#Reference to issue 43 to be precise

[withoutaconscienceorafilter]

"What the heck, Nate! Why are only your sculptors a bit generous with the naughty bits?!"

[mobscene-launceston]

BASIC INFORMATION:

NAME: Jay Sung. AGE: 43. PLACE OF BIRTH: Launceston, Massachusetts, United States. AFFILIATION: The Emerson Saints. OCCUPATION: Leader FACE CLAIM: Gong Yoo. AVAILABILITY: OPEN.

(Warning: Brief references to racism/police brutality.)

Talk of the French had always provoked disagreement amongst the Emerson Saints.

The deeply divisive and oftentimes violent kind...

From the inception of their now defunct representative system, Jay Sung had been Emerson’s spokesperson. Each of the three voted on issues of importance, and whichever decision received a majority was the direction they proceeded in. Without fail, and whenever the topic of a French Organization contract was brought to the table, however, Jay vehemently voted against any and all compliance; this, regardless of whether it reflected the views of those he was representing.

It got to the point where the others expected nothing less.

“They slaughtered us like we were animals, and now they want us to do the grunt work so they can keep their hands clean? No. Fuck that. I won’t be a part of it, and neither would any real Saint.”

People sympathised with his position, because none of them really wanted to be puppets for the French. No amount of discontent on their part could magic up another option, though. It was either do as they were told and be absorbed by the superior force, or head back to a war that they had barely survived the first time around. And nobody wanted that.

Launceston’s population of Koreans—the new immigrants, in particular—always seemed to be on the receiving end of the city’s mistreatment. Jay’s father told him it’d been that way even when he’d been growing up in Brenton. They’d eventually chosen to congregate around north Anderson Island, instead, and the borough’s elite viewed them as little more than a cancerous fucking growth they hadn’t figured out how to remove. The judgements of those who sat on golden thrones was a world away from the very real oppression they had to deal with on their own doorsteps, though.

Police brutality—oftentimes directed toward immigrants who weren’t doing anything wrong, purely because of the way they looked—wasn’t nearly as bad as the racially-motivated hate crimes waged against them by Krick’s African-American gangs. Both had ultimately resulted in the formation of the Emerson Saints. For decades, their communities had been terrorised by outsiders, until eventually, a group of twenty-six (of which Jay had been a part) decided that it was time to stand up and fight.

In March of 2000, their gang was formed.

In June of 2000, the French took notice.

Jay had barely been twenty years old when the Organization decided to violently remind them that those who contemplated an uprising in St. Clair territory would be dealt with. Mercilessly. And it was precisely that—the things he’d seen, the way they’d attacked, and the friends that’d been taken from him in the process—which the younger Saints would never understand. They would remember talk from around the neighbourhood, or brutal stories shared in hushed whispers…but they’d never seen all the blood. Bathed their hands in it.

And they talked over him with their ignorant majorities? It made him sick.

By the time the French Organization presented the option for a truce in 2005—tired of wasting men on a battle that seemingly couldn’t be won—all but four of the original Saints had been killed in the fighting. None were imprisoned for their unspeakable actions against their enemies, nor had they deserted out of fear. They were simply massacred and left to rot in the streets like animals, all for the crime of defending themselves. Whilst, as was the case with any war, their conflict increased the rate of recruitment exponentially, the losses were astounding. Both in terms of statistics, and personal pain.

Jay had witnessed the death of two of his best friends. Had lost his non-violent girlfriend during a revenge attack against him. A Commandant had been burned alive in very public fashion for the latter, and he’d do it again in a heartbeat…

But it still didn’t bring them back.

A channel of communication eventually opened up between the two sides, but Jay refused to have any part of the discussion, in spite of the fact many of the Saints still looked to him as an unofficial leader. The anger was too fresh. The pride and the pain too great. War had been brutal, of course, but he still would’ve preferred to die fighting them than to live on his knees.

Unfortunately for him, not all of the Saints agreed.

The French had promised to end their attacks, and as an added bonus, offered to push the African-American gangs fighting their other front out of Krick. Understandably, Jay had been hesitant in accepting that they’d be willing to offer them anything but slaughter. It might’ve been an attempt at a ‘good faith’ gesture, but it also came with stipulations, because everything with them always fucking did. The drugs they sold? French, with a portion of the profits handed back to them. The guns they used? French, imported in an attempt to dent the income of the Russians and their weapons smuggling ring. Perhaps worst of all, though, were the contracts. The remaining Saints—especially the younger ones—had been more than happy to kill and maim on behalf of their enemies given the paycheque offered for the work.

Jay wasn’t one of them.

They didn’t fucking owe them any favours.

It went on for years, his frustration growing each day, but eventually he reached his breaking point.

The French were arrogant, egotistical fucks. They always had been. Given that they were supposed to be engaged in a truce, however, Jay thought they might’ve exercised a little restraint. Very clearly, one of the Commandants had taken a liking to the Representative of Saint’s Way, Euna, and very clearly, said feelings were not reciprocated. Jay had been there when she’d turned him down, but the coward had waited until she was alone to beat the shit out of her for the disrespect. She’d called Youngbae, barely intelligible as she choked on her own blood.  

It was a miracle she’d survived.

The Commandant was not so lucky.

As he watched Seung-hyun carve their gang’s name into the Frenchman’s chest, Youngbae holding down his writhing fucking body, Jay knew that this would be the end of the Emerson Saints as they knew it. The French would not take the murder of a Commandant lightly; especially not one found in the sorry state they left him.

The outrage was damn near immediate. Those who had become accustomed to doing the French Organization’s bidding—and had profited from it quite nicely—were livid that the ‘disproportionate’ actions of a few had taken away their choice to work for them at all. Even those who had never liked the affiliation seemed concerned about what this would mean for them in the long-run. Wondered whether they would have to run from Launceston entirely. Jay had expected that this would result in another war with the French, but he hadn’t expected it to tear the gang in two.

To his horror, many of the younger members turned on the remaining Saints for the promise of French protection, and guaranteed work with the Organization.

The war wasn’t spilling French blood in the street, it was spilling their own.

Eventually, the remaining Saints, now headed up solely by Jay—the epitome of a ruthless wartime leader—scarpered to Ainsburg in an attempt to recover from the assault. They didn’t know who they could trust. Didn’t know who would turn on them at any moment for a bigger paycheque from the French. Jay had never been the type to trust easily, but aside from the few he now designated his inner circle, despite many giving up their home—and oftentimes, friends and family—to follow the Saints, the paranoia was almost crippling. He barely confided in anybody about his plans. Barely left his home for anywhere but Yongseo...

Until the Russians came knocking.

The last thing he wanted was for them to get involved with another powerful mob. Jay half expected the woman to tell them they were settling in too close to Russian territory, and to get the fuck out before they made them. To his surprise, though, they seemingly came in peace. Ainsburg had never been their territory. In fact, it belonged to the Irish, and that was precisely the problem. The Russians despised the Irish almost as much as they did the French, but hadn’t the manpower to fight the O’Reillys as well as everybody else. All the Saints had to do was keep the Irish busy and distracted from any attempts on Brenton, and the Vorshevskys were willing to arm them with all the resources they needed.

Not only to take Ainsburg as their home, but continue the fight against the French, too.

They weren’t required to answer to the Russians, nor were they required to have any dealings in their business. They weren’t forced to do anything. If they wanted to say no, then the Russians would leave them alone to fend for themselves…but both sides knew that wasn’t an option.

Not really.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” she’d said.

Whilst he isn’t sure he’d go so far as to call the Russians friends, Jay knows that if they have any hope of surviving all that’s happened, they don’t really have a choice.

An eerily familiar scenario that he can only pray ends differently this time around…

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS:

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Alexandra Lee (ex-girlfriend, deceased) FAMILY: None. CONNECTIONS:

Jun Jae-sun: Best friend. For a while, he'd doubted him. Of the few remaining founders, JJ was the only one who hadn't opposed their former arrangement with the French. Jay knew he had his reasons, but it still caused massive issues between them for many years. When it came down to it, though, the French or the Saints, JJ hadn't hesitated to follow his family into Ainsburg. Reliving the war is hard for him due to his own massive losses, but Jay has never respected him more, and is determined for his pain not to have been in vain.

Sin Seung-hyun: Old friend. About the craziest mother fucker they have. Jay loves him for it. The French always regarded him as a loose cannon, and wanted little to do with him when they were working under them. After what happened to Euna, however, Jay knows he'd be hard pressed to find someone who hates the French more than him. As such, Seung-hyun remains one of the few he's fully confident would never betray them.

Lee Euna: Good friend. They're all a little bit protective of Euna, and were long before the French Commandant almost beat her to death. Jay is no different. The woman is a kinder soul than most in the Saints, and only ever strived for peace when she sought diplomacy with the French. Of all the Saints they brutalised over the years, she deserved it least. There's no way in hell he'll ever let one of them lay a hand on her again.

Kim Youngbae: Good friend. Along with JJ, Seung-hyun, Euna and Seo-jun, he is the last Jay considers to be a part of his inner circle. Whether or not he trusts the man's girlfriend, on the other hand, is another question entirely. Youngbae has been nothing but loyal to the Saints over the years, and is massively respected amongst the other members for the contributions he's made. Jay sees him no differently; particularly because many of his loved ones were those who defected to the French. Leaving them behind was difficult, but Jay makes sure he knows that his sacrifices are appreciated.

Kim Saera: Former friend. Traitor. Regardless of their former friendship, and regardless of being Youngbae's sister, if he sees her, he'll kill her on sight.

Inna Volkova: Acquaintance. They meet rarely these days, but she was the one who first approached him three years ago with the offer from the Russians. The enemy of his enemy. Jay isn't sure he trusts her, but right now, he doesn't really need to. As long as she keeps up her end of the bargain, things will remain civil.

[ryon777]

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VNC Chapter 43 Analysis

Wow, for chapter designed to segue between one arc to the next, this one sure had a lot packed into it! The political intrigue is through the roof and our main characters take a backseat while we finally get to see Dominique and her family once more. Before that, though, a few last thoughts on Gévaudan. We learned both Chloé's and Jean-Jacques's names and they, indeed, suit them well. Chloé's was "Canorus," or "she who plays with snow crystals." She'd isolated herself in a snowy castle and she played the piano to exert her power, which has white keys. It also implies a more lighthearted nature to Chloé than we really got to see, which seems accurate to me. Jean-Jacques's is "Aprix" or "he who nestles close to the last snows." His is especially overt in its meaning: he loves the snow (Chloé) and stays close to her side. Jean-Jacques is also the easiest vampire to cure we've seen to date and the reason is simple: he only gave his name to Naenia to protect Chloé. If he doesn't need to do so to protect her, then why bother?

He will now protect her as himself, his true self, without any outside help. I can't help but wonder how soon he will have to live up to that promise. We also finally get something of an update on Johann and Dante.

Okay, so we already knew these two were hired by Marquis Machina, we just didn't know what it was they were looking for. Turns out, the whole reason they were there was for Chloé's alteration device. This actually makes perfect sense: it contains information and that's precisely what dhampirs collect. Furthermore, it seems information is what Marquis Machina is most interested in as well, so things are adding up nicely.

Unfortunately, (or thankfully?) Marquis Machina doesn't get whatever information this device has because of the chasseurs and Ruthven. I think it's safe to say at this point that there are certain members of the Church that are allied with Ruthven. Furthermore, they are almost certainly trying to reignite a war between humans and vampires.

Having these two groups working together is nothing short of a disaster because it's a very effective team up and no one even suspects what's going on, save for possibly Marquis Machina who is familiar with both Ruthven and Chloé, but I'll talk a bit more about that in a bit. Also, I think we now know why Astolfo was sent to Gévaudan:

Now this is just sinister. Astolfo was purposefully sent because they know he has no restraint. They know he's angry, looking for purpose, and they're manipulating those emotions into something beneficial for them. It also means they know Roland is questioning the Church; they had to make sure he was sufficiently distracted in order to get what they came for. And who was in charge of all this? None other than Gano, the mysterious chasseur that was supposed to come as backup a couple chapters ago. I guess now we know what the holdup was about.

There is not a lot of love lost here, is there? Olivier is looking at Gano with overt mistrust and disdain. Roland has his relaxed grin firmly in place, but I think we know enough about him at this point not to blindly believe it: he knows there's something up with Gano and he knows that whatever happened in Carcassonne shouldn't have taken that long. I think we now have a physical representation of why Olivier is so worried about Roland's behavior. He knows people like Gano are aware of his treasonous thoughts and he knows Roland is in danger. I think it's also safe to say that Olivier isn't a big fan of a lot of people in the Church, which fits in with the leeway he's given Roland and his extreme opinions (in the Church's eyes at least). As for this Gano...

That is one of the most suspicious individuals I've ever seen. 8D My goodness, Mochizuki isn't doing much to give him the benefit of the doubt, is she? XD He's all but leering at them; he knows something they don't. No wonder Olivier looks so irritated. I wouldn't be surprised if Gano is an extremely powerful chasseur. All the more reason for Roland to be careful in his investigation of things. Another major thing before we jump into the de Sade drama:

I KNEW IT. I KNEW IT, BUT I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, I-- *ahem* So, Murr is a shady cat. :D Either Teacher is the cat or, more likely, he's watching everything through the cat, which is still pretty disturbing. Think about it: Noé has been put through the wringer repeatedly, and Teacher hasn't lifted a finger to help him. Noé was nearly killed by Ruthven on two separate occasions, nearly died in the catacombs, lost a limb most recently, and I'm sure it's only going to get worse. The only time Teacher offered any help was when Noé was asleep and even then he wasn't so much helping as he was listening to Noé's troubles, no doubt because he was curious what Noé would do. It's Louis all over again, just with some adjustments for Noé's personality. Anyway, that wraps up the Gévaudan arc pretty neatly. I doubt this is the last we'll see of Chloé and Jean-Jacques, though. You don't spend this much time developing two characters simply to drop them by the wayside for the next arc. I have two guesses on how this could go: Chloé and Jean-Jacques will show up later in the series to support Noé or to offer some knowledge on Ruthven. Alternatively, they will be sacrificed in the near future to prevent that information from getting out. Either way, for the moment, Vanitas and Noé are allowed to bask in their victory and feel as if they've accomplished something, which they have, but there is so much manipulation in this series I'm feeling uncertain about how long they'll get to enjoy it. And at long last, we get to see Dominique again! None of our questions about Misha are answered, though, and if anything, I'm more worried about what happened to her than ever. She thinks all of that was a dream? What did he do to her?

Everything seems to be in order. Her bedroom is clean, there's no sign of struggle, she isn't missing anything... It makes everything that much more alarming. How long has she been sleeping? What happened after she met Misha? Quite a bit of time has passed, so that seems to indicate, to me, that if she's still dreaming about Misha, something bad happened that she can't remember. There seem to be a lot of memory issues in this series. After all, if you can't remember something, you can't very well exercise your will over a situation, can you? Dominique is desperate to get outside, but she's immediately confronted by her sister, Veronica.

There's a familiarity between these two that shows they were probably raised together, but there isn't any closeness, which means they weren't raised to have especially strong bonds with one another. It's an interesting dynamic and feels both sinister and aristocratic. Now, Veronica says she's covered in blood because she was having an intimate moment with Marquis Machina. However, I feel the need to point out, there's no reason we should believe her. We didn't see the marquis anywhere, after all. However, she has information on the senate meeting that she could only have gotten from someone in the senate, so there's probably some truth to what she's saying. Personally, I find this a curious change of attitude for Veronica. I thought she was a bit of a misandrist if I'm completely honest. This is the woman who said, "What is a human doing here? Not only that, but a man. What a stench. The stink of humans is so strong I think my nose may drop off." I suppose her biggest issue was that he was a human (so, she's a xenophobe and/or racist), but his being a man didn't seem to help. Still, people who are bigoted often get together with the very people they have issues with. In that regard, Veronica and Vanitas are kind of similar. 8D Vanitas definitely has misogynistic tendencies and he's trying to have a relationship with a woman. Likewise, Veronica may have issues with men, but she's having a fling with one. All right, then. It is true that she and the marquis interacted with one another in volume two:

It's extremely subtle, but the fact she didn't just go ballistic on the marquis when he didn't handle the problem could indicate a certain fondness for the guy. Anyway, the important bit for now is Dominique's reaction to this revelation: she seems a whole lot like Noé all of a sudden. Dominique: Marquis Machina got you all bloody, Veronica? Why...? This is kind of odd for Dominique. She normally seems way more worldly than this, not to mention way more on top of things. This seems more like the Dominique we saw in flashbacks, and I suppose that makes sense. She just woke from a nightmare, she's feeling disoriented, and her sister is messing with her. Not a great time of things. Furthermore, her sister says this:

"You're as dull as ever, child." This is in direct reference to Dominique being uncomfortable hearing about Veronica's sexual conquests. This strongly implies Dominique isn't having her own sexual conquests, despite her being so flirtatious in previous chapters. Put that together with Veronica referring to Noé and Jeanne as Dominique's "favorites" and I think it's safe to say that at the moment, Dominique is harboring unrequited romantic feelings for both of these individuals and Veronica find the whole thing contemptible. As an aside, this means Dominique and Vanitas are kind of similar, too. 8D In fact, both of them are having more luck with Jeanne than they are with Noé. Jeanne seemed quite taken with Dominique and their dance going so far as to keep pursuing her afterwards, and she has become much more fond of Vanitas. Meanwhile, Vanitas's almost-pursuit of Noé at the beginning of the series* has gotten exactly nowhere, much like Dominique's. I'm not sure what that says, exactly, except that Jeanne might be more romantically inclined than Noé. Or, perhaps, Noé is even more oblivious than Jeanne to this stuff. Still, both Vanitas and Dominique are very close to Noé, so maybe it's a matter of time. Anyway, we then get into the political spectrum of things, and this is no doubt what a lot of the next arc will be dealing with. We're introduced to several senate members, and none of them seem trustworthy.

From right-to-left we have: Lord Bellator (the Fuming), Unnamed Lord (the Nervous), Lord Paldence (the Sly), Lord Ruthven (the Liar), Antoine (probably a lord? I'll call him "the Diplomat" and in this instance that's not necessarily a good thing), and Master Luca (heir to the throne AKA "the Prince"). I think it's interesting that in the overhead shot, we're shown there are eight senate members, but in this closeup we're only shown five, not counting Luca. We know Marquis Machina was there (though notably his face wasn't shown), that raises the number to six. That means there were two members there we still know nothing about, not to mention The Nervous, who was never given a name. It seems Bellator and Ruthven are not each other's biggest fans. In fact, most of the meeting that we are shown is of these two going at each other's throats.

Ruthven's comment here makes it pretty obvious that vampires live for a ridiculously long amount of time, but even vampires agree that acting like you can do whatever you want because of a conversation from a century ago is kind of pushing it. It also implies that the people on the senate have been on the senate for a ridiculously long amount of time. In other words, they are set in their ways; there's been no new fresh blood. The political side to vampiric society is probably insanely outdated compared to humanity's and that's saying something for a series taking place in the 19th century--it's not just that certain families stay in power for years and years; literally the exact same people maintain that power. No change. No advances. They are stuck. Anyway. Dominique doesn't want Jeanne to be executed, understandably, and she reveals this weakness to Veronica.

Veronica berates her for trying to drag the family name through the mud; apparently, no one likes a bourreau. But what I find interesting is that Dominique says "Father's territory." Um... what? So, they live in this giant mansion and the father has his own territory? What about the mother? Do they mean territory as in he invaded and took over some spot or do they mean he just really needs his space? Either way, this is further evidence that this family is not very close; they are some kind of political enterprise. I really feel bad for Dominique, though. She's kind of out of it, but she immediately goes to Jeanne's rescue. Gotta admire that. Anyway, Antoine finally shows up and all of that is taken care of.

Antoine's sudden appearance is jarring, to say the least. Also, his fangs are out. Now, who was hanging out in the hallway with blood on her? Veronica. Who just showed up with his fangs bared? Antoine. Who seems incredibly shady? Both of them. There's probably nothing to this, but if there's going to be some kind of bizarre, incestuous affair going on, I wouldn't be shocked to discover it was with the de Sades. Regardless of potential crack theories, Antoine gives us even more information on what happened at the senate meeting. This makes it pretty clear to me that Antoine is kind of the head of the house. Why didn't their father go? Apparently because he has an entire territory to himself, I don't know. Thus, the responsibility falls to Antoine. Luckily for the de Sade family, he seems remarkably good at this job. He easily maneuvered Bellator into doing what he wanted and got the senate to cool down as well.

Even Veronica is impressed. He says he just wanted to move on from the topic, and I almost believe him, but there's no doubt he benefited from the whole thing as well. But he continues on, and it raises some questions.

What does he mean by "comrades?" It could be the other senate members, but Dominique thinks she shouldn't be hearing about this, which she didn't say previously. It makes me think that the de Sades are involved in something a little more nefarious than mere politics. If they're aligned with Ruthven, then I suppose it's the Church and they want a war. If not, then I have no idea; there are quite a few possibilities there. Perhaps loyalists to the queen? Either way, he isn't sure the queen's reappearance is a good thing, understandably, too. It would change the power dynamics for certain. We then get to see Marquis Machina speak with Ruthven, and, boy, are there some layers in that conversation.

In other words, Machina knows something was afoot, and he's letting Ruthven know he knows he had something to do with it. It also means that literally every single person involved in the Gévaudan incident was a pawn.

Ahh, now this raises the question: who is the chess master? At first, it's easy to think it's Ruthven. But now we see that Machina was manipulating quite a few things: the dhampirs, Noé, and Vanitas. A section of the chasseurs were squarely in Ruthven's control, however, so what we're seeing here is a power struggle between Ruthven and Machina. Who knows which of them will win that particular battle? For the moment, Ruthven is ahead simply because he got the device from Gévaudan, but who knows how long he'll be able to keep the edge.

I'm almost certain Machina is referring to Ruthven here. He's certainly been causing a lot of trouble in secret. On the other hand, "lion" has noble associations, so it could be Luca's rise to power. He beared his fangs at this meeting and saved Jeanne. Perhaps Machina is curious to see whether he can maintain the throne. Ruthven is still the more likely choice judging by the panel that follows:

Machina knows Ruthven is teetering on the edge, and he wants to see the man fall. This next arc is going to be something. There are so many threads in this introductory chapter alone that I think it's safe to say we're in for a wild ride. After all that, we get a brief glimpse of Noé and Vanitas back at the hotel.

We have a bit of a time skip; they've been back in Paris for ten days, and Noé is only now growing concerned that Vanitas has been sleeping solidly for all of them. Um, Noé, you probably should have checked after the first day.... We can also see that Noé is wearing a brace and that it looks like they're trying to reattach his hand. I am ... so curious about whether that works. Just let me know, Mochizuki, please.... Noé also gets to see Vanitas's sleeping face at long last! XD

What even, Vanitas. XD I can't tell if he's actually sick or if he's completely drained from how emotionally vulnerable he was for the entire Gévaudan arc. He was literally worrying about Noé for the entire arc, then he was worrying about his promise to Jeanne, then he was panicking about how fond Jeanne was of him suddenly and his own reaction to it. Yeah, I don't think he was prepared for literally anything in that arc. XD Guess we'll see how that continues later this month! I really need to see it.... *I've talked about that in previous installments, so I opted not to bog things down further by getting into it here, but if it seems unclear feel free to ask about it. :)

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Six weeks ago, when Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the presidential race, it seemed like the Democratic Party’s left wing suffered a major and potentially long-lasting defeat. Not only had Sanders lost, but former Vice President Joe Biden had won while casting many left-wing ideas as both unrealistic and detrimental to Democrats’ chances of winning elections.

But if Biden is elected in November, the left may get a presidency it likes after all — or at least one it hates less than anticipated. The coronavirus outbreak and the resulting massive surge in unemployment has moved American political discourse to the left: Ideas that would have been considered too liberal for most Democrats a few months ago are now being proposed by Republicans. And if American politics is moving left, expect Biden to do the same. Biden was often cast as a centrist or a moderate during the Democratic primaries, but those labels don’t really describe his politics that well — he doesn’t really seem to have any kind of set ideology at all.

Instead, Biden’s long record in public office suggests that he is fairly flexible on policy — shifting his positions to whatever is in the mainstream of the Democratic Party at a given moment. So if Biden wins the presidency and his fellow Democrats are still clamoring for more government spending to help the pandemic recovery, Biden is likely to be a fairly liberal president, no matter how moderate he sounded in the primaries.1

Biden positions himself in the center of the Democratic Party

Biden is a centrist in a certain way — he has historically positioned himself in the center of the Democratic Party, between the party’s most liberal and most conservative members. (And he does that positioning generally on foreign policy, economics and social issues.) The center of the party is a moving target of course.

“The best way to understand Biden is as a reflection or reaction to the party’s main planks throughout the last 40 years, rather than leading or shaping it,” said Lily Geismer, a history professor at Claremont McKenna College who has written extensively about the Democratic Party and liberalism. “I don’t see Biden as embodying any of the ideological terms or positions of centrist or liberal, certainly not center-left and not really neoliberal either. Instead I see his ideology as first and foremost a Democrat. He has throughout his career toed the party line rather than an ideological one.”

Serving in the Senate from 1973-2009, Biden was always more liberal than at least 44 percent of his Democratic colleagues but always less liberal than at least 43 percent of his colleagues, according to DW-Nominate scores of his Senate votes. Put another way, he ranged between the 44th and 57th percentile in terms of liberalism among Democratic senators in his Senate years — smack dab in the middle of the party.2

Liberal Democrats have been sharply critical of some of Biden’s votes in the Senate, mostly notably his support for the 1994 anti-crime bill that increased penalties for some offenses and the 2002 resolution to authorize war with Iraq. But on both issues, Biden was within the Democratic Party consensus at the time. Nearly all Senate Democrats (54 of 56) backed the crime bill, as did 188 of the 252 House Democrats who voted on the measure, which was signed into law by a Democratic president (Bill Clinton). A majority of House Democrats (126 of 207) opposed the Iraq War resolution, but the majority of Biden’s Senate Democratic colleagues were in favor of it (28 of 49).

Biden’s tenure as vice president also suggests that he would govern from the middle of the Democratic Party. There is not a clear record — akin to Senate roll call votes — of the positions Biden took in internal policy debates within the Obama administration. And the role of a vice president essentially requires him to publicly praise whatever decision the president ultimately makes. But Biden has described himself as an “Obama Democrat” and strongly defended the administration’s record. And while Obama himself and the Obama administration are somewhat hard to categorize ideologically, the former president and his team generally took approaches that did not satisfy the most liberal elements of the party but were fairly liberal.

When Biden did publicly separate himself from the Obama administration, it was to stake out a position that was within the Democratic mainstream. Take Biden’s announcement in 2012 that he supported same-sex marriages — though Obama had not yet come out publicly for legalizing same-sex unions, the majority of Democratic voters already held this position. And Biden also supported the Obama’s administration push for more lenient criminal justice policies, even as Sen. Biden had been a key figure in the Democrats’ tough on crime posture in the 1980s and 1990s.

That willingness to change with the times was also evident in Biden’s 2020 primary platform. Biden adopted fairly liberal policies — not as liberal as those of Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but more liberal than his pre-campaign record suggested. The Democratic Party is more liberal now than it was when Bill Clinton took office, or even when Obama was inaugurated, and Biden’s platform reflects that shift. Some of Biden’s 2020 policy proposals are notably to the left of the Obama administration’s stances when it left office in early 2017, including Biden’s support for the abolition of the death penalty, halting nearly all deportations of undocumented immigrants in his first 100 days as president and free four-year college for Americans in households with incomes up to $125,000 a year.

The Democratic Party’s center is moving left

It’s hard to measure the precise center of American politics and how it has changed over the last few months. But it’s certainly moved left in response to the COVID-19 crisis — toward way more federal spending. Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican, recently proposed using federal dollars to temporarily boost the pay of grocery store clerks and others in “essential” jobs by $12 per hour. Republicans in Congress supported a $2 trillion economic stimulus provision, which gave many Americans a one-time payment of $1,200 and boosted unemployment benefits by $600 per week. More moderate House Democrats, usually wary of being cast as too liberal, backed the $2 trillion bill and a subsequent $3 trillion economic stimulus bill .

Mirroring the shift in his party, Biden and his advisers are now reimagining his candidacy and presidency — rolling out more liberal policy plans, speaking in increasingly populist terms and joining forces with the most progressive voices in the party. Biden himself has invoked the idea that he might be entering the Oval Office facing a crisis on the scale of the Great Depression.

He recently told Politico that he supported a stimulus that was “a hell of a lot bigger” than the $2 trillion provision passed in March and that he was annoyed with Wall Street firms because “this is the second time we’ve bailed their asses out.” The former vice president is also reportedly considering Warren as a potential running mate more seriously than before because of her experience on economic issues. Last week, he appointed some of the party’s most prominent liberal figures, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, to a team advising him on policy.

“What I’ve heard the vice president say over and over again is this crisis is shining a bright, bright light on so many systemic problems in our country, and so many inequities. It is exacerbating and shining a light on environmental-justice issues, racial inequalities, so many other problems,” Stef Feldman, a top Biden policy adviser, recently told New York magazine.

“It seems clear that Biden gets the seriousness of the moment and the need to change directions in an American economy that was systemically unfair even before it was broken to pieces by a pandemic,” said Jeff Hauser of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank whose proposals are generally more in line with Sanders and Warren than Biden.

But don’t expect Biden to move too far left

We should note three important caveats here. First, some of these shifts leftward from Biden are probably best explained by his need to woo Sanders’s supporters, rather than as a response to COVID-19. Sanders handily won “very liberal” voters and voters under the age of 45 during the Democratic primary — and Biden probably wants those two blocs to be enthusiastically behind him in the general election. It’s likely that Biden, for example, would have tried to appeal to Ocasio-Cortez in some way even if the coronavirus outbreak had never happened.

Secondly, it’s not clear how notable or long-lasting these shifts are. You could argue that Biden is calling for a bigger federal response to a massive pandemic and elevated unemployment levels, and that this leftward shift isn’t particularly striking. And since the former vice president often calibrates his views to match the current consensus, you could see him backtracking from his newfound liberalism when the crisis recedes and/or if polls start showing a majority of Americans are leery of more government intervention to help with the COVID-19 recovery. Those are two fairly unlikely scenarios right now, but at some point more moderate Democrats might shift away from supporting more federal spending in the wake of the coronavirus. If a big bloc of Democrats shifted right, I would expect Biden to follow suit.

Thirdly, Biden’s leftward shifts will likely be constrained by both his own instincts and those of his top advisers. Both Biden and his inner circle are perpetually worried that the Democrats will move too far left on policy issues and scare off swing voters. Some of his top advisers, electoral politics aside, are just somewhat centrist and wary of liberal ideas. Biden himself seems deeply invested in the idea that he can cut deals with Republicans and tamp down the partisan divide in Washington, a vision that is probably in tension with a more leftish presidency.

“Does he stay on the 50-yard line, splitting the difference between anti-government conservatism and progressive populism, and cutting bipartisan deals,” David Dayen of the left-leaning The American Prospect wrote recently. “Or does he surge toward the end zone with ‘Roosevelt’ written on it, transforming the nation through ‘bold, persistent experimentation’ that fills in all the cracks the coronavirus exposed?”3

“Joe Biden is running on the most progressive platform of any Democratic nominee in recent history. But given the pandemic, he has to look at the New Deal and Great Society traditions in the Democratic Party and go bigger,” said Waleed Shahid, the communications director for Justice Democrats, a left-wing group aligned with Ocasio-Cortez and other very progressive Democrats.

All that said, it seems fairly likely that Biden, if he wins, will enter the Oval Office with Americans struggling through a recession and the public and his party clamoring for the federal government to do more to help those who are struggling. In that scenario, we might look back at how Biden won the Democratic primary — by emphasizing his moderation — and marvel that he became the most liberal president in recent history.

[tzigone]

Arrow family ages

So, I did the Bats, so why not the Arrows?  But this is a total mix-and-match.  Ollie and Dinah heavily pre-Crisis influenced (but not Golden Age).  Connor, Mia, Lian, and Sin from post-Crisis.  Emiko from New52.  Roll it all together for my own personal version.

Not nearly as sold on these ages.  Still some wobbly bits of story.

Ollie - 42/43.  This will tie in with ages of other heros and wanting him to have been a hero long enough ago that Cissie King-Jones could be a teen and have been born after he took on the role.  He probably started heroing in mid-20s.  Charter member of Justice League.

Dinah - 42/43.  I really hated Post-Crisis making her half his age. Hated it a lot.  I like the newly widowed aspect and storyline she had as of the soft reboot in 1969, and wanted to keep that as part of her backstory.  Also, she was heroing for several years before Larry died in my version - probably also mid-20s when she started.  Joined League after Larry’s death (when she was early 30s), but had worked with members on occasion in the past.  Not yet sure on occupation, but not a singer.

Roy - 27.  Obviously, he’s dons the mask earlier.  Probably at 14 or so, but he’ll be this age by time we get all the other family members involved.

Connor - 21.  I don’t like the retcon where Ollie knew about Connor. But I also don’t like the asshole and terrible human being that post-Crisis Ollie often was (he was good right after he came back from the dead, and I liked 1969-Crisis Ollie).   So no, he didn’t know about Connor (as was original setup in comic).  I wanted Connor conceived before Ollie had his island time and took on the mantle.  Just 20 years old and having a good time on vacation (I’m also not down with the version that Ollie was a complete asshole before his little bout of isolation, either, and that was not the way it always was) and Ollie never knows the result.  Since I like Connor seeking out his father at 18, I made it a little earlier than the latest-possible pre-island conception so that he and Mia and Sin would not all introduced be right on top of each other.

Mia - 17.  Still introduced at 15 (so when Connor 19). I really like her intro and how Ollie treated her like a kid, and she realized how wrong the way she was being treated by others was.

Emiko - 13.  This has Robert die while Shado is pregnant and Ollie has had custody of Roy a few months.  Until Robert’s death, Ollie was not really involved with the company.  Emiko would probably be 12 at her introduction.  Obviously, in the comics, she was younger when introduced then aged several years overnight.  12 seemed okay to use for the intro.  And part of that is how long I want Ollie to have been running QI by this time.

Sin - 10. But I’m wobblier on her. I’d originally read about her and thought she was 6-8 when introduced.  But recently read some of her issues and saw Dinah referred to her as 9 (though Dinah wouldn’t know precisely, of course).

Lian - 5.  That’s malleable, though.  Right now I have in mind to have Roy’s heroin addiction storyline when he’s 19-20 (when the original Teen Titans disband and he’s left with time on his hands). Then he cleans up and gets his life straight and then he goes to government employment where he goes undercover and undercovers.  But I’ve considered swapping it to the government work first and the addiction after he compromises himself with Cheshire.  Then Lian might be a year or two older.

[tamashley4888-blog]

Extra Synthetic Bamboo! The Biggest Preset Sounds In Pop Music

Pop music, whereas a worldwide phenomenon, is regional in its definition. I like you Pam. I am solely 31 however I can't ever recall a time that I ever favored what was "cool." I believe the final time I did it was 1998; I was 12. My father raised me on 60s rock so for me, rock is dead. If it wasn't for Queens of the Stone Age and Primus placing out new CDs this 12 months, I would have no motive to enter a music shop. I feel pretty fortunate that they are even putting out new music. When folks laud 21 Pilots as Modern rock, it makes me want to puke. If their music helped you in any method, that is nice. However there isn't any guitar of their band. That is not rock!!!!! Please put them in the category that they're, pop. The bass guitar is a stringed instrument related in look and construction to an electrical guitar, however with an extended neck and scale length, and 4 to six strings. The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, performed primarily with the fingers or thumb, by plucking, slapping, popping, dylanhuggins0.wikidot.com strumming, tapping, thumping, or pilarstable4051.hatenadiary.com choosing with a plectrum. It's often a solo instrument in jazz, jazz fusion, Latin, funk, progressive rock and other rock and metallic kinds. Learning to play the bass each much as difficult as learning how you can play the six string guitar. In case you're not sure about your musical skills, the bass guitar is the right instrument to get began with. With an everyday guitar, players usually need to memorize lengthy chords. On a bass guitar, nonetheless, you possibly can play more songs with simply single notes. This makes it easier for new gamers.

One might argue that most present pop music is extra by-product than in earlier many years, and is created using familiar songwriting techniques, tried-and-true devices and sonic textures, and a wholesome amount of references to already current genres and songs. Due to this, I try to usually replace the Encyclopedia of Every Music I've Ever Listened To" that I keep stored in my head, by listening to as much new music as doable, even if I end up touring down a path that introduces me to some art that I personally don't ever grow to like. I'm a DJ (mostly weddings and company parties) and my motto is to play what my audience desires to hear. That moment, I cannot attempt to train or moderately drive my so-known as knowledgeable views on good music onto anybody. We are here to rejoice so I'll play all the hits everyone is aware of and loves (and I love as nicely !). But I need to confess I've a hard time with this decade's popular music, there may be so much great stuff out there at this time however it's so scattered and fragmented far and wide. Individuals only seem to know random stuff they picked up by way of spotify, youtube or different streaming websites. So to play new music everyone knows, offers a slightly restricted repertoire to choose from.

The previous few decades have seen hip-hop grow from underground phenomenon to niche market to omnipresent juggernaut, listened to across the globe and influencing music of each genre. The place once rap could have been too outré for Executives to tune in, it has now permeated culture to such a degree that, for all intents and functions, rap music is pop music. And while Executives might have little knowledge of or curiosity in previous-college rhymes, artists like Kanye West or Drake could also be simply too popular to disregard. So at what point on the timeline of human existence does music develop into pop"? Pop, in any case, originated as shorthand for well-liked music", the sounds that were being dug by whatever technology in whichever society. The broadside ballads in style in Tudor and Stuart occasions are typically referred to by historians as early pop music". These bawdy, comical and mawkish songs of the streets and taverns have been pedaled on sheet music by road distributors, and proved widespread with landed gentry as a lot as serfs in the fields. In Victorian occasions, audiences would take pleasure in concerts by the German-born composer Sir Julius Benedict, www.magicaudiotools.Com billed because the London Popular Live shows, while the time period pop music" was in use at the very least one hundred years in the past.When asked which decade has the worst music, their responses fanned out in broadly chronological order, with the 2010s getting forty two% of the vote, the 2000s getting 15%, and the 1990s, 1980s and Nineteen Seventies coming in pretty equally with thirteen%, 14% and 12%. This may lead an off-the-cuff reader to conclude that the people polled had been all of a certain age, nevertheless it appears to be an evenly held opinion. Of individuals aged 18-29, 39% voted for the 2010s, whereas the determine for the over 30s was 43%, which indicates most of the fun is in digging up previous songs, somewhat than keeping up with the new.Most bass players stand while playing, using a strap over the shoulder to carry the instrument, though sitting can also be accepted, notably in large ensemble settings, corresponding to jazz massive bands or in acoustic genres resembling people music Some bassists, reminiscent of Jah Wobble , alternate between standing or seated enjoying. It is a matter of the participant's preference as to which place provides the best ease of playing and what a bandleader expects. When sitting, proper-handed players can balance the instrument on the correct thigh or like classical guitar players, the left. When sitting, no strap is required. Balancing the bass on the left thigh usually positions it in such a method that it mimics the standing place, permitting for less distinction between the standing and sitting positions. Balancing the bass on the precise thigh offers higher entry to the neck and fretboard in its entirety, particularly the lower-pitched frets.These aren't questions that Taryn Southern is anxious with. Southern is an online character who you may know from her YouTube channel or when she was a contestant on American Idol. Lately, Southern is all in favour of emerging tech, which has led to her present project: recording a pop album. Those two issues do not sound like they might be associated, however her album has a twist: as a substitute of writing all the songs herself, Southern used artificial intelligence to assist generate percussion, melodies, and chords. This makes it one of many first albums of its kind, a collaboration of types between AI and human.Shock-pop bombshell Gloria Trevi went full Rebel Lady after her controversial televised debut of Dr. Psiquiatra" on Mexican variety present Siempre en Domingo. The track that made Ms. Treviño a famous person follows a girl who is taken to the asylum and put below the care of an older man who ogles at her legs. This risqué song, in addition to her headbanging single Pelo Suelto," heralded the arrival of a different kind of Mexican pop star, à la Madonna - wild, outspoken, however completely charming - during a time when feminine singers have been anticipated to be wholesome like Lucerito, or elegant like Daniela Romo. However more troubling than her songs was her relationship to then-manager Sergio Andrade, who was discovered to have led a teenage intercourse abuse cult disguised as a talent college for women. I.R.

[kob131]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZiQAq_nf1s

“Could have expanded on the ideas surrounding the character but you just couldn’t do that, Rooster Teeth?”-

Look man, I get getting angry about a character you like being killed off-

But for fuck’s sake, keep the creators out of your bullshit.

0:24 See the thing is-

If you take a look at numerous things surrounding the show and how the show actually treats them: Expectations are almost completely out of the CRWBY’s hands.

This isn’t like what happened with The Last Jedi were the creators purposefully built up what their predecessor did only to completely dash them-We had people making theories about and treating the shattered moon as this huge plot point when no one makes any mention of it and it’s basically there to look cool. And then when the unimportant background object was given non-earth shattering reveal, people bitched at the CRWBY. So unless you can show beyond a shadow of doubt they did this with Adam (which you’ve failed to do twice before): All I’m going to do is throw you in the same bin as the Yang fans who insist that she has no flaws.

1:13 Wanna note here this spider tank is smaller and weaker looking than the Paladin from Volume 2 (the same one that Team RWBY had troubles with until Yang punched it out full force with her Semblance). Looking being the operative word because assumption is the same thing Eruption here is basing his argument on so if he tries to bring up the Paladin being outclassed later on then the Spider Tank is logically even more outclassed.

Also of note:

The Spider Tank does not have Aura.

Adam absorbs a full three second blast.

And Adam is not shown taking a hit once.

These are all important factors.

1:23 Same expectation for Yang surprisingly, to the point she was considered a Mary Sue pre Volume 2, Episode 10. There we established Yang isn’t as powerful as she seems due to her anger, recklessness and lack of finesse in her fighting style. This shows that weaknesses in these characters can be established after their establishing moments since we had never seen Yang faced with a situation like this before. Again, keep this in mind.

1:53 No actually. Two of three things you stated are not established here. Adam is not established as a leader due to this being a two man operation PRECISELY because it’s a two man operation. Because of this, Adam is not shown leading anyone and in fact is portrayed as Blake’s equal as he almost never gives her orders. Nor is he presented as caring about the WF as he never expressly shows concern or dedication to the cause. He only seems to care about blowing up a train full of humans. 

If anything, he is established a powerful combatant with a bloodlust against humans. That’s all. 

3:02 *holds up a finger*

Unreliable Narrator.

It’s a trope where the person giving the information isn’t exactly reliable and thus the information isn’t that good. Reasons can range from lies to insanity to personal bias. Personal bias, like say an abuse survivor glorifying their abuser because of mental damage. 

In order for me to take Blake’s words as you do at face value, you have to prove this is inconsistent behavior for an abuse survivor. 

Not to mention the fact that you ignore an important bit of context: Adam approved of and helped carry out a plan to destroy not just Beacon but Vale as well. Both of which contain a fair number of Fanaus. He makes no attempt to warn Fanaus ahead of time nor does he seem to care about them.

4:40 yes and I’m sure Adolf wouldn’t want to waste German soldiers on a Jewish cause.

The issue here is that you focus on the word ‘cause’ whereas the narrative could be focused on the word ‘human’. A racist psychopath wouldn’t waste time and resources helping someone who they are racist against.

4:48... And you showcase a clip where Adam clarifies ‘human’, meaning it barely has anything to do with leadership and everything to do with racism. … Why?

5:08 Once again, the same traits can apply to a racist psychopath sending people to die for his own selfish reason rather than some leader. You have not shown anything to disprove the first interpretation (which is the one you arguing against as you think his character was changed.)

5:25 Really? It didn’t become shaky when Blake contradicted the idea of Adam being someone reasonable when she expressed concern and FEAR over the fact that Yang acted slightly like Adam? It didn’t become shaky when you never proved Adam being a leader and only proved him being racist? It didn’t become shaky upon reflecting on all this as the only reason you think Adam is a leader is because of Blake, someone who has reason to be an unreliable narrator especially with her actions in Volume 3?

I think we’ve been riding on a completely different set of trails this whole time.

5:33 >Not romantic >”my mentor” >Same show with Arkos in it

Yeah, either show me proof it's platonic or this was a case of Schrodinger's Relationship where it can be both things at the same time due to a lack of information, only to be defined when given solid proof.

5:45 Once again, I refer to Adolf Hitler who acted like his actions were a revolution himself. And I don't refer to Adolf for no reason, Adam display all the classical examples of a racist sociopath like Hitler did. Hell, he was one Mein Kampf quote away from being a more blatant Nazi Expy than the Daleks.

7:05 Except that Yang’s power level was cemented before this with the destruction of the Paladin, a feat FAR greater than Adams previous feat, only to be defeated by someone who never showed that level of strength (Neo) by acting around her and taking advantage of Yang’s weaknesses. This cements a very simple idea: Power is not everything. Yang was shown to be more powerful than Neo but Neo was far more skilled and was able to work around Yang’s Semblance and anger issues. Not just that, but Adam is once again NEVER shown to take a hit from Blake OR Yang in this whole fight so his DURABILITY is undefined.

So you’re basically applying DBZ logic to something more like JoJo in nature. Not really anyone’s fault here but yours.

8:05 Except not really.

Blake said Adam was misguided. Illa acts misguided.

Blake said Adam fell off the slipperly slope. Illa acts her descent.

Blake said Adam was these things. Illa IS these things.

This like saying Raven’s character was retconned because Taiyang described her differently, never mind how Taiyang has an inherent bias for Raven/would have a reason to lie.

Illa exists because she is what you deluded Adam was. Once again, no one’s fault but your own.

8:10 And you know...Illa doesn’t contradict a single thing stated about her unlike Adam who contradicted EVERYTHING stated about him...by Blake...his abuse victim...

You uh, wanna rethink your arguments now? Cuz you’re sounding less like someone who knows what they’re talking about and more like a RWDE poster.

8:40 You know, aside from the fact that Sienna denied him what he wanted and stood in his way...like Blake...a Fanaus...and former partner/lover.

Wow those arguments just keep getting more and more flimsy. Wonder if we’ll get to the point where I can just quote the show to disprove you.

9:01 Like say, trying to kill the Runaway Blake or the Belladonnas or, I dunno, THE HUNDREDS OF FANAUS THAT LIVED IN VALE/BEACON WHO HELPED TRY TO KILL WITHOUT REMORSE?

See how each of Adam’s actions makes him look more and more self centered, almost as though he’s breaking down and losing the mask he’s portrayed himself as?

9:45 Wrong.

Here’s where we get to the fundamental misunderstanding you have about Adam.

Why does he want to hurt humans? Because they hurt him.

Why does he want to hurt Blake? Because she hurt him.

Why does Adam work for the WF? Because it benefits him.

Why does Adam believe in Fanaus Supremacy? Because it benefits him.

Adam’s character never changed. It never made this dramatic shift you keep hinting at. He was always this way. All his actions have the common thread of benefitting himself whereas the character you think he is would have some kind of self sacrifice for his people.

But that’s only half the story. I’ll get to the other half when you do.

10:17 *raises eyebrow*

… Do I even need to bring up things like the KKK and the Nazis, who were both groups of people in VASTLY greater numbers that were manipulated and used by manipulative people without any real rational reason because people are not rational? Hell, want a better example? BLM is an organization of people who do terrible things because they feel oppressed, nevermind how that doesn’t excuse their actions nor that their leaders care more about their own selfish desires than anything meaningful.

Your argument doesn’t work, history disagrees with you.

10:26 So are all known dictators and tyrants: That doesn’t mean Adam was a misguided revolutionary.

10:43 No it just didn’t exist. He was never the character you made him out to be, your disappointment is the result of nothing more than buying into an illusion. And I can’t blame anyone for that but the person who willingly did that. I don’t care how sad you are: You fail because of your own flaws.

10:56 No, nobody but Adam stans felt that way. No one said that but people who refused to accept the idea that Adam wasn’t what they thought he was. It's the same damn bullshit in regards to Raven: It’s not the writers fault you hyped yourself for something they contradicted. If you want an example of hyping up a character aspect then abandoning it: Look at how cinder was portrayed in Volume 4 and how the sympathetic angle was abandoned in Volume 5 onward. THAT is the fault of the writers. Not this.

11:31 Except-

A. Adam was never in it for anyone but himself as his previous actions with Vale/Beacon can attest.

And B. Blake directly says that the change was only temporary and we can see that such extremity only leads to creating the opposite. Adam was created as the result of Jacques’ opportunistic and psychopathic actions, making Adam opportunistic and psychopathic. And we can see this in our world: white supremacy as a whole was on it’s last legs a few years ago and it was on the verge of becoming as arachic and out dated as monarchies and slavery. But when extremists yelling about how awful white people are as a whole and being violent extremists rose up, white supremacy resurged. Why? Because those hurt by the first group became extremist themselves due to how people gravitate between extremes. And the first group only existed because of the older form of the second group being douchebags in the past. 

Adam works not as a revolutionary but as a cautionary tale of how self sustaining this cycle of hate is. Eventually, Adam would have caused Fanaus racism to spike right back up and give those racists a strawman to point to, just like what happened at our doorstep.

12:57 No, Sienna is portrayed as opportunistic and power hungry and Adam is giving a sadistic smile at the praise. There is no ambiguity here: Ghira is and was portrayed as in the right and Adam/Sienna were portrayed as and are in the wrong. You’re ignoring context. AGAIN.

13:47 Says the guy whose trying to discredit everything Adam related post Volume 2 and would have every reason to willfully misrepsent the scene to support his argument, nevermind how he hasn’t proven a damn thing.

14:29 And just because you say it doesn’t make it so, especially considering a loot of people found Adam interesting again after this short AND this finale.

15:00 No, he’s always been 100% for himself. It’s just that Blake is an easier and more recent target than humans.

15:53 And yet he overcomes her, like the Fall Of Beacon. Forgot that part eh?

16:04 Nope.

The development with Yang was never her strength but rather her tactics. Thing is, we never see Adam use tactics in a fight. We never see him think or strategize in fights. And his style reflects someone who fights with power alone. Meanwhile, Yang has developed from Volume 3 with her training because Taiyang taught her that she can’t just power through everything in sight and has to THINK her way around thing. This being demonstrated by tripping up Taiyang, prioritizing the long ranged bandits in her Volumee 5 fight, letting go of her arm in the Haven fight and here by not feeding Adam’s Semblance and instead waiting for an opening to strike him down and disarm him (you know, like Neo did in Volume 2.)

The show directly said this, you have no excuse Eruption Fang.

16:30 No you just overhyped the boss and made it look tougher than they are. you basically hyped the Minotaur from SMT4 as Matador from SMT3, despite the latter being tougher than the former.

17:01 ADAM. IS NOT. THE FANAUS.

BLAKE is the representative of the Fanaus.

Just as Jacques isn’t the representative of the humans, WEISS is.

Stop trying to make Adam look like the only Fanaus involved in the conflict.

And even THEN: Adam IS Morally grey. Just not the ‘misguided revolutionary’ you made him out to be.

Remember when I said that Adam is selfish being only half the story? Well, Adam is selfish BECAUSE of his brand. Why? Because that action symbolizes how he lost his agency and his innocence a long time ago, now seeking control over other people through either tricking people into following him or abusing them until they listen, because he lost the control he once had. Because the branding scarred him so deeply it changed him as a person. But because of his obsession with control over others, he’s stuck in a mentally immature state. He’s just a scared child trying to get back at the people who hurt him and get back SOME semblance of control that he lost, nevermind how he hurts others because a child never thinks about such things.

He isn’t a misguided revolutionary, he’s a victim of abuse and racism that defined him before he had a choice, so he now tries to rob others of choice to feel better.

It’s the same thing Nazi Germany went through in regards to WWI’s aftermath, where their economy tanked and they became hungry and cold so they sought out anything to make themselves feel better, even if the option was a manchild of a dictator.

And that’s why this is no one’s fault but your own, Collen. You were given a morally grey character as you say you were promised: You just threw a fit because it wasn’t 100% what you wanted.

18:07 And just because someone is evil doesn’t mean they cannot be pitied or understood. You are denying complex writing for your headcanon.

19:10 No you’re just salty and denying it.

19:41 and yet you ignore the bad decisions Adam makes on his path through life, deciding to be violently, giving in to his abusive urges, deciding to be selfish and deciding to hurt other people for his own benefit:  basically preaching what the show said except worse in every regard.

20:08 You say as every ‘inconsistency’ you try to list is more evident of you ignoring facts right in front of you just to make yourself feel better than an actual inconsistency. I would have given this to you except by going through all this bullshit and spewing all of this, I’ve come to learn that Adam was never inconsistent and that the only fault was not portraying Blake’s symptoms of abuse more clearly.

20:12 And this si where we’re stopping because I swear, this one line makes me wanna smack you upside the head.

Adam didn’t ‘die’ in Volume 3. Your Adam NEVER EXISTED. He was never real, he was just an illusion built on misinformation and denial of reality. And yet instead of reflecting and thinking about Adam’s actions and trying to see if there’s a connecting thread, you decide to stomp your feet, flail your arms and insult everyone else, even the creators, just because you didn’t get what you wanted.

Either accept it or let go.

[hexagonification]

In which I ramble on and on about stardates

Mainly because I've been wanting to make original posts for a while now (On that note, starting now I'll be tagging my original posts as #hexagonification, since Tumblr doesn't have a filter for that like Pillowfort does) and partially because I was inspired by elephant-in-the-pride-parade's recent stardate posts.

I wonder if I'll lose followers for doing this….

For starters, I won't be addressing the arbitrary and non-sequential stardates seen in DIS (prior to season 3), SNW, and Short Treks set in the same era (2256 to 2259-ish, presumably eventually up to 2266). I'm of the opinion that they're deliberately arbitrary as a little continuity nod of sorts to TOS, which had many episodes produced and aired in different orders. Look at the list on Memory Alpha and compare episode numbers, production numbers, and original airdates (you can ignore the remaster dates--they went in whatever order they wanted with those). It's all over the place.

Additionally, this site handily has a bunch of stardate converters, including everything I discuss below (except for reference stardates, but you can figure those out pretty easily). I definitely recommend keeping it handy as you read.

Andrew Main Pros:

System includes TOS and TNG-style dates

Very thorough and thoughtfully put together

While a bit cumbersome, the issue system does add past/future-proofing. A stardate for right now in 2023 wouldn't read as a huge negative number like it would in other systems.

Cons:

The issue system (i.e. TOS: "Charlie X" takes place on [19] 1533.6, TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint" is [21] 41153.7, and so on. The issue number is bracketed. In short, 19 is the TOS era and 21 is TNG) is a bit cumbersome and doesn't exist in canon

Last updated in February 1997, before DS9 or Voyager finished airing. To that end, the system doesn't take into consideration that VOY: "Homestead" explicitly takes place on the 315th anniversary of First Contact, April 5 2378. The stardate listed in the episode instead translates to November 13 2377 instead.

This system puts TMP in 2271, while startrek.com said in 2019 that it's in 2273 instead. Memory Alpha recognizes the ambiguity and just leaves it at 2270s, while Memory Beta goes with 2273.

Season 3 of Discovery established that stardates will eventually reach 6 digits (ostensibly in 2423), whereas TNG-era stardates here are distinctly capped at 5 digits.

Richie Kennedy Pros:

System includes TOS and TNG-style dates

No issues and no resetting. Stardates begin at 0 and increase continuously, albeit at different rates as the eras go by. When SD 9999.9 arrives, it just ticks over to 10000.0 and continues on its merry way into the TNG era.

Cons:

SD 0 being January 6 2266 (happy -243rd anniversary) makes it seem like stardates weren't invented until Kirk's five-year mission had already begun in 2265 (the stardate given in TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" would be in October 2266 in this system). But DIS and SNW have established that they've been in use at least as far back as 2256, or possibly even 2155. (First Contact in the mirror universe is cited as being on SD 0141.7, but that may be a Terran Empire stardate independent of prime Federation/Starfleet)

As a result of the accommodations made to make Homestead's stardate work, dates in later shows/years don't always match up with the year they're supposed to take place in. More on that below.

TrekGuide (specifically their TNG system; the TOS one isn't very useful outside of a few years and the contemporary one kinda does its own thing)

Pros:

On-screen evidence is taken into consideration to figure out how the system works.

Cons:

Only covers the TNG era--dates from before 2323 read as negative stardates

Andreas Schmidt Pros:

Elegantly consistent. The first two digits indicate a year (41… = 2364), while the rest indicates progress into the year, with the decimal adding additional precision down to the second (…153.7 = February 26, 6:06:02). Changing the 41 to 42, 43, 44, etc results in a mostly identical date. (Except for the year, obviously. The exact time can vary too, presumably due to leap years)

Seemingly the system used on Memory Alpha, at least as far as extrapolating years from stardates goes. It's also worth noting that the TNG portion of Main's system is consistently very close to the Schmidt system (within issue 21, anyway).

Cons:

Only covers the TNG era--dates from before 2323 read as negative stardates

This system would suggest the events of TNG: "Family" take place on January 5, 2367. Nothing in the episode indicates it's cold out (the final draft was made in August and the episode aired in October, so filming had to be between those months), so this system's consistency doesn't reflect how actual stardates work. I don't doubt there are other such discrepancies found when comparing the apparent time of year in a stardate and the apparent weather on Earth in a given episode.

FASA's reference stardates Pros:

A reference stardate can be easily translated into a contemporary date and time (officially they only record down to the hour, but nothing is stopping someone from adding extra digits and going down to the second). It's basically Franz Joseph's YYMM.DD-style stardate with extra steps. You could even say the Kelvin timeline's YYYY.DD-style evolved from either or both of them.

Cons:

Very old system invented in 1979

Reference stardates are used basically exclusively in the Spaceflight Chronology book, which was considered canon at the time but is now almost entirely ignored. Notably, the years in which things take place are almost never in line with modern canon--though the offset is occasionally pretty consistent. In particular, the TNG era years are either 61 or 62 years earlier than they should be. While a reference stardate can be converted into a contemporary date, it will almost certainly not match up with modern canon. Attempting to set up offsets for each century can occasionally get within a few years of the correct date, but it's honestly a fool's errand.

By the time TNG was picking up steam in 1989, Paramount took the Star Trek license from FASA, since they wanted more control and consistency over the lore.

Like with the Kelvin stardates, they're very Earth-centric, taking Gregorian calendar dates and rewriting them to look sci-fi-y. Something something "homo sapiens-only club", anyone?

There has been talk on Twitter among people involved with the current era of Trek about a "unified stardate formula" (This Reddit post has links aplenty). In summary, Erin Macdonald (current science advisor for Star Trek) painstakingly did a bunch of math, put together timelines and charts, and cried more than once along the way to put together a new stardate formula unlike any of the online converters out there. And as a result, the years and stardates for Lower Decks (and possibly other shows in the TNG era) don't quite match up like they would in the Schmidt system. Brad Winters has said Lower Decks is still "firmly in 2380" (as of November 2021, or between seasons 2 and 3), despite the stardates ticking over from 57- to 58- apparently between seasons 1 and 2.

Someone has speculated the new …000 point is instead Federation Day (which doesn't have a concretely canonical day, but the closest date to canon would be October 11, appearing in a prop made for Generations but not actually appearing on screen.) David Mack has also said there's no reason a season finale should coincide with New Year's Eve, which makes sense. TrekGuide's system came to the conclusion of 918.23186 stardates per year, and the TNG portion of Kennedy averages between 955 and 958 stardates per year, depending on the year (not immediately sure what the correlation is there--it's not leap years. The TOS and movies portions have different intervals, but they have an arbitrary but noticeable shift like that too).

In my opinion, the ideal system would be one that blends the seamlessness of Kennedy with the starting point of Main ([0] 0000.0 is January 4 2162; Memory Beta says stardates began being used in 2175 or 2176), while ensuring stardates in the ballpark of 7410 to 7414 are in the year 2273 (ideally August, since Memory Beta says the events of that movie take place then), with maybe some adjustments from TrekGuide for good measure. I suppose it's possible Erin Macdonald's system does just that, but it's equally possible hers takes another approach.

In conclusion, Erin Macdonald has said that a converter using her formula "will be out for everyone hopefully soon…" on November 12 2021. So far, I don't think anyone has said anything else about it, but I'm definitely looking forward to whenever it comes.

[edgegreys]

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[sanjosenewshq]

Amy Cooper loses lawsuit claiming she was unfairly fired

Amy Cooper loses lawsuit claiming she was unfairly fired https://sanjosenewshq.com/amy-cooper-loses-lawsuit-claiming-she-was-unfairly-fired/ A lady named Central Park Karen has misplaced a lawsuit alleging that her former employer unfairly known as her a racist and fired her after she was videotaped calling the police with a black chook watcher. Amy Cooper, 43, filed a lawsuit towards San Mateo-based Franklin Sources — broadly referred to as Franklin Templeton — in Might 2021, claiming that she posted the incident on Twitter and falsely claiming that she carried out an investigation earlier than she was fired. Cooper misplaced her job on the firm’s New York workplace the day after the Might 2020 accident. US District Choose Ronnie Abrams on Wednesday dropped the lawsuit, dismissing her allegations of racial and sexual discrimination and defamation. A video posted by birdwatcher sister Christian Cooper – not associated to Amy – confirmed the girl calling 911, complaining that an African American man was threatening her and her canine. Amy Cooper made the decision after Christian Cooper requested her to leash her canine, as required in that space of ​​Central Park. The video went viral, garnering greater than 40 million views, throughout a nationwide discourse on systemic racism. Cooper argued that the encounter turned “worldwide information as a racial flashpoint” and misrepresented her as a distinctly white girl as a result of Franklin Templeton cited the incident on Twitter. However the choose rejected the declare. “The Central Park incident coincided precisely with the date of the homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis, an occasion that equally sparked intense nationwide rhetoric on problems with racial justice and policing,” Abrams wrote. “The contents of the viral video, in addition to the dialogue surrounding it in each media and social media, have been already issues of public curiosity when the defendants’ tweet was posted on Might 26.” Cooper’s attorneys didn’t instantly reply to an e mail requesting touch upon the choice. Cooper referred to 3 male workers she stated have been handled higher after participating in related behaviour, however Abrams stated the comparability doesn’t apply as a result of the misconduct they engaged in, “which spans from plagiarism to insider buying and selling to a felony conviction, is solely considerably totally different.” In order that it can’t be in comparison with her conduct on this case.” The choose additionally dismissed Cooper’s allegations of defamation over an organization tweet that stated it fired her after an inside overview and “has no tolerance for racism of any form,” in addition to a remark from CEO Jenny Johnson in an interview concerning the incident. Abrams stated that any suggestion from the tweet that Cooper is racist is an opinion and that the assertion doesn’t point out that the corporate thought-about any info not already identified to the general public. Franklin Templeton stated in an announcement that he was happy with the courtroom’s settlement that the allegations must be dismissed and that it nonetheless believed the corporate had responded appropriately. Cooper has labored for Franklin Templeton since 2015 and was the Vice President answerable for managing the corporate’s insurance coverage portfolio. A local of Canada, she holds a BA from the College of Waterloo in Ontario and an MBA from the College of Chicago. Concerning the Central Park incident, final 12 months the Manhattan District Legal professional’s workplace dropped a misdemeanor cost towards Cooper after she accomplished schooling and remedy courses on racial equality. She was accused of falsely reporting a third-degree incident. The case is Cooper v Franklin Templeton, 21-cv-4692, US District Courtroom, Southern District of New York (Manhattan.) via San Jose News HQ https://sanjosenewshq.com September 23, 2022 at 01:46AM

[revpauljbern]

Ongoing Biblical studies with Author Rev. Paul J. Bern....

Paul and Barnabas Conclude Their Stay in Pisidian Antioch

[Acts chapter 13, verses 42-52]

For a website view, click here :-)

When we left off last week at verse 41 of Acts 13, the apostle Paul was concluding his first sermon as a new convert as he addressed the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch. Pisidian Antioch is located 1 km north of Yalvac in the province of Isparta in southern Turkey. He finished up the greater portion of that Sabbath morning by quoting from the prophet Habakkuk 1: 5: “Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.” Paul was referring to those present who rejected his message, all of whom were Jews and many of whom were quite vocal about it. Their vocal and vehement opposition to Paul's message of salvation as taught by Christ will come to a climax today as we finish up my final installment of Acts chapter 13. So let's take up where we left off beginning at verse 42.

“ 42) As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. 43) When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44) On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45) When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him. 46) Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: 'We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47) For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

So the crowd received a Word from the Lord through Paul's message that day, there was no mistaking that fact. The church still has preachers and teachers of the Word who discharge their duties with power and anointing, but we continue to need a lot more of them. What we don't need are more preachers of the “prosperity gospel” or the “pre-tribulation rapture”, where the entire Church allegedly gets a free pass, never having to endure any persecution in the End Times in which we find ourselves. But the people in that Synagogue that morning weren't as stupid and naive as some Christians are today. They knew the real thing when they saw it, and they knew real Truth when they heard it – Divine truth! That is exactly why Paul and Barnabas were invited to return the following Sabbath. That's why the people wanted so much to hear them again. Once a preacher or teacher gets his/her students or audience focused on the things of God instead of that of this world, the scope and depth of their entire field of vision completely changes focus, which changes the listeners forever! And that's precisely what Paul and Barnabas accomplished that morning.

“44) On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45) When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.” It seems supernatural to us now that “almost the entire city” showed up the following Sabbath for morning services. Considering there was no phone, internet or email, Paul and Barnabas relied solely on word-of-mouth, and it paid off really big, just like when Jesus walked the Earth his Father created. When the Jews who were in charge of the synagogue heard Paul's words, they were filled with jealousy and rage. As I have written previously, the Jews of that time – plus many more since – see themselves as exclusive unto themselves, having little or nothing to do with non-Jews. The very thought of equality between Jew and Gentile offended some of them, especially those in positions of leadership. But, they were offended most of all with the teaching of Christ as Messiah.

“Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: 'We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.” The reason Paul and Barnabas spoke the Word of God to the Jews first is because they were themselves Jewish, as was Christ the Lord. The fact that they were in a synagogue bore heavily in this case too, but there were also many Gentiles present, such as Greeks, secular and Christian Arabs, and Turkish individuals as well. But the way the Bible is translated right here doesn't really convey how animated the discussion surrounding Paul's Sabbath message actually was. It says, “Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly....”

In 21st century terms, this could be written as, 'Paul and Barnabas took all the rejection, snobbery and contempt heaped upon them and threw it all right back in their faces.' The accusatory manner in which these insults were delivered was similarly thrown back in the faces of all the Jews who refused to believe their message, and who were verbally abusive to them. Interestingly enough, there was not a single Gentile in the audience who rejected Paul's and Barnabas' message. They then quote scripture to back themselves up: “For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” (Isaiah 49: 6)

In the original Greek text, known as the Septuagint by theologians, “you” is in the singular, indicating that the message is for each individual reader. This is significant because it lines up with the words of Christ, and I quote: “18) Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28: 18-20) And now let's conclude this week's study, starting at verse 48.

“48) When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. 49) The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50) But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. 51) So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. 52) And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”

“....all who were appointed for eternal life believed. The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.” Notice it says “all who were/are appointed”, and that means appointed by God from long before any of us were born. It is a reference to prophecies from the old and the new testaments concerning eternal life (see Psalm 119: 89, Isa. 26: 4, Matt. 19: 16 or 1st John 5: 13, among others). Eternal life is a black and white issue, there is no gray area here. It's not that some have it while others don't. Everyone has a soul, or a spirit if you like, that lives on after our bodies wear out and die. It's where our souls will spend eternity that makes all the difference. Some will spend eternity with Jesus and all the Saints, which is his Bride, the greater church. Others will spend theirs in hell for refusing to believe in God, or at least in his Son Jesus, and for adamantly refusing to obey the commands of Christ. The two foremost commands he has already given us, that we should love God our Creator with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Meaning, those who are lovers of everything else but God and each other will burn.

So the religious leadership there at Pisidian Antioch organized all the political and business leaders and made that new teaching known as Christianity seem like an existential threat. You know, just like the political leaders of any given city, region or country, or just like business leaders do today? Those in positions of power manufacture a problem, always in the form of a group or individual that has interests contrary to theirs, and then present their ready-made solution, which is to forcibly liquidate the “problem”. These people are all a bunch of assassins! “They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them....” By now you all must realize that it was only by their reliance on the Holy Spirit to guide them, plus some very sharp wits, that enabled them to survive all the attacks and persecutions they were subject to. Paul and Barnabas weren't just thrown out of the synagogue or out of Pisidian Antioch, they were expelled from the entire region!

But they rejoiced because of it because they had the honor of being persecuted for their belief in Christ as Lord and Savior: “....the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” But this was about far more than their own beliefs. This was about fulfilling their mission to tell as many people about the Gospel as they could. Whether their message, the message of Christ, was well received by the listeners or not was left up to them, and to the Holy Spirit. Their mission, and that of the Twelve and all the others with them by this point, was fulfilled once the message was delivered, the healing had been distributed and prayers offered. At that point, it was time to move on to the next town. That would be an interesting life in His service, don't you think? Traveling around from town to town, depending on the weather to be able to preach at outdoor meetings when a synagogue wasn't available, and never knowing what kind of reception you will get – this was the life of an apostle in a post-ascension world. In next week's lesson, as we move on to chapter 14, we will see how all this continues to play out as the early Church continues to grow. Until then....

[trellwords]

halo au chatlog, for later reference.

18:54 [trell]: so, law (of course) 18:58 [trell]: is part of the UNSC. specifically i think he is an orbital drop medic (and i haven’t decided whether this is conceptually realistic or not. surely even the specialest of the special forces and paratroopers must sometimes bring medical support, especially when somebody like an orbital drop shock trooper represents a massive investment by the military that employs them?) because i want the opening scene to be aboard in amber clad over delta halo, right after they hitch a ride through slipspace on the tail of the solemn penance when it jumps in-atmo over mombasa 19:01 [trell]: anyway: around 2548, luffy goes to reach 19:01 [gregory]: I AM INTENT 19:01 [gregory]: ALSO SPACE TRUCKIN 19:02 [trell]: perhaps specifically to take part in the AI program, as his personality is deemed particularly suitable to the development of a military AI 19:03 [trell]: since: anarchist streak aside: he’s extremely adaptable and just DOES NOT BACK DOWN, always picks a third option 19:03 [trell]: ideal traits when developing a supercomputer for MURDER 19:07 [trell]: law (who has been very close with luffy for a long time) successfully requests to be assigned to reach, despite the fact that UNSC high command is at that point already considering pulling the fuck out of reach and leaving it defenseless to secure a military victory over the covenant 19:08 [trell]: so: luffy’s brain is flash cloned and is one of the two that survives, the other being the one made off catherine halsey and turned into cortana 19:09 [trell]: and they develop the AI but don’t turn it on, perhaps because cortana is already active and AI this smart only have seven years before they go crazy, right, better to keep this one in reserve, especially if something happens to cortana mid-life span 19:09 [gregory]: fair 19:11 [trell]: meanwhile, in the three years between their arrival on reach and the fall of the planet in 2552, luffy finds out law is in love with him, ends up reciprocating, they wind up in an actual relationship rather than whatever the hell the thing that’s been between them for years and years qualifies as 19:14 [gregory]: does Luffy die in the fall 19:14 [trell]: bingo 19:14 [gregory]: Luffy dies in the fall doesn't he 19:16 [trell]: the covenant arrives, and luffy gets killed by a sangheili strike force in front of law’s eyes 19:16 [trell]: so, you know, not traumatic at all 19:17 [gregory]: Normal Couple Things 19:17 [trell]: specifically this is probably when the covenant has their first victory on reach at sword base 19:18 [trell]: law ends up hiding out in the underground lab with halsey and cortana, makes it to the pillar of autumn and escapes reach with them 19:19 [trell]: and of course the pillar of autumn follows the cole protocol but cortana secretly crams the covenant sequence into the navcom and they all end up jumping to the first halo 19:20 [trell]: WHICH, SIDENOTE, I THINK HALO MAY BE ONE OF THOSE SCI-FI UNIVERSES WHERE, LIKE ENDER’S GAME, FTL TRAVEL MEANS TIME IS SUPER FUCKED 19:20 [gregory]: or traveller tbh 19:21 [gregory]: "THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH INTERSTELLAR COMMUNICATIONS IS IT TAKES A GODDAMN WEEK TO GET FROM ONE SYSTEM TO ANOTHER" 19:21 [trell]: slipspace essentially allows ships to travel through our universe but crumpled up so there’s more dimensions, and this combined with the ebbs and flows of slipspace can mean that a jump to the ark outside the milky way takes very little time while getting from earth to reach takes for fucking ever even though they’re close together, right 19:21 [trell]: except. EXCEPT 19:21 [trell]: the games strongly imply that jumping is instantaneous for the people doing the jumping 19:23 [trell]: when in amber clad jumps in regret’s grav field over mombasa there’s clearly no lag at all between being thrown into slipspace and keyes being thrown forward in her command chair by the inertia as they come out the other side 19:23 [trell]: which to my mind suggests that if you jump somewhere and jump back you might still be age 26 but the people you left behind are gonna be 50 19:24 [gregory]: GOD 19:24 [trell]: ANYWAY. ENDER’S GAME-ESQUE DIGRESSION ASIDE 19:25 [trell]: they jump to installation 04, and UNSC decides that, okay, this is actually a pretty good time to activate that second AI they rescued off reach along with cortana 19:26 [trell]: and of course UNSC and commander keyes have absolutely no intention whatsoever of giving AI-luffy to law. who would give a military supercomputer to a medic, even a really good one 19:27 [trell]: except. (hang on going to go inside and wrestle off boots) 19:34 [trell]: EXCEPT, when they turn luffy on—luffy, who has all of luffy’s memories up until his brain was flash cloned, for whom those three years that never happened are superficially more akin to an amnesiac gap—and tell him what happened, that the person he’s based off is dead, realizes how devastated law would be 19:34 [trell]: and more importantly realizes that if he doesn’t do something first law is liable to do something catastrophically stupid, like try to steal him from UNSC 19:35 [gregory]: also fair 19:35 [trell]: and so REFUSES TO COOPERATE, UNLESS THEY GIVE HIM TO LAW 19:35 [gregory]: Law would do that 19:35 [trell]: i mean, he must have stolen that submarine from someone, right, and probably from the government, 19:36 [trell]: somewhere in the one piece canon there is a grand sub heist we never got to see 19:36 [trell]: grand theft u-boat 19:36 [trell]: anyway: idk if you remember from halo CE, but in halo people can have neural interfaces built into the back of their head 19:37 [trell]: all UNSC ship commanders have CNIs (command neural interfaces) linked to their ships, without which you can’t activate the auto-destruct sequence while the captain remains living 19:38 [trell]: obviously not everyone has these given that they’re literally attached TO YOUR BRAIN, FOREVER AND EVER, AND ARE EXCEEDINGLY DIFFICULT TO REMOVE SURGICALLY 19:40 [trell]: (i think john-117 probably also has one; we see him insert cortana into his helmet and you see her on the hud, but at one point she says “i KNOW what you’re thinking. i’m in your head,” which suggests she’s actually jacked into his brain stem as well) 19:42 [trell]: but anyway: i think it’s feasible that a specialist medic that runs around after ODSTs trying to keep them in one piece would have one. need your medic to suddenly know all there is to know about this one freak depressurization accident so he can save a million dollar investment shock trooper in a sort of similar situation? boom, shove it into his brain, done 19:43 [trell]: (so like. imagine a medic that carries around an entire medical research library worth of information on disks that can be matrix’d up at any time) 19:44 [trell]: EXTREME TL;DR, before they land on installation 04 and all the shit with the flood and thel ‘vadam goes down luffy gets UNSC to let him hitch a ride with law instead of wherever they would have preferred to put him because they need another AI operational and mobile and don’t have a whole lot of options 19:46 [trell]: which, at the very base level: leaves law sharing a brain with a version of his dead lover to whom reach never happened, and who, perforce, never...actually fell in love with him, and in fact doesn’t even know that happened between them 19:47 [trell]: and i think it’s reasonable to assume that when cortana can hear what john’s thinking it’s because he’s thinking it REAL LOUD 19:47 [trell]: in his internal monologue voice that has Made A Decision 19:48 [trell]: rather than assuming she can also hear things that are really vague and indefinite, like memories, which don’t occur in the same tangible way as internal monologue thinking 19:48 [gregory]: Tru 19:49 [trell]: which is to say, they put luffy in law’s brain, but all this shit’s going down on halo and anyway just then law’s real, real good at not thinking about those three years on reach 19:49 [trell]: given how they ended. 19:49 [gregory]: I honestly feel like Master Chiefs internal monologue is somewhere along the lines of 19:49 [gregory]: GODDAMNIT I HAVE TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE. AGAIN. 19:50 [gregory]: IF I FLY THIS SHIP INTO THAT SHIP I WILL CAUSE 45 TRILLION DOLLARS IN DAMAGE 19:51 [trell]: HONESTLY, MAYBE HE TALKS SO INCREDIBLY LITTLE BECAUSE HIS RUN-ON INTERNAL MONOLOGUE IS JUST 98% PROFANITY 19:51 [trell]: “THIS, AGAIN,” 19:51 [gregory]: I JUST FIXED YOU 19:51 [gregory]: WHY ARE YOU ALL FUCKED UP AGAIN 19:51 [gregory]: FUCKING GRUNTS. 19:51 [gregory]: CORTANA I NEED A FUCKING DRINK 19:52 [trell]: “FUCK THE COVENANT FUCK UNSC I’M OWED 90 YEARS OF PAID VACATION TIME BY NOW” 19:52 [gregory]: Internal monologue in Samuel L Jackson voice 19:52 [gregory]: "Say what again motherfucker" 19:52 [trell]: absolutely 19:53 [trell]: (talking to the prophet of regret) say WHAT AGAIN 19:53 [trell]: [i dare you i double dare you etc] 19:53 [trell]: the point is, law doesn’t TELL LUFFY, because honestly, who wants to get into something that emotionally complicated and awful, especially when space horror starts hardcore going down [[extended unrelated discussion of halo CE, multiplayer]] 20:07 [trell]: but, okay. (a) consider the fact that perhaps, if you hook a hyper-adaptable military AI into a doctor’s brain, you can probably get an AI that can scan and compute so quickly that it can project everything the doctor can’t actually see as overlays and predict all sorts of possible issues 20:08 [trell]: so you can have a surgeon actually see the inside of an organ they are cutting into, they never have to hope they got it right 20:08 [trell]: even in a shit triage situation 20:08 [gregory]: also consider that one would also be able to know EXACTLY WHERE TO SHOOT 20:08 [gregory]: to have the intended effect 20:08 [trell]: WOW. YES. 20:09 [gregory]: Imagine a surgically precisely placed sniper shot 20:09 [trell]: “i’m not MILITARY PERSONNEL! I’M NONCOMBAT!” “LEGOLAS SHOOT THAT MOTHERFUCKER ON THE OTHER ROOFTOP OR I SWEAR TO GOD” 20:09 [gregory]: "IT IS SEVEN MILES AWAY" 20:09 [trell]: i LIKE THAT. maybe this saves law on installation 04 20:09 [gregory]: "I DO NOT CARE, LOBOTOMIZE THAT MOTHERFUCKER BEFORE HE SHOOTS ME" 20:10 [gregory]: "THAT IS A HORRIFICALLY INVASIVE PROCEDURE" 20:10 [gregory]: "BULLETS ARE HORRIFICALLY INVASIVE" 20:10 [trell]: he’s trained, since he has to not be a dead weight to the ODSTs he jumps with, but he’s still not really a combatant, just trained to have functional self defense 20:10 [trell]: cornered by flood on 04, can see where the fuck the brain is located (NOT THE HEAD) 20:10 [trell]: HEADSHOT 20:11 [gregory]: oh jeez, can you imagine him with an energy sword 20:11 [trell]: THAT IS NOT A PRECISION MEDICAL INSTRUMENT 20:11 [gregory]: IT IS NOT 20:11 [gregory]: BUT IT IS COOL 20:11 [gregory]: HE WOULD COMPLAIN THE ENTIRE TIME 20:12 [trell]: two (2) things still give me the echo of a heart attack 10 years later and that’s (a) honor guard elites with fucking energy swords in the compound where regret is on delta halo and (b) DEALING WITH A PAIR OF HUNTERS IN A SMALL ENCLOSED SPACE ON HIGH CHARITY 20:12 [trell]: honestly. basically bones mccoy with an energy sword 20:12 [gregory]: fair 20:13 [trell]: i always got stuck in one of the double doorways that had a wall “island” in the middle with them 20:13 [gregory]: "THIS IS NOT PRECISION MEDICAL EQUIPMENT" 20:13 [gregory]: "NOPE" 20:13 [trell]: and whilst trying to ensure i didn’t get rushed from behind walked the fuck around a corner INTO ONE 20:13 [gregory]: "GUT THAT MOTHERFUCKER OR I WILL GUT YOU" 20:14 [trell]: BUT, (b) 20:14 [gregory]: god 20:14 [trell]: suppose hooking an AI into someone’s brain gives that AI, especially one that’s absorbed a library worth of medical data, the ability to manipulate brain chemistry to some degree 20:14 [gregory]: I can imagine Luffy's internal voice 20:15 [trell]: scream. so cheerful while, the flood, 20:15 [gregory]: "In your hands everything is a precision medical device" 20:16 [trell]: i feel like with luffy it’s be more like “with me EVERYTHING is a PRECISION WHATEVER” 20:16 [trell]: but that’s to say, it can (for example) suddenly reduce whatever chemical is making you angry or stressed 20:16 [trell]: luffy does this to law without asking, once 20:16 [trell]: ONCE. 20:17 [trell]: law probably nearly rips out his neural interface, love of his life and irreversible brain damage be damned 20:18 [trell]: after which time luffy never, EVER does that again, and it’s only because he’s based off someone law really would trust with his life that law gets himself to believe that luffy isn’t screwing with him 20:19 [trell]: but it is VERY useful when utilized with consent, since, like, you don’t even need pills or whatever, JITTERY BEFORE AN ORBITAL DROP? “do you want me to turn that shit down” 20:21 [trell]: actually in retrospect now that you’ve got me thinking about brainshare luffy’s combat applications maybe he does it not when law’s angry but when they’re in serious danger, to give the necessary jolt of adrenaline, etc? or once during combat and law doesn’t notice it the first time but notices it very sharply when it happens later when they have a fight 20:22 [trell]: (which, obviously, LOCAL MAN YELLS AT CLOUD, when there isn’t a projector available luffy’s image is only projected into law’s irises) 20:24 [trell]: and finally, (c) at some point between getting back to earth (maybe they also serve on station cairo, maybe not, ultimately they end up aboard in amber clad at mombasa) and mombasa law takes shore leave and just gets absolutely wasted because of course he’s still wracked with grief and hasn’t had time to process ANYTHING and is 100% primed for a breakdown 20:24 [trell]: you can guess the result, i’m sure 20:25 [gregory]: drunkenly confessing one's love to an AI 20:25 [trell]: NOT QUITE   20:25 [trell]: but compartmentalizing your memories of your dead lover doesn’t go so well when you’re getting wasted in honor of their memory 20:26 [trell]: so AI-luffy finds out, which is very problem, especially given that because reach never happened LUFFY NEVER FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM, and, disaster.