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eugenedebs1920 · 2 months ago

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The master class in deception begins and ends with the once “Grand Ol Party”. Today’s Republican Party has betrayed our veterans, our children, and the middle class in general. The so called “GOP” will decry patriotism while turning their back on those who fought for our freedoms. They will claim to support the troops while slashing funding and eliminating jobs at the veterans affairs. Heck! They even got rid of the veteran suicide hotline.

How is that patriotic!? How does that support the troops!? How does treating our men and women in uniform, who swore an oath to defend the Constitution, who risked their lives, left their families, who faced death in service of our nation, how does voting against their interests show a single ounce of respect to our country’s military members!?

EVERY SINGLE NAY VOTE FOR THE PACT ACT WAS A REPUBLICAN.

It’s not just veterans and service members that Republicans betray and lie to, they hold no regard for the average American. As Helene was forming in the Gulf of Mexico every nay vote to fund FEMA was a republican. Some being representatives from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, then they spread fake stories about Biden refusing aide! It’s mind blowing!!

Republicans voted against paid sick leave. They voted against guaranteed overtime pay. They voted against raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to an actual living wage. They voted for a bill to increase asbestos and other hazardous product levels in building materials. They voted for corporate tax cuts. For giving their constitutional power over taxes and tariffs to the executive branch. How is this the party of the working class!?

Today’s Republican Party is the enemy of the people. As maga goes around defiling our nations flag with superimposed pictures of trumps stupid orange face on it, cheering on the tyrant who is actively destroying our republic. All the while Republicans “leaders” cower in fear to speak out, afraid they might lose power through a primary challenge. The fecklessness is shameful. What happened to protecting the constitution, defending democracy, standing with your country, your constituents, your fellow Americans!?

While they stoke division through culture wars our rights and reputation slowly fizzles away. While the “GOP” and the right wing propaganda machine encourage hate, spread misinformation, blame Americas problems on trans people, gay people, DEI programs, radical left lunatics, it is them who undermine the very foundation this country is built upon.

Republican lawmakers don’t care about veterans. They don’t care about fiscal responsibility. They don’t care about the working class, the only thing of relevance to them retaining power, and supporting the corporations and wealthy donors who fund their campaigns and lavish lifestyle.

The left. Liberals. The Democratic Party. It may have its faults, but it stands with its military members, it sides with the working poor and middle class. I’d take a party that cares for Americans over oligarchs any day.

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frogblast-the-ventcore · 1 year ago

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The Contract

CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT

The following contract is made between and entered into by The Helldivers Division of the Super Earth Armed Forces (hereby referred to as "the Enlister") and the individual who has successfully completed their preliminary Helldiver training as set forth in Exhibit A of the Super Earth Armed Forces Recruitment and Retention Manual part 27/B-10264 (hereby referred to as "the Enlisted"). The following contract is entered into willingly, and the Enlisted confirms that they have authority to enter into such an agreement at this time, being of sound mind and body, of legal age, and of Citizenship Grade E or above.

1 SERVICES

1.1 The Enlisted shall perform the Services outlined in Appendix A in accordance with the operational directives identified by (i) Super Earth High Command (ii) the President of Super Earth (iii) the Democratic Council of Super Earth (iv) accredited employees of the Ministries of Super Earth (v) accredited representatives of the parties aforementioned in clauses 1.1.i - 1.1.v, (vi) accredited representatives of those representatives (hereby referred to as "the Authorized Command Structure"). The Authorized Command Structure may, at any point, with no prior notice, make amendments to the schedule of services outlined in Appendix A. A copy of Appendix A may, if required, be obtained by the Enlisted through contacting the relevant authorities in the SEAF Administrative Corps, with a hard copy of the Appendix to be delivered to the requesting Enlisted within 5-10 business years.

1.2 The Services performed by the Enlisted for the Enlister shall include, but are not limited to active combat operations (which may include, but shall not be limited to raids, deployments, invasions, sorties, forays, assaults, blitzes, incursions, onslaughts, liberations, razings, flattenings, and nukings), non-combat operations (which may include but shall not be limited to parades, interviews, signings and appearances, executions (both summary and otherwise), interplanetary transportation, including the escort of civilian or Democratic vessels, and any activities deemed necessary in the pursuit of the aims identified by (i) The Enlister, and (ii) The Authorized Command Structure. In order to enable full and complete enactment of these Services, the Enlisted is hereby authorized to employ lethal force, non-lethal force, non-lethal non-force, and lethal non-force, to be employed at the discretion of the Enlisted. The Enlisted may not subcontract in whole or in part any of the duties requested of them by the Enlister.

1.3 The Services shall be performed by the Enlisted at locations identified by (i) The Enlister (ii) The Authorized Command Structure. In order to enable the completion of the Services in an efficient and timely manner, the Enlisted will be entrusted with the command of a Class 6 "Super Destroyer" Series Crewed Interplanetary Combat Vessel (hereby referred to as "The Super Destroyer") Upon the Termination of the Contract of the Enlisted (refer to Section 5, TERMINATION), command of this Super Destroyer will be transferred to the next eligible Enlisted in the order designated by (i) the serving Ship Master, (ii) The Enlister, (iii) the Authorized Command Structure, (iv) Accredited representatives of the parties listed in clauses 1.3.i - 1.3.iii. The heirs, successors, and assigns of The Enlisted have no right, claim or interest in the ownership or command of the Super Destroyer. Should the actions of the Enlisted result in loss, damages, or impediments to the Super Destroyer, requiring ameliorative or restorative action, the cost of such repairs shall be subtracted from the Martyrdom Payment due to the heirs or successors of the Enlisted (refer to Section 2 COMPENSATION).

1.4 The Enlisted will be responsible for the purchasing, maintenance, replacement, and improvement of the equipment used for the provision of services. If the contract of the Enlisted is terminated due to the conditions outlined in Clause 5.1 (absence of pulse), the equipment purchased, maintained, replaced, and improved by the Enlisted shall stay with Destroyer, and shall be made available to the next Helldiver to command the vessel.

2 REMUNERATION

2.1 For the performance of the services outlined within the schedule set forth in Appendix A, the Helldiver shall receive monetary compensation for the services rendered. The compensation shall vary in line with the services performed. The Enlister reserves the right to, at any time and with no prior notice, make amendments to the schedule of payments.

2.2 The Enlister acknowledges that the position of the Enlisted ("Helldiver") is classified by the Super Earth Ministry of Employment as an "Exceptionally Patriotic Duty". Accordingly, upon commencement of the delivery of services, the immediate family members of the Enlisted (defined as parents, siblings, heirs, and successors) shall receive 4.5 citizenship points, to be allocated at the recipients’ discretion. This compensation shall be non-transferable, and may not be exchanged for a cash equivalent.

2.3 In the event of the non-continuation of the 'alive' status of the Enlisted in the course of the rendition of services, a Martyrdom Payment shall be made to the immediate family members of the Enlisted (defined as parents, siblings, heirs, and successors) minus any dispensations outlined in Section 1.3.

3 CONFIDENTIALITY AND CLASSIFIED MATERIALS

3.1 In the course of the rendition of services, the Enlisted is likely to become exposed to information of strategic importance (including but not limited to maps, mission briefings, internal procedural documentation, details of products, prices, and seasonal discounts). The Enlister and Enlisted agree that any and all privileged information (collectively "CLASSIFIED MATERIALS") viewed by the Enlisted (i) shall be maintained in the strictest secrecy by the Enlisted, with all reasonable efforts made to avoid the transfer, leakage, dissemination, publication, conveyance, and/or seepage of Classified Materials, and (ii) shall be provided in formats which are traceable to the Enlisted in the event of transfer, leakage, dissemination, publication, conveyance, and/or seepage. The Enlisted agrees to return any and all data, documents, directories, manuals, maps, and notes pertaining to “CLASSIFIED MATERIALS” upon (i) termination of this contract, (ii) request by the Enlister.

3.2 Any information made known to the Enlisted outside of operational parameters which is not considered customarily known to the general citizenry and/or which was not known to the Enlisted prior to the commencement of this agreement shall, for the purposes of clarity, be considered "CONTROLLED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS". For the access of "CONTROLLED CLASSIFIED MATERIALS" explicit, advance written consent must be obtained by the Enlisted.

3.3 To read these terms and conditions in full shall be considered a breach of Clause 3.2.

4 INDEMNIFICATION

4.1 Unless otherwise stated, the Enlisted shall be solely and exclusively responsible for any and all damages, harm, liability, loss, costs, expenses, craters, atrocities, and crimes (civil, uncivil, war) caused, created, or generated during the course of the rendition of services. The Enlisted hereby indemnifies (i) The Enlister, and (ii) the Authorized Command Structure, including but not limited to any employees, representatives, heirs, and successors against any costs, challenges, losses, damages, or expenses (without limitation) arising from or relating in any way to the rendition of services by the Enlisted.

4.2 Any damage sustained by the Enlisted, whether reputational or corporeal (including but not limited to incineration, evisceration, spinal separation, vaporization, crushing, freezing, burning, decapitation, paper cuts, explosion, contusion, removal of arms and/or limbs, addition of arms and/or limbs, dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath and/or death) shall not be considered the responsibility of the Enlister.

4.3 The Enlisted shall not hold the Enlister in whole or in part responsible for whether they return in whole or in part.

5 TERMINATION

This agreement will be governed by the laws of Super Earth, and shall be terminated in the event that:

(i) The Enlisted is mortally wounded, such that medical attention shall not be physically or financially justifiable.

(ii) The Enlisted expresses seditious, dangerous, or Traitorous thoughts, opinions, actions or sentiments.

(iii) By the Enlister, for any reason. Notice of the cause for termination is not required. The provisions of sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 shall survive termination.

6 GENERAL PROVISIONS

6.1 The Enlisted consents to personal information (including but not limited to Biometric, Patriotic, and Demographic data) to be collected and processed by (i) the Enlister (ii) The Authorized Command Structure (iii) Appropriate agents of the Super Earth Armed Forces and Democratic Council.

6.2 The Enlisted consents to personal samples (including but not limited to flesh, bone, and blood) to be collected and processed by (i) the Enlister (ii) The Authorized Command Structure (iii) Appropriate agents of the Super Earth Armed Forces and Democratic Council.

6.3 The Enlisted provides unequivocal and irrevocable consent to the use of experimental weaponries, technologies, and narcotics.

6.4 The Contract shall be considered binding upon being read, in whole or in part.

(For the purpose of the elimination of doubt, the Enlisted spending 1 second within 15 meters of a copy of the contract shall be interpreted as the contract being read.)

#helldivers #helldivers 2

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jungkoode · 5 months ago

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死 KKANGPAE | EXTRAS 死

† info guide †

☆彡Welcome to the World of Kkangpae

There's something about the shadows they don't tell you—how easily they consume everything, how quiet they remain despite the noise of the world above. This is the world you're about to step into. Kkangpae is not a place for the faint-hearted.

But before you descend, let me offer you a few things to hold onto.

❥ If you're someone who needs a mental image to anchor yourself, I've provided edited visuals of the characters. These images match the way I've imagined them, so feel free to refer to them as you read. Sometimes, it helps to see the face behind the mask, even if it's not the real one

★ The Council of 9: The Apex of Power At the top of Kkangpae sits the Council of 9—an invisible hand that controls everything. Each member hides behind a code name, a necessary shield to keep their true selves buried. Power, here, is not loud. It's quiet. Calculated. And it's always watching. If one wishes to refer to them by their actual names, permission must be obtained beforehand.

❥1. Namjoon (RM) - Supreme Commander: The mastermind, the leader of the gang and responsible for the overall planning and decision-making.

❥2. Jin (Moon) - Deputy Commander: The right hand of RM, He's the one who stands beside RM, ensuring everything runs smoothly—inside and out.

❥3. Jimin (JM) - Chief of Financial Operations: The economic wizard, responsible for managing the gang's finances and economic activities.

❥4. Hoseok (J-Hope) - Chief Medical Officer: The guardian of health, tending to the medical needs and wellbeing of the gang members.

❥5. Yoongi (AD) - Chief of Cyber Intelligence: He's the unseen eye, controlling the digital space, making sure secrets stay buried and information flows in their favor.

❥6. Jungkook (Jeon) - Chief of Tactical Assassinations: The master of targeted elimination, focusing on precision and strategy.

❥7. Taehyung (V) - Chief of Stealth Assassinations: Co-leading the Assassination division with his nemesis -- the enigmatic shadow, specializing in covert and untraceable operations.

❥8. Chaewon (Flower) - Chief of Covert Influence: The manipulator of strings, adept in seduction and subtle control to achieve the gang's objectives.

❥9. Hyunjoo (Jessi) - Chief of Logistics and Recruitment: The resourceful maven, managing the gang's supplies and resources and recruiting new members.

༺Other characters ❥10. Yunjin - Seduction Division: New blood in the Seduction Division. Your roommate, though she keeps more to herself than you'd expect.

❥11. Kazuha - Seduction Division - Sharp. Professional. Shares a room with Eunchae and Sakura. Another member of the Seduction Division.

❥12. Sakura - Youthful, with a kind of liveliness that doesn't belong in a place like this. But she's here, and she's part of the game.

❥13. Eunchae - The youngest, a bubbling contrast to the world around her. Still, she's in the Seduction Division. That says enough.

❥14. Takama - Jeon's second-in-command in the Tactical Assassination Division. He follows orders, but not without a mind of his own.

[More to add because your girl is lazy] ★ Divisions: Where Power Is Fragmented, Yet Whole

Kkangpae isn't just a single entity. It's split into divisions, each one vital to its survival. Each one led by a member of the Council. They function like parts of a machine, smooth and efficient.

- Assassination Division: 1. Tactical Assassinations: Jeon leads this team. They make sure every move is planned and executed with precision. 2. Stealth Assassinations: V leads this one. It's less about planning, more about improvising. Quick, silent, unseen.

- Seduction Division: Flower leads this. They use charm, influence, and manipulation to get the information they need, infiltrating places others can't reach.

- Cyber Intelligence Division: AD handles this. They control everything digital, gathering secrets, breaking into systems, and protecting the gang's data.

- Medical Division. J-Hope ensures everyone stays healthy. It's not just about tending to wounds—it's about survival in a world that's always at war.

- Financial Division: JM manages the finances, ensuring the gang always has the funds to operate smoothly.

- Logistics & Recruitment: Jessi runs this. She makes sure the gang is always well-equipped, and she brings in new members to keep the operations alive.

★ The Myung-dong Faction (MDF). Located on the outskirts of Kkangpae's territory is a formidable gang known as the Myung-dong Faction (MDF). They are just as notorious and powerful as Kkangpae, and the two have a long history of animosity marked by betrayal, tragedy, and a fierce struggle for power.

★ A World Governed by Unspoken Rules In Kkangpae's kingdom, nothing is more valuable than loyalty, and nothing is more unforgivable than betrayal. The code that governs their actions is considered sacred and influences every decision, relationship, and destiny. Within this world, alliances are formed and broken, secrets are exchanged like currency, and every friendly gesture is a potential threat. And the cardinal rule? No attachments.

As you delve into this narrative, remember that in Kkangpae, appearances deceive, and every face wears a mask. Brace yourself for a journey into the heart of darkness, where power is the only truth, and survival the only goal.

★★★ Put your left hand on the Bible,

sell a lie for me

★★★

#kkangpae #jungkoode #kgp #kk

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girlactionfigure · 9 months ago

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She was a teacher. She just wanted to help.

She was born in Milwaukee on September 16, 1902. She was known as "Mili" to her friends and attended West Division High School, now known as the Milwaukee High School of the Arts.

She would meet her future husband at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1925, and a Master of Arts in English in 1926. They were married at her brother's farm near the village of Brooklyn, Wisconsin.

"They had a profound connection through literature, her Ph.D. was in literature," Madison arts program administrator Karin Wolf said. "That's what inspired and sustained them, the works of Walt Whitman in particular. I just feel them as very real people. They liked to hike, they liked to canoe, they liked being outdoors."

In 1929, she and her husband moved to Germany, where she worked on her doctorate. She taught modern American literature at Berlin University, becoming one of the first Americans on a faculty that included Albert Einstein.

The position was short lived, however, according to a story in The New York Times. Fifteen months later, the university had fired her for not being “Nazi enough.”

Adolf Hitler had been granted dictatorial powers by a subservient legislature. After the concentration camps opened, the couple had decided to stay in Germany, to assist immigrants fearful for their lives.

"They were confronted with this unacceptable situation, and they did what they felt what they needed to do as moral beings,” said Wolf.

They were saddened at what was happening to their beloved country, to see a dictator use racism to divide the people and use his propaganda machine to reinforce his power and control the people, destroying the country from within.

Alarmed by the rise of Hitler and the Nazi regime, she and her husband joined a small resistance group that helped imperiled Jews, assisted forced laborers, and documented the atrocities of the Nazis in Germany. Her husband would regularly meet with the first secretary of the American embassy to keep Washington informed on the state of the Third Reich’s economy, its trade agreements, rearmament and war plans.

Their group published an underground newsletter, and fed economic information not only to the U.S., but also to Soviet embassies in Berlin. After Germany invaded Russia, the group transmitted military intelligence to Moscow via radio “concerts,” prompting the Gestapo to call them the “Red Orchestra.”

On September 7, 1942, Mildred Fish-Harnack and Arvid Harnack were arrested while on a weekend outing in Germany.

Arvid was sentenced to death on December 19, 1942, and was put to death three days later. Mildred would be executed two months later, beheaded, on the orders of Adolf Hitler.

Mildred Fish-Harnack was the only American woman executed on the orders of Hitler. She was 40 years old.

"She could have come home at any time," Wolf said. "But there was something bigger than her that was compelling her to fight in the way that she could. I just think of that strength of character."

Shereen Blair Brysac, Harnack's biographer, said in a 2011 Wisconsin Public Television documentary that Mildred "had an American passport and she could travel to France and Norway and Denmark," but she instead used her connections to help those trying to flee Germany ahead of the Holocaust.

Mildred Fish-Harnack was initially given six years in prison, but Hitler refused to endorse the sentence and ordered a new trial, which ended with a sentence of death.

"This is a woman who 75 years ago was executed for her role in fighting fascism," said Wolf.

According to Jay Rath of isthmus, Wolf noted that Mildred Harnack never set out to be a hero. “She was just trying to do the right thing. Which I feel we’re called to do in every era, and have that kind of moral compass; that you won’t see your neighbor treated that way. You will risk your own safety and your own comfort, because it’s not right.”

Ellie Gettinger, education director at the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee, agreed, saying, the lesson of Mildred's life is to do what's right, even when it's hard.

This summer, the city of Madison, Wisconsin, unveiled a new sculpture to honor Mildred Fish Harnack, a teacher who just wanted to help - a Wisconsin farm girl who became a World War II resistance fighter in Germany.

The artist of the sculpture, John Durbrow, said the sculpture recognizes Mildred's "strength, courage and resolve to address early on the forces of oppression which eventually inflamed the entire world."

"None of us, hopefully, are ever going to face the kinds of conditions that Mildred faced," Gettinger said. "But if we can just say, we did what was right in that moment, that's keeping up her standard of excellence."

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

#Mildred Fish-Harnack #WW2

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mariacallous · 2 days ago

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Seven years ago, Pauline Shanks Kaurin left a good job as a tenured professor at a university, uprooted her family, and moved across the country to teach military ethics at the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island. She did so, she told me, not only to help educate American military officers, but with a promise from the institution that she would have “the academic freedom to do my job.” But now she’s leaving her position and the institution because orders from President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, she said, have made staying both morally and practically untenable. Remaining on the faculty, she believes, would mean implicitly lending her approval to policies she cannot support. And she said that the kind of teaching and research the Navy once hired her to do will now be impossible.

The Naval War College is one of many institutions—along with the Army War College, the Air War College, and others—that provide graduate-level instruction in national-security issues and award master’s degrees to the men and women of the U.S. armed forces. The Naval War College is also home to a widely respected civilian academic post, the James B. Stockdale Chair in Professional Military Ethics, named for the famous admiral and American prisoner of war in Vietnam. Pauline has held the Stockdale Chair since 2018. (I taught for many years at the Naval War College, where I knew Pauline as a colleague.) Her last day will be at the end of this month.

In January, Trump issued an executive order, Restoring America’s Fighting Force, that prohibits the Department of Defense and the entire armed forces from “promoting, advancing, or otherwise inculcating the following un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories,” such as “gender ideology,” “race or sex stereotyping,” and, of course, anything to do with DEI. Given the potential breadth of the order, the military quickly engaged in a panicky slash-and-burn approach rather than risk running afoul of the new ideological line. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point, in New York, for example, disbanded several clubs, including the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. Other military installations, apparently anticipating a wider crackdown on anything to do with race or gender, removed important pages of American history about women and minorities from their websites.

All of this was done by bureaucrats and administrators as they tried to comply with Trump’s vague order, banning and erasing anything that the president and Hegseth might construe as even remotely related to DEI or other banned concepts. Some Defense Department workers “deemed to be affiliated with DEI programs or activities” were warned that Trump’s orders “required” their jobs to be eliminated. Many professors at military institutions began to see signs that they might soon be prohibited from researching and publishing in their fields of study.

At first, Pauline was cautious. She knew that her work in the field of military ethics could be controversial—particularly on the issues of oaths and obedience. In the military, where discipline and the chain of command rule daily life, investigating the meaning of oath-taking and obedience is a necessary but touchy exercise. The military is sworn to obey all legal orders, but when that obedience becomes absolute, the results can be ghastly: Pauline wrote her doctoral dissertation at Temple University on oaths, obedience, and the 1969 My Lai massacre in Vietnam, in which a young U.S. officer and his men believed that their orders allowed them to slay hundreds of unarmed civilians. For more than 20 years, she taught these matters in the philosophy department at Pacific Lutheran University, and once at Newport, she wrote a book on the contrasting notions of obedience in military and civilian life.

When the Trump order came down, Pauline told me that Naval War College administrators gave her “vague assurances” that the college would not interfere with ongoing work by her or other faculty, or with academic freedom in general. But one day, shortly after the executive order in January, she was walking through the main lobby, which proudly features display cases with books by the faculty, and she noticed that a volume on LGBTQ issues in the military had vanished. The disappearance of that book led Pauline to seek more clarity from the college’s administration about nonpartisanship, and especially about academic freedom.

Academic freedom is an often-misunderstood term. Many people outside academia encounter the idea only when some professor abuses the concept as a license to be an offensive jerk. (A famous case many years ago involved a Colorado professor who compared the victims of 9/11 to Nazis who deserved what they got.) Like tenure, however, academic freedom serves crucial educational purposes, protecting controversial research and encouraging the free exchange of even the most unpopular ideas without fear of political pressure or interference. It is essential to any serious educational institution, and necessary to a healthy democracy.

Professors who teach for the military, as I did for many years, do have to abide by some restrictions not found in civilian schools. They have a duty, as sworn federal employees, to protect classified information. They may not use academic freedom to disrupt government operations. (Leading a protest that would prevent other government workers from getting to their duty stations might be one example.) And, of course, they must refrain from violating the Hatch Act: They cannot use government time or resources to engage in partisan political activity. But they otherwise have—or are supposed to have—the same freedoms as their colleagues in civilian institutions.

Soon, however, jumpy military bureaucrats started tossing books and backing out of conferences. Pauline became more concerned. Newport’s senior administrators began to send informal signals that included, as she put it, the warning that “academic freedom as many of us understood it was not a thing anymore.” Based on those messages, Pauline came to believe that her and other faculty members’ freedom to comment publicly on national issues and choose research topics without institutional interference was soon to be restricted.

During an all-hands meeting with senior college leaders in February, Pauline said that she and other Naval War College faculty were told that the college would comply with Hegseth’s directives and that, in Pauline’s words, “if we were thinking we had academic freedom in our scholarship and in the classroom, we were mistaken.” (Other faculty present at the meeting confirmed to me that they interpreted the message from the college’s leadership the same way; one of them later told me that the implication was that the Defense Department could now rule any subject out of bounds for classroom discussion or scholarly research at will.) Pauline said there were audible gasps in the room, and such visible anger that it seemed to her that even the administrators hosting the meeting were taken aback. “I’ve been in academia for 31 years,” she told me, and that gathering “was the most horrifying meeting I’ve ever been a part of.”

I contacted the college’s provost, Stephen Mariano, who told me in an email that these issues were “nuanced” but that the college had not changed its policies on academic freedom. (He also denied any changes relating to tenure, a practice predicated on academic freedom.) At the same time, he added, the college is “complying with all directives issued by the President and Department of Defense and following Department of the Navy policy.” This language leaves Pauline and other civilian faculty at America’s military schools facing a paradox: They are told that academic freedom still exists, but that their institutions are following directives from Hegseth that, at least on their face, seem aimed at ending academic freedom.

In March, Pauline again sought clarity from college leaders. They were clearly anxious to appear compliant with the new political line. (“We don’t want to end up on Fox News,” she said one administrator told her.) She was told her work was valued, but she didn’t believe it. “Talk is cheap,” she said. “Actions matter.” She said she asked the provost point-blank: What if a faculty member has a book or an article coming out on some controversial topic? His answer, according to her: Hypothetically, they might consider pulling the work from publication. (Mariano denies saying this and told me that there is no change in college policy on faculty publication.)

Every government employee knows the bureaucratic importance of putting things on paper. Pauline’s current project is about the concept of honor, which necessarily involves questions regarding masculinity and gender—issues that could turn the DOD’s new McCarthyites toward her and her work. So she now proposed that she and the college administration work up a new contract, laying out more clearly—in writing—what the limits on her work and academic freedom would look like.

She might as well have asked for a pony. Administrators, she said, told her that they hoped she wouldn’t resign, but that no one was going to put anything in writing. “The upshot,” according to her, was a message from the administration that boiled down to: We hope you can just suck it up and not need your integrity for your final year as the ethics chair.

After that, she told me, her choices were clear. “As they say in the military: Salute and execute—or resign.” Until then, she had “hoped maybe people would still come to their senses.” The promises of seven years ago were gone; the institution now apparently expected her and other faculty to self-censor in the classroom and preemptively bowdlerize their own research. “I don’t do DEI work,” she said, “but I do moral philosophy, and now I can’t do it. I’d have to take out discussions of race and gender and not do philosophy as I think it should be done.” In April, she submitted a formal letter of resignation.

Initially, she had no interest in saying anything publicly. Pauline is a native Montanan and single mom of two, and by nature not the type of person to engage in public food fights. (She used to joke with me when we were colleagues that I was the college’s resident lightning rod, and she had no interest in taking over that job.) She’s a philosopher who admires quiet stoicism, and she was resolved to employ it in her final months.

But she also thought about what she owed her chair’s namesake. “Stockdale thought philosophy was important for officers. The Stockdale course was created so that officers would wrestle with moral obligations. He was a personal model of integrity.” Even so, she did not try to invoke him as a patron saint when she decided to resign. “I’m not saying he would agree with the choice that I made,” she told me. “But his model of moral integrity is part of the chair.”

She kept her resignation private until early May, when a professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Graham Parsons—another scholar who teaches ethics in a military school, and a friend of Pauline’s—likewise decided to resign in protest and said that he would leave West Point after 13 years. Hegseth’s changes “prevent me from doing my job responsibly,” he wrote in The New York Times. “I am ashamed to be associated with the academy in its current form.” Hegseth responded on X, sounding more like a smug internet troll than a concerned superior: “You will not be missed Professor Parsons.” The episode changed Pauline’s mind. She felt she owed her friends and colleagues whatever public support and solidarity she could offer them.

Nor are she and Parsons alone. Tom McCarthy, a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland, recently resigned as chair of the history department rather than remove a paper from an upcoming symposium. And last month, a senior scholar at the Army War College, in Pennsylvania, Carrie Lee, also handed in her resignation, a decision she announced to her friends and followers on Bluesky.

Lee told me in an email that she’d been thinking of leaving after Trump was elected, because it was apparent to her that the Trump administration was “going to try and politicize the military and use military assets/personnel to suppress democratic rights,” and that academic freedom in military schools was soon to “become untenable.” Like Pauline, Lee felt like she was at a dead end: “To speak from within the institution itself will also do more harm than good. So to dissent, I have little choice but to leave,” she said in a farewell letter to her colleagues in April.

I asked Pauline what she thinks might have happened if she had decided to stay and just tough it out from the inside. She “absolutely” thinks she’d have been fired at some point, and she didn’t want such a firing “to be part of the legacy of the Stockdale Chair.” But then I asked her if by resigning, she was giving people in the Trump administration, such as Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought—who once said that his goal was to make federal workers feel “trauma” to the point where they will quit their jobs—exactly what they want: Americans leaving federal service.

She didn’t care. “When you make a moral decision, there are always costs.” She dismissed what people like Vought want or think. “I’m not accountable to him. I’m accountable to the Lord, to my father, to my legacy, to my children, to my profession, to members of the military-ethics community. So I decided that I needed to resign. Not that it would change anyone’s mind, but to say: This is not okay. That is my message.”

At the end of our discussion, I asked an uncomfortable question I’d been avoiding. Pauline, I know, is only in her mid-50s, in mid-career, and too young simply to retire. She has raised two sons who will soon enter young adulthood. I asked her if she was worried about her future.

“Sure,” she said. “But at the end of the day, as we say in Montana, sometimes you just have to saddle up and ride scared.”

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mysticstarlightduck · 1 year ago

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Supernova Initiative - WIP Intro/WIP Someday Tag

I wasn't tagged for this recently, but I wanted to make a WIP Intro/WIP Someday post for this story in the style of my previous post for Song of Thorns (here). So here we go😅! Feel free to make your own version of this Tag for one of your WIPs, if you'd like!

By the way, if you like this, please reblog, it helps a lot 💕

And tell me if you'd like to be added to any future taglists of this WIP!

Rules: Pick a WIP. Post something about it. On a Wednesday. Or whenever! It can be literally anything! (:

WIP INTRO - Supernova Initiative

Title: Supernova Initiative

Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera/Adventure & Mystery/Whump

Tags: #wip supernova initiative #supernova initiative

Synopsis/What Is It About?

Jack Tithus, a young and charming intergalactic thief, along with his crew - Vesper Foxx, a feared cyborg assassin; Cassiopeia Tithus, his younger sister who is also a genius engineer; Aleks Keldora, a master in the art of temporary identity theft; and Artemis Zreeth, their edgy new recruit - are the most wanted criminals in this quadrant of the galaxy. Never once caught, the team defies their galaxy's oppressive government by using their combined talents to steal from the government as their own act of rebellion.

However, their luck takes an unexpected turn for the worst when they find themselves set up and arrested after a botched heist. Taken to the most secure facility in the whole Junction, the group expects nothing but problems in the coming future - instead, they are offered a strange deal: if they agree to work for the Junction and retrieve some highly classified files that were lost in a hostile planetary system, they will be spared from execution. With few other options, the group begrudgingly accepts to carry out this heist for the government they spent their lives trying to undermine.

Meanwhile, Jack finds himself trapped in a horrifying web of unethical experiments and illegal bioengineering when, while still having to carry out the heist along with his crew, he is secretly forced to become a test subject to the fearsome Director, head of the Junction's division of sciences, unbeknownst to his crew.

The team will need to count on the help of old allies-turned-rivals such as the cold-blooded mercenary and sniper Deimos Soll, their former crewmate, and the secret agent assigned to oversee their mission, an uptight and by-the-book young man called Noctus - if they wish to complete the most dangerous heist of their lives, and get their freedoms back.

Tropes and Nice Stuff! (Or, a.k.a. What you can expect in this book!)

Found Family/Team as Family!

Space adventure, exploration of unique, uncanny, beautiful, and outlandish alien planets, all the good science fiction stuff!

Robots, cyborgs, and sarcastically friendly AI!

A terrifyingly strict aspiring utopian regime that promises progress and freedom but is actually an unethical dystopia in disguise, with many bloodied skeletons in the closet, if you will.

Intergalactic politics, multiple alien cultures, and a bubbling interplanetary conflict about to explode between vastly different civilizations, each seeking either revenge or power.

Sibling bonds! A lot of this story centers around the siblings Jack and Cassiopeia Tithus, and the struggles they go through to keep each other safe and live another day, among some other notable siblings throughout the book.

Laboratory whump - A LOT OF IT. Also expect a crazy, unethical scientist/politician as a villain who is willing to do absolutely horrid things in the name of progress, even if it means human experimentation.

A suspicious, morally grey antihero with a reputation for being a cold-blooded killer, whom you'd expect is going to betray the group sooner or later, but is actually one of their most loyal allies and HAS A REDEMPTION ARC aaaaaa

Heists! Heists! Heists! And all the good stuff that comes along with this trope!

An edgy rogue-type character who is super impulsive and does not always make the best decisions, who only recently joined the group but would defend them with his life.

Traumatized - and hot - cyborg assassin lady on the path to have revenge on the people who destroyed her life in the past, and who is going to get said revenge in ✨style✨

A conformist secret agent who has always been "the perfect soldier" and follows rules like his life depends on it has an existential crisis and learns that his government has lied to him

A subplot that follows a young cadet from the Junction's Void Program, who discovers a dark secret about their government and starts investigating, but who needs to escape (and ends up meeting the MCs) after the government makes an attempt on his life + his war hero (adoptive) older brother who is a fighter pilot and really just needs a break and was tasked by their parents with trying to keep Pax from getting into even more trouble, but fails successfully.

Outcasts and society's "rejects" decide to make a better future together and it is great

Angst, team dynamics, and a lot of action-packed fight scenes!

And more! ✨

Meet The Main Cast! (The good guys)

Jack Tithus

A charming and rebellious intergalactic thief, Jack always sought a better life for himself and his younger sister, Cassiopeia, his only family - and he finally got his chance many years ago by joining a famous space pirate crew and leaving the dusty mining settlement moon he grew up in behind. After that, he took on a solo career - along with his sister and a few friends they had made along the way - and became the most wanted thief in the galaxy. He only steals from the government and seeks to help people who are oppressed or neglected by the system. He has a kind heart and a free spirit, and despite being a thief has a stronger moral compass than most, believing in breaking the rules to do what is truly right.

Cassiopeia Tithus

Cassiopeia - or Cassie, as she is usually called - is a brilliant robot engineer and inventor, able to build even the most complex machines from little more than scraps. She built her first robot when she was a child and has had a passion for mechanics ever since. A part of her older brother's outlaw team, Cassie uses her tech to aid in the heists and allow them to be mostly undetected. Most times. A lively young girl with a fiery personality, Cassiopeia has a lot of passion for what she does and is the glue that keeps their little team of misfits together.

Aleks Keldora

Raised by his two mothers on a struggling planet on the edge of the system, Aleks always wanted to help his family financially and give his mothers the life they deserved. However, struggling with self-esteem issues and often feeling discarded by society, Aleks knew what it meant to be invisible in the eyes of the world around him - with his family being the only ones who ever saw him for who he was. Tired of feeling left out by the world, and wanting to help his mothers - whose business was about to go bankrupt - Aleks decided to take a stand after winning a high-tech device in an underworld completion, a mask that allowed him to shapeshift into anyone he'd like. With the help of this mask and his other talents, Aleks completed his first heist in secret and was able to use the funds to help keep his family's business afloat, though they never knew the truth about how he got the money. After that, finally able to use his feeling of being invisible to his advantage, Aleks became more and more bold, eventually leaving his home planet in search of better heists to be able to continue to support his family.

Vesper Foxx

Traumatized by the day her home planet was raided by a ruthless group of mercenaries - who were hired by the neighboring galaxy's government to establish a Junction colony in Khosmonian territory - Vesper was kidnapped by the soldiers along with her oldest brother, Atheris, after their mother was killed in the raids. After witnessing him be tortured and killed, which scarred for life, Vesper was able to flee in an escape pod, being reunited with her little sister, Lysia, and their cousin, Deya, with whom she left their destroyed homeland behind. Despite settling down in another planetary system with the family she had left, the girl was never able to let go of the past, yearning for justice and revenge. Eventually, she left behind her sister and her cousin to pursue the deaths of the mercenaries who destroyed her life, using cyborg implants and upgrades to turn herself into the deadliest assassin in either galaxy.

Artemis Zreeth

The son of a renowned bounty hunter, Artemis never thought he would ever join their galaxy's criminal underworld, but after his father was betrayed by the crew he trusted the most, Artemis was left to fend for himself. Feeling betrayed by the system he trusted and lacking a purpose in life, Artemis survived by doing some gigs as a mercenary and pirate, a gun for hire in the criminal underworld. After winning a race and accidentally meeting the main cast, Artemis joins the group thinking this would just be another job to pay the bills, but as they spend more and more time together, the teenager finds that this group of outcasts might be the closest thing he's had to a family in a long while.

Pax Stellaryn

A genius young cadet, on his way to becoming the youngest cadet to ever graduate from the Junction's Void Program, Pax always wanted to make his beloved adoptive family proud, feeling oftentimes like a fish out of the water. After discovering a terrifying government intrigue by accident, Pax finds a chance to prove that he too can be a hero, and sets off to investigate more about this and seek a way to prevent the Junction's wretched plan from coming to fruition, after realizing his life too is in danger. However, he may have overestimated his ability to get out of this mess alone.

Deimos Soll

A cold-blooded and practical sniper, Deimos was Jack and Cassie's childhood best friend and their first crewmate. The trio split ways years ago due to conflicting beliefs and a few bad misunderstandings and ended up becoming rivals and competition when it comes to stealing from the Junction. Years later, however, after a harrowing encounter with a cruel and sadistic woman who sought to enslave him in order to force him to join her army, Deimos ends up fleeing to the only people he ever trusted - which unfortunately means having to confront his past and face Jack and Cassie again, who is very confused about his return to the crew - while being hunted down by the insane general he seeks to escape from.

Noctus

Though his full name is classified and unknown to the cast, his reputation precedes him. He is the single most successful special forces secret agent currently in the employ of the Junction - he has never failed a mission, never missed a target. And he always follows orders, always obeys the rules. However, is everything about him what it seems? A forgotten and suppressed part of his memory may prove that the system he fought so dearly to uphold may have actually made him into their perfect living weapon, and there may be many other lies yet to be uncovered

Ethean Mirannir

Pax's adoptive older brother, Ethean is a fighter pilot who has made a name for himself as a war hero and has always been the perfect soldier. Unexpectedly, he finds himself having to choose between his duty to the government and keeping his family safe when Pax discovers a secret that even he had no idea existed.

A few Plot Points, chaotically described🙃 (A.k.a - Badly Summarized WIP Tag but different)

Celebrating a successful heist on a space diner with the homies

I don't know why but I have a feeling this is going suspiciously well for our standards... Are we being set up? Hmm. Nah, I must be thinking too much into it-

Yep. Yes, we were being set up.

🎶Hell to the no, to the no, no, no🎶 WHAT IN THE DYSTOPIAN BULLCRAP EVEN IS THIS PLACE?

"Making shady deals with psycho government officers and bargaining for our freedom - with a bonus of Trauma✨"

THIS JUST-IN: 20-something agent totally done with everything must babysit this group of reckless space pirates that refuse to obey the rules

Cue the most uncomfy space travel in the whole galaxy~

"Hey guys, so yeah, this wasn't my plan either -" Promptly passes out, and everyone has more questions than answers.

Preparing to steal important files lost✨IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE✨ with a plan with came up with at 2AM with three bottles of energy drinks and a dash of improv

Operation "Let's Try Not To Die In Less than 20 Mins" begins and goes about as well as you'd expect

Losing communications with any backup we might have had and having a bit of group therapy because why not~

Things get Oh, so much worse, Special Edition - a.k.a - a not-so-nice crash landing on the worst possible planet ever

Let's improvise again Pt.2

Questionable problem-solving and emergency hot chocolate bottles

Cyborg Girl and Sniper Dude absolutely do not get along for a whole week and make it everyone else's problem

This is nice! Finally, something goes according to plan in this mess. I'm honestly surprised we got this far. Bravo to us!

(POV Shift) "Hi, yes, you're probably wondering how I even got into this mess. Let's start from the beginning."

This isn't a regular doctor's appointment, is it? What is that needle?! What are you doing -

Political drama, espionage, and manipulative teachers

And The Whump Begins

Well, well, well if it isn't the Consequences of my actions striking back at last. I probably should've mentioned this teeny tiny major problem sooner though. Yeah, my bad...

This is either the single most adorable little alien or the most concerningly ugly thing I've ever seen and now I'm confused

Cue existential crisis - "So no one was gonna tell me my whole life was a lie? Cool. Cool. Just checking... WTF"

HEIST! BADASSERY! BAD LIFE CHOICES!

Two tired older brothers try to keep their respective gremlin younger siblings from encouraging chaos and fail miserably

Insane Femme Fatale makes everyone hate her in less than 2 seconds and is so proud of it

Midnight Talks and Crispy Snacks

Things just got serious, Oh No.

How To Keep Two Rival Civilizations from Destroying Each Other 101 - We're still trying to figure it out

Hm. This plan wasn't half bad. Except it was. It was oh, so bad, OMG

To be Continued...

Playlist

Antigravity - Runaground

Superhero - Simon Curtis

Die For You - Valorant

Notorious - NEONI

Fighter - The Score

Glitter and Gold - Barns Courtney

Tagging (gently): @sleepy-night-child, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @smol-feralgremlin, @oh-no-another-idea, @littleladymab,

@winterandwords, @cowboybrunch, @eccaiia, @sarahlizziewrites, @illarian-rambling

@agirlandherquill, @anoelleart

@leave-her-a-tome, @writernopal, @anyablackwood, @unstablewifiaccess, @forthesanityofstorytellers

@i-can-even-burn-salad, @cakeinthevoid

@lassiesandiego, @thepeculiarbird, @clairelsonao3, @memento-morri-writes, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams

@the-golden-comet, @urnumber1star, @ominous-feychild, @anyablackwood, @amaiguri, @lyutenw @finickyfelix @elshells

@thecomfywriter

And OPEN TAG

#wip intro #wip introduction #wip supernova initiative #supernova initiative #writerblr #writers on tumblr #my wips #character writing #writing #writers #writeblr #my writing #my characters

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friedfriedchicken · 2 years ago

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The sudden feral insanity of needing to watch the Execution Division group dance sequence again from the Akudama Drive stage adaptation because what is this

#Screenshotted play button my behated 😔#FriedRamble #I need to make a full post of my screenshots one day #Akudama Drive #Akudrive #Execution Division #Execution Division Master #Execution Division Apprentice #Execution Division Junior #I need to share my insanity

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obscuredilfoff · 2 years ago

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Propaganda below the cut!

Axel

He’s just a normal guy, but he cares deeply about everyone around him. He’s the dad that stepped up.

Execution Division Master

👉👈 He is very pretty and very cool. He's a level-headed guy whose job is to find and execute Kansai's feral criminal population (Akudama). Master has a younger member of the Division that he works with and she looks up to him and admires him a lot and he cares for and looks after her in turn. He doesn't hold back on scolding his pupil yet still priorities her safety over his, going far enough to run from a hospital while still injured to hunt down the Akudama that hurt her. Master is very quiet and reserved but will absolutely pop off during fights and he's so cool and it's criminal how little people know about him.

#axel #lemon soda and coffee #execution division master #akudama drive #polls #round 1

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worldofsaia · 3 months ago

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SAIA'S

REALITIES !

we found a kind of paradise within a flower's bloom — ;

— so when will it end? when will we meet my friend?

[strangers, yoko kanno]

▿ saia's realities to date...

✶ BLUE LOCK ; BLK MDDNA

— SOLÈNE "SOSO" LAURENT is one of many master products cultivated by ego jinpachi’s vision. she re-enters the game after a pr stunt, meant to save the woman's division from the brink of disaster, goes wrong. she’s rusty, sure, but the hunger’s still there—and it doesn’t take long for her to remind everyone what she's made of. now she leads the women’s team into a new era of football—ugly, ruthless, and unapologetically egoistical.

( n. )

intro,

s/o • bachira meguru,

now playing • BITCH IM NICE / doechii

✶ BETTER CR ;

— tba.

( n. )

intro,

s/o • gabrijel yagami,

now playing • THE HUNGER / BATS FOR LASHES

✶ HOME REALITY ;

— tba.

( n. )

intro,

s/o • not applicable,

now playing • HOST OF THE SERAPHIM / dead can dance

✶ EVANGELION AU

— OLUESUN ADENIRAN is a nigerian pilot chosen to lead the eden protocol, a secret program developed by a shadow faction within the united nations. trained from birth to pilot an eva, esun’s unmatched synchronization rate makes her the perfect candidate to control unit-11, a specialized eva designed to confront a hidden sleeper angel buried beneath the earth's surface by the vatican centuries ago. but when she faces the impossible—an angel piloting an eva that looks like her, only older and scarred—esun uncovers truths about her origins and the dark, prophetic bond between them.

( n. )

intro,

s/o • not applicable,

now playing • YOSEMITE / iniko

✶ FRIEREN NO SOUSOU;

— VIDHI, a skilled weaver from the village of eidenheim, spent her life weaving the fates of others. after a demon attack leaves her one of the few survivors with the ability to weave, she goes on a journey to unravel the mystery behind immer, a mortal adventurer born with no fate. alongside immer, vidhi questions the morality of preordained lives, discovering love, rebellion against the gods, and the fleeting nature of existence.

( n. )

intro,

s/o • immer,

now playing • NO LIGHT, NO LIGHT / florence and the machine

✶ SILVER MILLENNIUM AU ;

— ERIS is a brilliant, socially awkward princess of saturn, a planetary empire largely misunderstood by the cosmos, distrusted by the moon. having been executed in a previous life, she awakens in the past, determined to prevent the collapse of the silver millennium and rewrite history.

( n. )

intro,

s/o • the dark prince,

now playing • LOVE STORY / indila

✶ TRINITY BLOOD / HELSING AU ;

— tba.

( n. )

intro,

s/o • not applicable,

now playing • ENGEL / rammstein

#unsunderedsaia #reality shifting #shiftblr #shifting realities #shifting #shifting community #law of assumption #shifting antis dni #shifting blog #shifting motivation #shifting scenarios

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luoyunxifan · 1 month ago

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Mei Ying Shen Bu / Shadow Punisher - New Info released: Synopsis, Cast, Crew & Video

Description:

This drama is adapted from the novel of the same name by Wang Ke. It tells the story of the Prime Minister’s son, Qingyang Prince, Li Si, who investigates the truth behind the case of the death of the fourth son of the Si family. He infiltrates the divine hunting division in disguise, befriends the top female coroner of the day and the brave and loyal blooded ghost catcher from the seas, and together they form the Shadow Punisher team. The three work silently together, uncover secrets, take risks without fear, and solve bizarre and mysterious cases involving Eight Great Strange Cases.

Story Synopsis:

In the 17th year of the Hongyun reign during the Great Si Dynasty, just as the grand ceremony to welcome the new emperor approaches, sudden strange occurrences—flower illusions, mysterious murders, and signs of rebellion—plunge the capital into chaos.

Master of disguise and chief coroner Su Mian, ghost hunter Wu Zhen, and the clever and cunning prince-in-disguise Yin Changye team up to form the Shadow Punisher Unit.

Their mission: solve the case of the Death of the Fourth Prince of the Si Family and uncover the hidden conspiracy behind the city’s unrest.

Project Introduction:

Chinese Title: 魅影神捕.

English Title: Shadow Punisher.

Main Cast: Luo Yunxi, Fang Yilun, Shen Yujie

Genre: Ancient costume, suspense, detective.

Online Streaming Platform: iQIYI

Number of Episodes: 30 episodes

Based on: Novel Shadow Punisher.

Author: Wang Ke

Filming Schedule: June 2025, for 110 days.

Production Companies:

Main: IQIYI.

Co-produced/undertaken by Comrade Culture.

Joint Production: Zhongxiang Pictures, CTV Sicheng.

Key Production Staff:

Screenwriters: Chen Yuhan, Hou Wenwen

Producers: Gong Yu, Yuan Xin

Executive Producer: Steve Cheng

Chief Producer: Shao Wenyi

Film Producers: Zhan Qiongling, Sun Lin, Jie Heng

Chief Director: Steve Cheng (Burning Flames, The Untamed)

Assistant Director: Liu Chong (Burning Flames)

Action Director: Li Bingnan (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)

Cinematography Director: Zhang Linke (The Wandering Earth)

Costume Designer: Huang Wei (TTEOTM)

Makeup: Lin Anqi (The Double, Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty)

Hair Styling: Zeng Minghui (Love of the Divine Tree, TTEOTM)

Art Director: Cao Runchen

Sources: Crew of Mei Ying Shen Bu Official, Douban, Baidu Baike

#luo yunxi #leo luo #luo yun xi #罗云熙 #chinese actor #chinese singer #mei ying shen bu #shadow punisher #cdrama #chinese drama #meiyingshenbu #phantom detective

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petervintonjr · 2 months ago

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"We still have and will have what the Defense Department describes as institutional racism. [Discrimination] happens. It's there. In many cases, it's inadvertent. In some cases, it's deliberate. We're never going to eliminate racism in the Army. As long as we do everything to reduce it, we're making some legitimate progress."

Another biography that appears to be temporarily unlocatable on official Dept. of Defense websites, is the remarkable life and career of Maj. Gen. Charles Calvin Rogers. Born in 1929 West Virginia as the youngest of five children, Charles's father Clyde Rogers was himself a World War I veteran. Rogers excelled academically at Dubois High School in Claremont, WV --not only earning honor roll and being elected class president, but also played starter quarterback his senior year. He took an ROTC Army commission at West Virginia State College (now University) in 1951.

His Army career was marked by a number of firsts --he graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College as a major, and served several tours in Germany, at a time when much of the Army was still largely segregated despite Executive Order #9981 (see Lessons #68 and #132 in this series for more on this directive). At one point Rogers became disillusioned with a systematic pattern of blocks to his Army career path, and went as far as to submit his resignation in 1954, but his commanding officer did not accept it, insisting that Rogers had in him the makings of a good commanding officer. After two successive smaller battery commands, in 1967 Rogers was promoted to Captain and was assigned leadership of the 1st Battalion, 5th Artillery, 1st Infantry Division. This 300-man battalion deployed to Vietnam later that year.

On October 31, 1968, now-Lt. Col. Rogers was in command of his artillery unit in Southern Vietnam close to the Cambodian border and the Ho Chi Minh trail. Notified of enemy activity in the area, he ordered his unit to hold fire. However only a few hours later (technically November 1), the NVA opened fire on Rogers's battalion. Rogers directed the counterattack, and his troops returned fire with howitzers. Rogers was himself wounded twice in this action but he nonetheless led a return ground assault, driving back NVA troops and giving the Americans time to restore a defensive line. Another enemy attack breached another part of the line, and Rogers redirected his troops' artillery fire and rallied to defend another howitzer position. Rogers was then wounded a third time, taking him out of the fight but still in a position to relay orders. Ultimately the enemy retreated with heavy losses. U.S. forces had themselves lost 12 men with 68 injured, but were able to resecure the base. Rogers was treated and returned to the U.S. in 1969. In 1970 President Nixon presented Lt. Col. Rogers with the Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony, the then-highest-ranking Black soldier in the U.S. military to receive this honor.

Rogers would later graduate from the Army War College in 1971, earning a Master's in vocational/educational guidance. He assumed several more command positions while in Germany, among them the 42nd Field Artillery Group, and later headed up the Infantry Basic Combat Training Center at Fort Lewis in Washington state. In 1976 he served as deputy chief of staff for Army ROTC. He finally retired in 1984, after 32 years of Army service. As a civilian he opted to remain in Germany (principally in Heidelberg) to support his troops, but now as an ordained Baptist minister. He died in 1990 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In 2013 the Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers Memorial Bridge was dedicated in Cotton Hill, West Virginia.

#black lives matter #black history #civil rights #department of defense #us army #arlington cemetery #vietnam #medal of honor #operation toan thang ii #censorship #do not comply in advance #teachtruth #showup #dothework

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54625 · 2 days ago

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Requesting info on Amaria and Momella please :o 🙏

Of course !

Amaria is Guild master, she oversees all of the jobs that are taken, assigns divisions, decides who comes and goes, ect. She is intelligent but very cold, jaded and harsh, hardly the nicest person even to her guild members. Most people in the guild have never seen her smile. She does, however, have a soft spot for Vitra . She is in her late 60s/ early 70s

Momeiia is Vitra's younger sister , about 17 years old. She is somewhat spoiled and entitled, but good at heart. She doesn't know her older sister exists. She was treated comparably better than Vitra by their parents, which lead to her being kept and eventually married off (earning her parents a lot of money) the second she was allowed to be. Momeiia is something called iriset, which means she has more than one natural hair colour. She inherited this from her mother, who is also iriset. Irisets are very rare in Ulor, and considered extremely beautiful. Her hair is almost the entire reason her parents treated her so nicely. She is close with her mother, but more out of naivety than malice. She is not like her .

They do both have the same head band, however they don't actually know each other . It's a coincidence (and one I did realise would come across a little misleading, unfortunately, but it couldn't be helped). That headress is one worn by any newlywed woman, for about a year after their wedding, so that the people around them can acknowledge and celebrate their recent marriage. It's a cultural thing in Ulor. Momeiia wears one (made of metal, because she is upper class and can afford that) for the exact reason it is supposed to be worn. Amaria on the other hand wears hers (carved out of wood as she is lower class) as a symbol of respect and mourning towards her late husband, the previous Guild master, who was publicly executed for obvious thief guild reasons.

#fivesworld #five asks #i find it so funny that your favourite is vitra and you've managed to ask about #the two side characters who happen to have the closest personal connections to Vitra

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sacred-algae · 4 months ago

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Magic, Witchcraft, and Classism in Modern Fantasy Settings (or any fantasy settings):

a really casual essay that’s really more a braindump that’s scholarly cosplay because I have actual scholarly bullshit to do

This thought appears in my brain every once in a while when I imagine Mollymauk Tealeaf in any modern AU such as highschool, college, coffee shop, bookshop—you name it. You don’t have to have any knowledge of C2 or even Critical Role to understand this post, don’t worry; this is just the intro to the topic. I myself haven’t seen C2 and my understanding of the character comes from my place in the greater Critical Role fandom, watching hour long compilations of Molly moments, and playing the character in Widomauk RP’s with my best friend. (also, the whole post isn't even about D&D, though it does start out with a lot of examples before I move on.)

The thing is, that in a wholesome modern AU, Molly’s class (for those unfamiliar with D&D, this is not applicable to classism as we will be discussing, it's like an occupation) as a Bloodhunter doesn’t really translate all too well. Sure, if it were a modern AU where the Nein still does their job, that’s one thing, but there’s often no reason for Molly to be a Bloodhunter in highschool, college, or a coffee shop. The class is pretty dark, and I won’t get into too many details because it’s unnecessary.

What is necessary to know is that they read tarot, and they were adopted into the circus (I'm about 90% sure he's Irish Traveler). And for that reason, I think the character pretty heavily relies on the witchcraft aesthetic when being translated into a wholesome modern setting. And when I say that, you have to think of Magic and Witchcraft as two entirely separate entities. It wouldn’t be the same if he were a wizard, or a sorcerer, no. There is a 'shiftiness,' a craftiness, and an all-around rejection of the System that comes with the character of Molly. With any of Taliesin Jaffe’s characters, actually—the man is a goth. Mollymauk Tealeaf is a character that screams ACAB at the top of his lungs while wearing a skirt with celestial motifs on it and throwing Molotov cocktails made extra special with red chilies, belladonna, and graveyard dirt.

This is where the thesis comes in: In a society where magic exists and is utilized as a source of power, a feudalistic division between Magic/Sorcery and Witchcraft will rise, discounting the legitimacy of "the lesser" to uphold the desired social structure of the Magic practitioners.

Still here? Awesome. This is gonna be fun. *Rolls up sleeves.*

Defining "Magic" and "Witchcraft"

So what is the difference anyway? When we think of witchcraft, we acknowledge that it is magic. Of course it's magic, but I would argue that in a fantasy setting, the craft part would be the part with an emphasis when defining the difference.

Magic: The study, practice, and execution of arcane energy for otherworldly outcomes.

Witchcraft: The use of magic with a distinctly "at home"/"DIY" energy to it. Components are easily found if you know where to look, and through the social focus on pure arcane magic with bigger and more immediate effects, these common ways have been forgotten—There is no big show of lights, no sounds, no *POOF* to let you know that it worked like there would be with a more traditional form of magic; it is a matter of waiting. Often, it is a more chaotic and unpredictable form as if it was a wish fulfilled by a djin. Witchcraft spells have their limits, but you can get creative if you want a certain psychological effect.

Basically, I'm talking real-world folk magic put into a fantasy setting.

Magic, Materials, and Academia

Dungeons and Dragons is a great example of this, because oh boy, as a Dungeon Master, I can tell you how inherently fucked up this game is. Drows and Goblins (and other races) are actually naturally evil-aligned and have heavy racial biases coded into them. The difference between a Cleric and a Warlock is that Clerics are coded to be Good because they made a deal with a god, and Warlocks are Bad because they made a deal with something that isn't godly. Even if you don't play them like that, more nuanced in a way like Shadowheart from Baldur's Gate 3, (we aren't talking about Wyll, Wyll has his own problematic writing separate to this point) Clerics deal radiant damage, and Warlocks deal necrotic. And there is a classic divide between Sorcerers and Wizards, with Sorcerors having inherent power, often bullying the weaker Wizards who came into it through hours of dedication to study and practice.

However, the biggest problem, and the problem I'm going to be using as an example, is material spell components.

When you are casting a spell in D&D, you have three types of components you need to cast a spell. Verbal (spoken), Somatic (gestures), and Material (exactly what it sounds like). A spell can be cast with any combination of these three, and material spell components are something that I despise (apologies to any non-D&D players for what I'm about to say next, it gets confusing).

Of course, there are more inexpensive spell components that do not need to be repurchased, or you can opt for a focus in its place, but if a spell specifies a material cost, the material is needed to cast the spell. A common material spell component is literally diamonds. A good example of this is Chromatic Orb, a level 1 spell that requires a diamond worth 50gp to cast. Most players start out with 10-20gp at level 1. Now, this is a component that isn't consumed for Chromatic Orb (though a lot of spells requiring diamonds do consume it), meaning it can be reusable for this spell or another one and thus, would probably be found in a component pouch.

See, I understand their function within the game as a mechanic to keep tension, however, the problem arises when you think about the implications: Imagine you're a sorcerer in a small town. You were born with magic in you, but you were also born poor. Unfortunately, there are some spells that need materials to cast, materials you cannot afford. You're kept away from certain kinds of magic. And a wizard? Well, unless you have access to books or a mentor, you can't learn magic at all. Wizards are either born into the middle or upper class, or have to fight their way up from poverty to fulfill their goals.

Accessibility vs. Academia

I think The Owl House portrays this thought process the best. Arcane/League of Legends is another big one, but the theme is literally everywhere in media all throughout the history of storytelling with characters like Ripley in Critical Role/The Legend of Vox Machina, Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke, or Batman or Iron Man or literally every story about technology (or magic), and discovery ever. Hell, it goes back to fucking Jason and the Golden Fleece. Further, even. But The Owl House has got to be my favorite when it comes to this topic because it's not about a latent lust for power, it's purely about accessibility.

Luz is a human. Meaning that she can't produce magic because it's not in her, it's something that she can't do. But she finds a way anyway by devoting time and patience to studying what happens when her magical peers do magic. Through it, she's able to discover these glyphs as shown in the gif above, and by drawing them, she can replicate their power. They function much like spell scrolls in D&D, but they're much more hands-on and don't require the knowledge of a scholar to make them.

There's this great video on Medieval Stasis in fantasy by Perseus Grim on YouTube. It's half an hour and I highly recommend that every fantasy writer or game master should watch it, and if you aren't a writer and just an enjoyer, you should check it out too. Even if you don't care about medieval aesthetic fantasy, it discusses magic, technology, and power dynamics, which is what we're talking about here! Basically, he argues a lot better than I can, that since magic = power > power = influence > influence = control > control = corruption, the 1% is going to do everything within their power to control who uses magic. How many stories have you heard where a wizard gets a taste of power and decides they need more? I can think of many within the sources being discussed. Academia in real life is incredibly limited, because knowledge is power. There may be a person who is self-taught at their trade that may be so much better than a person with a degree, but who is going to get the job?

The same thing goes for magic and witchcraft, and we'll get back to that in a second.

The Gender of Witchcraft: Misogyny and Christo-Colonialism

Whooboy, long section title.

Now let me make this perfectly clear. It is now more relevant than ever with WitchTok, Wicca, and New Age, that we assert the fact that historical witches weren't fucking doing anything. They were innocent women (oftentimes women of color, Jewish women, Roma women, or disabled women) who had nothing to do with witchcraft. If I have to hear one more person say "We are the witches they couldn't burn" or any modern witch try to claim the Witch Tartan for anything other than purely advocacy for women's rights I'm going fucking to throw something.

HOWEVER. Modern practice of witchcraft is inherently feminine because of it. Gender is a construct, yes, but just because it's constructed doesn't mean it's not real. It was made real when it was constructed. Gender roles are guidelines no one has to adhere to, but it is going to be hundreds and hundreds of years before every single person on this planet forgets everything they ever knew all throughout history about masculine and feminine energy. People are affirmed in their genders by practicing "feminine" and "masculine" things. Like it or not, we all have gendered perceptions of things, and that's okay so long as we don't abuse them and we recognize that it's not a one size fits all. Gender is a buffet, babydoll. Pick and choose what you want and indulge.

But like I said, because of the history of witches, witchcraft, and misogyny, there is something inherently feminine about the way we use witchcraft today.

Before Christian-Colonialism, what we consider today to be "witchcraft" or "magic" were just facts of life. Rituals done every day by everyday people. It was tradition, medicine, food, art, you name it. But the most prominent practices we think of today were magics of the hearth and home. Herbs, candles, potions—feminine. And it was that way throughout history too. And as witchcraft is reclaimed in the wake of American Christian Extremism (because think about it, most modern witches that reclaim it were Americans raised in American Christian Extremism), we'll continue to think of it that way because of the same Christian thinking we are trying to avoid. Part of that is social conditioning...

But part of that is a pushback against Christian Colonialism that wiped out indigenous folk practices all throughout the world, and the misogyny faced in the face of what is considered "proper" forms of faith. When the people who call witchcraft a cult are the same people who centuries ago burnt the witches, they think of witchcraft as feminine. So what do you do? You get more feminine to push back. It's like hyperfeminity!

So if witchcraft is feminine... it's feared.

But back to "proper forms of faith", post-Christian-Colonialism, witchcraft in the West is a pick and choose. Mixing up some herbs and rolling an oiled candle in them before burning it so that you get a job? Witchcraft. A member of the church blessing some water and pouring it over the top of the head of a newborn baby so they don't end up in Hell if they die early? Not witchcraft. Much like gender, the idea of witchcraft is a construct. This is because of power division. They want to keep themselves pure by not associating with the unpure witchcraft because if people knew they were doing witchcraft, they would lose faith. And conversely, if they're seen as doing witchcraft, witchcraft now has legitimacy. They don't want witchcraft to have legitimacy, because if it does, they don't have a monopoly on power.

So put the ideas of feminism, fear, and power monopoly together and you suddenly get a motive for the gatekeeping of magic.

Freedom in the "Hocus Pocus"

So like... what's real magic, then?

I find the politics of what's considered to be "real magic" and what's hocus-pocus woo-woo in a fantasy world really interesting. Like, you believe in magic but there's limits on what's real? You have access to divination, but tarot and astrology is bullshit? Things like plants and herbs, honeycomb, incense, gemstones, and even glass are material components in D&D, but combining those ingredients in a different way isn't magic? By all logic, it should work considering those ingredients are magical. Maybe there just isn't a massive flash of light, a booming sound, and an immediate effect.

So... who's to say that all the courtly magicians and professors and all the people relying on their magic to keep their social power didn't... just... say some of it isn't magic? It gets dismissed as hocus-pocus woo-woo so that "real magic" is held for only the people they want to have it. Because if there is a different, more accessible form of magic out there, the class divide is gone. It just makes sense.

And if the legitimacy of witchcraft as a form of magic is acknowledged, they’d be like “Yeah it’s real, but why even bother when you can get something better and more effective.” There's something to be explored in fantasy here and I want to see it used. Is it unknown and unharnessed? Is it underground and passes through generations? Is it known and just not cared about? Is it persecuted? How is it persecuted? Is it seen as weird? Is it feared? Is it outlawed?

Anyways I just think it's really fucking cool. If you made it this far on this massive, unedited braindump, you're also really fucking cool.

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