#General Administration/Special Projects

[learnastrowallura]

10th house ruler in the houses

Ideal career <3

I have made a post about the 10th house if you wish to know more about it.

1st house: modeling, content creation (focused on YOU, your opinions, your reviews, your personality), leadership/innovative jobs, anything that makes you shine

2nd house: becoming a chef, taking on lucrative projects, huge focus on accumulating material wealth, staying authentic and true to your values and making sure it doesn't fuck w ur emotional stability and stuff- no sacrifices

3rd house: consider working in a family-run business, utilizing writing talent, maybe something debate related, teaching elementary school/little kids, something mind stimulating

4th house: stay at home mom/dad or working from home, babysitting, having a more obscure job and being private about job matters, having a job that allows you to be family oriented as well, providing for your fam being a motivation of urs

5th house: art, creativity, modeling/makeup artist, hair stylist, social media manager, going with the flow, innovation, laid back/light hearted when it comes to duty, being quite lucky in the career side of things

6th house: administrative work, athletic field, diet expert or nutritionist, doctor, being quite involved in your work matters on the daily and taking it seriously, work relationships (coworkers, subordinates, superiors) being relevant for better or for worse

7th house: tbh I'm drawing a blank on this one 😭 I'd look at the sign of the 10th house buuuuttttt anything/anywhere that you feel comfortable as/in for a while should be good. This also indicates maybe meeting someone special at work? 👀 or working together with/creating a business with your long term partner. Also be aware of how ur relationship with ur business partners goes cuz it's important especially deals involving contracts

8th house: accounting, investment, stocks, real estate, finance jobs basically anything that involves other people's money and also maybe inspector jobs, detective work esp homicide involved (ace attorney vibes lol), performing autopsies etc u get the idea and we could also add occult related jobs as well

9th house: spiritual work, teaching individuals esoteric matters, astrologer, tarot, palmistry readings, jobs that allow you or even encourage you to be like a forever student and stuff

10th house: traditional jobs, CEO, career success is important to you and you tend to prioritize it regardless of whatever else is going on in ur life, any jobs that requires a high level of achievement and handling pressure with grace

11th house: social media related, working within a group, collaborative effort, compromise, maybe prioritizing other endeavors centered around making an impact such as activism, vouching for the oppressed and volunteering

12th house: therapist, readings, helping people work through their issues and do shadow work, alchemy work aka turning pain into power, also helping individuals achieve balance in the mental as well as spiritual plane (feminine and masculine energy for example) etc

Of course this is very general!! You need to look at loaaaads of other stuff but yeah comment down below your 10th house placements

Thank you for reading <3

Masterlist

Paid readings available

[bzjs35172]

Shutting down the Education Department, Trump really did it

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order at the White House on Monday, directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to close the Department of Education and return the administration of education to the states.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the creation and dissolution of all federal agencies usually require congressional approval through the legislative process. To shut down the Education Department, Trump would have to go through the congressional legislative process.

"Take all legal means to shut down the Ministry of Education"

In a speech at the White House on the same day, Trump said that except for core essential functions, the administration will "take all legal means to shut down the Department of Education" and will "close it as quickly as possible." Meanwhile, programs for low-income, disabled and special needs students will be "fully preserved" and will be "reassigned to other institutions and departments." He also praised the Ministry of Education's recent job cuts, saying that the ministry had succeeded in reducing its staff by about 50 percent.

After Trump signed the executive order, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Meng Zhao-wen and Education Task Force Chair Mark Takano issued a joint statement saying it was an "illegal decision" and that Congress "must not relinquish power" in the face of the order.

Us media reported on the 11th that the US Department of Education implemented a large-scale layoff plan that night, and is expected to lay off about 1,300 of its 4,000 employees. Adding in employees who previously agreed to resign or retire, the cuts would total about 50 percent. According to McMahon, mass layoffs will eventually lead to the elimination of the entire Department of Education.

Twenty-one Democratic state attorneys general have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the Education Department's layoffs. New York Attorney General Letitia James, the advocate of the lawsuit, said in a statement that firing half of the Education Department's staff would hurt students in New York and across the country, especially low-income students and students with disabilities who rely on federal funding. She called it "outrageous," "reckless and illegal."

Many universities have imposed hiring freezes

Harvard University, Stanford University and North Carolina State University are also suspending hiring as the federal government seeks to reduce federal contracts and cut research funding.

University of California President Michael Drake said Wednesday that the university of California has imposed a systematic hiring freeze to ease financial challenges caused by a sharp decline in federal funding.

Drake said in the letter that since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly proposed or issued executive orders to cut funding for education support, patient care or major medical research. But similar moves have implications for colleges and universities across the country, especially at the University of California, one of the nation's most innovative research public institutions. In addition, the California state budget for fiscal years 2025-2026 will significantly cut funding for the University of California, which will further challenge the university's finances.

Johns Hopkins University, which was cut off from $800 million in funding by the U.S. Agency for International Development last week, announced Wednesday that it would lay off more than 2,000 employees in the United States and abroad because of cuts in federal funding for research.

Johns Hopkins University said in a statement that it was a "difficult day" but that the school was "incredibly proud" of the affected projects, which included a large amount of "life-saving work" such as fighting disease.

Scientists leave Europe to pick up the slack

According to the US Science magazine and other European and American media reports, in the face of the uncertain policy environment of the Trump administration, an increasing number of scientific researchers are considering leaving the US. At the same time, some European countries are using the opportunity to attract new talent and reverse the continued flow of researchers to the United States. Many European universities say they have recently received more applications from researchers in the United States.

France is one of the fastest "people snatching" countries. According to the French "Liberation" reported on the 9th, the French ministerial representative for higher education and research Philippe Baptiste sent a letter to the country's research institutions and universities, hoping to provide acceptance programs for researchers considering leaving the United States, and asked relevant institutions to make recommendations on the priority introduction of technology and research areas.

Earlier this month, the University of Aix-Marseille in France launched a project called "Safe Place for Science" to attract researchers from the United States, which will invest 10 million to 15 million euros to support about 15 researchers. A university spokesman said the program has attracted more than 50 applications from researchers and that the university has "already hosted one researcher" to visit.

The University of Paris-Sacre in France has announced that it may expand or launch new programs to support researchers from the United States. Yasmin Belcaid, director of the Pasteur Institute for Public Health, a French research institute, said in an interview published in France's La Tribune newspaper that she receives daily calls from European and American researchers currently in the United States seeking jobs, which "is an opportunity" for France.

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - November 8-14

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles!

1. Agrivoltaics for sustainable food, energy and water management in East Africa

“[… C]ertain crops […] thrived under the partial shade provided by solar panels. The shade also helped to reduce water loss through evaporation, leading to more efficient water usage. Additionally, rainwater harvested from the panels could be used to supplement irrigation needs.”

2. The world’s largest wildlife crossing is now standing in California

“The structure crosses a 10-lane freeway and has been built to help protect all sorts of wildlife[….] And it’s not just for fauna: some 5,000 plants grown from seed collected within a five-mile radius have been nurtured in two specially created nurseries. The bridge will be topped with wildflowers, shrubs and native grasses that will also benefit insect populations.”

3. Judge rules the military must cover gender-affirming surgery for members' dependents

“[Judge] Torresen found that [gender-affirming] surgery is indeed medically necessary and that the Defense Department had not shown that any important governmental interest was advanced by denying the coverage.”

4. Social Media Can Boost Caracal Conservation

“The team found that searches on the species doubled after the project [using “social media to educate about the caracal”] launched. […] ”The research demonstrates how a public interest in urban ecology and the global phenomenon of ‘cats on the internet’… can be harnessed to leverage conservation action.””

5. US Labor Board Bans Captive Audience Meetings to Ensure 'Truly Free' Worker Choice

“[T]he National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday ruled that employers cannot force workers to attend anti-union speeches. [… W]orkers will no longer have to take part in so-called "captive audience meetings," which employers often use as a union-busting tool and a form of coercion.”

6. Study links grazing with plant phenology and abundance

“In general, plants where caribou or muskoxen were present experienced earlier green-up and greater abundance later in the growing season. “We're used to thinking of the timing of plant availability as impacting the productivity of grazing animals, but not the reverse," Post said.”

7. Frog populations once decimated by disease mount a major comeback

“"These results provide a rare example of how reintroduction of resistant individuals can allow the landscape-scale recovery of disease-impacted species, and have broad implications for amphibians and many other taxa that are threatened with extinction by novel pathogens."”

8. California Announces Special Session To Protect Trans People

“Newsom’s directive is clear: safeguard reproductive healthcare, support immigrants, and shield LGBTQ+ people from what is viewed as existential threats to civil rights and democratic norms. […] California has a unique opportunity to set the blueprint for other states in resisting a Trump administration[….]”

9. When ‘OK, Boomer’ Means ‘Let’s Go Protest’

“Youth activists across the country recognize the efforts of their eco-minded predecessors and welcome them as mentors, role models, and collaborators in their battle against the climate crisis. […] “The idea that Boomers don’t care, he said, is “just misinformation.””

10. How Aussie Waste Warriors are Redirecting Excess Food to Those in Need

“A growing movement is working to reduce perfectly good food going to waste by redirecting it to homes and charities. [… C]haritable organisations [… are] transforming fresh produce that would otherwise have gone to waste into millions of cooked, nutritious meals for people in need each year.”

November 1-7 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Vittoria Elliott at Wired:

Elon Musk’s takeover of federal government infrastructure is ongoing, and at the center of things is a coterie of engineers who are barely out of—and in at least one case, purportedly still in—college. Most have connections to Musk and at least two have connections to Musk’s longtime associate Peter Thiel, a cofounder and chairman of the analytics firm and government contractor Palantir who has long expressed opposition to democracy. WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer. The engineers are Akash Bobba, Edward Coristine, Luke Farritor, Gautier Cole Killian, Gavin Kliger, and Ethan Shaotran. None have responded to requests for comment from WIRED. Representatives from OPM, GSA, and DOGE did not respond to requests for comment. Already, Musk’s lackeys have taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and General Services Administration (GSA), and have gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, potentially allowing him access to a vast range of sensitive information about tens of millions of citizens, businesses, and more. On Sunday, CNN reported that DOGE personnel attempted to improperly access classified information and security systems at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and that top USAID security officials who thwarted the attempt were subsequently put on leave. The AP reported that DOGE personnel had indeed accessed classified material. “What we're seeing is unprecedented in that you have these actors who are not really public officials gaining access to the most sensitive data in government,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “We really have very little eyes on what's going on. Congress has no ability to really intervene and monitor what's happening because these aren't really accountable public officials. So this feels like a hostile takeover of the machinery of governments by the richest man in the world.”

[...] “To the extent these individuals are exercising what would otherwise be relatively significant managerial control over two very large agencies that deal with very complex topics,” says Nick Bednar, a professor at University of Minnesota’s school of law, “it is very unlikely they have the expertise to understand either the law or the administrative needs that surround these agencies.” Sources tell WIRED that Bobba, Coristine, Farritor, and Shaotran all currently have working GSA emails and A-suite level clearance at the GSA, which means that they work out of the agency’s top floor and have access to all physical spaces and IT systems, according a source with knowledge of the GSA’s clearance protocols. The source, who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation, says they worry that the new teams could bypass the regular security clearance protocols to access the agency’s sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF), as the Trump administration has already granted temporary security clearances to unvetted people. This is in addition to Coristine and Bobba being listed as “experts” working at OPM. Bednar says that while staff can be loaned out between agencies for special projects or to work on issues that might cross agency lines, it’s not exactly common practice.

WIRED’s report on the 6 college-aged men between 19 and 24 that are shaping up DOGE in aiding and abetting in co-”President” Elon Musk’s technofascist takeover.

[mesetacadre]

apologies if this isn't really your area of interest, but how would you describe the relationship between fascism and (anti-) imperialism? (asking because my far-right father just watched a video about Kamala Harris right next to me which had very similar points to what I've seen on Tumblr; specifically how liberals/democrats will even ally with their "enemies" if it means they can keep the war machine going)

One way to understand fascism that's very common in the imperial periphery has been to conceptualize it as colonialism/imperialism turned inwards, it ramps up exploitation by any means necessary. This does two things, it curbs worker organization by exerting more violence, and it increases capitalist profits. This last thing is also related to the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, since fascists in power tend to be destructive towards capital, especially to human capital, and the rate of profit can only be increased considerably through the destruction of capital. As for the more specific aspects of fascism in power; forced labor, concentration camps, the trampling of any kind of liberties, mass political repression, etc. were already established in the colonized world well before any fascist you can think of was even born.

Take a look at this map:

This is a propaganda piece [the title says "Portugal is not a small country"] from 1934 during Portugal's Salazar dictatorship, one of the forgotten fascist states of Europe during this time, along with Austria and Spain. When fascists do have colonies and would be considered an empire, they do not really differ from non-fascist imperialism. This integralist notion shown by the poster really isn't that far from the integration attempted by France on Algeria, and Italy had similar rhetoric when it came to Libya and East Africa. What I mean to say is that fascists do not have that special a relationship when it comes to "normal" imperialism (apart from that internal imperialism I mentioned), and it therefore does not have that special a relationship with anti-imperialism. Nazi-fascists did not inherit any colonies from the Weimar Republic, but their ambitions in the east (look up generalplan-ost) and for the Balkans were also extremely similar to most colonial projects you can find for Africa and Asia in the 19th and early 20th century.

Fascism is an imperialist ideology, not because of any inherent quality, but because it is the most destructive and exploitative elements of liberal democracy emphasized and expanded. It was, after all, birthed by the moribund corpse of European imperialism, as it entered a general crisis that spelled its end (in the form imperialism took at this time, of course imperialism mutated and transformed to a system that doesn't require a direct administrative control of colonies), and this crisis was only delayed by WW2.

Fascists nowadays protect imperialism insofar as they protect capitalism. Fascists are only really enemies with liberalism when it comes to parliamentarism and its socially progressive elements, but we can't forget that any liberal party, whether it's republican or democrat or third party, ultimately only serves to manage capitalism in the country they administer. I'm not really sure what's the point that that video was making, but I don't think it's this. Fascists are not the enemies of a capitalist state, imperialist or otherwise, they're the most extreme, violent and repressive expression of what's already present in liberal democracy. If usamerican fascists take the position of a "great america" and support the continuation of its interference worldwide, and the democrats or republicans also do, this is a case of fascism reflecting liberalism, not the other way around. Fascism is not an evil entity one candidate chooses to ally with or not. It always represent the most extreme needs of capital, and in every case that it has taken power, it has happened once those necessities were widespread enough and they recieved ample support from those capitalists.

[sepdet]

Try to imagine Trump going to campaign HQ to reassure those working to get him elected with a speech like this after one of his unwelcome surprises.

Of course, that's impossible. This classy speech is all about "we" — the team, and the American people — although of course it's got a few "I's" in there to contrast herself with Trump and sketch out goals.

First five minutes: Squaring the circle of saluting Biden graciously, thanking and reassuring his election team, and moving forward

05:40 - rundown of major accomplishments of President Biden's administration

8:45 Harris lays out how she sees this election and I'm actually gonna transcribe it despite my arthritis because YES YES YES. (It's not very long.)

"It is my great honor to go out and EARN this nomination, and to win.

"So in the days and weeks ahead, I together with you will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic party, to unite our nation, and to win this election.

"You know, as many of you know, before I was elected as Vice President, before I was elected as United States Senator, I was the elected Attorney General of California, and before that I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. [chuckles start around the room, she smiles.] Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump's type.

"And in this campaign I will proudly — I will proudly put my record against his. As a young prosecutor, when I was in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, I specialized in cases involving sexual abuse. Donald Trump was found liable by a jury for committing sexual abuse. As Attorney General of California I took on one of our country's largest for-profit colleges and put it out of business. Donald Trump ran a for-profit college, Trump University, that was forced to pay $25 million to the students it scammed. As District Attorney, to go after polluters, I created one of the first environmental justice units in our nation. Donald Trump stood in Mar-o-lago and told Big Oil lobbyists he would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign contribution. During the foreclosure crisis, I took on the big Wall Street banks and won $20 billion for California families, holding those banks accountable for fraud. Donald Trump was just found guilty of 34 counts of fraud.

"But make no mistake — all that being said, this campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. There is more to this campaign than that. Our campaign has always been about two different versions of what we see as the future of our country, two different visions for the future of our country. One focused on the future, the other focused on the past.

"Donald Trump wants to take our country backward, to a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights.

"But we believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans. We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. [Calls of "That's right!"] We believe in a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every person can buy a home, start a family and build wealth, and where every person has access to paid family leave and affordable child care. That's the future we see! [Applause.] Together we fight to build a nation where every person has affordable healthcare, where every worker is paid fairly, and where every senior can retire with dignity.

"All of this is to say that building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. Because we here know that when our middle class is strong, America is strong. And we know that's not the future Donald Trump is fighting for. He and his extreme Project 2025 will weaken the middle class and bring us backward — please do note that — back to the failed trickle-down policies that gave huge tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and made working families pay the cost, back to policies that put Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block, back to policies that treat healthcare as only a privilege for the wealthy, instead of what we all know it should be, which is a right for every American.

"America has tried these economic policies before. They do not lead to prosperity. They lead to inequity and economic injustice. And we are NOT GOING BACK. We are not going back. (You're not taking us back.)

"Our fight for the future is also a fight for freedom. Generations of Americans before us have led the fight for freedom from our founders to our framers, to the abolitionists and the suffragettes, to the Freedom Riders and farm workers. And now I say, team, the baton is in our hands. We, who believe in the sacred freedom to vote. We, who are committed to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. We, who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence, and that's why we will work to pass universal background checks, red flag laws, and an assault weapons ban. We, who will fight for reproductive freedom, knowing if Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every. single. state—but we are not going to let that happen.

"It is this team here that is going to help in this November to elect a majority of members of the United States Congress who agreethe government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. And when Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as President of the United States I will sign it into law! [cheers, someone shouts "we the people!"] "Indeed, we the people.

"So ultimately, to all the friends here I say: in this election we know we each face a question. What kind of country do we want to live in? A country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, ["Yes!"] or a country of chaos, fear, and hate? [Boos] You all are here because you as leaders know we each — including our neighbors and our friends and our family — we each as Americans have the power to answer that question. That's the beauty of it, the power of the people. We each have the ability to answer that question.

"So in the next 106 days—" looks around the room smiling at various people, "We have work to do. We have doors to knock on, we have people to talk to, we have phone calls to make, and we have an election to win. …" [a few final crowd -whipping-up platitudes like "Do we believe in freedom"]

------

Note: Yes, I know, she spoke about rights for all Americans without getting into any specifics besides reproductive and voting rights, because those two are core values of the Democratic party and the ones most Americans agree with. Unifying a party and coalition building starts by finding common ground. The approach Harris is taking will pull away some old-school moderate Republicans who are reluctant to leave their party even as it changes beyond recognition, but who really don't like Trump. Many of them have been poisoned more or less by Fox News, so they need to see she's not a crazy crazy liberal.

[mariacallous]

When President Donald Trump’s aides and advisers relay concerns about Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government, they're often given what's intended to be a reassuring answer: Don't worry, Stephen and Katie Miller will take care of it.

As Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force dismantle key parts of the government and plan to cut the workforce at federal agencies by half or more, the Millers have become pivotal figures in Musk’s orbit, multiple sources tell WIRED. The couple has been tasked as intermediaries, bringing news about Musk’s latest targets and communications strategies to the rest of the White House, say members of Trump’s inner circle and people outside the administration who know them personally. Just over a month into the new administration, they have been privately projecting themselves as two pairs of steady hands at the till.

Stephen Miller is the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser; two sources described his current role as that of a prime minister. His wife, Katie Miller, is a special government employee who functions as the top communications official at DOGE. She is also on the payroll of the firm P2 Public Affairs, The Wall Street Journal reported, which has ties to Musk and several alumni of Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign.

Stephen was a senior adviser in Trump’s first term, and an architect of the administration’s anti-immigration platform, including advocating for the policy of separating migrant children from their families. Katie served in the first Trump administration as deputy press secretary at the Department of Homeland Security during Kirstjen Nielsen’s tenure before ascending to the role of press secretary in 2019 and communications director in 2020 for then-vice president Mike Pence. The Millers were married in 2020.

Katie Miller, like many people associated with DOGE, is, as a special government employee, limited to working in the federal government for no more than 130 days in any given 365-day period and subject to less stringent ethics requirements than permanent employees. She was assigned to run communications for Musk prior to the transition, a White House official tells WIRED, beginning her journey with Musk as a “comms sherpa.” Now she has become the richest man in the world’s guide to life in Washington and integral to the high-velocity, high-volume barrage of cuts to the government’s workforce and spending—many of them being questioned in the courts as to their legality—that have come to dominate Trump’s first month back in office.

Her relationship with Musk, the White House official says, is central to DOGE’s interactions with the rest of the White House. She’s the key intermediary, delivering the DOGE message of the day to the rest of the administration. She’s also the one to deliver any sensitive or bad news to Musk, says the official.

The Republicans who spoke to WIRED for this story all requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. They are all generally supportive of the DOGE initiatives but share varying degrees of concern about Musk harming Trump’s image and felt compelled to speak up out of an urge to protect the boss. (Trump, meanwhile, has continued to back Musk publicly with enthusiastic praise for DOGE’s cuts, most recently with a flattering introduction before Musk held court at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting.)

Meanwhile, Stephen Miller has, along with Project 2025 coauthor and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, became one of Musk’s closest allies in the administration, The New York Times reported earlier this month. WIRED has learned that the relationship is far closer, and more complicated, than has been previously known publicly.

In many ways, Musk’s targeting of federal agencies is perfectly in sync with the aims of Miller, who has championed DOGE’s work internally and even helped in making a lot of it possible. (In public, Miller has equated federal workers with “radical left Communists” and “criminal cartels.”) Still, sources tell WIRED that Trumpworld is more comfortable with Musk taking the heat for the recent federal cuts rather than the less famous—and, in their view, far less telegenic—Miller.

Yet through their actions so far, the Millers and Musk have developed a MAGA version of the Pet Shop Boys adage from the song “Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money)”: You’ve got the brawn / I’ve got the brains. Stephen Miller’s knowledge of the federal apparatus, Katie Miller’s contacts on Capitol Hill, and the couple’s good standing among Trump loyalists, coupled with Musk’s relentless ambition and effectively infinite resources, made the scale of the DOGE government takeover possible. Musk is not the independent actor he’s often portrayed as and taken to be, in other words, but is rather carrying out actions essentially in concert with the man to whom the president has delegated much of the day-to-day work of governance.

“Stephen is kind of the prime minister,” one of three Republicans close to Trump and familiar with the situation tells WIRED. Another Republican familiar with the dynamic also used the term “PM” to describe Miller, short for prime minister. The implication is that Miller is carrying out the daily work of governance while Trump serves as head of state, focusing on the fun parts of being president.

The White House did not answer questions about who reports to or outranks whom.

The Millers are seen inside Trumpworld as glorified babysitters for Musk, tasked with ensuring he stays within bounds, insofar as that’s possible. “He gets a lot of grace,” the first Republican said of Musk. “Many people aren’t nervous, because Stephen Miller is deeply involved. And Katie.” This Republican compared Musk to a preteen child.

The involvement of the Millers is also one of the many reasons why Trumpworld sources say they now don’t currently see an implosion between Trump and Musk happening anytime soon even though, as WIRED previously reported, rifts have already emerged within the president’s inner circle over the centibillionaire’s level of power.

Still, Musk’s relationship with the Millers has become a subject of great intrigue in Washington as DOGE continues to wreak havoc on the federal government. Little is known about how often they interact outside of work and how the relationship grew over the late stages of the campaign into the transition.

“If you can find out anything about Stephen Miller’s social life, I don’t wanna know the answer,” says a longtime Republican operative who knows the couple personally.

“Stephen and Katie are very attentive to [Musk],” the Republican who referred to Stephen as “prime minister” tells WIRED. There’s also only one audience which truly matters, they say: “He’s got a forgiving audience: the audience of one, and all of us around him.”

[nasa]

Soaring into Aerospace: NASA Interns Take Flight at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh

Sustainable Aviation Ambassadors Alex Kehler, Bianca Legeza-Narvaez, Evan Gotchel, and Janki Patel pose in front of the NASA Pavilion at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.

It’s that time of year again–EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is underway!

Boasting more than 650,000 visitors annually, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, or “Oshkosh” for short, is an airshow and fly-in held by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). Each year, flight enthusiasts and professionals from around the world converge on Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to engage with industry-leading organizations and businesses and celebrate past, present, and future innovation in aviation.

This year, four NASA interns with the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) project count themselves among those 650,000+ visitors, having the unique opportunity to get firsthand experience with all things aerospace at Oshkosh.

Alex Kehler, Bianca Legeza-Narvaez, Evan Gotchel, and Janki Patel are Sustainable Aviation Ambassadors supporting the EPFD project, which conducts tests of hybrid electric aircraft that use electric aircraft propulsion technologies to enable a new generation of electric-powered aircraft. The focus of Alex, Bianca, Evan, and Janki’s internships cover everything from strategic communications to engineering, and they typically do their work using a laptop. But at Oshkosh, they have a special, more hands-on task: data collection.

“At Oshkosh, I am doing some data collection to better estimate how we can be prepared in the future,” said Janki, an Aerospace Engineering major from the University of Michigan. “Coming to Oshkosh has been an amazing experience… I can walk around and see people passionate about the work they do.”

The NASA Pavilion at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is full of interactive exhibits and activities for visitors to engage with. NASA Interns Alex, Bianca, Evan, and Janki are collecting data in the pavilion to help improve future exhibits at Oshkosh.

In addition to gathering data to help inform future NASA exhibits and activities at Oshkosh, the interns also have the opportunity to engage with visitors and share their passion for aviation with other aero enthusiasts. For Evan, who is receiving his Master's in Aerospace Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, “being able to be here and talk with people who are both young and old who are interested in what the future of flight could be has been so incredible.”

Alex, Evan, Bianca, and Janki pose in front of NASA’s Super Guppy, a specialized aircraft used to transport oversized cargo.

At Oshkosh, one memory in particular stands out for Alex, Bianca, Evan, and Janki: seeing NASA’s famous Super Guppy in person. With a unique hinged nose and a cargo area that's 25 feet in diameter and 111 feet long, the Super Guppy can carry oversized cargo that is impossible to transport with other cargo aircraft. 

“We had a very lucky experience… We were able to not only see the Super Guppy, we got to get up close when it landed,” said Bianca, who is receiving her Master's in Business Administration with a specialization in Strategic Communications from Bowling Green State University. “From a learning experience, it gave me a way better basis on cargo aircraft and how they operate.” 

For Alex, who is receiving his Master's in Aeronautical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, it was exciting to see the Super Guppy’s older technology integrated with newer technologies up close. “There have been a lot of good memories, but I think the best one was the Super Guppy. It was cool to see this combination of 60’s and 70’s technology with this upgraded plane.”

Evan and Janki pose for a photo while walking around EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.

With Oshkosh coming to a close this Sunday, July 30, Alex, Bianca, Evan, and Janki also reflected on advice they have for future NASA interns on how they can get the most out of their internship: be curious and explore, connect with people who work in the field you’re interested in, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Alex advises potential NASA interns to “dream big and shoot for your goals, and divide that up into steps… In the end it will work out.” For Bianca, being open and exploring is key: “take opportunities, even if it’s the complete opposite thing that you were intending to do.”

“Ask questions all the time,” said Evan. “Even outside the internship, always continue asking people about what they are knowledgeable on.” And Janki encourages future interns to “Follow your own path. Get the help of mentors, but still do your own thing.”

Visiting Oshkosh and want to see NASA science in action? Stop by the NASA Pavilion, located at Aviation Gateway Park, and see everything from interactive exhibits on sustainable aviation, Advanced Air Mobility, Quesst, and Artemis to STEM activities–and you may even meet NASA pilots, engineers, and astronauts! At Oshkosh, the sky’s the limit.

Interested in interning with NASA? Head over to NASA’s internship website to learn more about internship opportunities with NASA and find your place in (aero)space.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

[mierins]

it's hot, and we rot in this oven // nanami x reader, chapter iii

Teenagers Scare the Living Shit out of Me.

x Masterlist x

< previous chapter | next chapter >

Rating: M Word Count: 4.6k Warnings: Mentions of character deaths

Summer in general, but late June in particular, is the time that curses reign supreme in Japan-- between natural disasters, the listlessness of school breaks, and the way the humidity seems to take on a life of its own, clinging on one’s skin in a way distinctly similar to misery or sweat.

Me, though-- I’m still stuck on campus to an extent, with no missions assigned, and every free one I attempt to apply to take rejected. Fuck the higher-ups, truly.

I’m burning off the excess energy and aggression on the archery range once more, sending a barrage of bolts into the targets once, twice, thrice, till the sun’s climbed up too high into the sky to make even this a grueling endeavour.

“I’m assigning you as a mentor to a new student,” Gojo says, materializing behind me as I’m wrapping up my day on the field, collecting the arrows back.

“You? You’re assigning me?” I asked absently, plucking a crossbow bolt from the bullseye with a bit more than requisite amounts of force. “Does Yaga know about this? Or did you just slip a sticky note under his door again and call it administrative procedure?”

He guffaws a little at that, his voice projecting across the field. “Don’t worry. I’m still the first year teacher, but I want her to learn from you a little in the future, especially before she starts taking on solo missions. Her technique is like yours. I’m sure you’ll get along great.”

“Is that so?” I raise a brow.

He nods. “Mm-hm. Girl from the sticks. Sorcery lineage, but dear old nana doesn’t want her involved with the likes of us. Insisted on coming here anyways-- and that’s a mark for no respect for authority or elders. Sound familiar?”

I roll my eyes at him. “Yeah. Sounds like you.”

He grins, unfazed. “Anyways-- gotta go! I left you a file on her so you can figure out how to introduce yourself when the time comes!” He sidles up out of the training range, leaving me scowling with a bundle of arrows in my fist, probably to avoid any threats of being blasted.

But it’s not until later, that I realize his plan wasn’t just to be a minor pain in the ass.

I’m in the admin office, reading the information on Kugisaki Nobara, 15, from Karumai, Iwate Prefecture, (which he did, in fact, leave with uncommon courtesy on my desk), that I realize his plan.

-- Because, stuck on a sticky-note on the last page is a crude self-portrait of him, blindfold, spiked-up hair, and his tongue sticking out and all, along with the message “Heard you got rejected as a Special Grade again. This should beef up your resume some!”

I sigh, laying the file down on the table and tipping my head back up at the ceiling, wondering if I shouldn’t just hunt him down and try to hit him with Maximum Bang after all. “Fucker.”

It’s a bright July day when the new crop of first year students are brought onto campus by Gojo for their entrance ceremony.

The admissions each year are sparse-- maybe seven or eight people at the maximum number. Usually, the number hovers closer between three and five. Ijichi’s year had only him, and some girl who’d run off to Kyoto to serve as a clan sorcerer instead.

Nonetheless, for every year he’s taught here, Gojo amps up the drama, the theatrics of it all. Something about school spirit or ceremony-- or maybe he just wanted to relive his old glory days as someone who undoubtedly kind of peaked in high school.

This is the first year I preside in an official context as faculty, given the assignment to be Kugisaki Nobara’s mentor, and I stand on the steps behind Yaga-sensei and Kusakabe-sensei both, whilst Gojo prances onto the patio to park himself right next to me.

Three figures walk in behind him through the gate.

Fushiguro Megumi, who looks downright bored, because this whole thing was technically pointless for him-- given that he had been living and working at Jujutsu Tech for the better part of last decade. Despite the fact that he looks like Maki with a bad hair day, and the fact that the very shadows bend to his will, he insistently is not a Zen’in, thanks very much. I don’t blame him. I counted myself as lucky not to have dealt with them closely during the Night Parade.

There’s the new boy, Itadori Yuuji, so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed that I took one single look at him, and think to myself, Oh, no, this place is going to eat him alive.

And that’s before Gojo leans over, whispering, “Oh, that’s the Sukuna vessel, by the way.”

I can understand why he wouldn’t want to execute him, even if the higher-ups were calling for the kid’s head. It would be like trying to run over a puppy. I think only a psychopath would be willing.

I try to picture his face marred by the cursed markings that I’ve seen in the paintings of Ryomen Sukuna, four eyes and sharp teeth and a sadistic snarl dripping with blood-- but I can’t do it.

Poor kid.

Then, my future mentee, Kugisaki Nobara, who strides in with shoulders thrown back, chin high, as if the school owes her money and she’s here to shake someone down and collect. Black tights, hair cropped to her chin and dyed copper brown, a long skirt, and scuffed loafers, like a sukeban throwback from the 80s.

“Welcome, newbies,” Gojo’s saying with a flourish, clapping his hands together with mock-solemnity, “to Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College!”

I zone out on the rest of his brief speech, some kind of droning on and on about the dismal pay, the screws they need to loosen to be effective sorcerers, and on and on-- and I think to myself that I don’t remember my own entrance ceremony being quite so… camp, at all.

I spot Kugisaki rolling her eyes, and I kind of get it, now.

Despite all the ways he drives me up the wall, Gojo Satoru occasionally hits the proverbial nail right on the head. This girl?

We’re going to get along just fine.

“Kugisaki Nobara,” she says, tossing the introduction out like a challenge, and I can’t help but feel almost-- cowed, in a way, with her glower on me, and the hammer slung on her shoulder. I was never the cool kid as a teen-- not with my powers the way they were, and my tendency to huddle with Akari-chan and drool over Tohoshinki-- and I’m a little scared that she’d be able to suss this out immediately.

“I’ve been asked to supervise your training,” I say, hiding my nerves under the weight of a calm, placid smile and squared back.

Gojo had technically given me sufficient notice beforehand, in theory, but the timeframe had been vague at best-- and when it came down to it, he’d practically dumped the task on me last-second-- more like a “favor,” as if it were a babysitting gig, while he gallivanted off on another international mission.

I wonder where he is. Picture him on an international sugar rush, rampaging through the world’s pastry shops and candy stores, before checking in on Okkotsu Yuuta’s progress.

The most recently-classified Special Grade, a non-sorcerer boy who woke up one morning, and found himself with more cursed energy at his fingertips than had been seen in our world for centuries. Whose meteoric rise in the Jujutsu world also frightened the absolute shit out of the higher-ups.

After all, Gojo had always prized potential and creativity, and a fighting spirit, over the Kyoto school’s emphasis on ancient bloodlines and traditional clans. His students are a talented, but volatile group as a result.

And he’d left them to each other, in the aftermath of their classmate’s death. To Kusakabe-san, to Yaga-sensei, and now… to me. The lab rat who hasn’t seen the outside world in literal ages.

Nobara arches a brow that seems too artfully plucked for being a fifteen year old-- but then again, I’m probably just old compared to them. I try not to wince at the thought. “So you’re my babysitter now?”

“I guess,” I shrug. “Gojo didn’t give much other instruction, but given that you--” in conjunction with Itadori, of course-- “haven’t been involved in the Jujutsu world long, he thought it would be beneficial for me to be a guide.” I offer a handshake.

She takes it without hesitation, all bravado and rough edges. “Well, it probably beats the training Panda and Maki-san’s trying to do to Fushiguro right now.”

I dread to think of what that would be, and hope Megumi isn’t getting bullied too badly.

“I’ll be observing,” I inform her as we pace into the dojo. “Take your spot in the ring.”

She doesn’t miss a beat. Cracks her neck, then her fingers, shifting the weight of her hammer from one hand to another.

“Alright,” I say, opening the crates that are stacked to the wall one by one, letting Yaga-sensei’s cursed corpses rise out of the box.

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Barely a month in.

Barely a month in, and we’re holding our first report of a student death.

“Itadori Yuuji is dead,” Gojo tells us in the staff conference room, an uncharacteristic stillness to his person. Roiling with some kind of deep-seated tension, like a rip current.

He pauses. Then continues, clipped, direct-- almost unnaturally emotionless. I haven’t even seen him like this last year, after the Night Parade. After he had to lift the burden of executioner onto his shoulders, and kill Geto Suguru, once our schoolmate, then a curse user.

“An unidentified apparition of potential Special Grade appeared two days prior in the sky in West Tokyo City, at the Eishuu Detention Center, above the exercise yard. Its cursed womb was witnessed by several non-sorcerers. Due to the urgent nature, three Jujutsu High first-years were dispatched to the scene. During the ensuing exorcism, Itadori Yuuji fell in action.”

The words filter through the ringing in my ears.

Potential Special Grade.

Jujutsu High first years.

Fell in action.

“I should have been there,” I murmur to myself, voice raw, afterwards, as everyone’s filing out of the staff room, uncharacteristically somber. I haven’t exactly been let out of the cage yet-- and three untested children were being sent to deal with a Special Grade.

Why send them at all? Why hadn’t it been me assigned to the mission brief? Or were the higher-ups going to keep feeding children to the meat grinder? I wear the memories of them all--

The kid from Kyoto.

Itadori Yuuji.

Oda Daiki, and the rest of the graduates from mine and Akari-chan’s year.

And before that too, Haibara Yu.

Nanami, seated across the conference table, looks at me. His glasses are off-- tucked into the breast pocket of his blazer-- and without them, he looks more tired than usual. I heard he’d taken the first train down after receiving the news, leaving Ino to independently finish out the assignment they were on in Tohoku.

I recognize the look in his eyes--

It’s the same one he wore in the months after Haibara died.

I think back to my freshman year at Jujutsu High-- Nanami and Haibara were in their junior year then, and Gojo and Geto and Ieiri were in their senior year. I didn’t bother with the seniors-- all of them seemed so terrifying in their own way, intimidating at the peak of Jujutsu prowess. An untouchable God-boy. An unending well of curses. And a girl who could reverse the flow of decay and death.

Me and my paltry crossbow hadn’t even been in the same galaxy as them, let alone the same orbit.

But the third years were a different story-- at least, Haibara was. All bright smiles and warmth, with an infectious sense of humor that made even, even the stuffy Kyoto students and their senpai Iori laugh, a counter to Nanami’s quiet, dutiful aloofness that had been present even back then.

The two of them had gone out together on a mission, with Haibara promising sweet treats as souvenirs. How could any of us have known? They were no fodder.

Only Nanami came back.

And as if overnight, a pit formed.

We, all of us at the academy-- could feel the absence. The way the food hall became colder without bright laughter ringing out through it. The way more and more missions had to be shouldered by us first years, because the second years were only at the level of becoming auxiliary managers. The way, unmoored by this premature death, all of us drifted.

But it wasn’t just that emptiness that his death left in us, but the silence. The lack of condolences from the higher-ups. The way there was just a boy who was living, and breathing one day-- and gone the next, his files stamped over with a red seal, his name redacted from schedules, rosters, and missions with a black marker.

The way we were all expected to just move on, as if a child hadn’t just died on our watch, and we didn’t have the resources necessary to properly mitigate that risk.

Just like now.

I can feel it building in my chest like a weight-- choking me, cutting off my air. My vision blurs in front of me. Helpless rage. Even more potent now, than in the past-- with my new potential. My new technique. The way Gojo had assigned me to mentor one of these three kids-- who now might have seen her classmate, or her friend, die.

I jerkily slide my seat back, then stop. “It should have been me,” I blurted out-- though the room echoes with the emptiness, the only other person in the space being Nanami. What kind of absolution was that?

He pauses where he’s halfway to the door. “We always say that,” he replies, softly.

I exhale, and stand up, propping my hands upon the desk. “I know. But it feels worse every time now.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“They’re just kids,” I swallow. I don’t know if I believe him. “You and I both know that if I were just allowed to go out there-- none of this would have happened.”

Nanami doesn’t argue with that-- and I think back to the aftermath of Geto’s defection. How it caused this firestorm of whispers and speculation amongst the underclassmen, especially given the fact that our seniors seemed to take the news without even blinking twice. Of course, the Jujutsu higher-ups had immediately nipped the open gossip in the bud-- but they couldn’t really control our thoughts, of which there were many.

I wonder at the ache behind my eyes. I wonder at the helpless futility I feel. I wonder at the names and faces I carry with me. I wonder at the power I now hold at my fingertips.

I wonder if that was where it started, for Geto.

Nanami cuts into my thoughts-- a deep voice, an anchor to the tremble in my fingers that I’d tried to hid by bracing them against the desk. “It doesn’t matter what you were allowed to do,” he says softly. “You couldn’t have known that this would be the outcome.”

I squeeze my eyes shut as his hand presses over mine. “I just wanted to protect them.”

Five A.M. comes and goes, and I’m alone these days as I’m greeting the sunrise, the coil of cursed energy and RCE flowing through my system like blood through the circulatory system. Oxygenated, deoxygenated, a perpetual motion machine.

Somewhere along the line, I’d gotten comfortable with Nanami. Familiar with the way our morning routines slotted around one another. The pale sky above us like a veil, one that, instead of shielding civilian eyes from the backlash of curses, created a quiet little bubble of companionship that we only shared between the two of us.

I miss him, I realize. Not just the metronomic cadence of his steps as he jogs around the track, not just the easy conversation we had after I’m done meditating and he’s done running, as we’re stretching out our limbs together as the sky blushes with the day’s possibilities.

I miss him.

I’d tried to ask around regarding his absence-- even going so far as to corner Ijichi, seeing as he had been assigned to the missions Nanami was taking, but even he, as usually high-strung as he was, brokered no forthright answers to the query.

“Where is he?”

He’d yelped when he saw me, clutching his stacks of files tighter, looking nervously past me as if hoping a divine intervention or Yaga-sensei might rescue him. “If this is about Nanami-san…”

“Of course it’s about Nanami. I haven’t heard from him in weeks.” I almost felt bad for him-- dealing with Gojo for years on end, being the person who’s in charge of passing along mission reports to the higher-ups, and now, my attempts to shake him down.

The keyword here being, of course, almost.

Ijichi shifts, trying to press his slipping glasses further up his nose. “I-I really can’t say, miss. It’s classified. Highly classified. I-I mean, above even your clearance…”

My eyes narrow. “You’re dodging the question.”

“I-it’s highly classified information. Please don’t ask me anymore, miss!”

And with that, he turns, scrambling with his folders, and bolting toward the car park like a spooked rabbit.

I exhale and watch him go--

And notice the sheet that slipped, unnoticed by either of us, to land at my feet.

I stoop, pick it up, and immediately recognize Nanami’s terse, neat handwriting.

2018 September

Kanagawa Prefecture, Kawasaki City

Kinema Movie Theatre

After the showing of Human Earthworm 3, the disfigured corpses of three high school students were discovered by cinema staff.

Cause of death: Increased cranial pressure and respiratory paralysis due to cranial deformity.

Assigned sorcerer: Nanami Kento

Assigned auxiliary manager: Ijichi Kiyotaka

Signed and stamped, with Nanami’s even-handed scrawl. A pretty pedestrian initial assignment-- but it was what was annotated on the margins that I was more drawn to.

Cursed spirit still in its infancy, unlikely to have been around for long. Its cursed technique involves the reshaping of a being’s physical shape through manipulation of its soul through contact. Victims die, or remain semi-lucid under the curse’s control. Ieiri-san has confirmed that restoring them via RCT is impossible.

I reread the final line twice. Think back to all the curses I’ve exorcised in the past. Even Rashomon-no-Oni, itself a Special Grade due to its longevity and durability, hadn’t been like… this.

It didn’t kill with claws, or teeth, or flame. It wasn’t some brutish physical force. This was precision in its malevolence. A curse that could reshape someone. Twist the soul to become something else entirely.

It relishes in the growth of its power, similar to the unregistered Special Grades fought by Gojo-san, which have mastered Domain Expansions. It is likely for the Patchwork curse to also reach this stage imminently. Its victim count has already exceeded my estimations.

I swallow, staring down at the page. Despite the warmth that lingered in the fall air, and the temperature control in the school building, I suddenly feel cold. Multiple unregistered Special Grade cursed spirits?

Cursed technique incompatible with efficient exorcism. Requesting prompt backup sorcerer on case before curse awakens into its full potency.

My name on the next line-- I feel a strange sense of pride-- that Nanami would consider recommending me to fight alongside him like this, despite my overwhelming dread as I sit back on my heels, digesting the rest of the report.

A cursed spirit with victims likely in the dozens. Potential for Special Grade. Potential for Domain Expansions.

And Nanami, who’d directly admitted in his report that his CT was a bad matchup against the curse’s, was being sent out alone to reckon with it.

The staff common room is quieter than usual-- what with Gojo off gallivanting again, somewhere-- and the space is empty save for a shock of bleached-blonde hair with the roots showing through.

“Akari-chan!” I interject, my dark mood lifted somewhat.

Over the past few weeks, with the rain, I’d decided to go meditate in the shrine instead-- but even the scent of incense was unable to clear away the worry snaking through my mind-- Nanami’s silence. The report I’d snuck back into Ijichi’s filing cabinet before he realized I saw it. The battle inside myself whether or not to confront someone about it-- but who? Yaga-sensei? Gojo himself? Nanami?

She turns, and her frazzled expression cracks into a grin as well. “Well, look who’s here!”

I don’t bother with formalities-- those are for people who aren’t the woman who’s been my friend since we were fifteen, and who’s the only other final girl of our grade level. Boy bands and trauma prove to be equally potent topics of bonding.

“I needed this pick-me-up after Gakuganji’s been sending me on wild goose chases for the Goodwill Event,” she’d sighed, slumping back in her seat.

“Let me guess, he’s just been spamming, ‘per my last email,’ on you on things completely out of your control?” I ask wryly.

“God, yes,” Akari replies. “Like, we’re feeding a bunch of high schoolers-- who gives a crap if the cooking wine doesn’t come from some specific distillery in Yamanashi?”

Nanami, my brain supplies-- ever the gourmet-- someone who preferred to spend his checks exploring new restaurants and bakeries-- perhaps the only pleasure he’d allowed himself in an otherwise thankless set of occupations.

I stick my hands in my pockets, leaning against her desk. “If you need help printing placemats, or rosters, or something, I’m your gal. They have me doing basically nothing around here. I feel bad.”

“I know,” she says, looking up at me. “I missed you.”

“You too,” I admit. As fun as training Nobara was, I missed being out on assignment. Missed the pseudo-roadtrips Akari-chan and I could embark on, grasping at little slivers of joy in-between missions. Learning to live by shopping sprees and dive bar dinners in between mission briefs.

There’s a lull as we both settle in-- Akari turning her attention back to her email inbox, where another message sits from Principal Gakuganji, God bless, and I see her read the subject line, the sender name, and then shut her eyes to exhale slowly through her nose again.

“So,” I say, nudging her with my shoulder. “You excited to see Arata?”

At the mention of her little brother, she brightens. “Yeah!” she admits. “I haven’t seen him in months. He’s been training like crazy. Keeps texting me stuff like ‘You’re gonna be so proud.’ Like I wouldn’t be even if he gets knocked out by someone in the first five minutes.”

“You think he’ll hold his own?” I ask her.

“I’m not a betting woman,” she says. “But I’m almost kind of nervous, too. He’s just-- so young. He said he’s thinking about transferring to Tokyo in junior year to study healing with Ieiri-san.”

I nodded emphatically. “That’s good, you’ll be able to keep an eye on him then. Can’t believe he’s training at school now. I’ve only met him once, and he was shorter than the cursed doll we used to practice on then.”

“He’s taller now,” she says with a snort. “But yeah, it’s so weird. I used to change his diapers and now he’s coming by for the Goodwill event. Is it just in my nature as his big sister to worry?”

I think of Nanami’s silence. Of the mission notes I wasn’t supposed to find. “I think if there’s someone you care about, it’s only natural you’ll worry about them.”

Akari nods. There’s something almost pensive on her face, as she turns back to her work, keyboard clacking as she types in some kind of reply or another to some request sent over from Kyoto.

Then-- “I’m not like you,” she adds suddenly. “Or Gojo. Or-- or how Daiki was. Or how Arata wants to be. I’ve long since hit my ceiling. I’m just here to drive you guys, and forward over reports and assignments. I can barely fight-- just some basic self defense and hand-to-hand. I’m not a combatant at all.”

“Akari,” I say quietly.

“No, it’s fine.” She waves it off, and continues-- breathlessly, quickly, as if she were fighting to get the words out before she can lose her nerve. “I’m making my peace with it. It’s just hard, sometimes. Watching the people you love grow into things you can’t keep up with.”

“I’m still figuring things out,” I admit. “This new technique. My place in it all. The promotion they’re dangling over my head, like there’s something missing there, that I need to prove before I’m worthy of them. I’ve always been in the jujutsu world, but now it’s different. In a way that scares me, sometimes-- because--”

I falter-- think of the names I carried, and the people I couldn’t save. Think of Nanami even now, sent off to shadow a curse he had no hope of winning against. “--Because it means I might stop being the person I used to be.”

Akari meets my eyes then, and the hesitance is gone-- replaced by that fierce, loyal steadiness I remember from when we were seventeen and dyeing her hair together after-hours.

“You’ll always be you,” she says. “That’s the part that matters.”

The mat thuds under my hands as Kugisaki strikes again, but the blow’s off. Unwieldy. More passion than precision, all raw edges from her cursed energy and a weight that mostly feels like she’s trying to just break down a door. I brace behind the mat, reinforcing the padding with a thin stream of cursed energy that cushions the blow, but also tells me exactly where she’s going wrong.

“You’re smaller than every Jujutsu student with the exception of Nishimiya,” I tell her, playing the role of the unflappable supervisor.

What I don’t show-- what I refuse to show-- is the way the entire Goodwill Exchange event has rattled me.

(The way Gojo had bounced over with a grin promising nothing good, a box propped on a dolly. Casually presenting Itadori, unexpectedly alive and well. Like he hadn’t died. Like Kugisaki and Fushiguro hadn’t mourned him.

And that was even before the collusion between the Kyoto students to kill Itadori again became evident from the strategic formations they took up.

Before a Special Grade curse had made its way onto the arena.

Before the curse users invaded our campus.

Before the veil descended-- calibrated to cursed energy level. A cruel joke-- barring only Gojo and I out, leaving the kids defenseless.)

I straighten out my shoulders, repositioning the mat.

“Stop trying to equate your body weight with your cursed energy-- all your opponents are most likely going to be much larger than you. I want you to put the weight of your cursed energy behind the blow, not your body weight.”

Kugisaki huffs at me, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t get what’s the difference-- and besides, it helps with the cursed energy output for me to put my body weight behind the blow too.”

I am suddenly thrown back to arguing (debating) with Yuki just a few months prior, about things like meditation regimes, my RCT, and staying in long-range fights.

And suddenly, I’m also filled with renewed appreciation for what I put the older woman through.

I nodded. “That’s a fair point, but in combat, if you can learn to separate them, that gives you more versatility in your fighting style. You also won’t have to compensate for being thrown off-balance by the force of your punches.”

She looks at me-- half-skeptical still, but nonetheless shifting back into her ready stance. “Didn’t you mostly do long-range fighting?”

“I’ve diversified my options,” I tell her smoothly. “Let’s try again.”

Barely a month in.

Barely a month in, and we’re holding our first report of a student death.

“Itadori Yuuji is dead,” Gojo tells us in the staff conference room, an uncharacteristic stillness to his person. Roiling with some kind of deep-seated tension, like a rip current.

He pauses. Then continues, clipped, direct-- almost unnaturally emotionless. I haven’t even seen him like this last year, after the Night Parade. After he had to lift the burden of executioner onto his shoulders, and kill Geto Suguru, once our schoolmate, then a curse user.

“An unidentified apparition of potential Special Grade appeared two days prior in the sky in West Tokyo City, at the Eishuu Detention Center, above the exercise yard. Its cursed womb was witnessed by several non-sorcerers. Due to the urgent nature, three Jujutsu High first-years were dispatched to the scene. During the ensuing exorcism, Itadori Yuuji fell in action.”

The words filter through the ringing in my ears.

Potential Special Grade.

Jujutsu High first years.

Fell in action.

“I should have been there,” I murmur to myself, voice raw, afterwards, as everyone’s filing out of the staff room, uncharacteristically somber. I haven’t exactly been let out of the cage yet-- and three untested children were being sent to deal with a Special Grade.

Why send them at all? Why hadn’t it been me assigned to the mission brief? Or were the higher-ups going to keep feeding children to the meat grinder? I wear the memories of them

The kid from Kyoto.

Itadori Yuuji.

Oda Daiki, and the rest of the graduates from mine and Akari-chan’s year.

And before that too, Haibara Yu.

Nanami, seated across the conference table, looks at me. His glasses are off-- tucked into the breast pocket of his blazer-- and without them, he looks more tired than usual. I heard he’d taken the first train down after receiving the news, leaving Ino to independently finish out the assignment they were on in Tohoku.

I recognize the look in his eyes--

It’s the same one he wore in the months after Haibara died.

I think back to my freshman year at Jujutsu High-- Nanami and Haibara were in their junior year then, and Gojo and Geto and Ieiri were in their senior year. I didn’t bother with the seniors-- all of them seemed so terrifying in their own way, intimidating at the peak of Jujutsu prowess. An untouchable God-boy. An unending well of curses. And a girl who could reverse the flow of decay and death.

Me and my paltry crossbow hadn’t even been in the same galaxy as them, let alone the same orbit.

But the third years were a different story-- at least, Haibara was. All bright smiles and warmth, with an infectious sense of humor that made even, even the stuffy Kyoto students and their senpai Iori laugh, a counter to Nanami’s quiet, dutiful aloofness that had been present even back then.

The two of them had gone out together on a mission, with Haibara promising sweet treats as souvenirs. How could any of us have known? They were no

Only Nanami came back.

And as if overnight, a pit formed.

We, all of us at the academy-- could feel the absence. The way the food hall became colder without bright laughter ringing out through it. The way more and more missions had to be shouldered by us first years, because the second years were only at the level of becoming auxiliary managers. The way, unmoored by this premature death, all of us drifted.

But it wasn’t just that emptiness that his death left in us, but the silence. The lack of condolences from the higher-ups. The way there was just a boy who was living, and breathing one day-- and gone the next, his files stamped over with a red seal, his name redacted from schedules, rosters, and missions with a black marker.

The way we were all expected to just move on, as if a child hadn’t just died on our watch, and we didn’t have the resources necessary to properly mitigate that risk.

Just like now.

I can feel it building in my chest like a weight-- choking me, cutting off my air. My vision blurs in front of me. Helpless rage. Even more potent now, than in the past-- with my new potential. My new technique. The way Gojo had assigned me to mentor one of these three kids-- who now might have seen her classmate, or her friend, die.

I jerkily slide my seat back, then stop. “It should have been me,” I blurted out-- though the room echoes with the emptiness, the only other person in the space being Nanami. What kind of absolution was that?

He pauses where he’s halfway to the door. “We always say that,” he replies, softly.

I exhale, and stand up, propping my hands upon the desk. “I know. But it feels worse every time now.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“They’re just kids,” I swallow. I don’t know if I believe him. “You and I both know that if I were just allowed to go out there-- none of this would have happened.”

Nanami doesn’t argue with that-- and I think back to the aftermath of Geto’s defection. How it caused this firestorm of whispers and speculation amongst the underclassmen, especially given the fact that our seniors seemed to take the news without even blinking twice. Of course, the Jujutsu higher-ups had immediately nipped the open gossip in the bud-- but they couldn’t really control our thoughts, of which there were many.

I wonder at the ache behind my eyes. I wonder at the helpless futility I feel. I wonder at the names and faces I carry with me. I wonder at the power I now hold at my fingertips.

I wonder if that was where it started, for Geto.

Nanami cuts into my thoughts-- a deep voice, an anchor to the tremble in my fingers that I’d tried to hid by bracing them against the desk. “It doesn’t matter what you were allowed to do,” he says softly. “You couldn’t have known that this would be the outcome.”

I squeeze my eyes shut as his hand presses over mine. “I just wanted to protect them.”

“Kugisaki Nobara,” she says, tossing the introduction out like a challenge, and I can’t help but feel almost-- cowed, in a way, with her glower on me, and the hammer slung on her shoulder. I was never the cool kid as a teen-- not with my powers the way they were, and my tendency to huddle with Akari-chan and drool over Tohoshinki-- and I’m a little scared that she’d be able to suss this out immediately.

“I’ve been asked to supervise your training,” I say, hiding my nerves under the weight of a calm, placid smile and squared back.

Gojo had technically given me sufficient notice beforehand, in theory, but the timeframe had been vague at best-- and when it came down to it, he’d practically dumped the task on me last-second-- more like a “favor,” as if it were a babysitting gig, while he gallivanted off on another international mission.

I wonder where he is. Picture him on an international sugar rush, rampaging through the world’s pastry shops and candy stores, before checking in on Okkotsu Yuuta’s progress.

The most recently-classified Special Grade, a non-sorcerer boy who woke up one morning, and found himself with more cursed energy at his fingertips than had been seen in our world for centuries. Whose meteoric rise in the Jujutsu world also frightened the absolute shit out of the higher-ups.

After all, Gojo had always prized potential and creativity, and a fighting spirit, over the Kyoto school’s emphasis on ancient bloodlines and traditional clans. His students are a talented, but volatile group as a result.

And he’d left them to each other, in the aftermath of their classmate’s death. To Kusakabe-san, to Yaga-sensei, and now… to me. The lab rat who hasn’t seen the outside world in literal ages.

Nobara arches a brow that seems too artfully plucked for being a fifteen year old-- but then again, I’m probably just old compared to them. I try not to wince at the thought. “So you’re my babysitter now?”

“I guess,” I shrug. “Gojo didn’t give much other instruction, but given that you--” in conjunction with the late Itadori-- “haven’t been involved in the Jujutsu world long, he thought it would be beneficial for me to be a guide.” I offer a handshake.

She takes it without hesitation, all bravado and rough edges. “Well, it probably beats the training Panda and Maki-san’s trying to do to Fushiguro right now.”

I dread to think of what that would be, and hope Megumi isn’t getting bullied too badly.

“I’ll be observing,” I inform her as we pace into the dojo. “Take your spot in the ring.”

She doesn’t miss a beat. Cracks her neck, then her fingers, shifting the weight of her hammer from one hand to another.

“Alright,” I say, opening the crates that are stacked to the wall one by one, letting Yaga-sensei’s cursed corpses rise out of the box.

“Let’s see what you’ve got.”

Five A.M. comes and goes, and I’m alone these days as I’m greeting the sunrise, the coil of cursed energy and RCE flowing through my system like blood through the circulatory system. Oxygenated, deoxygenated, a perpetual motion machine.

Somewhere along the line, I’d gotten comfortable with Nanami. Familiar with the way our morning routines slotted around one another. The pale sky above us like a veil, one that, instead of shielding civilian eyes from the backlash of curses, created a quiet little bubble of companionship that we only shared between the two of us.

I miss him, I realize. Not just the metronomic cadence of his steps as he jogs around the track, not just the easy conversation we had after I’m done meditating and he’s done running, as we’re stretching out our limbs together as the sky blushes with the day’s possibilities.

I miss him.

I’d tried to ask around regarding his absence-- even going so far as to corner Ijichi, seeing as he had been assigned to the missions Nanami was taking, but even he, as usually high-strung as he was, brokered no forthright answers to the query.

“Where is he?”

He’d yelped when he saw me, clutching his stacks of files tighter, looking nervously past me as if hoping a divine intervention or Yaga-sensei might rescue him. “If this is about Nanami-san…”

“Of course it’s about Nanami. I haven’t heard from him in weeks.” I almost felt bad for him-- dealing with Gojo for years on end, being the person who’s in charge of passing along mission reports to the higher-ups, and now, my attempts to shake him down.

The keyword here being, of course, almost.

Ijichi shifts, trying to press his slipping glasses further up his nose. “I-I really can’t say, miss. It’s classified. Highly classified. I-I mean, above even your clearance…”

My eyes narrow. “You’re dodging the question.”

“I-it’s highly classified information. Please don’t ask me anymore, miss!”

And with that, he turns, scrambling with his folders, and bolting toward the car park like a spooked rabbit.

I exhale and watch him go--

And notice the sheet that slipped, unnoticed by either of us, to land at my feet.

I stoop, pick it up, and immediately recognize Nanami’s terse, neat handwriting.

2018 September

Kanagawa Prefecture, Kawasaki City

Kinema Movie Theatre

After the showing of Human Earthworm 3, the disfigured corpses of three high school students were discovered by cinema staff.

Cause of death: Increased cranial pressure and respiratory paralysis due to cranial deformity.

Assigned sorcerer: Nanami Kento

Assigned auxiliary manager: Ijichi Kiyotaka

Signed and stamped, with Nanami’s even-handed scrawl. A pretty pedestrian initial assignment-- but it was what was annotated on the margins that I was more drawn to.

Cursed spirit still in its infancy, unlikely to have been around for long. Its cursed technique involves the reshaping of a being’s physical shape through manipulation of its soul through contact. Victims die, or remain semi-lucid under the curse’s control. Ieiri-san has confirmed that restoring them via RCT is impossible.

I reread the final line twice. Think back to all the curses I’ve exorcised in the past. Even Rashomon-no-Oni, itself a Special Grade due to its longevity and durability, hadn’t been like… this.

It didn’t kill with claws, or teeth, or flame. It wasn’t some brutish physical force. This was precision in its malevolence. A curse that could reshape someone. Twist the soul to become something else entirely.

It relishes in the growth of its power, similar to the unregistered Special Grades fought by Gojo-san, which have mastered Domain Expansions. It is likely for the Patchwork curse to also reach this stage imminently. Its victim count has already exceeded my estimations.

I swallow, staring down at the page. Despite the warmth that lingered in the fall air, and the temperature control in the school building, I suddenly feel cold. Multiple unregistered Special Grade cursed spirits?

Cursed technique incompatible with efficient exorcism. Requesting prompt backup sorcerer on case before curse awakens into its full potency.

My name on the next line-- I feel a strange sense of pride-- that Nanami would consider recommending me to fight alongside him like this, despite my overwhelming dread as I sit back on my heels, digesting the rest of the report.

A cursed spirit with victims likely in the dozens. Potential for Special Grade. Potential for Domain Expansions.

And Nanami, who’d directly admitted in his report that his CT was a bad matchup against the curse’s, was being sent out alone to reckon with it.

The staff common room is quieter than usual-- what with Gojo off gallivanting again, somewhere-- and the space is empty save for a shock of bleached-blonde hair with the roots showing through.

“Akari-chan!” I interject, my dark mood lifted somewhat.

Over the past few weeks, with the rain, I’d decided to go meditate in the shrine instead-- but even the scent of incense was unable to clear away the worry snaking through my mind-- Nanami’s silence. The report I’d snuck back into Ijichi’s filing cabinet before he realized I saw it. The battle inside myself whether or not to confront someone about it-- but who? Yaga-sensei? Gojo himself? Nanami?

She turns, and her frazzled expression cracks into a grin as well. “Well, look who’s here!”

I don’t bother with formalities-- those are for people who aren’t the woman who’s been my friend since we were fifteen, and who’s the only other final girl of our grade level. Boy bands and trauma prove to be equally potent topics of bonding.

“I needed this pick-me-up after Gakuganji’s been sending me on wild goose chases for the Goodwill Event,” she’d sighed, slumping back in her seat.

“Let me guess, he’s just been spamming, ‘per my last email,’ on you on things completely out of your control?” I ask wryly.

“God, yes,” Akari replies. “Like, we’re feeding a bunch of high schoolers-- who gives a crap if the cooking wine doesn’t come from some specific distillery in Yamanashi?”

Nanami, my brain supplies-- ever the gourmet-- someone who preferred to spend his checks exploring new restaurants and bakeries-- perhaps the only pleasure he’d allowed himself in an otherwise thankless set of occupations.

I stick my hands in my pockets, leaning against her desk. “If you need help printing placemats, or rosters, or something, I’m your gal. They have me doing basically nothing around here. I feel bad.”

“I know,” she says, looking up at me. “I missed you.”

“You too,” I admit. As fun as training Nobara was, I missed being out on assignment. Missed the pseudo-roadtrips Akari-chan and I could embark on, grasping at little slivers of joy in-between missions. Learning to live by shopping sprees and dive bar dinners in between mission briefs.

There’s a lull as we both settle in-- Akari turning her attention back to her email inbox, where another message sits from Principal Gakuganji, God bless, and I see her read the subject line, the sender name, and then shut her eyes to exhale slowly through her nose again.

“So,” I say, nudging her with my shoulder. “You excited to see Arata?”

At the mention of her little brother, she brightens. “Yeah!” she admits. “I haven’t seen him in months. He’s been training like crazy. Keeps texting me stuff like ‘You’re gonna be so proud.’ Like I wouldn’t be even if he gets knocked out by someone in the first five minutes.”

“You think he’ll hold his own?” I ask her.

“I’m not a betting woman,” she says. “But I’m almost kind of nervous, too. He’s just-- so young. He said he’s thinking about transferring to Tokyo in junior year to study healing with Ieiri-san.”

I nodded emphatically. “That’s good, you’ll be able to keep an eye on him then. Can’t believe he’s training at school now. I’ve only met him once, and he was shorter than the cursed doll we used to practice on then.”

“He’s taller now,” she says with a snort. “But yeah, it’s so weird. I used to change his diapers and now he’s coming by for the Goodwill event. Is it just in my nature as his big sister to worry?”

I think of Nanami’s silence. Of the mission notes I wasn’t supposed to find. “I think if there’s someone you care about, it’s only natural you’ll worry about them.”

Akari nods. There’s something almost pensive on her face, as she turns back to her work, keyboard clacking as she types in some kind of reply or another to some request sent over from Kyoto.

Then-- “I’m not like you,” she adds suddenly. “Or Gojo. Or-- or how Daiki was. Or how Arata wants to be. I’ve long since hit my ceiling. I’m just here to drive you guys, and forward over reports and assignments. I can barely fight-- just some basic self defense and hand-to-hand. I’m not a combatant at all.”

“Akari,” I say quietly.

“No, it’s fine.” She waves it off, and continues-- breathlessly, quickly, as if she were fighting to get the words out before she can lose her nerve. “I’m making my peace with it. It’s just hard, sometimes. Watching the people you love grow into things you can’t keep up with.”

“I’m still figuring things out,” I admit. “This new technique. My place in it all. The promotion they’re dangling over my head, like there’s something missing there, that I need to prove before I’m worthy of them. I’ve always been in the jujutsu world, but now it’s different. In a way that scares me, sometimes-- because--”

I falter-- think of the names I carried, and the people I couldn’t save. Think of Nanami even now, sent off to shadow a curse he had no hope of winning against. “--Because it means I might stop being the person I used to be.”

Akari meets my eyes then, and the hesitance is gone-- replaced by that fierce, loyal steadiness I remember from when we were seventeen and dyeing her hair together after-hours.

“You’ll always be you,” she says. “That’s the part that matters.”

The mat thuds under my hands as Kugisaki strikes again, but the blow’s off. Unwieldy. More passion than precision, all raw edges from her cursed energy and a weight that mostly feels like she’s trying to just break down a door. I brace behind the mat, reinforcing the padding with a thin stream of cursed energy that cushions the blow, but also tells me exactly where she’s going wrong.

“You’re smaller than every Jujutsu student with the exception of Nishimiya,” I tell her, playing the role of the unflappable supervisor.

What I don’t show-- what I refuse to show-- is the way the entire Goodwill Exchange event has rattled me.

(The way Gojo had bounced over with a grin promising nothing good, a box propped on a dolly. Casually presenting Itadori, unexpectedly alive and well. Like he hadn’t died. Like Kugisaki and Fushiguro hadn’t mourned him.

And that was even before the collusion between the Kyoto students to kill Itadori again became evident from the strategic formations they took up.

Before a Special Grade curse had made its way onto the arena.

Before the curse users invaded our campus.

Before the veil descended-- calibrated to cursed energy level. A cruel joke-- barring only Gojo and I out, leaving the kids defenseless.)

I straighten out my shoulders, repositioning the mat.

“Stop trying to equate your body weight with your cursed energy-- all your opponents are most likely going to be much larger than you. I want you to put the weight of your cursed energy behind the blow, not your body weight.”

Kugisaki huffs at me, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t get what’s the difference-- and besides, it helps with the cursed energy output for me to put my body weight behind the blow too.”

I am suddenly thrown back to arguing (debating) with Yuki just a few months prior, about things like meditation regimes, my RCT, and staying in long-range fights.

And suddenly, I’m also filled with renewed appreciation for what I put the older woman through.

I nodded. “That’s a fair point, but in combat, if you can learn to separate them, that gives you more versatility in your fighting style. You also won’t have to compensate for being thrown off-balance by the force of your punches.”

She looks at me-- half-skeptical still, but nonetheless shifting back into her ready stance. “Didn’t you mostly do long-range fighting?”

“I’ve diversified my options,” I tell her smoothly. “Let’s try again.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

A declassified World War II-era government guide to “simple sabotage” is currently one of the most popular open source books on the internet. The book, called “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and “describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly.” 

Over the last week, the guide has surged to become the 5th-most-accessed book on Project Gutenberg, an open source repository of free and public domain ebooks. It is also the fifth most popular ebook on the site over the last 30 days, having been accessed nearly 60,000 times over the last month (just behind Romeo and Juliet). 

“Sabotage varies from highly technical coup de main acts that require detailed planning and the use of specially-trained operatives, to innumerable simple acts which the ordinary individual citizen-saboteur can perform,” the guide begins. “Simple sabotage does not require specially prepared tools or equipment; it is executed by an ordinary citizen who may or may not act individually and without the necessity for active connection with an organized group; and it is carried out in such a way as to involve a minimum danger of injury, detection, and reprisal.”

Do you work for the federal government? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at +1 202 505 1702. Otherwise, send me an email at jason@404media.co.

The guide’s intro was written by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who was the head of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, which later inspired the creation of the CIA. The motivating factor for writing the guide, according to a passage within it, is that citizen saboteurs were highly effective at resisting the Nazis during World War II, and the Office of Strategic Services wanted to detail other ways sabotage could be done: “Acts of simple sabotage are occurring throughout Europe. An effort should be made to add to their efficiency, lessen their detectability, and increase their number,” the guide states. “Widespread practice of simple sabotage will harass and demoralize enemy administrators and police,” the guide states, adding that citizens often undertake acts of sabotage not for their own immediate personal gain, but to resist “particularly obnoxious decrees.”

Because it was written during active wartime, the book includes various suggestions for causing physical violence and destruction, such as starting fires, flooding warehouses, breaking tools, etc. But it also includes many suggestions for how to just generally be annoying within a bureaucracy or office setting. Simple sabotage ideas include:

“Insist on doing everything through ‘channels.’ Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.”

“Make ‘speeches.’ Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your ‘points’ by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate ‘patriotic’ comments.”

“Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.”

“Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.”

“‘Misunderstand’ orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.”

“In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers of poor machines.”

“To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.”

“Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.”

“Multiply paperwork in plausible ways.” 

“Make mistakes in quantities of material when you are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses.”

“Work slowly. Think out ways to increase the number of movements necessary on your job”

“Pretend that instructions are hard to understand, and ask to have them repeated more than once. Or pretend that you are particularly anxious to do your work, and pester the foreman with unnecessary questions.”

“Snarl up administration in every possible way. Fill out forms illegibly so that they will have to be done over; make mistakes or omit requested information in forms.”

The guide also suggests “general devices for lowering morale and creating confusion,” which include “Report imaginary spies or danger to the Gestapo or police,” “act stupid,” “Be as irritable and quarrelsome as possible without getting yourself into trouble,” “Stop all conversation when axis nationals or quislings enter a cafe,” “Cry and sob hysterically at every occasion, especially when confronted by government clerks.”

It is impossible to say why this book is currently going viral at this moment in time and why it may feel particularly relevant to a workforce of millions of people who have suddenly been asked to agree to be “loyal” and work under the quasi leadership of the world’s richest man, have been asked to take a buyout that may or may not exist, have had their jobs repeatedly denigrated and threatened, have suddenly been required to return to office, have been prevented from spending money, have had to turn off critical functions that help people, and have been asked to destroy years worth of work and to rid their workplaces of DEI programs. Maybe it's worth wondering why the most popular post in a subreddit for federal workers is titled “To my fellow Feds, especially veterans: we’re at war.” 

404 Media is an independent website whose work is written, reported, and owned by human journalists and whose intended audience is real people, not AI scrapers, bots, or a search algorithm.

[barricadescon]

Barricades 2024 Final Schedule!

The time is near! Barricades 2024 is happening THIS WEEKEND, July 12-14 , all online!

We have the final schedule available on the website at barricadescon.com or right here, on this post! A more detailed schedule including descriptions is available in text under the Keep Reading break!

BarricadesCon 2024 Program

A full programming schedule of all the panels, their content, their presenters, their times, and whether they will be recorded. 

All times are in UTC, and can be converted to your local time zone at this link.

Key to types of Panels:

Convention Administration panels: Panels run by the Con Committee, to open and end the convention.

Guest of Honor: Special panels from our guests of honor. This year, our guests of honor are Jean Baptiste Hugo, a descendant of Victor Hugo who will discuss his project photograph his ancestor’s house; Christina Soontornvat, the author of the award-winning Les Mis retelling “A Wish in the Dark;” and Luciano Muriel, playwright of the 2018 musical play “Grantaire.” 

Fan/Academic Panel Presentations: Panels on history, fandom, or analysis of Les Mis. Scholars will share historical research, fans will share hobby projects, and the audience may get an opportunity to ask questions. 

Social Meetups: Casual unstructured time to meet up over video call and chat!

Social Games: Games and activities.

Friday, June 12th

Discord Server Opens: Friday Morning UTC

Read through the rules, explore the channels, and chat with other congoers.

Welcome Session 

Friday, 17:00-17:30 UTC

Session Type: Convention Administration

Presented by: Convention Committee 

Recorded: No

In this session, Concom 2024 will kick off BarricadesCon 2024 and welcome everyone. Concom will also walk everyone through some basic information and FAQs to help ensure a fun and interesting con for everyone.

The Cats of Les Misérables

Friday, 17:30-18:00 UTC 

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: Melannen

Recorded: No

A laid-back social panel to meet your fellow attendees, share pictures of your pets (or have them join you in the panel!) and chat about pets and Les Mis fandom generally.

(Guest of Honor) From Paris to Bangkok: a Thai-inspired retelling of Les Misérables

Friday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Guest of Honor

Presented by: Christina Soontornvat

Recorded: Yes

Christina Soontornvat’s Newbery Honor-winning children’s novel, A Wish in the Dark, is a Les Misérables adaptation set in a magical Thai-inspired world. Christina will discuss the inspiration for the book, how she decided when to be faithful to the original, and how Hugo’s powerful themes of compassion and forgiveness resonate across age ranges and cultures.

Learn more about Christina’s work at soontornvat.com.

The Yellow Passport: Surveillance and Control in 19th Century France 

Friday, 19:00- 20:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: David Montgomery, creator of the Siecle History Podcast

Recorded: Yes

Les Misérables takes place in a France of police spies, intercepted mail, travel restrictions and other elements of a 19th Century police state. What exactly were these ways French governments surveilled and controlled their citizens? How did they work? And how did people get around them? 

Meetup: Fan Creators

Friday, 19:00-20:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: Eli

Recorded: No

Come meet fellow fan creators! Casual unstructured time to chat with other fans. A good place for people who spend a lot of time on Ao3.

Break 

20:00-21:00 UTC

Early Transformative Works: The First Les Miserables Fanart, Fanfics, and AUS

Friday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Psalm

Recorded: Yes

This presentation will give you an overview of the earliest works inspired by Les Misérables – including illustrations, comics, poems, pamphlets, and novels. Which ones will stand the test of time? And what can these works tell us about the book’s reception and impact? Come learn about the forgotten, but fascinating first transformative works about Les Misérables.

Black and Pink International

Friday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Panel Presentation

Presented by: Darryl Brown Jr. (he/him), Senior Director of Programs and Advocacy, Black and Pink National. Kenna Barnes (she/they), Advocacy Manager, Black and Pink National

Recorded: Yes

This year, Barricades Con is donating all profits to Black and Pink International.

Black & Pink National is a prison abolitionist organization dedicated to abolishing the criminal punishment system and liberating LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by that system through advocacy, support, and organizing. Programming includes wrap-around services for those coming out of the carceral system such as but not limited to workforce development, transitional housing, newsletters to inside members and penpal matching, nationwide Chapters, youth-led research about young people living with HIV, and programming for and by people who do sex work.

Sex work as an issue sits clearly at the intersection of reproductive justice, prison abolition, and trans and queer liberation. Black trans women who engage in sex work face some of the highest rates of policing and surveillance, directly interfering with their ability to access safety and autonomy. We know that when we center the needs of Black trans women, especially those who engage in sex work, we are inherently able to address the needs of other system-impacted people along the way.

The Sex Worker Liberation Project (SWLP) is a collaboration between Black and Pink National and a network of current and former LGBTQIA2S+ people who do sex work across the country. This sex worker led group moves with the intention of building community, providing resources, and cultivating self advocacy tools.The SWLP is on a mission to tackle the urgent and multifaceted issues confronting sex workers, with a specific emphasis on the challenges faced by Black and Brown LGBTQIA2S+ sex workers.

Meetup: Brick Readers 

Friday, 22:00-23:00 UTC 

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: Mellow

Recorded: No

Come meet up and hang out with your fellow Brick readers! Let’s talk about weird nonsense from the book. 

Beat by Beat: a Les Mis 2012 Deconstruction

Friday, 22:00-23:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Eli

Recorded: Yes

To quote Eli: “As an avid Les Mis fan and also someone with an MFA in screenwriting, I find the script for the Les Mis 2012 movie absolutely fascinating. The choices they made, the added brick scenes, the added song, the pacing, the dialogue, the shots selection—all of it contributes to a very interesting adaptation that our fandom owes a huge debt of gratitude to (whether we like it or not 🥲). I would like to take an audience through the 9 major beats of a screenplay, apply it to Les Mis 2012, and share my thoughts on what the filmmakers did right for this adaptation and what they did wrong. I’ll compare it to the Les Mis musical (the direct source material) as well as the Brick (the secondary source material) for insight on the choices they made!”

History Researcher Meetup

Friday, 23:00-24:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: David Montgomery

Recorded: No

A chance for history researchers to meet up and discuss their research!

Atonement: A Theatrical Piece for One Actor, Based on Segments from Hugo’s Les Miserables

Friday, 23:00-24:00 UTC

Session Type: Panel Presentation

Presented by: Alexiel de Ravenswood

Recorded: Yes

This theatrical piece is a dramatic adaptation of scenes from Book 1 of the novel, focusing on the Bishop of Digne. Following the piece, actor Alexiel de Ravenswood will engage in q&a on the creative process and the themes explored.

Saturday, June 13th

Guest of Honor: The Photography of Jean Baptiste Hugo

Saturday, 15:00-16:00 UTC

Session Type: Guest of Honor

Presented by: Jean Baptiste  Hugo

Recorded: yes

Jean Baptiste Hugo is the great-great-grandson of Victor Hugo. He has extensively photographed Hugo’s home in exile on Guernsey, which Victor Hugo decorated following his own aesthetic philosophies–in particular, the journey from darkness into light, which we see reflected throughout Hugo’s literary career. M. Hugo will share his photographs and discuss Hauteville House as a physical realization of his ancestor’s ideas.

Reflecting on Directing Les Mis

Saturday, 16:00-17:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Cait

Recorded: yes

In Cait’s words: “I directed an amateur production of Les Mis at the end of last year, and would love to talk about how that went and share snippets from the show and behind the scenes. This will include talking about adapting Les Mis for the space and budget, approaches to certain scenes, dual casting lead roles, and probably raving about my lovely cast.”

The Fallibility of History in Les Misérables 

Saturday, 16:00-17:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Syrup 

Recorded: yes

Throughout Les Misérables, Hugo often reminds readers that what they are reading is derived from some form of documentation or hearsay. While this serves to provide credibility to the tales he is sharing, there are certain moments where Hugo opts out of describing exact details, despite his efforts at a historically-accurate record. In this panel, I will take a look at these instances where Hugo either addresses or obfuscates these events, and how by doing so, he reveals the fallibility of history, and highlights how history documentations are not always as reliable as they seem. Thesis: By crafting Les Misérables as a form of historical documentation, Hugo reveals the fallibility of history, and readers are able to understand how history and history documentation are not always as reliable as they seem.

Break  

Saturday, 17:00-18:00 UTC

What Horizon: Tragedies, Time Loops, and the Hopefulness of Les Amis

Saturday, 18:00-18:30  UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Percy

Recorded: yes

In Percy’s words: “I have directed a staged reading of the play and will have video clips to show! My play is focused on the rebellion and Les Amis; it aims to give the barricades the attention they often lack in adaptation and develop the individual characters of the insurgents. I’m working to make this episode of the Hugo novel and its historical context accessible to audience members who may not be familiar with the source material, while hopefully also bringing something new to the story for longtime fans.

One aspect of the story I’m particularly interested in examining is the persistent sense of hope associated with the barricades, despite the insurgents’ eventual defeat and the previous failure of the July Revolution. Linking the seemingly cyclical process of revolution and restoration, the metatheatrical tradition of tragedies aware of their own repetition in performance before the audience, and the nature of Les Misérables itself as a story that has been told and retold countless times, I hope to show the audience the worth of the insurgents’ struggle and the importance of their continued efforts. Many adaptations construe the rebellion as futile or as solely a tragic story, so I would like my adaptation to counter that idea, as Les Amis grapple with the meaning of their sacrifice and the impacts of their actions.

In a presentation, I would discuss these ideas with reference to Hugo’s original text and the ways in which the rebellion has been changed in adaptation, as well as other works that inspired me (namely Hadestown and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead). I’d discuss the choices I made in my adaptation process and show clips from the staged reading, touching on the different characters and the historical setting as well as the overarching themes with which I engaged.”

Cosette: A Novel, The (Fanmade) Sequel to Les Misérables

Saturday, 18:30-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: IMiserabili

Recorded: yes

This presentation is  a deep-dive into the 1995 fanfiction “Cosette” by Laura Kalpakian. It will include a short background on the author and the publication, a summary of the plot, an analysis of represented historical events in the work, character analyses and comparisons to the source material and other Les Mis adaptations, and memorable quotes. 

Musical Eponine and Grantaire in song and lyric edits: Personal research on their development

Saturday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Panel Presentation

Presented by: Ruth Kenyon

Recorded: yes

In Ruth’s words: “I’m an older musical Les Misérables fan who has watched the show develop from its beginnings at the Palace Theatre. I have a special interest in how the lyrics and the characters have changed over time. As plenty of people know now, I am also writing a book on the musical using these experiences. I’m working on Eponine’s chapter at the moment, and while I know fans have a lot of love for as she is now, I feel quite upset to see what happened to her as she was developed from the original French version of the musical. She seems to have lost quite a lot of emotional agency along the way. Grantaire has also changed over time; he was cut before the previews and there was a big re-write of his character when the show went to Broadway, but I really like what they have done with his character. I’ll provide examples of all this detail with material from my book and (trying) to sing bits of lyrics to explain what has happened to the characters.”

Barricades as a Tactic: How Do They Work?

Saturday, 19:00-20:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Lem

Recorded: No

This session will explore the tactical and strategic uses of barricades, with an eye towards what to consider when writing both canon-era fanfiction and modern AUs. After all, the strategic goals towards which the barricades were used in canon-era urban warfare were often quite different from the strategic goals of similar-looking tactics in contemporary protest movements. Core components of the session will be a map-based analysis of July 1830, a comparison with June 1832 highlighting strategic goals and considerations canon-era characters would have, and an exploration of various parallels among contemporary protest tactics (which may or may not *look* like barricades).

Meetup: Musical Fans

Saturday, 19:00-20:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Meetup

Presented by: Erin

Recorded: No

A casual place to meet up with other fans and discuss the musical!

Break

Saturday, 20:00-21:00 UTC

Why is There a Roller Coaster in Les Mis? The Strange History of the Russian Mountains

Saturday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Peyton Parker/Mellow

Recorded: Yes

In Les Miserables there is an actual canon scene where Fantine rides a roller coaster. How did a roller coaster end up in Paris in 1817? And why did this ride, one of the world's first wheeled Roller Coasters, make a cameo in Victor Hugo’s novel?

It’s “Les Mis Meets Defunctland.”

We’re going talk about the earliest origins of the Russian Mountains, the fascinating history behind how they came to France, their many connections to the political turmoil of the time period, what they felt like to ride, why they were shut down, how they fell into obscurity, and why Victor Hugo included them in Les Miserables. It’s time for a roller coaster digression.

Fanfic Round Robin

Saturday, 22:00-23:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game

Presented by: Featheraly

Recorded: No

Participate in a round robin to help write a fic together!

Obscure(-ish) Les Mis Adaptations To Watch

Saturday, 23:00-23:30 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Pureanon

Recorded: Yes

Les Mis has been adapted many times over the years, and this means there’s a lot of adaptations to enjoy. Because of this, a lot of adaptations are underviewed or underappreciated. I’d like to use this panel to discuss some of my favorites/the most unique — 1925, 1948, 1967, and 1995. These are all very different, and aside from all being ones I enjoy, they’re fascinating looks at how different countries and different time periods adapt this story. 

The adaptations I’ve chosen are both some of the best and some of the worst out there, but they’re all unique. 1925 is one of the most faithful adaptations out there, and it uses the medium of silent film to full effect. 1948 has Valean get shot at multiple times in the opening minutes, and the revolutionaries fight with BARRELS in the barricade. 1967 is half one of the best Anglophone Les Mis adaptations ever, and half the drunkest. 1995 is more of an adaptation of how people react to Les Mis as a story than a straightforward adaptation, and it’s one of the most beautiful and unique versions out there. I intend to show a clip from each adaptation, so people can get a little taste of what each adaptation is like.

Recovery: a Fanfic Live Read

Saturday, 22:30-23:00

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Eli, Barri

Recorded: Yes

A full cast will live read a Les Mis fanfic written specifically for the con.

Compared to Some People Grantaire is Doing Just Fine (No, Really)

Saturday: 22:00-23:00

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Ellen Fremedon, Pilferingapples

Recorded: Yes

Grantaire and Marius are the two characters on the fringes of the Friends of the ABC, connected to the group by social ties rather than sincere political belief. In this panel, Pilf and Ellen will discuss the two characters as narrative foils, touching along the way on the problem with Great Men, bourgeois inaction, what it means to have the republic as a mother, and dying for love–plus those two pistols in Marius’s pocket.

Preliminary Gaities

23:00-24:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game

Presented by: Rare, Percy, and ShitpostingFromTheBarricade

Recorded: No

Preliminary Gayeties is the chapter where Grantaire gets drunk with Joly and Bossuet before the barricades.  It is perfect for a drinking game. 

In keeping with personal tradition, Rare, Percy, and ShitpostingFromTheBarricade will bring you a second year of our dramatic reading of the “Preliminary Gayeties” chapter of the brick. all while following specified drinking game rules (including classics such as “drink for brick quotes that appear commonly in fanfiction,” “pretentious classical references,” and “drink/eat when characters drink/eat”), and enjoying snacks mentioned in the chapter as they are mentioned. Everyone is invited to participate by reading, eating, and drinking along with this activity!

Sunday, June 14th

Publishing, Podcasting, and Promotion

Saturday, 15:00-16:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: David Mongomery, Alexiel de Ravenswood, Nemo Martin

Recorded: Yes

Whether it’s fanart, Tiktok videos or deep historical analysis, lots of us have THOUGHTS about Les Mis we’d like to share with the world. This panel discussion features creators sharing their advice on how to share your work with the world in a range of mediums.

Femme/butch: Dynamics of Gender and Attraction in Les Mis

Saturday, 15:00-15:30 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Eléna

Recorded: Yes

In Eléna’s words: “This is a presentation about parallels between femme/butch dynamics and les mis! The focus is on Marius, Cosette and Eponine and their individual gender presentation and attraction. There will be a focus on the original text, but I will also talk about headcanons & representation in the fandom space! I’m a femme myself, but I’ll try to incorporate butch and transmasculine viewpoints!”

Lee’s Misérables: Jean Valjean, Confederate Hero

Saturday, 15:30-16:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation

Presented by: Sarah C. Maza

Recorded: Yes

Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862) was as big a success in the United States as elsewhere in the world upon publication, hailed throughout the young nation as the commanding masterpiece of modern French literature. Why would a novel that celebrates violent insurrection and radical republican ideals be so warmly received in America? One of the (many) answers to that question is that the novel appeared in the midst of the Civil War, and that it provided engrossing reading to the many soldiers stuck in place for weeks or months in camp, hospitals, and prisons. Most surprising, though, is the evidence of Les Misérables’ appeal to Confederate soldiers (who jokingly called themselves “Lee’s Misérables”), as Hugo was on record as an ardent abolitionist. My paper will illustrate and explain the paradoxical appeal of Hugo’s novel in the South in two contexts: first, I will draw attention to the ways in which Confederate nationalists likened their cause to the European Revolutions of 1848; and second, I will explain the novel’s resonance within what Wolfgang Schievelbusch has called the “culture of defeat,” the emotional resonance, in some historical contexts, of narratives of doomed causes and heroic failure.

Guest of Honor: Luciano Muriel, playwright of “Grantaire”

Sunday, 16:00-17:00 UTC 

Session Type: Guest of Honor

Presented by: Luciano Muriel

Recorded: Yes

Panel about the details of the creative process behind the show Grantaire, from the discovery of the character during the playwright’s first reading of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables to the opening night of the staging at the Teatro Pradillo of Madrid. Why Grantaire? Why a dramatic monologue? Why include Amaral songs? What did the awards and subventions entail? All the answers to these and many other questions.

Break

Sunday, 17:00-18:00 UTC

1848 in Chile: The Society of Equality and the Siege of La Serena

Sunday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academc Presentation

Presented by: Duncan Riley

Recorded: Yes

While the Revolutions of 1848 are traditionally seen as a European event, they had a powerful influence in Latin America. In Chile in particular, university students who studied in France during the revolutions would lead a movement to oust the conservative dictatorship that had ruled the country since the 1830s. Inspired by the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine and the ideals of utopian socialism, a group of Chilean intellectuals and artisans founded “The Society of Equality,” a cross-class political club dedicated to creating a democratic and participatory republic. Inspired by these ideals, in 1851 the citizens of La Serena, a mining town in northern Chile, declared their independence from the central government. Members of the Society of Equality transformed La Serena into the torchbearer of their vision of a new “democratic republic” that would restore civil liberties and grant greater autonomy to Chile’s provinces and municipalities. In defense of these principles, La Serena endured a months-long siege by government forces. The conflict inscribed itself within broader international dynamics of revolution and empire, as the British Royal Navy Intervened on the side of the government, while French immigrants built barricades to defend La Serena from invasion. Ultimately, then, La Serena and the Chilean Revolution of 1851 provide a fascinating window into the transatlantic exchanges of ideas that drove movements of democratic reform in both Europe and Latin America during the Revolutions of 1848.

The Unknown Light Examined

Sunday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Presentation

Presented by: Madeleine

Recorded: Yes

In the tenth chapter of Les Misérables, Bishop Myriel sets out to perform the last rights of Conventionnel G, a man reviled by all of Digne for having served on the body that voted to execute the king during the French Revolution. The bishop and the dying man debate the nature of equality, divine authority, and resistance to oppression. G’s fierce defense of the French revolution and Myriel’s staunch condemnation of political violence represent diametrically opposed philosophies, but the two men have more in common than first appears. They are both men of faith, in their own way, called to serve by their profound love for humanity. Intensely shaken by this realization, the bishop kneels before the dying sinner and asks his blessing.

What does this role reversal signify? How do Myriel and G’s conceptualizations of God and morality compare, and why does Hugo seek to reconcile them? To answer these questions, this panel investigates the thematic implications of this chapter. We’ll dissect the characters’ debate, discussing the historical and religious context that informs their moral frameworks—and Hugo’s depiction of them. Drawing on analysis by literary scholars, we’ll situate Hugo’s portrayal of the bishop and the conventionnel within this same context, evaluating the extent to which G is based on the Abbé Grégoire. We’ll also examine the impact of this chapter on Bishop Myriel’s characterization and symbolic role in the novel. Lastly, we’ll explore how “The Bishop in the Presence of an Unknown Light" serves as a political and philosophical thesis for Les Misérables.

Revolutionary Rants: “Les Misérables” Onstage from an International Perspective

Sunday, 20:00-21:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Presentation

Presented by: Tessa, Anne, Kaja, Marie, Apollon

Recorded: Yes

What started out as an open call online to gather fans from around the world to rant about the musical version of Les Mis has turned into a group of musical fans from four countries getting together to discuss our different perspectives of various international productions of the show. Topics include our favorite cast albums, how our favorite character interactions are staged in various productions we follow (including Enjoltaire), our favorite actors from the different productions, and our favorite memorable moments from the show. And we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the major impact the 2012 movie had on us as well!

Paint & Sip

Sunday, 20:00-21:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game

Presented by: Psalm, Potatosonnet

Recorded: No

A short presentation on the artwork of Victor Hugo, his medium and subject matter, followed by crafting time inspired by Hugo’s work.

Les Mis Letters: Building a Book Club

Sunday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic presentation

Presented by: Mellow, Eccentrichat

Recorded: Yes

There are 365 chapters in Les Miserables. Les Mis Letters is an email subscription that sends you one chapter of Les Mis daily for a year.

Rachel and Mellow have been running the “Dracula-Daily” inspired Les Mis readalong since 2023! Mellow will speak to the behind the scenes process of setting up a Substack and discord server, while other readers will speak to the experience of reading Les Mis for the first time in this format or the small projects they’ve put together while following along.

Les Mis Singalong

Sunday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game

Presented by: Megan

Recorded: No

Let’s let loose by belting out our favorite Les Mis songs together! All singing abilities welcome and encouraged, it’s virtual after all 😀 It will be musical-heavy but we’ll be sure to throw in some other fan favorites!

Closing Session 

Sunday, 22:00-22:30 UTC

Session Type: Convention Administration

Presented by: Convention Committee

Recorded: No

Closing remarks by the convention committee, marking the official end of the convention.

Dead Dog

Sunday, 22:30-24:00

Session Type: Convention Administration

Presented by: Convention Committee

Recorded: No

 “Dead Dog” is a fandom slang term for a laidback “afterparty” that happens when a convention has officially ended. 

[michimonie]

I've been casually working on a College AU

...and I'm so sorry for those who are over these kind of AUs.

I have a Discord server where I write little fanfics and stuff for myself, and have been adding to it for years. One of the repeating ones is a College AU that involves characters from a few different shows.

Since I've been feeling down, I figured I'd make a little post about it in case anyone is interested.

Check below for character art and blurbs.

This whole thing started with the fearsome four, so I'll start there.

Fearsome Four

They've been friends since the beginning of college (and some longer). While they don't always have a lot in common, and may bicker often, they do genuinely enjoy being around each other. They like to meet up sometimes to share a meal and complain about their lives or talk up a recent project.

Reggie (Reginald Bushroot) Plant Molecular Biology & Plant Sciences

Shy, lonely, kind, gets bullied. He spends most of his time in the nature center and greenhouses. Students in his (and similar) degrees/programs have reserved spaces around there, and his happens to be in one of the greenhouses. He spent a long time working out a special process that could give people plantlike qualities, and eventually succeeded (on himself.) For the sake of keeping him in the college storyline, he has the ability to believably make himself look "normal," but it's not something he likes to maintain for too long.

Bud Flud (Or is it Flood?) Business Administration & Management

Manipulative, stubborn, selfish, still cares about his friends. He's the sole heir to his family's company. When his mother died, she left the company to him, but his father has been finding every delay or loophole to keep it all in his own hands. One day he's invited on a full tour of the main building for their biggest earner: bottled water. An executive (or at least someone hired to look like one) takes an excited Bud around and they eventually end up in the lowest basement floor, where he's pushed into one of the vats. Bud's father ran stories in all forms of media asap saying Bud was dead. Just outside the city, he reforms on the side of a river and sneaks back to his dorm. similar to Bushroot, I wanted him to be able to actively participate in college things, so he can hold a more "normal-looking" form that takes advantage of his watery abilities (and maaaybe makes himself look a bit stronger/beefier.) Eventually, he does get revenge on his father and takes over the company, but attempts to stay in college, because he doesn't want to leave his friends.

Jackie (Quackerjack) Mechanical Engineering & Robotics

Chaotic, fun, kind, impulsive. All he's ever wanted was to make toys and games (not the electronic kind) for people of all ages, but every time he had ever proposed his prototypes or ideas to companies, they had shot him down. Every time they'd become more and more harsh about it. During the final presentation the representatives he was presenting for told him he'd never get into the industry, and that's when he snapped. With his skills in engineering (and sewing), he created a toy army in secret as well as his signature costume, and proceeded to take down the companies that told him he'd never succeed. After his revenge, he is the first one to lead the group into becoming supervillains and tends to take on the leadership role more often than not (although, Bud takes charge in a few instances.)

Elmo Sputterspark (Megavolt) Electromechanical Engineering Technology

Socially anxious, guarded, has a hard time showing emotions, but genuinely cares for his friends. He started off college as the smartest one in class, always participating (even if he hated his fellow classmates), and doing extra credit often, even though he never needed it. He proposed his ideas on electricity and generation of it, and his professors laughed him out of the room. That's when he knew he was going to prove them wrong. Once he started making some real progress on his life's work, he stopped doing it in his reserved space in the science wing and started working on it in his dorm (which is against the rules, but no one's stopped him yet.) As he continued his work, he started getting into tunnel vision, his friends occasionally dropping by to bring him food and things. After an experiment, he found that he's become a living battery. Instead of his brain immediately being fried by the process (like in the show), his brain gets more jumbled as he continues to use his abilities. At some point he shows his new successful invention to his professors and they refuse to acknowledge his work, but still look into what he did. At a later date, he found out that they stole his work and put it out as theirs. Jackie suggested getting revenge so they go get back at them together.

The Theater Kids

While not a particularly tight-knit group, they do end up spending a decent amount of time together. They all are in majors in the Theater wing of the college, but Jim, Drake, and Duckula tend to get put on projects together (generally to Duckula's dismay.) Meanwhile, Drake, Duckula, and Daffy are all major players in the Event Planning Committee, mainly because they all want to host and be the center of attention.

(Warning: there's a lot of "and he's the son of..." in this part)

Jim Starling Acting

Selfish, guarded, standoffish, but serious about his work. He's secretly the son of the actor who played Darkwing Duck in the old show, but hates Darkwing for that exact reason. While it's a secret, Drake knew immediately and wanted to meet him, only to find Jim threatening him to never tell anyone. Before Drake showed up, he used to get every hero/protagonist role in major productions from the college, but now he only gets villain/antagonist roles. It angers him to no end that his roles are being "stolen" by this new guy. Through one means or another, he ended up meeting the actual Negaduck (90s) and while they're trapped together for a bit, Negaduck helps inspire him to play the best villain he can.

Drake Mallard Acting

Kind, stubborn, arrogant. One of the founding members of the college's Darkwing Duck Fan Club (the other being LP, but he doesn't actually go to college there.) His dorm room is filled with Darkwing merch of all kinds. As a member of the Event Planning Committee, he's the only one willing to do the paperwork and early prep for events. While sitting at a computer filling out forms and doing expense sheets isn't the most fun, it does give him more freedom to slip in a few Darkwing events and episode showings without running them by the rest of the committee. At a later point, Negaduck stalks the college campus and another character (Buck) suspects Drake and Jim. It's revealed soon after that Drake is the son of the actual Darkwing (who existed alongside the show.) His mother is Morgana Macawber and his older sister, Gosalyn, is Quiverwing Quack, local beloved superhero. His parents retired from superheroing and are traveling the world (though we all know DW is likely still running into problems, lol.) His father left him all of his old gear so Drake could take up the superhero mantle, but he's been too scared of ruining DW's legacy and being in his father's shadow. During the investigation, they find out Negaduck had put a tracker on DW's old suit and was back for revenge. Drake tried to pretend to be his dad to trick Negaduck, but it didn't work. Afterwards, they confide in Jim and get him to play DW, and he successfully convinces Negaduck long enough to get him trapped. Once Negaduck is turned over to the police, Drake rethinks his situation and slowly learns to be his own Darkwing, eventually making his own suit to fit.

Count Duckula (or just Duckula) Drama / Dramatics / Theatre Arts

Arrogant, dense, vaguely evil, but also very lonely. Unlike most students, he doesn't live in a dorm. Like his previous incarnation, his castle can warp wherever he wants to go, so he just warped near campus and set up his castle so that it wouldn't leave (for Duckula fans, I assume he just had to remove his cuckoo clock.) Out of the Event Planning Committee members, he's the best at event prep and technical stuff. You need a projector? You need a fog machine? You need a DJ setup? He can get it and set it up easily. He doesn't even seem to be aware of his skills in prepping sets and equipment. That being said, as they were deciding who got to host the biggest party of the year, he won and was super excited to host. It was definitely his favorite part of the year and made everything else worth it. Meanwhile, his skills in acting could definitely use some work. He once had to play a damsel in distress for a group exercise and Duckula's work was so bland, Jim came out with a chainsaw and scared him into saying his lines right. This mainly worked because his only lines were basically "help" and "save me!" One problem for Duckula is that he's a vampire, which is one reason why he wants to do theater so much, no cameras required. There are cameras that can capture his image, but they are unbelievably expensive. His dream is to get a bunch of those cameras and fulfill his family's dream of becoming famous. (For Duckula fans, this version is based on the 18th, who can show up in cameras, but this was added for more drama.) At one point he gets it in his head that animation would mean he doesn't need cameras, but he decided to hypnotize the entire animation wing to make him an animated pilot he wrote (and not a very good one.) After the hypnosis wore off, they chased him down, ready to stake his heart with styluses (styli?) and pencils until he agreed to bring them snacks for a year and donate to the animation wing.

Daffy Duck (Jr?) Musical Theater

Arrogant, aloof, chaotic. He's the son of the original Daffy, and a big Duck Dodgers fan. Since he's rarely paired in a group with Jim, Drake, and Duckula, he tends to tease their group a lot and give them grief when they use the stage too often for their practice. As a member of the Event Planners, he focuses on the decor and aesthetic for events. He also bothers Drake often about doing Duck Dodgers showings and bugs him about Dodgers being "better" and "more beloved." He'll slack off sometimes during event work when it comes to actually putting things up, but his decorating plans are actually pretty solid and eye-catching. He'll occasionally do social media stuff for events, too (especially if he's the one who gets to host them.)

The Rest

Other characters I didn't really have a group for, but are still important.

Buck McDuck (Aka Young Scrooge McDuck) Business Administration & Management

Stubborn, clever, impulsive. He took on the alternate name of Buck because he thought it would sound cool and give him the chance to separate his college life from his family life prior. His first year at college, he decided to take on a job as a part-time security guard, which he soon found was going to be very high stress. Catching small time security stuff was easy and boring, but soon a costumed villain (Negaduck) showed up and started causing problems. He never watched Darkwing and wasn't in the area during Darkwing's time as a hero, so it wasn't until way later on that he found out Negaduck was the criminal messing with campus (and constantly escaping him.) Eventually he had to work with Drake (and later on, Jim) to catch Negaduck and turn him over to the police. Buck was already becoming worn out from this madness, but it wasn't until a later incident involving Birch (Badboy) Goodman that made him quit his job and instead focus his efforts on selling homemade study guides (similar to Azul Ashengrotto of Twisted Wonderland) and doing odd jobs around campus (like helping the event committee) for extra cash. Luckily, these jobs also ended up paying better. Sometimes he likes to do his schoolwork while hanging out with the animals in the veterinary area, but he'd never tell anyone about that. I had an idea for his brother (from Italian comics) Gideon McDuck to show up and jumpstart the newspaper / reporter club, but that wouldn't happen until Buck was at least in his second or third year. Also, the possibility of Glomgold meeting him during some kind of international competition, losing, and transferring just to be able to beat Buck at things in his own classes.

Sylvester Pussycat Graphic Design & Illustration

Creative, sneaky, aloof. He's an ex-delinquent with a love for graffiti, who wants to become a muralist. Instead of a dorm, he saved some cash by renting a studio apartment nearby. It's a bit run down, but he knows a guy so he gets it at a steep discount. He's definitely butted heads with Buck on a few occasions (when Buck worked security), especially when he got a hold of Black 4.0 paint — he painted cartoonish holes in parts of campus, which really messed with people (imagine walking into a room that's now just a black void.) After he was forced to clean it all up as punishment, he promised not to paint all over campus again (but the city is fair game.) As one of the best resident artists who also is strapped for cash, the Event Planning Committee hires him often for poster, banner, and flyer designs. As an extra bit of fun, if he sees Duckula trying to hypnotize someone, he'll jump in and stop him— usually by pushing his beak up towards the ceiling. Duckula obviously gets annoyed at it, but Sylvester tells him that's what he gets for hypnotizing people.

Birch Goodman (Badboy) Neurobiology & Behavior

Kind, sweet, polite, cinnamon roll who must be protected. (Rude, selfish, uncouth, punk rocker)

Thee original Birch is transformed by his machine (and a thoughtless Danger Mouse) into a villain, but this version is instead semi-transformed through an accident while testing it. Through that accident, he gets stuck in a sort of Jekyll and Hyde situation where both versions of him share the same body (For Disney Comics fans: Think Gyro Gearloose / The Mad Ducktor.) Birch wanted to make a machine that could help the world learn to be more polite and peaceful, while Badboy wants to use it to make everyone embrace rudeness. Birch has a reserved space towards the back of the science wing, so he doesn't talk too often with others, especially since the accident. Whenever Badboy takes over, he avoids classes in favor of causing chaos around campus with a smaller, more temporary version of the machine, in the shape of a megaphone. To Buck's dismay, Badboy always slips away without leaving a clue as to who he really is. Birch wants to finish the main machine in hopes it can undo his situation, and he hopes he'll be the first to use it. Unfortunately, Badboy is the one to finish it and immediately unleashes it on the campus (with plans to unleash it on the world.) Luckily, Buck and the Fearsome Four were off-campus during the initial blast. They come back and realize they're likely the only ones unaffected, which leads to them working together to take Badboy down and deactivate the machine. As Buck, Quackerjack, Liquidator, and Bushroot distract Badboy (who ends up being more of a challenge than they expected), Megavolt works to rewire the machine. Once reactivated, everyone on campus returned to normal, including Birch. Though, even with Badboy gone, he sometimes falls back into his ruder ways.

--

If people like this, I can do occasional run throughs of other AUs and things from my Discord.

Also, for anyone wondering "why these characters?" I picked a few of my favorite characters at the time, and since this was written over the course of a few years, it ended up being a random assortment. I also run through a certain rule that characters must be from the same generation, if that makes sense. Since I had added Buck, I didn't feel comfortable just bringing in Donald, Della, Daisy, or other characters from the younger (duck cousins) generation. Another application of this was picking which generation Gosalyn and Launchpad would be a part of, which is why I went with Gosalyn is from 90s DW, so she's an adult (who is only ever mentioned, tbh), but LP appears occasionally at the college as a friend (or more) of Drake.

Sorry for any spelling or grammar errors, I typed this up real quick before bed.

[reading-writing-revolution]

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Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral

Jason Koebler

Jason Koebler

·

Jan 29, 2025 at 3:52 PM

The World War II-era "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" is full of steps that office workers can take to resist leadership.

Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral

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A declassified World War II-era government guide to “simple sabotage” is currently one of the most popular open source books on the internet. The book, called “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and “describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly.”

Over the last week, the guide has surged to become the 5th-most-accessed book on Project Gutenberg, an open source repository of free and public domain ebooks. It is also the fifth most popular ebook on the site over the last 30 days, having been accessed nearly 60,000 times over the last month (just behind Romeo and Juliet).

“Sabotage varies from highly technical coup de main acts that require detailed planning and the use of specially-trained operatives, to innumerable simple acts which the ordinary individual citizen-saboteur can perform,” the guide begins. “Simple sabotage does not require specially prepared tools or equipment; it is executed by an ordinary citizen who may or may not act individually and without the necessity for active connection with an organized group; and it is carried out in such a way as to involve a minimum danger of injury, detection, and reprisal.”

💡

Do you work for the federal government? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at +1 202 505 1702. Otherwise, send me an email at jason@404media.co.

The guide’s intro was written by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who was the head of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, which later inspired the creation of the CIA. The motivating factor for writing the guide, according to a passage within it, is that citizen saboteurs were highly effective at resisting the Nazis during World War II, and the Office of Strategic Services wanted to detail other ways sabotage could be done: “Acts of simple sabotage are occurring throughout Europe. An effort should be made to add to their efficiency, lessen their detectability, and increase their number,” the guide states. “Widespread practice of simple sabotage will harass and demoralize enemy administrators and police,” the guide states, adding that citizens often undertake acts of sabotage not for their own immediate personal gain, but to resist “particularly obnoxious decrees.”

Because it was written during active wartime, the book includes various suggestions for causing physical violence and destruction, such as starting fires, flooding warehouses, breaking tools, etc. But it also includes many suggestions for how to just generally be annoying within a bureaucracy or office setting. Simple sabotage ideas include:

“Insist on doing everything through ‘channels.’ Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.”

“Make ‘speeches.’ Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your ‘points’ by long anecdotes and accounts of personal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate ‘patriotic’ comments.”

“Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.”

“Haggle over precise wordings of communications, minutes, resolutions.”

“‘Misunderstand’ orders. Ask endless questions or engage in long correspondence about such orders. Quibble over them when you can.”

“In making work assignments, always sign out the unimportant jobs first. See that the important jobs are assigned to inefficient workers of poor machines.”

“To lower morale and with it, production, be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work.”

“Hold conferences when there is more critical work to be done.”

“Multiply paperwork in plausible ways.”

“Make mistakes in quantities of material when you are copying orders. Confuse similar names. Use wrong addresses.”

“Work slowly. Think out ways to increase the number of movements necessary on your job”

“Pretend that instructions are hard to understand, and ask to have them repeated more than once. Or pretend that you are particularly anxious to do your work, and pester the foreman with unnecessary questions.”

“Snarl up administration in every possible way. Fill out forms illegibly so that they will have to be done over; make mistakes or omit requested information in forms.”

[rogue-ai-cat]

American Politics — What Happened Today That You Should Know

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Trump is checked out while his administration is seizing control of everything that moves.

While he saluted flagpoles and watched construction crews, his appointees weaponized student visas, Medicaid databases, and federal contracts into surveillance and deportation tools. They're moving with 54-minute deadlines and contempt-of-court defiance to capture every institution they can reach.

Iran is pushing us toward the biggest war in decades, but Trump's too distracted calling Fed chairs "stupid" to notice his own government is both executing authoritarian control and falling apart simultaneously.

The system is fighting back through courts, walkouts, and protest art, but his underlings don't need him paying attention to finish the job. That's why you need to pay attention to them.

Trump claims Iran proposed White House talks while threatening military strikes, but Tehran’s UN mission denies making any such proposal.

State Dept. contradicts Amb. Huckabee’s social media announcement of evacuation flights for Americans in Israel, saying it has no plans to assist departures.

Supreme Court allows Nuclear Regulatory Commission to override Texas and New Mexico governors’ opposition for temporary nuclear waste storage sites.

Michigan Attorney General Nessel and environmental groups file requests for rehearing of Energy Secretary Wright’s emergency order forcing coal plant to stay open.

MT Gov. Gianforte vetoes community solar bill despite supermajority legislative support, citing cost concerns that advocates say contradict experience in 23 other states.

Supreme Court upholds state transgender care bans for minors in 6-3 ruling, with Sotomayor reading rare dissent comparing majority’s deference to past defenses of interracial marriage bans.

Trump administration ends Trevor Project’s specialized LGBTQ+ suicide prevention service through federal hotline, giving nonprofit 30 days notice to shut down program.

EEOC Acting Chair Lucas tells senators agency will follow White House directives and defends dropping transgender discrimination cases to comply with Trump executive order.

FL AG Uthmeier calls to “denaturalize and deport” MN Rep. Omar after she criticized Trump’s military parade.

Texas quietly defunds Abbott’s signature border wall program after spending $3 billion to build only 8% of planned structure full of gaps migrants easily walk around.

Federal Reserve keeps rates steady despite Trump calling Powell “stupid” and demanding cuts to reduce government’s $1.2 trillion annual debt interest costs.

New data shows Medicare and Social Security stop paying full benefits in 8-9 years, earlier than projected, before accounting for Trump’s pending budget bill that would trigger additional Medicare cuts.

Justice Dept. plans to cut two-thirds of inspectors monitoring gun dealers for illegal sales as part of Trump administration effort to “defang and downsize” ATF.

Harvard cancer researcher Kseniia Petrova appears in court after months in custody for allegedly smuggling frog embryos as federal investigator admits he can’t define “biological materials” central to charges.

Senate Democrats walk out of Judiciary Committee hearing on Biden mental fitness as Durbin accuses Republicans of ignoring oversight of Trump administration’s military deployments and Sen. Padilla handcuffing.

FL Attorney General Uthmeier held in civil contempt for defying federal court order halting immigration law, must now file biweekly reports or face fines.

California senators demand Trump officials stop using Medicaid data for deportations after administration gave CMS 54-minute deadline to share millions of enrollees’ immigration status.

US resumes issuing student visas but requires all international applicants to make social media accounts public, warning private accounts may be suspicious.

Feds sue Kentucky Gov. Beshear over in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants living in KY, claiming it gives them preferential treatment over out-of-state U.S. citizens.

FL Board of Governors expected to approve three DeSantis appointees as university presidents after rejecting University of Florida’s choice Santa Ono as too “woke.”

DHS Secretary Noem requires personal approval for all contracts over $100k despite facing 5,100 annual reviews, prompting former acquisition chief to call policy “absolutely nuts.”

Independent National Academies report finds 30% of air traffic control facilities understaffed due to government shutdowns and hiring freezes, urges Congress to provide FAA resources to fix crisis.

Trump personally watches flagpole installation on White House lawn while Iran-Israel conflict escalates and questions mount about potential US military involvement.

FIGHTING BACK

“Dictator Approved” statue appears on National Mall showing gold thumb crushing Statue of Liberty, featuring quotes from Putin and Kim Jong Un praising Trump.

Take Action:

Write to your officials with resist.bot

Call your officials with 5calls.org

Find events at mobilize.us

[marta-bee]

News of the Day 6/14/25: Masculinity

Original source.

I was raised religious and still try to practice religion in a way that works for me, so I'm usually a big fan in people spending time with religious groups if they want to. Whether or not the theology is true, they can be socially useful. Good ones help you make connections across generations, cae for the poor and disadvantaged, and just connect with each other.

This doesn't feel like that, though.

After years of successive generations losing their religion, Gen Z seemed to get as irreligious as it could be. Now, what we’ve seen since 2020 is a kind of dead cat bounce: a slightly higher level of Christian religious affiliation among the youngest adults. Among the youngest cohort of Gen Z, those born between 2000 and 2006, the share who identify as Christian has increased since 2023, from 45 percent to 51, per the Pew Research Center. And overall, Gen Z seems to be more Christian than past trend lines predicted they should be: at 46 percent compared to a projected 41 percent. At the heart of that halt and slight reversal is a dual dynamic: Young women are leaving religious congregations, while young men’s religious identification and practice rises.

The argument, at least one of them, is the hollowing out of the economy, women's lib, and other things are taking away a lot of the things that give men a sense of purpose and prestige. They can't provide financially for their families like they want to. The jobs available don't feel as masculine as they once did, there's no great next challenge for them to accomplish to prove they're a man. (Settle the country, win a war, fly to the moon.) And culture tells them their wives and girlfriends don't even want to be taken care of anymore.

So they gravitate to conservative church groups that say, actually, being a man is special and important, it is your job to take care of your woman even if she's been fooled into thinking otherwise, and you are owed a space where you can be in charge.

I'm not a man. I'm not going to tell men what they need psychologically. I do know there's a loneliness problem around men, and something that encourages friendship and mentorship is good. But if you think purpose and dignity means taking care of someone (& that slides so easily into taking control over!) rather than doing something of value, that seems like you're being robbed. If you see women as something so other they can be obtained and provided for but never joined side-by-side as helpmeet... robbed again. And if your church is focused on those kinds of things it's probably not focusing on the kind of work that makes good religion actually worth participating in.

It makes me sad, I guess. And a bit scared. We can't have one civic institution untouched by all this? (Of course not. But a girl can dream. Or could have, anyway.)

No, the Boys are Not OK

Younger American men lonelier than counterparts in other nations: Gallup (X)

I Founded Girls Who Code. Now I’m Worried About Boys (X)

How Myths About Alpha Males Can Contribute To Young Men Falling Behind (X)

'A guy like him, sinking into that? So fast?': How the manosphere is destroying relationships (X)

Dave Portnoy on Trump, the 'manosphere' and 'Barstool conservatism'

Economic Impacts of the Same

Leaders Can Promote Gender Equity Without Deepening Polarization − Here’s How  (X)

A growing number of incels are NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). That should concern us all. (X)

There’s No Trumponomics Without the Tradwife (X)

The “traditional family” financial structure is back, thanks to Gen Z (X)

The "big beautiful bill" treats single parents differently (X)

Why People Around the World Are Having Fewer Kids, Even If They Want Them (X)

Political Impacts of the Same

Donald Trump’s War on Gender Is Also a War on Government (X)

The Trump administration is making the country less safe for domestic violence victims (X)

The uncomfortable truth about Democrats' problem reaching male voters (X) (Some data suggests it may just be that male voters are uncomfortable voting for women.)

The Futile Quest to Build a “Liberal Joe Rogan”  (X)

How the MAGA Movement Is Erasing the Legacy of #MeToo (X)

Gender stereotypes shape reactions to Trump-Musk outburst (X)

And just to end on a lighter note....

Paywall free.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Emily Singer at Daily Kos:

Democratic governors and attorneys general are working to Trump-proof their states ahead of his inauguration, gearing up to ensure their residents have access to medication abortion and the resources in place to fight Donald Trump’s actions in court. On Thursday morning, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that he is taking the first step to safeguard his state from some of Trump's worst policies by calling a special legislative session. Newsom wants the legislature to pass more funding for the California Department of Justice so that it can file lawsuits against Trump’s actions if need be. "The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack—and we won’t sit idle," Newsom said in a release. "California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive."

Newsom thinks California will have to fight Trump on reproductive freedom and protecting LGBTQ+ individuals, as Trump’s Project 2025 agenda calls for banning medication abortion and rolling back LGBTQ+ rights. For example, Project 2025 calls for banning medication abortion, for once again banning transgender individuals from serving in the military, and eliminating protections from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. “No matter what the incoming Administration has in store, California will keep moving forward,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a news release. “We’ve been through this before, and we stand ready to defend your rights and protect California values. We’re working closely with the Governor and the Legislature to shore up our defenses and ensure we have the resources we need to take on each fight as it comes.” Other states such as Massachusetts, Washington, and New York have stockpiled doses of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortion that Republicans want to ban nationwide. Project 2025 calls for revoking mifepristone’s Food and Drug Administration approval, even though the drug has been proven to be safe. 

[...] And Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker held a news conference on Thursday to assure residents that “Illinois will always strive to make you welcome and safe and protected."  Pritzker said, "Chaos, retribution and disarray radiated from the White House the last time Donald Trump occupied it. Perhaps this time may be different. But if it isn't, Illinois will remain a place of stability and competent governance."

This is what needs to be done in Blue states like California, New York, and Illinois: Trump-proofing their states to protect access to abortion, gender-affirming care, mifepristone, and LGBTQ+ rights.

This can be a prelude to a potential blue state secession to protect what made America great.