#Empower Missouri

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The mood at the Sankofa Cultural Arts and Business Center on Chicago’s west side was celebratory on June 25, 2019, as hundreds gathered to watch Illinois make history.

With the stroke of a pen, Gov. J.B. Pritzker made it legal for adults in Illinois to possess up to 30 grams of marijuana without fear of arrest. When sales began in 2020, legalization was expected to be a financial boon for the state, but the promise went deeper for some supporters.

“Today, we're hitting the reset button on the war on drugs,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, said to applause. “Today, we begin the process of undoing the harm of the war on drugs.”

People who had been arrested for, but not charged with, low-level cannabis offenses would have those records erased automatically. Pritzker pardoned thousands more who were convicted of possession of less than 30 grams. Anyone who had been prosecuted for possession of up to 500 grams – a little more than a pound – would be able to petition the court to have those records expunged.

“Today we're giving hundreds of thousands of people the chance at a better life, jobs, housing and real opportunity,” Pritzker said.

Around a third of Americans have some kind of criminal record by the time they are 25, said Daniel Kuehnert, a staff attorney in the western office of Land of Lincoln Legal Aid, a nonprofit serving a swath of Illinois from the Metro East to the Quad Cities. While it may just be an arrest record, “those records are consulted by basically all sorts of entities for important life decisions,” he said.

“And particularly with employment, we see employers who have better jobs doing the heavier criminal background checks,” said Megan Kinney, the managing attorney at Land of Lincoln Legal Aid’s central office, which serves clients in six counties in southwest Illinois. “So it really is not only a barrier to employment, but it's a barrier to good, well-paying, stable jobs with benefits.”

Land of Lincoln Legal Aid was one of 18 nonprofits that joined a coalition called New Leaf Illinois. The state funded the initiative, which provided free legal representation to people who wanted cannabis convictions off their record.

Christopher Bradford was among thousands helped by New Leaf. He was in his mid-20s when he was convicted of felony possession in 2003, giving him a criminal record that potential employers would not overlook.

“And I just felt like, that wasn’t right,” he said in a video posted to New Leaf’s website. “I felt like I was being singled out from others because I had a felony conviction.”

New Leaf helped Bradford clear his record, which allowed him to get a job as a kitchen manager at a restaurant in Springfield, Illinois.

“I’m working, I’m providing for my family, so you know, I’m happy,” he said.

PITFALLS IN THE PROCESS

The law wasn’t perfect.

The word “automatic” was a misnomer, said Kinney. An individual with a criminal record for marijuana had to take an active role in the court system to make that record go away, and every single court in the state is its own entity.

"You have to file a petition in every single county in which there was a charge and arrest or conviction,” Kinney said. “There's not just some magic button that someone can press and all these records just go poof, and they go away.”

The law also failed to address local restrictions on marijuana, said Kuehnert. While some counties were willing to expunge those ordinance violations, “we’ve been encountering some counties where the Judge is like, ‘Oh, hey, wait a minute, this law doesn't say anything about ordinance violations.’”

Despite those complications, Kuehnert said, Illinois generally gets high marks nationwide for how its law is structured.

“It’s been pretty good at helping people get their records cleared, helping folks move forward in their lives and helping heal some of the damage to both individuals and our communities from the war on drugs,” he said.

EXPUNGEMENT IN MISSOURI

When advocates for recreational marijuana in Missouri drafted their ballot measure, they made sure to include expungement provisions as well.

All nonviolent marijuana offenses, except for operating under the influence or sales to a minor, were to be automatically removed by the court, said John Payne, the campaign manager for Legal Missouri 2022.

While there was no formal organization like New Leaf Illinois in Missouri’s initiative, the campaign coordinated with groups like the ACLU and Empower Missouri, Payne said.

“A government program is never 100% accurate the first time,” he said. “We've talked to attorneys from some of these organizations and other attorneys who are just not necessarily affiliated with them but who have said, we'd be happy to help assist.”

Misdemeanors were supposed to be expunged by June 8, while the deadline to remove felony records is Dec. 6. But experts told KCUR those dates did not take into account how time-consuming and complicated it can be to expunge even a misdemeanor case. And while the courts asked for additional money from the state, lawmakers have not provided the assistance.

“I do know that they're making a hell of an effort because I know that the clerk's offices have hired extra people to come in and help,” Stephen Sokoloff, senior counsel for the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, told KCUR. “In some places, I think retirees have been asked to come back and help.”

The law does not outline a penalty for missing the expungement deadlines.

[nickysfacts]

Josephine Yates dedicated her life to empowering others, though education!📖

📚🤎📚

[reasonsforhope]

"For the first time in almost 60 years, a state has formally overturned a so-called “right to work” law, clearing the way for workers to organize new union locals, collectively bargain, and make their voices heard at election time.

This week, Michigan finalized the process of eliminating a decade-old “right to work” law, which began with the shift in control of the state legislature from anti-union Republicans to pro-union Democrats following the 2022 election. “This moment has been decades in the making,” declared Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber. “By standing up and taking their power back, at the ballot box and in the workplace, workers have made it clear Michigan is and always will be the beating heart of the modern American labor movement.”

[Note: The article doesn't actually explain it, so anyway, "right to work" laws are powerful and deceptively named pieces of anti-union legislation. What right to work laws do is ban "union shops," or companies where every worker that benefits from a union is required to pay dues to the union. Right-to-work laws really undermine the leverage and especially the funding of unions, by letting non-union members receive most of the benefits of a union without helping sustain them. Sources: x, x, x, x]

In addition to formally scrapping the anti-labor law on Tuesday [February 13, 2024], Michigan also restored prevailing-wage protections for construction workers, expanded collective bargaining rights for public school employees, and restored organizing rights for graduate student research assistants at the state’s public colleges and universities. But even amid all of these wins for labor, it was the overturning of the “right to work” law that caught the attention of unions nationwide...

Now, the tide has begun to turn—beginning in a state with a rich labor history. And that’s got the attention of union activists and working-class people nationwide...

At a time when the labor movement is showing renewed vigor—and notching a string of high-profile victories, including last year’s successful strike by the United Auto Workers union against the Big Three carmakers, the historic UPS contract victory by the Teamsters, the SAG-AFTRA strike win in a struggle over abuses of AI technology in particular and the future of work in general, and the explosion of grassroots union organizing at workplaces across the country—the overturning of Michigan’s “right to work” law and the implementation of a sweeping pro-union agenda provides tangible evidence of how much has changed in recent years for workers and their unions...

By the mid-2010s, 27 states had “right to work” laws on the books.

But then, as a new generation of workers embraced “Fight for 15” organizing to raise wages, and campaigns to sign up workers at Starbucks and Amazon began to take off, the corporate-sponsored crusade to enact “right to work” measures stalled. New Hampshire’s legislature blocked a proposed “right to work” law in 2017 (and again in 2021), despite the fact that the measure was promoted by Republican Governor Chris Sununu. And in 2018, Missouri voters rejected a “right to work” referendum by a 67-33 margin.

Preventing anti-union legislation from being enacted and implemented is one thing, however. Actually overturning an existing law is something else altogether.

But that’s what happened in Michigan after 2022 voting saw the reelection of Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a labor ally, and—thanks to the overturning of gerrymandered legislative district maps that had favored the GOP—the election of Democratic majorities in the state House and state Senate. For the first time in four decades, the Democrats controlled all the major levers of power in Michigan, and they used them to implement a sweeping pro-labor agenda. That was a significant shift for Michigan, to be sure. But it was also an indication of what could be done in other states across the Great Lakes region, and nationwide.

“Michigan Democrats took full control of the state government for the first time in 40 years. They used that power to repeal the state’s ‘right to work’ law,” explained a delighted former US secretary of labor Robert Reich, who added, “This is why we have to show up for our state and local elections.”"

-via The Nation, February 16, 2024

[pro-birth]

These are women like you and me – they may be your co-worker, your neighbor, at your church, the gym, mothers, etc. The women we serve that are specifically considering abortion are not selfish, heartless women – they are often in a position that they feel they have no choice. I had a woman tell me, “No one wants to have an abortion, it’s just something that you look back on that was difficult but necessary.” We strive to address the “necessary” pieces she may be facing so that she can carry her pregnancy and preserve the life of her child and empower her own sense of self in the process.

[qqueenofhades]

I hate to rain on today’s much needed joy parade, but do you think the USA is headed for civil war in the near future? It’s increasingly feeling like 2024 is going to be a make or break year and with division at an all time high it feels like there’s going to be complete chaos in the streets even if we avoid crisis at the polls. Like, even though I’m in a “safe state” (for now) I’m seriously considering strategies of fleeing the country, just in case. Don’t know what I’m asking for, help? Reassurance maybe? Advice?

I think my answer to that is... yes but also no, and no but also yes, and yes but also no. Which I realize is not entirely helpful and not as clear as anyone would like, but let me try to explain:

The far-right has always been militant, violent, and prone to apocalyptic and fascist rhetoric. This isn't a new thing in American history, and it's come to the fore at moments of particular stress and division. Trump's presidency obviously gave much-unwanted oxygen to them, right when people were starting to claim that Obama's election meant that America was in a "post-racial era" (LOL), but they themselves are not new. We had the Civil War itself, we had the lynchings and racial terror and Jim Crow/Ku Klux Klan era, we had the Bund (the American Nazis) holding huge public gatherings in the run-up to WWII and enjoying substantial domestic support, etc etc etc. This is all scary and unsettling, and most of us don't have a personal memory of dealing with it before, because we're not old enough. But that doesn't mean it hasn't happened before, and that we haven't survived it.

Let's take yesterday, for instance. Trump spent all week promising fire and death and vengeance and playing literal videos of January 6th at his campaign rally in Waco, Texas (famed as the site of the Waco Siege of 1994; look it up). He insisted his supporters would rain vengeance on anyone who dared to arrest him and otherwise threatened mass-scale disturbances and the other tools of public violence that fascists use to enforce their will. And what happened? It's 12+ hours since the first indictment went through (30 counts of business/document fraud, which is not a piddling charge) and we've had bupkis. We've had a lot of Republican politicians tweeting their performative hypocritical outrage, yes, but we haven't suddenly had the country explode in fire and flame either. I'm sure there have been localized protests, but I haven't heard about major anything. And one set of indictments has gone through, others will be empowered to follow. In a way, I think it's a good thing that non-political crimes went first? Yes, the Republicans are screaming about a political witch hunt because that's literally the only thing they can do, but starting by nabbing Trump for relatively low-level (but still extensive) business fraud and then moving onto the treason sets a pattern and makes it easier to comprehend.

The thing is: Nazis, at heart, are cowards. They like to paint themselves as bold and valiant soldiers fighting for the Right Way of Life, but it's all fantasy, delusion, and cosplay. They were empowered to do January 6th because Trump was literally the sitting president and told them to do it, but that's no longer the case, and they're shit scared of facing anyone who might enforce real consequences on them. (Once again, if you take nothing else from following me: Nazis are punk-ass fucking pissant cowards who think they're tough and are in fact a bunch of asshole morons, the end.) The mantra of "Make Racists Afraid Again" is working, to an extent. Yes, we have hellholes like Missouri, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee where the state GOP is working as hard as they can to enforce the worst and most regressive laws imaginable, but that's still not universal. As I also say a lot, the reason Republicans attack, discredit, and outlaw voting so much is because they can never win a fair election on the merits. Their ideas suck, and on some level they know that. They just care about being cruel, fascist, and stupid, and while that's certainly a troubling and significant minority in America, it's not as big as anyone thinks.

Almost 60% of Americans think both that "woke" is a good thing and the cases against Trump should permanently disqualify him from holding any office again. Yet again: the GOP is in the minority, and that's why they use so many dirty tricks to establish and enforce their power. Also, I can guarantee you that not one of the keyboard warriors fulminating about how The Democrat Party Is Being So Mean To President Trump is ever going to actually go out and start an actual civil war. They have established interests, money, benefits from the system, and they don't want to overturn that. They want the masses angry and stupid, yes, but they want them angry and stupid in support of keeping discriminatory structures and systems in place. That can't work if there are no systems at all. Yes, we will still have white supremacists and fascists committing ongoing individual acts of violence, i.e. school shootings, and it's hard to argue that this doesn't constitute a civil war of some sort, or at least ongoing stochastic terrorism. But while you have people like Marge Two Names Greene out there blabbing about a National Divorce, I can guarantee you that if it ever came to actually DOING it, Marge and Brave Brave Sir Kevin would be nowhere to be found. Again: they want to derive power and money from the operation of an unfair system, not the end of that system. It sucks, but still.

Honestly, I want the Dominion lawsuit to keep going on, and dragging all of Fox News' hypocrisy, deception, and disinformation into the public eye. Fox is the biggest cancer on this country, as is the case with Rupert Murdoch's global disinformation empire overall (when, WHEN will HE fucking die, if we're talking death lottery wishlists?) But the lawsuit and its subsequent publicity has had an effect: a small but significant number of Fox viewers (26%) realized the network was lying to them, and 13% said that they no longer believed the 2020 election was stolen after reading about the Fox efforts to lie about it and then cover up their lies. So while the right-wing media bubble is huge and terrible, it's also not impenetrable, and taking Fox down/substantially discrediting it would have a major effect on the pay-for-play misinformation media sphere.

This is getting long, so let me try to sum up: the far-right advocating separatist fantasies of violence/war/fascist domination is not new, and has been a thing in American history for as long as there has been America. But at least in the current moment, it is not the majority, it is not widely popular, it will never be embraced by ordinary mainstream Americans and not just the insane cultists, its so-called devoted soldiers yell on Twitter and cable news and will never once be spotted actually fighting for it, and it's the cynical last gasp of a hate movement that is seeing its institutional and generational hold on America (and the world) finally on the brink of permanently shifting. So of course it's trying to make itself look as big and scary as possible, like any wounded animal, but it's on the back foot, and we have a chance to really kill it. Not permanently or forever, since that's the nature of human history, but at least for now and buy us some more time, and despite everything, I remain cautiously optimistic about our likelihood of doing so. I know it's scary, I know it's awful, I know it feels overwhelming, but it is still not winning, and it won't. As long as we do our part.

Hugs. Hang in there.

[seeminglyranch87]

Taylor & Travis Timeline

July 2023

July 1 - The Eras Tour ~ Paycor Stadium, Cincinnati, Night 2

Ivy ft. Aaron Dessner (guitar), I Miss You, I'm Sorry with Gracie Abrams, Call It What You Want (piano)

July 4 - America celebrates independence, Taylor gathers with friends at "Holiday House" Rhode Island - see Taylor IG post July 7 (x)

July 7 - Famous last words...

Speak Now (Taylor's Version) released!

The Eras Tour ~ Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Night 1

with guests Taylor Lautner, Joey King and Presley Cash who star alongside Taylor in the "I Can See You" music video (x)

Fan favourite "Long Live" is added to the set list. Taylor brings out the koi fish guitar and debuts the purple Speak Now dress.

Never Grow Up (guitar) & When Emma Falls In Love (piano)

July 8 - Travis Kelce attends The Eras Tour at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Night 2 (x)(x).

A custom painted Taylor Swift Eras Tour football helmet that was posted by the KC Chiefs (x)

Travis receives friendship bracelets from Swifties (x)

Last Kiss (guitar), Dorothea (piano)

a grainy image of Travis, Patrick and friend in the private suite at Arrowhead for the Eras Tour.

July 14 & 15 - The Eras Tour ~ Empower Field, Denver

Picture To Burn (guitar), Timeless (piano)

Starlight (guitar), Back To December (piano)

July 19 - Travis is photographed outside the members-only club Zero Bond in NYC (a favourite club of Taylor's) (x)

July 22 & 23 - The Eras Tour ~ Lumen Field, Seattle

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things (guitar), Everything Has Changed (piano)

Message In A Bottle (guitar), Tied Together With A Smile (piano)

July 23 to Aug 17 - Travis Kelce attends training camp with the Kansas City Chiefs in preparation for the coming NFL season at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, MO. (see open to public training camp schedule x)

Travis and Jason record New Heights Ep.50 before leaving for training camp. Episode will be released on 26 July whilst boys are at camp.

July 26 - New Heights podcast ep. 50 airs, where Travis expresses his disappointment that he didn’t get to meet Taylor and give her the friendship bracelet he had made with his number on it (x starting at 25:14)

"I was disappointed that she doesn't talk before or after her shows... so I was a little butthurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her…. I received a bunch of them being there but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it" says Travis "Your number as in 87 or your phone number?" responds Jason "You know which one."

(photo of the exact moment Travis says "you know which one")

New Heights posted to Twitter

Jason comments on the New Heights instagram page, saying (x)

"Let’s be honest Taylor’s dad definitely made the right move not introducing her to Travis. He self admitted was trying to slip her his number on a friendship bracelet, truly shameful act"

July 28 & 29 - The Eras Tour ~ Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara

Right Where You Left Me (guitar), Castles Crumbling (piano)

Stay Stay Stay (guitar), All Of The Girls You Loved Before (piano) - check out Taylor’s grin when she sings that football helmet line! (x x) ... Taylor did you reach out to a certain football player?

Return to the timeline

Go to previous update -> June 2023

Go to next update -> August 2023

[reasoningdaily]

Outrage over racial profiling and the killing of African Americans by police officers and vigilantes in recent years helped give rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

But tensions between the police and black communities are nothing new.

There are many precedents to the Ferguson, Missouri protests that ushered in the Black Lives Matter movement. Those protests erupted in 2014 after a police officer shot unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown; the officer was subsequently not indicted.

The precedents include the Los Angeles riots that broke out after the 1992 acquittal of police officers for beating Rodney King. Those riots happened nearly three decades after the 1965 Watts riots, which began with Marquette Frye, an African American, being pulled over for suspected drunk driving and roughed up by the police for resisting arrest.

I’m a criminal justice researcher who often focuses on issues of race, class and crime. Through my research and from teaching a course on diversity in criminal justice, I have come to see how the roots of racism in American policing – first planted centuries ago – have not yet been fully purged.

Slave Patrols

There are two historical narratives about the origins of American law enforcement.

Policing in southern slave-holding states had roots in slave patrols, squadrons made up of white volunteers empowered to use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery. They located and returned enslaved people who had escaped, crushed uprisings led by enslaved people and punished enslaved workers found or believed to have violated plantation rules.

The first slave patrols arose in South Carolina in the early 1700s. As University of Georgia social work professor Michael A. Robinson has written, by the time John Adams became the second U.S. president, every state that had not yet abolished slavery had them.

Members of slave patrols could forcefully enter anyone’s home, regardless of their race or ethnicity, based on suspicions that they were sheltering people who had escaped bondage.

The more commonly known precursors to modern law enforcement were centralized municipal police departments that began to form in the early 19th century, beginning in Boston and soon cropping up in New York City, Albany, Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

The first police forces were overwhelmingly white, male and more focused on responding to disorder than crime.

As Eastern Kentucky University criminologist Gary Potter explains, officers were expected to control a “dangerous underclass” that included African Americans, immigrants and the poor. Through the early 20th century, there were few standards for hiring or training officers.

Police corruption and violence – particularly against vulnerable people – were commonplace during the early 1900s. Additionally, the few African Americans who joined police forces were often assigned to black neighborhoods and faced discrimination on the job. In my opinion, these factors – controlling disorder, lack of adequate police training, lack of nonwhite officers and slave patrol origins – are among the forerunners of modern-day police brutality against African Americans.

Jim Crow Laws

Slave patrols formally dissolved after the Civil War ended. But formerly enslaved people saw little relief from racist government policies as they promptly became subject to Black Codes.

For the next three years, these new laws specified how, when and where African Americans could work and how much they would be paid. They also restricted black voting rights, dictated how and where African Americans could travel and limited where they could live.

The ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868 quickly made the Black Codes illegal by giving formerly enslaved blacks equal protection of laws through the Constitution. But within two decades, Jim Crow laws aimed at subjugating African Americans and denying their civil rights were enacted across southern and some northern states, replacing the Black Codes.

For about 80 years, Jim Crow laws mandated separate public spaces for blacks and whites, such as schools, libraries, water fountains and restaurants – and enforcing them was part of the police’s job. Blacks who broke laws or violated social norms often endured police brutality.

Meanwhile, the authorities didn’t punish the perpetrators when African Americans were lynched. Nor did the judicial system hold the police accountable for failing to intervene when black people were being murdered by mobs.

Reverberating Today

For the past five decades, the federal government has forbidden the use of racist regulations at the state and local level. Yet people of color are still more likely to be killed by the police than whites.

The Washington Post tracks the number of Americans killed by the police by race, gender and other characteristics. The newspaper’s database indicates that 229 out of 992 of those who died that way in 2018, 23% of the total, were black, even though only about 12% of the country is African American.

Policing’s institutional racism of decades and centuries ago still matters because policing culture has not changed as much as it could. For many African Americans, law enforcement represents a legacy of reinforced inequality in the justice system and resistance to advancement – even under pressure from the civil rights movement and its legacy.

In addition, the police disproportionately target black drivers.

When a Stanford University research team analyzed data collected between 2011 and 2017 from nearly 100 million traffic stops to look for evidence of systemic racial profiling, they found that black drivers were more likely to be pulled over and to have their cars searched than white drivers. They also found that the percentage of black drivers being stopped by police dropped after dark when a driver’s complexion is harder to see from outside the vehicle.

This persistent disparity in policing is disappointing because of progress in other regards.

There is greater understanding within the police that brutality, particularly lethal force, leads to public mistrust, and police forces are becoming more diverse.

What’s more, college students majoring in criminal justice who plan to become future law enforcement officers now frequently take “diversity in criminal justice” courses. This relatively new curriculum is designed to, among other things, make future police professionals more aware of their own biases and those of others. In my view, what these students learn in these classes will make them more attuned to the communities they serve once they enter the workforce.

In addition, law enforcement officers and leaders are being trained to recognize and minimize their own biases in New York City and other places where people of color are disproportionately stopped by the authorities and arrested.

But the persistence of racially biased policing means that unless American policing reckons with its racist roots, it is likely to keep repeating mistakes of the past. This will hinder police from fully protecting and serving the entire public.

[heroes-anthesis]

THE CRISIS: US HISTORY

The Empowered Creation Event, also known as the Crisis, was an event that occurred in early 2018. Humans across the world suddenly found themselves with superpowers. This led to a global rebellion against traditional governments, using the newfound powers as a way to counter militaries and police forces.

The Estimated Territories of Each American Territory during the Crisis.This graphic is a rough estimation.

To date, only the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Ethiopia, Germany, China, and Australia are in control of their original territories. Saudi Arabia, and Scandinavia dissolved entirely, being replaced by either a new government or warmongering states. Russia controls a fraction of it’s land, with the remainder being controlled by a Siberian warlord.

In the United States, an estimated 15% of the population are Empowered, though only 10% are registered in the Empowered Personnel System . This number was decided among think tanks, accounting for similar population densities in other countries. Of that amount, about 2% were responsible for the warlord states, operating as leadership or militia forces.

The rapid formation of the Parahuman Soldiers, founded by Artur Stonewall in New York, gave the United States the manpower it needed to retake its former territory by the beginning of the next year.

Territories

-United States

The United States government, caught off guard by the Crisis, was able to maintain control of all territory from Maryland up to Maine. Within two months of the Warlord period, the US Army began testing the Parahuman Soldiers, using government aligned Empowered (Via military, police force, or general patriotism) as a counter force to the Warlords.

-The Neo Confederacy (Colloquially the Mississippi Khans)

The first “Warlord” group to rebel, prompted by a Black senator being killed in an Empowered attack. Following this, multiple other politicians were attacked and executed by a radical group, who then took control. Their territory covered North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

-New Vegas

Mob bosses within the Western hemisphere quickly took control, utilizing Empowered force and gambling debts to create a fighting force. The area was lauded as a safe haven for Empowered, who were welcomed indiscriminately provided they provided their services. Territory included Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Montana, and everything West of those states.

-Farmer’s Alliance (Colloquially Oz)

Due to the already sparse population density, the number of known Empowered in the region was low. Following the Crisis, many Empowered fled to The Midwest Alliance was created by a union of Unempowered farmers and hunters, citing claims against both New Vegas and the United States government. The territory included Dakota (Formerly North Dakota and South Dakota), Nebraska, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota.

-The Northern Group (Colloquially, the Windies)

Local gangs were joined into one army, under the command of Antony “Windy” Lawrence. Though his power is unknown, it is believed that he had some form of mind control power. The gangs spread out, becoming the local police force in the area. Unempowered were forbidden from leaving their cities, and made to work manual labor. The territory included Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia.

-Republic of Texas

Immediately following the creation of the Midwest Alliance, the Republic of Texas claimed independence from the United States.This new nation was the last one to be reclaimed; following the fall of the Northern Group, Texas made an alliance with Mexico, becoming a vassal of the nation in exchange for protection and resources.

-Lost Territories

Due to their distance away from the Continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii were taken by foreign nations. Alaska was taken by Siberia (Formerly Russia), Hawaii by China. Their distance, along with continued unrest within the continental states, has made recapture a low priority. Representatives of the government claim plans for recapture, but have noted worries of war with neighboring countries.

Timeline

January 1, 2018-People across the globe begin developing powers. These powers vary in strength, range, and effects. Government and Media Organizations label those people as “Empowered”.

January 15, 2018- The CDC and WHO label the sudden appearance of powers as a possible pandemic. Citizens are urged to isolate themselves from people who display powers, leading to a wave of unemployment of Empowered people due to the lack of a protective class status.

January 22, 2018-Prompted by a sudden spike of crime, the US Congress passes the Limitation of Powers Act, which makes the unauthorized usage of powers a felony. Additionally, this act creates the Empowered Personnel System, a list that all Empowered are legally required to register to on the first sign of superpowers.

February 7, 2018- The President of Russia is assassinated by an Empowered. That same day, an empowered man in Tupelo, MS, inspired by this event, attacks and kills a local State Senator.

February 12, 2018- A registered hate group, known as the Mississippi Khans, take over the Mississippi State Capitol, claiming secession from the United States. Armed service members are called back to the United States. On arrival, many eventually defect or go missing.

February 13, 2018-Riots begin within the Southern United States. The National Guard is deployed to Atlanta, Birmingham, and Tupelo, but are routed by Empowered Militia operating under the Mississippi Khans. Their leader, Jeffery Palmer, officially claims Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia as territory of the Neo Confederacy. Politicians and unempowered citizens flee the region.

February 22, 2018-In an unseen assault, multiple members of the United States Armed Forces defect, attempting to take control of the available weapons and vehicles. The attack fails, and the remaining members of the coup flee throughout the country. Many leave for the Neo Confederacy.

March 15, 2018- A coalition of gangs working under Antony Lawrence launches a sudden invasion based out of Chicago, Illinois. Damage done by the Assault of the Mississippi Khans prevents the National Guard from properly mobilizing. The coalition, under the name of the Northern Group, launched a sudden invasion of neighboring states.

April 8, 2018-The Northern Group officially stops their invasion after taking Virginia. In response, important members of the federal government flee to New York, establishing it as an emergency Capitol. Martial Law is declared within the remaining territories under US control. Congress labels all of the rebelling territories as enemy nations, and declares war. That same day, Command Sergeant Major Artur Stonewall receives the green light to begin a program for training Empowered humans.

April 9, 2018- The United States Congress unanimously votes to give President Maxwell Harrington emergency powers to deal with the situation, dubbed by historians as the Crisis. He declares martial law across all US territories along with dubbing any defectors as enemy territories. The Armed Forces are restructured into the United States First National Guard.

April 15, 2018- Mafia bosses who fled to Las Vegas, Nevada, initiate a hostile takeover of the city. Utilizing their manpower, connections, and powers, New Vegas is established, claiming dominion of a large portion of the Western United States. A broadcast is sent out to the rest of the nation, offering shelter for all Empowered in exchange for their labor.

May 3, 2018- Stonewall begins training the first class of Empowered soldiers, later dubbed Parahumans, in the Empowered Training Facility in Trenton, New Jersey. The Prepared Parahuman Program utilized an Empowered person’s instinctual ability to use their powers to provide an accelerated training. Leader Lawrence calls for a fortification of the Northern Border.

May 5, 2018-Due to a lack of effective oversight in the area, the National Guard successfully secures Virginia and West Virginia from the Northern Group. The first recorded assassination attempt on President Harrington’s life was thwarted by an unknown empowered. From then, an estimated two assassins each have allegedly been caught, tried, and executed by the CIA each month.

June 3, 2018- The first graduates of the Prepared Parahumans Program are deployed to Warden, Virginia in an attempt to rout an invading Neo Confederate platoon. The battle goes in favor of the Parahumans, who manage to force the platoon out of the Virginia border. The invading force, which was composed of the Neo-Confederacy’s strongest parahumans, retreated to Tallahassee due to their massive casualties and a misfire of a teleport ability.

July 4, 2018- The second class of Parahumans are sent to New Vegas, using the territory’s Empowered friendly policy to infiltrate the enemy. At the same time, a demonstration in Atlanta led to a large fire that decimated a majority of the Neo Confederacy’s supply of rations.

July 25, 2018- Major leaders of New Vegas are assassinated during a strategy meeting. The offending parahumans are apprehended, and held hostage. The second in commands immediately declare an invasion of the Farmers’ Alliance, citing a food crisis as the motive.

August 1, 2018-Citizens of the Neo Confederacy, both Empowered and Unempowered, riot following a revelation that the Khans were hoarding food and medicine. Many of the rebelling faction’s officers, including the President, Secretary, and Head Judge, are decapitated in a public execution.

August 15, 2018-The New Vegas Militia successfully capture a major farm in the territory of the Farmers’ Alliance. Despite a lack of an official surrender, the group claims control of the territory.

August 16, 2018- Neo-Confederate Vice President Humphrey Hitchcock surrenders at the border of Virginia. He provides key information about the Neo-Confederacy’s military in exchange for immunity. His safehouse in Maine is later destroyed in a claimed freak Empowered accident.

September 22, 2018-A group of unempowered within Chicago successfully manage to capture the main headquarters of the Northern Group, where leader Antony Lawrence is captured and executed. Using weapons found in the headquarters, the group manages to force a retreat of many Empowered soldiers of the faction, who flees to the Neo Confederacy and New Vegas. The First National Guard successfully annexes the territory, where a new base of operations and Parahuman training facility is established in Lexington, Kentucky.

October 30, 2018-A team of 50 parahuman soldiers Invade Tennessee from Lexington. With a strategy of killing every citizen, the state is captured by the team in two days.

January 2, 2019- The first recorded Empowered with Nation Level powers, Coraline Daniels, uses her power FIREBALL on the still independent Texas.75% of the population, including about 10 miles of neighboring Mexico, are completely destroyed. New Vegas and the remnants of the Farmers’ Alliance officially surrender later that day.

The Second Reconstruction

Following the surrender of New Vegas, the National Guard was deployed to every major city center in the country. All active Parahumans were called back to New York for additional training. In April of 2019, all remaining police forces, along with the Prepared Parahumans Program, were merged into the National Guard.

Due to outstanding service, Director Stonewall created the Warden Elite Team, consisting of high performing Parahumans within New York and Washington DC. These teams were designed to be extremely competitive, with the worst performing member demoted to Parahuman at the beginning of each month. Additionally, the Sovereign Guardians were also created, composed of ten Parahumans with nation level powers.

President Harrington, during his 2019 State of the Union speech, requested for his emergency powers granted to him by Congress to be kept, citing foreign enemies and possible sedition from disgruntled politicians. That week, a majority vote by Congress approved his request for another year. Since then, Congress has approved the retaining of President Harrington’s emergency every year since, along with a suspension of presidential elections and term limits.

The establishment of the Seer Department, spearheaded by the Original Seer, created a system of surveillance throughout the United States. Utilizing Empowered with temporal and spatial observation powers, the Prepared Parahuman Program created buildings known as Superhuman Oversight Bureaus in major city centers, as both a way to keep an eye on criminals, and serve as bases for Parahumans and Wardens

Within the first few months of 2020, President Harrington created new classifications, vigilantes and villains. Vigilantes, by definition, were known as Empowered who attempted to take the law into their own hands. Vigilantes apprehended by the police or Parahumans, were sentenced to life imprisonment without a trial. Villains, by definition, were regular criminals who used their powers to commit crimes that were not classified as vigilantism.

Complaints and Criticisms

One of the key issues during the Crisis was the role of the Empowered Personnel System established by the Limitation of Powers Act. While the system aimed to regulate and monitor Empowered individuals for security purposes, it also led to discrimination and stigmatization against those who were Empowered. Many Empowered individuals were given a status below that of a protective class, leading to widespread unemployment and isolation.

The use of Parahuman Soldiers, trained Empowered individuals working for the government, was also a topic of contention. The establishment of the Prepared Parahumans Program provided additional manpower for the government in their fight against the Warlord factions. However, the program also raised concerns about the line between using superpowers for national defense and exploitation of Empowered individuals.

The handling of the Neo Confederacy, a Warlord faction that claimed secession from the United States and controlled multiple Southern states, was also heavily criticized. The National Guard's inability to properly mobilize against the group allowed them to capture key states such as Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. In addition, the group's founders were allegedly associated with a hate group, and reports of food and medicine hoarding further made them unpopular among their own citizens.

The creation of the Vigilante and Villain classes are attributed to the rise of violent crimes. Experts claimed that while the change did help to hasten the justice process, innocent people had been imprisoned and killed unfairly, leading to those caught taking more radical actions against the government. This issue also went along with the creation of the Seers, where the lack of supposed privacy had a direct correlation with crime.

[fireliit]

LOGAN, THIRTY-ONE, CST; SHE/THEY. | if you’re hearing I MAKE MY OWN SUNSHINE by ALYSSA BONAGURA playing, you have to know SEONHO JONES (HE/HIM; CIS MAN) is near by! the TWENTY-SIX year old GIG WORKER (MULTIPLE JOBS) has been in denver for, like, ELEVEN YEARS. they’re known to be quite RESTLESS, but being BUOYANT seems to balance that out. or maybe it’s the fact that they resemble CHA EUNWOO. personally, i’d love to know more about them seeing as how they’ve got those WARM HONEY EYES THAT ARE ALWAYS CRINKLING UNDER THE WEIGHT OF A SMILE, AN ELASTIC HEART THAT ENDURES AGAINST ALL ODDS, A VIBRATING ENERGIZER BUNNY THAT RUNS AROUND IN CIRCLES IN A DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO MOVE FORWARD AND IS IN NEED OF REST vibes. and maybe i’ll get my chance if i hang out around the LAKERIDGE DISTRICT long enough!

Full profile under the cut! APPLICABLE TRIGGER WARNINGS: non-descriptive mentions of abandonment, death by brain aneurysm, degenerative cognitive illness, homelessness

STATS Birth Name: Seonho Ryu ( 류선호 ) Legal Name: Seonho Jones Occupation: Uber driver / Maintenance worker at Empower Field / miscellaneous contract/manual work, etc. (if any part-time jobs are available at specific places, please let me know!) Age: Twenty-six Date of Birth: February 28th, 1997 Ethnicity/Race: Korean Gender & Pronouns: Cis man | he/him Orientation: Bisexual Social Class: Lower class Languages: English (fluent), Korean (fluent) Height: 183 cm / 6’0" Tattoo(s): musical notes on his right ankle with ‘keep moving forward’ written next to it, an arrow heart on his chest with birthdates of his family inside, purple and burgundy forget-me-nots on his shoulderblades, korean idiom across his spine which translates roughly to "at the end of hardship comes happiness" (고생 끝에 낙이 온다) Piercing(s): ears (double lobe, double helix, snug, conch), left eyebrow Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri, USA Current Residence: Denver, Colorado, USA Parents: Mina Park-Jones (mother), Jalen Jones (step/adoptive father, deceased), Seongmin Ryu (biological father, absent) Siblings: Unnamed sister (younger sister, wc posted), Unnamed sister (younger sister, wc posted), Sam (younger gnc half sibling, age 17), Hana (younger half sister, age 14), and Melody (younger half sister, age 13) Traits: Buoyant, steadfast, enthusiastic, self-sacrificing, generous, escapist, humble, restless, stubborn MBTI: ENFP - The Campaigner Eanneatype: Type 2 - The Helper Moral Alignment: Neutral Good Temperament: Phlegmatic Intelligence Type: Musical / Intrapersonal Astrology: Pisces sun, Scorpio moon, Leo ascending Habits: Gesturing when speaking, pointing, wears mismatched socks, randomly bursts into song, nicotine addiction (vapes), in general poor self-care habits Hobbies: Listening to music, writing music, producing music, dancing, sending memes, playing musical instruments, scrapbooking, papercrafting Likes: Music, romantic comedies, socializing, sunflower seeds, humming, smiling, cuddling, tteokbokki, adult coloring books, thunderstorms, trying new things even if he’s bad at them Dislikes: Conflict, waking up early, traffic, most academic things, balancing a checkbook / anything financial-related, folding clothes, humidity, being overheated, wasting food, feeling like he’s not doing enough BIOGRAPHY

Seonho was born the eldest child to two immigrant parents, Seongmin Ryu and Mina Park, who moved to the United States of America from South Korea when Mina was pregnant with Seonho after she was disowned by her parents who disapproved of Seongmin. His biological father walked out on Seonho, his mother, and two of his younger siblings when he was five years old and Seonho has always believed that they were better off without him.

After being homeless and hopping between the streets and halfways houses after the abandonment, his mother remarried three years to Seonho’s stepfather, Jalen Jones, who would become the only Dad that Seonho acknowledged in his life. Jalen adopted the three eldest children upon his marriage to Mina and they all took on his last name. Three more children would enter the fold throughout the years.

Early on in his childhood, Seonho fell in love with music thanks to Jalen’s side-gig playing the saxophone in a jazz band. He would sing along to every Disney movie and musical and tried to groove to the beat. While he was initially clumsy on his feet, his mother fondly nicknaming him Bambi, he was determined to learn how to dance. He had a talented ear for music, picking up musical instruments and mastering them with an ease. His parents encouraged his passion as best they could, ensuring that they budgeted well enough to afford sending Seonho to his music lessons. While performing at the city market, he was scouted by a Korean entertainment agency at the age of thirteen.

However, he was still a trainee when he flew back home and prematurely ended his contract due to his stepfather dying suddenly of a ruptured brain aneurysm as a result of overworking. After losing their home to foreclosure, the fragmented family relocated to Denver, Colorado.

As the oldest child, he assumed a great deal of responsibility in the household. While he wanted to drop out of school, his mother insisted that he stay enrolled and graduate. He earned money any way that he could to help keep the household, mowing lawns during the summer and working manual labor in the evenings. Sometimes, he would resort to not-so-legal methods if need be.

His music became all the more dear to him, filling the gaping holes in his chest that were created from his dream continually slipping through his fingers. He could never catch a break after that.

A year before Seonho graduated from high school, his mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. After it came to the point that his mother could no longer properly take care of them or herself, she was admitted into a longterm care facility by order of the municipality. At that point, Seonho was eighteen and filed for guardianship of his siblings who had been sent to foster care, which he would eventually be granted after a months' long battle with the courts. He also became the conservator of his mother’s well-being.

It's been hard, yet Seonho kept going anyway. See, he’s a hopeful guy, despite everything, resilient at his core, and even if it meant that he had to work at least 80 hours a week and juggle too many bills and loans, he was going to do it with a smile. 

There have been hard days, of course. Days where he would visit his mother and she would call him by the name of a man best left forgotten. 

Seonho insists that he provide for his family and ensure that each of his siblings focus on their studies, graduate from school, and are afforded opportunities that he did not have.

Seonho often distracts himself by throwing himself into helping people as a by-product of measuring his self-worth by what he can do for other people (thanks, capitalism). This makes him a bit of a doormat, yet not a naïve, unaware one. He just has decided it’s not worth ruffling feathers, and he can’t take risks like he otherwise would out of fear of disrupting what little stability he has been able to achieve for his family.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A bill that would add child sex trafficking and statutory rape to the crimes eligible for the death penalty was debated Monday in a Missouri Senate committee — despite conflicting with U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

The legislation is sponsored by state Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican who said Monday that one of the “principal purposes of government” is to “punish evil.”

Rape of children under 14 and child trafficking of children under 12 would be crimes eligible for the death penalty under his bill.

“And what’s more evil than taking the innocence of the child during the act of a rape? Children are in large part defenseless and an act such as rape can kill the child emotionally,” he said.

“And so I believe a just consequence, after a reasonable opportunity for defense, is death.”

The Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee heard the bill Monday.

State Sen. Karla May, a Democrat from St. Louis, pointed to Moon’s stance of “believing in life” as an outspoken opponent of abortion without exception for rape or incest, yet supporting expanding the death penalty.

“A 12 year old who gets pregnant, you believe that she should bring that child in the world, am I correct?” May asked.

“What crime did that child, that developing human child, commit to deserve death?” Moon replied.

“…But you believe in killing the father to that child?” May asked, if the father is a rapist.

“Yes,” Moon said. “If an attacker commits a heinous crime such as the ones that I mentioned in this presentation, I believe that if they’re charged and convicted, absolutely.”

The Rev. Timothy Faber testified in support of Moon’s bill, pointing to the “lifelong repercussions” of child rape and trafficking.

“It’s also a well established fact that those who commit sexual crimes seldom if ever change their ways,” he said. “Once a sexual offender, always a sexual offender.”

Elyse Max, co-director of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, opposed the bill during Monday’s hearing.

“If the goal is to overturn established U.S. Supreme Court precedent, it’s far from a guarantee,” Max said, “and the amount of resources the state of Missouri would have to spend as well as the trauma to child victims during the process cannot be understated.”

The U.S. Supreme Court in the 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana ruled giving the death penalty to those convicted of child rape violates the constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment unless the crime results in the victim’s death or is intended to. Only homicide and a narrow set of “crimes against the state” can be punishable by death, the court ruled.

“Adding statutory rape and trafficking as death-eligible crimes are a slippery slope,” Max said, “of expanding the death penalty to non-murder crimes that would bring the constitutionality of Missouri’s death penalty into doubt.”

“Instead of spending millions of dollars to possibly change long-standing precedent, Missouri resources should be spent to protect children from abuse in the first place, and ensure survivors have access to mental health treatment and proper support, following the offense,” Max said.

Moon said, regarding the Supreme Court precedent, that it’s worth challenging.

“That’s something that we need to start the conversation about,” he said, “and those things need to be challenged.”

Florida passed a similar law for victims of rape under age 12 last year. It received bipartisan support. In December, prosecutors in that state announced they’d seek the death penalty in a case of a man accused of sexually abusing a child.

Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the state’s bill could lead the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the issue.

Mary Fox, director of Missouri State Public Defender, which provides defense for the majority of death penalty cases in the state, argued Monday that the death penalty is “no deterrent to a crime.”

Fox also noted that an 18 year old dating a 14 year old could be executed under Moon’s legislation because that would be considered statutory rape.

Mei Hall, a resident of Columbia who also said she was a victim of sexual abuse, also testified in opposition.

“I don’t wish my abuser death,” Hall said. “I wish them to be sequestered away and unable to harm more people, for sure. But I don’t think it’s the state’s place to kill people in general and I don’t think it’s the state’s place to make it more difficult for child victims to come forward.”

Lobbyists from Empower Missouri and Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers also testified against the bill. A lobbyist from ArmorVine, testified in support.

Missouri was one of only five states to carry out death sentences last year, along with Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama. There are two executions scheduled for this year.

Three House bills filed this year would eliminate the state’s death penalty, but none has made it to a committee hearing.

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

Aug. 23, 2023

Such bills represent a growing effort to "hijack public education in America," said PEN America's Jonathan Friedman.

Over the past two and a half years, Republicans across the United States have introduced nearly 380 bills aimed at establishing a climate of fear among educators, librarians, and other school officials, according to a report released Wednesday by the free expression group PEN America.

Distinct from the outright censorship measures that GOP lawmakers have unveiled in a number of U.S. states in recent years, "educational intimidation" bills "pressure educators to be more timid in the content they teach, pressure librarians to be more restrictive in the books they make available to students, and pressure students to limit their self-expression, without imposing direct prohibitions," the new report notes.

"Put simply, these 'educational intimidation' provisions, as we dub them, empower the use of intimidation tactics to cast a broad chilling effect over K-12 classrooms by mandating new and intrusive forms of inspection or monitoring of schools, as well as new ways for members of the public—including, in some cases, citizens with no direct connection to the schools—to object to whatever they see that they do not like," the report adds.

Often introduced under the guise of protecting "parental rights," such bills require students to receive approval from their parents before taking part in any instruction related to gender identity, give parents and other state residents more power to review and protest instructional materials, prohibit school libraries from offering any material not deemed "age-appropriate," and more.

Between January 2021 and June 2023, PEN America found, a total of 392 educational intimidation bills were introduced across the U.S.—with the GOP leading 377 of them—and nearly 40 were signed into law in 19 states. Over roughly that same period, teachers and librarians reported a surge in written and verbal threats related to topics considered "politically controversial."

"Of the intimidation bills introduced in 2023," PEN observed, "45% have an anti-LGBTQ+ provision, including the forced outing of students."

Jonathan Friedman, director of Free Expression and Education programs at PEN America, said that the "rising tide of educational intimidation exposes the movement that cloaks itself in the language of 'parental rights' for what it really is: a smoke screen for efforts to suppress teaching and learning and hijack public education in America."

"The opportunity for parents to inspect and object to school curricula is already commonly granted in public school systems, as it should be," Friedman added. "But this spate of provisions dramatically expands these powers in ways that are designed to spur schools and educators to self-censor. These bills risk turning every classroom into an ideological battleground, forcing teachers out of the profession, and jeopardizing the future of millions of students."

"These bills are not what they seem. They are the next phase in a years-long campaign to incite panic and impose ideological strictures on schools."

Missouri lawmakers have introduced the most educational intimidation bills in the U.S. at 31, with Texas, Oklahoma, and South Carolina not far behind.

"Florida, perhaps the country's greatest laboratory for educational censorship, has already demonstrated the dangers posed by such measures," PEN America noted.

As the new report explains:

HB 1467, enacted in 2022, requires school districts to take actions that sound reasonable on their face: to post online, in a “searchable format,” a list of all instructional materials used in the district and a list of all library materials and mandatory reading lists.47 Rules from the Florida Board of Education clarified that this law extends to classroom libraries, meaning educators have to include all books in one's classroom in a search database as well... In Florida and across the country, many school districts already make their library catalogs available to parents or members of the public. But in legislating them to do so, especially when in conjunction with reinforcing citizens’ rights to lodge objections and requiring objections to be reported to the state, the true intent of the law becomes clear: to encourage ideologues to use the law to scan school collections and protest inclusion of any books to which they object, and to mobilize state pressure on local school districts. Indeed, the net effect of the bill has been to prompt librarians and educators to take the most risk-averse approach possible toward potentially controversial books. Reports out of Florida's Manatee and Duval Counties have detailed the near-total suspension of students' access to classroom libraries while collections underwent new processes of review in response to the law. HB 1467 has also made it easier for censorship-minded activists to use school districts' published lists of instructional materials and library resources as targets for their ideological offensives. In Clay County, Bruce Friedman, leader of the local chapter of No Left Turn in Education, has been successful at getting hundreds of books temporarily or permanently removed from school library shelves, and has told journalists he has a list of thousands of titles to challenge. The same scenario is playing out in Florida's St. Lucie County, where Dale Galiano, a local retiree with no children in the school system, has made it her mission to challenge what she considers inappropriate books.

Republicans at the federal level have embraced the sweeping educational intimidation push.

PEN America's report points to a 2022 Republican National Committee memo encouraging candidates to focus on "parental rights" instead of critical race theory, which the GOP has turned into a bogeyman and used to justify further attacks on public education.

In March, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed the Parents Bill of Rights Act, legislation that resembles educational intimidation bills introduced at the state level.

"These bills are not what they seem," Friedman said Wednesday. "They are the next phase in a years-long campaign to incite panic and impose ideological strictures on schools. Education in a democracy must be characterized by openness and curiosity, by the freedom to read, learn, and think. These bills strike at that foundation, in novel, sometimes subtle, yet potentially irrevocable ways. Their spread should not be taken lightly."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

[fffartonceaweek]

Sean McTiernan's SF podcast (is great) :

SFUltra is a show about a guy who hated science fiction until 2022 convincing himself he actually loves it, one book at a time. It is going pretty well so far. It gets published every two weeks.

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

RSS

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SFULTRA #10 - Ice - Anna Kavan

special 2 eps: Motorman / The Age Of Sinatra - David Ohle

SFULTRA #9 - We Who Are About To… - Joanna Russ

SFULTRA #8 - I, Vampire - Jody Scott

SFULTRA #7 - Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany

SFULTRA #6 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin

SFULTRA #5 - Camp Concentration - Thomas M Disch

SFULTRA #4 - Rogue Moon - Algis Budrys

SFULTRA #3 - Electric Forest - Tanith Lee

SFULTRA #2 - Doloriad - Missouri Williams

SFULTRA #1 - High Rise - JG Ballard

SFULTRA #0 - Why Science Fiction?

Patreon :

Perfect Taste Forever is a recommendation podcast about everything that isn't science fiction. It often features miniseries on a specific topic, such as:

Decoy Octopus - the concept of roleplaying

Fuck You - underrated gay novelists

Murder House Sold - true crime

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.

His previous shows have included lengthy examinations of horror (Hundreds Of Dead Bodies), thrillers (All Units), found footage horror (Hundreds of Pixelated Dead Bodies), whatever I felt like (The Wonder Of It All and Calling All Units) and even old time radio (Kiss Your Ass Goodbye).

As co-host : Live At The Death Factory (Scum Cinema), Bodega Box Office (rap movies) and Self Pity (self pity).

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All Units feed :

[beardedmrbean]

Elon Musk caused a flurry on social media after the tech CEO posted a meme mocking CNN’s concerns about free speech on Twitter. 

Musk posted a picture of CNN’s Don Lemon on Monday, alongside a satirical chyron that read "Elon Musk could threaten free speech on Twitter by allowing people to speak freely."

Some Twitter users were confused about whether the meme was from an actual CNN broadcast. The image is originally from Geniuses Times, a satirical website that describes itself as "the most reliable source of fake news in the planet." 

Nevertheless, Musk’s post prompted a wide range of responses, from conservative praise to liberal meltdowns. 

ELON MUSK TROLLS CRITICS WITH NEW 'STAY AT WORK' MERCHANDISE, FOLLOWING 'WOKE' DISCOVERY

Ronald Brownstein, a senior editor at The Atlantic, claimed that Musk was simply repackaging hate speech as free speech to empower extremism on the far right. 

"Simple equation: Musk repackages hate speech racism anti-semitism homophobia and far-right intimidation as ‘free speech’ & any effort to hold him accountable for injecting it into US society as the ‘woke mob.’ On both ends, same goal: amplifying & empowering far-right extremists," he tweeted. 

Meanwhile, The Jewish Voice, a news and opinion site dedicated to promoting classical Judaism, asserted that Don Lemon’s continued presence on CNN would ensure most Americans would click off the channel. 

"How ridiculous can it get?" author James Arthur Ray chimed in. 

"I’ve always said what I want and always will speak from heart," actor and comedian Tommy Chong tweeted. 

MSNBC’S CHRIS HAYES FRETS HIS ‘WORST FEARS' HAVE BEEN REALIZED SINCE MUSK ACQUIRED TWITTER

Morten Øverbye, a tech entrepreneur and former managing editor of CNN Norway, slammed Musk for appearing to float his own rule to label parody. 

"Just 17 days ago, Musk made up a new rule saying accounts engaged in parody must include ‘parody’ in their name," he said.

Musk said on November 10 that accounts engaged in parody must include the word "parody" in their actual name, not just their bio.

Musk’s criticism of CNN and Lemon comes days after the network anchor attempted to fact-check the Twitter owner, claiming that context was needed after Musk posted a tweet calling the "Hands up, don’t shoot" myth "made up."

ELON MUSK SWIPES ANOTHER NEWS OUTLET FOR 'MISINFORMATION,' AFTER STRIKING DOWN 'FLAT WRONG' REPORTS YESTERDAY

The phrase originally stemmed from Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, when he was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson. Soon after, it became a rallying cry for racial justice protests, but the Obama administration’s Department of Justice concluded that Brown did not raise his arms to surrender before his death. 

Lemon admitted that the DOJ report "cast doubt" on the narrative about Brown’s death, but also noted that "some said" Brown did attempt to surrender. 

Musk has previously spoken out against the liberal media network. 

Musk sat down last December with The Babylon Bee, a satirical website that recently had its Twitter account reinstated. During a discussion about "pointless" companies that "shouldn’t exist," a co-host joked they did not feel qualified to interview Musk. 

"You can be on CNN right now," co-host Kyle Mann quipped.

"I’m not perverted enough, I guess," Musk responded, likely referencing a satirical Bee headline, as well as recent allegations of sexual misconduct at CNN. 

[dweemeister]

NOTE: This write-up contains full spoilers after the fifth paragraph.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Leading up to the theatrical release of Killers of the Flower Moon, director Martin Scorsese went on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) to present an evening of films that inspired his approach to his latest work. The first film of that evening's primetime schedule was the short silent film The Last of the Line (1914), directed by Jay Hunt. That Western short film starred a cast of almost entirely composed of Oglala Lakota actors alongside Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa (a major silent film star) playing the chief's son, Tsuru Aoki as an American Indian woman, and various white actors as U.S. Cavalrymen. It is an unusual piece, as it is presented almost entirely from the Lakota chief's (Joe Goodboy) perspective. Both Killers of the Flower Moon and The Last of the Line tell tales in which the ways of white Americans subsume the traditions of and irrevocably traumatize American Indians.

Unlike The Last of the Line, Killers of the Flower Moon, distributed by Paramount and Apple, is based on actual events. Adapting David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon concentrates on the Osage Reign of Terror – a series of murders of Osage tribespeople, relations, and allies in 1920s Oklahoma. In addition to the lives of the Osage and the perpetrators of these crimes, much of Grann’s book also documents the rise of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI, which became the FBI), as they were instrumental in the investigation in a fraction of these murders. By his admission, Martin Scorsese said that his and Eric Roth’s (1995’s Forrest Gump, 2021’s Dune) initial drafts of the screenplay concentrated too largely on its white characters. Recalling his viewing of The Last of the Line back in his university days, Scorsese thought it wise to consult with members of the Osage Nation (Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear was especially helpful) over how he might better depict Osage perspectives, and empower their voices.

Scorsese is not entirely successful in this respect, and I think he would be the first to agree that he could have highlighted the Osage characters with greater attention, despite the commercial and executive constraints on this production. Scorsese would also probably be the first to agree that he is not the most appropriate person to tell the story of the Osage Reign of Terror, as he all but acknowledges in the film’s closing moments. In spite of this, Killers of the Flower Moon represents extraordinary moral and personal growth from Scorsese in how he depicts criminals and their victims. It is a delicately made film that interrogates how avarice and casual racism can lead to unconscionably serial violence – a saga not exclusive to any one American Indian tribe.

For generations before Europeans sailed to the New World, the Osage people roamed the southern Great Plains, in what are now the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The annihilation of the American bison and the Indian Wars led to the Osage’s removal to a reservation on land that the U.S. federal government considered worthless (that reservation is coterminous with Osage County, Oklahoma). The discovery of oil on Osage territory in 1894 saw the Osage, by the 1920s, become some of the richest people per capita in the United States. After that historical context, we find World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) returning stateside to take a job with his uncle, William King Hale (Robert De Niro), on Hale’s vast ranch. Hale, an important force in local affairs, is a friend to the Osage – he even haltingly speaks their language. Some time after, Ernest begins courting Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), a full-blooded Osage who, along with her family members, owns various oil headrights. Ernest and Mollie marry. Following their marriage, a rash of homicides of wealthy Osage sends torrents of fear through the tribal community – attracting the federal government’s attention after only far too much death.

The sizable ensemble cast also includes Jesse Plemons as Tom White, a former Texas Ranger turned BOI Agent; Tantoo Cardinal as Lizzie, Mollie’s mother; John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser as the competing attorneys in the murder trials; Cara Jade Myers, Janae Collins, and Jillian Dion as Mollie’s sisters Anna, Rita, and Minnie. Only Indigenous Americans played the indigenous roles, speaking or not – also including William Belleau, Tatanka Means, Everett Waller, and the late Larry Sellers.

It is not often that I cite a film for a lack of exposition, but that is a concern early on here. Scorsese and Roth’s screenplay poorly explains a mechanism contributing to the motivations of these murders. In response to sensationalized reporting from white-owned news media about the Osage’s wealth, the federal government forced full-blooded (and some partial-blooded) Osage to enter into financial guardianships – effectively deeming them a second-class citizen or an “incompetent”, unable to spend a certain amount of money without their white guardian’s permission. In a film that progressively unfolds the plotting of its perpetrators, this is among the most malignant practices in asserting white control over the Osage. The lack of much explanation here is an unnecessary complication for non-readers already attempting to keep track of the dramatis personae and digest the various subplots of the film’s sprawling 206 minutes.

Additionally, the film does not concentrate on its Osage characters to the extent some would prefer. As various Indigenous Americans have commented, such an approach by Scorsese and Roth ensures that the film’s intended audience are all those who are not indigenous. We see little of Osage life outside of moments of racial abuse, violence, and funerals. Killers of the Flower Moon makes no attempt to explain how the formally educated Osage of Mollie’s generation (including Mollie herself) were taught in schools that forbade the speaking of the Osage language, attempting to “reform” American Indian children to fit into white society.

Yet the audience glimpses other moments: naming ceremonies, the merger of Catholic and Osage traditions in significant life events (such as marriage), and even the ritual dance in the film’s final moments. In these fragments of Osage customs, it is also noticeable how much these naming ceremonies, marriages, funerals, and other more mundane moments become less grounded in the old practices over time. The bittersweet moment where Mollie’s mother, Lizzie, meets and walks away with her departed ancestors is the moment where, for this film’s purposes, the Osage’s disconnection to the past becomes pronounced. Mollie and her fellow Osage attempt to adhere to those customs, but, with the passing of elders like her mother, the Osage ways from time immemorial are all but consigned to the history books. The depiction of the Osage is always respectful, avoiding damaging and noble stereotypes.

Despite the lack of deeper Osage representation, this is not to say the filmmakers waste an excellent Lily Gladstone as Mollie (the film’s moral center). As Mollie, who has diabetes, begins to suffer from the effects of intentionally tarnished batches of insulin, Gladstone’s involvement with the narrative recedes in the film’s closing act. But before that, Gladstone plays Mollie wonderfully with self-assured posture and gait, sly and understated humor, and a piercing silent glance at critical moments. Juxtaposed with DiCaprio’s portrayal of Ernest, one has to wonder how Mollie falls for him. If Gladstone’s performance reminds some of Olivia de Havilland’s in The Heiress (1949), that is no coincidence (Gladstone also physically resembles de Havilland somewhat). Scorsese’s portrayal of Mollie and Ernest’s relationship contains revelations and moments similar to that found in The Heiress, and that film was an invaluable reference for Scorsese and his lead actors during production.

This is not so much a glimpse into the Osage way of life in 1920s Oklahoma as it is an interrogation of how white American racism (the perpetrators, at least in this treatment, are all white) led to a series of murders committed and discussed nonchalantly. Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is more concerned with how Ernest Burkhart’s and William Hale’s obsession for wealth leads them to conspire to kill Osage tribespeople for their oil headrights. Hale is the ringleader in the murders of at least two dozen Osage (De Niro is appropriately loathsome despite playing someone who should be middle-aged); the easily-manipulated Ernest (a solid outing by DiCaprio) one of many conspirators abiding by Hale’s orders.

Scorsese has long depicted American organized crime in films like Mean Streets (1973), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), and The Irishman (2019). Since The Departed (2006), there has been a noticeable evolution in how Scorsese frames his criminal protagonists. All of these films, to some extent, concern themselves with how unchecked male egos – rife with delusions of self-grandeur and sexual gratification – descend into violence and moral depravity. Yet over the last decade and a half in films like The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), but especially The Irishman, Scorsese has leaned into his Catholic upbringing to express his characters’ sense of profound guilt. Whether or not there is true repentance in the face of their actions stirs open questions and vociferous debates about the morality of these characters or, sometimes, Scorsese’s filmmaking itself.

As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. Ecclesiastes 10:1

It does not happen often in the film, but Scorsese shows both De Niro’s Hale, DiCaprio’s Ernest, and their fellow conspirators swatting away flies multiple times in Killers of the Flower Moon – usually just after or before committing or discussing a murder or some other heinous action. Flies appear to indicate the corrupted souls of this film, a Biblical personification of sin and lack of remorse. The white characters' casual conversations about violence against the Osage and their refusal to take responsibility for all of their misdeeds – including Ernest, despite testifying against his uncle at the federal trial – suggests that such attitudes towards American Indians were widely-held. Though the U.S. government is no longer engaging in a formal war against Indigenous Americans and Klansmen no longer parade down the streets of Osage County without anyone blinking an eye, a violent epidemic against Indigenous Americans still persists.

The tremendous efforts of BOI Agent Tom White and the federal prosecutors to bring Hale, Ernest, and their associates to justice were a drop in the bucket in respect to sheer amount of suspicious deaths among the Osage from the late 1910s to the early 1930s. Scores, perhaps hundreds, of other murders or Osage tribespeople were never investigated or listed inaccurately as accidents, suicide, or reasons unknown. One aspect of the narrative that Scorsese holds over the book’s original author, David Grann, is that Scorsese’s treatment repudiates any notion of a white savior. Scorsese downplays White’s role, in comparison to his treatment in Grann’s book (which, because it is also a chronicle of the rise of what would become the FBI, reads almost like a procedural). It is the Osage who save themselves – they are the ones who gather the money to lobby and pay for the federal investigation.

Scorsese’s collaborators behind the camera provide incredible artistry. Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (2000’s Amores perros, The Irishman) has had a banner year, alongside his work on Barbie (2023). Prieto demonstrates a visual mastery in a variety of scenarios: widescreen landscapes of the prairies with oil derricks far in the background, sweeping crane and dolly shots in scenes teeming with activity, and tense closeups of white and Osage faces. But what would Prieto’s work be without editor Thelma Schoonmaker (1980’s Raging Bull, 2011’s Hugo)? Schoonmaker, a Scorsese regular, can take what, on paper, should be a meandering narrative and turn it into a movie with a distinctive rhythm and storytelling efficiency – even if it runs almost three-and-a-half hours. To keep Killers of the Flower Moon’s 206 minutes (without intermission, which I find ableist even though I never left my seat in the cinema) comprehensible and never tedious is among Schoonmaker’s crowning achievements an editor.

Meanwhile, costume designer Jacqueline West (2001’s Quills, 2022’s Dune) asked Julie O’Keefe, an Osage Nation member, to serve as a costume cultural adviser. Together, the two called upon the Osage Nation to help in researching what the Osage would have worn in the 1920s. West, for her work in The Revenant (2015), had previously undertaken research on the clothing of Plains Indians. But collaborating with O’Keefe made West realize how the costume design in Killers of the Flower Moon needed to be specifically Osage. Osage artisans sewed together all the Osage blankets, garments, and shawls seen in this film. The unusual collaboration between West and O’Keefe lends to Killers of the Flower Moon a visual authenticity magnificent to behold.

When it comes to music in a Martin Scorsese movie, Scorsese tends to rely on preexisting music to establish the setting. Noteworthy original scores are not a given in Scorsese films (Bernard Herrmann’s score to 1976’s Taxi Driver and Howard Shore’s for Hugo the outliers). Robbie Robertson (guitarist/songwriter for The Band, in addition to his solo Americana music and rock career) is the composer here, but his score barely warrants notice. Like O’Keefe, Robertson also collaborated with Osage musicians to implement their musical traditions with his blues-influenced electric guitar. The electric guitar and Hammond organ lines might, in other hands, be glaringly anachronistic and inappropriate for the purposes of a project like Killers of the Flower Moon. However, Scorsese elects for minimal use of music, relegating Robertson’s score as nothing but aural wallpaper to fit a scene – without narrative or thematic development, in service of “vibes”. Most modern film critics might consider this “effective” composing; I deem it uninteresting in the context of the movie and otherwise. If anything, the music that stands out most in this film was composed and performed by the Osage themselves.

The criminals inhabiting a Scorsese movie used to, despite their deeds, possess a swagger to their criminality. Since The Irishman, that criminal swagger is no longer. With the depiction of the Osage characters and their loved ones, Scorsese offers the viewpoints of the victim’s survivors to a substantial degree for the first time. Though perhaps not as developed as one might wish, to include these views is a sort of personal artistic penitence for Scorsese.

In the penultimate scene of Killers of the Flower Moon, we find ourselves in a production of the radio show The Lucky Strike Hour, with the performers wrapping up an episode covering the Osage Reign of Terror. The Lucky Strike Hour was produced in conjunction with the BOI/FBI to dramatize real-life cases. The program lionized J. Edgar Hoover (who headed the BOI/FBI from 1924-1972) and glorified the processes of the Bureau and policing at-large. One by one, the performers read off the fates of the main figures to wind down the epilogue: the Shoun brothers; Byron Burkhart (Ernest’s younger brother); Ernest; Hale. Finally, up steps Martin Scorsese to the microphone, breaking the fourth wall. He reads a few sentences about Mollie. Mollie Burkhart remarried after divorcing Ernest and died of diabetes in 1937. Despite the murders of her sisters, potential murder her mother, and Ernest’s confession, her obituary made no mention of the Osage murders.

Scorsese looks at the audience.

Cut to a modern-day Osage ceremony. So they remain.

For more than a century, Hollywood films concerning American Indians like The Last of the Line and Killers of the Flower Moon have been told by non-indigenous storytellers. Similar situations exist in other narrative artforms. These works have almost always been narratives about the damage done to Indigenous Americans’ lives due to the encroachment of non-indigenous people. As honestly and nobly as Jay Hunt and Martin Scorsese attempted to make a movie about American Indians, there is a moral dilemma in presenting Indian suffering as a form of entertainment. Scorsese acknowledges this in his reading of Mollie’s epilogue, reclaiming that space from the radio show away from J. Edgar Hoover and the BOI/FBI.

In a film industry so rife with performative nods to diversity without due action, he also must have intuited this dilemma of depicting Indigenous American suffering when he first approached the Osage Nation for assistance on this movie. So why bother to make Killers of the Flower Moon if he is not the most suitable person to tell a story that concerns the Osage?

My answer might not be the one you wish to read. The environment that fosters narrative art, in any medium, prefers dramatic obligations over moral ones. Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is an attempt to bend that dynamic – to expose, in harsh lighting, the complicity of those who facilitated these murders and those who, even to the slightest degree, benefitted from these tragic events. Those beneficiaries include Martin Scorsese and his non-indigenous cast and crew for making this film. Perhaps this sort of moralism is too absolute for you, the reader. Yet, with those final moments of Killers of the Flower Moon, such questions were certainly on the filmmakers’ minds. It is a perilously risky ending that I found deserved and poignant.

The Osage of Reign of Terror was once an American media sensation. Before the publication of Grann’s book and in the century since, it has largely been forgotten outside members of the Osage Nation. It is valuable to debate who should author something like Killers of the Flower Moon (the book and the movie) and how they do so. The greater good is that we learn about the inhumanity of these murders and the humanity of the victims and those who tried to stop these killings. The winds across the Oklahoma prairie whisper in remembrance, and the least we should do is listen.

My rating: 9.5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog. Half-points are always rounded down.

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

[holistichealthnews]

Battling Medical Gaslighting for Empowered Healthcare

Missouri Clinic Shines a Light on Patient Advocacy

A recent survey uncovered a staggering statistic: 71% of women have been told by a physician that their symptoms were merely imagined.”

— Dr. David Clark

Increasingly, women are being told that their health symptoms are simply “all in their head,” a disturbing trend known as medical gaslighting. Leading the charge against this insidious issue is Health+Plus, a holistic medicine provider pioneering an initiative focused on listening to patients, validating their experiences, and providing comprehensive evaluations.

“Health+Plus firmly rejects this practice. It has no place in medicine,” he said. Instead, his facility insists on empowering patients, offering a platform where their concerns are taken seriously, and their symptoms thoroughly investigated.

“Your voice matters,” Dr Clark said. “We approach patient consultations with deep empathy, acknowledging the validity of symptoms and committing to understanding the discomfort they’re experiencing.”

A Chiropractic Internist [DABCI] and a Naturopath [NMD], Dr. Clark has been in private practice since 1975. People from all over the country began to hear good reports of Dr. Clark’s success in treating chronic illness with a natural approach began traveling to his little office in Oak Grove. Since 1999, he more than quadrupled the size of that office to accommodate the needs of his patients who seek a natural, caring health approach to their healthcare. Dr. Clark is dedicated to conducting comprehensive evaluations for every new patient, performing an array of medical tests to uncover the root causes of health problems. This thorough examination of the ‘whole person’ helps ensure that no potential health issue is overlooked.

“At Health+Plus, we understand that health problems can stem from a variety of factors, and they endeavor to address all possible underlying causes – from hormonal imbalances to harmful lifestyle choices,” Dr. Clark added. “The facility provides tailored recommendations based on our findings to help improve patients’ overall well-being. It starts, however, with listening and not being dismissive.”

While they cannot guarantee success in every case, Health+Plus underscores its commitment to taking every patient seriously.

“At Health+Plus, we greatly value the trust of our patients and strive to create a safe space where they can openly share their concerns,” says Melissa Abramovitz, APRN/FNP-BC, who collaborates closely with Dr. Clark in providing patient care. “The foundation of that trust is built on actively listening to our patients and taking their experiences seriously.”

“Gaslighting has to go,” Dr. Clark said.

To learn more about Health+Plus or schedule an appointment, call 816-625-4497 or visit their contact page. Be sure to visit their blog for weekly updates, tips, and news about health and well-being.

About Health+Plus

Health+Plus Clinic, based in Oak Grove, Missouri, is a holistic medicine provider dedicated to comprehensive patient evaluations and care. They focus on listening to, validating, and empowering their patients. They strive to build genuine partnerships in their patients’ healthcare journeys and firmly reject the practice of medical gaslighting. For more information, visit HealthPlus.clinic. Health+Plus is not an emergency medical facility. If you are experiencing sudden intense symptoms, visit a hospital, urgent care center, or dial 911 immediately.

[leaves-lilies-and-esther]

Reasons we still need feminism (in the US!)

Because out of every 1,000 sexual assaults, only 25 perpetrators will be incarcerated (RAINN)

Because our politicians feel comfortable saying that "if it's inevitable, just enjoy it" (Clayton Williams) and "when you're a star, they let you do it" (Donald Trump)

Because female survivors are routinely accused of lying, even though only 6% of rape accusations are false (meaning that 9/10 are true) (Lisak et al 2010).

Because the US is one of the only countries in the world without maternity leave

Because Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Texas all have abortion restrictions modeled on the scientifically inaccurate heartbeat bill (Scientific American)

Because women are already being prosecuted for miscarriages as a result of these rules- even when experts can't prove that their actions caused the stillbirth (google Marshae Jones, Brittney Poolaw)

Because in Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, and Texas, you cannot get divorced while pregnant. Meanwhile, the leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide because of domestic violence (Healthline).

Because women are frequently blocked from getting their tubes tied because they're young/haven't had enough children/ are unmarried. Men never share similar stories

Because people are already advocating against contraception. Idaho's No Public Funds for Abortion Act includes Plan B. Missouri Republicans tried to ban public funding for IUDs and contraception (along with many other examples from Slate)

Because women's pain is not taken as seriously by doctors- 25% less likely to be prescribed opioids for acute abdominal pain, and 2x more likely to be diagnosed as 'mentally ill' for complaining of heart disease (Washington Post)

Because the "husband stitch" is a thing

Because women are routinely under-represented in clinical trials for medication, and get less effective healthcare as a result (The Guardian).

Because pads/tampons are taxed like luxuries

Because roughly 58% of Americans have viewed porn (Institute for Family Studies). We know this fuels sex trafficking. Moreover, exposure to violent pornography makes boys 2-3 times likelier to commit sexual assault (Rostad et al 19).

Because attending strip clubs and similar establishments is still relatively normalized, even though 90% of sex workers want to leave immediately but are unable to (National Organization for Men Against Sexism). Because sex workers are more likely to be homeless, are frequently assaulted, etc.

Because women aren't educated about their bodies to the extent that only half were told about birth control (Forbes). Because my health classes never discussed pelvic exams or breast self-exams. I bet yours didn't either.

Because magazine images are photoshopped until the models don't even look like the models.

Because women are sold a false image of their bodies to the extent that they feel uncomfortable leaving the house without makeup, and 46% of girls worry regularly about their appearance as compared to 25% of boys (Mental Health Foundation).

Because we're told that over-sexualizing yourself at a young age is 'empowering', even though it has outcomes such as depression, disordered eating, and reduced productivity (New York University).

Because we're more likely to encourage our daughters to break gender norms than we are to encourage boys. We still view the feminine as inferior.

Because in 78% of films, the main character was male. And even when the movie is about women, the majority of the dialogue goes to men (Vox).

Because women are 28.7% of the house of representatives in 2023 (Wikipedia) despite being like 51.1% of the population. Because the US has never had a female president.

Reblog and add your own.