#PA Rehabilitation

[thegabbonessoshow]

Thank you for a Great 2022!

As we head towards to the end of another year, I am amazed at how grateful and thankful I’m left feeling.

The pandemic was scary for everyone, but I was one of the people where my career was deemed “unessential”. I was out of work from March 2020 until May of 2021 and even then I wasn't back to my normal full-time schedule. 

The beginning of 2022 had everyone scared of the Omicron variant, and my gigs were once again becoming remote, I was losing hope.

Then April hit, and everything changed. In-person gigs, schools inviting the Josh & Gab Show back for in-person events. I was even able to start traveling to do my Mental Health Public speaking engagements and it’s been a wonderful year ever since.

I just wanted to take a minute to thank every single organization that has hired me this year and given me a platform to tell my story and share my art. Words will never express my gratitude. 

Every gig gives me two essential things: (1) The ability to pay my bills (2) The ability to express myself through words and performance.

Thank you so much to the following organizations:

Crawford-Mercer-Venango Counties-Trauma Informed & Resilient Communities Conference Disability PA Dormont Arts Carnegie Library The Woodlands Allegheny County Parks Temple Sinai PA Care Partnership/UPMC Point Park University The Ryan Shazier Foundation Staunton Clinic Walk Productions Pennsylvania Rehabilitation Association The JCC Pittsburgh WQED TV “Teachable Moment” The Brillobox Rust Belt Comedy Karate Sleepover Speakeasy

It’s been an absolute pleasure and I hope to work with you again in 2023!

[pittsburghbeautiful]

UPMC in Pittsburgh

UPMC – The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center ( UPMC ) is a nonprofit health enterprise that operates on a global scale. It has a workforce of 92,000 employees, 40 hospitals with over 8,000 licensed beds, and 800 clinical locations, including outpatient sites and doctors’ offices. Additionally, it has a health insurance division with 3.8 million…

[considernature]

EEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEE EEEEEEE

That's right! It's International Bat Appreciation Day! We share our planet with over 1400 species of bat, making the second most abundant mammal order, and they perform a wide variety of ecological roles, from dispersing seeds to pollinating flowers to eating thousands of insects in a single night! Over 200 bat species are listed as Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature--that is over 14 percent of all bats!

YOU can help endangered bats today by donating to Pennsylvania Bat Rescue at this link. This PA-based organization rehabilitates sick or injured bats and helps educate people like you and me in how we can create more bat-friendly environments.

If you want to learn about particularly-cool bat species native to New Zealand, check out this Consider Nature article on the Pekapeka, the bat that walks:

For the rest of the day, Consider Nature will be bat-bombing Tumblr with some of our favorite bat species to share them with the world!

Alt text: a small brown bat stretching its wings with the kind of fabulous flourish that would impress Ryan Evans.

[hearingunlimitedmonroevillepa]

Find the Perfect Hearing Aid Devices in Monroeville, PA

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[fatehbaz]

Good question:

In the United States, many jails and prisons can and will charge you money for every single night that you spend imprisoned, for the entire duration of your incarceration, as if you were being billed for staying at a hotel. Even if you are incarcerated for years. Adding up to tens of thousands of dollars. What happens when you’re released?

In response to this:

---

So.

You’re getting charged, like, ten dollars every time you even submit a request form to possibly be seen by a doctor or dentist.

You’re getting charged maybe five dollars for ten minutes on the phone.

Any time a friend or family tries to send you like five dollars so that you can buy some toothpaste or lotion, or maybe a snack from the commissary since you’re diabetic and the “meals” have left you malnourished, maybe half of that money gets taken as a “service fee” by the corporate contractor that the prison uses to manage your pre-paid debit card. So you’re already losing money every day just by being there.

What happens if you can’t pay?

In some places, after serving just a couple of years for drugs charges, almost 20 years after being released, the state can still hunt you down for over $80,000 that you “owe” as if it were a per-night room-and-board accommodations charge, like this recent highly-publicized case in Connecticut:

Excerpt:

Two decades after her release from prison, [TB] feels she is still being punished. When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford home she and her siblings inherited. It said she owed $83,762 to cover the cost of her 2 1/2 year imprisonment for drug crimes. [...] “I’m about to be homeless,” said [TB], 58, who in March [2022] became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state law that charges prisoners $249 a day for the cost of their incarceration. [...] All but two states have so-called “pay-to-stay” laws that make prisoners pay for their time behind bars [...]. Critics say it’s an unfair second penalty that hinders rehabilitation by putting former inmates in debt for life. Efforts have been underway in some places to scale back or eliminate such policies. Two states — Illinois and New Hampshire — have repealed their laws since 2019. [...] Pay-to-stay laws were put into place in many areas during the tough-on-crime era of the 1980s and ’90s, said Brittany Friedman, an assistant professor of sociology at University of Southern California who is leading a study of the practice. [...] Connecticut used to collect prison debt by attaching an automatic lien to every inmate, claiming half of any financial windfall they might receive for up to 20 years after they are released from prison [...].

Text by: Pat Eaton-Robb. “At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt.” AP News / The Associated Press. 27 August 2022.

---

---

Look at this:

To help her son, Cindy started depositing between $50 to $100 a week into Matthew’s account, money he could use to buy food from the prison commissary, such as packaged ramen noodles, cookies, or peanut butter and jelly to make sandwiches. Cindy said sending that money wasn’t necessarily an expense she could afford. “No one can,” she said. So far in the past month, she estimates she sent Matthew close to $300. But in reality, he only received half of that amount. The balance goes straight to the prison to pay off the $1,000 in “rent” that the prison charged Matthew for his prior incarceration. [...] A PA Post examination of six county budgets (Crawford, Dauphin, Lebanon, Lehigh, Venango and Indiana) showed that those counties’ prisons have collected more than $15 million from inmates — almost half is for daily room and board fees that are meant to cover at least a portion of the costs with housing and food. Prisoners who don’t work are still expected to pay. If they don’t, their bills are sent to collections agencies, which can report the debts to credit bureaus. [...] Between 2014 and 2017, the Indiana County Prison — which has an average inmate population of 87 people — collected nearly $3 million from its prisoners. In the past five years, Lebanon’s jail collected just over $2 million in housing and processing fees.

Text by: Joseph Darius Jaafari. “Paying rent to your jailers: Inmates are billed millions of dollars for their stays in Pa. prisons.” WHYY (PBS). 10 December 2019. Originally published at PA Post.

---

Pay-to-stay, the practice of charging people to pay for their own jail or prison confinement, is being enforced unfairly by using criminal, civil and administrative law, according to a new Rutgers University-New Brunswick led study. The study [...] finds that charging pay-to-stay fees is triggered by criminal justice contact but possible due to the co-opting of civil and administrative institutions, like social service agencies and state treasuries that oversee benefits, which are outside the realm of criminal justice. “A person can be charged $20 to $80 a day for their incarceration,” said author Brittany Friedman, an assistant professor of sociology and a faculty affiliate of Rutgers' criminal justice program. “That per diem rate can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees when a person gets out of prison. To recoup fees, states use civil means such as lawsuits and wage garnishment against currently and formerly incarcerated people, and regularly use administrative means such as seizing employment pensions, tax refunds and public benefits to satisfy the debt.” [...] Civil penalties are enacted on family members if the defendant cannot pay and in states such as Florida, Nevada and Idaho can occur even after the original defendant is deceased. [...]

Text by: Megan Schumann. “States Unfairly Burdening Incarcerated People With “Pay-to-Stay” Fees.” Rutgers press release. 20 November 2020.

---

So, to pay for your own imprisonment, states can:

-- hunt you down for decades (track you down 20 years later, charge you tens of thousands of dollars, and take your house away)

-- put a lien on your vehicle, house

-- garnish your paycheck/wages

-- seize your tax refund

-- send collections agencies after you

-- take your public assistance benefits

-- sue you in civil court

-- take money from your family even after you’re dead

[lorraine1819]

A new start?

okay so; After Danny finally revealed that he was phantom, things started to go from bad to horrible really quickly. His parents captured him, strapped him on an operating table, and kept saying that they'd fix him and cure Kim from being a ghost. Tuck and sam are no where to be seen (maybe they got grounded) and Vlad is teeming up with his pa- the Fentons.

But then what if the day that the Fentons were about to vivisect Danny was the day Dani was supposed to visit and she found him lying on the table while the Fenton parents get their tools. Long story short, she saves him and they bust out of there, and went to hide in the infinite realms.

That was when things turned from horrible to worst. It got so bad that he pulled a Spiderman: no way home and wished to Desiree to make everyone forget about him. ('the problem wouldn't happen if the cause was never there' and he was scared he would turn into Dan if this kept going)

So now clockwork has 2 teenagers (Dani decided to stay with her brother) and is looking for a place back in the living realm (they're still humans that wouldn't survive long in the infinite realms) until he remembered a certain Hero/magic user back on earth that is used to the presence of unearthly beings

✨Constantine✨

ps. for plot convenience, Dan is on ghost therapy rehabilitating and would not be able to join until much later and Danny would still be king 👑

pss. feel free to continue/extend the story, I'd love to see what you guys have in mind 😁

[cemeteryspider]

Ballet on the Bayou Pt. 5 ~ Finale

Alastor x Ballerina! Reader

Summary: The Final Bow

Trigger Warnings: Death, loss, and mentions of murder

Word Count: 764

Previous

Ballet on the Bayou Masterlist

You felt your wings charr on the way down. The lovely white feathers turn to ash around you. Your skin grayed as you fell from Heaven. You stared up and disappointed faces stared down. Their faces disappeared and your pain and anticipation grew.

Your tutu blackened and your pointe shoes as well. Once the sky around you transformed into a dark crimson you knew you were closer than you had been in years.

When you hit the ground it was less painful then the actual falling. Striking the ground knocked you unconscious. There you waited.

~~~

Alastor was doing his broadcast, as usual casting the sounds of the Pride Rings previous overlords when he saw something of a shooting star crash near the hotel.

Usually things falling from the sky did not warrant his attention. However, the tug on his blackened heart strings told him to investigate. Taking a stroll to where he saw the thing hit, he saw the most beautiful creature laying at the bottom of the pit.

After many years of being apart, the two of you were finally reunited. Carefully he pulled your limp body from the crater, and began to walk back to the safe haven of the hotel.

Unconsciously, you snuggled your face into his chest, and he couldn't help but widen his grin at the gesture. He carried you into his studio and set you gently on the velvet couch just as he did in the living world so many years ago, and placed a jazz vinyl on the record player.

Silently he placed a soft kiss on your forehead, and waited for you to wake up.

Years and eternal lives apart, some things never did change.

~~~

"Wait, so you're telling me that you fell from heaven, for Smiles?" Angel looked flabbergasted at this revelation, but Husk, who had heard this story many times before, looked almost content.

After all, his "overseer" became a different person once you entered his afterlife. Less demanding, less angry, more human if it made any sense. Not only this but you were a great person to talk to, if he were to go to anyone to talk about HIS problems with, it would be you. Somehow you changed him, whatever it was inside Alastor that made him happy lied with you.

Vaggie was untrusting of you, partly because you had fallen, and partly because of your relationship with Alastor. She's warming up, and after hearing your story, maybe thinks she judged you too soon. You knew you would probably never fully gain her confidence, but you were content being acquaintances with your fellow fallen angel.

You did agree to work at the hotel for Charlie for as long as she wanted you there. Despite your love for Charlie and the hotel you wanted something more. So you decided to look around for places who wanted your performing arts.

You often found yourself working at different places in need of a more "classy act". Charlie even had you dance as a promotion for the hotel. Sinners came from far and wide to watch you dance on the hotel's small stage. Some even decided to stay at the hotel for rehabilitation.

You loved every minute of the attention. Especially the dozen of black roses left by yours truly.

You often sat in on Alastor's broadcasts allowing yourself to get lost in his voice even when he was talking about absolutely nothing at all. Sometimes you would fall asleep on the velvet couch in his recording studio, and he would happily watch you as he spoke to his listeners.

Life in Hell wasn't like Heaven at all, but you didn't mind the smell of death, the crimson red sky, or your newly darkened wings. Alastor was all you ever needed. That rang true for the afterlife as well.

~~~

One day when you decided you would be performing the Black Swan pas de deux, you couldn't help but ask Alastor to be your prince. On the small stage Lucifer had put in just for you, you taught him to dance.

Alastor was a fast learner and effortlessly lifted you from the stage floor as if you weighed nothing. He dipped you forward, so your head arched over your back and you winked at the audience.

In your shared dressing room for after the performance were two matching black bouquets of red and black roses.

Your dreams, the ones from when you were alive, and from when you were in Heaven all came true. With a touch of irony, you had everything you've ever wanted in Hell.

[kilfeur]

Cet épisode fait que renforcer la théorie comme quoi Alastor travaille pour Lilith, je me demandais quelle pouvait être la compensation. Et bien que le fait qu'il pourrait remplacer Lucifer en tant que père, je tiens à rappeler que ce qu'aime Alastor est justement de voir leurs chutes. Et quoi de mieux que la chute de la fille des seigneurs des enfers ? Il pourrait devenir le murmure de son oreille. De plus pendant la plupart des épisodes, il n'a pas vraiment aider le réhabilitation des deux résidents. Je pense que quand même qu'il respecte tout de même la volonté de Charlie sur son projet. Et qu'il la respecte assez en tant que personne en revanche, il n'hésitera pas à la manipuler pour qu'elle le voit sous son meilleur jour contrairement à son père dont il fait exprès d'entrer en conflit. Ou bien Lilith espérait que l'arrivée d'Alastor serait le coup de pouce que Lucifer aurait besoin pour enfin agir en tant que seigneur.

This episode only reinforces the theory that Alastor is working for Lilith, and I wondered what the compensation might be. And although the fact that he could replace Lucifer as father, I'd like to remind you that what Alastor likes is to see their downfalls. And what could be better than the fall of the daughter of the Lords of Hell? He could become the whisper in her ear. Plus, for most of the episode, he didn't really help the rehabilitation of the two residents. Still, I think he respects Charlie's will regarding her project. And that he respects her enough as a person on the other hand, he won't hesitate to manipulate her into seeing him at his best unlike her father whom he purposely conflicts with. Or maybe Lilith hoped that Alastor's arrival would be the push Lucifer needed to finally act as lord.

[raginglesbian2006]

A sneak peek into my newest chapter of Ne Me Quitte Pas

Your eyes blinked owlishly at hers for a moment. Then, you burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, I thought you said the princess of hell is coming over to visit heaven," you wiped away a stray tear, taking a sip of your drink.

"No, that is exactly what I said," Emily stated.

You spat out your beverage in disbelief, "I'm sorry, WHAT!?"

Emily shushed you and awkwardly smiled at the patrons gawking at the two of you.

You immediately lowered your voice, "What do you mean the princess of hell is coming to heaven? I mean-what-why?" you stuttered through.

The younger seraphim looked at you with glee, "Oooh! She's here to propose her idea to Sera and me in front of the court!"

You titled your head in confusion, "Propose....what?" You took another sip of your beverage.

"Why, her idea to rehabilitate sinners!"

You spat out your drink a second time.

[duskyashe]

NaNoWriMo Day #22

[masterlist]

Prompt found here by @stealingyourbones

============={|·•·|}=============

"Dr Ivy?" Danny called out from the door of the silent greenhouse. He really shouldn't be doing this, but he needed help, and Ivy was mostly rehabilitated, so he was hoping she'd be willing to give him some... Illegal help under the table. After having been chased out of his home town, he'd been running dangerously low on ectoplasm. He'd never realized how much ambient ectoplasm was in the air in Amity Park, but everywhere else felt like he was trying to find water in the desert. He was starving, and his last hope to find natural ectoplasm had just keeled over, so now he was truly desperate. He gulped, and prayed he wasn't making a huge mistake.

The plants closest to the door turned to face him, causing Danny to fight back a shudder. This wasn't Undergrowth, this was Poison Ivy. He hadn't done anything to draw her ire, so he should be safe. Hopefully.

"Um. I heard you could hear through your plants. I hope that's true, otherwise I'd look really stupid here..." Danny took a breath, glancing at the array of plants. "Um, Dr Ivy, I was hoping you'd be willing to help me with a problem. A biochemistry problem. I... I have a unique biological makeup that the government has all but declared makes me liable to extermination at best or experimentation at worst. It also means I need something extra in order to survive, something I can't find a lot of naturally. I was hoping you'd be able to help me synthesize it?"

"An interesting dilemma," a woman's voice came from behind a row of particularly tall vegetation. Poison Ivy walked into sight. "Still, why come to me?"

Danny chuckled humorlessly. "As you can imagine, I can't exactly take this to an above-board biochemist, and most other biochemists aren't nearly good enough for what I need. You're one of the best, and while you're not exactly a criminal anymore, you're still not afraid to ignore what laws don't suit you." He met her gaze head on. "Please. I'm begging you."

Dr Ivy seemed to consider him for a moment. "Do you have a pure sample of what you need? Or are we going to have to do this the fun way?"

Taking a shaky breath, Danny held up a small, precious vial of pure ectoplasm, taken directly from his pa—the Fenton's supplies. "This is all I have. If we need more, we'll have to isolate it from my own system, which will take some work."

The former rogue eyed him and the vial. "You know, I don't work for free. This is going to cost you."

"My very existence is illegal. I don't have much in the way of money. Or an identity, at this point," which hurt to admit, but made things a bit easier as well. No identity, no easy way for the GIW to track him. If he ever saw Tucker again, he was going to shower him with thanks and praise.

Dr Ivy smirked. "I can work with that. We can work with that."

============={|·•·|}=============

Hi, so, I'm American, and there's a major holiday in a couple of days. A major holiday that tends to take quite a bit of preparation. Sometimes days in advance (⁠^⁠～⁠^⁠;⁠)⁠ゞ I spent the day baking pies and trying not to choke from the wheat tainting the air (I'm severely allergic to wheat, but gluten free pie crusts are too expensive to make all the pies gluten free). I managed, I'm okay, and all the pies turned out looking amazing! But it left me with less time to write than I'd hoped for... And I pretty much chose a prompt at random without taking into account whether or not I could actually write the characters involved (⁠；⁠^⁠ω⁠^⁠）if it wasn't obvious, I have no idea what to do with Ivy (⁠;⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠) I hope this was at least acceptable lol

Happy early turkey day, fellow Americans! I hope any feasting you do will be joyous (⁠◠⁠‿⁠・⁠)⁠—⁠☆

Have a good morning/day/night!

[mariacallous]

Last weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel, Jordan (to meet with Arab foreign ministers), Ramallah (located in the West Bank), Iraq, and Turkey. With the war between Israel and Hamas now entering its sixth week, U.S. diplomacy has kicked into high gear. As Blinken works to secure humanitarian relief for Gazans caught in the crossfire, he has been signaling where he and the White House would like things to go once the fighting stops: a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority (PA) that would administer the West Bank and Gaza and a temporary international force to help provide security in the latter.

These ideas are probably the only ones that satisfy U.S. political, diplomatic, and geo-strategic concerns as well as those of some Arab governments. Yet they are likely to fail.

The Biden administration is embarking on a path that it studiously avoided during its first three years—and for good reason. It is now going to discover that, despite its efforts, when the war between Israel and Hamas ends, the region will look more like a version of the status quo that existed on Oct. 6 than a new Middle East.

As Blinken crisscrossed the Middle East, he seemed of the mind that this war is a paradigm-shifting event. This is a misplaced hope, however. No doubt there is a place for U.S. diplomacy in the conflict, but the secretary of state is approaching it with a set of assumptions—about the likely effects of the war on Israeli and Palestinian politics, the interests of regional actors, and Washington’s influence—that are defective.

It is not a bad assumption that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s days are numbered. He presided over the single greatest security failure in Israel’s history, which undermined the entire logic of his long tenure as the country’s leader. Netanyahu told Israelis that he was uniquely capable of providing them with the security and normalcy that they so desperately craved. It would be an extraordinary demonstration of political skills for him to survive this crisis.

But his likely political demise does not portend the resurrection of the Israeli peace camp. Even before Hamas murdered around 1,400 Israelis on Oct. 7, the standard-bearers of the two-state solution had become marginal political actors. Israel’s left-wing Meretz party, which commanded as many as 12 (out of 120) seats in the Knesset in the mid-1990s and most recently was a member of Naftali Bennett’s anti-Netanyahu government coalition in 2021, failed to win a single mandate in the Israeli parliament in the November 2022 elections—a loss of six seats. The Labor Party—the party of Israel’s founders and builders—sits in the Knesset with a mere four seats.

Elections will not happen until after hostilities in Gaza come to an end. But it seems likely that after Hamas wrought so much death and destruction on Israel, Israelis will again rebuff those peddling a peaceful coexistence with Palestinians. A postwar government could very well end up being a Netanyahu-less center-right-right coalition.

During the second week of the war, polls showed that Benny Gantz—the former defense minister and leader of National Unity alliance—enjoyed broad political support. He is a centrist only by Israeli standards, however; he ran to Netanyahu’s right on Gaza in previous election cycles and remains coy about Palestinian statehood. All of this suggests that if Blinken and his advisors believe they can resurrect the two-state solution, then they misapprehend Israeli politics.

Central to the U.S. day-after approach is the rehabilitation of the Palestinian Authority for it to take responsibility for the Gaza Strip once again. It is not at all clear what the goal of revitalizing the PA means in practice, though. Pouring money and guns into PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s coffers has helped him build a corrupt national security state.

Perhaps Blinken intends for there to be new elections in the Palestinian territories. Yet Abbas could lose, which is why the PA has not held parliamentary elections since 2006, when his faction—Fatah—lost to Hamas.

Even if Abbas could overcome the PA’s corruption, dysfunction, and lack of legitimacy with U.S. help, it is unlikely that he would want to be the U.S.-Israeli proconsul in Gaza. After all, that is at the heart of Hamas’s critique of the Palestinian Authority: that it advances Israeli—and by extension U.S.—interests at the expense of Palestinian rights. On this, the Hamas leadership is not wrong.

Presumably, the United States will enlist the so-called international community to help the Palestinian Authority get on its feet. This is not a bad thought, but Washington needs willing partners—and no leader in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, or Africa has raised their hand to help with either providing security in Gaza after the war or helping to reenergize the PA. It is almost certain that there will be a conference in Geneva or Istanbul, where countries will pledge billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Gaza—most of which will never arrive.

But don’t expect foreign troops to materialize to keep peace. The Europeans will resist out of fear, the Egyptians will balk because they do not want to be responsible for Gaza, and the rest of the Arab world lacks the capacity for such an important mission. One can imagine that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might dramatically offer Turkish troops, claiming historic responsibility and Muslim solidarity, but the Israelis will never agree to Erdogan’s aggrandizement at their expense.

Let’s play a thought experiment: Suspend reality and suppose that the United States can renovate the PA, European and Arab countries step up with peacekeeping forces for Gaza, and the Israelis produce a moderate centrist coalition. This would be good news, but the bases of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians would remain. Israelis will still not want to share Jerusalem, they won’t accept Palestinian refugees in their midst, and they will not agree to live within the boundaries set on June 4, 1967, at the end of that year’s Arab-Israeli War. For their part, the Palestinians will not give up a capital in Jerusalem, cannot forsake the refugee issue, and must have a territorially contiguous and fully sovereign state.

There is nothing about the war in Gaza that will encourage Israelis and Palestinians to alter these positions. The world always expects the two parties to walk right up to the abyss and pull back, but instead they always join hands and jump.

The appetite for destruction that has played out in Israel and Gaza over the past month reflects the fact that the underlying conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is not yet ripe for resolution. And there is little reason to believe that when the current round of fighting is over, the situation will be any more propitious for diplomacy. Hamas needs to not lose, and even if it does, it will have burnished its resistance credentials to the extent that the cost of the conflict will be worth it for the group’s leaders.

The Israelis are bloodied, but not enough for them to seek a different path. This is especially true as long as the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah sits on the sidelines and takes shots at Israel without triggering a full-scale war.

In addition, Israel’s relations with Arab states remain mostly intact. The Jordanians have recalled their ambassador and told the Israelis not to send one back to Amman until after the fighting has stopped, but King Abdallah has not severed relations. The lower house of the Bahraini parliament issued a statement suspending relations that did not actually suspend relations. The head of the foreign affairs and defense committee of the United Arab Emirates’ Federal National Council said: “From the United Arab Emirates perspective, the Abraham Accords are there to stay.” Saudi Arabian Minister of Defense Khalid bin Salman, who also happens to be the crown prince’s brother, reportedly indicated in Washington last week that the kingdom remains interested in normalization with Israel.

Breaking ties or putting potential ties on ice might get Israel’s attention, but Arab leaders don’t seem willing to take that step.

Taken together, all of this suggests that after all the death and destruction, and all of Blinken’s shuttling, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will end up no closer—or, more likely, even farther away—from a settlement than before Oct. 7. The only difference will be whatever security regime Israel devises for the Gaza Strip—a territory that Hamas cannot be allowed to continue governing, but which no international power is willing to take responsibility of.

It is true that the Israel-Hamas war seems cataclysmic, but it is not a paradigm-shifting event like Egyptian-Israeli peace, the end of the Cold War, or the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It is a local conflict—the stakes of which have been magnified many times because of passionate partisans on both sides, far away from the bloodshed.

It will remain as it was before: unresolvable, no matter how much mileage Blinken clocks between Washington and Middle Eastern capitals.

[sepublic]

I think I might’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: The Owl House is more Steven Universe’s spiritual successor than it is Gravity Falls’.

-VERY character-driven shows that do a lot of re-contextualization, peeling back the wide cast of characters’ layers to reveal their pasts and why they’re like that, as well as an emphasis on emotions, trauma, and reaction to events

-Main protagonist is cheerful and excitable young kid who starts off with less powers; But as time progresses, they think their main worth comes in helping others, and this idea, amidst the trauma, wears them down into a very depressed version of themselves near the end

-Said protagonist has also done SO much good but underestimates how much people value them, believing they’re no longer needed; All the people they’ve helped, who have grown and changed so much, come back around to reassure the protagonist and return the favor

-Adding to what’s mentioned above, the acknowledgement and deconstruction of the Kid Savior story as well as a lot of tropes in general, pointing out the unhealthy burden this places on the protagonist, and that kids really shouldn’t be handling this

-Both shows are queer as hell; Like, considered groundbreaking rep in their time for a reason

-Alas, both shows are also forced to end early because of this

-Multiple antagonists go through healing arcs and become best friends and allies; Lots of emphasis on rehabilitation and recovery, discovering oneself

-The conservative grandma/pa as the main antagonist, followed by someone childish who wants to play games

-The social commentary of deviants embracing their otherness, even as they come together to fight the status quo government that oppresses people

-A surprising amount of depth and focus placed on older, adult characters and their struggles with parenthood, but also relationships with their peers as well, compared to other kids’ shows

[hearingunlimitedmonroevillepa]

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[beardedmrbean]

A Pennsylvania nurse already charged with killing two patients in her care through lethal doses of insulin has been hit with fresh charges after sheconfessed to trying to kill 19 people at different rehabilitation centers where she worked, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Heather Pressdee, 41, allegedly administered excessive amounts of insulin to 19 patients — some of whom were diabetic and others not — at five different care facilities from 2020 to this year. Ultimately, 17 patients in her care have died, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said.

As a result, new charges were filed against her Thursday: two counts of first-degree murder, 17 counts of attempted murder and 19 counts of neglect of a care-dependent person, in connection with the 19 patients she allegedly mistreated, Attorney General Michelle Henry said.

Prosecutors noted that Pressdee was charged with first-degree murder in cases where “physical evidence is available to support the cause of death,” and attempted murder in cases where the victims either survived the excessive dose of insulin or the cause of death could not be determined.

She had already been charged in May for allegedly mistreating three patients, two of whom died, bringing the total number of allegedly mistreated patients to 22.

Pressdee would typically administer the insulin during overnight shifts when there was low staffing and the emergencies “would not prompt immediate hospitalization,” prosecutors said.

“If Pressdee sensed the victim would ‘pull through’ there is a pattern of her taking additional measures to try to kill the victims before they could be sent to the hospital by either administering a second dose of insulin or the use of an air embolism to ensure death,” the criminal complaint in the case said.

The alleged victims ranged in age from 43 to 104.

The complaint said Pressdee, whose nursing license has been suspended, “admitted to harming, with the intent to kill, all patients named in this affidavit.”

The two first-degree murder charges are in connection with two patient deaths at Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

On March 24-25, 2021, she allegedly intentionally administered insulin and an air embolism to a patient, identified by the initials G.S., with the intent to kill him and which ultimately caused his death, the complaint said.

Then on April 30-May 1, 2023, she administered insulin to a patient with the initials N.C., also leading to their death, the complaint said.

The alleged abuse unfolded while Pressdee was employed as a registered nurse at Concordia at Rebecca Residence; Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation; Quality Life Services - Chicora; Premier Armstrong Rehabilitation and Nursing Center; and Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

Pressdee was arraigned Thursday, waived her preliminary hearing, and remains in custody at Butler County Prison without bail.

It's not clear if she has entered a plea. NBC News has reached out to her attorney for comment.

Authorities started watching Pressdee after a family member of a patient who died told the Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and Drug Control that Pressdee was involved in the improper administration of insulin at Quality Life Service - Chicora. An investigation found Pressdee had a “pattern” of being investigated for “abusive behavior towards patients and/or staff” at her past jobs, “resulting in Pressdee then resigning or being terminated,” the complaint said.

The filing revealed that former co-workers told investigators there were suspicions during Pressdee’s previous employment that she was “intentionally harming patients” and she had been “reprimanded for making up her own insulin doses.”

When she worked at Belair Healthcare and Rehabilitation, from April 2021 to February 2022, as an assistant director of nursing, she was suspended pending an internal investigation into co-worker concerns regarding “a pattern of individuals passing under Pressdee’s care.” However, that probe did not uncover any identifiable evidence to support those allegations.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

everyday i thank god hybe did not buy sm ent.

did you know sm is bringing back fuck ass lucas??? how???

imagine all of this blowing up after the acquisition bpp. i shudder just thinking about how hybe dodged a massive bullet there.

***

Really, HYBE pulling out after the reverse tender offer, resulting in them owning a sizable but not controlling stake in SM, turned out to be the best outcome for them as things currently stand. The drama isn't over yet though, with Kakao's exec team scheduled for court proceedings to resolve by H2 2024.

The only glimmer of hope for fans of SM is the debut of their new girl group later this year. In a parade of faux pas, this will be the positive rallying point for SM stans in 2024. And honestly I'll be happy to see it.

As to Lucas debuting, the only reason this is happening is because he's with SM. For as long as I've been into k-pop, during every major hate train on an idol/group, especially if it results in them leaving the industry/disbanding, it has always had one group of stans at the forefront. Because of their loyalty to the company though, they never reserve the same vitriol for their own, and as no other group of company stans matches their intensity of fanaticism, idols/groups from that agency are always rehabilitated. The only time SM idols have faced any real repercussions has been when they've fought against SM management and lost the protection of company.

One good example is Kris Wu, former EXO member. Like Lucas, he was very popular but also notorious for 'bad boy' behaviour, but that was kept mostly under wraps. There were rumors swirling about him for months on various forums, just like with Lucas, but it wasn't until he sued SM to break his contract and won, that's when suddenly people started talking more openly about his... tastes. Years later Kris Wu was exposed as a rapist in a separate incident, but the allegations showed a pattern that was eerily similar to rumours that had been circulating while he was a member of EXO, receiving massive support from SM stans. There's been a lot said about how several SM idols can do things like marry and have children, compared to idols from other companies, but the unspoken bit of that assertion is that no other group of company stans target people for perceived failings the way SM stans do. Like, even when there is pushback to SM idols, it's coming primarily from other fans of SM groups.

And if you think I'm exaggerating, the next time there's a controversy/scandal about any idol or group, pay attention to which groups of stans are primarily instigating it. I'm serious. Then come back here and tell me what you think.

Lucas won't have a smooth sailing debut, but the only reason he is being rehabilitated to this point in the first place, is because he is an SM idol. This is a form of Big 3 privilege that SM artists benefit the most from, given SM has the largest amount of company stans.

When I say the blueprint of current fandom norms started with SM and that they largely influence the tenor of narratives in fandom spaces, this is yet the latest example.

Lol, truly fascinating stuff.

Stay tuned for Lucas's debut single on April 1st :)

[house-of-daenerys]

Emilia Clarke’s mother has described how her daughter’s brain haemorrhage changed the Clarke family “in an instant”.

Jenny Clarke said it feels like her daughter’s brain haemorrhage – a bleed on the brain – “feels like yesterday” even though it was more than a decade ago.

The incident, which took place when Clarke was working out in a north London gym in 2011, was “completely out of the blue”, Mrs Clarke said.

She said her daughter fought to stay conscious even though she was in “the worst pain she could ever imagine”.

Mrs Clarke told PA: “It feels like yesterday to us really, because it was just such a profound shock.

“She had just started Game Of Thrones, the first season had been filmed and she had just come back from a press tour.

“And then she had her first brain haemorrhage which was completely out of the blue – it was a morning in March and she was in the gym and she suddenly felt this terrible pain in her head – she’s been quoted as saying it was the worst pain she could ever imagine.

“She also realised that something was seriously wrong with her because the pain was so intense.

“So she did her best, as she was lying semi-unconscious on the floor of the gym, to try and make sure she kept a sense of what was around her and she fought to make sure that she didn’t lose consciousness.”

Mrs Clarke added: “When she was rushed to a hospital in London, it was very difficult to establish what has happened to her – and that’s also something that we think is very important; maybe there isn’t enough specialist information and training to actually recognise what happens when you have a brain haemorrhage when you’re young.

“People expect people to have strokes and brain haemorrhages when they’re older, it’s a problem of older age, but Emelia was 23 when she had her first brain haemorrhage, so people didn’t recognise it as a brain haemorrhage.

“So it took a long time before she was admitted to the wonderful Queen Square (the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery), which is part of University College London Hospitals and literally her life was saved because of an intervention to stop the bleeding.

“But it was three weeks in hospital before we knew whether she was going to have another stroke, and whether she would have different health problems as a result of the brain haemorrhage.”

She added: “Rehabilitation is undervalued and under-prioritised and that’s clearly got to change as a key component of universal health coverage.

“It was such a shock when it happened to us, when Emilia had her brain injury.

“We’ve had thousands of people write to us, and so it’s not just our own lived experience, there’s just not enough provision, not enough services available.