#invasive species that will still yet take years to fully remove or control

[foxbirdy]

can you please tell me more about the island at the equator? the one you drew about? i'm planning on becoming a sailor and i want to know what it was like way out there. can you tell me about the stars and the manta rays

I would love to tell you more about that island.

It's a tiny atoll, with a little over 4.6 square miles of permanent land. The hottest sun and most furious rain I've ever seen in my life, often in the same 24 hours. There are no freshwater sources here; everything you drink must come from the sky. Coral reefs surround the lagoons and islands, in vivid terraces that cascade from crystalline shallows to water so deep and blue it confuses your eyes. Sand flats and coral rubble beds stretch around the margins of the lagoons, and sometimes the water is so still and glassy that you can see the ripples from the spotted eagle rays and lemon sharks and schools of awa from a half mile away. Blue bottle jellies come up with high tides every new moon, and the manta rays gather in winding circular trains when the moon is full. Bioluminescent plankton is a rare and treasured guest, making the wave tops glitter cyan and green, illuminating each wingtip on the manta rays as they ruffle the surface of the water. Over one million seabirds make their homes there, and sometimes the chatter of the 'ewa'ewa is so constant and deafening that you stop hearing it at all, fading into the background sounds of wind and water and trees. The 'iwa fly in the highest wind currents, pirates of the sky, with their big forked tails and sharp lightning-bolt wings. The manu-o-Kū catch the tiniest silver fish, the length of my pinky, and flutter down from their perches to chitter at you as you move through the forest. The 'ā - red-footed boobies - crane their heads from side-to-side as they look at you, and when they open their mouths, you remember that birds come from dinosaurs. The stars are close and bright, despite the heavy humidity, and on clear nights the milky way is like a hundred pearl necklaces stretched across the sky, and you can walk with just the light of the moon. You can see the Southern Cross from one side of camp, and Polaris from the other. Cassiopeia sits in pride of place, and her daughter Andromeda is a lightblur in the crook of her knees. Meteors there sometimes fall like brilliant green balls of fire, so bright they put spots in your vision. On nights under one of those big dark storm cells that walk across the ocean like giants, the thunder and lightning moves around you in transient peaks and swells, inconstant, distant and then close. These are the only times you cannot hear the birds, gone silent, as the downpour takes up the place where their voices live.

[anearthstruckalien]

In the past, I’ve described Psion technology as highly-advanced and in fact, the most (if not among the most) advanced in the known universe.  Simply-put, beyond their exceedingly high level of comprehension of and skill in PSI, Psions are also dangerous precisely because of the technology that they possess, both on a more standardized level (i.e something that’s accessible to the general public) and in the ways of projects that are kept a little more secret for one reason or another.  And while it’s a bit much to elaborate on every single technology out there, I felt like it would be nonetheless worthwhile to give a general impression of it by noting a few of the many technological advancements of Psions, albeit mainly under broader categories of things:

○ Psion production machine:  as (more extensively) covered in THIS POST, this machine is responsible for producing Psions that are ‘customized’ for specific and predetermined purposes hence why there are certain ‘types’ or classes of Psions at all.  In a few words, the way that this machine produces Psions involves a conversion of energy in response to their coded physical traits and selves (or rather the ‘barebones’ of the self which later grows, develops, and changes based off the environment).

In other words, this machine alters the external world through the code input into it and the intermediary that connects the machine to whatever it is meant to alter; ‘blank’ energy in this case whereby the primary purpose is the creation of new Psions.  It’s almost like an alteration of reality itself, and because this principle can be adopted and applied in a more general sense, there are several other noteworthy Psion technologies that either alter certain parts of the external world via code input (i.e specific-use tools) or apply this idea on a broader and more general-use basis.

○ Repurposing:  it goes without saying that Psions (as far as their ideology goes) hate to let anything go to waste.  They want to pull whatever use and benefits they can out of something until there is nothing left to accomplish such a thing before then classifying it as ‘useless’ and discarding it.  As such, they have quite a bit of technologies that are dedicated to either efficiently converting one thing into another (for example, the energy from a discarded Psion into ‘purified’ and totally ‘blank’ energy again) or for efficiently breaking given substances (ranging from items to the corpses of life-forms) down into their consistuent elements and storing these elements away for later use as resources.  On a broader scale, an extremely noteworthy application of repurposing technologies is that of a kind of resource extracter that gets implemented on conquered worlds and basically sucks them dry of all viable resources… albeit in a way that takes time (compared to most other technologies that fall under this category) because it’s on a planet-wide scale for one thing and for another, it needs to be very carefully extracted as to keep the planet from falling apart before the process is complete.

○ Time travel:  Psions have fully developed time travel such that they can harmlessly (i.e without any negative effects on the individual travelling or to time-space itself) transport any entity through time based on some very specific coordinates input into the related machine.  And in addition to this, the ones that are utilizing this technology can use it to communicate with other versions of themselves at different points in time or a time-divergent self (provided that said variant has this technology as well) and in the case of Psions, can enable a ‘synchronization’ of information across these differing selves provided that they all originate from the same self source.

That is, self A can become the exact same person as self B (and vice versa simultaneously) because whatever experiences either one is missing from the other can be shared and thus filled-in as though that self had gone through it.  During his whole M2 plan, Giegue did this quite a bit.  That is, he had information synced across himself and time-divergent selves to better coordinate his insane and rather complex plan aaaaand to uphold the timeline he had created in an attempt to secure victory this time.  And so, apart from the 10,000 years he spent in his Magicant following M2’s outcome, he can be said to have even more ‘years’ added onto his overall age by virtue of the extra experiences he received through this syncing.

○ Psion home-planet:  as stated on this blog some time ago, the Psion home-planet itself is a greyscale and highly modular world with this dull yet distinctive gleam to it and this angular, simplistic, and very ordered (in a way that seems to suggest an obsession with it) design as far as its surface and underground features go. To elaborate, when I say ‘modular’ I mean that every single parameter as it pertains to the planet’s conditions can be altered using a super complicated control panel at its core.  These alterations can range from choosing to have certain weather phenomena (rather than being totally stagnant and void of it as is the norm) at specific points on the planet to determining its air composition (i.e what it contains + how ‘breathable’ it is for other species) to even distorting its physical features such as its shape and where it contains certain structures—which are either morphed out of it to begin with or connected to its surface after being externally built—as is necessary for their given purposes at a time.

And so, much like Psions themselves, the Psion home-planet is customizable due to the way hyper-advanced technology has been embedded into it and as a matter of fact, can be moved like a ship to warp out of one place and into another once the nearby star systems are all depleted of available resources. And while I’m still on the topic of the home-planet, I believe that it’s worth re-iterating that the Psion home-planet itself is always inside of a pocket dimension which is ‘locked’ in a way such that not just anyone can get through… and even when someone (unauthorized) does get through, the pocket dimension itself is structured in a way that gives the Psions every single relevant advantage possible in that space by both the ‘laws’ of that space itself and the very fact that the planetary weapons systems are both integrated into the very fabric of that space itself (i.e essentially every part of that space can be used to kill someone) and in the home-planet itself though its ordinary kept folded away in the planet itself.

○ Psion ships:  I won’t get into the deeper details of every single ship that Psions have available for use, but I will say that there are specific ships designed and optimized to perform certain ranges of tasks thereby making some ships better at doing something than others.  Beyond these differences however, each Psion ship is capable of three key functions: traversing through space across a broad variety of conditions be they extreme or not, warping its own form both in a strictly external (i.e maintaining its internal integrity as is) and an internal sense such that functions that range from fitting through otherwise inaccessible areas in space to simply creating more seating and control panels can be applied, and capable of traveling at insane speeds through space such that it’s possible to get from one extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeemely distant point to another almost instantaneously once the systems are ready to jump into that speed.

In other words, these ships are highly versatile (even when they’re optimized for a specific set of tasks), durable, and travel very fast through space. And in addition to all of this, it’s worth noting that as is the case with several other technologies (i.e the Psion production machine and the home-planet itself), only Psions can operate these ships in that these ships will not respond to anyone else attempting to control them unless their systems are hijacked in some way or a non-Psion is manually granted permission by the systems.  As such, ‘lower’ life-forms that are sent to accomplish tasks outside of the home-planet frequently tend to either be under the leadership of a Psion or have a ‘non-Psion’ (though still produced by Psion construction worlds) ship allotted to them which can more or less be regarded as a less advanced (though still potent) variant of Psion ships.

○ Enhancements:  although it is really ‘lower’ life-forms (i.e non-Psions) that get altered and thus ‘enhanced’ by technology… it’s not restricted to said life-forms.  Rather to be more specific, non-Psions get these kinds of enhancements in ways that are very invasive and integrate into their very physiology because it is believed that these life-forms are so ‘flawed’ that true ‘usefulness’ and ‘improvements’ can only be brought about in this manner. And while Psions are rarely (if ever at all) subjected to these enhancements, they do use some form of them albeit in a more ‘wearable’ way whereby it’s something that can be attached and removed with ease aka not truly melded to them at all.

These external enhancements tend to be extremely lightweight (due to being rather thin up to being outright paper-thin at times), need no special application other than just manually sticking them onto the exoskeleton and smoothing it down into it, and often tend to be invisible once applied to a Psion until they are removed again or otherwise damaged.  In turn, the primary reasons behind using external enhancements at all is to account for situations whereas Psions are in need of an additional function or boost to their current functions (if not made that way from the start) and to broadly make life easier in an equivalent way that things like watches, electronic schedules, etc do.  In a sense, given the general format that enhancements for Psions tend to take on as a kind of standard? these enhancements can be thought of as more so akin to function-bestowing patches than anything else.

○ Other:  this is more or less a re-iteration of things I’ve mentioned before… but other noteworthy bits of technology include: the general Psion surveillance system whereby time-space anomalies are (on a continuous basis) being recorded by a machine on the home-planet which itself in turn means that Psions know whenever entities or objects enter in and out of the universe –the main reason why you don’t often see them addressing it is because (most of the time) it isn’t considered to be important enough to devote their time and resources towards for one thing and for another, things entering in and out of the universe are actually common occurences; a goop-like substance which actually consists of microscopic machines designed to heal exoskeleton injuries that a given Psion may not be capable of healing themself via analyzing the injury and reconstructing the required component; and a kind of known universe-wide access to electronically-stored information (i.e like the Internet but, spanning beyond a single planet) with especially strong access to points more situated in space under Psion control.

[spirituality-and-alien-contact]

The Alien Invasion Requires AWAKENING of Humanity

Humans hold dear to what they perceive through the mind, regardless if it’s through an experience of our thoughts, or through the imagination or what is seen with our eyes, whenever we experience life in the world. No matter where we are, we receive information through our senses, whether aware of it or not, it is happening. With this, we cannot stop what arrives in our minds, but it is very important for us to be aware of what is happening to us continually in order to know what is influencing our thoughts and the ideas that suddenly arrive in our heads. Some ideas may be of use or may not, yet we cannot reject those we do not need. Here, we need to identify what is true, from what is false, but to do this we need to be aware and present to where we are, who we are with, what is happening around us and why we are in that place. But this is not how we are, even when fully awake, in truth we are living in our imagination! For our safety, Humanity needs an Awakening to what is around them.

The Mental Environment has been previously mentioned on this site, it is an environment we all contribute to as we think and reason and when our emotions go overboard. Our mind sends out impressions of what we are thinking, this is because our minds are made for communicating our various thoughts in the arena’s we exist within. We are receiving and projecting thoughts and ideas on a continual basis, into the Mental Environment, and with this, Humanity has little or no awareness of the dangerous repercussions this presents for them, due to their seeming naivety and disregard for this phenomenon. Therefore we do not guard or protect what we say with regard to information we share, not only in the Mental Environment but what we broadcast through the TV and Radio broadcasts, for we are continually telling the Universe all about our problems and our secrets. How we abuse and mistreat each other in our day to day lives. This has created unwanted attention from those worlds that are our neighbours and even further than this, we have given our information to The https://ift.tt/2lPQVOv of Worlds in our vicinity of the Universe. For our own safety, humanity must become more discreet and aware to the dangers this has now presented to Humanity. Humanity needs Awakening to their discretion and what is around them.

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Alien Beings are now Intervening in our world, and they do not want our friendship. They are here to take advantage of our naivety, superstitions and religious beliefs and lack of understanding of the Mental Environment.They are turning our disadvantage into their advantage, to take the world Sovereignty away from Humanity for their own use. Because our minds cannot understand the Mental Environment they will use this against us and to great advantage for themselves. With this the Human mind is acting subconsciously within the Mental Environment, and they are using this to manipulate and deceive humanity. Those who are weak mentally will succumb to the influence and persuasion, as is the case in the world now. Even though Humanity cannot understand the Mental Environment, they will receive subconscious feelings that somethings are not right in the world.This is because the Mental Environment of this world is contributed to by human intelligence and has been this way for thousands of years, but at this time, there are Beings of a higher intelligence contributing to the Mental Environment of Humanity. This will create a strange unbalanced feeling for Humanity, especially for those who are more sensitive and aware of where the are and to what is happening around them, they will know something is not right, something they can detect but not identify, making them uncomfortable and knowing things are not right in the world. Humanity need an Awakening to these serious problems in our world.

Humanity lives with Intervention against them, irreversible once achieved, because it is a program of Gene manipulation and inter-breeding all at the same time. Humanity are being forced to participate in a breeding program they have not agreed to and most certainly would reject the very thought of if humanity had control. Humanity needs an urgent Awakening to the these serious problems.

The Allies of Humanity Book One, Third Briefing: A Great Warning

“The interbreeding program is becoming very successful. Already there are those walking your Earth who are born of the visitors’ consciousness and collective endeavor. They cannot reside here for long periods of time, but within only a few years, they will be able to dwell upon the surface of your world permanently. Such will be the perfection of their genetic engineering that they will seem only slightly different from you, more in their manner and in their presence than in their physical appearance, to such a point that they will likely go unnoticed and unrecognized. However, they will have greater mental faculties. And this will give them an advantage that you could not match unless you were trained in The Ways of Insight.”[7]

The Allies of Humanity Book One, Second Briefing: The Challenge to Human Freedom

“The interbreeding program that is occurring in the world will continue. The only way that it can be stopped is by people gaining this greater awareness and sense of inner authority. Only this will bring these intrusions to an end. Only this will uncover the deception behind them.”[2]

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The Intervention is deceitful, do not expect anything of truth from from them. They give comforting ideas and illusions about who the Alien Invaders are, and why they are in the world at this time.They say they are our spiritual family, who seeded us in this world and have come to rejoin us back within their family. BELIEVE NONE OF THIS FOR THEY ARE IGNORANT AND DISSONANT. They say they are here to enlighten and bless Humanity, to help Humanity evolve into greater Beings. BELIEVE NONE OF THIS, FOR WHILE THEY SAY THESE THINGS, THEY ARE ABDUCTING MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN FOR THEIR EXPERIMENTS AND GENE MANIPULATION PROGRAM. Although there are Spiritual Races in the Greater Community, they are not the of ones going from world to world trying to subjugate worlds and remove the wealth of resources from those worlds. No, this they will not do.Those who are in our world are ignorant races using their ignorant ways to gain wealth from their explorations and exploitations of naive worlds. This is the truth of the Alien Invasion in our world, this is their only truth. Again, I tell you, Humanity needs an Awakening to these serious problems.

The Alien Invasion has not come to this beautiful world to be friendly. They have not come to enlighten Humanity or help Humanity evolve into Spiritual beings. For if they had any Spiritual evolvement themselves they would not be in our world today or any time. Those who are Spiritually evolved, do not go interfering in other worlds. Quite the opposite can be said of them, for they are Wiser and more discrete, being self sufficient, and as a Race of Beings they are united and live for each other in their seclusion. Humanity is unaware of the Alien life forms that are trying to remove humanity as the Sovereign race of our world and to achieve their objectives in our world.The Aliens have, and are still abducting humans in order to manipulate our gene structure to make us into another type of human looking life form, who is compliant and responsive to their needs. Yet they will disregard the needs of humanity to achieve their own objectives. Here we must understand and treat them as predators against Humanity, for that is exactly what they are. They will not say truthfully why are they in the world,but it is known, they are not Forces for Good. Here, Forces for Good in the Universe are part of a Greater Power for Good known as Knowledge. It is time Humanity had Awakening to the power of Knowledge.

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Those Invading Alien Forces Intervening in our world are not educated in Knowledge, they do not understand what Knowledge is, Ignorant and Dissonant Forces are not in relationship with https://ift.tt/2FmXJYh, for they are opposing Forces. Yet Knowledge is the Greatest Power in the Universe, it cannot be deceived, manipulated or removed, for it is the power of God given to all intelligent sentient Beings in the Universe. This Power is a Living Power that understand you and why you are in the world at this time. It has been with you since God placed it within you, long before your birth into this life and into this world.There is a great devastation here for Humanity, for the Human Species is a Race of Spiritually evolving Beings that have evolved to recognise the value of freedom to move and go where we need to go. The freedom to choose the way of life that is good for us, without the dominance of being told what we must do, what we cannot do. Where we must work, where we must live. Who we can talk to, who not to associate with and who not to love and who we should breed and have children with. And told you cannot raise your child the way you feel best for you child. These are basic freedoms to a Human Being. The greatest freedom we have, is to seek the power and sanctity of God, and practice the Way of Knowledge. This is being trained in the Way of Insight as mentioned in the Allies of Humanity Book One the Third briefing. Humanity need an Awakening to resolve their problems.

Human Beings are not just Beings of flesh with mind that lives within that flesh.We are far greater than this, for our body is the vessel for our Spirit. We are the vehicle for the Spirit to experience life, without the body there is no participation no interaction and from this there is no learning and all true experience gives the basis for true learning.We are in the world with the potential of developing a relationship with the Great Spirit of Knowledge that is deep within us. To do this, Humanity now have the Practice of Steps to Knowledge, revealed to Humanity through Marshall Vian Summers, God’s New Messenger for the world.Steps to Knowledge is an education for attaining what the Allies of Humanity speak of as the Ways of Insight. Humanity must rise up to this great challenge from the Greater Community Forces in the world at this time, for with their Genetic Manipulation Program and the Interbreeding Program, Humanity will no longer be self determined and free Race. The Genetic attributes Humanity have, allows them their relationship with the Spirit. This will be eliminated due to being submissive and compliant to our new masters from the Greater Community. Awaken Humanity need a Great Awakening to survive these times.

Because the Alien Invasion and its Intervention has come to our world, it means that our world is now emerging into the Greater Community of Worlds. Even though humanity is not ready for this, it is still happening. Humanity, need more now, than any other time in their history to unite as one Race, for this is how the Greater Community views our world, as one Species split into different Tribes and Nations, Each one try to out do its neighbour and fighting over the spoils of their wars.This is looked upon as uneducated and unintelligent, because we have damaged our environments to the point of no return with pollution and over use of the worlds resources by going to war so many time that it takes its toll on the land, forests and the resources. the Ocean and Seas are so polluted the life in them is seriously contaminated and damaged to the point of no return. If this was not enough, The Alien Forces in our world are pushing Humanity to go to war, to use up our resources in order for Humanity to turn to them for assistance to survive. If Humanity are to evolve as the Spirituality they are, then there must be an

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Awakening

With this, God has given Humanity the means to remove the problems of this Alien Intervention in our world. The means I talk about here is the Power of Knowledge that lives within each Human Being. Discounting the Hybrid breeding Program, everyone Being born to the world at this time is coming to the world to assist Humanity in its great mission to stay a free Race of Beings and practice the Step to Knowledge. This is part of our Purpose in this life, this is why we were born to this world at this time. Do not leave for others to do, what you have come to the world to do.This will not be the answer to your Purpose in life. What you have come to do, cannot be done by any other, your Purpose is designed for you and only you can achieve that which you have come to do in the world. For us to fail now at this time means humanity has failed and we do not get a second chance at this. God has given Humanity the way to achieve this.This is a time of great reckoning, when Humanity will have to either grow up and unite or fail and be overtaken by others. If you do not accept this, if you cannot accept this, if this is too much for you, if you think it is untrue, then you are ignorant and weak. This is the Revelation. Ignore it at your own risk. For even God will not save you if you do not honour and pay heed to Gods warnings. Countless times have emerging Races such as Humanity are now, have been overtaken by resources explorers and economic collectives. Let Humanity have an Awakening to understand this.

Examine the Steps to Knowledge, they have been designed with you in mind, for the reasons we are speaking of here. This is your destiny, to achieve, along with thousands of others who have recognised their Calling to Rise Up to the Challenge of the Alien Forces of Intervention in the world. For if this cannot be agreed to by you. If you feel it is not for you, then who in Humanity will do what you have come to do. Who in Humanity has the same purpose that you have come to achieve. The Awakening is with you, you are part of the Awakening.

Nasi Novare Coram.

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[compendiumofthesilverriver]

Stellar Confederation

The Stellar Confederation is the largest and most powerful of the governments of the Silver River. It takes the place of the typical Republic/Federation/Council one would expect in these types of universes. Whether it is as good as them depends on whether you think its actions and the actions of those within it are justified in the name of keeping the peace between so many different species.

The Stellar Confederation was originally founded by five species. The reptilian Rist, the rodent Kreev, the insectoid Scith, the Eldritch cephalopod Qelzyxi, and the collection of AIs known as The System. It was formed in the wake of what is now known as the Origin War, the War of Confederation, or the Ket-Karr Invasion, depending on who you ask. The Ket-Karr was an fascist, species supremacist empire formed by the Strosis five thousand years before the Confederation came into being. Driven to conquer the Silver River, it spread outwards and eventually enslaved six other species, turning them into simple thralls that were used for slave labor as well as expendable troops in battle. Its expansion was slowed by the simple fact that breaking down the collective will of potentially billions and then securing their territory against revolt was a great effort, but eventually it discovered the Scith and saw fit to enslave them as well. 

The Scith resisted, but were no match for the overwhelming and advanced Ket-Karr forces. Survivors fled, finding the Rist and Kreev. Three attempted to unify against the Ket-Karr and break them down through combined might, but these efforts proved futile forcing all three species to flee from their incursion. Many orbits spent fleeing from the constantly perusing Ket-Karr forces followed, as the resources aboard the refugee fleet ever dwindled and ideological differences encouraged conflict. It was not until they met the Qelzyxi and The System that they finally were able to not only rest, but to properly fight back against the Ket-Karr on even ground. Using the Eldritch powers of the Qelzyxi and the superior artificial intelligences of The System, the five species managed to push back against their would be slaves and eventually finally bring an end to the Ket-Karr.

The slaves of the Ket-Karr, as well as the Strosis who did not support their oppressive government, were finally freed thanks to their efforts. Politics between these seven species and the allied five remained heavily strained for some time, as no one on either side felt they could fully trust any on the other.  This, combined with fear of encountering more empires like the Ket-Karr, resulted in the five species to sign the Articles of Confederation, now known as the Unification Accord. Its goal was the creation of the original form of the Stellar Confederation, an alliance of species unified for mutual protection against potential aggressive interstellar empires as well as a forum where political issues could be mediated before they turned into conflict.

Over the many orbits that followed, the Confederation slowly morphed from just a small protective alliance into a massive intergovernmental organization that counted hundreds of species as its members. Politically it was intended to mediate issues between various species and their governments before they could cause problems, while its ever increasing political and military might gave it the ability keep all but the strongest species it encountered in line. Even its economy came to dominate the Silver River as a whole, dictating trade and commerce even outside its borders. On the surface, it had become the ultimate peacekeeping organization. But with such vastness came corruption.

Over time, it had also become a bloated mass of corporate and military controlled politicians who cared little for the species they governed. Most of these individuals were part of what was known as The Conclave of Visionaries, or just the Conclave. Originally intended to be a private collective where political and economic figures could come together to share ideas about how to improve the Confederation and keep the peace, it grew into a pseudo Illuminati organization that controlled the entire Confederate government. Isolated from reality and driven by the numerous corporations that dominated it, the Conclave further and further pushed the Confederation into becoming an all controlling oligarchy. It was not long till this started to cause the Confederation to collapse from within.

Roughly ten thousand years into its existence, everything came to a boil.  Tired of being ignored and bullied into submission by the Confederate military, many Member States of the Confederation raised their banner in a massive rebellion the likes of which had never been seen.Known as the Corporate Wars, this bloody conflict nearly resulted the deaths of trillions and burned whole worlds to ash. At any moment, it would seem as if the Confederation would simply vanish into the decades long fire of the war. Yet, somehow, it managed to pull itself together. The rebels pushed the corporations out of power, seizing their assets and redistributing it. They reformed the government and started the process to rebuild back towards being what the Confederation was originally intended to be. Peacekeepers and protectors.

Yet, even with corporate influence removed, the Confederation never succeeded in walking back to its noble goal. Driven by its ever growing need to accommodate the massive number of species it counted amongst its members and the vast consumer capitalism based economy it never got rid of, the Stellar Confederation continued to use its military and political might to gain resources. Often it preyed on pre-spaceflight species, 'uplifting' them in order to access their largely untapped worlds to be strip mined of resources for its needs. Usually using their already existing infrastructure to speed up the process. And as a result, it started slipping slowly back towards tyranny and the way it was before yet again.

Surprisingly, this grew dismay from the oddest places. Corporation entities that had survived the Corporate Wars. You see, not all corporate entities had sided with the Conclave. Smaller companies that had had to endure the monopolized market the Conclave had created had rebelled alongside the Member States, often throwing their capital behind them and providing them with free products to keep them supplied under the table.Many of these entities picked up the pieces of the Confederate economy after the war, absorbing undistributed remains of the old corporations and reforming them in compliance with new laws to ensure that a financial collapse could be avoided. Since then, they had grown into the new powerhouses of the economy.

These powerhouses were not pleased with the state of the Confederation despite all that hand happened. If the Confederation wasn't throwing its weight around, it was on the verge of rebellion as species turned against species due to psychological divides. The reforms had brought as many problems as they had solutions. And those problems needed solutions. Thus, twenty-three corporation heads came together in secret with one goal in mind. To find a way to completely stabilize the Confederation and ensure the peace in the Silver River. And so formed the Second Conclave.

For many a time, they were as they were intended to be. A benevolent guiding conspiracy that used their influence to head off some of the Confederation’s darker desires. Yet, once again, such good intentions were not to last. Over time, one corporate member slowly began to increase their power and corrupt the council. The Aeresh family of the Aeresh Industries corporation. A Ceetakh family, they had already grown immensely in the wake of the Corporate Wars. They had swallowed some of the biggest remains of the fallen corporations. And their desires were yet sated. Slowly, they whittled down the Conclave from twenty-three to seven. By absorbing other members themselves through careful legal manipulations as well as driving others members to merge out of desperation to avoid becoming being taken over by Aeresh Industries.

Slowly but surely, the Conclave returned to something akin to its old self. But it was much carefuller. And caring, in its own pragmatic way. The Conclave’s members ended up with, again, a monopoly over the economy of the Confederation. But did not push it hard. Its members desired to maintain the Confederation because that monopoly gave them the wealth that left them in luxury. And to achieve that wealth, they needed two things. Happy consumers, and circumstances that lead to them buying their products. So they conceded certain socialistic ideals to appease the masses, while still ensuring nothing could threaten them.

The increasingly obvious fact the Confederation had hit a technological ceiling stunting tech development for what may have been thousands of years was a problem they faced. They worked behind the scenes to disguise it, manufacturing false stories to justify shifting between various generations of tech under the guise of avoiding bad side effects of them or due to artificial scarcities of the necessary materials. Even with species with long memories, the cultural shifts were meant to make it harder to disagree that change was necessary. Less they be called out for going against the norm.

Another problem was the ever constant difficulties of maintaining a government comprised of hundreds of different species. The differing psychologies between each species meant that democracy was not always their ideal form of government, and they might grow restless under the Confederation being built on it. This lead to threatening enemies, real and manufactured. Species and governments inside and outside the Confederation whose image could be used to bring fear to the Member States of the Confederation. And the solution to that fear was to know that Confederation and its military might were justified, because they protected against  Perhaps the most notable example of this was the Penrith Aldwylsar and the Confederate conflict with them. The hostile first contact between the two governments was considered to be a gold mind by the Conclave. But we will get to that later.

This remains the current political situation that defines the Confederation. While it still remains a mediator between nations and species as well as a protector of its citizens, corruption has once more consumes it from the inside. And as an unfortunate aside, unlike the First Conclave, the public isn't aware the Second Conclave even exists. To them, it is just the Confederation being the Confederation. Systematic specesism is rampant, militarism is the norm, and capitalism defines daily life. And the likelihood of this changing is slim to none, unless yet another bloody civil war occurs again. 

[djgblogger-blog]

What the 'California Dream' means to indigenous peoples

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The California Dream is a myth for many California Indian peoples and tribes.

Since settlers arrived, California Indians’ reality has largely been one of land dispossession, cultural assimilation and even genocide.

If California Indians were to design their own dream it would place decolonization at its core. Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, part of what I study as a scholar of Native American studies. The process of decolonization requires the return of land to tribes so they can fully determine their own futures, political status and independence.

The California Dream is a settler dream, unless it can come to terms with its colonial past and prioritize California Indians’ dreams for the state.

Myth of the California Dream

The mythology of the California Dream has a long history.

A popular Spanish novel published in 1510 told the legend of a mythical, gold-filled island inhabited by black Amazonian women ruled by Queen Calafia. Even though the story of Queen Calafia and the island of California was fictional, the narrative stuck with the Spaniards who traveled to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Spanish undertook their colonial project to convert and enslave Indigenous peoples at Catholic missions in Baja California in the late 1600s. Yet the urge to discover the wealth of Alta California, what is now present day California, drove the Spanish north. The first Catholic mission in Alta California was established in 1769 in San Diego on land that belonged to the Kumeyaay people. The Spanish continued to claim land and use Indigenous peoples to build missions along the coast of Alta California into the 1800s.

Dark side of a dream

Spanish colonization had disastrous effects on the environment and dozens of tribes, from San Diego to Sonoma. Social control, aggressive interactions and violence against Native women and children characterized Spanish colonization. Moreover, Spanish colonialism brought new diseases like smallpox and measles, and introduced invasive species of plants and animals. This drastically changed the natural landscape, the practices of Indigenous landscape management, and the relationship between California Indians and their environment.

In 1848, gold was discovered in California’s Sierra foothills. Incoming American settlers claimed land as their own and often viewed Native Americans as primitive peoples destined to vanish. These misconceptions were used to justify the theft and appropriation of California Indian land. Individual settlers and gold miners who killed or removed California Indian peoples from their lands often believed they were merely quickening a process that was bound to happen.

Acts of violence against California Indians accelerated throughout the Gold Rush period, and into the 1870s. Those who came to California did so at the cost of Native ancestral lands, natural and cultural resources, and lives. In 1849, the non-Native population in California surged from approximately 25,000 to at least 94,000 people in less than a year. The California Indian population dropped from 150,000 in 1846, to approximately 30,000 by 1870.

Not only was frontier violence sanctioned by the state, it was largely funded by the federal government. By 1863, the federal government had given the state of California more than US$1 million to reimburse militia expenditures for expeditions to find and kill California Indian people.

In addition, state legislators passed laws that stripped California Indians of their power to protect themselves, their land, their culture or their livelihoods. One of the first laws passed by the California Legislature in 1850 set up a form of legalized slavery. California Indian adults could be bought at public auction and Native children could be exploited under the guise of “apprenticeship.” The law fractured families and tribal communities, while furthering land dispossession.

In an attempt to calm hostilities between settlers and California Indians, from 1851 to 1852, the federal government negotiated 18 treaties with approximately 139 California tribes. The treaties would have set aside about 7.5 million acres to establish reservations for California Indians away from areas of non-Native settlement. However, responding to the pressures of settlers, the California Legislature strongly urged the U.S. Congress to deny the treaties. Congress listened, and the treaties were never approved. In fact, they were denied in a secret session and did not appear in the public record again for 50 years.

Violent interaction eventually decreased in the 1870s, as the effects of genocide on California Indians became a topic of national interest. The works of writer and poet Helen Hunt Jackson in the 1880s exposed injustices towards Native Americans. She spurred humanitarian sympathizers to aid Native peoples in the state. Notably, California Indian organizations and allies brought a suit against the U.S. government for not approving the 18 treaties. After decades of legal maneuvering and dozens of claims cases brought against the federal government, California Indians were awarded meager cash settlements in 1944 and 1963 for lost lands.

The effects of land dispossession and other injustices, however, are still felt by California Indian communities throughout the state. The lasting impacts include historical trauma, tribes that are not recognized by the federal government, a legacy of uneven funding from federal agencies, and barriers to cultural practices and economic development.

Yet, California Indians have been resilient. Today, they are citizens of strong tribal nations guided by their own cultural mandates and responsibilities to take care of their people and their lands however they can.

A California Indian Dream

The success of the California Dream depends on the disappearance of Indigenous peoples, who have been historically figured as roadblocks to land acquisition, progress and civilization.

How do we reimagine the California Dream to honor and respect California Indians?

San Diego County is on the original lands of the Kumeyaay and the Luiseño. Photo by Marlene Fosselman, CC BY-SA

It’s a difficult question with difficult answers. In my opinion, a California Indian Dream is true decolonization, or the return of all land in California to California Indian tribes. The return of land would not require the millions of non-Native peoples who live in California to leave. It would require a reorientation of relationships to land and the natural world that prioritizes Indigenous belief systems and forms of Native governance that have long been obscured by settler colonialism.

Imagining a decolonial future is necessarily uncomfortable, but it can lead to new possibilities for a more conscious California. If there is ever to be a viable and successful dream for the state, I’d argue, it must be a decolonized dream that centers California Indian peoples, cultures and tribal rights to land and self-determination.

Olivia Chilcote does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.