#but ill use “r” to represent it in this case | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theculturedmarxist · 8 months

Text

This interview was conducted with a public health employee of the Hawaii State Department of Health (HIDOH), as part of the WSWS Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic. The worker chose to use the pseudonym Robert to protect their identity.

Evan Blake (EB): Thank you for participating in the Global Workers’ Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic, it’s a pleasure to interview you. Can you describe your background and training in public health before the pandemic?

Robert (R): My training in public health began more than 25 years ago, initially centered on women’s reproductive health. I earned a degree in Public Health. My focus soon broadened from just women’s health to everyone’s due to the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis.

Throughout my career, I collaborated with various organizations, including academic institutions and community health centers, to develop programs targeting most of the populations in the Bay Area. These initiatives encompassed health education, addiction support, and promoting healthy relationships, as well as offering HIV/AIDS and HCV [hepatitis C]testing, counseling, contact tracing, case management and patient navigation services. When I moved to Hawaii, I continued doing health education and working with those experiencing developmental disabilities, aging and chronic illnesses.

EB: What were your initial experiences when the pandemic began in early 2020? How would you characterize the initial pandemic response of DOH [Department of Health] and state officials more generally in Hawaii?

R: I noticed in December 2019, when there was talk of unusual illness in China’s news and social media. Seeing how it was being handled there made me concerned. There seemed to be more effort in hiding it than in handling it.

I waited for our government to mention it, especially on a more local level. I really thought that since, historically, the Hawaiian Kingdom has had effective quarantine and mitigation practices, that the current leadership would follow suit. My thinking was that we don’t have rabies in Hawaii, so obviously we know how to keep viruses out.

By February, I started contacting the DOH to hire me to help out any way possible. This looked like something that could easily be squashed if they rounded up all the HIV experts and put them to work. In early March, I put my disabled clients on quarantine. I bought a bunch of fabric and a serger and my family and I made hundreds of masks. Airborne transmission has always been known.

On March 4, 2020, Hawaii’s Democratic Governor David Ige declared a state of emergency in response to COVID-19, granting the state greater flexibility in responding to the crisis. This is officially when the problems with disappearing COVID funds began. On March 26, Ige issued a stay-at-home order, closing nonessential businesses and implementing strict travel restrictions.

I participated in the statewide Lt. Governor’s COVID town halls. Stay-at-home orders in March and May helped keep the numbers low. I waited for the health department to do something and cranked out masks. Schools had gone online at this point. It went pretty well for us. My kid’s school was really proactive about making sure the kids had access to what or who they needed, including computers.

My partner was labeled an essential worker because he was in construction. His boss took full advantage of this allowance and I wrote several of our state’s representatives who seemed actively concerned about COVID, about what to do in this situation.

By the end of May 2020, Dr. Mark Mugiishi, the chief executive of HMSA, brokered a deal with the UH Manoa nursing school to provide students to be trained as contact tracers. They were supposed to have seven different cohorts, but they stopped at three or four. Most of the trainees were never hired to do any work in the DOH and a majority of the graduates got letters stating thanks, but no thanks. The DOH only ever brought on a couple hundred contact tracers. That was after they got in trouble for not having enough and refusing help.

All the tracers and investigators started out being hired by agencies other than the DOH. This meant that we had no rights, but we had the same responsibilities as any other employee would have. We didn’t get hazard pay, union, or PTO, couldn’t participate in any of the benefits or mental health support and other programs they regularly provided and encouraged all employees to participate in. Most of us worked from 7 a.m. to late in the evening most nights. Most tracers and investigators were not from the locally COVID-trained cohorts.

A majority of the COVID hires weren’t brought in until much later in 2020 or in 2021. More were needed and available and instead of hiring tracers or case management, a call center was contracted to bottleneck the high volume of calls and cases.

State officials are notoriously reactive to any problem, emergency-related or not. The officials in charge of HIDOH when the pandemic was officially recognized were ill-fitted for their positions. Their responses were lackluster at best, with Sarah Park (state epidemiologist, COVID response leader) coming in to the UH Manoa COVID trainings to tell us that contact tracing was ineffective, as well as other disease mitigation techniques that we were being trained on, like routine screening.

When the contact tracing program started at the DOH, the National Guard was tasked with training us and facilitating most of the COVID mitigation efforts. This was after they had only received one day of training themselves. I met not one of them who had any health background whatsoever.

It’s been a performative disaster from the very start. Our DOH and state leadership were instrumental in encouraging the spread of COVID-19. State officials were slow to respond and, when they did, it was never an appropriate response. Hawaii usually sees at least 30,000 visitors per day from all over the world. They did everything in their power to keep that going.

EB: You mentioned that DOH employees were split up into different groups, including groups working with prisoners, homeless people, sports personnel, the wealthy, etc. Can you describe this in more detail and the class divide in the pandemic response in Hawaii?

R: DOH employees as a whole are siloed and do not collaborate or even have the slightest clue what the others are doing ever. It was difficult trying to get resources or info from within when trying to access data or connect people with other services. It was deeply embarrassing to me sometimes how incompetent everyone was.

For the pandemic efforts, the entire venture was militarized and we were beholden to chain of command operations as civilians. We were not allowed to speak to our higher-ups. Many were discouraged from speaking to anyone.

The contact tracing and case investigation were separated into several different focus groups headed by epidemiologists. These epidemiologists already had a disease focus and their loads were not lightened. They were added to. Most of them are not in fact actual trained epidemiologists. They have fallen into the position often through nepotistic means and meet bare minimum educational requirements. They had a lot of weird toxic drama that affected program function overall.

For example, if your team’s epidemiologist didn’t get along with a different team’s epidemiologist and you needed a file or lab result or info about an individual in their category, they may delay the info or just never give it to you. It was the worst addition to an already extreme high-stress situation.

The main group management often fell to the inexperienced National Guard, who were under the epidemiologists. Each group’s numbers fluctuated and usually had about 7–15 people, half National Guard, half civilian. The focuses were separated into schools, food service, military, healthcare and LT facilities, travel/VIP, Pacific Islander, severe/death, correctional facilities and homeless.

We had to wait for the daily cases to be handed to the epidemiologists. They would post new cases as they were processed into the system usually via an external call center, who received the cases mostly via the department’s only fax machine.

HIDOH hired an external call center to handle what was called first contact calls. This was actually one of the biggest obstructions to actual contact tracing or any real handling of infected patients in a timely manner.

First contact call center got the first reporting of the case. The report would come in via fax (another massive problem). That person’s name and number would be taken down and someone from the call center or the National Guard would call and ask screening questions about their health and symptoms, often with not much health training. They had three days for the individual to answer before they stopped calling and threw it out.

By the time investigators or tracers got the case, it was often 5–10 days old. We never did real contact tracing in the department. Real contact tracing would involve calling the case immediately to help them trace and notify anyone who may have been exposed. It would also involve timely and actual distribution of resources, including testing, food and money. This is not what happened.

I saw hundreds of people who were overqualified for resources denied or provided the offered resources too late. Some tracers did what could be considered “guerrilla tracing” because they had their contact info passed around for those who needed help and couldn’t get through to the health department when they needed to, or they just needed resources or their results.

A majority of people who were infected did not receive a call from the DOH or any help. They also didn’t receive guidance on quarantine or health at all. Internally, there was never training or updating on variants, pathology or how to ask sensitive questions and talk to the general public. There was a lot of secrecy and internal guidance that wasn’t health-oriented or generally useful. It was often self-congratulatory and bloviated.

This all increased the class divide as those in the service industry couldn’t afford to heal or get better and many lost and are losing their jobs. Those who were able to sealed themselves away. Admin stayed in their offices and told no one to enter, and there was an increase in work-from-home jobs for those with privilege or education, like myself.

EB: Hawaii has the highest per capita number of active US military personnel of any US state and is the state’s largest income producer, yet tourism is often claimed to be the state’s dominant industry. What were the roles of the military and the tourism industry in relation to the pandemic?

R: The military has largely handled their own COVID cases, navigation, and often not sharing when they have clusters that directly impact civilians.

The tourism industry has a finger in everything. They have been extremely instrumental in helping COVID spread. Tourism interests are largely against the people of Hawaii, who are more often harmed than helped by their existence. Tourism and business degrees are what steers most of the boards of every institution in this state. You will find significantly more business degrees than Kanaka (Hawaiian person) representing leadership in the islands. Tourism is why most of those whose birthright is the islands are homeless or not in the islands.

Both industries had large roles in facilitating spread. They pushed to keep everything open and often refused to cooperate with the HIDOH in COVID mitigation efforts.

EB: How have the federal pandemic funds approved under Trump and Biden been dispersed within Hawaii? Can you describe any corruption or negligence that you’ve seen in this regard?

R: I can pretty much only describe corruption and negligence regarding the usage of funds. The HIDOH let over 30 million dollars’ worth of badly needed COVID tests go to waste and then spent over $60,000 to destroy them. The schools never saw much of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds put to use in the schools for mitigation efforts. Countless non-profits denied resources to the community. A robot dog was purchased to test homeless people for COVID, over $1 million were spent on Thanksgiving turkeys in Maui. Oahu’s police department got a bunch of new toys.

The HIDOH never upgraded their information transmission capabilities. They depended on two fax machines for the entirety of the COVID efforts, meaning that all data and case info was transmitted through these machines, slowing down any work or real efforts.

The machines ran over the weekend and whoever was on the following Monday had literal piles of data to enter into the system for reported cases, hospital data, etc. The whole venture has been performative negligence. The funding was better and more resources were distributed while Trump was president. Biden is an absolute disgrace, considering he campaigned on getting rid of COVID.

Most of the funds that could have been used to improve the community and help mitigate COVID were used irresponsibly and have been absorbed by the state. Governor Ige went out of his way to pass legislation that approved shady usage of funds and halt transparency. Governor Green is even worse. The COVID response was just a preview for how Green is handling the Lahaina fires.

EB: Schools reopened with less and less mitigation measures each year, causing repeated waves of mass viral transmission. Can you describe this process and the public health measures you advocated for them to implement? What was the response of various officials to your efforts? How are you seeing the impacts on children, including with Long COVID?

R: The 2020 school response was much better than the following years. Students were provided Chromebooks and instruction from their teachers. It wasn’t implemented in a way that made it easy for many instructors and families, but it was the safest option that was provided.

The following year, the district (the state has only 1) offered something completely different.

In-person instruction or a program for those staying home, that required the parent or caregiver to spend 4–6 hours per day implementing. With no live teachers or real support offered from the school or Department of Education (DOE). The schools who offered it didn’t even know what it was or how it functioned. They just referred parents to the program’s website or phone number if they needed any assistance.

Often parents who required more support or Special Education (SPED) services for their children were ignored, punished, had CPS called on them, or were harassed by some school’s staff and admin.

In many of the poorest areas, where much of our service industry workforce resides, the schools didn’t even offer an alternative to in-person classes. I’m in one of these areas and I removed my child from her school after they refused to provide any support or programming besides that awful program they were offering which forced the parent to provide instruction without support. I already had a job. They called CPS on me. They would send staff to my door every week to sign unnecessary paperwork. They did this for two years. Officials didn’t care. The School’s Superintendent and the super for my area was never even available and never returned calls. I called weekly. I was working on so many cases connected to our schools the whole time, it was no question about removing my kid.

None of the public schools had their air systems improved or HEPA filters added. Some were using hand sanitizer on children’s desks in between classes when they were supposed to sanitize them properly. There wasn’t any solid guidance provided to the schools. Every time I got through to a school nurse or principal about a case, they begged for info on what to do and how to handle mitigations with all the sickness.

Sickness in children and school staff wasn’t being reported accurately because contact tracers were instructed not to connect cases in the classroom with each other. This kept the cluster report low. Many teachers were punished for mentioning their own infections and they were not allowed to notify students’ parents either. This devastated our community, since it has one of the highest counts of multigenerational households in the nation.

Josh Green, who is now Hawaii’s governor, was the head of the COVID Task Force. His main messaging has only ever been regarding vaccines. He spent a significant amount of time pointing the finger at many of our Pasifika communities in regard to their vaccine hesitancy instead of working with them to mitigate COVID in other ways.

When the 2021–22 school year started, the district was ill-prepared and kids weren’t approved for vaccines yet. The school’s superintendent, Christina Kishimoto, was completely useless at getting any mitigations in the schools at all. She ignored the entire community, including so many teachers and parents who tried to keep or make the schools, or at least education, safe and accessible to all.

Senator Brian Schatz and others who had been previously notified about in-school spread and the actual numbers present instead of the falsely low reported ones, maintained the script that children needed to learn in-person. Even after in-person learning saw children being shoved together in cafeterias all day without proper instruction due to sick staff, those in charge maintained that the children needed to be in schools. This was supposedly for their mental health and education, which had never been prioritized previously.

Hawaii has had a major deficit in adequate and accessible education, as well as mental health care providers and services, for a very long time. Additionally, we don’t have school nurses in each school like many contiguous states offer. Many of our schools share a nurse and may not have an area for children to be sick or wait for someone to get them from school.

In-school cases often fell to vice principals and other staff. By the 2022–23 school year, schools had removed any guidance that was useful. They never upgraded or improved the air systems. Many of our schools have had problems with lack of proper air conditioning for a long time before the pandemic. The pandemic just made it worse.

There was a program created at the start of the 2022–23 school year to make the DOH, DOE and CDCF work together to improve the conditions in the schools. The HIDOE refused to meet or participate in any improvements to their school’s systems, provide resources such as testing, PPE or pandemic guidance.

Our state leadership has met with many COVID experts, DOH employees and medical staff who have told them what is happening in their districts, classrooms, hospitals and the community throughout the official pandemic and even now. They all have given lip-service and often have reacted appropriately in those meetings but nothing ever comes of it.

At first, children were just getting cold-like symptoms like everyone else. Those who had existing health issues usually suffered more. Not many children’s cases were followed past the initial call. Over time, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) became a focus as the children’s symptoms didn’t always go away.

Since Omicron emerged in November 2021, kids have had an increase in seizures and a lot of problems with focus and memory. My child has had several friends die from COVID. Long COVID in kids is terrifying, and the impact is already noticeable. Mine just stated that what everyone needs to know is that it’s harder for kids to learn now. She notices so much brain damage in her peers already. Before she got COVID, it was easier for her to process information. Things take much longer now.

To be honest, I’ve rarely seen an actual full recovery. People move benchmarks and brain damage is extremely hard to self-identify. COVID is long and lasting. Nearly every infection shows damage whether it’s noticed or not. For those who don’t have immediate consequences, it’s playing the long game.

EB: How else are you seeing the ongoing impacts of the pandemic associated with COVID-19 infection, including Long COVID?

R: I noticed very early on that regardless of how mild the cases were, there were often residual issues with the person’s ability to handle and process information. The one symptom that should be tracked more than temperature is cognitive ability—confusion, disorientation, odd and unusual thoughts and behaviors. The ongoing impact of any COVID infection is a significant amount of unchecked and untracked brain damage. It’s very difficult to self-diagnose and most of our medical providers are still unaware of COVID and how it presents.

Getting infected with COVID can reduce the immune system’s ability to function. Each reinfection can reduce immune function even more, inviting opportunistic infections to eventually kill us. This is how HIV functions, but at least there is treatment for that. There’s no treatment for Long COVID and there’s even less treatment or care for those under 12 years old. The impact I see right now is immense. Children and young adults are exhibiting Alzheimer’s and dementia-like symptoms, and there are huge increases of cancer, diabetes and heart problems at the population level.

EB: What have been your experiences advocating for Long COVID patients, and what are some of your greatest concerns with the “mass disabling event” of Long COVID associated with the pandemic? What do doctors know or not know, and what do you think needs to be done to address this?

R: While documenting cases in 2020, some had symptoms that just wouldn’t resolve. A few threatened to commit suicide and were in constant and severe pain. Many of their doctors didn’t believe them. I would contact their doctors and explain what Long COVID was. I would send them studies if they requested and would tell them what labs or referrals to order for their patients.

Many doctors were receptive at first. Some would gaslight the patients, saying that they were experiencing anxiety and not their actual ongoing COVID symptoms. I made an extra effort to contact those ones because they were making the patients worse and confused. I spent hundreds of hours on social media spaces giving talks about COVID, Long COVID and what I was seeing. Other Long COVID sufferers and advocates would join.

None of this data was being collected or distributed by our DOH, regardless of how the variants mutated or the community was being impacted. Any attempts to send information up the chain of command to the top were ignored and sometimes punished.

Over time, the doctors I was working with were getting Long COVID themselves. It led to a significant reduction in care for their patients. Some would brush the issue off because they had it and they were working, which they thought meant they were fine.

Doctors need to have proper information and guidance. Without it, many people are being told COVID isn’t really a problem. They trust their doctors to know about COVID. Their doctors are unknowingly feeding them to the fire. Vaccines are only one layer of a many-layered solution, and at this point vaccines aren’t very effective at preventing infection as the virus continues to rapidly mutate and new variants continue to evolve.

In terms of public health as a whole, the CDC is looked at as the main guidance for all these institutions. They need to be putting out clear messaging about COVID being airborne, the fact that an infection commonly lasts anywhere from 14–20 days, each reinfection can reduce immune function, and COVID is a vascular disaster that can wreck any and all organs of the body. These are things that scientists have known since 2020. There is absolutely no reason Drs. Rochelle Walensky and Anthony Fauci didn’t know the correct protocols for handling this pandemic. They both have HIV backgrounds.

My greatest concern about this mass disabling event is that I live in Hawaii. Disabled people were hidden, ignored and underserved here before the pandemic. It was nearly impossible to find mental and behavioral health services and they were often insufficient at best.

When everyone keeps getting reinfected, they will not be able to function. There’s low availability for services now and it’s already getting pretty noticeable. My friends working in the hospital are reporting incredibly low staff numbers and extreme burnout. We only had nine ambulances in circulation a couple weeks ago due to callouts.

Suicides, mental hospital stays and inability to function are becoming increasingly common and we’re just getting started. Since the pandemic began, there’s been an increase in car and plane accidents, heart attacks, diabetes, cancers, previously rare disorders and sudden deaths. Currently, COVID is listed as the third leading cause for death in the US, but if data were properly collected, COVID would be number one.

I took someone to the doctor for a head wound to be stitched and the doctor didn’t even mention concussion protocol. He said strange things that hadn’t been relevant regarding COVID since 2021. He behaved odd and childlike.

This mass disabling event is largely invisible. Many cannot self-diagnose the brain damage that a significant percentage of infections cause to some degree. It changes moods, thoughts, function, and can make people confused or angry.

My biggest concern is that with mass infection and reinfection, everyone is getting their brains melted. Who will take care of anyone when no one is left healthy and functional? Who will grow our food, participate in society, or even be able to get out of bed after we’ve all had multiple infections? Who will be left?

EB: Those are critical points, and concerns that should be more widely shared. The propaganda of the corporate media and political establishment has had a real impact, and prevented masses of people from understanding the dangers of COVID-19 and Long COVID.

Changing topics somewhat, when we spoke before you said that “Lahaina is an active crime scene, just like the COVID situation here is also an active crime scene.” Can you elaborate more on this and the criminal negligence that you believe caused this catastrophic fire? What other connections do you see between this fire and the COVID-19 pandemic?

R: Just the fact that there’s such a focus from those in charge on reopening and getting back to work tells me everything I need to know. The community just experienced a life-altering trauma and instead of really taking care of them and helping them get situated and time and resources to heal, it’s full-steam ahead. Open up, get back to work, go to school. Don’t worry about how you’re going to pay that mortgage on the burn pile where you used to live.

Just like with the COVID pandemic, the Emergency Management Agency lead didn’t have experience. They didn’t sound any alarm, and clearly weren’t well versed on emergency response protocols, otherwise they would have correctly used the emergency alarm system. Instead, Herman Andaya reasoned with everyone about why he didn’t think they were necessary.

For COVID, Josh Green facilitated thousands of tourists freely and consistently infecting our community with almost no guidance other than to get vaccinated. He gaslit us for years from his whiteboard and scrubs. He got even worse after he got COVID. The brain damage is real.

Why didn’t Maui sound the emergency system that is used for emergencies including wildfires? Why didn’t HIDOH enact their public health police powers to protect the community from COVID? Why do they both consistently report false numbers? Why do they both tell the community about resources that exist, but in reality are not actually available? Why is the community being forced to bear the brunt of the outcome of both disasters alone? Why does our leadership refuse to work with the community to solve either issue?

I know how greedy and careless this government is first-hand. Especially when local people are involved. Both disasters have resulted in very high losses to our Filipino and Pasifika communities.

How are we the only state without a fire marshal? Why is there never anyone held accountable? How do all these incredibly incompetent folks keep getting replaced by more incompetence? Nepotism. It has led to incredible incompetence and I have to assume it’s why there’s no accountability or oversight anywhere or for anything.

EB: Since the beginning of the pandemic, the WSWS has advocated for the full deployment of all available public health measures to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 throughout the world. Multiple countries proved that such a Zero-COVID strategy was possible, and we now know even more about viral transmission.

We have stressed that the fundamental reason this global elimination strategy has not been implemented is due to the division of the world into rival nation-states and the refusal of the capitalist ruling elites to accept any impingement on their ability to exploit workers and generate profits. What are your thoughts on this, and do you agree that we need to fight for a global elimination strategy?

R: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has exposed the challenges associated with the division of the world into nation-states, each pursuing its own approach to pandemic management. It’s been an absolute disaster.

When the virus first hit and people began seeing consequences and acting accordingly, I thought we had a chance at stopping the virus. Then the countries with more behaved greedily. They hoarded and wasted resources in the face of the countries who couldn’t get access to resources from the global market.

We are all in this together and no one is getting off this rock alive. Working together is the only way to get rid of this virus and all the others that have been popping up in the past few years.

Unfortunately, such an approach seeks to prioritize the well-being of individuals and communities over economic interests as Cuba has done. They developed their own COVID-19 vaccines. They consistently have the lowest reported COVID cases and deaths globally. Often close to zero. Their vaccines work much better than ours have been.

This reflects true commitment to public health and an ability to leverage existing medical and scientific infrastructure to respond to the pandemic independently.

EB: Thank you for this invaluable interview and contribution to the Global Workers’ Inquest.

R: Thank you.

#covid 19 #hawaii #long covid #covid response #covid pandemic #class war #brain damage #Rochelle Walensky #Anthony Fauci

13 notes · View notes

oldfacesnewdawnoffical · 1 year

Note

Ok spotty my friend…tell me the ranks! I need to know what they are what are weavers what are scouts?

Y’know what? Yes, fuck it, RANK MASTERPOST TIME!

•─────⋅ᓚᘏᗢ⋅─────•

Universal Fealty Positions:

Orator: The guiding authority of their faction, acting as the representative and head of their cats; they have the final choice on every faction matter, and are tasked with ensuring that their community and culture are thriving, alongside with naming new wards.

Liaison: The aide who operates as the faction’s primary diplomat (ensuring that ties across the alliance stay stable, and mediate peace amongst their own cats) and an emergency military commander (ensuring that their cats are well-trained in case of threat).

Allay(s): The healer(s) of the faction who tend to the general health - both mental and physical - of all the cats under their care.

Augur: The sole force of primary, bold magic allowed within the faction, tasked with observing their surroundings to receive and interpret signs from their gods, that being primarily of divine approval or disapproval of various proposed actions.

Supporters: Fully-named members of their faction. These are cats who have decided not to pursue a path beyond supporter, or are deciding what they would like to do beyond that point. In that meantime, they offer support to the other roles of their faction, going wherever they are needed.

Guardians: Those who look after and care for the young of the faction (primarily unweaned and ill wards) and typically also take the baseline upkeep of the camp under their care.

The Fenland’s Specific Positions:

Day-Scouts: Those who primarily operate during the hours of daylight, aiding in checking hunting traps, performing routine sweeps of more dangerous sections of the territory, and the like.

Groundskeepers: Those who train specifically to overlook and protect the camp, and fight off any potential aggressors who threaten their home, while also ensuring that the camp stays clean, safe, well-decorated and kept up with.

Legionnaires: Those who train specifically in advanced stealth and combat practices, alongside how to navigate the trickier portions of their territory safely, crafting maps both mental and physical through the swamps.

Trappers: Those who weave elaborate traps to set in the marsh, while also acting as the faction’s primary hunters, able to lie still for long stretches of time to coax prey closer to their claws or traps.

Observers: Those who watch at their borders, keeping track of who (or what) has passed by, honing their bodies to stay completely still for hours on end; those who pass by quickly grow uneasy due to the feeling as though they are being watched.

The Moorswept’s Specific Positions:

Tunnelers: Those who take up meticulous training to learn how to dig out, keep up with, and navigate the elaborate system of tunnels dug out beneath the moors.

Moor-Runners: Those who learn to race across the moors in high-speed pursuit of ground birds, rabbits, and other prey of that sort; trained up solely in speed and hunting.

Keepers: Those who ensure that the two claimed camps are kept up with, clean, and safe, and generally watch over and ensure the health of the kept herds of livestock.

Strategists: Those who excel in strategy and planning- whether it be in battle, hunts, patrols, or life in general.

Couriers: Those who are especially swift and with good memory; used most often to send immediate news between the camps and various outlook points.

The Riverward’s Specific Positions:

Divers: Those who dive into the river’s depths for prey and trinkets, able to hold their breath for extended periods of time and battle against rough currents.

Weavers: Those who are able to navigate the sparse land of their territory to hunt, skimming the surface of the water through traps or other alternative means of fishing.

Minstrels: Those who can string together words as smooth as the rivers at dawn, commonly charming and often found working right alongside the historians to spice up the fealty’s past with music and showmanship.

Observers: Those who train specifically to watch the skies and map out the weather patterns, looking for the telltale signs for storms and in case of flooding; also keep an eye on the population of the river to ensure that overhunting doesn’t occur.

Artisans: Those who tend to and decorate the camp alongside grave and celebration sites, ensuring that everything is clean, pretty, and, above all, safe.

The Woodruff’s Specific Positions:

Architects: Those who take up the task of building, and supervising the building of dens, defenses, etc; they are also responsible for the general upkeep, cleanliness, and decoration of the camp as a whole.

Convoys: Those who typically take up guard duties, who must be alert at all times during their shifts; less traditional “guards” and more “watchmen” - they keep tabs on the comings and goings of their faction members, and sound the alarm should anything threatening arise.

Tacticians: Those who train religiously and excel in the art of combat, studying strategy, battle moves, and the weak points of various predators and foes; they will always make up the front lines of battle.

Pursuers: Those who train specifically (sometimes exclusively) in the art of the hunt; these cats are the most skilled hunters, with notably sharp senses and quick reflexes, and will always make up the secondary lines of battle.

Scouts: Those who are exceptionally fast, usually the first to be out in the mornings to scout out hunting spots and potential dangers early-on within the territory; commonly those who patrol most often, and primarily are found at the back lines of battles in case they need to run for reinforcements or to update the camp.

#old faces new dawn #ask #flippythegodzilla #warrior cats rewrite #warriors rewrite #important lore alert #the woodruff faction #the fenland faction #the riverward faction #the moorswept faction #warriors au #warrior cats au #warriors #warrior cats

27 notes · View notes

dullahandyke · 5 months

Text

final part of trial 4 liveblog ^_^ finished it tonight yay. ill probs start on case 5 tomorrow but i wont finish it before going back to college 4 the week

ok took another break now we're back! not that it makes a difference to you cunts lol

i do enjoy how the text scrawl sfx are basically the same as ever. so cahrming

also enjoying the polyphony of the music again... mfw melodies

i can also vividly imagine patricia beat's instagram and it's horrific. homemeade meals for her hubby and god bless our boys in blye

ok new theory, stabing did happen on garrideb side of the road, green picked up a brning book and the knife fell on her

NOT PAT PULLING THE MISOGYNY CARD

'there's no one straighter than my husband' that wasn't being disputed, patsy

... the judge says 'good golly'? surely it's 'goodness gracious', golly is So fuckin american

i keep waiting for roly to have a breakdown sprite and he never does. cross between dissatisfying and novel

ah there he goes

WE'RE LETTING ROLY GET AWAY WITH THIS???? nah fuck that i hate cops and i hate romance and i hate cops x2

god i wish we weren't dealing w joan garrideb. the fat jokes r lethal. bring back plum kitaki if u needed a fat lady capable of murder. i miss the kitakis

can we get john a chair or something???

i understand why, but the lack of period-typical misogyny is v glaring. i feel ike something could have been done w joan's husband taking the stand with her + having him be seen as the reliable man. wouldn't have said anything but they made patsy play the misogyny card earlier in a way u were supposed to think ridiculous when this is what, mary poppins time? sufragette movement hasn't resolved (or maybe even started) idk mary poppins is my sole reference for british history

hate to agree w bvz but 'hell on earth' is right

the mythical invention of fingerprints... fingerprints are the fingerpints of the fingers <3

... is the ass of garrideb's housecoat burned off???? srsly can we get him a chair

olive green is a lesser known waifu she's cute

not garrideb calling his wife old bean :sob:

omg natsume hi it's been a minute

if u gave natsume a tumblr i think he'd thrive. one third mediaposting one third 'guys i'm scared' one third public breakdown and one thrid poetry. he's so good at tumblring that he unlocks another third

amazed by the fact that we've not had any multi-day trials yet. i see what ppl say abt the pacing

SHOLMES!!!

don't guilt natsume for running, sholmes, cant u see hes the most ancious man in thr world?

YES SUSATO PROTECT HIM... no cops at pride just susato and her tosses

wait hold on i just remembered that shamspeare showed up this case. why tf did shamspeare show up

'what it lacks in windows, it more than makes up for with a floor, a ceiling, AND walls' natsume...

wait the evil spirit that suffocates him in his sleep is the cat innit

finished this case on its canon date! pog

sholmes without the coat... he's practically shirtless

IRIIIIIIIS HI AGAIN!!!! :3

loved it when ryuu said 'cant wait to see what The Great Ace Attorney Adventures are awaiting us;

if sholmes were a butch lesbian i would be bewitched body and soul

listening to the music section n the alternative mesage displays r rlly cool. the unused themes also . susatos unused theme fucks

also i feel the need to point out that the ace attorney sfx head is named 'sando'. ace attorney name

istg asougi's va is familiar... future me go look it up

^ ETA HES FUCKING NOZAKI ? FROM HIT ANIME GEKKOU SHOUJO NOZAKI KUN? my god. autism handshake between nozaki and asougi

now i'm in the gallery... sholmes's crest represents him (gear) protecting iris (flower)? wahhhhhhh

the way nuri describes asougi's hachimaki like 'the winds of change are sure to be blowing whereever he is' compared to how foggy and unmoving the london air is... game 2 moment

#the gaelic athletic attorney

2 notes · View notes

rotationalsymmetry · 9 months

Text

Take 2 because the last post is too long as it is. I think I should take a moment to explain why you won’t see me going on about how the Dems are our only hope or whatever.

Walk a mile in my shoes. It’s 2000. I’m too young to vote. My state goes unambiguously blue, but Florida is too close to call. The Republicans put a lot of pressure on Gore to not look like a sore loser and concede already. Eventually Bush gets installed or whatever as President, having won Florida by a few hundred votes, maybe. Maybe not. A full recount never happened.

A year later 9/11 happens and Bush gets to be a war president and also uses the surge in national unity and international sympathy to make up lies about Iraq having “weapons of mass destruction” and goes and invades them too, because why not, something presumably Gore wouldn’t have done. Also, the idea of climate change gets back burnered in US politics, since Gore ran heavily on it and he lost so apparently that means it’s not a viable political issue or something. Idk. Point is, terrible outcome.

Also, we got “this is clearly the fault of anyone who might have voted Democrat and chose not to.” “Oh you mean centrist voters or independents?” “No I mean Nader voters” ok then.

A well established pattern of Democrats presenting “ohhh I can’t tell whether to vote D or R” as a legitimate dilemma that must be catered to and compromised over, but “ooh I don’t know Dems aren’t left enough for me” as treason and betrayal and not something that should ever under any circumstances be catered to or negotiated with.

This makes sense if you understand political parties as primarily representing the corporate interests that fund them. Most of those corporate interests donate to both parties and are fine with either one winning. They do not donate to the Green Party and are not ok with them winning.

It makes no sense from a believing in democratic principles perspective. Or in a “the republicans are our mortal enemies” perspective tbh.

OK. Time goes by and eventually we get Obama and the Affordable Care Act which is pretty cool, but not withdrawal from Afghanistan or Iraq. And of course not a general change in how the US relates to the rest of the world. Or, eg, how police and prisons are run. Hence the need for the Black Lives Matter movement, which in case anyone forgot started in the early 2010’s.

Then we get the utterly disastrous and terrifying 2016 election, where this fringe candidate nobody could possibly take seriously somehow, in spite of being a veritable scandle magnet and clearly not having an ounce of integrity anywhere in his person, somehow won not only the Republican nomination but also the general election. It could have been worse, I guess? I for one was afraid we’d get World War III. An attempted coup is a pretty awful outcome, well outside what anyone would normally expect a bad election outcome resulting in, but not quite that bad.

Point is, while like everyone else I thought Clinton was almost certainly going to win, I could see things would be Bad and potentially superlatively what the hell how is this even possible Bad if she didn’t, and while normally I’d be out there throwing in my labor like I did with Kerry in 2004 (I didn’t particularly like Kerry and I didn’t vote for Kerry, I voted for Kucinich, but I did work for his campaign. And then, between an abundance of news network caution and an abundance of “don’t be a sore loserman” caution, Kerry conceded before the news station I was watching (msnbc maybe?) called Ohio, which I will never forgive him for btw) I was in 2016 recently dealing with a new debilitating chronic illness and that wasn’t going to happen, so instead I talked to my then-boyfriend now-husband who was the one of us who actually had money, and we made a substantial-for-us donation to the Clinton campaign.

This is significant.

No, I need to give more context. I supported Kerry (well, I worked for his campaign) because he wasn’t Bush. While I did actively like a lot of things Obama was talking about while he was campaigning, a large part of why I voted for him was because, I don’t actually remember who was running against him in 2008, but whoever it was, I didn’t want them to be President. And so on. In fact for years and years, multiple election cycles, the main selling point for the Dems is that they’re not the Republicans. Sometimes it’s bombing other countries, more often it’s about Roe v Wade or something else domestic, but for multiple election cycles the Democrats’ primary selling point is that the Republicans are just awful and the way to not get a Republican in office is to get a Democrat in office instead, you don’t have to actively like them you just have to hate the other side more. This isn’t an incidental selling point, it’s their main selling point.

It’s actually such a central point that it’s often the main thing talked about in the primaries, not whether you like a more moderate candidate but whether that candidate can beat the other side. I don’t even know why moderate Democratic voters like moderate Democratic politicians, beyond them being “more electable”.

And I’ve contributed to this too. I have in so many words told the Democratic Party that the main thing I look for in their candidates is that they’re not Republican (or not a specific Republican, eg not Trump), which btw not going to do that any more but enough other people will that I don’t expect that to matter.

Later on I found this out. That the Clinton campaign gave money to the Trump campaign in the primaries because they figured Trump would be easier to beat. That the Dems are continuing to fund more extreme candidates in the primaries in order to have more extreme and presumably (???) more easily defeated candidates in the general election.

Do you see that? Do you see what’s going on there?

People vote Dem because they’re afraid of Republicans, especially the more extreme Republicans.

And the Dems are happy to take the money you and I and your friends gave them, money you gave them precisely because you’re afraid of the Trumps and the DeSantises, and giving that money to the political campaigns of the Trumps and DeSantises to make sure that when the general election hits, you’re maximally terrified and willing to give them even more.

And if you didn’t give them enough, I guess you get a DeSantis.

if the Democrats cared about what we cared about, they would never be willing to voluntarily increase their odds of running against a Trump or a DeSantis in the general election, even if they meant a higher risk of losing to a more moderate Republican (and I’m not even convinced it does mean that, this doesn’t actually seem like a strategy that wins elections.) either way, these people are not on our side. They are holding us hostage.

You might find ways to negotiate with someone holding you hostage, you might look for ways to pacify them. But you shouldn’t believe they are on your side.

When I was campaigning for (Green Party candidate) Matt Gonzales, the Democratic Party pissed my mom off — someone who’s much more moderate than I am and was never going to vote for Gonzales — by campaigning exceptionally hard against him, with national party funds. Dems like to talk as though radicals are their natural constituency. That of course leftists should vote Democrat! But if someone who’s actually leftist or anything close to it runs, the Democrats will turn on them at least as strongly as they turn on Republican candidates, if not more so. Probably more so. Good luck getting Democratic funding for your primary campaign if you’re a third party candidate. Democrats — the actual politicians anyways — see leftist third parties as a much greater threat than the Republicans.

Because. They. Don’t. Represent. Us.

And I don’t even mean they don’t represent us radicals. They don’t represent the people who vote for them. They represent the organizations that contribute to their campaign chest. And ordinary people do not contribute enough for us to buy their positions.

#This is us centric but I’d guess a lot of it is still applicable in other countries if you change the names around #If not well it does apply to the us

4 notes · View notes

paperanddice · 8 months

Text

The last two currently known daemons, and some of the more striking and powerful ones.

Purrodaemons are creatures of war, seeking to spark and prolong large scale conflict through trickery or direct action as needed. They are exceptional tacticians, able to devise strategies that will win battles most effectively, but often instead choose ones that will maximize destruction to both sides to ensure the most death possible. They look like a vulture-headed giant, standing between 11 and 13 feet tall typically, and always have a number of weapons impaled within their own bodies. These weapons are carefully chosen, only being those the purrodaemon takes pride in, often stolen in battle from powerful enemies. They will usually choose one as their favorite to use in battle, and the others will be telekinetically hurled at enemies outside of their reach.

Thanadaemons represent the true inevitability of death. None can truly live forever, as old age will eventually take any who do not manage to bypass it with undeath or other powerful magic or transformations, but even in such cases death follows close to claim its due. Thanadaemons stalk those at the end of their lives, ready to claim the soul and tempt it to join the daemonic forces. Between these hunts they ply the waters, piloting strange skiffs that can bypass the barriers between the world and the Abyss. If you want to travel to that demonic realm for some reason, a thanadaemon will be happy to oblige for a reasonable price. Though be careful, as the price may be renegotiated on the water, and exiting the skiff wherever the thanadaemon has paused is ill advised. Thanadaemons look like a cloaked, horned skeleton, each carrying an ornate staff that functions as a boat oar for their skiff.

Inspired by the Pathfinder 1e Bestiary 2. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!

Purrodaemon Large 10th level wrecker [demon] Initiative: +15 Body Weapon +17 vs. AC (2 attacks) - 70 damage. Natural Even Hit: The target also takes 20 ongoing damage. R: Hurl Weapon +15 vs. AC (one nearby or far away enemy) - 70 damage. Hit or miss, the purrodaemon expends one sheathed weapon Natural Even Hit or Miss: The purrodaemon can make a second hurl weapon attack as a free action as it recalls the weapon to itself, regaining the sheathed weapon. Body Sheath: The purrodaemon can sheath weapons in its own body without harming itself. It starts a battle with 8 sheathed weapons, and can hold a maximum of 10. A sheathed weapon can be stolen by spending an action to make a DC 30 skill check. [Special Trigger] Twist the Blade +15 vs. PD - The triggering attack misses and has no effect against the purrodaemon, and the target’s weapon is sheathed in the purrodaemon’s body. The purrodaemon can’t use this attack unless it has fewer than 10 sheathed weapons. Limited Use: 1/round, as an interrupt action when an enemy makes a melee weapon attack against the purrodaemon and rolls a natural odd attack roll. Fear Aura: Enemies engaged with the purrodaemon who are below 72 hit points are dazed and can’t use the escalation die. Flight. Resist Acid 18+. AC 25 PD 23 MD 22 HP 400

Thanadaemon Double-strength 7th level spoiler [demon] Initiative: +10 Oar +13 vs. AC - 40 damage. Natural 14+: The target also takes 15 ongoing negative energy damage. Natural 18+: The target is weakened as long as it’s taking the ongoing negative energy damage. R: Ray of Death +13 vs. PD (one nearby enemy or far away enemy at -2 atk) - 20 ongoing negative energy damage. Natural Even Hit: The target is vulnerable to all damage while taking the ongoing damage. C: Focus Gaze +13 vs. MD (one nearby enemy) - The target is dazed and can’t add the escalation die to its attacks until the start of the thanadaemon’s next turn. Quick Use: 1/round, as a quick action. Crush Soul Gem: 1/battle as a quick action the thanadaemon can crush a soul gem (see cacodaemon), and instead of the normal effect it regains 15 hit points at the start of each of its turns for the rest of the battle. Dimension Door: 1/turn, as a move action, the thanadaemon can teleport to a nearby location it can see. Fear Aura: Enemies engaged with the thanadaemon who are below 36 hit points are dazed and can’t use the escalation die. Flight. Resist Acid and Negative Energy 18+. AC 21 PD 20 MD 20 HP 190

#13th age #homebrew #my homebrew #monster #demon #13th age level 7 #13th age level 10 #long post

2 notes · View notes

ambrosialwitch · 2 years

Text

Hey!

I might delete or update this later, but as I've reblogged a lot of content from my old account by now and feel I've imported the kind of aesthetic I want for this one, I thought I'd briefly introduce myself to peeps in the relevant tags.

So, hi, I'm Aelia! 💕

I'm

a millennial in her 30s

using she/her pronouns

living with my wife, our cats and 6 cockatiels

a witch

a hellenist/follower of hellenismos/hellenic polytheist

healing

My main focus in hellenism is definitely Aphrodite, and she also heavily influences my life as a whole. Additionally I worship Hermes and Hades "a bit more" than the other Gods. However, I do worship and pray to (more or less) all the Gods, actively mostly to the Olympians and a few minor deities; for some that includes more elaborate rituals or crafting offerings, for others it might only be devoting a small and short activity to them.

Concerning witchcraft, I mostly do spells to help with feeling good, whatever form that might take. I like glamour magic a lot, but workings for feeling more calm/peaceful/pretty/balanced/strong/lively/andwhatnot are up there, too. My specialty are probably deity candles and ritual oils, as well as perfumes and basically anything that has to do with fragrance.

Aside from that, there'll also be other things on the blog, including but not limited to

photography, mostly aesthetic nature photos, flowers, the sea and rain, and cozy or bright inside photos, especially with beds and baths

occasionally fandom-related content, mainly les misérables, star trek and community

animal content

food & especially coffee photography

art

words - which contains poetry and beautiful text posts, book quotes, aphorisms etc.

things I consider funny. Please bear with me, I like puns. A lot.

funny or comforting things I expect to be helpful for me on bad days

occasionally mental health stuff, feminism, lgbtqia, environmental issues etc.

posts I relate to or feel represented by (I tag them as same and/or spencer if you're curious)

Because I'm used to it from older blogs, I tag

food or food //

underwater and drowing

smoking //

alcohol //

mental illness (usually in posts tagged with mental health as well)

insects

and I will always tag sensitive topics like child abuse, se*ual assault, r*pe, animal abuse and so on with the respective uncensored word

as potential triggers. If you need me to tag anything for you, don't hesitate to tell me!

If you're still reading, thanks a lot! In case you want to do me a favor, please tag clowns for me.

And I think that's it for now?? If you have any questions, feel free to send asks ♥

#introductory post #witchblr #hellenic polytheism #hellenism #hellenismos #witchcraft #hellenic witch #hellenic polytheist #hellenist #witch community #witch life #meet the witch #personal #personal post #introduction #intro post #blog intro

2 notes · View notes

santilozart · 15 days

Text

@onliveezine 🎧Live Magazine CEO //

Mind, emotional, spiritual and physical Self-awareness spot #OnliveEzine

( CSR ) @unicef_colombia @partidomira @idmjioficial

Be the change you want to see in the planet

🤍Christ, U,🌱then society

All media: https://linktr.ee/santilozada

Interactive Magazine Project and music stream -> https://www.twitch.tv/santiloz_art

Join my writing expressing my thoughts, process which helps me defeat mental-emotional illness which still I’m trough my own healing process. Personal thoughts and opinions, aiming to improve collective common goals

🪽🤍

|“This is more real than what you have been able to perceive so far… then, let it be-at… ✨🫂🪽”

(Personal blog spot: My writings do not represent any collectivity neither institution or people, these are just my personal perspective and expressions to build a better world since my singularity.

Feel free to

@onliveezine 🎧Live Magazine CEO //

Mind, emotional, spiritual and physical Self-awareness spot #OnliveEzine

( CSR ) @unicef_colombia // Let´s the wounded blue Duvaly Dragon of East be awaken his burning Red Dragon flame side as China, to enhance and protect the Lighting Blue Pegasus of West, who finally awoke, both this time joining efforts to destroy Black Dragon of death itself, the history party popper. Letting then both protecting the truth of celestial heaven´s on earth which is protecting the true wife of heaven´s on earth, whose name is true Stright love of freedom, free love, the white lighting bride of heaven´s as the wife of the lighting Pegasus, descendant in spirit and blood genetics of the royal family without genealogy, founders of the planet and existence. By protecting love planet is set free eternally this time from death chains, eternally, being then matter in coexistence with heaven´s realm eternally, open now to everyone, by casting death eternally outside of world existence, casted away eternally on to the her eternal void created, for her along with Ivan and their blind stubborn followers who rather choose death side after reading and

understanding the lighting heaven´s truth of this written. For the rest of beings, humanity, eternity is giving, reborn as human has always been real, for those who were not captive on the hell she created through out history, to rule by fear, the weakness on humanity, not brave enough to face her and theirs black corrupted void defenders of death and corruption rather than light and life of heaven´s. Now that hell place, is only reserved for them after not acknowledging all this, or her only in the best of cases, if the rest snap out of their ignorance Eternal lighting killer of main demon sources on earth existence: killer of death itself, the Black Dragon who twisted Davalyn (Goku, on the imaginary hyperawareness collective mindset brought on millennial people as a remembrance strategy from the mighty royal family on heaven´s, to teach humanity how to fight and stand up even on the toughness situations, to fight and stand up even on their body vulnerability as material corpus, in this physical planet, as link to awakening his path of resilience, as necessary for higher soul development, trough international love awakening which is the true

Heaven´s Church, stairs of heaven´s where the father eternally now plants its feet's on it, as it is written, today anyone be welcome to rise and join the death killer´s army across contexts across spirit, rational, emotional, physical capabilities and quirks each one of you have awaken this final time, where death is finally cast away, from earth, the garden of heaven´s towards building even, a material Eden paradise in coexistence with heaven´s spiritual royal realm, kept safe, now open for each person brave enough to face the truth and destroy the lie, the black light on heaven´s to make us eternal and free, as it is written to be eternally done this time, once and for eternity, to build in the eternal presence acknowledgement in coexistence with the celestial realm, build in spirit and true now open for the true seekers, across existence, where the only destruction need, is the one brought to the main source of it, in the royal family name and father´s name, and true Christ in heaven´s, eternal acknowledge may it be) Infinity Alpha killer of her infinite omega lie, her/his argument to justify the establishment of death, as part of life cycle.... the biggest lie of existence, on a spiritual level, cause light cannot be death, energy always flows and is eternal, as soon the light realizes it. Inferno was created by her trough out conditioning limiting beliefs across her/his

reincarnation trough out history, to make people ruled under the concept of fear, and ignorance, but the royal family and I are tired of her shit, so now we are here to spread the lighting true, and kill her incoherence in one blogging blow... all of you , the true ones, acknowledge and lets build and enhance paradise on earth, to prove how wrong she is... and make her be the embarrassment of the nations ... Let me tell you the story on how I killed the devil, the true devil, the black dragon of void and darkness, preacher of death its self as his corrupted path of twisted salvation offered to humanity, who took the place of the father, mother on hearth, who corrupted and conditionate the holy ghost of heaven´s to set free people who she/he itself, made slave and corrupt, cursed in first place, as the bringer of down, the death light of heaven, who twisted humanities mind to take my father´s name to preach the gospel of doom, as the aberrant black light of heaven and death bringer. Being instead the true God and Christ, creator of light, light itself, being then light equal to life, why then she used my father´s name to preach his light as the destroyer light that ¨causes¨ death on this planet? to justify the incoherence of her twisted knowledge? nowadays born as Maria Luisa de Moreno Piraquive, her corrupted demigod son of corruption Ivan Moreno Piraquive, bringer of doom on knowledge level, and the rest of their acolytes of black light angels, working as a twisted army that works to serve her as god, instead of the father and his son, Christ themselves who rules spiritual this planet since the beginning till eternity, under who´s wright are all of them and their followers taking the name of heaven´s royal family to preach a gospel based on justify their goddess spiritual eternity, by teaching the doctrine to make their followers feel the right to then, submit and kill spiritualty the rest of the planet so they, achieve, eternity? Isn´t then making death Parth of the life cycle an incoherence under the light and love of heaven´s? Don´t then after reading all this written, them leave their corrupted subconscious if indeed loved the invisible spiritual Father and Christ on heaven, rather than choosing her goddess due the cowardly of acknowledging the truth, and instead, rising loyalty and spiritual arms to leave her a start praising and serving God in spirit and true, who never needed any government either king or queen to

represent him and his mighty lighting, are they corrupted enough not to realizing how the mess historic mess begins once on the A.T the weak people asked for a King to lead them and represent them amongst the nations, a material king, and that today, they are doing the same with Maria Luisa, by defending and rising her as her cross and goddess, rather than letting them be ruled by Christ and father and mother, directly ruling earth from heaven´s in a spiritual way? Wake up from the corruption stupidity of death conditioning by her, on previous light, today, to rise and even make the higher stars of

heaven, fall into her praise, as the spiritual Babylon of the nations, fake goddess, who took father´s and son´s name, to rise today as the queen of darkness itself, bringer of doom to the multiverse and colors, and love individuality colors and quirks of humanity, who rather fight with a few gifts rather than acknowledging her prepotency, of using the most spiritual gifts, quirks and visions powers to dominate humanity by the fake light of her spiritual vain glory... Wake up humanity

Be the change you want to see in the planet

🤍Christ, U,🌱then society

All media: https://linktr.ee/santilozada

Interactive Magazine Project and music stream -> https://www.twitch.tv/santiloz_art

🪽🤍

|“This is more real than what you have been able to perceive so far… then, let it be-at… ✨🫂🪽”

(Personal blog spot: My writings do not represent any collectivity neither institution or people, these are just my personal perspective and expressions to build a better world since my singularity.

Feel free to read and/or join my posts and projects) ✌️ read and/or join my posts and projects) ✌️

0 notes

msclaritea · 2 months

Text

Farmer' fight for Right to Repair gets little traction in Illinois

During the 2023 harvest season, one of Jake Lieb’s tractors quit working. A week later, his combine stopped working, too. Both were new — and he was locked out from making any repairs himself because of software restrictions embedded in the machines.

Instead, a technician from John Deere was dispatched to diagnose and repair the problems. While waiting for the technician to come out, Lieb fired up a 20-year-old tractor he hadn’t used for harvesting in years. Crops are vulnerable to the weather, and had he not, Lieb could have lost at least a day of harvest. Some of the crop might have dropped to the ground, rendering it unsalvageable, potentially costing him thousands of dollars.

“Meanwhile,” Lieb said, “we’ve got over a million dollars of equipment in the field, inoperable.”

When the technician from John Deere arrived at his farm in central Illinois, it took about 30 minutes total to plug in a diagnostic tool, see which sensor was bad, unscrew it, replace it and close everything up in the combine.

“If I knew what sensor was bad in that combine, I could have had it fixed in five minutes,” Lieb said. “But if you don’t have the software, it’s impossible to know what’s wrong.”

For more than a decade, farmers like Lieb haven’t been able to fix their high-tech equipment. Until recently, manufacturer restrictions meant only company-authorized representatives could own and use diagnostic tools and make fixes when needed.

Jake Lieb looks at his John Deere planter at his farm near Monticello, Ill., on March 18, 2024. (Darrell Hoemann / The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting)

In March 2023, in an attempt to address farmers’ frustrations, the American Farm Bureau Federation signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with John Deere and four other farm equipment manufacturers. The farm bureau called it a “private-sector solution to the right to repair issue.”

In the agreement, Deere, Kubota, Case New Holland, AGCO, and CLAAS of America promised to give farmers and independent repair shops access to customer diagnostic tools. In exchange, the Farm Bureau agreed not to support any federal or state repair legislation.

However, advocates for repair legislation say that the nonbinding agreement and the customer versions of tools provided by the companies fall short of needed protections that legislation would ensure. These same advocates are supporting bills across the country, including one introduced this year in the Illinois Senate.

The Illinois bill (SB2669) proposes to establish an agricultural equipment bill of rights. It would require manufacturers to make software, firmware and all other tools needed to repair machines accessible to independent repair shops and owners throughout the state at a reasonable cost.

The bill directly addresses the MOU and says that agricultural equipment owners are entitled to any tools or software not covered by the MOU. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, declined to comment after multiple attempts by email and in person to reach her. Deere and the other farm equipment manufacturers also did not return multiple requests for comment.

The bill is languishing at the statehouse. According to a spokesperson from the Illinois Corn Growers Association in an email to Investigate Midwest, there’s no chance the bill will pass this year.

The cost of repair

The demand for new tractors and combines ebbs and flows, but a consistent source of profit growth for John Deere is the sale of parts and services. Despite a 19% drop in sales of new ag equipment sales from between 2013 and 2019, supply chain disruptions and food system upheaval in 2020, and a monthlong labor strike of 10,000 workers across five states in 2021, Deere’s profits swelled the past three years, totaling a nearly 270% increase from 2020, according to the company’s SEC filings.

According to Bloomberg, the sale of parts helped buoy the company’s portfolio — parts sales grew by 22% between 2013 to 2019.

While Lieb’s fifth-generation family farm operates on annual tractor trade-ins so his machines stay on a warranty, which includes free parts and services, he’s in the minority. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only 20% of farmers in the U.S. regularly buy new machines.

The rest hold on to their equipment for longer periods of time or buy secondhand machines, which come with limited warranties or none at all, making repair restrictions more consequential.

Equipment made before 2014 doesn’t have as much complicated software, and there are more repair workarounds. Still, the costs of repairing older machines add up.

I once knew some of the owners of John Deere Tractors. They're living all plush and cozy, up in Aspen.

#Farmer' fight for Right to Repair gets little traction in Illinois #John Deere Tractors Repair Monopoly #Governor Pritzker Territory #Illinois

0 notes

if-you-fan-a-fire · 1 year

Text

"Marijuana Trial of 5 Men Opens," Windsor Star. July 7, 1933. Page 5 & 6. ----- Mounties Tell Story of Sandwich West Raid; Seeds and Vegetable Matter Exhibits ==== The story of a raid by eight Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers on the premises of Michael Rainone in Sandwich West Township was related before Magistrate J. A. Hanrahan in the county police court Tuesday after-noon as trial got under way of five men charged with possession of marijuana.

The accused are, Michael Rainone. his son, Herman Rainone; Robert J. Bezaire, Ross W. Gray, and Julien Bolsmier. All five pleaded not guilty. Their defence counsel is Cecil R. Croll. W. E. Kelly, prosecutor for the Dominion Department of Justice, represents the Crown in the case. The trial will be resumed at 3 p.m. Thursday.

OFFICER EXHIBITS SEEDS Highlight of the opening day of the trial was the submission of evidence in the form of seeds and vegetable matter by Sergeant G. R. Johnson, R.C.MP. of Toronto, who for the past seven years has devoted his en-tire time to investigation of plants under the Narcotic Drug Act.

One exhibit was a green tin bread-box tied with a cord sealed by red sealing wax which Sgt. Johnson said he found in Rainone's house, located 140 feet south of Tecumseh road near Rankin avenue. It contained a multitude of seeds and vegetation which "gave off a terrible stench" when he opened it at the time of the raid, the Mounted Police officer testified.

Constable Cyril A. Lazelle identified a red tin can formerly used as a tobacco tin, which he said was found containing green vegetation substance on the warming closet of the cook stove in the Rainone kitchen.

"SPICES FOR SPAGHETTI" He testified that Constable William S. Ramsay remarked, "You are in the business," and that Michael Rainone replied, "That is what you think, but it is only spices for the making of spaghetti."

Rainone, a ruddy faced man with greying hair, sat stolidly in the prisoner's box with a bored look on his face during the testimony. Of the four other accused, Bezaire is the eldest although a young man, and the others are youths. These showed a lively interest in the testimony. According to witnesses all were making their home in Rainone's house, a two room shack with an upper floor reached by a ladder through a hole in the kitchen ceiling.

In cross-examining witnesses, Mr. Croll sought to emphasize the confusions and extreme disorder of the premises, pointing out that there was a little of everything on the place, Sgt. Johnson, however, maintained, that although the interior of the house was ill-kept there was not a great amount of disorder indoors.

A series of sealed packages containing what Sgt. Johnson described as seeds and green leaf substances were filed as exhibits. The material in the packages was gathered by different members of the raiding party in their search of the premises, Sgt. Johnson stated. TOBACCO AND CHAFF Sgt. Johnson identified the property of Michael Rainone, a light brown overcoat a pocket of which he said contained tobacco and green leaf chaff. When a fin was found containing ground up leaves on top of the stove, Mr. Johnson said he arrested Michael Rainone for possession of marijuana.

When he arrived at the premises, Sgt. Johnson said Michael Rainone was the only one of the accused there, but there were two women, one a girl just over 16 years, sitting on a chesterfield in the living room. The raiding party was at the place somewhat over two and a half hours, he said, and during that time all the accused except Bolsmier arrived at the house and were placed under arrest. The witness said that the first time he had seen Boismier was in the courtroom. Bezaire arrived 20 minutes after the officers had arrived. Gray about an hour later and then Herman Rainone arrived on the scene. Herman was questioned by Sergeant R. L. Woodhouse, Sgt. Johnson stated.

BOX IN LIVING ROOM The green box, from which a foul odor had issued when opened, the witness said, was found on the floor of the living room between the chesterfield and a radio.

Sgt, Johnson, under cross-examination by Mr. Croll, said that there was a great deal of filth such as rotting manure in the yard, but some semblance of home-like things in the house, such as ornaments atop the chest drawers.

In conversation with Michael Rainone, Sgt. Johnson testified that the accused told him "he collected bread and cigaret butts from restaurants." "That's a new one on me," ejaculated Mr. Croll.

OTHER WITNESSES William Taylor, a bus driver for the S. W. & A. Railway Company, who owns a home on Tecumseh road near the Rainone house, testified that he had known Rainone and his son for some time and that to the best of his knowledge Bezaire and Gray lived at the Rainone shack. He wasn't sure whether Boismier also lived there but said he had seen him frequently about the place. Mr. Taylor said that Rainone had cultivated his land last year and had started cultivation this year.

Edward E. Beals, a real estate man who said he owned 3,000 lots in Sandwich West, testified to the purchase of the property by Rainone. Thomas Green, registrar of deeds for Essex County, testified to the ownership of two lots by Michael Rainone at the scene where the raid took place, that Rainone was the registered owner and had acquired title in 1941. A. W.Spurgeon, photographer, identified numerous photographs he had taken of the house and property for the R.C.M.P.

The raid was conducted on June 12 by the R.C.M.P. officers headed by Staff Sergeant A. W. Anderson. Officers who took part in the raid, who have yet to testify in the trial, include Corporal Woodhouse, Constable Ramsay, Constable Roy S. McLeod, Constable Randall B. Hara, Constable B.Murray Lamb and Mr. Anderson.

The charges now being heard are a follow-up on the arrest and conviction of J. L. Brooks, of Victoria boulevard, Sandwich West, for the sale of marijuana. He was sentenced to three years in the Kingston penitentiary and fined $900.

#windsor #reefer madness #cannabis #weed #undercover cop #police raid #war on drugs #canada during world war 2 #opium and narcotic drug act #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #canadian politics #canadian history #reefers #cannabis prohibition #neighbourhood drug dealer

0 notes