#Reparations Commission

[ausetkmt]

Hon. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. President of the United States 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500

RE: Creating a federal commission by executive order by Juneteenth to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans

Dear President Biden,

Now more than ever, we know that many of the racial disparities that weigh this country down, and divide people in the US from each other, are unnecessary and can be eradicated if we address the ongoing legacy of enslavement. By righting our wrongs, we can make sure that all families in the US get a fair chance to acquire land, to buy a home, to enjoy good health, and to live without fear about tomorrow. That is why we write to request that you create by Juneteenth an expert commission like that which would be established by a bill in Congress, H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.[1]

As 365 civil rights, human rights, and faith-based organizations and dozens of activists, leaders and celebrities that support H.R. 40 pointed out in a letter on February 4,[2] addressing pervasive anti-Black racism and providing reparations, long overdue, cannot wait another day, year, or decade. We are in a once-in-a-lifetime moment that we cannot let slip away if we are to begin the process of repair.

You have seen first-hand the dire need and ardent demand for repair. Last June, you visited Tulsa and spent time with the three remaining survivors of the race massacre that decimated Black Wall Street. Your historic trip fixed a spotlight on the three known race massacre survivors 107-year-old Viola Ford Fletcher, 107-year-old Lessie Benningfield Randle, and 101-year-old Hughes Van Ellis, on massacre descendants, and on the Black Tulsa community that continues to reel from the effects of white supremacy. Calls for federal action on reparations were loud and ubiquitous during your stay, coming from massacre descendants,[3] rights organizations, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus.[4]

This week, nearly a year after your visit, several of this letter's authors met again with the three known massacre survivors in Tulsa and massacre descendants, where in a courtroom they made their case for justice.  As they race against the clock to secure reparations from the City of Tulsa, we implore you to seize on H.R. 40’s historic momentum by creating a federal reparations commission while the window is still open.

We hope that you will take this opportunity to make good on the promise that you and Vice President Kamala Harris made to Black voters outlined in the Lift Every Voice: The Biden Plan for Black America.[5] In this campaign plan, you pledged to tackle systemic racism and the continuing impacts of slavery by“supporting a study of reparations.” White House press secretary Jen Psaki is quoted as saying you support a study of reparations and White House senior advisor Cedric Richmond said that you support H.R. 40 specifically.[6] It is important to seize this chance to show up for those who have for too long weathered discrimination, abuse, and neglect in their tireless efforts to make this country into what it can and must be.  

The US Congress made history when, on April 14, 2021, the House Judiciary Committee voted to move H.R. 40 to the House floor for full consideration, the first time in the bill’s 32-year history. The bill now has a record level of support with 215 members of Congress committed to voting “yes” when the bill comes to the House floor. This is far more than the bill has ever had and it should pass in the House if voted on. In addition, on March 12, 2022, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) passed a resolution of support for reparations and H.R. 40.[7] But considering US Senate dynamics and timing—there are just a few months left before the end of this 117th Congressional session in January 2023—we are calling on you to work with supporting organizations and House sponsors of H.R. 40 to set up the same commission by executive order by Juneteenth this year.

Juneteenth presents you with an important opportunity to commemorate the end of enslavement while also recognizing much more still needs to be done to create equity and real opportunity for African Americans in the US beyond declaring a national holiday. The Black to white racial wealth gap remains vast, with white households having a median of $188,200, 7.8 times that of Black households at $24,100,[8] a vestige of the legacy of enslavement—which can find its roots in redlining, the Homestead Act, and denying Black people access to federally backed home mortgages—and the failure to address the exploitation, segregation, and violence unleashed on Black people that followed. Moreover, the ongoing impacts of enslavement have resulted in deep psychological harms, including by way of forced separation and collective trauma, which require comprehensive remedy. The Covid-19 pandemic has only widened the inequality. It is also important that this commission be established by Juneteenth so that it can start working and issue recommendations before the next presidential elections.

H.R.40 would establish an expert commission to study the legacy of enslavement and how the failure to address harms stemming from it have resulted in huge racial disparities between white and Black people in: the ability to accumulate wealth and to access health care, education, housing and employment opportunities; environmental outcomes; and policing, among other things. The commission would also recommend proposals for how to provide repair for what the study reveals. This bill does not authorize payments or any specific remedy. It simply creates a commission to study the problem, gather relevant information, extensively involve and consult with impacted communities, and recommend solutions. Like the federal commission that investigated the forced relocation and wrongful incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, an H.R. 40-style commission can help pave the way for a critical and truthful reckoning and accounting for past harms and the present harms that flow from them.

As states, cities, and other institutions, including the state of California; Wilmington, Delaware; Providence, Rhode Island; Burlington, Vermont; Tullahassee, Oklahoma; Greenbelt, Maryland; Detroit, Michigan; Evanston, Illinois; Georgetown University; the Jesuits; and others pursue reparations at an accelerated pace,[9] it would be sheer irony for the federal government, which sanctioned the kidnapping and trafficking in human beings that slavery entailed, and maintained subsequent anti-Black laws and institutions, to continue to lag behind and circumvent real progress on reparations.

It is in Tulsa where you so powerfully and unequivocally stated: “the only way to build a common ground is to truly repair and to rebuild.”[10] As the 101st anniversary of the massacre approaches, and racial disparities continue to keep communities across the US divided, we could not agree more.

For the above reasons, and those stated in our February 4, 2022, letter referenced above, we hope that we can count on you to take this meaningful first step toward achieving racial justice and realizing reparations for centuries of ongoing harm. We ask that you create a federal commission to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans similar to that of H.R. 40 by Juneteenth this year. We stand ready to work with you to ensure this happens and kindly request a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the details. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) Color of Change  Reparation Education Project Rainbow PUSH Coalition  Faith for Black Lives Black Church PAC  Black Voters Matter Fund   Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference  Church World Service  NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice The Union for Reform Judaism Friends Committee on National Legislation Presbyterian Church U.S.A.  National Consumers League Batrice & Associates  Reparations 4 Slavery Make it Plain Live Free USA  Until Freedom Nikkei Progressives  Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress   Japanese American Citizens League San Jose Nikkei Resisters  National Nikkei Reparations Coalition  Terence Crutcher Foundation  Human Rights Watch  United Church of Christ, Justice and Local Church Ministries 

Cc: Vice President Kamala Harris, Ambassador Susan Rice, and Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond

[michaels-reality]

Btw it's black History month so if you don't buy my commissions your racist

[pumpyriah]

Please help an unemployed brown mixed disabled trans person sustain their family + help their parents leave venezuela

Hello tumblr dot com users! I'm Ren, a trans and disabled venezuelan trying to get back into art. And as of the 1st of nov 2024 I'm officially unemployed and really, really broke 🥲

If you want a more extended version of our situation you can reffer to my last post thread from months ago, I decided to finally create this one as an updated version.

Summarizing and updating extremely quickly what has happened this last time: The humanitarian Parole is no longer available, The Darien has become way more dangerous and inaccesible to cross and the Panama goverment is going to get toughter, considering this is a mostly usamerican site I hope I don't have to mention what happened this month over there, and obviously there's certainty shit isn't going to get any better from this point onwards. Things have changed so much that my mother started considering emigrating to Spain.

As some of the people close to me know, I really dislike being in the necessity of e-begging without at least offering something in return to people helping me because I don't feel ok doing so otherwise. That's why in this post I have several avenues to help me depending on what anyone might preffer.

Our current plan is to keep saving as much as we can while we wait and hope for a relative of my father to present a Family Reunification TPS while there is still chance, if neither of those don't work or something happens, we'll help either him or my mother go to Spain instead. We are definitively not giving up, but that doesn't mean things didn't get harder.

❗Some of the most urgent needs we're currently trying to cover:

7-12$ Bug poison. We have an extreme problem of cockroach infestation

20-25$ Rispheridona resupply

10-15$ Glasses reparation

6-10$ Shower reparation

+30$ Mother's car revision

+20$ By-Weekly groceries

+15$ General Medicines

You can make as little as a 1 USD donation by simply buying a high quality piece I've done recently!

I'm also currently still offering extremely cheap comms for little chibi doodles like the ones in the pics below!!

Either way. If you can't of don't wish to donate or commission. Please know that just by sharing this around as much as possible is enough to help. Thank you <3

ppal

[ 0 / 8000 ]

[ddarker-dreams]

yan scaramouche swears you were commissioned by some malevolent, unknown force to personally oversee his torment.

you are maddening; his ruin made flesh. a prayer answered too late is worse than a prayer ignored. the divine must regard him with special contempt, delivering him a cure right when his ailment's prognosis shifted to terminal. fate dangles you before him. tauntingly, temptingly. such warmth should be shared, a better man might conclude. regrettably, he believes otherwise. if entropy is the inevitable end for all beings, then he'd rather your light extinguishes after solely illuminating him.

it's his right! his reparation for uncountable damage. when you make others smile, he seethes; when you bring laughter to their lips, his blood boils. charms as universal as yours should be for his viewing alone. this exposes his most pressing issue — denying you brings him no pleasure. the words themselves come easy. the aftermath, however, irks him. you'll mope around, disregarding his pacifying efforts until your exact wishes are granted.

therein lies his undoing. the twinkle in your eyes, how you thank him in earnest. for a moment, you forget your distaste, returning a fraction of his ardor. that measly amount is enough to get him addicted. one taste had him desperately seeking out his next fix.

you might not love him, but you need him, and that's close enough for him to confuse the two willingly.

[historicity-was-already-taken]

So, I saw you mention from the river to the sea being antisemitic. I’ve heard various people claim it had antisemitic origins but was never able to find reliable corroborating messages and was curious if u could elaborate on that more, if that’s why. The other argument I’ve heard is it being coded for “free from the jews” which. Yk. I definitely know there are some people who say it with that intent. But I am skeptical of insisting that implication is Always present to people who have found it a useful slogan to rally around on this issue without evidence backing up that intent in the original popularization of the slogan or that it has been widespread deliberately used with that meaning for a long time. Given your whole historian business I don’t doubt that you DO have solid reason for saying it’s antisemitic, I’d just love to hear the details.

I'm going to copy and paste what I wrote about this in an earlier post, because that's still my response:

"That phrase contains strongly genocidal undertones with regard to the Jewish population of Israel who were forced to settle there after being ethnically cleansed from their homes across Eurasia and North Africa over the course of the 20th century (many of whom were and continue to be treated like shit by that country's government and don't get me started on the Yishuv's treatment of Holocaust survivors).

More than half of the Jewish population of the world lives in Israel. As an American Jew and a Holocaust historian keenly aware of the circumstances regarding the postwar Jewish peopling of the modern State, I am deeply uncomfortable with seeing that phrase in my intellectual space. Free Palestine, yes; work towards equal rights for Arab and Palestinian citizens of Israel, yes; engage in active reparations for Palestinians who had their property actively stolen from them in 1948, yes; Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, yes; but not on the bodies of half of the 15 million Jews who remain on this planet."

There is no Collective Jewish Take on this, because Jews are not a hivemind. But it is my take, as a Jew, and as a Holocaust historian.

Jews across any political spectrum will be extremely sensitive to ANY language which reads to us incitement to ethnic cleansing, because we've been ethnically cleansed from all regions of Eurasia over the course of our ~3000 year history. A lot of Palestine activists don't want to engage with that and really resent being told that they need to. And like, I get it; I get their frustration, resentment, rage, and righteous indignation. But the Jewish pasts, and Jewish knowledge of our tenuous ongoing existence on this planet; those aren't going to go away just because it complicates rhetoric on the Israel/Palestinian Conflict.

People can keep using "from the river to the sea." You can keep using it. I'm not the Language Police. Some Jews here and elsewhere may feel comfortable using it and being in spaces where it's used. I'm not going to shit on those Jews or call them "Kapos" or "Self-hating" or "pick-mes." But I'm also not going to change my opinion or my analysis, or ever be comfortable with its use in my intellectual space.

[hoshizoralone]

Just curious - why won't you draw Malos from XC2? (I don't want to commission him, it's just a very specific "no" so I have to ask about it)

no harm in asking. here’s the three point breakdown:

1) i generally feel bad about taking money for art i’m not super confident in, and in the case of malos he’s got a Very specific face that i think i only get right in polished art (that is, not 5 minute scribbles that i sometimes draw him in) maybe 50% of the time

2) i also think he’s kinda ugly just a bit sorry jin

3) i also mainly only want to draw him if im sexualizing him (reparations for his sisters having outfits like that)

[petewentzisblack1312]

im honestly really mad about the us election results mostly because it wouldnt have even mattered if harris won because the us would still go on the global stage and vote no on every single 'make the world better' resolution out there so im trying to turn my attention to my own region.

this is a petition organised by an organization called the repair campaign to in support of the CARICOM reparations commissions 10 point action plan on reparatory justice which you can read about here.

reparations are a specific action that can be taken to help address so much of the injustice we face in the caribbean. please consider helping us in this small way in our fight, and if you live in the uk or europe, please hold your governments accountable for what they owe us.

[y2kgl]

happy pride and happy juneteenth once again ! if youd like to give reparations to help out a genderfluid black queer that would be cool and appreciated :] still need a bit of help paying for school debt & i thank those who reblogged and commissioned i ♥︎ u; i also encourage other black people to share their payment info in the comments <3

p*yp*l • c*sh*pp • v*nmo

if you aren't able to donate, please b**st ! i thank everyone who has helped me out over the years i cant thank everyone enough <3

[cleolinda]

At a fundraiser in Massachusetts earlier this week, Walz went after Tommy Tuberville, the Republican senator from Alabama, saying, “I feel like one of my roles in this now is to be the anti-Tommy Tuberville, to show that football coaches are not the dumbest people.”

Once again, as an Alabamian I would like to apologize for Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn coach and current U.S. senator who is dumber than a sack of wet mice—

In an Alabama Daily News interview after the election, Tuberville said that the European theater of World War II was fought "to free Europe of socialism" and erroneously that the three branches of the U.S. federal government were "the House, the Senate, and the executive." He also said that he was looking forward to raising money from his Senate office, a violation of federal law.

—but also a fucking bigot. Please review the lengthy “Tenure” section of his Wikipedia page as to why I hate him, for reasons including but not limited to: voting against the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act; claiming that Democrats are “pro-crime” and want reparations for descendants of enslaved people “because they think the people that do the crime are owed that,” what the fuck; being an election denier and voting against a January 6th commission; being a climate change denier; being transphobic as fuck (a whole section); famously holding military promotions hostage over the issue of abortion availability for service members (yeah, he’s THAT guy); denying that white nationalists are “inherently racist” (“I call them Americans”); and calling Zelenskyy a dictator and supporting Putin TWO MONTHS AGO. Tim Walz, I bid you read this fuckstick for filth. Thank you for letting me vent. Roll tide.

[ausetkmt]

Gov. Hochul signs bill to create commission to study potential reparations for Black New Yorkers

In an effort to acknowledge the horrific injustices of slavery and its continual impact across generations, Governor Kathy Hochul is taking measures toward racial justice by looking into potential reparations.

On Tuesday, Gov. Hochul signed a legislation to create a commission to study reparations for Black New Yorkers.

A nine-member commission will be tasked with studying the effects of slavery and make non-binding recommendations on reparations.

This group consists of three members appointed by the governor, three by the Assembly and three by the Senate.

Gov. Hochul says this is all in an effort to "right the wrongs" of history.

"Today, we are continuing our efforts to right the wrongs of the past by acknowledging the painful legacy of slavery in New York," she said. "We have a moral obligation to reckon with all parts of our shared history as New Yorkers, and this commission marks a critical step forward in these efforts."

The bill was signed to a round of applause at the New York Historical Society and comes after it was passed 41-21 in the senate and 106-41 in the assembly in June.

Legislation S.1163-A/A.7691 acknowledges the significant role the institution of slavery has played in the establishment and history of New York and will see the community commission examine "the lingering negative effects" of both "the institution of slavery" and discrimination with the goal of issuing issue a report comprised of recommendations for appropriate action to address these longstanding inequities.

[supremacyproject]

On this day 103 years ago “a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla., perished at the hands of a violent white mob.

The mob indiscriminately shot black people in the streets. Members of the mob ransacked homes and stole money and jewelry. They set fires, ‘house by house, block by block,’ according to the commission report.

Terror came from the sky, too. White pilots flew airplanes that dropped dynamite over the neighborhood, the report stated, making the Tulsa aerial attack what historians call among the first of an American city.

The numbers presented a staggering portrait of loss: 35 blocks burned to the ground; as many as 300 dead; hundreds injured; 8,000 to 10,000 left homeless; more than 1,70 homes burned or looted; and eventually, 6,000 detained in internment camps.” Via The New York Times circa 2021.

The losses recounted represent black victims. Over time the event, initially called the Tulsa Race Riot has been accurately renamed the Tulsa Race Massacre. A riot, by definition, is a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons, as by a crowd protesting against another group, a government policy, etc., in the streets. A massacre is the unnecessary, indiscriminate killing of a large number of human beings or animals, as in barbarous warfare or persecution or for revenge or plunder.

More than one hundred years after this act of terrorism, the last three survivors continue fighting to have their case for reparations heard by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. In October of 2023, one of them, Hughes Van “Uncle Redd” Ellis, Sr., passed away.

[antwuzhere]

You. I hate you. I never was the type to read AUs, but then you posted your art for “Instructions for stealing stars” and told us to read it, so I read it. And now I’m finished reading it and the one shot that comes with it. So now I have this AU stuck in my head but with no more material to read from it, gone too soon, like a child lost to war. In my despair the only thought that comes to mind is all the other AUs out there that I skipped without a thought due to my own ignorance, all those beautiful, fleshed out worlds spun from the beautiful words of talented authors. And as reparations for the dilemma you’ve put me in I think the only thing you can do is…… please recommend some more fics like this that you’ve read oh my god I literally can’t get them out of my head three-gs my beloved and the setting? MWAH I NEED MORE BEGGING ON MY KNEES THROWING UP SHARE YOUR WISOM😭😭‼️‼️

OK HI THAT FIRST SENTENCE WAS A TERRIFYING NOTIF. 10/10 HEART ATTACK THANK YOU

“And told us to read it, so I read it.” <- i wish I had this amount of influence in the real world and not just on tumblr

LIKE A CHILD LOST TO WAR IS EXACTLY HOW IT FELT FINISHING IFSS

I can’t believe you didn’t read aus WHAT WHAT WHAT

I’m such a sucker for aus especially fantasy ones omds

OKOKOK ILL TRY YOU CAN GET OFF YOUR KNEES !! BUT FAIR WARNING, 9 TIMES OUT OF 10 I ONLY READ FICS WITH SCOTT AS THE MC blame the hyperfixation

ALSO, I FEEL QUITE A BIT OF THE APPEAL FOR IFSS IN PARTICULAR IS THE FOCUS ON A FRIENDSHIP AND NOT A RELATIONSHIP, HOWEVER ALMOST ALL FICS ARE ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS, SOOOO

I TRIED MY HARDEST TO MATCH THE VIBES OKAY 😔 I DID JUST CHUCK IN SOME RANDOM AUS ASWELL

Here’s the original fic for reference:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46129507

Ifss my beloved

And here’s the worlds longest list:

————

The pink titles are the ones most similar vibes/settings to IFSS, the blue titles are for the ones I’m personally most crazy about rn, purples for both, wink

• What happens when the city's most notorious arsonist, a wannabe drug lord, and a terminally overworked police sheriff are brought together by chance, circumstance, and an accidental vehicular assault?

• Well, throw in a dash of gang warfare and a hint of deep relationship insecurity and you get...

Outlaw and Disorder

https://archiveofourown.org/works/6169915

* flower ranchers

* modern fantasy, criminal au,

* Tangos an arsonist, and Jimmys (the police deputy) rival, runs into Jimmys husband Scott, a secret drug dealer

* Basically opens with a meet ugly where Scott hits tango with his car. 10/10 no notes

The Sea Prince, Act I: Hunting Party.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/50204269

• majorwood, pirates au,

• Mind you, this was started before pirates smp was announced

• In a world full of deadly, man-eating sea monsters, teams of hunters find and kill the beasts for the safety of all humankind. The Canaries (martyn Joel grian etc) are a notorious group of hunters, one of the many crews commissioned by the king himself to kill monsters in exchange for gold and other benefits. When they are given the task to hunt down and capture a mythical sea prince, their world changes as they discover secrets they may regret finding out.

• I LOVE THIS I LOVE THIS SO MUCH

cut me loose, said it was creation (deck of cards series)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/55384450

•eventual flower court (martyn/scott/jimmy/tango), joel + lizzie, rendoctyn, mumscarian

• OUGH I LOVE DECK OF CARDS SO MUCH, this is like the first book in the collection but omg - the settings similar vibes to ifss if it was high fantasy instead

• Sausage’s casino is dimly lit, the dark walls and bloodred carpets aiding in only making the space feel intimately close. Close enough for someone to stab you in the back as much as give you a kiss.

• Scott is only one of many players, one of many anonymous and aliased Life Members, those who trade and gamble lives like spare change amongst themselves, forever craving the rush of adrenaline and the sweet promise of power.

• Still, he is influential in his own right. Cool, collected, renowned for making long-lasting alliances and being eternally loyal. And yet, none of his carefully crafted calm saves him from realising just who walked into the casino. A man that Scott bared himself to, and was left bleeding because of it.

• ARF ARF ARF WOOF WOOF

The Cracks in the Lake (a mighty fine grave)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60861130/chapters/155454106#main

* Flowerhusbands and other background relationships, past majorwood and past skizzmajor

* THE ENTIRE KCHL SEREIS IS SO SI GOOD AUGH CHEFS KISS FOR THE WORLD BUILDING

* A canon-divergent empires s1 au, It follows Scott - prince of Rivendell - as he navigates his new arranged marriage to the Codfather. Along the way he runs into a long-lost ex and a host of other problems.

* It felt like it was gonna be very romance heavy but omg? The actual storyline with Scott and his brother and the gods AUGH

Flower Petals and Feathers Tether Me to the Ground

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60132844/chapters/153440713

* majorwood + treebark + whatever Scott and ren are called

* A Third Life Fantasy and Royalty AU - Jimmy, Scott’s husband dies in battle and he is captured by the red army. He is shocked and betrayed to find his childhood best friend, Martyn of Littlewood as the right hand to the Red King. How is he going to handle this new court, both as a prisoner of war and an old friend? What will he become?

Or; An AU where Scott joins the court of the Red King.

* this is such an interesting concept I love it so much

* The angst potential… yum

Canary in a Castle

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62568991

* platonic flowerhusbands, dark fantasy, prince + bodyguard au

* this one covers very sensitive content!!! Frequently!!! So check the tags first!!! But it was to good to not include

* Jimmy never thought he'd be more than an average knight under the rule of the elves.

* He gets a little too good at his job.

Pilgrimage

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63762205

* flowerhusbands fantasy / royalty au

* After narrowly escaping an assassination attempt ordered by his own father, Prince Scott has a plan. He's going to cross the continent, from Rielle to Prismen, and seek refuge with his friend, Queen Lizzie. With only a few pieces of jewelry to trade and the smallest bit of magic inherited from his mother, the journey won't be easy—especially seeing as his last surviving guard, Jimmy, seems pretty determined to get himself killed in the process.

* If they can outrun the bandits on their trail, they may be able to draw the continent back from the brink of war. But with rumors of the four Saints walking the continent again, their world may still find itself on the precipice of change.

* Still fairly new fic but omg the world building in this is so so so good

The Human Factor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/57419476/chapters/146078443

* Platonic divorce quartet + zombiewood

* zombie apocalypse au!!!!

* Shoved together into a two-bedroom, four unlikely roommates carry the weight of what they've lost, and search for something new in the shreds of the world left behind. Will they find it in each other, or will this shaky alliance break itself apart under its own weight? And, really, how long do they have until the unthinkable happens?

* OUGH made me sob

* Divorce quartet they can never make me hate you

forever hold your peace

https://archiveofourown.org/works/56586178/chapters/143822293

• Majorwood, limited life alliances etc

• similar setting/world building (?) to ifss but more modern teehee

• Basically limited life, film noir

• A city of violence, scandal, and intrigue. Rival clubs vying for the upper hand. Crooning club singers and forbidden romance. A presumed suicide that is more than meets the eye. And when a widower makes his way to Martyn’s doorstep, it’s up to him to unravel the mystery tangled amongst it all.

• I’m so upset this hasn’t got an ending (yet) because I love it so much

coliseum

https://archiveofourown.org/works/35706220/chapters/89030053

• like the only one not centred around Scott. Wow

• Scarian + treebark + (a lil flower husbands)

• Grian is on a mission: kill the Red King of the Third Precinct. Unfortunately, when he travels to the capital where the king resides, he lands in a spot of trouble with a local merchant when he accidentally destroys the merchant’s shop. After he enters into a contract to help pay off the damages, he discovers that there might be another side to Scar under the silver-tongued salesman— and that he’s not the only one who wants the Red King dead.

• soo good aosheusjeheh. Really nice world building really nice writing. It’s like fantasy steampunkish

in its own watered version of semaphore

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60024865

* this fic permenantly altered my brain chemistry. It’s only 8000 words IDK WHAT THEY PUT IN THEIR BUT OMGSH.

* Five days of sickness in the fisherman’s house. One day of something else.

* Selkie Scott and fisherman martyn what could go wrong ahahahaha.

* Fucked up majorwood sorry yall 😔😔

*I think about this constantly

* can’t even begin to count the amount of times Ive read this

you looked so good in green

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46802614

* modern au, Scott and pearl try to solve the mystery of Martyn’s death

* (past majorwood, flower husbands, pearl and martyn are siblings, I think brief ahahusbands and treebark?)

* After moving away from his childhood church town, Scott finally has built himself a life, but it splinters as soon as his mother calls with shattering news—Martyn, his oldest friend and first lover, has died—and Scott is told he has to come home. As he returns to his hateful family, he’s reminded of why he left the town in the first place and if it’s even worth staying for the funeral of a man who’d had his heart broken by Scott.

* But that changes as soon as Martyn’s sister Pearl gets there, because she’s determined to prove that it wasn’t suicide, it was murder. And the more time Scott spends there, reliving his memories with Martyn, the more he’s inclined to agree.

* TBF I cried when I read this..

part-time lover, full-time friend

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63489271

* modern theatre au

* Divorce quartet qpr galaxy duo

* Smaller fic, but really cute idea

* Scott is the best QPP Pearl could ask for, and she can’t imagine anyone she’s closer to, or anyone she’d rather give such a role in her life. In the play, though… well, in the play, Pearl and Scott hate each other, to put it bluntly.

Relapse

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64071850

* modern au, New Year’s Eve party setting, snowbugs / flower ranchers

* the interactions between all the characters is gorgeous they are like SO REAL????

* OBBSESED with the friendship between Scott and pearl in this one

* In which Jimmy and Scott used to be friends, Jimmy and Tango are together, and when Scott meets Tango, drunk in the kitchen at a New Year’s Eve party, he is a lot nicer than he expected.

* Alexa play party 4 u by Charlie xcx

* I’m so so so feral about this one… thinking about it constantly

The Hermit Coffee Co.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52395226/chapters/132544633

* ooo another rare find from my list not centred around Scott

* scarian + grumbo (I think it’s supposed to be endgame mumscarian) background mumscott and ranchers

* When Grian joins Mumbo working at The Hermit Coffee Co., he is thrown into a world of caffiene and chaos, with meddling co-workers, rambunctious regulars, and an absolutely henious amount of group chats. The friends he left back home miss him, Mumbo's college friends (cough, frat bros, cough) keep pestering him, and his new friendship with a certain scarred individual is developing in a way he never expected.

* OR A coffeeshop AU told through the texts between hermits. Now a combination of texts and prose from chapter 7 onwards.

* I’m such a sucker for chatfics I love this

Urban Appetite

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63794953

* Ong how could I not recommend urban appetite

* Bad boys, cannibal Joel, 1980s au, London setting with fantasy elements

* Mean gills are in there and I’m OBBSESED with their dynamic and even just individual characters such a good portrayal of them teehee

* But even past that the concept and execution of this story is so interesting

* Basically : AU where Joel is a nearly immortal being with an insatiable appetite for human flesh and the other two (jimmy + grian) are more or less willing to help.

One Restless Summer

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45165244

* adorable farmboy au I adore it OUGH flowerhudbands ….

* AKA the Farmboy AU. Long before he was the sheriff of Tumble Town, Jimmy lived on the edge of the savanna and dreamed of seeing the world someday. The world comes to him one summer in the form of a colorful traveler.

Omg my hands hurt now. Is this a good enough apology.

Chat hmu if we need more majorwood or flower rancher fics I gotchu 🫡🫡🫡

[fanfic-obsessed]

Not the Mama...or the Father

This takes place in a universe where Jango Fett survived Geonosis AND where Palpatine is defeated without Order 66 coming into being (the chips still existed, yes that is important).  

After the war ends there is an absolute legal quagmire regarding the clones. Their origins (Possibly commissioned by the Jedi, a Republic Entity, outside of Republic Space, on Kamino, using the DNA of a Non Republic Citizen for a Republic Army, paid for by means that no one has been able to identify-presumably illegal and/or embezzled) mean that acknowledging their sentience also means that everyone involved broke so many laws that prosecution would take a decades. This compounded by the fact that it is an all or nothing kind of situation, on paper the Jedi who did their best were tied to those crimes just as thoroughly as senators who abused the Guard.  While the Jedi, as a whole, would be willing to face that prosecution if it meant the clones would be considered sentient, they had rather less power than the Senators who did not want to face their crimes.  In the end the only way to get the support for the Clone Rights bill was to add a clause that the bill would not be considered retroactive. The clones would be considered sentient after the bill was turned into law but could not seek any kind of reparations, back pay, or even acknowledgement that their rights had been violated prior to the law. 

NOTE: It horrified everyone (though it should be acknowledged that the Jedi and the Clones were horrified for very different reasons than many of the Senate) when the Coruscant Guard successfully sued a number of Republic Senators, their aides, and several citizens for ‘sexual abuse of a non sentient’(It was a very odd lawsuit where Thire, who had taken to law with a frightening passion, was able to argue that the Clones could bring the suit as their own owners, since being sentient with a start start date essentially meant that they now owned themselves and the laws around abuse of non sentients are written so that new owners can sue past owners for abuse-written so that animal abuse could be fully prosecuted even years after the fact).  Criminal charges were even filed, though it was harder to get those charges through the system.

Jango Fett, due both to the Clones legal tangle and how it had to be resolved, could not be brought up on charges for his part in the creation of the clones, their training, and the chips. None of it was technically illegal.  The fact that all of the clones looked like him meant anyone who did not know better tended to consider the clones his children. At first Jango was just as quick to correct people, somewhat violently.  

However as more and more clones began to distinguish themselves he started to play into it. Saying how proud he was of his children and that his genetics must have been superior (incidentally giving Boba more than one complex in the process). Most of the clones have no idea what to do with this behavior, since acknowledgement by Prime was something that almost all of them wanted as children. Also he wasn’t really acknowledging any clone in particular.  He was simply soaking up the accolades of being associated with so many driven, accomplished people.

Though the Commander batches tended to be the most well known, every batch of clones had at least one or two members that distinguished themselves in a positive manner. 

Then comes the very public wedding of Commander Bly and Aayla Secura. While the two are very much in love it is also a political/PR move. The scandal of the Amidala/Skywalker marriage left the galaxy with a very skewed view of the Jedi and marriage.  The fact that Skywalker would go on to tell anyone who would listen that he was kicked out for falling in love made the issue worse.  (Commander Cody and Obi Wan were also considered for this PR move, however they were not quite at the point where they wanted to get married, also Anakin’s…reactions to the scandal of his marriage left some scars for Obi Wan. It would be quite some time before being perceived by a large crowd of beings-with the exclusion of the Jedi or the clones- would be something Obi Wan could tolerate) 

Though the Jedi wedding traditions are typically a private affair, with permission of the happy couple every tradition would be made into a public spectacle with explanations for the traditions. One such tradition is that a parental figure (generally the Master if it is a Jedi) for each member of those getting married would escort their children down the aisle, as it were. This was a way for the parental figure to signal their support, or at least acceptance, of the marriage. Within this tradition it was very noticeable when a particular parental figure did not show up…or was not invited. 

The public nature of the ceremony meant that Jango knew when and where to show up. He did not think much that he was not specifically invited, having bought into his own propaganda of being the father of the Clones. He arrives at the staging area, Boba in tow, to loudly announce that he was there to walk Bly down the aisle.  Very publicly. 

All preparation stopped for a moment, a silence descending that almost echoed. Then Bly scoffed loud enough to be captured by the recording equipment (Every moment of each tradition was being recorded by no less than three recording crews at all times, currently there are six recording the lead up to the ceremony). 

Derision dripped from every syllable coming from Bly’s mouth, “Why should I care about your approval of my life partner” (harkening back to the meaning behind the tradition).

Jango spluttered about being Bly’s parent.

Bly tilted his head, eyes distant as if looking into the past, “What was it you said, when you heard Ponds ask Alpha-17 for a name?” 

Jango looked perplexed, clearly not remembering the interaction. 

Wolffe stepped from crowd, “you said, ‘livestock doesn’t need a name’”

 Cody took his place at Bly’s side ‘You are no parent to us, you lost that title when you sold us.’

Bly nodded along, “Cody is walking me down the aisle (In the background Alpha grumbles that it is only because Cody is tricky little shit. All the clones in the room smother a grin as Cody shoots Alpha a smug smile-NOTE: There was a duel/tournament between fifteen Alpha and CC clones that were considered ‘older’ than Bly on who got the honor of escorting him down the aisle, since the explanation of what constituted a parent left them with the firm belief that any clone that is older than you could be considered such) and you, Prime, are not welcome. Go back to the son you claimed.”

The galaxy at large absolutely ate up the ‘You are not my father’ drama, which frankly served to humanize the clones, and their assorted Jedi, better than anything else.

[xhxhxhx]

The Treaty of Versailles that ended the Great War consists of 440 articles spread across fifteen parts. But the Germans made one provision infamous before they even signed: Article 231.

The first section in Part VIII, on reparations, the article reads:

The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her Allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.

In its translation, Germany was "als Urheber für alle Verluste und Schäden," "the author of all the loss and damage."

The Germans called it the "war guilt clause." They said it forced them to accept sole blame for starting the war. They said it was meant to justify crushing reparations demands. They said it was meant to humiliate them.

But for all its political weight, Article 231 did almost nothing at all.

I.

Article 231 does declare Germany's liability to Allied governments and nationals for wartime losses and damage.

In an ordinary agreement, that kind of declaration would be binding and enforceable. If Germany and the Allied governments and nationals could not settle the debt, they could sue.

In a suit on Article 231, a court would have to decide the open issues. They would have to quantify the "loss and damage," decide which harms were "a consequence of the war," and apportion contribution between "Germany and her Allies."

But that wouldn't be unusual. That's the work courts do every day. And the basic question, the question of liability, has been settled by consent: "The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility."

The trouble is that the Article attributes liability to sovereigns. And sovereigns play by different rules.

II.

A sovereign cannot be sued in their own courts without their express consent. Nor can they be sued in another sovereign's courts, unless that sovereign has expressly stripped away their immunity.

A provision like Article 231, which attributes liability to sovereigns like Germany and her Allies, declares a legal obligation that, on its own, cannot be recognized or remedied in any court.

By default, no court has jurisdiction to enforce Germany's liability. Unless Germany expressly consented to suit in its courts, or Allied governments expressly stripped Germany's immunity in theirs, no one can bring suit.

Germany's acknowledged liability would be binding between the signatories as a matter of conscience. But it wouldn't change anything anywhere else.

And sovereigns aren't known for their consciences.

III.

The provision that sparked years of German resentment was, legally speaking, an empty vessel, known not for what it did, but for what people believed it meant.

That's why Part VIII doesn't stop at Article 231.

The next provision, Article 232, creates a Reparation Commission. The Commission would quantify Germany's debt, determine which losses flowed from the war, and decide how much it could pay.

More importantly, Article 233 binds Germany to accept the Commission's decisions. Under the annexed terms establishing the Commission, Germany agrees that its decisions "shall forthwith become binding and may be put into immediate execution without further proceedings."

Article 231 declared Germany's liability, but Article 233 made it real. It created an instrument to fix the debt and bind Germany to pay it. Article 233, and the Commission it established, transformed Germany's abstract liability into concrete obligation.

The Mixed Claims Commission between the United States and Germany said as much in a November 1923 decision:

Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty at most amounts to no more than an acceptance by Germany of the affirmance by the Allied and Associated Governments of Germany's responsibility for all loss and damage suffered as a consequence of the war—a moral responsibility.

"Germany's financial responsibility," it continued, was somewhere else: "in the succeeding Article."

The Germans fixated on Article 231 because it seemed to blame them for the war. But Article 231 was just window dressing. The real machinery of reparations lay in the provisions that followed.

The Germans fought the phantom and ignored the machine.

IV.

But it worked.

By focusing public anger on the "war guilt clause," Germany's Weimar Coalition governments, Social Democrats and Liberals and Catholic Christian Democrats alike, built an unbreakable domestic consensus around the fundamental illegitimacy of reparations.

That consensus sustained German resistance through the French occupation of the Rhineland. It legitimized Germany's serial defaults. It helped Germany evade the kind of international oversight and austerity that the League forced on Austria and Hungary.

In November 1929, the Nationalist opposition tabled a bill that would have declared Article 231 "not binding in international law." The government easily dispatched the bill. But make no mistake, the Weimar Coalition told the Reichstag:

Every German Government has rejected the unilateral guilt sentence of the treaty of Versailles in formal declarations and with progressive successes has used the available possibilities of setting the world straight concerning the true causes of the war.

And so they had.

In the end, Weimar Germany's campaign against Article 231 succeeded in breaking the reparations settlement. Long before the Weimar Republic fell, Germany had whittled down its reparations to a fraction of the Versailles amount.

V.

Germany's victory came at a cost.

In teaching Germans that Versailles was fundamentally illegitimate, that it was built on the lie about German war guilt written into Article 231, the Weimar Coalition undermined not just the reparations settlement, but the entire peace.

Gustav Bauer, the Social Democratic premier that signed the Treaty on Germany's behalf, accepted most of the Versailles terms. But the delegates in the National Assembly had elected him to resist Article 231, and he resisted it to the end.

On June 23, 1919, Bauer delivered a stinging protest against the Treaty it was signing. Germany would surrender, but Germany would never apologize:

It is apparent to the Government of the German Republic, in consternation at the last communication of the Allied and Associated Governments, that these Governments have decided to wrest from Germany by force acceptance of the peace conditions, even those which, without presenting any material significance, aim at divesting the German people of their honor. No act of violence can touch the honor of the German people. The German people, after frightful suffering in these last years, have no means of defending themselves by external action. Yielding to superior force, and without renouncing in the meantime its own view of the unheard-of-injustice of the peace conditions, the Government of the German Republic declares that it is ready to accept and sign the peace conditions imposed.

But Bauer's protest against Article 231—and its "indigestible" claim of German responsibility—gave future Germans and their leaders permission to reject more than reparations.

On January 30, 1937, the Chancellor and Führer announced Germany's withdrawal from Article 231:

I solemnly withdraw the German signature from that declaration which was extracted under duress from a weak Government, acting against its better judgment—namely, the declaration that Germany was responsible for the war.

It was no more than what Bauer had said in 1919.

[mariacallous]

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s opposition to providing additional funding for Ukraine demands to be taken seriously. While Europe is cumulatively the larger financier of Kyiv’s defense, Washington provides more military aid and is Ukraine’s largest bilateral supporter. If Trump withdraws U.S. financial support, Kyiv may be unable to afford the vast military expenditure—which will cost around $54 billion in 2025, or 26% of Ukraine’s GDP—required to defend itself against Russia’s onslaught.

But there is another way that Ukraine’s defense can be financed. In 2022, the G-7 and its allies froze roughly $300 billion of Russian sovereign assets, rendering them inaccessible to President Vladimir Putin. But while the United States and Canada have moved  to seize these assets and make them available to Ukraine, Europe has yet to confiscate the approximately $220 billion in its jurisdiction. To motivate Europe to stand on its own in the era of Trump, President Joe Biden should set the precedent for sovereign seizure and confiscate the estimated $4-5 billion of Russian assets in the United States’ jurisdiction.

Congress has already given the United States the authority to do so, as part of the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians Act (REPO) that became law in April. However, the Biden administration has refused to exercise that power until Europe passes similar legislation.

But Europe has demurred, citing negative impacts to the euro and concerns over the European Union’s international financial role. Saudi Arabia, for example, has threatened to sell its European debt holdings if Europe seizes the frozen assets. Yet, since G-7 members have pledged not to unfreeze Russia’s assets unless it ceases its occupation and pays reparations to Ukraine, it falls to the United States to prove that there is functionally little difference between an indefinite freezing and seizure.

The G-7 has already broken the taboo of harnessing Russia’s frozen assets. In October, it finalized its extraordinary revenue acceleration (ERA) loan efforts to provide Kyiv with at least $50 billion in returns earned from Russian assets; of that, the United States on December 11 provided $20 billion, with the remainder provided by the other G-7 partners. The European Commission is also providing $20 billion, but has announced it could provide up to $36 billion under the plan, demonstrating Europe’s willingness to continue funding Ukraine when supported by allies. Yet the ERA funds are insufficient for Ukraine’s sustained defense. With Europe overseeing the bulk of frozen Russian assets, including the $180 billion stored in Belgium’s Euroclear, it will remain the war’s lead financier.

The Biden administration’s timid military assistance throughout the war will leave a mixed legacy on Ukraine, but in its final weeks it has signaled a willingness to respond in kind to Russia’s escalation. On Nov. 21, it levied the most significant unilateral sanction since 2022 by blacklisting Russia’s Gazprombank, a step that makes any future European gas purchases unlikely. But with the World Bank’s most recent estimates putting Ukrainian reconstruction and recovery costs at $486 billion over the next decade, more financial assistance is necessary, and seizing the frozen Russian assets under U.S. jurisdiction is a final action that Biden can and must take to help Ukraine.

Washington has refrained from acting unilaterally thus far, preferring to wait until “the political will is there” among European policymakers to seize the far larger pile of funds frozen on their continent. The Biden administration held off not because its share of Russian assets is less than Europe’s, nor for fear of Putin’s retaliation, but because it knows sanctions are most effective when levied multilaterally. Together, in 2022, the G-7 had coordinated the freeze of Russia’s assets and later negotiated the ERA loan efforts.

But any skittishness the Biden administration may have over acting unilaterally should now be cast aside. With a dissolved coalition in Germany preventing any substantial outlays until its February 2025 election and an obstinate Hungary blocking progress on an updated European sanctions regime, significant multilateral action is unlikely during Biden’s remaining time in office.

That is not to say the United States must act alone. Canada, which prepared the authority for sovereign asset seizure as early as October 2023 but has yet to pass legislation, could swiftly follow suit. In the United Kingdom, Foreign Secretary David Lammy has called for the same authority, as did his predecessor, David Cameron. But neither ally will act unless they are following Washington’s lead. By setting a precedent for exercising asset-seizure authority, and demonstrating Putin’s limited ability to respond, the United States and its allies can help smooth the legislative path to asset seizure in Europe, opening the possibility for the European Parliament to finance Ukrainian resistance if the next U.S. presidential administration does pull back its support.

There will be costs. Putin has warned against “stealing” Russia’s assets, and it may retaliate by seizing U.S. corporate assets. Russia claims to have held as much as $288 billion in Western assets in its National Settlement Depository, citing 2022 figures it has not updated. However, roughly half of these assets resided in offshore havens, such as Cypriot and the Netherlands, favored by Russian corporations and individuals—suggesting the true amount of endangered assets is considerably lower. Of course, the Kremlin has already seized billions in Western assets, an effort that—regardless of the fate of its own sovereign assets— shows no sign of slowing down.

On the other hand, concerns that sanctions against Russia would diminish the U.S. dollar’s role as the global reserve currency have proven unfounded, with more than two years of data showing no significant consequence for the dollar’s share of foreign exchange reserves. Trump, with a penchant for unilateral sanctions, has threatened tariffs against countries that seek to shun the dollar-based system. Ironically, this would position him to defend against any blowback from the Biden administration’s asset seizure.

Nevertheless, the costs to Putin must be greater, and Russia’s war economy is showing signs of weakness. Defense spending will consume more than 41 percent of Russia’s state budget in 2025, equivalent to around $169 billion. Payments to wounded Russians and the families of those killed in action will cost Russia another $29 billion. Now is the time to signal that short-term palliatives are insufficient for a long-term war effort.

The caution that the Biden administration and Ukraine’s Western allies have demonstrated thus far over seizing Russian assets is now outweighed by practicalities. Euroclear, once reluctant to meddle with the assets under its stewardship, now encourages seizure to help fund its defense against Russian lawsuits and compensate it for losses if the Kremlin retaliates by confiscating Euroclear’s funds in Russia.

More importantly, North Korea has deployed more than 10,000 troops to fight alongside Russian forces in exchange for oil and modern missiles—a “massive escalation” that threatens to dramatically increase the conflict’s threats, including to Asia. Russia has also hired mercenaries from other third parties and renewed the specter of nuclear war over Ukraine after the unprecedented use of an intercontinental ballistic missile in conflict.

These latest provocations demonstrate that Putin prefers escalation over negotiation as long as he remains confident that financial fatigue will set in among the G-7. The hope that had stayed the U.K.’s hand was that the frozen assets might serve as a bargaining chip in any negotiations. This is no longer realistic. And the best argument against asset seizure—that it was economically unnecessary—expired with the twin forces of a new U.S. administration uninterested in supporting Ukraine’s defense and Europe’s increasing inability to fund that defense on its own.

A proportional countermeasure to recent military aggression is appropriate, and further funding is what is needed. Seizing Russian assets and putting them in Ukraine’s hands is the way for the Biden administration to shore up Kyiv’s ability to defend itself and push Europe to act on its own in an era when further U.S. support cannot be relied on.