#before the primaries in aug

[peterpparkrr]

registered to vote today, highly recommend

[srbachchan]

DAY 5670

Jalsa, Mumbai Aug 26/27, 2023 Sat/Sun 1:19 AM

Birthday - EF - Rohit Kumar Bhutoria Sunday, 27 August .. wishes and more from the entire Ef family .. 🚩

In time at last .. or well sort of .. an effort made to be in no disappointment for the Ef .. and to be able to bring back the discipline that has ever existed and remains a part the primary Ef ..

the run is customary now .. unless there is a need to alternate it with either someone that has 'rolled over' and has been incapable of any physical activity ..

but before all that physical bit .. a bit of the self aggrandisement in the HELLO mag about the 100 influentials of INDIA :

.. and then we have a brilliant retort from Anand Mahindra to the BBC, questioning our Chandrayaan 3 .. !!

🤣🤣🤣

Really?? The truth is that, in large part, our poverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent. Yet the most valuable possession we were robbed of was not the Kohinoor Diamond but our pride & belief in our own capabilities. Because the goal of colonisation—its most insidious impact—is to convince its victims of their inferiority. Which is why investing in BOTH toilets AND space exploration is not a contradiction. Sir, what going to the moon does for us is that it helps restore our pride & self-confidence. It creates belief in progress through science. It gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of poverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration… Quote Megh Updates 🚨™ @MeghUpdates · Aug 23 Listen to what BBC had to say about #Chandrayaan3

Should India which lacks in Infrastructure and has extreme poverty, Should they be spending this much amount of money on a space program

But what is quite brilliant is also a Hindi retort from a colleague :

वो देश, जिसके संग्रहालयों का खज़ाना, केवल दुनिया से लूटे गए मूल्यवान वस्तुओं से भरा है, वो देश, जो मसाले की खोज में भारत आया, उसे लूटा, लोगों को मानव निर्मित अकाल में झोंका और आज भी जिसके खानों से ��साले गायब हैं, वो देश, जिसे अपने ही इजाद किए खेल का विश्व कप जीतने में बरसों लग गए वो देश, जिसका सूरज कभी अस्त नहीं होता था, पर आज भी अपने अंतरिक्ष संस्थान का नाम दुनिया तक नहीं पहुंचा पाया है,

आज हमें ज्ञान दे रहा है?

हम भारतीयों ने दुनिया को अद्भुत संरचनाएं दीं, कला दी और भारतीय दर्शन से संस्कृतियों को प्रभावित किया और आज भी कर रहे हैं हम भारतीयों ने अपने मसालों और अपनी पाक शास्त्र का परचम दुनिया के कोने कोने में लहराया है हमने दूसरों के इजाद किए खेल न केवल सीखे, पर उनमें महारत भी प्राप्त की और धुरंधरों को धूल चटाई है हमने न केवल चांद और तारों पर कविताएं लिखी, न केवल उनको देखकर सपने बुने, परंतु चांद पर भारतीय तिरंगा लहराया और अंतरिक्ष पर निरंतर और सतत जीत की ओर अग्रसर हैं।

जो कभी हम पर राज किया करते थे, उन अंग्रेज़ों की ईर्ष्या को यह चेतावनी है - यह आग तुम्हें बस जलाएगी पर इसी आग से हम अंतरिक्ष के उस छोर पर पहुंचेंगे जहां से भारत का सूरज कभी अस्त नहीं होगा।

🇮🇳

WILL THE HINDI /ENGLISH LITERATE PLEASE TRANSLATE

🇮🇳

but before all that .. a bit of the self aggrandisement in the HELLO mag about the 100 influentials of INDIA :

and the music delivers its most colourful night .. it is the divinity of the hour that brings the creativity to the fore .. and in its brilliance dwells the ultimate ..

when the 'SA 🎶' - the first note is hit .. its vibration exudes all that is in the positive eons within .. the superiority of its scale is beyond measure .. actually measure is truly the wrong word .. vibrations of the gravity of a 'note' cannot be measured .. Richter scale and all ..

( and mr Googlé does not have Richter in its information .. process )

we be in blessings beyond to be as in to be ..

Amitabh Bachchan

[slithymomerath]

Another post about TransTape

I decided to stop reblogging the same thread because it was getting really long and just make a new post. Here’s the original. (I should mention that I identify as a trans man now!)

I’ve been using TransTape for about 2.5 months now. Every time I apply it, I do it slightly better. I’ve understretched it (final result: hm, looks like tape on a breast), overstretched it (final result: it’s slowly tearing my skin open over a period of days, awesome (don’t worry, it wasn’t that bad, I’m mostly just being dramatic. Also while it was on there it looked awesome, super flat. Beauty is pain)), and every type of doing it wrong in between. I was reading this blog by a trans man and he mentioned that he used TransTape for years and continuously found better and better methods, and I think that’s going to end up true for me too. However, I’ve gotten good enough at the moment that this has become my primary binding method. This is how my application looks nowadays:

As compared to me in a sports bra and a binder, respectively:

Pretty good, right? And all the same benefits I’ve talked about before: extremely comfortable, no rib squeezing, can leave it on for multiple days, can sleep in it, having bare shoulders/back. It doesn’t really itch noticeably anymore. And the application in that pic isn’t overstretched, it’s perfectly comfortable. It’s my favorite application so far.

Some more notes I’ve ended up with:

- When you’re applying the tape, don’t think of it as “I’m using the tape to pull my chest into place”, think of it as “I’m using my hand to pull my chest into place and then using the tape to secure it”. Still stretch the tape while you’re using it to secure your chest, but take your tensionless anchor parts on both ends very seriously. Made a huge difference for me, way less overstretching and way better results.

- Recently I’ve stopped doing the alternate methods discussed in my previous post and gone back to the original way they show in the videos. I think pulling your chest to the side is more impactful than pulling it up in the overall look of it, and whatever you do first will have a greater impact. The biggest reason I didn’t want to go horizontal first was that my vertical piece would pull on my skin and make a wrinkle of it that folded over my horizontal piece and that was super uncomfortable, but turns out that’s just a symptom of overstretching/not taking the anchor part seriously enough and making sure it’s attached with no tension to both your skin and a small part of the previous tape.

- I tried the medium size instead of the large. I think if I was going for optimal results it (or even small size) would be best, because I can use three total pieces of tape and get another bite at the apple of pulling my chest to where I want it. However, I’m more going for comfort/not a giant hassle putting it on, so I prefer my two pieces of large tape at the moment.

Random thoughts:

- I love that I can take my shirt off if it’s hot or during sexy time and feel like a shirtless guy, not a person with a mildly uncomfortable article of clothing still on. This is enhanced by the fact that the nude color is a pretty good match for my skin.

- I have an appointment about HRT in Aug, so I’m really hoping it’ll cause my chest to deflate a bit and then my binding will be even more rad!

Feel free to message me with any questions about my experience :)

[goddess-help-us]

US Democracy: Close to Death

Pardon my language.

But we are f*cked. Yesterday (June 30, 2022), SCOTUS agreed to hear “Moore v. Harper” on its fall 2022 docket. This case deals with the authority of states to run elections (see more detail later on)*. The conservative-majority court will likely rule in favor of Moore, which would let Republican-held state legislatures appoint their own electors in the electoral college, ignoring the popular vote. In essence, Republicans wouldn’t have to repeat Jan. 6 in the future. They could simply use Republican-held statehouses to reject election results they don’t like, ending free and fair elections in the US.

Presently, there are not enough votes for Congress or the President to do anything to stop this. Congress could potentially impeach Justice Thomas for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection but the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority Senate vote to convict a sitting Supreme Court justice. Sufficient support for this does not exist in the Senate, and is not likely to exist at any time soon. 

There is only one real, legal recourse to this threat: obtaining a true Democratic majority in the US Senate, which we do not have. Senators Manchin and Sinema are unreliable at best and potentially plants at worst. They support neither the reform of or conditional exemption to the filibuster, nor “packing the court.” We need two additional Democratic senators to make their spoiler-effect opposition irrelevant. A 52-member Democratic Senate would allow the filibuster to be bypassed and open the way for the Judiciary Act to pass, which would allow President Biden to add four additional Supreme Court justice seats to reign in this current slow-motion right-wing coup. Don’t think abolishing the filibuster is right? See additional text later.**

How do we get two additional Democratic votes in the Senate? There are currently two highly-competitive Senate races for seats held by Republicans in the midterms this November: Pennsylvania (Dr. Oz (R) vs. John Fetterman (D)) and Wisconsin (party nominees undecided, primary scheduled Aug. 9, 2022). The Dems also need to hold onto every seat they currently occupy. This includes other highly-competitive seats in: Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada. I’ve never campaigned for anyone in my life before but today I signed up to volunteer with John Fetterman’s campaign because I feel like this is important. 

I can’t tell anybody what to do this information, I can only provide it. But I hope that people who value laws, regulations, and policies that support the social, economic, environmental, and democratic wellbeing of a society can recognize when those things are at stake (and they are). The Republicans and their right-wing evangelical supporters know that the 2022 midterm and 2024 general elections are the last chance they have to impose their religious agenda on the country. They know the majority of Americans do not support an elimination of abortion, the banning of LGBT people from public life, or the continuous denial of the climate crisis. That is why they are using the Supreme Court to take action right before these critical elections. They should not get away with this. 

“I’m too anxious or burnt to do anything.” That’s true. It’s been an exhausting past two years. But, for myself, I hate to think of the regret I might have in 2024 when a Republican-held Court, White House, and Congress enact a nationwide federal ban on abortion or LGBT people. Do I want to ask myself at that time, “was there anything else I could have done?” “Electoralism doesn’t work.” I sympathize.*** Often times it feels we elect people who don’t ultimately do anything. But I guarantee that voting will become even more of a token gesture in the future under the likely Moore v. Harper ruling if it’s allowed to proceed unchecked. “The Nation is already f*cked, there’s no point in saving it. We should just let the inevitable balkanization of America happen.” While I think current inflation and supply chains are bad, I can’t imagine how much worse they will be when the nationwide networks of food, medicine, water, household goods, consumer electronics, et al. are subject to tariffs and various petty interregional conflicts that the federal government currently mediates. Yes, the US will cease to exist one day, but let that be a day when we decide that we no longer need the federal government to aid us in living healthful, rich lives, not because of a right-wing coup. 

Thank you for your time if you've read this far.

*Moore v. Harper is a Supreme Court writ of certiorari between Thomas Moore, the Republican Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, and Rebecca Harper, a North Carolina citizen who is collectively filing with other North Carolinians against the Speaker. The case has to do with a Feb. 2022 North Carolina Supreme Court decision that threw out the State Legislature’s election map as gerrymandered. The NC Supreme Court ruled that the maps adopted by the NC Legislature violated the NC Constitution. The NC Supreme Court adopted remedial election maps in their place. Speaker Moore, in turn, filed a writ of certiorari with SCOTUS that it accepted June 30. The NC Republicans believe the US Constitution does not allow state supreme courts jurisprudence over elections and that state legislatures should be able to run and organize elections exclusively. SCOTUS has continuously ruled, however, since 1916 (Davis v. Hildebrant) and as recently as 2015 (Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission) that the Constitution does not give unilateral election-running authority to a state legislature but rather to the public or a state’s constitution. The likely SCOTUS ruling in the fall on Moore v. Harper would overturn over a century’s worth of precedent and allow sitting state legislatures to blatantly gerrymander election maps and even the ability to ignore the popular vote.

**Don’t think abolishing the filibuster is right? The US Constitution does not support the use of the filibuster and does not require a two-thirds vote for laws. It only specifies that a two-thirds majority be used for: censure, expulsion, conviction, and treaty approval. The Senate has reformed the filibuster throughout US history. Senators used to be able to simply filibuster a motion out of the Senate without any accountability. In 1917, the Senate changed its rules to allow a two-thirds majority vote to end debate, the first such check on the filibuster. In 1975, the Senate changes its rules again and dropped this threshold from 67 to 60 senators. Clearly, the Senate has a history of changing its own rules as allowed by Article I, Section 5 of the US Constitution. It is perfectly reasonable and constitutional to either reform or end the use of the filibuster.

***Yes, electoralism is not the end-be-all of civic engagement. It is the bare minimum. If you want more than casting a vote then (good news): there’s a wealth of civil society and community-based organizations out there waiting for your talent, energy, and expertise. Getting involved can connect you to additional resources. And, yes, support mutual aid requests as you are able but mutual aid is not a replacement for actual, scalable human services, like medicine, professional care, electronic infrastructure and services, formal education, et al. that our federal state provides. This is not an “one or the other” decision. All of the tools are here. Use all of them as you are able. Campaign, vote, organize, donate, spread awareness. All of it. And anybody calling for a violent revolution is clueless. The right-wing white supremacists have been preparing for this moment four four decades, with ready-to-mobilize militias. There are no comparable and scalable left-wing militia organizations to counter this. Sure, join your local Socialist Rifle Association but SRA, as it stands now, is simply not comparable to the organization that right-wing extremists currently have. And once you have outed yourself as an active leftist gun user (in the same way that white militias use theirs), you can forget about your constitutional rights. The longer-term solution is to create locally-based power that can resist overreaches by state and federal governments.

[raayllum]

I love how we are basically opposites on the whole theory thing :

You predict plot points by making jokes that end up coming true

meanwhile me and my overdramatic mind obssesses over dark scenarios that would never fit into 9 episodes and then I'm surprised when they don't happen XD

Listen as long as you're enjoying what you're doing, I say have all the fun you want in fanon and taking insp from canon! That's the best part sometimes! <3

Although I have some things that started out as jokes that ended up being canon (my absolute favourite of which being this joke I made about Ezran in 2x04 that was then an actual thing in the s2 novelization) the weirdest thing for me has been like... the ultra specific thing / things I thought would be more metaphorical that ended up being more literal

AKA a list in no particular order

Me assuming since Through the Moon came out that Callum would inevitably play into Aaravos's hands and that the struggle to not do so would be his main conflict in arc 2 (which looking back, the possession plot line seems so thematically obvious I am genuinely a little sheepish I didn't see it coming)

The game motif being my favourite motif and then s4 fucking Delivered it was beautiful

Viren's atonement arc because of his eye symbolism

That the rune cube placement could be trusted to foreshadow things, specifically the Ocean rune in finding the prison and in foreshadowing Callum's dark magic use

Me going "Hey wouldn't it be Fucked Up if whatever comes out of the cocoon is like a child version of Aaravos?" (hi Sir Sparklepuff my beloved)

For that matter: that Aaravos would ask one of the mage fam to kill Sir Sparklepuff for a deep magic spell, and that they'd refuse to do so

Callum's interplay with freedom being too tethered to Rayla that I banked on her eventually being taken hostage and Callum doing morally ambiguous shit to save her like 3+ years in advance

Seeing Callum's S4 design for the first time and noting that the circlets around his wrists invoke chain symbolism but thinking "Nah him and Rayla being in chains like tarot cards will just be metaphoric right". Haha, no!

Ezran as the embodiment of Justice / the series' Witness (hell yeah thank you 4x03 & TOX for making Justice his highest value)

Predicting Rayla's entire arc 2 arc thus far re: her paranoid and restless nature being what puts them on the path to finding Viren and her wanting a rematch, the coins, and her self worth issues, written March 2020 (months before TTM came out)

Callum and Viren as each other's primary foils (begun before this but started being highlighted further from Nov 2019 onwards with specifically thinking that S4, as opposed to s3, would crank it up to an 11)

Rayla and Callum's whole ass light-dark motif that I thought would be a fun consistency in the background rather than a whole ass arc defining Thing

Characterization wise but Ezran as an Enneagram Nine The Peacemaker personality wise (once again thank u 4x03)

Back in Aug 2021 I noticed that bloodbending had thematic similarities to dark magic (in terms of framing, notions of control & agency) but again, didn't think it'd amount to literal likewise puppeteering (Aaravos is/was even imprisoned like Hama too!)

Seeing parallels between dark magic and thematic/metaphorical cannibalism / positing Aaravos as a cannibal in a fic I wrote in 2019 but never ever thinking it'd be more than metaphorical bc kids show, am I right? (when I tell you I screamed)

Like 3 weeks post s3 I came up with Political Trio Theory in which Ezran and Rayla are at odds about something and Callum is caught in the middle, as he agrees more with Rayla but feels like he should side more with Ezran, which an Ezran / trio centric conflict along those lines seems to be what we're going to get personally with Runaan / the coins in future seasons

Which, not only is it mostly to keep my English major-y brain sharp and my enclosure enriched (parallels are my perpetual hamster wheel), but it's also like... obviously predicting from theme/motifs isn't perfect, but it does mean you have all the right pieces. Then it just comes from running through the options to assemble what the puzzle might look like, & also thinking through the constraints of structure and run time (ergo I wasn't surprised when Callum didn't figure out the mirror himself in early S4 cause I just didn't think the show would have time for that kind of slow build).

Like following S2 I never really thought Callum's journey with dark magic was precisely over, firstly because I saw him absolutely as someone who would do dark magic / things he morally is against again if put in the exact circumstances he was in S5 (hence the CHET predictions post up above), but also because as our primary mage character and with dark magic being the core ethical dilemma for mage characters in the show, it just didn't make sense to assume that it'd be entirely resolved with a neat little bow 2/6 (since at the time we thought it'd be 6 seasons) in. Like - what? So that's something from an analytical standpoint of characterization, theme, and structure, for example, and TDP gives us a decent amount of time to get used to all those things especially in the first three seasons and then we can kind of build our predictions neatly from there.

So what usually happens is that I'll have a passing thought / gut reaction, think "huh maybe it's something," and then actually think about it for like 2 days to 2 weeks and realize that it loops back in with a lot of other stray thoughts and that there's something Substantial there. It never stops being wild

Anyway this was definitely way too long a response so TLDR; I'm always pleasantly surprised / excited whenever I predict anything correctly and also adore when the show throws me a curve ball (hi Terry <3), and the fun of theorizing (and sometimes throwing spaghetti at the wall) for me comes down to the themes and parallels and fun (fanon if nothing else) possibilities I can find. I love writing meta, speculative or purely analytical, even if/when they're often time consuming. My instincts haven't steered me too 'wrong' with TDP thus far, and I don't think they ever will!

[stoopid-turtle]

Timeline of GGDD Love

Hi yall. This is the index post for the BTS in Order posts. This is the post to bookmark if you want to refer to it later! (The first chunk is just copypasta from the April intro. Read More to get to the links)

I've looked for timelines of the bts before, but what I've found relies heavily on video clips, many of which I don't have access to. So I decided to make a text-focused timeline in English for the bts because I'm all up in my hyperfocus.

I mainly used this playlist on billibilli, though I also looked at a few other playlists (I didn't keep links, I suck). If I came across a video/reference w another date listed for the clip, I added the alternate date in parenthesis at the end. I chose to primarily follow this playlist bc it has a LOT of clips, has clips for every day, and doesn't have anything that immediately jumps out at me as wrong. I also cross-referenced with accio-victuuri's BJYX Timeline bc it's the most complete English timeline I've seen, and I respect the effort involved. And I ultimately I triple-checked against this weibo timeline. Again, alternate dates noted in parenthesis. Not all sources always agreed.

(the note on the primary playlist has this as its explanation of its dating: 广告以官宣日期为整体依据,若跨年度拍摄,则以最新发布日期为依据整理。Which Google translates to "The advertisement is based on the official announcement date as a whole and, if shot across the year, on the latest release date." I can't parse that so *shrug*)

I've listed out the bts scenes by date. I try to describe the known scenes, though I don't list out in detail EVERYTHING that happens (if I say "Xuanwu cave, bondage conversation", I assume you all know everything else that happens around that moment)(Though sometimes I get hype and fangirlish in the descriptions). A lot of scenes were unknown to me, so I tried to describe the setting, costumes, and vaguely what's happening. Most of the scenes I did recognize had more to the clip than the ones I've seen translated.

As none of what I watched had translations, I can't provide much context with that, I'm afraid. I also do not think these are in order within a day. I don't have any way to tell, so the timeline within the day, itself, is probably wonky.

I only included bts for the most part, not stuff the boys were doing outside the production. Everything's color coded. Scenes with only gg are in red. Scenes with only dd are in green. Scenes with both are orange (yellow just isn't readable, sorry). (If there's text with no color, just assume it's the same as the last colored text)

I wrote this literally by going back and forth between billibilli and Google Keep, so the notes are a little off the cuff. Let me know if you have questions or if you don't understand something. Or if you can't identify a particular bts scene you're curious about.

People are also completely free to take this and flesh it out if they want by adding the non-bts stuff. Any mistakes are mine. People are free to correct it as well. Basically, consider this public property for other turtles. So take it, make it your own, create a comprehensive google sheet that details everything in pretty color-coded order with media links that are cross-referenced, filterable, and sortable or whatever (PLEASE SOMEBODY DO THIS).

No need to credit. If you feel you have to, just say a stoopid turtle did it.

The timeline of ggdd love yue tag

April BTS In Order

April Summary + Takeaways

May BTS In Order Pt 1

May BTS in Order Pt 2

May Summary + Takeaways

June BTS In Order Pt 1

June BTS in Order Pt 2

June Summary + Takeaways

July BTS In Order Pt 1

July BTS in Order Pt 2

July Summary + Takeaways

Aug BTS In Order Pt 1

Aug BTS in Order Pt 2

Aug Summary + Takeaways

Overall Summary + Takeaways

Addendum 1

Addendum 2

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Ian Anderson, born 10th August 1947 in Dunfermline.

After attending primary school in Edinburgh, his family relocated to Blackpool in 1959. Following a traditional Grammar school education, he moved on to Art college to study fine art before deciding on an attempt at a musical career. He was influenced by his father’s big band and jazz records and the emergence of rock music, but was disenchanted with the “show biz” style of early American rock and roll stars like Elvis Presley.

In 1963 with some school friends he formed his first band The Blades, a soul and blues outfit. In 1965 they regrouped into The John Evan Band with major lineup changes. They disband two years later when Anderson moved to Luton. In his new surroundings, Ian meets the drummer Clive Bunker and the guitarist Mick Abrahams and with Glenn Cornick, a bassist - of The John Evan Band-, Anderson creates the seed of the group that would become the legendary Jethro Tull.

Still enjoying a lengthy if intermittent ongoing career, Jethro Tull has released 30 studio and live albums, selling more than 60 million copies since the band first performed at London’s famous Marquee club.

After undertaking more than 3000 concerts in forty-something countries throughout four decades, Tull has played typically 100 concerts each year to longstanding, as well as new fans worldwide.

Widely recognized as the man who introduced the flute to rock music, Ian Anderson remains the crowned exponent of the popular and rock genres of flute playing. So far, no pretender to the throne has stepped forward. Ian also plays ethnic flutes and whistles together with acoustic guitar and the mandolin bouzouki, balalaika, saxophone, harmonica, and a variety of whistles.

I briefly met Ian on Skye in 1987 on my way back from Benbecula where he had an estate and ran a Fish farm, well 11 fish farms as my research has unearthed, he also employed over 400 people before selling it in the 90’s.

Anderson recalled in an interview how he started as a flautist…

“ once owned a 1960s Fender Stratocaster, which had previously belonged to Lemmy Kilminster before he found fame with Motorhead. But when it dawned on me I was never going to catch up with the growing band of hotshot British guitarists at that time – Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton – I traded it in for a Selma Goldfield student flute worth £30.

I knew Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton didn’t play the flute, so I thought I would be in with a chance. A lot of people told me it was a ridiculous trade because the Strat was worth at least £150. But in fact it was a great buy because learning to play it was the start of Jethro Tull.”

Anderson lives on a farm in the southwest of England where he has a recording studio and office. He has been married for 37 years to Shona who is also an active director of their music and other companies. They have two children.

In 2006 and 2010, he was awarded Doctorates in Literature from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh and the Abertay University of Dundee. He received the Ivor Award for International Achievement in Music.

Ian admits he owns no fast car, never yet having taken a driving test, and has a wardrobe of singularly uninspiring and drab leisurewear varying from light grey to black in colour. He still keeps a couple of off-road competition motorcycles, and a saxophone which he promises never to play again.

Jethro Tull are about to start a US tour on Friday, Aug. 18th, at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois. They will however be hopping over the Atlantic to perform in Europe during the tour.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A battle over LGBTQ+ books in a Virginia county may cost teenagers their right to visit the public library.

The chair of the Board of Supervisors in rural Botetourt County has decided the best way to ensure “parental rights” in the tiny rural area, pop. 34,000, is to send parents to the library with their kids.

Acting on a campaign pledge made in June before a primary election, board chair Donald “Mac” Scothorn (R) announced a proposal at the board’s July 31 meeting to prohibit anyone under 18 from visiting the county library without adult supervision.

It’s the board chair’s solution to a long-simmering dispute over LGBTQ+ content in the county’s four public libraries, pitting Botetourt County residents associated with groups like Moms for Liberty against free speech advocates.

The “parents’ rights” activists have pursued their book-banning agenda at school board meetings, filing removal request forms at the libraries and publicizing what they believe is inappropriate content for minors on a website likely available to minors.

For their part, the Board of Supervisors has issued two resolutions declaring “unwavering” support for the library system and staff, including one issued at the same meeting where Scothorn announced his proposal.

Scothorn’s idea came as a surprise to Marlene Preston, chair of the Botetourt County Library Board of Trustees, which has the ultimate say over library policy.

“The Library Board hasn’t endorsed or even discussed any changes to our policies regarding teens in the library,” Preston told Cardinal News. “For now, we’re pleased that the Board of Supervisors has formally supported the library and its staff.”

County Supervisor Steve Clinton, who also serves on the library board, agreed a change to the libraries’ supervision policy is not on the agenda, and called Scothorn’s recommendation a “news flash” he’s not in favor of. The Library Board’s next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 16.

Current policy in Botetourt County libraries requires children 13 and under to be supervised by adults, which has more to do with behavioral considerations than what kids may be reading, according to library director Julie Phillips.

She’s concerned how teenagers would interact with the public library under more restrictive parental guidance rules. Programming for teenagers at the four libraries includes a chess club and special programs like improv theater classes.

Attendance policies for minors vary by jurisdiction around the state. In Franklin County, children 10 and younger require supervision by an adult or another child 14 or older. In Rockbridge County, children under 8 must be accompanied by an adult 18 or older.

Until August 2020, the unattended child policy in Botetourt County was even less restrictive, reading, “Children under the age of seven, or who have emotional or social difficulty, must be attended by a parent or other responsible caregiver at all times.”

Scothorn’s campaign promise, published with another supervisorial candidate in a local county newspaper, read in part: “We pledge to bring before the Board of Supervisors of Botetourt County a proposal to raise the age of required parental consent for access to graphic sexually explicit materials to the age of 18.”

Doing so would “ultimately give the decision on access to such materials to the parents, where we believe that decision belongs,” the statement read.

Scothorn and Miller wrote they based their idea on H.B. 1379, passed by the Virginia House of Delegates early in 2023, which would have allowed parents to restrict their children’s access to any item in a school library catalog that was considered to have “graphic sexual content.”

While that bill failed to pass the state senate and didn’t make it into law, the pair wrote, “We believe its intent can inform local library policy considerations.”

[zebee-nyx]

CalmWriMo Day 19

[11/19/2023]

Update!

Had me a fairly nice day. (^.^) Fought off my anxiety long enough to brave the outside world to see a play at the local theater. So woot for that! (>v<) Aside from that, made my little progress on the prologue by getting that last odd ball paragraph in. Which was then immediately followed by being absolutely consumed by my worldbuilding obsession to yeet out the blurb below. ('^.^)

Progress:

2 Hour Writing Goal: ✅

Blurb: [see below]

Self Care:

Food: ✅

Hydration: ✅

Sleep: ✅

Reading: ✅

Blurb: The Uppercity

The "Uppercity" is Neocago's gleaming bastion of opulence. This part of the city is full of luxury apartments, beachfront properties, parks, exclusive clubs, and to some degree exclusive mansions. The parts of the city within this region are strictly controlled, planned, and maintained by NEX. The uppercity can be further divided between the massive central commercial district along the coast of Lake Michigan and the northern part of the city that is mostly made up of residential suburbs.

The primary commercial district, known as the "Loop" [a name inherited directly form Chicago before it became Neocago, might consider changing the name of this tho…], is defined by it's towering high-rise skyscrapers and countless blooming businesses. The Loop is also home to all of the NEX Conglomerate members' headquarters. At night the city lights up like it were day around this gem. Various restaurants and an endless diversity of stores fill the street level spaces. A common sight is bright LED screens in any prime viewable location on building sides that advertise pricey products, the newest augs, upcoming events, high fashion, the hottest locations, as well as the regularly scheduled reminders that NEX made all this luxury possible.

Above some streets there are elevated tracks for sleek maglev trains that speedily ferry travelers to and from the city's core, feeding in from the northern half of the city and some stations in the midcity. Further above those there are skybridges that stretch gaps between some skyscrapers. Typically between those skyscrapers owned by the same corporation or with the expectation that the people living in one will be working in the other. Built primarily as shortcut walkways between buildings these skybridges often double as fancy restaurants or clubs with impressive views over the city. Aside from these two neat features much of the space about the streets is simply free open air. While the excessive light pollution makes seeing stars an impossibility, this is one of the few parts of the city where the moon and sky is readily visible.

In the northern most parts of the city there are neat suburbs with wide open artificial lawns around modernistic homes. Different communities are usually gated off form the outside city to provide a level of exclusivity as well as privacy and security. Frequently anything the residents here could wish for is ordered and delivered directly to their door in abundance. Naturally, only the most wealthy can even dream to afford one of these properties. Unsurprisingly the population density of this part of the city is strikingly low, only somewhat inflated by inhouse indent servants [more on indents some other time ('^.^)]. It is lonely at the top after all!

One of the most distinctive features of the uppercity overall is just how clean it is. Any trash that happens to make it to the street is typically swiftly retrieved and disposed of by a massive workforce of NEX owned androids. These androids, who typically wear distinctive one piece blue and white uniforms, patrol the streets automatically performing any cleaning, maintenance, and repair services in the city commons. Behind closed doors, these androids are the eyes and ears of NEX within the uppercity. There is seldom a thing that can happen here beyond the conglomerate's notice... should they apply the right filters to actually find it within the mountains of data that is.

While not a common sight out in the streets, the services of security firms are typically a mere minute away with quick response teams at the ready to protect their clients. In the uppercity they often use vtol aircraft to hastily maneuver through the open space between buildings to provide the fastest response times possible. This has made any sort of violent crime within the uppercity a death sentence as almost everyone here is either covered with a security policy or is in a stone's throw of someone who is.

Unlike in undercity much of the uppercity's utility infrastructure is run underground, seamlessly supplying power and water to the tall skyscrapers and mansions alike. The majority of the city's ridiculous power draw is feed by somewhat distant nuclear reactors.

While everything in the uppercity speaks to wealth and luxury, nothing compares to the handful of parks. These indoor parks simulate the outdoors with an artificial day-night cycle. Each park is themed in it's own unique way, but all have a couple shared traits that are seldom found anywhere on the world; plants and animals. Parks have carefully curated and beautify maintained gardens with real plants. One cannot find fresher air than within an uppercity park. While the plants are often at least mostly natural, the animals often are far from it. The animals in these parks are heavily bio-tailored to amplify exotic features as well as making them absolutely domestic and passive. As a result of their exclusive "naturalness" these parks have become hotspots for those who can afford the entry fee to simply hang around, meet up, meditate, enjoy picnics, hunt to a limited degree, or whatever else happens to strike one's fancy.

[YEET! (^v^) Gahhhhhhh! I really feel that needlessly detailed and expansive worldbuilding is where I shine brightest! Seriously, could do this for hours and write so much more on this, but need to cut it off here. That or risk absolutely drowning the world in text lol. (>v<) Anyways and always, hope you had a lovely day, peace (^v^)v]

[reasoningdaily]

The New York Times: In Texas, a Black High School Student Is Suspended Over His Hair Length

Soon after starting his junior year last month at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, Darryl George was separated from his classmates because of the way he wears his hair, his mother and a lawyer said.

Since the term began on Aug. 16, Darryl, a 17-year-old Black student, has received multiple disciplinary notices that have culminated in more than a week of in-school suspension, where he sits on a stool in a cubicle and work is brought to him, according to his mother, Darresha George. Each morning, he is asked by officials at the school, about 30 miles east of Houston, whether he has cut his hair yet, she said.

He has not.

“He is actually getting singled out,” said Ms. George. “They are personally stopping him, ‘Did he cut his hair?’ Asking him at the door.”

Darryl has locs, or long ropelike strands of hair, that he pins on his head in a barrel roll, a protective style that reflects Black culture, Ms. George said. On Aug. 31, about two weeks after school started, school officials told her that his hair length, even though pinned, violated the dress code.

“I was told that every day Darryl comes to school, he would be put in in-school suspension because his hair has not been cut,” she said. “Even if pulled up in buns or neatly pulled back, because when let down it is below his earlobes and eyebrows.”

Supporters of the family, including legislators and activists, have called the suspension alarming, saying that it could test a new state law called the CROWN Act. The law, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed in May, says, in part, that any dress or grooming policy adopted by a school district “may not discriminate against a hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race.” The law does not specifically mention hair length.

The Barbers Hill Independent School District’s dress code mandates that a male student’s hair “will not extend below the eyebrows, below the earlobes or below the top of a T-shirt collar.”

A district spokesman, David Bloom, said that the dress code and suspension were “not in conflict” with the CROWN Act because the code permits protective hairstyles, if the hair would not go beyond the permitted length when let down.

“The vast majority of hair code violation punishments — I.S.S. or more severe — have been handed down to white students,” Mr. Bloom said, using the acronym for in-school suspension, where, he said, students are kept in a classroom staffed by a teacher, and sit at desks separated by partitions so as not to disturb one another.

The school informed Ms. George of Darryl’s suspension just one day before the law took effect on Sept. 1, she said.

Even though the CROWN Act does not specifically mention hair length, Darryl’s supporters have said the district’s move violates the spirit of the law. Candice Matthews, a civil rights activist and vice chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, said that braids, locs and twists need to be long to protect the hair.

“It is a hairstyle that is cultural in nature,” she said.

At least 23 other states have adopted similar laws banning discrimination based on race-based hairstyles in the workplace and public schools.

On Sept. 8, the Texas Legislative Black Caucus sent a letter to the district superintendent, Greg Poole, and the school principal, Lance Murphy, urging the district to clear Darryl’s record and warning that the suspension could set a “dangerous precedent.”

“The school is arbitrarily coming up with something else, saying that it’s really not the hair, it’s the length,” said State Representative Ron Reynolds, a Democrat and chair of the caucus.

State Representative Rhetta Andrews Bowers, a Democrat and the primary author of the CROWN Act, said she was inspired by the Crown Coalition, which advocates adoption of the law in other states, and by DeAndre Arnold and Kaden Bradford, cousins who attended high school in the same district as Darryl and were suspended for the length of their dreadlocks in a case that garnered national attention.

“We anticipated that even with the passage of the legislation that there could possibly be incidents,” she said. “We knew that it was largely going to be education and awareness making people understand. We are still on that path.”

Darryl’s case is not the first to test the new law. In August, Katheryn Huerta, the mother of an elementary school student in Mabank, Texas, cited the CROWN Act when she was told that she would have to cut her son’s long hair. Ms. Huerta told WFAA-TV, a local ABC affiliate, that her district later relented, saying she could put her son’s hair in braids and a bun.

A lawyer for Ms. George, Allie Booker, said that Darryl had been given until the end of the week to comply with the school’s dress code or he could be placed in a disciplinary alternative learning program. Ms. Booker said she is considering legal action.

“We are not cutting his hair,” Ms. George said, “because that is part of his culture, that is his roots. It is like cutting off a part of him.”

[beardedmrbean]

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who is facing a Justice Department investigation over her campaign's security spending, which includes payments to her husband, has a campaign cash crunch and is trailing her Democrat primary challenger in terms of money on hand.

Bush's campaign has struggled to retain cash with under six months to go until the Aug. 6 Democrat primary. In fact, her committee's most recent filings show that it entered January with just $215,000 at its disposal. Her opponent, Wesley Bell, a progressive prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County who differs from Bush in his Israel stance, is currently better positioned and ended the fourth quarter with $408,000 in the bank.

Bell has also seen a fundraising surge since pivoting from challenging Republican Sen. Josh Hawley to entering the Democrat primary against Bush. From the beginning of October until late December, his campaign raised $492,000 and slightly edged Bush's money haul. He reportedly added another $100,000 in the first few weeks of January, his campaign told the Riverfront Times, which is not included in his most recent filing.

CORI BUSH'S CAMPAIGN PAYS $17,500 MORE TO HER HUSBAND, BRINGING HIS TOTAL TO $120K, NEW FILINGS SHOW

Along the way, Bell has also garnered the support of some deep-pocketed Democrat donors, such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, who gave the maximum $6,600 to his campaign for the primary and general elections, his filings show.

A recent poll found that Bush may also be in trouble come August. Bell is currently up by 22 points over the "Squad" member, the New York Post reported.

In addition to her campaign's substandard position, Bush is also staring down a federal investigation into her campaign payments for security, including to her husband, Cortney Merritts, whom she wed in February 2023. At the time of their marriage, Bush's office said they had been together before she entered Congress in 2021.

Merritts began accumulating money for security services starting in January 2022. Bush's committee, however, switched their description to "wage expenses" in April 2023 as they continued to bring scrutiny to the campaign.

Merritts has now collected $120,000 from Bush's campaign coffers. Politicians can pay family members from their committees if they provide "bona fide" services at fair market value. He pocketed the money as Bush's campaign simultaneously spent significantly more on St. Louis-based companies such as PEACE Security for private detail. She's spent over $770,000 on such services.

WATCH: CORI BUSH'S HUSBAND CONFRONTED OVER THE THOUSANDS IN CASH HE HAS RECEIVED FROM HER CAMPAIGN

Merritts' online accounts and posts have indicated he worked at a railway company for years before starting a moving company. He did not have a private security license as of late February 2023, Fox News Digital previously reported. He also did not appear in a Washington, D.C., database of licensed security specialists at the time. 

The ordeal triggered at least two complaints from watchdog groups in the subsequent weeks. The first complaint, filed to the FEC in March 2023 by the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, is still pending. The ethics committee has since cleared Bush in a second complaint from the Committee to Defeat the President.

"Since before I was sworn into office, I have endured relentless threats to my physical safety and life," Bush previously said in response to the Justice Department investigation. "As a rank-and-file member of Congress, I am not entitled to personal protection by the House, and instead have used campaign funds as permissible to retain security services."

"These frivolous complaints have resulted in a number of investigations, some of which are still ongoing," Bush said. "The Federal Election Commission and the House Committee on Ethics are currently reviewing the matter, as is the Department of Justice. We are fully cooperating in all of these pending investigations."

Bush's and Bell's campaigns did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.

[butterflies-dragons]

GRRM's latest 'Not a Blog' entry:

WINDS, you say?   Yes, still working.   Finally finished a clutch of Cersei chapters that were giving me fits.   Now I am wrestling with Jaime and Brienne.   The work proceeds, though not as fast as many of you would like. —Good Stuff, Bad Stuff, Strange Stuff - Not a Blog - JUNE 1, 2022

Where did I read this before???

AC: How do you decide what you’re going to work on, whose voice you’re going to work in today?  GM: Well, I don’t write the chapters in the order in which you read them. I get into a character’s voice. It’s always difficult to switch gears, actually. When I do make that transition from one character to another, I usually struggle for a few days trying to get back the voice of the character I’m just returning to after some hiatus. But once I get into it, I tend to write not just one chapter by that character, but three or four.  So I’ll be writing Jon Snow chapters, and I’ll carry that Jon Snow sequence as far as I can. And then at some point, maybe I’ll get stuck or not be sure what I should do next, or maybe I’ve just gotten way ahead of all of the other characters in the books, so I need to sort of rein myself in and make myself switch from Jon Snow to Sansa or Daenerys or somebody like that. —LoneStarCon 3: The George R. R. Martin Interview - AUG. 29, 2013

～～～

UPDATE

Q: You worked for several years doing scripts for television and it is common to hear that this is palpable in A Song of Ice and Fire, in the structure, always the same size of the chapters, and the cliffhanger endings. Do you agree with that notion? GRRM: Yes, there's an element of truth to that, I think the 10 years that I spent writing in television and film did teach me some techniques that I carried over to Game of Thrones and subsequent books. You know, one of the realities of working for a network like CBS, which was the primary network I worked for during my years in television, is of course you have commercials. So you may be doing a one-hour drama, actually you have 46 minutes, and you have that broken up into depending on the structure four or five segments, and the fear of the network's of course is always that people going to change the channel when the commercial comes on, so you have actor breaks every, every segment ends with an act break, and of course one of the strongest act breaks is the cliffhanger, but that's not the only kind of act break, you know, you'd go crazy if every act break was a cliffhanger, but usually an act break is, there's a revelation, there's a twist, there's an important new piece of information that comes, there's a reversal, there's a character revelation, something big that comes right before the commercial. And the idea is that that will hold the viewers in place while you, you know, try to sell them a yogurt, or a new car, or a can of coca-cola. It's a good technique and it became second nature to me, so when I started writing Ice and Fire, essentially all of the chapters end with actor brakes, of once or another, and the idea is much the same. I don't have commercials in between my chapters, but I do want the same thing, I want to keep you reading, so you read a Tyrion chapter and you end it, and it's got a ciffhanger, a reversal, a reveal, and you're very eager to find out what happens to Tyrion next, but of course you can't because now you have to read about Jon Snow, and then at the end of it there's an act break there and you want to find out what happens to Jon Snow next but of course you can't you have to read about Sansa. So, you know, I structured it this way deliberately, to provide a certain momentum, and, you know, judging by the reaction of you guys and other readers around the world, it seems to have worked pretty well, so I think I learned something useful from TV there. —KOSMOPOLIS // George R. R. Martin - July 28, 2012

Always with the triangles, huh???

～～～

UPDATE II

—GRRM's 2003-2004 Outline for AFFC

[usafphantom2]

The SR-71 Astroinertial Navigation System, aka R2-D2, was crucial in Blackbird mission. Here’s why.

By Dario Leone

Aug 8 2021

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Later on after the Star Wars movie came out in 1977, the SR-71 Blackbird Astroinertial Navigation System was affectionately called R2-D2.

Conceived as a long-range, advanced, strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed from the Lockheed A-12 and YF-12A aircraft, the SR-71, unofficially known as the Blackbird, remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft throughout its nearly 24-year career with the US Air Force (USAF).

From 80,000 feet, it could survey 100,000 square miles of Earth’s surface per hour.

The SR-71 Astroinertial Navigation System, aka R2-D2, was crucial in Blackbird mission. Here’s why.

SR-71 Astroinertial Navigation System

Piloting the Blackbird was an unforgiving endeavor, demanding total concentration. But pilots were giddy with their complex, adrenaline-fueled responsibilities. “At 85,000 feet and Mach 3, it was almost a religious experience,” said Air Force Colonel Jim Wadkins. “Nothing had prepared me to fly that fast… My God, even now, I get goose bumps remembering.”

But once the SR-71 reached ‘cruising speed and altitude, it was time to focus on the mission, which was to collect information about hostile and potentially hostile nations using cameras and sensors,’ our friend Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield’s daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer) says on her Facebook Page Habubrats. ‘The pilot’s job was to handle the aircraft and watch over the automatic systems to make sure they were doing their jobs properly. Meanwhile, the RSO handled the cameras, sensors, and the all-important Astroinertial Navigation System (ANS). The ANS was the 1960’s version of GPS, but instead of using satellites to locate itself, the ANS used the stars. This is because before the invention of the modern satnav networks there wasn’t a way to navigate the SR-71 in the areas where it operated. The SR-71 needed to be able to fix its position within 1,885 feet (575 m) and within 300 ft (91 m) of the center of its flight path while traveling at high speeds for up to ten hours in the air.’

The SR-71 Astroinertial Navigation System, aka R2-D2, was crucial in Blackbird mission. Here’s why.

Sheffield Miller continues;

‘On Jul. 2, 1967 Blackbird crew Jim Watkins and Dave Dempster flew the first international sortie in SR-71A #17972 when the ANS failed on a training mission and they accidentally flew in to Mexican airspace.

‘The ANS works by tracking at least two stars at a time listed in an onboard catalog, and with the aid of a chronometer, calculates a fix of the SR-71 over the ground. It was programmed before each flight and the aircraft’s primary alignment and the flight plan was recorded on a punched tape that told the aircraft where to go, when to turn, and when to turn the sensors on and off. The stars were sighted through a special quartz window (located behind the RSO cockpit) and there was a special star tracker that could see the stars even in daylight.’

[naymaasblog]

The history of redlining

Leading social change:

Blog #2

By: Naymaa Ahmed

A discriminatory practice known as "redlining" first appeared in the US in the early 20th century, and Portland, Oregon, was one of its locations. Based on the racial or cultural makeup of a community, it refers to the systematic denial of financial services including loans, insurance, and investment opportunities. Due to the designation of some regions as "high-risk" or "undesirable" for financing, this practice disproportionately impacted African American communities and restricted their access to housing and other financial resources. locations such as Vanport, Oregon. Determining what is and is not within the purview of this research is essential for a better understanding of the issue. In this case, the research's primary focus would be on the background of redlining in Portland, including its inception, application, and impacted communities. It would also cover the current redlining-related socioeconomic gaps as well as any ongoing initiatives to alleviate these problems. draw attention to the long-term effects of redlining, including the aggravation of racial segregation in the city, wealth inequality, and the continuation of poverty throughout generations. Highlighting the interdependence of these matters can facilitate a more comprehensive comprehension of the extensive consequences of redlining on the impacted neighborhoods and Portland's general socioeconomic structure. As we go on to Redlings, the Federal Housing Administration provided veterans with mortgage loans, enabling millions of families to buy homes. Unfortunately, these loans did not help the black community because the criteria used to determine who would receive home loans were overtly racist, making it hard for people of color to buy a home even in times of prosperity. segregating everyone and assigning each applicant a color based on where their property is located. Albina and downtown Portland are redlined. Where, by coincidence, there are the most Black residents(Gross,2020). Due to all of the unconstitutional bills and decisions that were passed at that time. Today, it has a significant impact on the black community. Resulting in a 32% difference between White and Black Portlanders who own homes. All of this is the outcome of 150 years of redlining, mismanagement, and unabashed prejudice. Starting with the flood that destroyed Vanport as a city. Forcing tens of thousands of people to leave their homes and move into a neighborhood where it was obvious they were not wanted. All of this was the start & result of how racism was built into our housing systems in the 1940s.Redlining in Portland is a problem with roots in social inequality and systematic racism, which is one reason it matters. In addition to being morally reprehensible, discrimination based on race subverts the ideals of justice and equality that our society ought to uphold. Our concern for this issue reflects our recognition of the need to right historical wrongs and build a society that is more just and inclusive. What leads us to believe that Portland is now socially fair if it wasn't before? How can you be certain that these maps and bills aren't concealed somewhere in your city?

Sauer, Taryn. “Race and Housing Part III: Under the Guise of Renewal.” Habitat Portland Region, 31 Aug. 2020, https://habitatportlandregion.org/race-and-housing-part-iii-under-the-guise-of-renewal/

[winterbirb]

Happy new year, y'all!

Quick update for the anon who sent accusations about aristotels—given a lack of any followup evidence, I had someone I trust go through their tag for anything fitting the accusations, and I have come to the conclusion that guilt cannot be proved, and more importantly, they should not be held to American taboos. I mean, I got into an apparently quite heated conversation about the importance of cultural context, I'm not going to go back on my word now. Think before you discourse.

And further, I am not the person to judge someone for not being 100% acceptable vanilla. I would be throwing stones from a house of glass cards; although I don't talk about most of those cards, I do, uh. Write Edward Snowden RPF. So.

Speaking of, chapter 13 is out! It's not actually any more of my own writing, as I couldn't figure out how to structure the May 7th meeting while incorporating my Official Sources. So I just put the primary sources in their own chapter, and I'm in the middle of trying to write the POVs for that chapter.

(Yeah, that's right, we're talking about my fic now. Teehee)

Unfortunately I write slowly (and delete things if I find a source they contradict, which is what happened to about 10k words of ch. 13 attempts), but eventually I'll finish up this fic, which will go through the end of July 2013 (Ed accepts asylum the first of August). I've casually dropped one reference to the top secret negotiations, and Bill and Jake will make appearances later in this fic, but that whole shebang is going to be in a later story (I wish I could just have it all written right now, it's so important, especially the Kerry-Lavrov axis! But alas, I'm more GRR Martin than Stephen King).

I'm introducing the Kerry-Lavrov axis in this fic (which chap 13-14 are particularly meant to do), but the payoff is going to come in the sequel, which is going to be from Aug-Sept (or -Oct bc of the government shutdown) and cover the Syria chemical strikes (I think Assad was framed, in case you're wondering. It's actually very fucking annoying trying to write about this stuff because I was happy having no opinion on the matter, but if I was going to write Obama and Putin talking about it, I kind of have to review the evidence 😔). Mid-september is UNGA, and Sept 30th is when Obama reveals to Bibi the secret US meetings with Iran. These events should resolve the Putin-Obama tension and bring us to the next phase of the story (admittedly, I don't know where to go after that; I'm thinking shorter stories, vignettes of interactions)

Anyway. Here's a link. Rn it's at 32k words, but a good chunk of those are primary/secondary sources.

Forgot to mention—though this is primarily about relationships, I don't (so far) have explicit ships, although Su/Kho is tagged. I'm leaving things implied for the time being bc it isn't the point (the importance of relationship axes still works around friendship-trust). So if that squicks you out, dw.

[newstfionline]

Monday, September 18, 2023

Americans broadly support military strikes in Mexico, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds (Reuters) About half of Americans support sending U.S. military personnel into Mexico to fight drug cartels, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, though there is less backing for sending troops without Mexico’s approval. The findings show broad public support for calls by most major candidates in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination contest to send special forces into Mexico, the U.S.’s biggest trading partner, or conducting missile or drone strikes there. Some of the candidates have said they would be prepared to send military forces without first receiving permission from the Mexican government. With the United States experiencing a dramatic rise in overdose deaths related to the synthetic opioid fentanyl, tamping down the flow of narcotics from Mexico has become a major theme among Republicans. Almost 80,000 Americans died from opioid-related overdoses in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, with fentanyl being the primary culprit.

Battle Over Electric Vehicles Is Central to Auto Strike (NYT) A battle between Detroit carmakers and the United Auto Workers union, which escalated on Friday with targeted strikes in three locations, is unfolding amid a once-in-a-century technological upheaval that poses huge risks for both the companies and the union. The strike has come as the traditional automakers invest billions to develop electric vehicles while still making most of their money from gasoline-driven cars. The negotiations will determine the balance of power between workers and management, possibly for years to come. That makes the strike as much a struggle for the industry’s future as it is about wages, benefits and working conditions. The established carmakers are trying to defend their profits and their place in the market in the face of stiff competition from Tesla and foreign automakers. Workers are trying to defend jobs as manufacturing shifts from internal combustion engines to batteries. Because they have fewer parts, electric cars can be made with fewer workers than gasoline vehicles. A favorable outcome for the U.A.W. would also give the union a strong calling card if, as some expect, it then tries to organize employees at Tesla and other nonunion carmakers like Hyundai, which is planning to manufacture electric vehicles at a massive new factory in Georgia.

Guatemala’s president-elect says he’s ready to call people onto the streets (AP) President-elect Bernardo Arévalo plans to call Guatemalans into the streets next week to protest efforts to derail his presidency before he can take office, he said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. It would be Arévalo’s first such request since winning the election Aug. 20. Since his landslide victory, the attorney general’s office has continued pursuing multiple investigations related to the registration of Arévalo’s Seed Movement party, and alleged fraud in the election. International observers have said that is not supported by evidence. Arévalo said he has tried his own legal maneuvers to stop those who want to keep him from power, but now it’s necessary for the people to come out to the streets to support him. Arévalo, a progressive lawmaker and academic, shocked Guatemala by making it into an Aug. 20 presidential runoff in which he beat former first lady Sandra Torres by more than 20 points.

Ukraine’s Crimea attacks seen as key to counter-offensive against Russia (BBC) This week saw spectacular Ukrainian attacks on the Crimean Peninsula, hitting Russian warships and missiles. Estimates of the damage done ran into billions of pounds and raised the question: is Ukraine getting ready to retake Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014? Crimea is a Russian fortress, so it is important not to get carried away. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry estimates that some 32,000 Russian troops were stationed in Crimea ahead of Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Russian nuclear weapons are reportedly deployed there as well. “[Ukraine’s] strategy has two main goals,” says Oleksandr Musiienko, from Kyiv’s Centre for Military and Legal Studies. “To establish dominance in the north-western Black Sea and to weaken Russian logistical opportunities for their defence lines in the south, near Tokmak and Melitopol.” In other words, operations in Crimea go hand-in-glove with Ukraine’s counter-offensive in the south.

Three Neighbors of Ukraine Ban Its Grain as E.U. Restrictions Expire (NYT) Hours after the European Union ended a temporary ban on imports of Ukrainian grain and other products to five member nations, three of them—Poland, Hungary and Slovakia—defied the bloc and said they would continue to bar Ukrainian grain from being sold within their borders. As Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, has struggled to ship its grain because of Russia’s invasion, the European Union has opened up to tariff-free food imports from the country, a move that had the unintended consequence of undercutting prices and hurting farmers in several countries in the east of the European Union. As part of a deal meant to protect those countries, the bloc allowed some grain to transit through them, but prohibited domestic sales. Brussels’ decision to let that deal expire at midnight on Friday revived an issue that has threatened European Union unity on support for Ukraine. The Hungarian agriculture minister, Istvan Nagy, announced an extended ban that would include more products in a Facebook post early Saturday morning, saying that “we will protect the interests of the farmers.” On Friday, Poland’s president ordered that the ban be kept in place and Slovakia’s ministry of agriculture also announced a continuation of the ban, underlining that it didn’t apply to transit through the country.

Afghan Taliban Detain 18, Including American, on Charges of Preaching Christianity (VOA) Afghanistan’s Taliban have detained 18 staffers, including an American, from a nonprofit group for allegedly preaching Christianity. The Afghan-based International Assistance Mission (IAM) confirmed Friday that Taliban authorities had twice raided its office in central Ghor province this month and taken away the staff. They were taken into custody on charges of “propagating and promoting Christianity” in Afghanistan, a spokesman said. The IAM says on its website that the nonprofit group has been working in Afghanistan only to improve lives and build local health, community development and education capacity. “We are a partnership between the people of Afghanistan and international Christian volunteers, and we have been working together since 1966.”

U.S. and China Expand Global Spy Operations (NYT) As China’s spy balloon drifted across the continental United States in February, American intelligence agencies learned that President Xi Jinping of China had become enraged with senior Chinese military generals. Mr. Xi was not opposed to risky spying operations against the United States, but American intelligence agencies concluded that the People’s Liberation Army had kept Mr. Xi in the dark until the balloon was over the United States. When Mr. Xi learned of the balloon’s trajectory and realized it was derailing planned talks with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, he berated senior generals for failing to tell him that the balloon had gone astray, according to American officials briefed on the intelligence. The episode threw a spotlight on the expanding and highly secretive spy-versus-spy contest between the United States and China. The balloon crisis, a small part of a much larger Chinese espionage effort, reflects a brazen new aggressiveness by Beijing in gathering intelligence on the United States as well as Washington’s growing capabilities to collect its own information on China. The C.I.A. and the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency have set up new centers focused on spying on China. U.S. officials have honed their capabilities to intercept electronic communications, including using spy planes off China’s coast. The spy conflict with China is even more expansive than the one that played out between the Americans and the Soviets during the Cold War, said Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director.

Villagers survived Morocco’s earthquake but lost nearly everything else (Washington Post) By all accounts, life in this village in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains was simple and good, even if it was rarely easy. Families had lived for generations in the small cluster of houses surrounded by olive and nut trees, which generated a third of the village’s income. Money from sons and daughters who grew up and moved to cities provided the rest. When a 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook the region on Sept. 8, Tiniskt was decimated in a matter of seconds. More than 50 of its 330 residents died—there was no time to wash and bury them properly. Everyone knew each of the dead. But the survivors have each other. They have spent the past week in blue, government-provided tents. On a recent morning, women ladled out milk porridge from communal pots for breakfast. Men parceled out equal portions of donated goods for each family. Boys played soccer in the dirt. Toddlers nestled into adults’ laps—it didn’t matter whose. On Thursday, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI announced an aid package to help people rebuild their homes. The villagers in Tiniskt—used to relying on each other—weren’t waiting around. A local association affixed solar lights to wooden poles to illuminate the central road. A young man collected plastic to construct a shower. Starting over was a daunting task, one man said. But it their only choice.

Adventure tourism (NYT) In 2001, a British man named Tom Morgan decided to host an extreme car race. It would start in Britain and end in what he thought was the world’s most difficult destination for most people to reach: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, more than 5,500 miles away. He called it the Mongol Rally. Participants had to drive the worst car they could find, avoid any planning and have as much fun as possible. Only six cars raced the first year. But interest grew as people began to talk about the rally online. “It’s gone ballistic,” Morgan said. More than 2,000 teams are on the wait-list to join the next Mongol Rally. The growing popularity of the race is one example of interest in trips to remote destinations. Adventure travel companies and insurance providers are reporting record sales this year. Companies say their clients are skipping Bali or Santorini in favor of destinations with less tourism infrastructure. The number of visitors to Antarctica has more than tripled in the last decade. Nepal granted a record number of permits to climb Mount Everest this year. And car rental companies in Mongolia sold out of SUVs this summer.