#justice 40

[fenrislorsrai]

Justice 40

Joe Biden is boring and often bad at tooting his own horn, but by god, he is good at process.

Justice 40 is simple but powerful application of that. its a shift in how the executive branch works. 40% of money from a bunch of existing programs should go to census tracts that are overburdened with pollution, at higher risk for climate change, and have been historically underserved.

The shorthand here is basically "communities that don't have enough internal resources to deal with long term problems". So yes, communities that had been redlined for decades, ones that have Superfund sites, ones that have high rates of asthma from air pollution.

and this is by census tract. Not city. census tract. So parts of New York City qualify... but other parts don't. And the city HAS to use the money in the targeted part. it doesn't go into the communal pool. it's for THAT tract specifically.

Also all land federally recognized as belonging to a Native American tribe and all Alaskan Native Villages qualify, specifically.

And again, this is for existing programs that are already running and have existing staff and budgets. They're supposed to prioritize grants and projects for those areas specifically. And that's everything from Department of Agriculture, to FEMA, to Labor, to Environmental Protection.

Does it instantly get rid of all the baked in racism from decades past? No, not even close. But it puts in a countermeasure that has a concrete and measurable goal to aim for rather than a nebulous "suck less." even if the administration changes, many of those changes will stick.

And as things improve, some tracts may come off the list! Some may go on that weren't there before!

You can see a map here. Blue highlighted tracts are "disadvantaged" so qualify for that extra assistance! Check and see if you live in one or part of your town does. Because if you've been hearing constantly "we can't afford to fix X problem..." and you're in that tract.... there's money available. For you. Build that sidewalk, fix those lead pipes, get that brush truck your volunteer fire department has been asking for.

And tell your local officials that! "did you look at Justice 40 for funding". And even if they're doing their best, particularly people in little towns.... being a government official isn't their full time job. They may have missed it. Just asking them about the program may suddenly open a world of possibilities.

[muffinlance]

Wait, what’s going on with Embers???? That fic has been on my read later list since 2021, what’s happened with it???

Brief overview, then I'm likely never touching this topic again, because this is not a Drama Blog:

Context: Embers is a super old AtLA fic that was written during the early fandom days, read widely at the time, and was the origin of the widely-used fanon name of "Wani" for Zuko's ship (kind of by default that it was one of the first popular fics to give his ship a name, I think?), even though most fic writers don't seem to realize it's from there anymore.

"What's Going On": I used to include a link in all my stories to it, because I believe in crediting other writers for borrowed elements, and I was using "Wani" in all my fics. But BOY did I not want to be sending readers that way anymore, so I've adopted a new name for Zuko's ship, and removed all Embers links.

None of the criticisms about Embers itself are new; I'm assuming they date back to when the fic was being written, because this isn't an "it aged badly" thing, this is an "actually yeah this gets worse the longer you think about it and I shouldn't have ignored my bad feelings just because some of the worldbuilding was interesting" thing.

An Incomplete List of Why I Made the Change:

I don't actually like the story that much anymore, and don't want to rec it

I tried to re-read it recently to see if some things were as bad as I remembered and it turns out they were So Much Worse Oh Yikes. More specifically, the treatment of Katara and Aang and their respective cultures has... rather a lot going on. One example: The Fire Nation and Air Nomads are both given multiple backstory elements in an attempt to make the average Fire Nation soldier's participation in the genocide/war in large part the fault of the Avatar and the Air Nomads themselves, and also fully justified from the Fire Nation perspective. And I do mean fully. One of its core tenants is "People from the Fire Nation (and only people from the Fire Nation) who don't follow orders Literally Die, therefore murdering pacifists and babies and continuing the war (and their regularly scheduled war crimes) is the only thing it is physically possible for them to do". I cannot emphasize enough how literal that is.

Also the name "Wani" means "Alligator" and is... objectively a pretty lame name for Zuko's ship? Where's the personality, where's the deeper meaning, where's the resonance with Zuko's themes? @tuktukpodfics initially thought I was calling the ship "Wanyi", and that's what I've switched to, because it is Objectively So Much Better. In their words: “Wànyī (萬一): Literally ‘one in ten thousand,’ ‘perchance.’ Used grammatically in Chinese to mean ‘what if’ or ‘just in case.’ I think a ship called ‘The Perchance’ is perfect for a boy clinging to false hope.”

TL:DR; I don't rec Embers anymore, because I don't actually like the story anymore, and there are things about it that get worse the more I think on them. I've removed links to it and renamed Zuko's ship to "Wanyi" ("The Perchance") because our boy deserves a ship name that reflects his character arc.

[jesncin]

Clark and J'onn should hang out way more in and out of work, they get each other.

Shoutout to @amphibiousdestroyer for talking back and forth with me about alien sitcoms they would watch :>

[kindaorangey]

once again screaming crying throwing up about the fact that infinity train was prematurely cancelled despite being contracted for 5 seasons.

[waitineedaname]

Finally, after months of work, I have completed it: the collection of all* character appearances in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood!

edit: if you want a more detailed spreadsheet on the homunculi in particular, @vuullets has a collection of all homunculi appearances in the manga! you can find it here

Some notes on this spreadsheet:

there are spoilers. obviously. proceed with caution

timestamps indicate when a character first appears in a scene, not every time they appear. if the scene changes to one without that character, and then we return to that character in another scene, that's another timestamp for a new appearance

all timestamps are approximate, give or take a few seconds based on how quickly I could pause the show

only unique flashbacks count as an appearance. if the flashback is to something we've seen in a previous episode, that is not counted as a unique appearance, but if it provides something new that we haven't seen before, it counts!

I didn't include background easter egg appearances, like when you can see Mei in the background at a train station before she's introduced

I didn't actually do all characters. there are a lot of characters, and I am just one person. sorry if you're a big fan of minor members of the military, i just couldn't do it

since Greed is kind of a special case, he deserves a specific explanation: OG Greed and Greedling are not counted as separate characters, they're both just Greed. when Greed is in control of Ling's body, that counts as an appearance for Greed, and it's not an appearance for Ling unless he's in control. if they're both in a scene together (talking in the mindscape, for example, or switching control back and forth) they each get a timestamp for when they first appear/speak in a scene

feel free to use this as a reference! I made this as a useful tool for myself, and because I'm a nerd about data. if you are also a nerd about data, I tallied up some stats, which I'll put under the cut:

only six characters broke 30 episodes. the characters with the most appearances are Edward (60), Alphonse (58), Mustang (45), Hawkeye (42), Scar (40), and Winry (31).

next highest on the list are Alex Armstrong and Mei (tied for 29), King Bradley (28), Hohenheim (26), and Ling (25).

the homunculus in the most episodes is Wrath (28), and the one in the least is Lust (11)

as previously mentioned, Alex Armstrong and Mei are in the same number of episodes (29), as are Olivier Armstrong and Marcoh (24), and Buccaneer and Ross (18)

Hughes is in only 10 episodes, the same number as Grumman and Fu

Yoki is in a whopping 23 episodes. what the fuck

the chimera in the most episodes is Zampano (21), closely followed by Darius and Jerso (20), with Heinkel falling behind at 16. The Devil's Nest chimeras are only in 2 episodes, with the exception of Bido, who is in 3

[killerof1983]

i am my sole audience and 1940 billy seeing fnaf beatbox cracks me up just a smidge

[iholli]

the color wheel meme is still relevant right

[almoststedytimetravel]

I fully, 100%, believe that no matter what Apollo Justice Ace Attorney tries, he cannot get his hair antenna to say down. My reasoning for this is that in every image of Apollo at all ages he has those Antenna sticking out. Even infant Apollo in Jove's Divination Séance has them. Even Trucy has them under her hat as did his father. After a while he gives up trying to make them stay down just, "whelp, guess this is my life now." and makes them part of his personality.

[cgbcomics]

[drowningparty]

The highlight of the finale for me was arthur going to town on larson-the-childkiller while whimpering his own dead daughter's name and trying to choke the elder god out of him with his bare hands in the most visceral way possible and the narrative drama of kayne finishing what he started before taking one of those bloodsoaked hands in his to lead him off into the proverbial sunset like medea's dragon

[wulfhalls]

yo remember the fucking. feet washing jesus imagery forgiveness scene they added in the death note anime. 4.5 minutes before light finally kills L. remember that? sort of deeply insane thing to just. add to ur anime adaptation like that. 👍 just sitting around in the animation studio going. u know what the episode L dies in needs? more homoeroticism and religious symbolism. why did they do that

[wiirocku]

Psalm 40:10 (NLT) - I have not kept the good news of Your justice hidden in my heart; I have talked about Your faithfulness and saving power. I have told everyone in the great assembly of Your unfailing love and faithfulness.

[dcbinges]

All-Star Comics #4 (1941) by Everett Hibbard & Gardner Fox

[jesncin]

Sons of Mars refs and nods pt3

Final bits and bops and nods Sons of Mars made to the comics (and various other media)!

The Great Mind "statue" is inspired off of DCAU J'onn's true form.

The exclamation "Moons of Mars!" comes from Identity. Cay'an comes from Martian Manhunter: The Others Among Us (written by AJ Lieberman, drawn by Al Barrionuevo) and she has a cameo in the background :)

The red martians are visually inspired by the Draags from Fantastic Planet, mainly when they morph into strange shapes. Lore-wise, they're inspired by Young Justice's take on the Yellow Martians as priests and sorcerers.

The Saturnian pod is named after the Saturnians from the comics (red martian clones made from the green martians, like Jemm). Visually the pod is based off of the ships from Disney's Treasure Planet asdfaf

J'onn's melty face is from In my Life! (where J'onn has a climactic fight with Ma'al).

The shot of J'onn and Ma'al floating at a distance from a planet is a nod to a panel in Lazarus Planet, Martian Manhunter in: Songs of Pain (written by Dan Watters, art by Max Dunbaa).

This hypothetical panel of Ma'al attacking J'onn is a direct homage to Abandon All Hope from the Ostrander and Mandrake run. Knife arm and Pointy Stabby arm.

J'onn's inner thoughts about floating in the thought streams as a reminder that he's never alone and a part of something greater is pulled from Pilgrimage.

While the pose of J'onn and Ma'al holding hands is an intentional reference to a scene in Brightest Day where J'onn and M'gann combine their telepathy for a moment, I was surprised to find an eerily similar scene in Martian Manhunter (1988) (written by JM DeMatteis, art by Mark Badger) issue 3- where J'onn mourns the body of his deceased daughter over a grave. I had this final scene written and sketched out long before I read this comic, but I can acknowledge a parallel when I see it!

If you're reading this far, hi! I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into some of the references and writing decisions we picked up from the comics. Cataloguing thoughts like this as something to look back on is fun! I like it when references and homages aren't intrusive or disrupt the story, so I'm glad to hear a lot of people enjoyed Sons of Mars even without context to martian lore. And if you know the comics, I hope this was extra fun for you!

Pt 1 | Pt 2 | Pt 3

[ear-motif]

what kills me is that hannibal very clearly wants to be a provider and caregiver, but he just cant be because he can’t give up control over those he cares for

[punisheddonjuan]

IDF soldiers jokingly pose with canes they've looted and stolen from disabled and elderly Palestinians. They grin and smile as if on holiday, delighted by the humiliation they inflict, genocide is a game. Every day soldiers in the IDF descend to a deeper pit of moral sickness, a feat they must be proud of as they post the proof themselves.

At Auschwitz there is a room of prosthetic limbs, crutches, and canes piled high to the ceiling. I fear the irony would be lost on these men.