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[tutorhelp4you]

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[baharlivings]

The student loan debt crisis impacts over 43 million Americans. Rising debt and global hardships have led to new laws.

[tessenpai]

Kono Oto Tomare! Chapter 143 Scans and Rough TL

Disclaimer: Please DO NOT use this translation to make your own TL of the chapter!! The KOT TL group works very hard to give you the most accurate translation, that does as much justice to the original script as possible. This is a ROUGH translation. That means is faulty and there must be mistakes in certain places. This is just for impatient people like myself to get a grasp on what is going on in the chapter! You can REFERENCE my TL if you want to discuss the chapter but never USE it as it was your own.

Scans (Use Adblocker): Kono Oto Tomare - 143 RAWs

Page 1 Chapter Title: Blue determination Tsukaji: … Judges Panel Page:

Koto Performer: Agata Kouzo

Hokkaido Music University: Kurokawa Yoshie

Composer: Tatsumi Yukito

Shakuhachi Performer: Nanba Yoshihisa(?)

Music Critic: Iwagaki Keiko(?)

Komaki: Tsukaji-san~!

Komaki: The social gathering is about to start—

Tsukaji: That so.

Tsurugi: Is something wrong? You were staring at that program with such a serious face.

Page 2

Tsukaji: Ahh, no. I was just thinking how tough must judging be…

Tsurugi: Ahh— That’s true.

Komaki: The judges are totally at odds with each other, right?

Tsukaji: Well, there’s also that but�� I think the main problem is how high the level of the performances were this time.

Tsukaji: If there was a clear difference between the performance’s skill levels, even if the judges were to have clashing opinions, it wouldn’t lead to conflict… but this time..

Tsukaji: Truly… This turned out to a be quite a problem…

Page 3

Judge Nanba(?): If there had been a clear difference in the scores, it would’ve been fairly easy to move the discussion along.

Judge Kurokawa: This is surprising. Well, it is understandable, though.

Judge Iwagaki(?): Yeah… But to think—

Judge Iwagaki(?): We have 3-way tie for the highest score…

Judge Tatsumi: …

Judge Agata: There’s nothing we can do about that.

Page 4

Judge Agata: When it comes to these three schools, there was nothing we could deduct points from.

Judge Agata: Fundamentals, expressiveness, artistry, difficulty, harmony… All of it was outstanding.

Judge Agata: From this point on, it’s about how we assign extra points.

Judge Agata: This will be a difficult evaluation.

Judge Agata: …Let’s thoroughly discuss this.

Judge Agata: Those performances deserve us to face them with our full dedication.

Judge Tatsumi: -----….

Page 5

Judge Tatsumi: That’s right…

Program:

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award – 1st Place

Agency of Cultural Affairs Awars – 2nd to 4th Place.

Excellence Award: 5th to 8th Place

Cultural Federation Award – All participating schools

[1st to 4th Place qualify for the Outstanding Tokyo Public Performance.]

Chika: Ministr… Minister’s Award…?

Sane: It says “Ministry” right? Ministry’s award.

Kota: What an impressive name~ What kind of award is that?

Takezou: That’s the award the winner of the National Cultural Festival Competition receives.

3-baka: …What-?

Kota: Woah, that’s so cool—!

Natsu: Why don’t you know the name of the award you’ve been aiming for all this time…?

3-baka: !!

Sane: Shup up! No matter the name, 1st place it’s 1st place.

Chika: Did you know about this, Momoya!

Natsu: Yes.

Mittsu: Eh?

Chika: ----~ A- Anyway, “Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award”!

Chika: If they call us after saying this, that means we won 1st place!!

Takezou: ---Yeah.

Page 6

Program: 1st to 4th Place qualify for the Outstanding Tokyo Public Performance.

Chika: Hey, what’s this written here---?

Takezou: !

MC 1: Hello, everyone!

MC 2: We’re now going to begin the social gathering!

Chika: Oooh.

MC 1: The schools gave us such wonderful performances!

MC 1: Even while we were helping with the event, we found ourselves completely drawn in!

MC 2: Yeah, we did.

MC 1: Should we take a little break here then

MC 2: Sounds good!

Page 7

MC 1: We thought we'd take this opportunity to introduce Hokkaido to you.

MC 2: By doing a Hokkaido Quiz!

Mittsu: Oooh, so this is a social gathering.

Sane: I thought it was about “socializing” with the other schools

Kota: I like quizzes—

MC: Then, 1st question

MC: What do people in Hokkaido mean when they say “Zangi”*—?

MC: Clap if you think it’s #3!

Kota: It’s definitely 3!

Page 8

*No text*

Page 9

Judge Tatsumi: -------…

Page 10

Judge Agata: With this, we are in agreement with this final decision.

Judge Agata: …I’ve been a judge for many different competitions, but… I didn’t expect something like this to happen.

Judge Agata: Today I also learned a lot.

Page 11

Judge Agata: Let us go, then.

MC 1: That concludes this social gathering!

MC 1: Did you have a good time?

MC 2: Next year’s event will be in Kyoto!

MC 2: Let’s meet again there next year!

Chika [thoughts]: Next year…

Page 12

*No text*

Page 13

MC: We will be taking a 10 minute break now. After that we will begin with the closing ceremony—

Mittsu: Uoooh here it is… The closing ceremony… Which means…

Sane: Results announcement…

Kota: Woah, amazing. My hands are getting cold again—

Hiro: Oh man. My heart is pounding. My hands are shaking—

Takezou: …Wanna hold hands?

Page 14

Hiro: Ah… Eh…!?

Takezou: Ah, um… You often see people holding hands when waiting for an announcement…

Takezou: If you don’t want to

Takezou: Then…

3-baka: grab

Natsu: Woah, are you serious?

Atsumu: grabs

Page 15

Kota: Momoyan’s hand transmits so much calm—

Natsu: What does that even mean?

Natsu: Wait, let go of m…

Natsu: Huh? How are you so strong…?

Chika & Satowa: ………………….

Chika: Hm.

Page 16

Akira: Fufu Ahh, youth.

Suzuka: Ha ha ha.

Akira: ……

Akira: Could it be that you are also nervous, Takinami-sensei?

Suzuka: Eh?

Akira. After the preliminaries, you said you’d been covered in cold sweat.

Suzuka: Ah—…

Suzuka: For now, I want to have a full night of sleep tonight.

Page 17

MC: Thank you all very much for waiting.

MC: We will now begin the closing ceremony of the National High School Cultural Festival, Japanese Music Division.

MC: First, the Judge Agata Kouzou-sensei will address the overall assessment of the competition.

Page 18

Judge Agata: Yes. I want to thank you all for participating in this competition over the last two days.

Judge Agata: Before I announce the winners, please allow me to say one thing.

Judge Agata: I truly thank you for allowing us to hear such wonderful performances.

Judge Agata: Both technically and musically, this year’s level was incredibly high.

Judge Agata: Us judges unanimously agreed on that.

Page 19

Judge Agata: “To these marvelous sounds”

Judge Agata: “I do not want to do something as meaningless as giving out points”

Judge Agata: “I do not want to rank them”

Judge Agata: I’m truly thankful that you made us feel that way.

Judge Agata: And so, “What is music?”

Page 20

Judge Agata: To this question with no clear right answer…

Judge Agata: Even us judges had differing thoughts about this question

Judge Agata: We got to hear so many colorful and vibrant answers.

Judge Agata: Since this is a competition, we had to assign rankings…

Judge Agata: But we judges want to express our heartfelt respect for every performance.

Page 21

Judge: Without further ado, I’ll begin with the awards announcement.

Page 22

Judge: Beginning with the Excellence Awards, I will announce the 5th to 8th ranked schools.

Akari [thoughts]: 5th to 8th…

Akari [thoughts]: My bridge fell, so it might be out of the question.

Judge Agata: In 8th place.

Judge Agata: Tokushima Prefecture, Tokushima City, Minamikawa High School.

Page 23

Judge Agata: In 7th place, Shizuoka Prefecture, Fukumori High School

Fukumori students: No way, seriously!?

Fukumori students: We did it!!

Fukumori students: Amazing, amazing!!

Judge Agata: In 6th place

Judge Agata: Ibaraki prefecture, Ibaraki Prefectural, Eidai Affiliated High School

Akari: ...Eh?

Akari [thoughts]: 6th place!?

Akari: Senpa...

Page 24

*No text*

Page 25

Judge Iwagaki(?): But my, Eidai was impressive.

Judge Iwagaki(?): Even with so few members, their presence rivaled that of the other schools.

Judge Iwagaki(?): There was a mistake when the pillar fell, but how they recovered from that point on... I personally rated that highly.

Judge Nanba(?): I feel the same way. With just three people, it wouldn't have been strange if the performance had collapsed from there.

Judge Nanba(?): The other two supported him firmly, and the kid who had the mistake handled the situation very calmly.

Judge Tatsumi: It was made evident they've build a relationship of complete trust through endless practice.

Judge Tatsumi: Their recovery was impressive, and the performance after that was so strong and vibrant. It was delightful.

Page 26

Judge Agata: The brilliance of that performance, went above the mistakes.

Page 27

Akari's friends: Akari!! That's amazing!!

Akari's friends: You're 6th!! 6th in the nation!! That's incredible!!!

Akari: Ye... Yeah...

Judge Agata: In 5th place, Saitama Prefecture----

Akari [thoughts]: But

Akari [thoughts]: If I handn't made a mistake, then we would've ranked highe--

Sen-chan: Akari!

Page 28

Haru & Sen-chan: We did it!!

Page 29

Sen-chan: Oh, come on, are you crying of happiness~~!? You're such a crybaby!

Akari[thoughts]: The expression I saw for one moment in the faces of Miya-senpai and Haru-senpai

Page 30

Akari [thoughts]: Was frustration.

Akari [thoughts]: The quickly hid that frustration so I wouldn't see it.

Sen-chan [memory]: Be proud!!

Akari: I... I will practice even more from now on...

Akari [thoughts]: I don't want then to hide it from me anymore

Page 31

Akari [thoughts]: Their frustration, their happiness.

Akari: I will become a lot... A lot better.

Akari [thoughts]: I want to share it with them

Akari [thoughts]: Next time

Akari [thoughts]: For sure

Page 32

Akari [thoughts]: I will stand firmly by their side.

Page 33

Mittsu [thoughts]: Eidai, even with that performance, ended up 6th...

Sane [thoughts]: Are you for real?

Judge Agata: Next, I'll announce the winners of the Agency of Cultural Affairs Award.

Judge Agata: That corresponds to the 2nd to 4th ranked schools.

Page 34

Side text: Nerves are running....!!

Judge Agata: In 4th place.

---Kono Oto Tomare! will continue in the next issue!---

[callahanisms]

body talk

seeing challengers was a mistake guys because all i can think about is challengers and how much i love challengers and how cinema is back after people declared the death of cinema like three years ago and how much i wanna go see challengers again—

anyways uhhhh did challengers make me hop onto the mike faist train? yes. because i love a man that clearly worships his wife and kisses boys.

character: art donaldson

for vibes: "physical" by olivia newton-john

context: stanford university. 2007.

if you had a choice, you wouldn't be working as a receptionist in the gym. instead, you'd work in the infirmary. it was more in line with your desire to pursue sports medicine.

your father himself was an athlete who sustained a career ending injury and went into sports medicine. you wanted to follow in his footsteps.

but for now, you were working as a receptionist at the gym for your federal work study. college wasn't going to pay for itself unfortunately and your parents could only provide so much support.

art donaldson recognized you while you guys were at a party. "you're the person at the desk in the gym!" he sounded so excited. almost like a puppy.

"yeah..." you look down at your red solo cup. "you're like a regular. with tashi duncan."

"you know her?"

"well, i've talked to her a few times. she's great." who wouldn't like her honestly? you weren't the biggest fan of tennis but whenever tashi duncan played, she always managed to make it magical.

"you're also in my bio class, right?"

"you're in my bio class?"

"oh don't tell me you didn't notice."

you shrug. "i didn't. you're not very...noticeable, i guess."

art took personal offense to that statement.

okay not entirely. because to some extent, you were right. he wasn't as noticeable as some of the other people in class, like the lacrosse player on the guys team or the girl from the basketball team, both of whom you seem to be close with.

growing closer to art was just a matter of being in a lot of classes together, something you didn't realize during the first month of college.

to be fair, it was a lot.

but the good thing about having a lot of classes with him was that it meant you always had a go to person for group projects. and god were professors adamant about assigning group work.

at the very least, you had a workout buddy when you guys were free. sometimes, you were even joined by tashi duncan. so it was cool to be able to work out with a famous tennis player.

perhaps the gym is where you started to notice art's...physicality.

he wasn't entirely imposing, aside from being quite tall. but he had a surprising amount of muscle. perhaps the tank tops he wore didn't help much. it left little to the imagination.

because of your familiarity with the body and your desire to go into sports medicine, art called you when he was feeling a bit sore.

he opens the door with a smile, seeing you with your bag and clementines. "what's the fruit for?"

"just in case you get hungry." you step in and remove your shoes. "just lay down."

"bed or floor?"

"whichever you prefer. the bed might be more comfy. we'd have to move stuff around if you were on the floor. oh and take off your shirt."

"what?" he could feel his cheeks beginning to heat up.

"take off your shirt. a massage won't be that effective with your shirt on."

"alright. umm..." art just does what you ask of him, taking his shirt off and setting it aside on his desk chair. he gets on the bed and lays down, front side down.

you pull out a bottle of lotion and crawl onto the bed, straddling him at his waist. you are unaware of how red he is feeling you against him.

you feel around his back for bit, asking him where in particular is tight. once you got a good idea, you squirt some lotion onto your hands, rub it a bit, then begin to massage.

art would be embarrassed from the sounds that came out of him. but he was craving for the relief from his overworked and tired muscles. he could feel just how deep your hands went in, twisting and rubbing. your hands felt so good. they glided smoothly and your touch soothed him greatly.

"damn dude. when was the last time you massaged yourself?"

"don't know." he mutters, burying his lower face into his own pillow. he could feel himself growing warmer all over his body.

your palm pressing into him, dragging itself through his muscles, rubbing baby lotion into his skin so he's soft.

your hand reaches a part of his lower back, your palm rubbing through the muscle. and he moans.

you stop for a moment. "something wrong?"

"no...nothing's wrong..." he mutters.

"you sure?"

"yes. keep going."

he enjoys the way your hands move lower, and lower. he wants them to sneak to the front. massage him a different way.

your hands linger on a particular spot of his back though, feeling the defined muscle. there's something particularly...satisfying, about running your hands over his body. you were tempted to feel more. especially his arms.

art's arms were utterly gorgeous, as if sculpted out of marble by a renaissance artist themselves.

"i think you're all good."

"all done already?" he smelled like baby lotion. whatever that mean.

"unless you want me to massage elsewhere." you get off of him and he turns on his side to look at you.

the tank top you were wearing was a little bit tight.

art gently grabs your wrist. "magical hands you know."

"it's beneficial to learn how to massage. for your own betterment and health. though i will happily help you with the spots you can't reach."

he rubs circles into your wrists. "are they tired?"

"a little. it was because i took an exam yesterday. writing in those blue booklets is absolute torture."

"that's fair." his eyes flicker up to yours. the room was warm, the atmosphere right. "do you...like my body?"

"it's nice. you're very beautiful." you smile.

art pulls you forward, your legs hitting the wooden bedframe of the shitty college provided furniture.

"do you want to feel it?"

you bite your lip. "i think i do."

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Wrath of the Pirate Queen Part 1

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

“We should have just paid them.”

“It would have bankrupted-“

Mulgrade smashed his fist into the council table. “And this isn’t?!?”

He held up a hand at the holographic projection of data feeds scrolling in front of the small council. Countless ship loses, supply convoys ambushed and destroyed, stations raided and looted across the entire subsector.

“The pirate queen has cost us three times as much damage than what she inflicted upon the Hash’tu and we’re still at war with the alien bastards!”

With a swipe of a few keys Mulgrade brought up the war map showing the latest frontline between the Hash’tu and the Cosmic Federation. The lines had stabilized when the pirate queen had been employed by the Federation. Her fleet had conducted several successful raids behind Hash’tu lines, even going so far as to destroy not only a massive orbital station, but also the defense fleet stationed inside it and the planet it had been orbiting when the station lost orbit and crashed into the planet’s surface.

“This is what it looked like six weeks ago.” Mulgrade addressed the council. ‘And this is what it looks like since then.”

The map began to slowly change with the passage of time. Pockets of conflict within Hash’tu lines ceased completely and began appearing behind the Federation’s lines instead. The frequency of attacks was nearly triple what had been carried out inside the Hash’tu. The Federation then began losing ground to repeated Hash’tu attacks including three systems before reaching the current date.

“Since we failed to pay her she has turned her fleet on us entirely.”

“What of the Hash’tu?” one of the councilors asked. “Surely they have not given up on seeking vengeance for what happened?”

“Not exactly,” Mulgrade answered as he rubbed his eyes in frustration. “They are still bent on destroying her, but in the meantime so long as she continues carrying out attacks against ourselves they are content to postpone their retribution.”

“Another reason is they may not have the forces to openly confront her and us at the same time.”

Mulgrade looked up to see a new figure enter the chamber. They wore a starch white indicating themselves to be part of Military Intelligence. Their cold blue eyes circled the room before settling on Mulgrade and giving a crisp salute.

“And you are?” one of the councilors inquired.

“Jim Hark,” the new figure replied, “special operative of Military Intelligence and former caseworker of Operation Rogue.”

Another round of murmurs before Mulgrade noticed something in Mr. Hark’s reply.

“So you were the one who was in charge of keeping Amelia in check?”

To his surprise Mr. Hark shook his head. “Sadly that responsibility was with the former caseworker Jacob Montigue.”

“Then why aren’t we speaking with them?”

Mr. Hark gave a sheepish shrug. “Jacob died at the hands of Captain Starfeld shortly after refusing to pay her for her recent exploits; I was assigned after.”

“What did you mean that the Hash’tu couldn’t afford to engage the pirates?”

Mulgrade was not going to let the conversation become bogged down with needless history lessons.

“As you know,” Mr. Hark replied by taking control of the holographic projector and bringing up the datasheet of Amelia Starfeld, “the more infamy a pirate obtains the more respect they garner in the criminal elements of our universe.”

Mulgrade nodded and allowed Hark to continue.

“Her recent successes have garnered her unprecedented levels of fame within such groups and now smaller elements of outlaws have been flocking to her banner for a chance at fame and glory.”

He pointed to a specific detailing of her fleet composition. “Originally she had a small fleet with her flagship and at least half a dozen smaller ships; but now she is commanding several fleets numbering easily over one hundred vessels divided into raiding groups with their own commander and objectives.”

“So you are saying we have created a monster?” Mulgrade put together as the last few battles began making more and more sense. The devastation she had wrought coupled with the vast fortune of goods stolen during her raids was all but ensuring that her name sake was far from just a mere honorary title. She truly was becoming the Pirate Queen.

“Indeed,” Hark nodded, “and like any monster it retreats to its lair after each raid to regroup, giving us the perfect chance to rid ourselves of her once and for all.”

“You’re talking of the “Shallow”, if I am not mistaken.”

“Correct.” Hark agreed. “It has been confirmed by several sources that after each successful raid Amelia will retreat to the Shallow for debauchery and resupply before heading out again.”

Hark entered several keys and a hologram of the void station appeared. It was easily the largest station outside of core territory but it still had a ways to go before becoming truly self-sufficient.

“My plan is to take the Storm Breaker, and a small escort fleet, and assault Amelia’s hiding spot in the Shallow rid ourselves of her once and for all.”

“Do you think it possible?” Mulgrade asked.

The Shallow was not the most heavily armed station, but from what Mulgrade had heard it was the epicenter of criminal activity amongst the stars and he doubted that their fleet would be able to simply walk in and grab them by any means necessary.

“To ensure operational stability I will be personally overseeing the mission.” Hark answered. “Believe me when I say that the sun has finally set for our most hated Pirate Queen.”

[we-are-not-a-number]

Tldr; Biologists would be amused by Trump's executive order wording, if it wasn't in law erasure of trans and intersex people and the dangerous precedent that it sets, as it lacks a foundation of basic biology and legally declared every American as female.

Clearly, this order is not fully informed by current biological science,” said Dr. Richard Bribiescas, president of the Human Biology Association.“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” reads the order. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality. Under my direction, the Executive Branch will enforce all sex-protective laws to promote this reality.” Trump’s action is part of the GOP’s yearslong efforts to stoke fears about transgender people and push them out of public spaces. In effect, the order means the U.S. government will no longer provide any money or contracts to groups or people that it considers to be “promoting gender ideology.” Federal agencies will now only issue passports and visas that offer “female” or “male” sex markers, and these will be based on the person’s assigned sex at birth. The order also bans taxpayer money from being used for gender-affirming care.

The executive order punches down a particularly vulnerable community; trans people only make up about 1.6% of adults in the U.S. But on a more technical level, the way it’s been written is so embarrassingly ignorant of basic human biology that it would be laughable if its effects weren’t so harmful.

In its strangely constructed definitions of “female” and “male,” the order states that a person’s gender is defined by the size of a “reproductive cell” at the moment of conception, a stage when all embryos are phenotypically female. In other words, it appears that Trump just declared all Americans are femaleThis language, which is the basis for interpreting the entire executive order, is so sloppily written that it could end up being grounds for legal challenges. “There are many reasons why this Executive Order is legally vulnerable, and the definitions themselves are just one part,” Karen Loewy, senior counsel and director of constitutional law practice at Lambda Legal, a legal group focused on LGBTQ+ rights, said in an email.So how badly did Trump officials butcher their attempt to lump everyone into two sexes? Did the president really just make us all women? HuffPost reached out to seasoned biologists around the country to help make sense of Trump’s definitions of sex, gender and “reproductive cells.” They don’t know what he’s talking about, either.

“Lots of folks are wondering the same thing!” Dr. Francisco Diaz, director of the Center for Reproductive Health and Biology at Pennsylvania State University, said of the Trump White House’s understanding of how biology works.Embryos are “neither male nor female” by Trump’s definition, Diaz said, since there are no germ cells present at conception. Germ cells are reproductive cells that later become eggs and sperm, and that are set aside early in embryonic development. “How about men after vasectomies? No germ cells there, are they still male?” asked Diaz, who is also an associate professor of reproductive biology at the university. ”Are postmenopausal women still female?”

“Not a super tight definition!” he concluded. “The ‘at conception’ wording seems forced to define personhood as beginning at conception and not really to define sex.”

Republicans for years have tried to legislate their personal beliefs about life beginning at conception. They’ve introduced versions of a bill called the Life at Conception Act 13 times since 2011. These efforts have almost certainly influenced the “conception” language in Trump’s latest executive action.

Dr. Richard Bribiescas, an anthropology professor at Yale University and the president of the Human Biology Association, said the order’s definitions of “sex” and “gender” ignore all kinds of variations that take place in human development. “Woman/man, boy/girl are gender identities that do not necessarily align with biological characteristics of sex,” he said in an email. “Genders are components of human variation that are influenced by culture, identity, and many other non-biological factors. To illustrate the difference between sex and gender, we can talk about male/female chimpanzees (our closest evolutionary relative) but it would be non-sensical to discuss chimpanzee women, men, boys or girls.”

Trump’s definitions of “female” and “male” are also flawed, said Bribiescas, because he is tying them to something called “anisogamy” in biology, or the observation that females of some species, including humans, tend to produce larger gametes (the reproductive cells that come from germ cells) compared to males.Anisogamy is not a universal rule in biology, he said. But Trump’s executive order defines females as people belonging to the sex that produces “the large reproductive cell” and males belonging to the sex that produces “the small reproductive cell.”The size of a person’s gametes is “just one characteristic among many (ie., genetic, hormonal, developmental, physical) that is used to describe sex,” Bribiescas said. “Clearly, this order is not fully informed by current biological science.”

This executive order “is highly problematic from a biological standpoint because it overly simplifies what we know to be an incredibly complicated developmental process,” said Dr. Josh Snodgrass, a professor of anthropology and global health at the University of Oregon. “It’s just not that simple from a genetic standpoint, and then becomes even more complicated with time under the influence of hormones, environmental exposures, and social experiences.”

Snodgrass, the past president of the Human Biology Association, noted that Trump’s order also doesn’t account for people who are intersex, which means they are born with genitals, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit into the typical male/female sex binary.“This reads to me as coming from people who desperately want the world to be simple — for sex to be a simple binary and for us to return to some imagined time when this was more broadly accepted,” he said. “The problem is that it’s not only science that shows us that human biological variation is more complicated, but other cultures do and have also appreciated this for thousands of years.”

Snodgrass added that there is one more thing missing from the executive order that belongs in all conversations about sex and gender: empathy. “The authors of this executive order seem like they are trying to twist science to fit their worldview, but that this worldview is painfully out of step with reality,” he said.

[wisteriagoesvroom]

schools of thought: part 2 🦊

A landoscar college AU, told through social media

to catch up, check out part 1 here

author's notes

thank you for your patience and the kudos on part 1 🤧 irl stuff happened and i worked on a different story for a while before getting back to this one

ignore timestamps, they don't really matter

if you enjoy it, please consider liking / reblogging / commenting! 💙

—————we pick up at the federation U library———————

lando's studying late. it's a tuesday, and there aren't too many people there - just him, linda the librarian who isn't particularly impressed at anything or anyone, and a couple of other students on other islands of desks, stuck in their own world.

lando doesn't find academic work impossible per se, it's more the sustained attention that gets challenging. and contrary to how he seems, he does actually work hard at his core modules. even if he isn't sure exactly to what end, yet.

the screen's blazing bright and lagrange's theorem is starting to make his brain statick-y, so lando rubs his eyes. one of those advice pages on tiktok said changing tasks could help sometimes to refocus on his studying. something about crop rotation or switching channels of the brain or something. if it's on social media, it must be true.

so he opens his design software instead and makes a party invite.

he sends a prayer to the holy trinity of tiesto, guetta and darude for his very basic photoshop abilities. and an extra hail-van-helden for the free software that he pirated off charles.

the party playlist is already whirring in his head. definitely some garage smashed with some old school hip hop, and he's sure there's a way to get some hans zimmer piano in there. whatever, it'll work.

satisfied with his efforts, lando sips from his hydroflask. (the drink is one part instant coffee, one part spicy honey, and a lot of hot water. carlos gives him shit about it all the time, but carlos is spanish and generally prone to dramatics when it comes to coffee and just about everything else.)

still focused on his important task of Procrastinating His Stabilizer Equations, lando texts max.

linda, to her credit, only glared at him once when he started humming kid cudi under his breath.

and judging from experience, max and charles are going to be a while, so there's nothing for lando to do but stare at the wall and keep working on his playlists. oh, and his math assignments.

meanwhile, oscar gets a ping from logan.

what is there to say about the meeting really, oscar thinks. uneventful. ———————earlier——————————

the first project catch-up with lando, they'd met under the campus bee statue. a sunny afternoon, but the campus was quiet, half of them having decamped to the nearby hills or beach for a change of scenery. it was just the pleasant and tolerable buzz of other students enjoying the warmth and doing university student things. he'd spotted a couple of people with picnic blankets out. he hadn't brought a picnic blanket, thinking this would be a quick meeting.

lando had appeared in a blur of white and orange, like a y2k elf. ear piercing, music festival rubber bracelets and all. in a t-shirt that said i'm acute angle.

"'sup osc!" lando said.

"that t-shirt's gramatically incorrect. technically." oscar had replied.

"whaa-aat. but more to the point, it's funny."

"i guess. did you do the reading yet? thought it'd be good to talk roles and responsibilities and maybe a project timeline."

"timeline?" lando said, as he tossed his backpack down and flopped on the lawn. lando extracted two heinekens from a side pocket and went through a complicated manouvre of opening them with his room keys. "thought we'd maybe crack open a beer and just chat, matey."

i'm not your matey, oscar thought. i'm a passenger to whatever train of chaos it is that you're driving and i'd like to get off.

oscar's skin prickled as he realised the double meaning of get off. he also tried to not think too hard about how overfamiliar lando was acting towards him. the worse thing was: there was a bigger part of him that was probably willing to let lando get away with it.

lando seemed to be ignoring whatever existential crisis oscar was going through. instead, lando was going on and on about philosophical youtubers and sparknotes. lando was so animated when he spoke, too: hands always in gestures, as if excitement buzzed directly out of his fingertips and onto oscar. there was a sparkle in his eyes, blue sliding into grey, that made oscar want to sit on his hands. because they were the kind of eyes they wrote about in regency novels, the windows to the soul kind of melodramatic nonsense. that would make him want to do stupid shit. like, get-in-the-way-of-the-project-grade kind of stupid shit.

so it took oscar a lot of energy to focus in that first meeting. he thought he did a pretty decent job picking up the thread of conversation, around the part where lando had called foucault's theory "the indiana jones thought thingy."

"i think you mean archaeology of knowledge."

"right! right." lando said, as he beamed up at him.

oscar had suddenly felt overly warm, then. probably just the sun on the quad, he thought to himself. he was from australia, so technically he should've known better, and worn adequate SPF. he'd have to set a phone reminder for that at a later point. he refused to be fooled again by the european summer and its apparently hypnotic effects. even if those hypnotic effects were probably mostly caused by a menacing parallel phenomenon that oscar would call solarus landonitus.

—————————————————

later, oscar's cooks dinner, and tries to decipher the instructions on the back of a frozen bag of beef mince. pato and logan are away at a football game across the border in italy, an overnighter thing.

his phone vibrates. it's lando.

oscar's hands hover over the letter keys. a party? he couldn't think of anything worse. but lando said a couple of friends, and it's true oscar hasn't really partied, and he thinks hanging out with his D&D friends doesn't really count. there had been that one instance in first year when oscar had gone to try and meet logan and pato at the ministry of sound, and he'd accidentally ended up at the ministry of state government building. after that, he'd figured parties weren't really fated for him.

but. lando, social butterfly lando, campus personality lando is the one asking. and logan's right, oscar probably does take himself too seriously.

osc types and deletes at least four different responses before be replies. he is an eng lit major, he tells himself. surely he should be better at crafting his words than this. but sometimes it is what it is.

so it isn't a commitment, and it isn't a hard no, either.

oscar stares at his phone. it's gone quiet. lando's moved on – probably uploading an instagram story. or smashing his too keyboard loudly in a public space as he solves a polynomial. or making a new and unlikely EDM song out of radiator noises, or whatever it is that lando "i'm so cool" norris decides to do with his free time.

oscar is studying the dorm kitchen tiles, thinking about not thinking about lando, when his pasta water boils over. it hits the induction stove with a loud hiss.

"shit!" osc yelps. he grabs a nearby dish towel to wipe it up.

the pasta ends up both soggy and under salted, but he eats it anyway. mind turning all the while.

——————stay tuned part 3 (hint: party party)————————

p.s. if you want to be tagged/notified on the next part/updates just lmk in comments or DM and i'd be happy to!!

[gerec]

could you rec the bests space AU?

The X-Men fandom is absolutely a goldmine for amazing aus, and space aus are some of the best on offer! There are so many great ones that I have to split this into 2 parts, Anon - hope you enjoy:

SPACE AUS - PART 1

Space Jam by Pangea (series)

Prince Charles Xavier is Deputy Commander of the TEF Heartsteel and the newest mission they've been assigned starts out less than desirable and quickly goes downhill from there. It's alright, though, he'll cope.

It doesn't help, though, that he's in unrequited love with his best friend and Commander of the Heartsteel, War-Prince Erik Lehnsherr.

The stars incline us, they do not bind us by ikeracity, Pangea

Intergalactic Federation pilot Lieutenant Charles Xavier is assigned last-minute to a high profile mission: transporting over two thousand prison inmates from an old and overfilled prison complex to a newer, higher-capacity prison stronghold located on the outer reaches of the galaxy. Just as he's settling down for a long and uneventful ride, things take a turn for the worse after the inmates riot and stage a hostile takeover of the ship, leaving Charles to find himself at the complete mercy of cold-blooded killers and facing the chilling prospect that he might not ever make it back home alive.

A Curious Carriage of Crystal and Cold by Etharei

Charles, a miner from a poor village in the countryside, saves the life of Erik Lehnsherr, scion of a successful business family and the richest man on the planet Eisen. Charles is a telepath and somewhat anxious about it, while Erik abstains from relationships because the lights flicker and doors open and electronics vibrate when he gets too excited.

Also featuring a long-suffering sister, a foul-mouthed bodyguard, and a best friend with a heart that is definitely not gold.

In which there are princes, spaceships, long journeys, and old secrets uncovered. (An AU sci-fi fairytale)

The Trouble with Telepaths by endingthemes

“Are you shy about me meeting your family?” Erik asks with a huge smile. “Are you kidding me?”

“It’s not funny,” Charles says, his hands firmly planted on his hips, and it’s honestly hilarious so Erik laughs right in his face.

(Or a Star Trek AU in which Captain Erik Lehnsherr pays a visit to First Officer Charles Xavier's home planet and encounters a few surprises.)

To Rattle the Stars by GQD, Pangea

All his life Charles has chafed at the bonds of gravity that hold him bound to tiny and backwater Montressor, more at home in the sky on his solar surfer than on the ground, where he's stuck working at his stepfather's inn. His heart and soul yearn for the stars, and it's his dream to one day be a spacer and sail across the cosmos on adventure.

The opportunity comes sooner than he ever imagined one night when a ship crash-lands on the inn's front doorstep, carrying a dying pirate with a mysterious map and a dire warning: beware the cyborg.

[A Disney's Treasure Planet AU]

From Rim Space With Love by manic_intent

"Captain Logan! Captain Logan!"

The skinny cadet skitters to a halt next to Logan in the rec room, red-faced and a little out of breath. Logan eyes him with a faint frown, sunk deep into a stimm couch, thumbing up the rim of his captain's hat. He's just come off a torturous fifteen-hour shift, and healing factor or not, Logan's starting to feel it. Warp space is hell on his nerves.

"Settle down, bub. What burned your tail... eh..." Logan concentrates briefly. "Cadet McCoy? Hey. Your blue's showing. Settle down."

McCoy takes in several deep breaths, and the blue fur starting to thread out of his skin sinks back in. "Sir, yes sir. Message from X-Command, sir."

Erik Lehnsherr's Guide to Saving the Universe By Meeting Your Soul-Mate and Falling in Love in Less than 72 Hours by madneto, Pangea

Army Pilot Erik Lehnsherr is just trying to enjoy his day off when a mostly naked person crashes through the roof of his car. Even more alarming, the strange falling naked person—who goes by Charles Xavier when he's not speaking an ancient dead language—brings tidings of the apparent potential end of the world, and begs Erik to help him put a stop to it.

Well. His mother has been nagging at him to go out and meet new people.

Programming by TurtleTotem

Erik is not programmed to feel affection. There's no logical reason for Charles's death to affect him like this. ((Inspired by certain elements of Prometheus, but not a direct crossover.))

Fallen from the Stars by madmalina

Erik’s only purpose in life is to find and kill the man who had his parents executed—Sebastian Shaw, Captain of the Emperor’s fleet. When Erik gets assigned to a job under Shaw’s command—on the spaceship supposed to take the Crown Prince across the galaxy—he’s sure he’s closer to fulfilling his destiny than he has ever been before.

Charles is apprehensively awaiting the day of his twenty-fifth birthday, when he’ll be crowned Emperor, because not only does he have high doubts about his own suitability for the job, he fears the crushing responsibilities it will bring, and ultimately wants nothing more than to live a quiet and peaceful life.

However, the trip across the planets of Charles’ future Empire turns out differently than they both expected, shedding light on intrigues reaching back decades into the past, and forcing both men to put their lives into each other’s hands, even though their differences are seemingly infinite.

 To Catch a Thief by lachatblanche

Charles Xavier, heir to the Xavier Corp billlions, is a wealthy, carefree socialite by day, and a skilled and renowned catburglar by night.

It was, he supposes, inevitable that someday someone would find this out.

fly me to the moon (To Catch a Thief Remix) by ikeracity 

Charles is a wealthy noble who moonlights as notorious intergalactic art thief X in his spare time. Erik is the bounty hunter hot on his tail (who also happens to have a massive crush on him). A fateful encounter on the luxury resort moon Prioria changes things between them forever.

Stardust by JackyJango

When Charles Xavier, Erik's long-suffering-total opposite- best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, Erik makes a pact with him, that he'll marry Charles if he's still single even after a decade.

I, Charles Francis Xavier, agree to marry Erik Magnus Lehnsherr if I'm not otherwise married or in a committed relationship as of ten years from today, star-dated- 2020:08:007

Nearly a decade later, Erik will do anything to see Charles with a man who's worthy of him.

Some Forgotten Corner of the Universe by Black_Betty

Erik remembers the boy he met on Osiris. Charles is no longer that boy, but that doesn't mean Erik loves him any less...

Ghost in the Shell by MonstrousRegiment

Out in the black of space, where the only creatures whose company you can always count on are violence and death, making a living is a wager. Erik’s crew of mismatched social misfits scrapes by, toeing the line between law and crime. Normally, they prefer to stay out of the Alliance’s way, but when it comes to defending the very freedom they fought for a decade ago, they only follow one principle: when someone tries to kill you, you kill them right back.

The Persistent Traveller by candycandy (telltail_heart) 

Erik is the Chief of Engineering aboard the starship Poseidon, where he’s spent the last 10 years of his life dedicated to his job above all other desires. That is until he receives his newest crew member, Lieutenant Commander Charles Xavier, who proves to be more persistent than a black hole at getting what he wants, which to Erik’s utter confusion appears to be him...

SPACE AUS - PART 2

[mariacallous]

Ed Martin is a major actor in Trump's attempted regime change to authoritarianism. His particular role is to transform the law into a tool to intimidate Americans. After a stint as interim US Attorney for DC which was marked by unprecedented weaponization of the position, Martin will now continue his work for Trump as the official "weaponization czar."

This is a new position within the Justice Department, designed by the Trump administration, to punish people who have committed no crimes. Martin was originally placed on the "weaponization working group" seemingly ex officio when he was a US Attorney; he will now continue as its chairman. On Martin's account, his assignment will be to publicly single out Americans who have not been found guilty of anything, or for that matter even indicted. He says there will be "no limit to the targets."

Martin's authoritarian past and loyalties are a matter of public record. He helped build an alternative reality around Trump's Big Lie and coup attempt, treating the January 6th criminals as heroes deserving of financial support and pardons. As interim US attorney, he described himself as President Trump's lawyer, and abused his position to send letters to people who displeased the president in some way. He threatened journalists, universities and scientists.

Martin, to use the historical term, is taking an ostentatious part in the ongoing attempt at what the Nazis called a Gleichschaltung of institutions: of dropping the distinction between the law and the leader, and of attempting to force everyone in public life into line with the leader's latest statements. The reference is not accidental. Martin is on the far right, and an advocate of great replacement theory: the spurious idea that a conspiracy seeks to replace white Americans with immigrants. He had a very supportive relationship with a known American Nazi.

The czars, lest we forget, were Russian autocrats. The title "weaponization czar" reminds us that much of happening in the United States under Trump happened first in the home of the czars. In the Russian Federation today, the law is weaponized. Prosecutions follow the whims of Putin and his regime, and that the law will be invoked against them according to the political (and financial) interests of those who hold power. Russian media is full of accusations made by Russian officials that people are criminals or wrongdoers, even before they have been tried or subjected to any judicial procedure.

It is important that we understand that Russian-style authoritarianism is a real possibility in the world, one which Martin not only advocates but represents. Russia is not a comparison for Martin. It is a central part of his career. He has no actual qualifications to serve in the Department of Justice. His role has to do instead with making the law something that it is not supposed to be: a way to protect the powerful and punish the innocent who offend them. He auditioned for this role as a propagandist for Russia's regime.

The title "weaponization czar" is appropriate because Martin's most interesting achievements thus far are, in fact, in the service of Russia. He has done more visible work for the Russian state television than for any other institution. Martin, in other words, has already been part of one weaponized legal system for some time. His American career as "weaponization czar" is a natural second step of his Russian career as apologist for both Russian and American weaponizers and authoritarians.

[itsclydebitches]

Years ago I remember seeing a post positing that all the other Federation ships are having Perfectly Normal exploratory missions and it's only Kirk's crew experiencing the kind of off-the-wall nonsense seen in The Original Series. Strange New Worlds undermines the playful headcanon (as does any ST series by default) but it got me thinking about how people in-universe might rationalize things. Like oh... Kirk spent a lot of time on The Enterprise back in the day too, didn't he? Visiting his brother, helping with cooperative assignments, training under Number One... clearly whatever influence makes his crew encounter gods and break out into song was seeping onto the ship every time he set foot on the transporter pad. No one else is dealing with that shit unless Kirk is nearby!

But then one drunk ensign has a 'I've connected the dots' moment as they consider the long-term crew rosters: "What if it's Spock?"

[gradespire12345]

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[misfitwashere]

TIMOTHY SNYDER

MAY 20

READ IN APP

Ed Martin is a major actor in Trump's attempted regime change to authoritarianism. His particular role is to transform the law into a tool to intimidate Americans. After a stint as interim US Attorney for DC which was marked by unprecedented weaponization of the position, Martin will now continue his work for Trump as the official "weaponization czar."

This is a new position within the Justice Department, designed by the Trump administration, to punish people who have committed no crimes. Martin was originally placed on the "weaponization working group" seemingly ex officiowhen he was a US Attorney; he will now continue as its chairman. On Martin's account, his assignment will be to publicly single out Americans who have not been found guilty of anything, or for that matter even indicted. He says there will be "no limit to the targets."

Upgrade to paid

Martin's authoritarian past and loyalties are a matter of public record. He helped build an alternative reality around Trump's Big Lie and coup attempt, treating the January 6th criminals as heroes deserving of financial support and pardons. As interim US attorney, he described himself as President Trump's lawyer, and abused his position to send letters to people who displeased the president in some way. He threatened journalists, universities and scientists.

Martin, to use the historical term, is taking an ostentatious part in the ongoing attempt at what the Nazis called a Gleichschaltung of institutions: of dropping the distinction between the law and the leader, and of attempting to force everyone in public life into line with the leader's latest statements. The reference is not accidental. Martin is on the far right, and an advocate of great replacement theory: the spurious idea that a conspiracy seeks to replace white Americans with immigrants. He had a very supportive relationship with a known American Nazi.

The czars, lest we forget, were Russian autocrats. The title "weaponization czar" reminds us that much of happening in the United States under Trump happened first in the home of the czars. In the Russian Federation today, the law is weaponized. Prosecutions follow the whims of Putin and his regime, and that the law will be invoked against them according to the political (and financial) interests of those who hold power. Russian media is full of accusations made by Russian officials that people are criminals or wrongdoers, even before they have been tried or subjected to any judicial procedure.

It is important that we understand that Russian-style authoritarianism is a real possibility in the world, one which Martin not only advocates but represents. Russia is not a comparison for Martin. It is a central part of his career. He has no actual qualifications to serve in the Department of Justice. His role has to do instead with making the law something that it is not supposed to be: a way to protect the powerful and punish the innocent who offend them. He auditioned for this role as a propagandist for Russia's regime.

The title "weaponization czar" is appropriate because Martin's most interesting achievements thus far are, in fact, in the service of Russia. He has done more visible work for the Russian state television than for any other institution. Martin, in other words, has already been part of one weaponized legal system for some time. His American career as "weaponization czar" is a natural second step of his Russian career as apologist for both Russian and American weaponizers and authoritarians.

Between 2016 and 2024, Martin was a star of both RT and Sputnik, which are propaganda arms of the Russian state. Putin himself has made this completely clear. One of the central missions of RT and Sputnik is to weaken the standing and power of the United States. Anyone who goes on RT or Sputnik, as Martin did more than a hundred times, knows what he is doing. For eight years, on any issue of the day, Martin was there to spread mendacious propaganda about Americans and to defend Putin and Trump. His Russian work surpassed any media exposure in the United States.

Julia Davis, who does the important work of contextualizing Russian propaganda television available for a global viewership, has made Martin's appearances visible. With her permission, I am sharing her work in the following paragraph. It provides samples, with video links back to his appearances, of how Ed Martin spreads untruth in the service of Russian and American authoritarians. If you want to take the time to judge more of his appearances than the ones I cite below, here (again thanks to Julia Davis) is a longer compilation of Martin's appearances on Russian propaganda television.

Trump as American president can do, says Martin on Russian propaganda television, whatever he wants. Martin proposes that we should live in the alternative reality provided by the Russian propaganda he serves, since American media cannot be trusted. He instructs us that American elections are rigged and that the January 6th criminals are political prisoners. (Note that Martin was thereby on Russian propaganda television forecasting his own role in seeking pardons for these people and raising money for them.) Martin denied that Russia interfered in the 2016 US elections, although this was quite blatant -- and indeed continuous, right down to the uncontested reports that Russians called in bomb scares to predominantly Democratic precincts in 2024. Martin also quite clear on the American role in the world, which is that the US should serve Putin and his wars. Echoing Russian claims at the time, Martin claimed that US intelligence was wrong about the coming full-scale US invasion of Ukraine, when is in fact it was entirely correct. In his view, the NATO alliance is unnecessary. The United States should be Russia's ally.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when long service to hostile foreign propaganda networks would have been disqualifying for positions in the federal government. Now, as the head of RT boasts, it seems to be a qualification. Since Trump wants loyalists to him rather than to the United States, willingness to serve foreign countries, at least corrupt dictatorships, would be a useful filter. Repeating Russian propaganda tropes could hardly be offensive to Trump; he does this all the time. Taking part in Putin's propaganda system would be naturally understood as the right kind of apprenticeship for work on Trump's own regime change. We know that Trump chooses his people by treating their television appearances as auditions. So why not Russian television appearances? All the better.

No surprisingly, Martin says that his key assignment as weaponization czar will be to punish those who investigated Trump's very real connections to Russia. This country has paid a huge price for not recognizing Russia's intervention in the 2016 election for what it was: highly consequential and quite possibly decisive in the moment, and a sign of the coming age of oligarchical cooperation via digital tools to build right-wing regimes. That age is now upon us. There is, unmistakably, something very strange about the Trump's submissiveness to Russia: appointing its media darlings (the list includes Tulsi Gabbard, who is of all things director of national intelligence); exempting it from tariffs when everyone else was targeted, refusing to pressure Putin to end a war when that is the obvious policy, sending as his envoy to Moscow a man who simply repeats Russian claims and uses Russian translations. Too many of us have allowed ourselves to be intimidated by the fear that Trump will use the word "hoax" when we point to the Russian elements of our present reality: such as, for example, that our "weaponization czar" apprenticed in the role in the service of Russia. With our weaponization of the law and our czars, we have a Russia problem.

Working with Russian institutions will not hurt Martin with Trump's followers, who have been trained to see Russia not as an actual country with interests but as part of a "hoax," a conspiracy against Trump. This is the sad convenience of "America First": it really means "America Only": no matter how things get, we get to be first, since no other countries exist in our minds. If other countries are meaningless, then MAGA people can rest assured that there is nothing like the complicity of international oligarchs, or the guild of international fascists, or the plans of countries like Russia to destroy the United States from within. If other countries do not matter, then it never seems right to ask: just why is it that Russian propaganda and Trumpian rhetoric so often overlap, to the point that training on one is preparation for mouthing the other? But there are, of course, Republicans who have a notion of the interests of the United States, and of the rule of law. For them, Martin's services to Russia should matter.

The Russia connection is perhaps most important to opponents of Trump. Speaking of Martin's connections to Russia is not a way of sloughing off responsibility to another country for our own failings. It is, instead, a way to take responsibility. So long as we see Trump and his loyalists as purely American characters, our American exceptionalism tempts us to normalize what they do. We ask ourselves, over and over again, if this is "really" an attempt to end democracy. But if we take seriously the connections of someone like Martin with a hostile foreign authoritarian power engaged in a genocidal war, we get a sense of where things could be headed. Russia is a real country and, for us, a real possibility. When we recognize that the attempt to make America authoritarian is part of a tawdry global trend, with general patterns that we can recognize, we can better see where we are, and get to work.

[papapapo]

Cardinal Cupich: USAID freeze ‘Could actually cause death’

U.S. President Trump’s executive order halting congressionally appropriated foreign assistance effectively shut down the work of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The archbishop of Chicago reflects on this decision and on how it will jeopardize essential service for hundreds of millions of people.

By Cardinal Blase J. Cupich

Over the course of just a few weeks, the new administration suddenly halted foreign aid for 90 days, making dramatic cuts in funding and staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development. This has thrown the network of charities that administer our global humanitarian aid, including those funded by Catholics, into chaos. There is a human cost to acting so precipitously, which is partly why on Feb. 13, a federal judge ordered the administration to restore funding, given the “likelihood of a successful claim that the Executive’s actions violate the Constitution and statutes of the United States.”

While a government has the right and duty to ensure taxpayer funds are spent wisely, freezing that aid, even before any such review, adds to the suffering of people who are starving, homeless and threatened by disease. While the government announced that lifesaving aid work would be exempt, these exemptions are not being effectively implemented. A crippled USAID is not making timely payments for past and current work in these life-saving programs, perhaps causing permanent damage to the ability of humanitarian aid groups to save lives.

This is one of the reasons the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops filed suit against the administration on Feb. 18. “The conference suddenly finds itself unable to sustain its work to care for the thousands of refugees who were welcomed into our country and assigned to the care of the USCCB by the government after being granted legal status,” explained USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio. The USCCB, which “spends more on refugee resettlement each year than it receives in funding from the federal government,” according to the lawsuit, is still waiting for reimbursements from the government totaling about $13 million for expenses prior to Jan. 24.

The decision to abruptly slash USAID funding brought swift responses from the international community, including the Holy See:

“Stopping USAID will jeopardize essential services for hundreds of millions of people, undermine decades of progress in humanitarian and development assistance, destabilize regions that rely on this critical support, and condemn millions to dehumanizing poverty or even death,” according to a statement from Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 162 Catholic relief agencies, which operate in more than 200 nations and territories.

The effect of these funding cuts has been staggering for both small and larger charities, such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the foreign-aid program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, founded in 1943.

Carolyn Woo, who ran CRS from 2012 to 2016, and once served as dean of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, offers a chilling assessment: “The freeze [on foreign aid],” she told Our Sunday Visitor, “where it affects programs like this, really puts people’s health, livelihood on the line, and it could actually cause death.”

That’s because every year, CRS provides aid to about 210 million people across 120 nations — and, as Woo writes in a Feb. 7 piece in America, more than half of its budget has come from USAID contracts. Cut a charity’s budget in half, and you halve the amount of help it can provide.

What sort of help does CRS offer? Back to Woo: “USAID grants enable CRS to undertake emergency assistance and long-term transformational development. The work covers and integrates multiple areas for human flourishing: food, health, livelihoods, agriculture, education, water and sanitation, child development, access to capital and peace-building.”

This complex work is not simply a handout, but a hand-up. Woo recalls the story of Ernesto, a farmer who found himself destitute after years of costs outstripping returns on crop sales. With the help of CRS, the farmer learned to farm a new crop sustainably, and with that first return, he was able to set himself on the path to financial stability. Soon he began teaching other farmers these methods and even saved enough to send his children to college. This program was funded by a grant from USAID.

Some claim that hobbling USAID was necessary because it is “wasteful.” Woo addresses that, too, explaining that over the past three decades, global poverty has dropped from one-third of the population to one-tenth, made possible by international development aid. What’s more, Woo notes, “both maternal and infant-child mortality rates have dropped by 50 percent.” For anyone who prioritizes life issues, it’s hard to imagine a better return on an investment, considering that USAID counts for less than 1% of the federal budget.

But the humanitarian crisis occasioned by these unsparing cuts is also a crisis of trust — trust in the United States of America, in its ability to keep its word and honor its promises. Such a loss of trust could have dire consequences.

This was immediately highlighted by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop emeritus of Vienna. In a recent column referring to the cancellation of contracts, the cardinal writes, “What is currently happening in the United States is dangerous.”

“Contracts govern large parts of our lives,” the cardinal continues. “The rule of law thrives on the fact that treaties apply.” When agreements are broken, “the powerful dictate their will, no matter what is contractually agreed.”

 “Loyalty and faith, trust and security, and above all the weaker, poorer, and defenseless are falling by the wayside,” Cardinal Schönborn goes on, asking a simple but searing question: “Do we want that?”

The “we” of it matters. For any nation, foreign aid is an expression of strategic wisdom. A world with less human suffering is by definition a safer world. A world in which nations keep their agreements is one in which development has a better chance of success. The path to improving the human condition leads not inward, but rather out from ourselves, from our enclaves and nations, toward lasting international partnership and the authentic flourishing of the human family.

Finally, foreign humanitarian aid is also, more deeply, an expression of a nation’s values. American values still include caring for the less fortunate, standing up for the oppressed and building long-term peace through solidarity. The United States expressed American values when it helped Europe rebuild after the devastation of World War II — this is our legacy as a nation, and it is one we must never abandon.

 As Christians, we follow the Lord’s call to love our neighbor as ourselves, even when it’s hard. But there is a less spiritual calculus to consider: namely, that weakening the social safety net at home or abroad will eventually affect us all, as none of us is invulnerable to disease or misfortune, no matter how blessed with health or wealth. America would be wise not to overreach the extent of her power in a connected world. After all, we never know when we’ll need the help of a Good Samaritan.

This article was reprinted with permission from Chicago Catholic, the English language newspaper of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

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[herewebingo]

public/private knowledge

Public Knowledge

Leon Scott Kennedy is a nationally recognized agent occasionally assigned to the US President's security detail.

He's a survivor of the Raccoon City Incident.

He saved Ashley Graham, daughter of former President Graham from a cult in 2004, and is considered a "Hero".

He is a founding and high ranking member of the Division of Security Operations.

Private Knowledge

Leon's official codified orders are federally recognized and have been since 2002 under Anti-Virus Weapons Protocol No. 7600. It authorizes him to act on behalf of national security separate from military operations. He takes full advantage of this protocol to make decisions about what to do next. This is a position of service but also an extreme position of potentially rogue power.

Leon was involved in Operation Javier, and took Manuela Hidalgo into protective custody in 2002.

His F.O.S. Point of Contact and Handler is Ingrid Hunnigan. They have been partners since 2004.

Leon was coerced into the position of special agent for the United States by Adam Benford, who was a CIA agent then.

He's considered a mutant, due to complications with Las Plagas after 2004, and that has also locked him into specific healthcare providers, necessary procedures, and biological disposal options postmortem. He's paid significantly less than he should be paid because of legislature that was passed regarding B.O.W. mutations and he absolutely refuses to fill out paperwork to acquiesce to the law. He'll take the pay cut.

Leon took a chip containing evidence of treason that formed the groundwork of the DSO in 2005. It's a very well kept secret of his.

Leon was sent on a mission to the small country of Daijoon in 2009, where he fought a BOW species that the local populous called "Demons". He took a mission from the country's Prince exile after his own mission was fruitless, to burn a BOW "Tree of Life" that had fallen into the hands of a rich foreigner. He was successful in this mission.

A year later, he got placed into the Eastern Slav Republic on a search and apprehend/destroy mission for the "Beekeeper" of the Plaga Parasite being used there.

Leon killed President Adam Benford during a banquet in Tall Oaks University, Tall Oaks, after Adam had succumbed to C-Virus.

He made the decision to hunt and kill Derek Simmons after their first phone conversation.

Leon was involved with the routing of A-Virus in Manhattan, and successfully helped rescue Rebecca Chambers from Glenn Arias. It wasn't his finest moment.

Leon was called to Alcatraz afterwards, and assisted the BSAA in taking care of the remnants of the outbreak there, and apprehending his suspect.

There are other outbreaks he has handled in the backdrop, and his schedule is always changing.

Leon Kennedy is a Delta-32 gene carrier, making him one of the naturally immune people to Tyrant Virus. He was bitten/exposed several times in Raccoon City and didn't turn.

[mattepurplehat]

Dawn infodump post when?

Now! you have inspired me to put everything i have up until now into one debatably coherent pile. i never knew anyone would be curious, im honored, and blushing.

First and Foremost Dawn is, for a lack of better words, my sona. theyre something ive closely tied my identity to. Its something that helps me perceive myself outside of myself so i can navigate the world a little better.

Identity: aroace horsecatthing

Personality wise, Dawn is reserved, often confused, generally slow, unconditionally accepting (aside from bigots, i do mean unconditionally) and somewhat clingy, like a pet might be.

As for the Basic info about it, Dawn is mute, however it is able to express ideas, thoughts, and emotions it feels or thinks through deliberate touch. It knows a very small amount of ASL (or the United Federation of Planets version).

Dawn, and its species (which i frankly haven't put much thought into, but ill get to that) is capable of shifting size. Dawn specifically has a range between that of a large house cat and an Asian elephant. Another physical trait is the ability to switch from walking on 2 legs and 4, however it mostly sticks to 4 as its coordination on 2 is shaky.

Here's where i get kind of cringe OP with it for the sake of nobody's desire or convenience but my own, forgive me.

Dawn is from a deserted planet, i stole from my old homestuck trollsona 'The land of Silver and Tunnels' and a dead species, aside from itself. the most prominent structure is a MASSIVE tower. Think of something akin to the Halo Array from the Halo games. Its built by the ancient civilizations. Their capability to grow to towering heights helped them build it in the first place. Inside the walls are portals that let Dawn travel between universes, they're decrepit, hardly functioning after centuries of neglect so they're not reliable.

I'm really embarrassed of this bit though, its mostly just to sloppily tie in some reasoning, and give an excuse to smash my toys (favorite characters from wildly different things) together ✨with plot✨

DAWN AND STARFLEET (baby's favorite escapism)

There's not one specific way Dawn joined, i like to mix it up, get silly with it. Dawn is a crewman though, hired on and assigned to the Enterprise as a mule for away missions that require more delicate or manual operations.

unofficially though, it helps with menial tasks while on board, things people typically don't want to do, grunt work, delivering things, etc.. Dawn has a strong desire to be useful and to please, they find great comfort in tasks like these.

Off duty it's likely sleeping in someone's quarters. Kirk's and Spock's during the TOS era, or the bridge, because they were cool like that B) (space OSHA not invented,, yet, you can thank kirk for ruining the fun) or in anyone's during the TNG era, but most likely Data's or Dianna's. [[NSFW TEXT: Sometimes it can get up to a little mischievous sneakiness that involves a little voyeuristic perversion, but that's as far as its sexual interest goes.]]

thats it really, a lot of the details waver depending on my mood, and im afraid things will get muddy if i go into the weeds, but this is the prominent stuff.

thank you sm for asking. 💜💜💜💜