don't know if the ones who laid down their weapons were ever punished in any way, or if they were executed. We know that most of the 96 Battalion was then sent to New Guinea, where the fighting was intense. The Kelso airstrips they were building were never completed. Apart from a few photographs, some relics from the site, and the report that Robert Sherrod wrote and Lyndon Johnson stole and then suppressed, the incident would have been entirely forgotten. 

The Aftermath: In order to ease racial tensions, a club for black American servicemen was opened in Townsville. Eleanor Roosevelt visited it as part of her PR tour of Australia during the war. The women who worked there were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Remember how I said Australia didn’t get a pass on our racism here? There were several children born to those women and American servicemen, but they never got to know their fathers because, after being posted away during the war, they were unable to emigrate to Australia afterwards because of the White Australia Policy. That welcome they’d received in the war was well and truly over. 

[eagle-eyez]

The one thing that Islamist terrorism does not get enough credit for is its phenomenal public relations.

It manipulates mass imagination like a sorcerer. IS lines up a thousand men in Guantanamo-like orange jumpsuits, shoots them at the back of the head, and sends the videos out to send shockwaves of chill down the civilised world’s spine. The same IS PR team, perhaps sitting in the same room with peeling, cobalt-blue walls in Mosul or Raqqa, sends out cheerful brochures to teenage Muslim girls in London or Berlin selling them the Caliphate dream of fun villas, jacuzzi, and heroic young men fighting for a just and caring world.

As I write this, there are reports of the Taliban going door to door in Afghanistan forcing parents to hand over their girls to the ‘fighters’ for sex slavery. Executions and stoning have started. Taliban is allowing the leak of videos of themselves dragging 11- and 12-year-old girls away from their mothers to be gang-raped into submission. That is to drive terror into the hearts of ‘infidels’ and those ‘not Muslim enough’.

But in front of the international cameras in Kabul, the Taliban has declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government. They even allowed four burqa-tented women to shout slogans in public and some chosen journalists to question them at press meet and studio interviews.

Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban's cultural commission, went as far as describing women as “the main victims of the more than 40 years of crisis in Afghanistan”. At some faraway football stadium, irony fell to the ground in a blue burqa, with a bullet in its head.

The liberal world, which has made its mission to whitewash or dilute even the worst Islamic  excesses, instantly lapped up the saccharine. Journalists sympathetic to the Taliban’s cause even started hashtagging it #FreedomOfSpeech.

Four women were protesting against the Taliban takeover in Kabul today. They were neither beaten, killed, raped or taken hostage, rather they were guarded and allowed to carry on with their protest by Taliban. #FreedomOfSpeech pic.twitter.com/vB6PF37trc

— Mirwais افغان (@miirwais) August 17, 2021

Some Indian journalists were counting how many foreign media outlets covered the Taliban’s press utterances.

https://twitter.com/_sabanaqvi/status/1427645473381396487?s=20

Others unquestioningly latched on to Taliban PR artillery the way some Afghans were seen clinging to the tyres of an American plane in an attempt to escape the Taliban. A gaggle of them even used it to take potshots at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tweeting in tandem as if at the behest of a ‘toolkit’. More than a dozen blue-tick handles posted identical tweets.

Even Taliban is taking unscripted questions from the press.

— Gurmehar Kaur (@mehartweets) August 17, 2021

Even the Taliban gives press conferences. But no such luck with our leadership. https://t.co/wIrfw87kaZ

— shunali khullar shroff (@shunalishroff) August 17, 2021

Meanwhile, Germany halted development aid to Afghanistan. So did Sweden. The Taliban’s image re-invention exercise is clearly aimed at ensuring that money continues to flow.

The Taliban’s code for women is fairly clear and unambiguous. Here are, in a nutshell, some handy guidelines:

Women cannot step out without a blood relative or a burqa.

Since no man should hear a woman’s footsteps, high-heeled shoes are banned.

A woman’s voice should not be heard by a stranger, so she can’t speak loudly in public.

To stop women from being seen from the street, all windows on the ground and first floors of houses should be painted or covered with a screen.

Women are prohibited from having their pictures taken, filmed, or displayed in newspapers, books, stores or at home

The word “woman" must be removed from names of places.

Women are not allowed to appear on their balconies.

Women are prohibited from appearing on radio, television, or a public gathering.

Any female between 12 and 45 can be forced to marry the Taliban.

LGBT+ are summarily executed. “There are only two penalties for gays: Either stoning or he has to stand behind a wall that falls on him. The wall must be 2.5 to 3 meters high,” a Taliban judge recently proclaimed. So what bachcha-baazi, or raping little boys, is the most popular sport among the Taliban mujahideen?

Gullible liberal apologists and overground Islamists may wish to paint a different picture, but there is no room for ambiguity in Taliban’s code. When foreign media switches off its fawning cameras, the world is black or white from Kabul to Kandahar, Herat to Khost.

Black, actually.

from Firstpost World Latest News https://ift.tt/2Uujp2s

[aardvark-123]

Gensokyo Festival Day 19: The Faces of the Eastern Wonderland

By the time I realised the prompt was meant to be about Japanese culture and its bearing on Touhou, it was too late. Instead, here’s an essay on the unique culture of Gensokyo, exploring whether or not it’s secretly a horrible place.

Gensokyo is a land of wonders, of magic and miracles, of gods and youkai, of fairies and magicians, of tea parties and late-night drinking, of close friendships which can very easily be interpreted as romantic, of fierce rivalries which can also be interpreted as romantic, of colourful dresses and poofy sleeves, of wings and horns and tails and strange weapons. "Eastern Wonderland", they call it; a wonderland steeped in eastern culture and myths, nestled between mountains at the heart of the Land of the Rising Sun. But what is at the heart of Gensokyo itself?

One of the first things a Touhou fan will notice is danmaku. In the games, colourful glowing bullets rain down from the top of the screen. A succession of women unleash attacks with weird names like Dream Sign "Omnidirectional Dragon-Slaying Circle" and Cheap Gimmick Sign "There's No Way That Actually Hit Me, You Dirty Cheat". In the fighting games, the characters hurl bullets right at each other's faces, yet none of them suffer anything worse than torn clothes and a bruised ego.

These bullet-heavy attacks are called "spell-cards", and their exact nature is tricky to pin down. They come as fast, powerful attacks which clear bullets off the screen, or as slow, infinitely frustrating attacks where you have to dodge a deceptively beautiful barrage while shooting at somebody. They can use anything from potatoes to anchors to spinning cat-girls, and they are EVERYWHERE.

There is a good reason for spell-cards to be everywhere. Gensokyo was founded as a sanctuary for youkai, who cannot survive without the fear of and/or rivalry with humans. The youkai needed a way to cause Incidents while allowing the relatively weak humans a way to fight back. Thus, a certain shrine maiden came up with the spell-card rules, allowing grace and skill to take the place of raw power as the life-blood of Gensokyo.

And so began a golden age. Almost two hundred Touhou characters are free to cheerfully shoot one-another with non-lethal bullets. Day by day, as they face one-another on (well, hovering above) the field of battle, close bonds of fellowship and sisterhood are forged. Taverns and food stalls are filled with the laughter of youkai and Incident-resolvers after a hard day's danmaku, and everyone is happy.

By that logic, we could easily paint Gensokyo as a paradise. And why not? Everyone is young and cheerful (not to mention cute), and nothing truly catastrophic ever seems to happen. There is only one real villain, Seija, and she's easy enough to handle. So surely everything is perfect?

Well, yes. If you're a lesbian fluent in Japanese with magical powers, Gensokyo would be the ideal place to live. With good food, good company, plenty of fresh air and no danger of boredom, you'd have a marvellous time. Don't worry about youkai, either; as long as you have a few spell-cards, there won't be anything for you to fear.

Therein lies the biggest problem. Youkai NEED fear, hence they need a decent human population to be afraid of them. To provide that fear, a single village of humans, with the imaginative title "the Human Village", is secretly safeguarded by the youkai.

The humans there live in fear of the night, of the terrible demons who would (they assume) happily devour their children and put their houses to the torch if they had the chance. Few of the villagers ever get the chance to have tea parties and spell-card duels. Instead, they live in fear of the very youkai who protect them and sell them stuff at the market.

Youkai tend to be pragmatic, and their leaders terribly ambitious. Thus, as well as protecting and frightening the villagers, youkai also ply their trades while disguised as travelling merchants and court the favour of the villagers. The tengu, the kappas, Mamizou's merry band of tanuki and at least two other factions are desperate to win their hearts and minds, to the point where the Human Village is a battleground of ideological warfare. And none of the villagers have a clue that it's happening.

It is not easy to escape the simple, superstitious life of a villager. A small number of villagers have been able to learn the truth, and one of them even managed to join Reimu's gang of damsels who danmaku. However, it is just as easy for a villager to grow closer and closer to the world of youkai until they become one, at which point they will be summarily executed.

It is here that the most terrible duality of Gensokyo is laid bare. While youkai are free to maraud, albeit within reason, and powerful Incident-Resolvers are free to do likewise, ordinary humans are little more than cattle. Kept ignorant and frightened, with only a slim chance of escape from their lives as walking fear generators, the humans are forced pay for the merriment of the youkai with their own suffering.

That is what a pessimist would tell you. We have to ask ourselves, though, how badly are the villagers actually treated? Obviously, keeping a whole population ignorant and frightened should only ever be done as a last resort, but we never see any evidence that the villagers are suffering.

In "Forbidden Scrollery", we see Kosuzu living happily enough at her family's book-rental emporium. Youkai do make plenty of mischief in the village, but no-one is maimed, no-one has to hide under the bed all day because they're too afraid to go outside. The closer you look, the fewer acts of cruelty you'll see perpetrated against the villagers.

The village is not defenceless, either. Between Keine, the Incident-Resolvers and the village guards, they have enough protection to keep marauding youkai at bay. And why would any youkai decide to maraud through the village? Without humans, there can be no fear, and most of the youkai know it. That is why they keep the village safe from natural disasters, as well as from each other when they have to. The human villagers aren't just cattle, they are a vital and cherished part of Gensokyo.

One has to understand that Gensokyo is, first and foremost, a youkai sanctuary, created because the advancement of science in the Outside World meant that youkai could no longer find welcome. When humans stop believing in and being afraid of youkai, youkai stop existing, and so much is lost. As far as we know, Gensokyo is the only refuge for youkai in the world, and it's worth preserving. Keeping a few thousand humans relatively miserable is a small price to pay to keep the beauty and wonder of Japanese mythology alive.

...Isn't it? Perhaps, if I lived in the Human Village, I would feel differently. But then again, if I lived there with complete knowledge of the Outside World, perhaps I would still think it was worth it.

Or I might lure Reimu into a tar pit, turn myself into a youkai and kickstart the human rebellion. But then we'd probably consume all of Gensokyo's natural resources and ruin it forever, and Reimu would be sad because she's hopelessly stuck in a pool of hydrocarbon goo. Nope, not worth the effort of finding a suitable tar pit.

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Biden’s First Order of Business May Be to Undo Trump’s Policies, but It Won’t Be Easy

The party split in Congress is so slim that, even with Democrats technically in the majority, passing major health care legislation will be extremely difficult. So speculation about President-elect Joe Biden’s health agenda has focused on the things he can accomplish using executive authority. Although there is a long list of things he could do, even longer is the list of things he is being urged to undo — actions taken by President Donald Trump.

This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free.

While Trump was not able to make good on his highest-profile health-related promises from his 2016 campaign — including repealing the Affordable Care Act and broadly lowering prescription drug prices — his administration did make substantial changes to the nation’s health care system using executive branch authority. And many of those changes are anathema to Democrats, particularly those aimed at hobbling the ACA.

For example, the Trump administration made it easier for those who buy their own insurance to purchase cheaper plans that don’t cover all the ACA benefits and may not cover preexisting conditions. It also eliminated protections from discrimination in health care to people who are transgender.

Trump’s use of tools like regulations, guidance and executive orders to modify health programs “was like an attack by a thousand paper cuts,” said Maura Calsyn, managing director of health policy at the Center for American Progress, a Democratic think tank. Approaching the November election, she said, “the administration was in the process of doing irreparable harm to the nation’s health care system.”

Reversing many of those changes will be a big part of Biden’s health agenda, in many cases coming even before trying to act on his own campaign pledges, such as creating a government-sponsored health plan for the ACA.

Chris Jennings, a health adviser to Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, said he refers to those Trump health policies as “bird droppings. As in you have to clean up the bird droppings before you have a clean slate.”

Republicans, when they take over from a Democratic administration, think of their predecessor’s policies the same way.

Though changing policies made by the executive branch seems easy, that’s not always the case.

“These are issue-by-issue determinations that must be made, and they require process evaluation, legal evaluation, resource consideration and timeliness,” said Jennings. In other words, some policies will take more time and personnel resources than others. And health policies will have to compete for White House attention with policies the new administration will want to change on anything from the environment to immigration to education.

Even within health care, issues as diverse as the operations of the ACA marketplaces, women’s reproductive health and stem cell research will vie to be high on the list.

A Guide to Executive Actions

Some types of actions are easier to reverse than others.

Executive orders issued by the president, for example, can be summarily overturned by a new executive order. Agency “guidance” can similarly be written over, although the Trump administration has worked to make that more onerous.

Since the 1980s, for example, every time the presidency has changed parties, one of the incoming president’s first actions has been to issue an executive order to either reimpose or eliminate the “Mexico City Policy” that governs funding for international family planning organizations that “perform or promote” abortion. Why do new administrations address abortion so quickly? Because the anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court abortion decision Roe v. Wade is two days after Inauguration Day, so the action is always politically timely.

Harder to change are formal regulations, such as one effectively banning Planned Parenthood from the federal family planning program, Title X. They are governed by a law, the Administrative Procedure Act, that lays out a very specific — and often time-consuming — process. “You have to cross your t’s and dot your legal i’s,” said Nicholas Bagley, who teaches administrative law at the University of Michigan Law School.

And if you don’t? Then regulations can be challenged in court — as those of the Trump administration were dozens of times. That’s something Biden officials will take pains to avoid, said Calsyn. “I would expect to see very deliberate notice and comment rule-making, considering the reshaped judiciary” with so many Trump-appointed judges, she said.

What Comes First?

Undoing a previous administration’s actions is an exercise in trying to push many things through a very narrow tube in a short time. Department regulations have to go not just through the leadership in each department, but also through the Office of Management and Budget “for a technical review, cost-benefit analysis and legal authority,” said Bagley. “That can take time.”

Complicating matters, many health regulations emanate not just from the Department of Health and Human Services, but jointly from HHS and other departments, including Labor and Treasury, which likely means more time to negotiate decisions among multiple departments.

Finally, said Bagley, “for really high-profile things, you’ve got to get the president’s attention, and he’s got limited time, too.” Anything pandemic-related is likely to come first, he said.

Some items get pushed to the front of the line because of calendar considerations, as with the abortion executive orders. Others need more immediate attention because they are part of active court cases.

“You have all these court schedules and briefing schedules that will dictate the timeline where they make all these decisions,” said Katie Keith, a health policy researcher and law professor at Georgetown University.

The Trump administration’s efforts to allow states to set work requirements for many low-income adults who gained Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of the program is the highest-profile Trump action that falls into that latter category. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case challenging HHS approval of work requirements for Arkansas and New Hampshire in the next few months. Some Democrats are concerned about how the high court, with its new conservative majority, might rule, and the Biden administration will have to move fast if officials decide they want to head off that case.

But court actions also might help the Biden administration short-circuit the onerous regulatory process. If a regulation the new administration wants to rewrite or repeal has already been blocked by a court, Biden officials can simply choose not to appeal that ruling. That’s what Trump did in ending insurance company subsidies for enrollees with low incomes in 2017.

Allowing a lower-court ruling to stand, however, is not a foolproof strategy. “That raises the possibility of having someone [else] intervene,” said Keith. For example, Democratic attorneys general stepped in to defend the ACA in a case now pending at the Supreme Court when the Trump administration chose not to. “So, you have to be pretty strategic about not appealing,” she said.

Adding On?

One other big decision for the incoming administration is whether it wants to use the opportunity to tweak or add to Trump policies rather than eliminate them. “Is it undoing and full stop?” asked Keith. “Or undoing and adding on?”

She said there is “a full slate of ideologically neutral” policies Trump put out, including ones on price transparency and prescription drugs. If Biden officials don’t want to keep those as they are, they can rewrite them and advance other policies at the same time, saving a round of regulatory effort.

But none of it is easy — or fast.

One big problem is just having enough bodies available to do the work. “There was so much that undermined and hollowed out the federal workforce; there’s a lot of rebuilding that needs to done,” said Calsyn of the Center for American Progress. And Trump officials ran so roughshod over the regulatory process in many cases, she said, “even putting those processes back in place is going to be hard.”

Incoming officials will also have other time-sensitive work to do. Writing regulations for the newly passed ban on “surprise” medical bills will almost certainly be a giant political fight between insurers and health care providers, who will try to re-litigate the legislation as it is implemented. Rules for insurers who sell policies under the ACA will need to be written almost immediately after Biden takes office.

Anyone waiting for a particular Trump policy to be wiped from the books will likely have to pack their patience. But law professor Bagley said he’s optimistic it will all get done.

“One of the things we’ve grown unaccustomed to is a competent administration,” he said. “When people are competent, they can do a lot of things pretty quickly.”

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

Biden’s First Order of Business May Be to Undo Trump’s Policies, but It Won’t Be Easy published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[bloodwontwashout]

Death Begets Death

This was one of the simpler missions his clan had done. Go to a Twi’lek village that was holding up the construction of a Czerka factory, kill the ring leader and a couple of others and effectively cut the head off the opposition. Talyc had split up the clan, letting his second in command Gaheris take Kote and Atin to take care of the other targets while he himself to care of the ring leader and Erin stayed to keep the ships engines hot.

So, he snuck through the village and crept towards the target’s house with quick but silent movements. He moved through the door, using the codes they had bribed from one of the protestors. He stepped carefully but assuredly into the the dark depths of the hut. What he was met with was not at all what he was expecting. The living room held not only the ring leader, but what appeared to be his wife as well as their three children. They had been apparently arrested, lined up against the wall and summarily executed, their bodies riddled with blaster bolts. 

Pushing away the horror, he examined the rest of the surroundings, worry beginning to tinge his thoughts. Pulling his commlink off of his belt, he called Erin. 

“What’s wrong?” She asked, worry tinging her voice.

“Bring the ship to the village and get ready to pull us out of here under fire. Something isn’t right here.” Talyc said quickly as he shifted back towards the doorway. 

“Where are the others?” She asked, though he knew she meant where was Kote.

“I will find them, just get over here, quickly,” Talyc said before cutting off the commlink. 

But as Talyc made it outside, he saw that the others were right there. They were accompanied by what appeared to be armed Czerka guards. Before he could react, two figures appeared from behind him and kicked at the back of his knees, driving him to the ground and bending his arms backwards. “What the hell is this?” Talyc snarled out as he saw Kote also on his knees by him. Gaheris sipped forward with a deathly serious face.

“What this is, is a bounty hunter and his family taking the extermination of a village as a job. Czerka, as soon as they found out, hired us to stop you but, alas, we could not save the villagers. We could however, avenge them.” He said, without a hint of emotion to his voice. He drew his blaster and pointed it at Kote and said “Tell your wife to land,”

“Go to hell, aruetii” Talyc spat out, knowing that he and Kote were already dead. But Erin still had a chance. At that thought, dust was kicked up as their ship flew over them. Gaheris scowled and brought out his own commlink. 

“Buir?” Kote said and Talyc looked at him, seeing the acceptance in his own eyes as he figured out their situation. “Jorso'ran kando a tome” We will bear it’s weight together. Talyc wanted to scream, wanted to kill every last one of the bastards as he struggled against those who held him. 

“Erin, land the ship or I kill both of them. Right now, I only have to kill Talyc but I will kill the boy too.” 

Talyc begged silently for Erin to leave them and wanted to howl in frustration as after a few minutes he saw the ship begin to descend. It landed near them and Erin came down the rampager hands raised. As soon as she was out of the ship, Gheris nodded and without a glance put two bolts through Kote’s head. Talyc howled in pain as his son’s body dropped to dirt and he struggled with all his might but still could not break free. Erin broke into a sprint at them, the air filled with her scream of rage. But she was tackled and subdued before being dragged next to Talyc. 

“You should have taken the job, Talyc. We’re mercenaries. it’s what we do.”

“I don’t murder women and children indiscriminately.” Talyc said back, his eyes moving back over to the body of his son.

“That self-righteousnes is gonna get you killed, Talyc.” Gaheris replied before letting out a guffaw. “And would you look at that, it already has,”

As he talked Erin shifted her hands and Talyc noticed a thermal detonator slide from her sleeve. She looked at him and quietly said, “Mhi solus tome.” We are one together. 

“Mhi solus dhar'tome.” He replied in the same tone, we are one when parted. He was ready. With their son dead and their deaths soon to follow, the least they could do is take the bastards with them. She activated the detonator and it began priming itself. Then he was suddenly being dragged away and he struggled to get back to Erin. No, he couldn’t let her die alone. The last thing he remembered was her peaceful smile and her eyes set into a determined look before a big flash of light took his world away.  

[countrymadefoods]

“The story of South Korea’s past starts with a provisional government often forgotten about in history textbooks. The People’s Republic of Korea lasted only from 1945 to 1946, and its capital was in Seoul...As soon as American troops landed on the September of 1945...What immediately occurred afterwards was the abolition of the People’s Republic of Korea by military decree. Officials serving under the government were shot, buildings were bombed, and supposedly “communist-sympathetic” Korean troops stationed in the country were summarily executed in a bloodbath lasting for several months. The United States Army Military Government was established, causing the eruption of mass public outrage at military personnel from the former Japanese Empire serving in office in South Korea.

With haste, the First Republic of Korea, what we now know as South Korea, was declared in 1948. Syngman Rhee was flown abroad a US military aircraft to Tokyo, travelling to Seoul, and was installed as President. Rhee immediately arrested the remaining left-wing opponents in the political arena...Syngman Rhee, as a fierce anti-communist and nationalist who would later be forced into exile by his own citizens.”

“Rhee encouraged his internal security force, headed by his trusted ally, Kim Chang-ryong, to arbitrarily detain people he suspected of having “leftist affiliations” and subject them to days of detainment in labour camps...Syngman Rhee was such a popular leader that he was re-elected four times. During elections, his political opponents often suddenly died or were arrested by South Korea’s internal security force under the suspicion of being “North Korea collaborators”.   

(via The secret genocide in South Korea you’ve probably never heard of)

The Korean War: Barbarism Unleashed

“Syngman Rhee was a conservative nationalist who lived in the United States for over four decades after being imprisoned by the Japanese as a young man.  The Truman administration brought him back to Korea in October 1945 to lead the new South Korean government. Considering him a “Jeffersonian democrat,” the U.S. Office of Strategic Services believed that Rhee harbored “more of an American point of view than other Korean leader.”

In practice, Rhee exhibited strong autocratic tendencies and relied heavily on Japanese collaborators – in part because he had been out of the country so long.  He was elected president in July 1948 by members of the National Assembly, who themselves had been elected on May 10 in a national election marred by boycotts, violence and a climate of terrorism.

“The primary cause of the South Korean insurgency was the ancient curse of average Koreans – the social inequity of land relations and the huge gap between a tiny elite of the rich and the vast majority of the poor.”  At the same time Rhee followed American dictates in passing a secret clause agreeing to export rice to Japan and signed contracts allowing American businesses to exploit the So Lim gold mine and take over the Sandong tungsten mine, which was guarded by U.S. troops.”

The director of the U.S. Army’s Department of Transportation stated:  “We had a battle mentality.  We didn’t have to worry too much if innocent people got hurt.  We set up concentration camps outside of town and held strikers there when the jails got too full…. It was war.  We recognized it as war and fought it as such.”

By mid-1947, there were almost 22,000 people in jail, nearly twice as many as under the Japanese...Professors and assemblymen were among those tortured in custody. Those branded as communists were dehumanized to the extent that they were seen as unworthy of legal protection...Any red was not considered human...Because we weren’t human, we had no rights.” The scale of repression in South Korea at this time far surpassed that of North Korea.  In Mokpo seaport, the bodies of prisoners who had been shot were left on people’s doorsteps as a warning in what became known as the “human flesh distribution case.” A government official defended the practice saying they were the most “vile of communists.”

On war’s eve, seasoned intelligence analyst Lt. Walter Choinski and the South Korean G-2 chief of staff were curiously transferred and a report by distinguished cross recipient Donald Nichols predicting a North Korean attack 72 hours before was suppressed by Willoughby.  This contributed to the “intelligence failure” that rendered the North Korean attack of June 25th a “surprise;” a perception that made the war more politically palatable.”

“In mid-September Gen. MacArthur engineered an amphibious landing behind enemy lines at Inchon...“Operation Chromite,” as it was called, was enabled by the seizure of Wolmi-do Island, after it was showered with rockets, bombs and napalm, and by a joint CIA-military operation on Yonghung-do, a small island ten miles from Inchon, where Navy Lt. Eugene Clark obtained vital information for the assault.

The Korean War was replete with atrocities undertaken in violation of the Geneva Convention and international laws of war, which the U.S. ironically had been instrumental in establishing (four Geneva conventions of 1949).  Because of the climate of the Cold War and continued North-South division, a proper accounting and reckoning never took place, and many Koreans never were able to obtain justice for unlawful killings of their loved ones.

Whereas in the United States, most of the war atrocities were little discussed or attributed to the communists, under the South Korean military dictatorship, all sympathetic discourse designed to raise awareness of massacres was subject to prosecution. The bereaved families suffered severe discrimination as authorities marginalized them from civil society and politics and placed them under surveillance by the Korean National Police (KNP) and the Korean Central Intelligence Agency...Some of the worst atrocities occurred in the summer of 1950 when South Korean KNP and ROKA units emptied the prisons and shot detainees, dumping the bodies into hastily dug trenches, abandoned mines, or the sea.”

“The most concentrated killing of the war occurred in Taejon, where the KNP slaughtered thousands of leftists under American oversight.  According to the historian Bruce Cumings, in July 1950, as “the North Korean People’s Army bore down upon the city of Taejon, south of Seoul,” South Korean police “authorities removed political prisoners from local jails, men and boys along with some women, massacred them, threw them into open pits, and dumped the earth back on them.   Somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000 died . . . American officers stood idly by while this slaughter went on, photographing it for their records, but doing nothing to stop it.  In September 1950 the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to keep these photos classified; they were not released until 1999, after a determined effort by a psychologist in New York, Do-Young Lee, whose father had been murdered by southern authorities in August 1950.”

“Donald Nichols, a U.S. Air Force officer who worked in military intelligence, was the embodiment of the dark side of American participation in the Korean War.  He issued bounties for the severed body parts and heads of captured communist agents, threw POWs off of helicopters, and recruited defectors for suicidal missions into the North.  He also witnessed the systematic torture and massacre of Korean civilians.

In many ways, Nichols was a real-life version of Lieutenant Kurtz, a character in Francis Ford Coppola’s Vietnam War film, Apocalypse Now, who had formed his own private army which engaged in wide-scale torture and eschewed all civilized norms... “Nichols was an uncontrollable commander in a faraway shadow land.  He was a highly decorated U.S. Air Force Intelligence officer who ran his own secret war for more than a decade [in which he] lost touch with propriety, with morality, with legality – even with sanity if military psychiatrists are to be believed.

[I]n Nichols, Rhee discovered a back door for delivering intelligence that could influence American policy towards Korea.  He referred to the young American as ‘my son Nichols.’”  According to Air Force historian Michael Haas, the personal ties that Nichols maintained for more than a decade with a foreign head of state had no parallel in the history of U.S. military operations.  Incredibly, one had to ask “what the hell is a twenty three year old air force sergeant doing in the role of private confidante to a head of state.”

The capture and execution of senior communist leaders was often confirmed by cutting off their heads and sending them in gasoline cans to army headquarters in Seoul. A photo of Nichols shows him and several other army officers inspecting the heads;  in another, the head of a guerrilla leader was being pulled out of its box by the hair.”

“After the North Korean invasion of the South, Nichols witnessed the massacre of hundreds of South Koreans by the ROKA at Taejon.  In his memoirs, he misstated where the massacre took place in order to uphold the official army narrative that blamed the killings on the communists; an allegation reported uncritically in Roy Appleman’s official army history of the Korean War.

Nichols’ nephew stated that after he returned home from Korea, he had a huge amount of cash which he kept in his freezer.  The money may have derived from currency manipulation schemes that were widely prevalent among army officers in Korea and the illicit selling of military equipment, though Nichols handled a lot of cash in running secret agents.  In 1957, he was relieved of his command for undisclosed abuse of authority, and put in a straitjacket and admitted for psychiatric treatment.  His nephew states that Donald told him “the government wanted to erase his brain – because he knew too much.”

(via The Korean War: Barbarism Unleashed | US Foreign Policy blog)

Failure to Communicate: U.S. Intelligence Structure and the Korean War

“The Korean War had three distinct phases. The first phase began with the North Korean invasion across the 38th parallel in June 1950...In September 1950, the amphibious landing at Inchon cut off North Korean lines and initiated the second phase of the war. U.S., ROK, and U.N. forces drove a demoralized and unsupplied North Korean army nearly back to the Chinese border. MacArthur’s decision to invade North Korea led to the third phase of the war—the Chinese decision to commit forces into the conflict.

Military leaders in the Pacific also mistrusted each other and the young civilian intelligence agencies. Willoughby and MacArthur refused to cooperate with the CIA and denied them access to Army reporting and facilities. The Air Force and Army refused to combine human intelligence efforts in Korea, specifically with regards to interrogations. The Air Force created their own interrogation team that competed with the Army’s Korean Liaison Office (KLO) and CIA for intelligence, each meeting with limited success.

Operation Trudy Jackson, a joint CIA-Navy operation, prepared the environment for the invasion. One naval officer, two Korean operatives, and three others landed on Yonghung-do Island west of Inchon and trained guerilla fighters, launched raids, and gathered intelligence. At one point up to 150 guerillas conducted island-hopping operations around Inchon. The intelligence gathered was vital to the landings and included the numbers of Chinese personnel crossing the Yalu River.”

(via Failure to Communicate: U.S. Intelligence Structure and the Korean War | The Strategy Bridge)

“Clark met with Hans Tofte, in charge of special operations for CIA, and asked for what help he could give in securing qualified agents. Clark also sought assistance from counterintelligence (CIC), and was able to obtain the services of an energetic bilingual Korean Navy lieutenant, Youn Joung, as well as a middle-aged ROK Colonel Ke In-Ju, Rhee’s former head of counterintelligence officer, who had been fired when he failed to predict the North Korean attack. Fearing for his life, Ke had turned himself in to the U.S. Army for protection.”

(via In Mortal Combat: Korea 1950-1953 | John Toland)

Inchon 1950: Operation "Trudy Jackson"

The Secrets Of Inchon, (2002)   Commander Eugene Franklin Clark, USN 

 Two of Clark's men were Korean officers: a bilingual Navy Lieutenant, Youn Joung; and a former Korean counterintelligence officer, Colonel Ke In-Ju (기인주.) Both had served on General MacArthur's staff. Youn and Ke used the aliases...to try and mask the intelligence nature of the covert mission. Youn is standing at center with the pistol at his belt [Ke In-Ju next to him]...Clark brought Youn and Ke out to the McKinley with him, but most of the men in the above photo were probably caught and killed by the North Koreans, who also murdered 50 civilians at Yonghung-do who had helped the mission succeed.

Clark later took about 150 South Korean Guerillas, including Youn, on island-hopping forays all the way up to the Yalu. In October, Clark was able to notify Tokyo Headquarters that his agents had reported large numbers of Chinese were crossing the Yalu into North Korea.High Command evidently discounted this information. The belief that China would not intervene permeated Eighth Army leadership right down to the Battalion level and lower.”

(via Inchon 1950: Operation "Trudy Jackson" | Korean War Online)

“Aug. 25 - 1950 - The first major OPC operation, code named Trudy Jackson, is conducted by a US team led by 39-year old Lt. Eugene Clark of the US Navy. Clark was a Japanese linguist attached to MacArthur's G2. He is volunteered to lead an OPC team made of Lt. Youn Joung (ROK Navy), Col. Ke In Ju, (ROKA), a US Army captain, and 10 Korean agents trained by Tofte. Col. Ke was formally an intelligence officer who was fired by Rhee for his failure to predict the invasion.

August 28, 1950 - Hans Tofte flies Clark and the two Korean officers to an OPC camp at Sasebo. There they receive a quick lesson on covert operations and get teamed up a CIA radio team. Tofte gives Clark enough weapons, rice, dried fish, sugar, whiskey and gold bars to form a guerrilla army.”

“On Augst 31, 1950, the team boarded the British warship HMS Charity and left for Inchon. They were transferred to the S Korean warship PC-703 at the entrance of Flying Fish Channel. On Sept. 1, 1950, Lt. Clark and his team landed at Yonghong-do in preparation for the Inchon (14 miles from Yonghong) landing. Clark pressed some 50 islanders into scouting missions in Inchon. Informants called in the N Korean troops; the commandos escape to a nearby island of Palmi-do leaving behind the islanders. Those who helped the Americans were shot by the communists.”

(via Eyewitness: A North Korean Remembers | Young S Kim)

Colonel Ke In-Ju (기인주) was fired and imprisoned by Syngman Rhee for failing to warn of the pending North Korean invasion. Col. Ke In-Ju was replaced by USAF Capt. Donald Nichols as head of the future KCIA (the comparison to Lt. Kurtz from Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now is too kind, more accurately Nichols is Reinhard Heydrich [ SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei SS/GESTAPO] reincarnated), for correctly predicting the North Korean invasion. 

Ke In-ju recounts that he was rescued on the eve of the mass execution, by a U.S. Army captain who drew his pistol to coax the ROKA jailers to release custody. He was under orders from General MacArthur to bring back to Army Head Quarters in Tokyo, Col. Ke In-Ju, his former G-2 counterintelligence chief of staff, from the Taejon Prison where thousands of political adversaries to President Syngman Rhee were being held. Fortunately, Col. Ke In-Ju was rescued and spared execution, unfortunately a fellow family member, our Grandfather Kee (my father became fatherless at 11 y.o., as the son of the [mayor] of Kwangju, our family impoverished, the community stepped up and took care of our family with my father granted scholarships all the way through medical school), disappeared among the thousands killed by Syngman Rhee’s death squad at the Taejon Prison. After being rescued Colonel Ke In-Ju met with Gen. MacArthur in Japan and suggested the name “Operation Bluehearts” for the code name for the invasion of Inchon.

USN Lt. Eugene Clark operated a guerilla force of Korean partisans on the Yalu River, in which he is credited with providing a report to the CIC warning of a pending Chinese invasion, which was unfortunately discounted at the time. Clark like Hans Toft and other early CIA, accumulated large stashes of gold bars through the Korean War. Nichols operated a top secret North Korean currency counterfeiting operation, which was shut down by Syngman Rhee, who feared Kim Il Sung would retaliate by reciprocating and deflate the South Korean currency with counterfeit money, however there was no accounting of the secret warehouse full of cash. Hans Toft and other CIA leaders, built secret personal private islands with their newfound fortunes. 

Clark and his special forces (future Navy SEAL)  crossed into China to hold a village so that USAF Capt. Donald Nichols’, whose specially designed CIA “fishing boat”, was able to retrieve a downed MIG-15 (secretly flown by Russian aces) with the US Navy and Air Force providing cover support and Clark’s partisans holding back enemy ground forces. There is speculation that a cache of “Yamashira’s gold” was purportedly located by CIA agents, who clandestinely removed the “WWII war loot” before withdrawing under the guise of capturing a downed MIG-15 jet, which risks being misinterpreted by the Chinese as the start of an invasion by UN Forces, triggering a Chinese invasion in response. 

Operation Chromite (film)

“Operation Chromite is a 2016 South Korean war drama film directed by John H. Lee and based on the real-life events of the Battle of Inchon, although it presents a fictionalized version of the historical CIA/US military intelligence operation "Trudy Jackson", conducted before the actual landing operation. It was released on 27 July 2016 in South Korea.”

[lapoliciererose-blog]

So here is an idea: What if Nayuta had known Rose before SoJ happened.  They were partners working together solving international crimes for a while before Rose's life is claimed. And Ga'ran really hated Rose and Rose really despised  Ga'ran on a quiet level and the two of them are always making  polite veiled barbs at one another (there is a saying:  when women are polite to each other you know there's a problem) whenever Nayuta brought Rose to Khura'in.

At some point Rose is exiled from Khura'in and if she tries to take one step into the country she would be summarily executed; this all stemmed from on particular incident that will most likely remain nameless for the time being but let's assume that Rose exploded at Ga'ran. She probably could have executed Rose, but being a member of Interpol and from a foreign land, it would have cause an international incident if she killed Rose without just cause.

So Rose can only see Nayuta when he leaves Khura'in. They can only partner up when he's outside his home country. But fun fact, Ga'ran won't let him leave Khura'in for a while. While it's doubtful Nayuta feels anything for Rose beyond respect as a partner or even friendship (who knows? Depends on who's Rping Yuty here), it is apparent that Rose cares A LOT about Nayuta's well-being which is what usually sparks a shit ton of savage comments from both of them to each other. (Also hey bonus: if it hurts Nayuta even a little Ga’ran wins.)

While working alone, Rose meets an untimely end at the hands of an assassin. And Ga’ran doesn’t even allow him to leave to attend the funeral and just wounds Nayuta even more. Hahahahahaha.

Like probably the only time he manages to go visit her finally is like waaaay after the events of SoJ and he leaves flowers at her grave.

And now I hurt on the inside. ;w;

But also imagien the conversations:

“Please stop antagonizing Ga’ran.” “No.”

Alternatively:

“Rose, no.” “Rose, YES.”

[1baddmouthcrown]

1935

1935 January 7 Ethiopia Christmas Day The Swedish H. R. H Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph hier to the throne arrives in Addis with his wife Princess Louise, his daughter Princess Ingrid and his son Prince Bertil. The French foreign minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minster Benito Mussolini sign the Franco Italian agreement giving Italy a part of bordering French Somliland (now Djibouti) as part of Eritrea as well as the Aouzou strip in French Chad as part of Italian Libya. January 19 The League of Nations Council at session decide that the Wal Wal clash should be resolved by arbitration arbitrators should examine the interpretation of the frontier treaty of 1908 May 16 by investigation as according to articles 5 and 7 of the 1928 treaty as to wither Wal Wal is part of Ethiopia or Italian Somaliland. Du Bois publishes his Black Reconstruction in America. March 16 Garvey travels to London on the SS Talapa. March 17 Ambassador Takla Howargat makes submission to the League invoking Article 15 of the covenant. March 28 General Emilio De Bono is named commander in chief of Italian armed forces in East Africa and force invading from Eritrea. April Britain, France and Italy sign the Stresa. May 16 The Emperor sends message to Geneva ‘We request that, if Italy refuses to accept that the arbitration should examine and adjudicate upon all the attacks that have been made in the vicinity of the Somali-Ethiopian border since last December and should pronounce upon the interpretation of the treat of 1908 May 16, the Council itself will take the investigation in hand and resolve matters by a full examination on basis of article 15 of the covenant.’ May 25 As a result of the Emperor’s second submission the League decides arbitrators should be chosen. ‘Because it was Ethiopia’s desire that the judgement to be pronounced should be impartial and on an absolutely legal basis, she on her part chose arbitrators two men who were legal experts, one French Albert de Geouffre de La Pradelle, professor of law in the University of Paris, and one American Pitman B. Potter professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies at Geneva who were very well known for their knowledge and refinement in international law.’ ‘Italy on her part selected two Italians from among Italy’s government officials.’ Ethiopia’s clear conscience was aware of the rights due to her and We, therefore, submitted immediately our request to Italy to settle the matter on the basis of the text of the treaty, referring to the treaty concluded in 1928, by which Italy had undertaken that peace and friendship should forever persist between us and that, if a quarrel arose between us, this quarrel should have a peacful outcome on the authorative verdict of arbitrators. To this request, which we had presented, the reply was an absolute refusal, and Italy revealed her inflexible resolve to have the demands which she had submitted fulfilled in their entirety without investigation and without adjudication in the proper manner. The Emperor on July 18 of the same year. May Robinson arrives in Ethiopia. Garvey speaks at Hyde Park speakers corner. Garvey publishes Black Man monthly magazine from 2 Beaumont Crescent, West Kensington with Una Marson who would later work for the BBC Caribbean service as his personal secretary. Seay becomes the second woman in awarded member of the Order of the British Empire presented to her by Governor Burns and agrees with Womans League and Labourers and Unemployment Association on womens suffrage for voting age to be lowered to but proposes unemployed women rather than to be given suffrage be given land grants. June 25 Joe Louis Detroit’s Brown Bomber, scores a decisive technical knockout over the Italian Primo Carnera in the sixth round of their bout at the Yankee Stadium. Here is Louis standing over the bleeding, fallen Carnera, during one of the three knockdowns in the sixth round. June When the danger became more urgent, being aware of my responsibilities towards my people, during the first six months of 1935 I tried to acquire armaments. Many Governments proclaimed an embargo to prevent my doing so, whereas the Italian Government through the Suez Canal, was given all facilities for transporting without cessation and without protest, troops, arms, and munitions. From the Emperors speech to the League on June 30 of the following year. 3000 white and black men volunteer through the UNIA to fight. Garvey cautions Mossolini against aggressive action towards Ethiopia. Bayen graduates from Howard University medical school. July 8 Garvey in the Black man. July 10 Bayen leaves the U. S. for Ethiopia. July 18 The Emperor delivers speech to parliament. During the Ethiopian Crisis people from all other the world rallied support for the Emperor. July 23 The members of the International African Friends of Ethiopia with their various roles including C. L. R. James as Chairman, Amy Ashwood Garvey as Treasurer and Jomo Kenyatta as secretary hold their first meeting. July 28 Sunday The International African Friends of Ethiopia hold meeting at Faringdon Street, Memorial Hall. August 18 I.A.F.E. hold meeting at Conway Hall Treaty and lift arms embargo. August 26 IAFE hold rally at Trafalgar Square. THE DEFENCE OF ETHIOPIA The International African Friends of Ethiopia. (Formerly The International African Friends of Abyssinia) If devilish force prevails and causes a war then Abyssinia will arise; and, with its Emperor leading, followed by his people, whose courage and valour are known, will defend its country against the invader to the last drop of its blood. Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, at Addis Ababa, August 12th 1935. THAT IS THE POSITION WE ADOPT. Come to THE CONWAY HALL, Sunday August 18th, 1935 at 8 p.m. Resolutions demanding that the British Government keep their Treaty obligations by (a) Supporting Ethiopia in its struggle against Italian Fascism. (b) Raising the embargo on the export of Arms to Ethiopia will be moved. SPEAKERS: Dr. WILLIS N. HUGGINS, Ph.D., from America who has carried the protest of 40 organisations, both black and white, to Geneva, and will tell of the efforts of the Friends of Ethiopia in the United States of America. Mr. C. L. R. JAMES Mr. J. M. KENYATTA Chief TUFUHIN MOORE Dr. SANDRO MAGRI, An Italian Anti-Fascist. AN ETHIOPIAN. August 12 Ethiopia also pleads for the embargo to be lifted. August Garvey praises the Emperor as a gentleman and calls Mussolini a barbarian guilty of savagery. September 2 Amy Ashwood and the International African Friends of Ethiopia held a rally in London at Trafalgar Square. Afterwards, Amy posed for a photograph with two of the sons of the Ethiopian Minister Dr. Warqenah Eshete (aka Dr. Charles Martin), Benyam and Yosef (2nd and 3rd from the right). Both sons were Co-Founders of the radical and militant Black Lion Organization that was involved in liberating Ethiopia from Italian occupation and tyranny. Unfortunately, shortly after taking this photo the two were arrested in Ethiopia and summarily executed for the attempted assassination of the Italian Viceroy Marshall Rodolfo Graziani. — at Trafalgar Square. August Garvey praises the Emperor as a gentleman and calls Mossolini a barbarian guilty of savagery. September 3 The Wal Wal clash is adjudicated by arbitration niether Ethiopia or Italy responsible for the clash, Italy stops compensation. September 4 Italy submits memorandum of complaints to the council of the League of Nations. September 11 The Emperor makes radio broadcast. September 11 The Jamaica Gleaner The Honorable Amy Ashwood Garvey speaks before a London crowd at Trafalgar Square, denouncing the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. “No race has been so noble in forgiving, but now the hour has struck for our complete emancipation. We will not tolerate the invasion of Abyssinia.“ Mrs. Garvey said: “In this struggle, the black women are marching beside the men. You white people brought us out of Africa to Christianize us and civilize us, but all the Christianity and civilization you gave us for 320 years was slavery. You have talked of ‘The White Man’s burden.’ Now we are carrying yours and standing between you and Fascism.” She warned the British Government that if this became a struggle between the “Blacks” and the “Whites” that three quarters of the people of the Empire are colored. September 15 Nuremberg laws in Germany October 3 5:00 AM General Emilio De Bono, without a declaration of war, advances into Ethiopia from Eritrea crossing the Mareb river in the north by plane. Graziani implements the Milan plan all along the southern front to remove Ethiopian forces from various frontier posts and to test the reaction of a series of probes there. The Emperor orders a general mobilization. October 5 Italian I Corps take Adigrat and the League’s Committee of 13 report on the details of events occurred after the month of December of the previous year and up to October 3 of the present year. October 6 Italian II Corps take Adwa where the Italians were defeated 40 years ago in 1896 on March 1. Robinson witness’s the bombing’s of both Adigrat and Adwa. The Emperor orders Ras Seyoum Mangasha commander of the army of Tigre to withdraw a days march away from the Mareb river. The Emperor orders his son in law Dejazmatch Haile Selassie Gugsa to move back 89 and 56km (55 and 35 miles) from the border. October 10 The International African Friends of Ethiopia at a meeting at Clarks theatre in Castries, Saint Lucia protest the Foreign Enlistment Act and pass the following resolution in view of the provoked aggression of Italy against unarmed Ethiopia the penal clause of the above act be waived so far as it applies to west Indians to permit. October 11 Dejazmatch Haile Selassie Gugsa surrenders to the Italian commander with 1, 500 of his men at Adagamos the Italian outpost and defects to the Italian side leaving Makale, his capital in eastern Tigre at 1:00 am with 50 of his men meeting with the Italians. Bono at his HQ with Gugsa on the left. October 14 with De Bono proclaimed the end of slavery, with the livestock having been moved to the south to feed the army those no longer slaves were left with no other option but to loyal to the Italians. I am obliged to say that the proclamation did not have much effect on the owners of the slaves and perhaps still less on the liberated slaves themselves many of the latter the instance they were set free, presented themselves to the Italian authorities asking and now who gives me food. October 15 De Bono forces advance from Adwa occupy Axum, Bono loots Obelisk. October 19 The Bishop of Udine [Italy] writes, ‘It is neither timely nor fitting for us to pronounce on the rights and wrongs of the case. Our duty as Italians, and still more as Christians is to contribute to the success of our arms.' Ras Mulugeta is given orders and parades with army. October 21 The Bishop of Padua writes 'In the difficult hours through which we are passing, we ask you to have faith in our statesmen and armed forces.’ A. L. King and his Provisional Committee for the Defense of Ethiopia ship medical supplies to the Emperor. October 24 The Bishop of Cremona consecrated a number of regimental flags and said 'The blessing of God be upon these soldiers who, on African soil, will conquer new and fertile lands for the Italian genius, thereby bringing to them Roman and Christian culture. May Italy stand once again as the Christian mentor to the whole world.’ The Somali villages of Kelafo, Dagnerai, Gerlogubi and Gorahai in the Oganden are taken by the Italians. October 27 To His Excellency Graziani. The use of gas as an ultima ratio to overwhelm enemy resistance and in case of counter-attack is authorized. Mussolini. November The League of Nations places economic sanctions on Italy excluding oil. November 3 20 aeroplanes from the Regia Aeronautica drop bombs at Gorrahei the stronghold of Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan known to the British as Mad Mullah. Grazmatch Afawarq is hit on the leg by a bomb splinter whilst firing with a 37 mm Oerlikon named after the suburb of Zurich where these guns are made taking aim to bring down a plane. November 4 Waves of 20 Aeroplanes bomb Gorrahei. November 8 I Corps and Eritrean Corps take Makale. November 13 Graziani moves his headquarters to Baidoa. November 16 De Bono is promoted to the rank Marshall of Italy. November 19 The Emperor leaves for Jijiga the capital of Tigre. November 20 Grazmatch Afawarq is posthumously conferred upon with the rank of Dejazmatch. November 28 The Emperor leaves Addis for Dessie in the province of Wollo. November 30 The Emperor moves his HQ to Dessie. 20 killed 100 wounded. December 4 Ras Imru advances from Gojam, his forces are bombed. December 5 The Italians take Abbi Addi. December 6 Lethbridge Herald newspaper THIRTY ITALIAN BOMBERS RAIN DEATH ON CITY AS EMPEROR AND SON WATCH Incendiary Bombs Set Field Hospital Palace of Crown Prince Wrecked by Blasts from Air 200 Injured Protest Attack on Red Cross Hospital Death Stalks Ethiopian Hillsides War is never a pleasant thing, and the current Italo Ethiopian war is no exception. Here is a new photo that graphically illustrates the tragedy of war. Two native soldiers who will probably never be honored by burial shot down by Italian planes. Similar scenes were witnessed today in Dessye where Italian bombers wreaked havoc before the eyes of Emperor Haile Selassie. By CHRISTIAN OZANNE (Copyright, 1935, by the Havas New Agency) ADDIS ABABA Dec 6 (C.P. Havas) Thirty two persons were killed and more than 200 injured when 30 Italian planes bombed Dessye today before the eyes of Emperor Haile Selassie and his, 11 year old second son, Prince Makonnen. Protests To League By JOSPEH E. SHARKEY (Associated Press Foreign Staff) GENEVA, Dec. 6 (A.P.) Emperor Haile Selassie, who escaped death in an Italian air bombing raid on his headquarters at Dessye today, protested directly to the League of Nations a few hours later against the bombing of Red Cross hospital.) Emperor Haile Selassie, who escaped death in an Italian air bombing raid on his headquarters at Dessye today, protested directly to the League of Nations a few hours later against the bombing of Red Cross hospitals and the killing of women and children. The Ethiopian monarch declared the American hospital at Dessye which was struck by bombs had displayed the authorized insignia of the Red Cross. Emperor’s protest The emperors protest stated (Continued on Page Two.) Ethiopian Emperor Fire Machine Gun Himself During Bombardment Of Dessye By Italian Squadron By James A. MILLIS (Copyright. 1935, the Associated Press.)WITH EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE AT DESSYE, ETHIOPIA.Dec. 6 Italian war planes struck at Emperor Haile Selassie’s headquarters today, bombing and machine gunning troops, civilians, the emperor’s palace, and hospitals indiscriminately.The emperor himself fough against the attack which lasted 17 minutes while more than 1000 bombs were dropped and at least 12 persons were killed and 200 wounded,The little, bearded man was talking to Dejazmatch (general) Birru and a doctor named Zeryos when the thunder of the bombing planes was heard (Continued on Page Two) December 10 The British and French foreign ministers Samuel Hoare and Pierre Laval Pact make an underhand agreement to sign Ogaden Tigray and Southern parts of Ethiopia away to Mussolini, the pact is leaked by a French newspaper and the foreign ministers are forced to resign. December 15 The Emperor launches the Ethiopian Christmas Offensive/Counteroffensive also refered to as the Dolo offensive. December 15 Ras Seyoum Mangasha and his army of Tigre with 30, 000 men Abiy Addi Beles River the Ethiopian center, Ras Kassa Haile Darge and his army of Beghemder province in Gondar with 40, 000 advance from Dessie to join Mangasha in the center, Ras Mulugeta Yeggazu Minister of War advances from Dessie with 80, 000 to Amba Aradam the steep sided flat topped mountain on the right of the Ethiopian center blocking the Italian advance to Addis Ababa, the Emperor with 40, 000 men advance from Gojjam towards Mai Timket to the left of Mangasha and Darge, the Ethiopian center. 1,000 Ethiopians cross the Tekeze river and advance toward the Indabaguna Pass. The Ethiopians attack the Italian commander Major Criniti’s forces composed of 1, 000 Eritrean infantry and L3 tanks, the Italians fall back to the the Indabaguna pass where 2, 000 Ethiopian soldiers are already waiting, the Ethiopians then encircle Criniti’s force. The Ethiopians kill two Italian officers and Criniti is left wounded. The Italians try to break out using their tanks which are immobilized by the terrain, the Ethiopians kill the infantry and rush the tanks killing their two man crews. The Ethiopians ambush the Italian relief column of ten tanks, two trucks and infantry sent to Criniti. The Ethiopians roll boulders infront and behind several of the tanks to immobilize them and then pick off the Eritrean infantry and the tanks. More tanks are immobilized by the terrain and two are set on fire. Criniti breaks out in a bayonet charge. There were 31 Italian casualties, 370 Askari were killed and five Italians were taken as prisoners, the Italians claim that there were 500 Ethiopian casualties which is a figure believed to have been much exaggerated. Next the Ethiopians plan for Ras Kassa and Ras Seyoum to split the Italian army in two and isolate the Italian I Corps and III Corps in Mekele and for Ras Mulugeta to Amba Aradam to crush both Corps. After Ras Imru retook Adwa he would invade Eritrea. December 17 De Bono recieves state telegram 13181, and is replaced as Marshall of Italy by Pietro Badoglio. December 18 Harvest of Gold. December 19 Thursday Daily Mirror SIR S. HOARE RESIGNS. December 21 Friday morning 21 aeroplanes bomb Dessie. December 22 Ras Seyoum retakes Abbi Addi. December 30 Red Cross unit at Dolo is bombed, Egyptian ambulance at Bulall attacked and Egyptian medical unit at Daggah Bur. December Julian arrives back in New York on the Cunard liner Aquitania. The Emperor attends a church service after the bombardment of Dessie The Emperor is named man of the year by TIME weekly magazine.

[facondevie]

In August 1998 the city of Mazar-i Sharif in Afghanistan was captured by the Taliban. They began killing civilians and then started targeting male Hazaras. They went from house to house searching for and executing mostly Hazara men and boys. Women and girls were abducted and raped during the Taliban takeover and houses were looted. Governor Niazi made speeches threatening violence against the Hazaras for retaliation of the Taliban killings in 1997. He criticized the Hazaras for being Shi’a, then ordered them to become Sunnis, leave Afghanistan, or risk being killed. Thousands of Hazaras died.

“On August 8, 1998, Taliban militia forces captured the city of Mazar-i Sharif in northwest Afghanistan, the only major city controlled by the United Front, the coalition of forces opposed to the Taliban. The fall of Mazar was part of a successful offensive that gave the Taliban control of almost every major city and important significant territory in northern and central Afghanistan. Within the first few hours of seizing control of the city, Taliban troops killed scores of civilians in indiscriminate attacks, shooting noncombatants and suspected combatants alike in residential areas, city street sand markets. Witnesses described it as a ‘killing frenzy’ as the advancing forces shot at ‘anything that moved.’ Retreating opposition forces may also have engaged in indiscriminate shooting as they fled the city. Human Rights Watch believes that at least hundreds of civilians were among those killed as the panicked population of Mazar-i Sharif tried to evade the gunfire or escape the city.

In the days that followed, Taliban forces carried out a systematic search for male members of the ethnic Hazara, Tajik, and Uzbek communities in the city. The Hazaras, a Persian-speaking Shi’a ethnic group, were particularly targeted, in part because of their religious identity. During the house-to-house searches, scores and perhaps hundreds of Hazara men and boys were summarily executed, apparently to ensure that they would be unable to mount any resistance to the Taliban. Also killed were eight Iranian officials at the Iranian consulate in the city and an Iranian journalist. Thousands of men from various ethnic communities were detained first in the overcrowded city jail and then transported to other cities, including Shiberghan, Herat and Qandahar. Most of the prisoners were transported in large container trucks capable of holding one hundred to 150 people. In two known instances, when the trucks reached Shiberghan, some 130 kilometers west of Mazar, nearly all of the men inside had asphyxiated or died of heat stroke inside the closed metal containers. Some prisoners were also transported in smaller trucks. As of late October, some 4,500 men from Mazar remained in detention.

The few international relief groups operating in Mazar had evacuated their staff in the days before the attack on the city.1 On August 16, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), resumed its operations in the city. In late October, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) was permitted to resume its activities. Following the takeover, the Taliban allowed no journalists to travel anywhere in the area.

In the absence of a full-scale investigation, there is no way to know precisely how many were killed in the weeks following the fall of Mazar to the Taliban. Based on interviews with survivors and other informed sources, Human Rights Watch believes that at least 2,000 may have been killed in the city and possibly many more. Many civilians were also killed in aerial bombardments and rocket attacks as they fled south of the city toward the Alborz mountains. Human Rights Watch is also concerned by persistent reports that women and girls, particularly in certain Hazara neighborhoods of Mazar-i Sharif, were raped and abducted during the Taliban takeover of the city.

The killings of Hazara men and boys appear to have been carried out largely in reprisal for the killing of several thousand Taliban soldiers after a failed attempt by the Taliban to take the city from May to July 1997. Of these, some 2,000 were reportedly summarily executed after capture in Shiberghan and other areas, including areas to which prisoners from Mazar were deported. A number of neighborhoods targeted for searches in Mazar had been among those where resistance by Hizb-i Wahdat troops against the Taliban had begun at that time. Witnesses stated that Taliban conducting the house-to-house searches accused Hazaras in general of killing Taliban troops in 1997 and did not distinguish between combatants and noncombatants. In speeches given at mosques throughout Mazar, the Taliban governor, Mulla Manon Niazi, also blamed Hazaras for the 1997 killings.

The Hazaras were also singled out because they are Shi'a. The Taliban are Sunni Muslims and followers of a strict conservative sect that considers the Shi'a to be infidels. During their search operations in Mazar, the Taliban ordered some residents to prove that they were not Shi'a by reciting Sunni prayers. Over a period of several weeks, Governor Niazi made inflammatory speeches against Hazaras in which he ordered them to become Sunnis, leave Afghanistan, or risk being killed.

The Taliban forces that captured Mazar-i Sharif included Pashtuns from Balkh, the province of which Mazar is the capital and the name of a town northwest of Mazar. These Balkh Pashtuns had been members of a militia aligned with the Hizb-i Islami, a largely Pashtun faction that was part of the United Front. Some weeks before the offensive on Mazar, Hizb-i Wahdat forces launched an operation in Balkh to drive Pashtuns from the area so that they would not be able to provide support to the advancing Taliban troops. The Hizb-i Wahdat forces reportedly engaged in widespread rape and looting. The rapes in particular reportedly drove several key commanders among the Balkh Pashtuns to switch sides and help the Taliban. Some were reportedly also unhappy with Hizb-i Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's courting of Shi’a religious leaders. Other commanders were simply bought off. Balkh Pashtuns were among the first troops entering the city and have been identified among the Taliban troops who engaged in indiscriminate shooting on the first day. Balkh Pashtuns also took part in the house-to-house searches and may have acted as informers identifying Hazara neighborhoods and houses. However, witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch stated that the search parties also included Taliban officers who were not from local areas and that the Taliban officers separating prisoners at the jail were not Balkh Pashtuns but non-local ‘mainstream’ Taliban — those from Qandahar or other predominantly Pashtun areas of southern Afghanistan where many of the senior Taliban leaders are based. The speeches by Governor Niazi also demonstrate an intent at senior levels to target Hazaras. Other witnesses stated that senior Taliban leaders were not only aware of the extent of the killing in Mazar but had decided to allow it to continue for several days before stopping it.”

[tortuga-aak]

Billy Bush slams Trump for reportedly casting doubt on the authenticity of the 'Access Hollywood' tape

YouTube/CBS

Former NBC host Billy Bush sat down with Stephen Colbert in his first public appearance since being fired over a year ago.

Bush condemned President Trump for reportedly claiming that the voice on the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape isn't his.

Former NBC host Billy Bush made his first late-night appearance since being fired over a year ago, chatting with Stephen Colbert on "The Late Show" Monday night.

Bush addressed the reports that Trump is denying his voice is in the now-infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that leaked prior to the election last year, which resulted in NBC firing Bush. An anonymous source told The New York Times last week that, in January, Trump mentioned he had doubts about the authenticity of the "Access Hollywood" tape, and reportedly told a Republican senator, "We don’t think that was my voice."

“Last week, for some reason, he came out with 'That’s not my voice on the tape,’" Bush told Colbert. "Like I said, you can’t say that. That is your voice. I was there, you were there, that is your voice on the tape.”

Bush said that when he was filming the "Access Hollywood" segment with Trump back in 2005, he was unaware that there was any truth to what he was saying, and assumed that he was just  putting on a "crass stand-up act" for him and his crew.

“If I had thought there was a man detailing a sexual assault strategy to me, I would have called the F.B.I., not just reported it to my executive producer,” Bush said.

Bush also brought up the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.

“As I read these I said 20 women don’t get together and say, ‘You know what would be fun? Let’s take down a powerful guy together.’ No, they don’t. [Trump is] opening wounds on them, too. Enough’s enough. Stop playing around with people’s lives,” said Bush.

When Colbert asked what Bush thought of the recent cultural shift and the notion that women need to be believed, Bush agreed, saying that "Women must be believed."

In addition to speaking with Colbert, Bush also wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday, condemning Trump for his reported comments on the authenticity of the "Access Hollywood" tape.

"To these women: I will never know the fear you felt or the frustration of being summarily dismissed and called a liar, but I do know a lot about the anguish of being inexorably linked to Donald Trump," Bush wrote. "You have my respect and admiration. You are culture warriors at the forefront of necessary change."

You can watch the full interview here:

Youtube Embed: http://www.youtube.com/embed/YvcIeSfaB3c Width: 560px Height: 315px

NOW WATCH: Here's how Jay-Z and Beyoncé spend their $1.16 billion

from Feedburner http://ift.tt/2imQt5L

[londontheatre]

Mary Conlom, Piìa Laborde, Candela Goìmez, in BERNARDA ALBA – Picture by Elena Molina

A point which some fellow theatregoers made in an exit poll opinion of this production of The House of Bernarda Alba was how truly international this cast is, evident as they retain their natural accents.

Although there are five sisters living under one roof under the tyrannical rule of Bernarda (Mary Conlon), the siblings speaking in different accents is not a production defect. For in this English translation of Federico García Lorca’s play, it is assumed every character is speaking in Spanish, even if the audience’s is hearing dialogue in the English language. Incidentally, there are opportunities to see the production in Spanish as well, and certain characters are played by different actors dependent on which language a particular performance is performed in.

This is rather like one of the early scenes in The Sound of Music, in which the von Trapp children reside in a strict and regimented environment. But here, there’s no equivalent of Maria to liven things up, and so the atmosphere remains oppressive, as though the sisters are walking on eggshells. Also, Bernarda Alba’s children are rather older than Captain von Trapp’s – the oldest, Angustias (Joanna Kate Rodgers), is 39 and the youngest, Adela (Maite Jáuregui), is 20.

That doesn’t stop Bernarda from treating her daughters as though they were still prepubescent. Poncia (Moir Leslie) tries hard to persuade Bernarda to moderate her temper but a terse, “You are my servant!” seems to settle the matter, albeit unsatisfactorily. A despot is a despot, and this one is no more or less uncompromisingly difficult than any other. Mary Conlon’s Bernarda is convincingly controlling, and in her behaviour much can be gleaned about the sort of society this family lives in. This isn’t The Waltons.

The funeral of Bernarda’s husband is ongoing at the start of the play, and I found the responses to grief intriguing to observe. One of the sisters throws herself into her work, vigorously sewing as though there were an urgent deadline (there isn’t one), whilst another is unable to do anything at all except weep. Bernarda’s mother, Maria Josefa (Gilly Daniels), provides a further dimension to proceedings. Okay, she comes across as senile, but there’s a powerful metaphor in her wanting to be free and not locked up like a cage-bird in some off-stage room.

The play, when first published, proved prophetic, coming just before decades of dictatorial rule in Spain under General Franco. Today, it is rather timely, given the furore in recent news reports about the mistreatment of women in the arts, in political circles, and other industries. This production supplies audiences with food for thought: repression of women need not come from patriarchy to have far-reaching and devastating consequences. It’s emotionally charged throughout, and mercifully only fleetingly crosses over into melodrama. The bright lighting, portraying sunny Spain, contrasted well with the dark and tense environment.

The increasing isolation the daughters are placed in by Bernarda is a striking and disturbing image. It’s relatable to almost anything involving being separated from others – the school pupil shunned by classmates, the talented employee who doesn’t quite fit in with colleagues for whatever reason, even (I grudgingly admit, given a tendency in some quarters to equate anything and everything to this) the result of a certain referendum. A thoughtful and poignant production from the Spanish Theatre Company.

Review by Chris Omaweng

The STC continues its mission to present all of Lorca’s work with a new production of The House of Bernarda Alba, Lorca’s story of a family of women in 1930s Spain, dominated and repressed by the matriarch, Bernarda Alba.

In the subtitle of the play, Lorca describes it as “a drama of women in the villages of Spain”. The House of Bernarda Alba was Lorca’s last play, completed on 19th June 1936, two months before his death during the Spanish Civil War; he was summarily executed by supporters of General Franco, in Granada. Born on 5th June 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, Spain, Lorca is considered one of Spain’s greatest poets

The House of Bernarda Alba (La Casa de Bernarda Alba) will run at the Cervantes Theatre Cervantes Theatre Arch 26. Old Union Arches. 229 Union Street. London. SE1 0LR 23rd October – 20th December 2017.

http://ift.tt/2zfkT1k London Theatre 1

[tragicbooks]

Here's what actual trans military voices have to say about Trump's ban.

An estimated 15,000 trans people currently serve in the military.

In June 2016, the U.S. secretary of defense made a long-overdue announcement: The military was ending its ban on transgender service members.

With the 2011 end to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning gay, lesbian, and bisexual people from serving, allowing trans people to serve openly seemed like the logical next step.

As then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter explained, “Our mission is to defend this country, and we don’t want barriers unrelated to a person’s qualifications to serve preventing us from recruiting or retaining the soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine who can best accomplish the mission.”

Fast-forward a year, and President Trump has undone that progress, tweeting that "the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military."

He cited "tremendous medical costs" as the reason behind his decision despite the fact that a RAND Corporation study found that the total additional cost of allowing trans people to serve in the military is $2.4 million-8.4 million. (For comparison, in 2014, the military spent more than 10 times that on erectile dysfunction medication alone.)

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

But maybe Trump's decision wasn't about cost at all. According to Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, a Trump administration official was quoted as saying the move "forces Democrats in Rust Belt states like Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, to take complete ownership of this issue."

"How will the blue collar voters in these states respond when senators up for re-election in 2018 like Debbie Stabenow are forced to make their opposition to this a key plan of their campaigns?" Swan quoted the official as saying.

In other words, Trump's decision doesn't seem to be about readiness, cost, or any of the other reasons frequently tossed around by opponents of trans inclusion in the military. Instead, it's just a game of politics, with trans lives as pawns.

There are currently an estimated 15,000 trans people serving in the military. What do they think of Trump reinstating the ban? We asked them.

Amanda Clark was discharged back in 2007 after coming out as trans. While she says she's ambivalent about military service, she sees this as a matter of basic civil rights.

"I can’t possibly fathom what openly out trans people in the military are feeling right now. Hell, I feel scared now just being a trans person in the civilian world. It feels like the f*cking fascists who run this country are coming for us, and openly serving trans people are next. I’m sure a lot of officers/[non-commissioned officers] are going to be thrilled to get involved in paperwork hell discharging folks."

Kristen Carella, who served on active duty 2001-2005 as an intelligence analyst stationed in Germany, pointed out that many U.S. allies (18 in total, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom) allow trans people to serve without issue.

"Here was an opportunity for this country to move forward, recognizing the sacrifices transgender people have ALWAYS made in the armed forces, by allowing us to serve openly. [According to Human Rights Campaign] stats 26% of the trans community serves in the military at some point during their lives, that is TWICE the rate of the general population. Trump's decision is a stunning reversal that can be taken only as a slap in the face, personally to every transgender person who has ever served. It accomplishes nothing more than making sure transgender people remain a demonized and hated target that right-wing politicians can target to scare their base and push their agendas. Of course, all of this demonization ensures that the ignorant violence which leads bigots to murder transgender people in the streets (particularly trans women of color) will continue."

Penelope R., an intersex trans woman who served in the Air Force for six years before leaving to pursue transition, says "members are going to die" because of this new policy, and she urges those who might not generally support the military to care about this.

"[The] American military, despite its many infelicities, has always been a reliable space for many kinds of marginalized people to hide out in. This is why trans people are disproportionately represented in the military. Enlisting was always a last resort for me — I've known I was trans since I was a child, and knew going into the military meant carving away parts of my identity I cherished, but at the time the alternative was death. Just death. I chose to live, and as a result I met my wife, found a chosen family that makes the sun rise for me, made enough money to afford transition, and qualified me to receive transitional health care from the Illinois VA. ... The military helped make my life worth living. And now it's all gone to shit for everyone. Despite what he says, there's nothing Trump can say or do to stop trans people from serving — he can only get rid of those he knows about. It will only go back to how it was before, with trans service members confined to the closet at the risk of their careers."

Then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter lifts the ban on trans troops on June 30, 2016. Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

Landon Wilson, who served in the Navy and was the topic of a widely read 2014 Washington Post profile about trans people in the military, points out that the  ban means "honorably serving people" will be removed from service, "effectively weakening our country."

"It's a heartbreaking shame that the President of the United States is choosing to ignore the sacrifices of transgender service members, particularly at a time where so many have proven their dedication to this country. A diverse military makes a strong military; by removing honorably serving people from service, the President is effectively weakening our country, both as a fighting force and as a leader in civil rights."

"Even when we've taken the uniform off, our service never stops." - @HiBoriPrincess #VeteransDay #OpenTransService http://pic.twitter.com/mBdneUM1Sv

— TransMilitary (@TransMilitary) November 11, 2015

Vivian Wise, an information systems technician on active duty in the Navy, came out to her shipmates the day President Obama and Secretary Carter lifted the ban in 2016. She disagrees with President Trump's assertion that trans people serving in the military is a "disruption."

"To say that my service has been a 'disruption' is an outright lie. My Commanding Officer, immediate superiors and co-workers have all been fully supportive of me. I am one of the senior technicians within my division, responsible for training our new sailors and managing our day-to-day and week-to-week work list. I was, until just now, being groomed to lead one of our division's two watch teams for our upcoming deployment, beginning late next year. In that capacity, I serve a critical role in my work center. Summarily discharging me from military service, for nothing more than petty bigotry and electoral politics, is the disruption. The GOP as a whole, and the Trump administration in particular, are degrading my unit and hundreds if not thousands of other units across the armed services by taking away valuable people. We, and the American people, deserve better than this."

Cisgender allies, activists, and experts are voicing their concerns, as well.

In an email, TransMilitary co-director and executive producer Fiona Dawson (who, in 2015, documented the story of two trans service members who fell in love) weighed in on the move, saying she hopes Trump will actually take the time to meet some of the trans personnel he deems unfit for service.

"Donald Trump's assertions against transgender service members are baseless. Science and ethics determine there is no rational reason why the thousands of transgender women and men who have been defending our country and fighting for our freedom for hundreds of years should not be permitted to continue doing so."

Former Secretary Carter offered his opinion on the reinstatement of the discriminatory policy as well, saying that it "has no place in our military."

Ex-DefSec Carter: "To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy & has no place in our military." http://pic.twitter.com/Y1SjfYK7Ug

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 26, 2017

Advocacy organizations and civil rights groups across the country are issuing press releases, denouncing the tweet on a number of grounds.

The Palm Center called this "a worse version of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell'" and hit Trump over his claims of "tremendous costs."

"As we know from the sad history of that discredited policy, discrimination harms military readiness. This is a shocking and ignorant attack on our military and on transgender troops who have been serving honorably and effectively for the past year. As former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen stated yesterday, their service must be respected. The Rand Corporation has estimated that the cost of medical care for transgender troops is approximately one one-hundredth of one percent of the military annual health care budget, or at most, $8.4 million per year. To claim otherwise is to lie about the data."

Tyler Deaton of the American Unity Fund, a conservative LGBTQ organization, criticized Trump for going back on what he saw as LGBTQ-friendly campaign promises in a statement that is long but worth reading in its entirety:

"President Trump promised to protect the transgender community. As President, he said he was 'respectful and supportive of LGBTQ rights' and would 'protect the community from violence and oppression.' But President Trump has broken his promise and, coupled with his administration's efforts to roll back protections for transgender students in our nation's public schools, he is developing an undeniable pattern of anti-gay and anti-transgender policy while in office. ... As conservatives and advocates for LGBTQ freedom, AUF calls on President Trump to reconsider his comments, and stand with all of our soldiers, including those who are transgender."

Former Justice Department official Vanita Gupta, currently president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, slammed Trump's move as "yet another broken promise to the American people."

"President Trump doesn't understand that our military is stronger when there are no discriminatory barriers to service. The civil and human rights community will continue to loudly and proudly stand up for the rights of all who are willing to protect the security of our country, including the thousands of transgender people currently serving in our military."

And of course, there was pushback from a number of Democratic and Republican politicians alike.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) commented on the sad irony of Trump's decision to increase discrimination on the 69th anniversary of President Truman's order to desegregate the military.

.@POTUS has shown his conduct is driven not by honor, decency, or national security, but by prejudice. https://t.co/PHTlXMhEJg http://pic.twitter.com/X9rYhn5Jic

— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) July 26, 2017

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) announced plans to introduce legislation that would overrule Trump's decision.

This morning, transgender service members put on uniform and showed up to their military duties...

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) July 26, 2017

This new decision is harmful and misguided. It weakens—not strengthens—our military. And I’ll do everything in my power to fight it.

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) July 26, 2017

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York) highlighted the number of trans people serving in the military.

To @POTUS: Don't tell me #trans military service members who serve this country are any less courageous or deserving b/c of who they are. http://pic.twitter.com/XNQKKTnWw5

— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) July 26, 2017

Rep. Illeana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), who has a transgender son, spoke out against it as well.

No American, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be prohibited from honor + privilege of serving our nation #LGBT

— Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) July 26, 2017

Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Massachusetts) offered to stand in solidarity with trans soldiers.

To the thousands of #trans men+women bravely serving our nation in uniform: Thank you. We do not take your patriotism for granted. https://t.co/bguuL4tx0f

— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) July 26, 2017

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said "transgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them."

Senator Hatch's full comments on the issue of transgender Americans in the military. #utpol http://pic.twitter.com/EDS6JRXJaj

— Senator Hatch Office (@senorrinhatch) July 26, 2017

And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) called trans service members "patriots."

Transgender Americans are serving honorably in our military. We stand with these patriots.

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 26, 2017

Trans people exist in the world and have every right to engage in the same activities and occupations as anybody else.

This is a big deal, and it's not just a distraction. Nobody should be discriminated against for who they are — not in the military, not in education, not in housing, not in employment, not in health care, not at all.