#responsible for the deaths of Many + also at least Part of the current apocalyptic state of the world. but she gets better and can atone for

[poptartmochi]

category 2 Magdalena event 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️

[fatehbaz]

Another compilation of thoughts on apocalypse; dystopia; better futures; post-crisis resurgence, contemplated during first week(s) of pandemic quarantine. [Part 1.]

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Pedro Neves Marques. “Parallel Futures: One or Many Dystopias?” e-flux. April 2019.

[I]t is important to remember that some futures never went anywhere – they were not allowed to – and yet they survive. These are futures that have been suppressed and canceled by colonial power. [...] I’m talking about parallel futures. By this I mean futures that have always been present, but that, together with the worlds they belong to, have been forced into one  future only. […] There is only one planet, but there are many worlds inside it.

Writing from an Afrofuturist standpoint, artist and writer Kodwo Eshun suggests that the colonial present is managed by both a preemptive and a predictive  power. “Preemptive” means that colonial power must control the past so as to deny the emergence of any future other than the one desired by the colonialist. “Predictive,” in contrast, implies that power must manage the present in such a way that the future is predetermined in advance. It is the active production of future horizons, compliant with power, that comes to shape the present. […] Borrowing a term from anthropologist Michael Fortun, one could call this preemptive prediction a “future anterior”: the forceful imagination of a technoscientific future that by its very utterance determines the shape of things to come. The future anterior orients the present toward a predetermined goal, while also rereading the past in its image. This is perhaps why Eshun writes that it is not the future that emerges from the present, as one would normally think, but rather the present (and the past) that arrives from the future. Colonial power creates a future in advance, so that no other will take its place. I want to ask how we can think through colonization and decolonization  as a matter of futures. Colonization – of bodies and minds but also of  nature itself – has always been as much about the negation and control of  possible futures as about the erasure of the past  […].

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Indigenous Action Network. “Rethinking the Apocalypse: An Indigenous Anti-Futurist Manifesto.” 2020.

Apocalyptic idealization is a self fulfilling prophecy. It is the linear  world ending from within. Apocalyptic logic exists within a spiritual, mental, and emotional dead zone that also cannibalizes itself. It is the dead risen to consume all life. [...] Its an apocalyptic that colonizes our imaginations and destroys our past and future simultaneously. It is a struggle to dominate human meaning  and all existence. [...] There is a song older than worlds here, it heals deeper then the colonizer’s blade could ever cut. [...] Why can we imagine the ending of the world, yet not the ending of colonialism? We live the future of a past that is not our own. It is a history of utopian fantasies and apocalyptic idealization. It is a pathogenic global social order of imagined futures, built upon genocide, enslavement, ecocide, and total ruination.

What conclusions are to be realized in a world constructed of bones and  empty metaphors? A world of fetishized endings calculated amidst the  collective fiction of virulent specters. From religious tomes to  fictionalized scientific entertainment, each imagined timeline  constructed so predictably; beginning, middle, and ultimately, The End. [...] This way of unbeing, which has infected all aspects of our lives, which is responsible for the annihilation of entire species, the toxification of oceans, air and earth, the clear-cutting and burning of whole  forests, mass incarceration, the technological possibility of world  ending warfare, and raising the temperatures on a global scale, this is  the deadly politics of capitalism, it’s pandemic. [...] We are the antibodies.

The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual invasion of our lands,  bodies, and minds to settle and to exploit, is colonialism. Ships sailed  on poisoned winds and bloodied tides across oceans pushed with a  shallow breath and impulse to bondage, millions upon millions of lives were quietly extinguished before they could name their enemy. 1492. 1918. 2020 …

Biowarfare blankets, the slaughter of our relative the buffalo, the  damming of lifegiving rivers, the scorching of untarnished earth, the forced marches, the treatied imprisonment, coercive education through abuse and violence. [...] The day to day post-war, post-genocide, trading post-colonial  humiliation of our slow mass suicide on the altar of capitalism; work, income, pay rent, drink, fuck, breed, retire, die. [...]

The anti-colonial imagination isn’t a subjective reaction to colonial futurisms, it is anti-settler future. Our life cycles are not linear, our future exists without time. It is a dream, uncolonized. [...] We will not allow the specter of the colonizer, the ghosts of the past to haunt the ruins of this world. [...]

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Phil A. Neel. Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict. 2018.

St. Louis is where storms collide. [...] And as the air currents grapple over the middle-American sky, the storm-swollen Mississippi grinds forward below. Once-uncommon “freak floods” are now standard, the levees overcome every few years and large chunks of St Louis and its surrounding suburbs washed away by the intractable inertia of a river bound to outlive any city. [...] In recent years, growing  climate chaos has only intensified this ambient war, each “extreme  weather event” more volatile and less predictable. [...] The result is another slow apocalypse.

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Hugo Reinert. “The skulls and the dancing pig: Notes on apocalyptic violence.” Terrain. 2019

In a newspaper interview a decade or so back, during an earlier peak of reindeer-crisis discourse, a [Sami] herder named Johan Mathis Oskal put this issue very succinctly: “If the authorities do cut the number of animals by half, and we then get a bad year [udr], we might be left with no reindeer at all. That would be an eternal catastrophe.” […]

“Apocalypse” […]. The word has something of the titillating about it: a streak of prurience, redolent of spectacle and sentimental violence,  the interminable grind of […] death-fulfillment fantasies […]. It feels indulgent; more specifically, perhaps, it echoes the affects and fantasies that are invested in the anthropological project of salvage – as a collective enterprise of acquisition and reification rooted, all too often, in the postulate of an apocalypse of the Other. […] The image of a reindeer excess has haunted the edges of the State in Norway for almost two centuries now: a fevered, imaginal swarm always threatening to overspill the borders, invade the cities, eating the land bare. [...] The underlying impulse has persisted: a will to contain the herd, to control them, reduce – and through this, to control and reduce a segment of the Indigenous Sami population that in conspicuous ways has resisted normalization […].

The escalation of this […] narrative has coincided neatly with the  escalating interest of national and international actors in “developing”  the tundra […]. “Death has occupied the tundra,” one headline proclaimed. […]. The miasma of this moment is simultaneously an effect and an instrument of governance: a kind of ambient manufactured context [...]. Acting on the vision of a vast catastrophe – a charnel dream of bodies that  rot in the snow, devastation, collapsing systems, the stench of blood –  the providential State deploys the killing-violence apotropaically, in a preemptive move: “To prevent them from dying, they must be killed.” […] In this sense, the reindeer crisis is also legible as a  performance, a spectacle of justification orchestrated by the State in its own periphery: “disaster as a form of governance”  […].

“Eternal catastrophe.” To someone like Johan Mathis, excess appears as a temporary and survivable mismatch  in the calibration of herd size to grazing resources. The problem  resolves itself: “nature itself reduces the [reindeer] number.” […]. Contrast this to the State narrative – in which excess appears as the continuous potential for a terrifying breakdown, a rampant and unregulated proliferation in which the dead scatter like  leaves, chaotic and numberless across an incompletely known terrain. Even the possibility of that crisis disrupts the sovereign claim of the State over death. The threat of force tries to reestablish that  claim, at least symbolically – aligning reality with a theory of power that takes this control (over death) as simultaneously total and already-given but also always under threat, inherently insufficient. In the crisis, the State falls chronically short of its own theoretical claims; the answer to that “failure” is expansion, growth, intensification of control, the further consolidation of power.  

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Nat Marcus. “At the Hellmouth Coatcheck.” Flaunt. November 2019.

Note that city limits are often transversive; radial lanes rather than walls at the perimeter. [...] Escalating seismics aside, the Hellmouth obviously wouldn’t open under Los Angeles, but rather off-center, somewhere out-of-pocket like Sunnydale. [...] Chicago acts like a trellis or lays out like a sheet of graph paper, one edge wet and thus easily torn away by Lake Michigan.

How, or assuming what posture, do we guide ourselves through the present via the future, if short-term futurity looks rich with suffering, and in the long-term, it’s merely void?

Apocalypse is a gradient, and the inferno [...] isn’t devoid of politics: while I write this ledger, the number of residents  of what could be called hell on earth (shoreline eroding, uninsured pharmaceutical deadlocks, Western wars fought elsewhere, etc.) only grows. [...] By our current trajectory, those existing outside hubs of capital -- beyond the spatial and/or ideological limits of capital and major cities, the subaltern and incalculable -- will be swallowed by ocean or fire first. One doesn’t need a prophet’s eyes to see this. [...]

A bell-hooksian love ethic is one by which love is recognized as a form of action, one undertaken to stimulate the personal and spiritual growth of oneself and others. [...] Hell is either already here or just around the corner [...], at cross-hatched odds with the orderly loop of the city filled with law, may simply allow us to step into the shrinking space between those two places, and be here willfully [...].

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[quakinginmystilishboots]

Not Her Nature

Read on AO3

Unwrapping the MRE with the outdated, from her perspective, S.H.I.E.L.D. logo, Daisy couldn't help a little grimace. She was hardly a fussy eater – growing up in the system, living in a van and now dealing with a semi apocalyptic crisis every Wednesday really taught the value of adaptability – but the damn things had enough bad associations to make her regret not spending a few more minutes in the pantry, digging for something else.

They looked exactly the same as the ones they had found in storage in the Lighthouse when they had traveled back from the post-apocalyptic future to their then present, which was actually their past now, but in the future, except maybe not anymore, and wow, if that train of thought didn't do a number on her already developing headache.

Time traveling-induced headache or not, the field ration was just as tasteless as its decades old counterparts they'd had around those very frayed weeks she really preferred not to think about.

It hadn't been the years, then. Just their nature.

Noticing the coffee pot in this new but actually old Lighthouse's command center was cold, she casually used her powers to heat it up in seconds and poured herself a cup.

“So that's your gift.”

Daisy jumped. Some super spy she was. Good thing May wasn't here to see it.

Her mother was standing behind her, a serene expression on her unmarred visage, with just a hint of curiosity and amusement. God, this was weird.

“Forgive the intrusion, I didn't mean to startle you.”

“No, it's alright. I'm supposed to guard you, anyway”. Daisy shrugged, sipping on her newly re-heated coffee. Almost as bad as the field ration. She fished for more sugar.

“It didn't help the taste, did it?” said Jiaying, with the faint of a smile. Daisy chuckled.

“Nope. I probably should have made a fresh batch. There's tea, though...I can heat up the water if you'd like?”

“How do you do that?”

“It's vibrations. I can sense them and manipulate them”, she explained, keeping it basic, because it was a fair bit more than that.

“You vibrate the water molecules and that produces heat” her mother nodded, understanding not quite replacing curiosity. She didn't follow up on her offer of tea, so Daisy went back to her unappealing meal. Jiaying's presence wasn't improving it.

Logically, she understood, and better than ever now, how what her mother had gone through had broken her... but, five years later, the betrayal still felt raw. As the nagging doubts. Her biological parents had been monsters. She had told herself they had become that way, that it wasn't their nature and therefore not hers, either. Yet the part of her that never really dealt with heartbreak and just run away from it, sometimes literally, hadn't fully moved past it.

“Any word from your friends?”, Jiaying asked, bringing her back to their present situation, hunkered down at the Lighthouse while the team was flying to Afterlife.

“Not yet. They should be landing in about an hour”.

Worry and frustration revealed the lie of Jiyaing's serene countenance.

“I wish we didn't stay behind. My people are in terrible danger and I'm hiding”. She said, as much to Daisy as to the empty room.

“Generals don't fight on the front lines.”

“We are not an army.”

“We were meant to be.”

As soon as she said it, Daisy mentally kicked herself. She shouldn't even be mentioning any of this but the entire situation was throwing her off balance and then some. Meeting her own mother, five years before she was supposed to be born. Her own mother, who she had wished for the first 26 years of her life. Her own mother, who had tried to kill her. Her own mother, whose skeleton she had dug up in a desperate attempt to save the person dearest to her. Sometimes, Daisy seriously wondered how her life was even real.

She was also not a fan of the “staying behind” thing. As she had told Mack. Repeatedly. Unsuccessfully.

She refocused on Jiaying.

“It's not what we chose to be. Our people have lived secluded for centuries. We have kept ourselves from the world, never involving in its troubles. The world is not inclined to return such courtesy, it seems.” Her mother's piercing gaze found hers again. “You and Elena, is that what you are, though? Soldiers?”

“We help people.” If the older woman recognized the defensiveness in her tone, she didn't comment on it. Her eyes once again turned to the room that was buzzing with 1980s computer noises and a cacophony of contrasting vibrations Daisy was becoming acutely aware of.

“When I was younger – Jiaying started, her tone more wistful than Daisy ever remembered – I thought our gifts should be shared, used to help the world. We can do so many wonderful things.... but they are also dangerous in the wrong hands, and there are always wrong hands. Yet, it is comforting – she added, looking back to Daisy with a smile – to know that our people can be warriors for the benefit of all”.

Daisy felt herself nodding. That sounded...nice. Or maybe it did because of who was saying it. Jiaying's smile turned pensive.

“I have lived a long life and I could live an even longer one. Experience is important but so are new perspectives. My daughter... when she was born, I had wished it for her. To one day lead our people where I couldn't take them. I feel so naive now. I did everything wrong”.

Daisy wondered idly when it had become so hard to control her heart rate. Or breathe.

“I don't think you should blame yourself”, she offered tentatively.

“Shouldn't I? I wasn't able to help her control her gift and I couldn't make her believe she was safe with me, that I would protect her, that I loved her too much for anything else. It is my failure. It is my responsibility”.

“People are responsible for their own choices.” Daisy shot back brusquely, perhaps too much so. If the conversation had been uncomfortable before...

“What if the choice they have isn't fair? Her gift hurt her when she kept it inside and hurt others when she couldn't. What would you do if that was your choice?”

Daisy bit her tongue, holding back the snarky reply – I wouldn't follow a sadistic bastard looking to destroy everything – on the tip of it. She stared at Jiaying, seeing the pain of a parent who feels they have failed their child. A whirlwind of conflicting emotions – bitter hurt, anger, hopeful relief, longing – engulfed her and almost overwhelmed her. Compassion won out.

“When I first got my powers, I wasn't able to control them and it would hurt me to try. My... family... they didn't know how to help me. Eventually I found people who could – and she was my family, too – but they weren't as... well-meaning... as I had thought – you manipulated me, lied to me – I was blind to it for a time – until someone had to die for me to see the truth – but it wasn't too late – not for me, at least – it's not too late for your daughter, either”.

“Thank you, Agent Jones. You have a kind heart”.

Daisy felt herself staring again, rooted in place, her meal forgotten. The blaring of sirens broke the spell.

“We've been breached”.

***********************

Nathaniel Malick was dead. His body, twisted, broken and shriveled, was currently stored in a black bag, in the Lighthouse's morgue. The battle had been brutal, laced with a yearning to hurt her foe Daisy hadn't felt since facing Hive. In the end, she hadn't killed him. Towering over him, his limbs broken, she had hesitated, questioning her reasons. Then Jiaying, who she had thought he had murdered, had touched him. And it was over.

“This is how I heal”, she had explained, apologetic. Daisy had just nodded, focusing on slowing her heart down.

Later, before the Afterlife survivors were flown to the village in Hunan where Jiyaing had been born and where Daisy would, too, if the events of the past few days hadn't irreparably altered her mother's life trajectory, they met again – for the last time? – in the Lighthouse's hangar.

“I knew your gift felt familiar”, Jiaying told her, no physical trace of her recent brush with death. Malick had spilled the beans, one last attempt to fuck with her life.

“I'm sorry I lied to you. We are trying to protect the future” What's left of it, anyway.

“I understand... but I am glad to know the truth. And to have met you. Your story, about your powers...”

“I made it up”, Daisy replied, too quickly. “I'm sorry. And please don't ask me... anything else. ”

“You were being kind. Thank you. And I won't. It's enough to feel hopeful again”.

Daisy stayed very still, willing her face into the kind of unemotional mask May was a master at but she had never quite managed.

Jiaying didn't question it, letting her eyes linger on her surroundings. “I had never taken an unwilling life before. It's... worse.”

Daisy understood that feeling. “The world is better without him. Believe me.”

Her mother nodded, mirroring her conviction. “I do. Your sister... I won't ask you what I know you cannot promise me. Just... she is young and she is lost.”

“I know. I will try.”

“Thank you.”

Watching the Quinjet take off, Daisy felt a measure of hope, too. It wasn't nature. And maybe not being born wouldn't be so bad if it meant it wouldn't be life, either.

[newstfionline]

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Most expensive cities (CNBC) Zurich and Paris have displaced Singapore and Osaka in a recent report on the world’s most expensive cities. The two Asian cities previously joined Hong Kong at the top of the rankings. That’s based on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Worldwide Cost of Living index which shows how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the prices of goods and services in more than 130 cities as of September 2020. According to the report, Zurich and Paris’ jump to first place was due to the strengthening of the Swiss franc and the euro. “The Covid-19 pandemic has caused the weakening of the U.S. dollar while western European and north Asian currencies have strengthened against it, which in turn has shifted prices for goods and services,” said Upasana Dutt, head of Worldwide Cost of Living at The EIU. New York City is used as the base city in the index. The top ten: Zurich, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Osaka, Geneva, New York, Copenhagen, Los Angeles.

U.S., Canada, Mexico to extend border restrictions until late December (AP) U.S. land borders with Canada and Mexico are expected to remain closed to non-essential travel until Dec. 21 at the earliest amid a rising number of U.S. coronavirus cases, officials in Washington and Ottawa told Reuters on Wednesday. Mexico’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the decision later on Wednesday in a post on Twitter. The restrictions were first put in place in March to control the spread of the virus and have been extended on a monthly basis ever since. In Ottawa, a Canadian government source said the travel restrictions in place at the Canada-U.S. land border would remain in effect for at least another month.

Recession With a Difference: Women Face Special Burden (NYT) For millions of working women, the coronavirus pandemic has delivered a rare and ruinous one-two-three punch. First, the parts of the economy that were smacked hardest and earliest by job losses were ones where women dominate—restaurants, retail businesses and health care. Then a second wave began taking out local and state government jobs, another area where women outnumber men. The third blow has, for many, been the knockout: the closing of child care centers and the shift to remote schooling. That has saddled working mothers, much more than fathers, with overwhelming household responsibilities. “We’ve never seen this before,” said Betsey Stevenson, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan and the mother of a second grader and a sixth grader. Recessions usually start by gutting the manufacturing and construction industries, where men hold most of the jobs, she said. The triple punch is not just pushing women out of jobs they held, but also preventing many from seeking new ones.

U.S. to Drop Case Against Mexican Ex-Official to Allow Inquiry in Mexico (NYT) The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to drop drug trafficking and corruption charges against a former Mexican defense minister to allow Mexican officials to investigate him, Attorney General William P. Barr announced Tuesday in an abrupt reversal a month after the official was arrested in Los Angeles. The official, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, had been Mexico’s defense minister from 2012 to 2018 and was accused of taking bribes in exchange for protecting cartel leaders. But Mr. Barr and Mexico’s attorney general, Alejandro Gertz Manero, stopped short in a statement of promising any charges in Mexico. In a court filing, prosecutors acknowledged that the Trump administration had determined that preserving its relationship with Mexico prevailed over pursuing the case. “The United States has determined that sensitive and important foreign policy considerations outweigh the government’s interest in pursuing the prosecution of the defendant, under the totality of the circumstances, and therefore require dismissal of the case,” they wrote in asking a judge to dismiss the charges.

Biden’s DIY transition proceeds without Trump assistance (AP) President Donald Trump’s refusal to cooperate with his successor is forcing President-elect Joe Biden to seek unusual workarounds to prepare for the exploding public health threat and evolving national security challenges he will inherit in just nine weeks. Blocked from the official intelligence briefing traditionally afforded to incoming presidents, Biden gathered virtually on Tuesday with a collection of intelligence, defense and diplomatic experts. And as the worst pandemic in a century bears down on the U.S. with renewed ferocity, the current administration is blocking Biden from collaborating with its response team. Biden’s representatives instead plan to meet directly with pharmaceutical companies this week to determine how best to distribute at least two promising vaccines to hundreds of millions of Americans, the biggest logistical challenge to face a new president in generations. The moves reflect how Biden is adjusting to a historically tense transition. With no sign that Trump is prepared to facilitate soon a peaceful transfer of power, Biden and his team are instead working through a series of backup options to do the best they can to prepare for the challenges he will face as soon as he takes office in January.

When Trump Goes, Can the Democrats Hold It Together? (NYT) The Democratic Party is struggling with internal contradictions, as its mixed performance on Election Day makes clear. Analysts and insiders are already talking—sometimes in apocalyptic terms—about how hard it will be for Joe Biden to hold together the coalition that elected him as the 46th president. The intraparty dispute burst out full force on Nov. 5 during a three-hour House Democratic Caucus telephone meeting. Moderates angrily lashed out at liberals, accusing them of allowing divisive rhetoric such as “defund the police” and calls for socialism to go largely unchallenged. Those on the left pushed right back, accusing centrists of seeking to downgrade the demands of minorities, including those voiced at Black Lives Matter protests. Abigail Spanberger, who represents the 7th Congressional District in Virginia—which runs from the suburbs of Richmond through the exurban and rural counties in the center of the state—voiced her instantly famous critique of the liberal wing of her party during the phone call: “We have to be pretty clear about the fact that Tuesday—Nov. 3—from a congressional standpoint, was a failure,” she told her Democratic colleagues. “The number one concern that people brought to me” during the campaign “was defunding the police.” And “We need to not ever use the words ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again because while people think it doesn’t matter, it does matter. And we lost good members because of that.” Representative Rashida Tlaib, whose Michigan district is among the poorest in the country, and who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America—directly countered Spanberger and other moderates: “To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want.” Other Democrats who describe themselves as democratic socialists, including the former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, have become a substantial Democratic constituency.

Pandemic media syndrome? (Scientific American) According to Claudia Wallis, of Scientific American, recent studies have shown that the pandemic’s toll on mental health has been even worse than experts expected, especially among young adults. Roxane Cohen Silver, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine, found that “increased engagement with media coverage of the outbreak” is a major driver of anxiety among people of all ages. “If people are engaged with a great deal of media, they are more likely to exhibit and report distress, but that distress seems to draw them further into the media,” Silver says. “It’s a cyclical pattern from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.”

Sweden’s coronavirus strategy (Washington Post) Even Sweden appears to be abandoning the Swedish model. On Monday, the country’s authorities banned gatherings of more than eight people as they grappled with the second coronavirus wave surging through much of Europe. The new restrictions followed other protocols coming into effect this week, including protective measures around nursing homes and bans on alcohol sales at restaurants and bars after 10 p.m. The shift in tone is noteworthy given Sweden’s notorious light-touch approach to the pandemic. “It is a clear and sharp signal to every person in our country as to what applies in the future,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said during a news conference Monday. “Don’t go to the gym, don’t go the library, don’t have dinner out, don’t have parties—cancel!” Hospitalizations are rising faster in Sweden than any other European country, and Sweden’s per capita death rate is several times higher than those of its Nordic neighbors Finland, Denmark and Norway.

Amid pandemic, Belgrade street kids find comfort at refuge (AP) In a small, brightly-colored backstreet house in Belgrade a teenage girl is drying her hair, while two others eat lunch in the kitchen. A group of boys are having their temperatures checked at the entrance as a precaution against coronavirus. It’s another busy day for Svratiste, or Roadhouse, Belgrade’s first daily drop-in center for street kids that for years has been a rare oasis of warmth and comfort for the Serbian capital’s most vulnerable inhabitants. Since opening in 2007, Svratiste has welcomed hundreds of children—some as young as five—who have come here to warm up, wash or eat. With social isolation growing and the economic situation worsening in the pandemic, the center’s role has become even more significant. Apart from providing food and clothes, the Svratiste team has also sought to help the children socialize and get to know their town by visiting playgrounds, cinemas and theaters. A key effort has been to include them in the education system and make sure they stay. During the pandemic, the center helped with online classes that most children have no means of following. One of their success stories has been Bosko Markovic, now 18, who first came to Svratiste five years ago. With the center’s help, Markovic has finished high school and now has his eyes set on becoming a policeman, he told the Associated Press. “They (Svratiste) have made me a better person,” he said proudly.

Pompeo To Visit Israeli West Bank Settlements During Farewell Tour (Foreign Policy) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Israel today as he continues his whistle-stop tour of U.S. allies. Before he heads to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, he is planning on making history. Pompeo will visit two Israeli settlements both considered in violation of international law, one in the Golan Heights and one in the West Bank. By doing so, he becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit either site. His de facto endorsement of the Israeli occupation stands in contrast to the outgoing Obama administration’s moves in 2016, allowing passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory illegal by abstaining from (rather than vetoing) the vote. His visit also comes as Israel plans to expand a settlement in East Jerusalem, despite outcry from the United Nations and European Union.

Reassured by Biden Win, Palestinians Will Resume Cooperation With Israel (NYT) The Palestinian Authority said Tuesday that it was resuming its cooperation with Israel, ending six months of financial hardship for tens of thousands of West Bank residents and signaling relief over the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr. It was one of the first clear signs that anticipation of a new administration in Washington is having an effect on international relations. The Palestinian announcement undid a set of stringent measures imposed by Mahmoud Abbas, the authority’s president, in May in a desperate protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to unilaterally annex large portions of the occupied West Bank. The Trump administration had indicated it would support some form of annexation, which would have imposed Israeli sovereignty over land that the Palestinians have counted on for a future state. Mr. Abbas cut off security coordination with Israel, raising fears that attacks might go unprevented. He also severed civilian ties, including those that help Palestinians travel into Israel for work or medical treatment. Most painful of all to his own people, Mr. Abbas stopped accepting routine transfers of more than $100 million a month in taxes that Israel collects on the Palestinians’ behalf, funds that account for more than 60 percent of the authority’s budget. The lack of funds forced salary cuts for tens of thousands of public-sector employees, compounding what was already a devastating economic crisis because of the pandemic. “Praise God, I feel so relieved,” Rami Kitaneh, 35, a nurse at the Hugo Chavez Ophthalmic Hospital in the central West Bank, said Tuesday night. “I gave up so much since the start of the crisis, but now I can breathe.”

Security officials worry Israel and Saudi Arabia may see the end of Trump as their last chance to go to war with Iran (Business Insider) European intelligence officials are alarmed about the possibility of military action towards Iran in the waning days of the Trump administration. Concern that Trump—who has pushed for maximum pressure on Iran—or a combination of Israel or Saudi Arabia creating a military confrontation in the waning days of the administration has been a concern for over a week, according to three European intelligence officials who spoke with Insider. The news that last week the president requested a list of military options from his military and diplomatic advisors has sent these concerns into overdrive. One fear is of unilateral action by the US to force a military clash that might make it impossible for the incoming Biden administration to return to the 2015 joint nuclear agreement that traded sanctions relief on Iran for an end to its nuclear weapon programs, all three officials said. They declined to speak on the record in exchange for their candid views on the situation.

People go hungry in Ethiopia’s Tigray as conflict marches on (AP) People are going hungry in Ethiopia’s rebellious northern Tigray region as roads are blocked, airports are closed and the federal government marches on its capital in a final push to win a two-week war. “At this stage there is simply very little left, even if you have money,” according to an internal assessment by one humanitarian group, seen by The Associated Press. The assessment, based on a colleague who managed to get out, said people “will stay where they are, there is no place in Tigray where the situation is any different and they cannot cross over into the other regions of Ethiopia because of fear of what would be done to them.” For more than a week, the United Nations and other aid organizations have been warning of disaster. Long lines formed outside shops within days of the Nov. 4 announcement by Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that a military offensive had begun in response to an attack by Tigray regional forces on a military base. Trucks laden with food, fuel and medical supplies have been stuck outside the region’s borders. Banks in Tigray were closed for days, cutting off humanitarian cash transfers to some 1 million people. And even before the fighting, a locust outbreak had been destroying crops. Over 27,000 Ethiopians have fled into neighboring Sudan, burdening villages that have been praised for their generosity, though they have little to give.

[jambamoose]

Why I Voted For Joe

I’ve been thinking a lot about the reasons why I voted for Joe Biden. I was pretty excited to vote last year with a few candidates I felt that I could really get behind that seemed transparent (enough). But like most elections, the exciting choices didn’t prevail, and with it went my deflated passion as it came down to Joe Biden. He’s a career politician that has gotten it wrong so many times in the past, on a lot of the issues he’s now running in contrast to today. I get it, he’s very flawed and a liar like every establishment politician.

It’s easy to talk about the reasons why I don’t like Donald Trump - The greatest hits are all out there (and I’m sure mine will qualify, as well), but I find myself voting on a very simple foundational level - Words matter.

I’ve seen a lot of career Republicans and lifetime supporters stick by his side at all costs because of policy, blatantly ignoring what he says because of loyalty to the party and stubbornness to stick to a philosophy that they’ve always bought into. I don’t care if someone’s a Republican - I was one myself years back, but at what point do we realize that a lot of things happening right now are not just a result of a flawed media (and they are very flawed), the “China virus,” or “wokesters,” but words that come directly from our President? Why do you think a traditional President speaks the way he does with careful, predictable messaging? Sure, re-election is always in play and the approval rating of the people, but it’s because EVERYONE IS WATCHING. You are responsible for representing millions of people, and being the face of a country for the rest of the world. What you say matters. “Oh, he’s just messing around about injecting bleach, or that we’re turning a corner with covid, or that it’s not that bad and we shouldn’t be afraid of it. He denounced white supremacists!” Are you watching the same person I am? Can you not read between the lines of what this man truly feels and thinks? Donald Trump may not be a white supremacist, and that may not be what he’s trying to inspire, but the words he says and the attitude behind them are inspiring that behavior across the country. The trickle down effect is real. I’ve seen it daily in my own community.

On the final day of his campaign, he laughed it up with a rally crowd about firing the Infectious Disease Expert that has been 95% correct on all of his information and warnings to the public, instead of trying to appeal to all Americans with any sort of unifying message. Doesn’t that matter to people? He harps on this need for law and order while his supporters surround Biden buses in giant trucks to run them off of the road. Do you know who would be first to denounce that behavior? Joe Biden.

There’s no substance to the things he says, no ounce of thought or well-planned research or compassion for those of us that are both equally scared for our health and of losing our jobs - Two things that are not separate from one another. Everything he does is emotional and reactionary. We’re currently divided over HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people dying in our own country. Where do you think that stems from? Why are people intentionally going out in public without any protection whatsoever after opening up the economy. Why is Gretchen Whitmer labeled some power hungry woman for measures she has taken that SO MANY OTHER STATES HAVE? We met more than halfway, and this is your response, and these deaths are the result. How can we cling to Christian values and Pro-Life talking points while ignoring 200,000 deaths in the name of Constitutional rights?

His reactions, his demeanor, and the things he says inspire millions to carry out that message, whether it was intentional or just top of mind. And it has consequences. It’s as important as any policy he may hold (we wouldn’t know, because there was no chance to debate about actual things we care about - Like healthcare, probably the #1 most important topic to Americans)

He ran on this platform of being the anti-politician, a refreshing alternative to establishment politics, and 4 years ago on election night, I told my partner, who at the time didn’t buy a word of my thought process, that I would give him a chance and welcome productive change to many decades of the same problems. But to not call Donald Trump a politician is to blatantly ignore everything he has done in the last four years. He is no different than Joe Biden or those that came before him, he just doesn’t have the political/voting track record for us to publicize.

I don’t know if Joe Biden is a “decent man” or if he cares about all Americans, or if he’ll succumb to the demands of the party, but I do know that I’m really scared for my family’s health going into next year when every single person of importance is warning us of apocalyptic type losses while our leader tells us it’s going away. That’s terrifying. A President should assure us that they have a plan in place based in reality, not lies that treat us like we’re children. 

I don’t like snooty liberals that look down on the uneducated or the rural farm country folk. You’re no better. I am no better. I don’t like a media that has twisted the knife on every story for years in unethical ways. And I HATE when I allow myself to throw punches on social media, which is putting irreparable damage on our mental and social health. I also don’t condone property damage when it comes to protest in any form, but I also know that kneeling for a football game in peaceful protest of police brutality did absolutely nothing but cause American flag wearing chest pounding and “If you don’t like America, you can get out” responses, and those affected reached a boiling point.

When did American Pride turn into ‘My way or the highway?’ or this strict obsession with centuries old documents where women had no rights and black people were slaves? When did the idea of figuring out systems (as a nation) that are inclusive to all people begging for help become Anti-American?

I’m voting against dangerous messaging to the everyday American. We were divided before Trump, and we will be divided after him, and that’s on us to look inward and figure out, but before this, debate was at least possible. We discussed policy, not wild conspiracy theories and which part of the country the Civil War was breaking out that day. We didn’t wake up every day pulling our guns out to battle the other side. I feel divided from people I love because of this man, who does not represent the Republican Party that I thought I knew. I know there are good Republicans out there that deep down know that this man does not reflect their values. We have to get past party loyalty.

I won’t celebrate a Joe Biden presidency because I believe he is a great candidate, and I do not count myself as a far-left, proud member of the Democratic Party, but I’ve also seen a lot of troubling behavior from people I know all in the name of this man, and Joe Biden will at the very least provide a refreshing restart. We’ve got a LOT of work to do as human neighbors far beyond the presidency -- I need to be better and engage those that think differently than me with compassion and understanding of where that person is coming from and their story. I’ll be first in line volunteering to fight for real change for my community when this pandemic ends, but I know that there is no hope anytime soon for that future to mend fences if Donald Trump returns.

[snkpolls]

SnK Chapter 124 Poll Results

The chapter 124 poll closed with 2,065 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

This month’s poll team: @erensjaegerbombs @momtaku, _Puppet_ ,  @shifter-lines and @ladymoe6​

  RATE THE CHAPTER 1,926 Responses

Fours and fives still dominate but there’s no denying that this chapter lacked the hype we’ve seen recently. “Thaw” had the lowest number of 5’s this year, performing similarly to the Zeke-centric flashback chapter in 114, “Sole Salvation”. (There’s a pun to made here about us “warming up to Thaw” but sadly I am not smart enough to make it.)

The Chapter of Necessary Filler & the Obligatory Cliffhanger

I love that Isayama isn't rushing everything and is actually focusing on little details and small interactions between characters. He really isn't glorifying an "apocalyptical scenario" just for the sake of destruction in itself or shock value.

This chapter felt like a nostalgia trip, but I wasn't in for the ride.

This chapter was a breath of fresh air ngl. These past chapters were mostly full of either a flashback, monologue or just having two characters talking in a realm where nothing happens and time is frozen, but, at last, the plot is moving foward in the real world too. Not only it contained long gone titan action, but also great character development/moments as well. I missed this.

The leaks didn't give this chapter justice

A weaker chapter overall, I hope all this buildup will be well spent in the next chapter.

I actually loved everything about this chapter, I can't believe Isayama finally gave me a reason to kind of like Gabi. I'm sure she'll do something to immediately change that…

Isayama-sensei is the best, each chapter is a 10/10 for me. I do agree that this chapter is not as great as as the last 5, but it's still great. This year is impossible to choose the Top 5 Best Chapters of SNK

It was good, but I was hoping for a crazier year closure.

  WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WAS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT?

1,995 Responses

There were many great moments in this chapter, but Annie’s highly anticipated return to the active plot takes up the largest amount of votes! Other notable moments were: Shadis taking command, Armin realizing Annie’s crystal must have unhardened, the 104th discussing Eren, and Jean’s salty reaction to Floch’s continued survival.

A N N I E is BAAAAAAACK!!!

as someone too invested in the gabi-nicolo-braus plot thread by i love sasha i am absolutely Fed with that excellent "get out of the forest" talk. thank u for the good food nicolo

It's great to see the other 104th members discuss about Eren's actions. At least we got a glimpse on what they think about Eren's plan.

For once I'm gonna forgive Isayama for putting off Levi and Hange. I FEEL BLESSED TO HAVE ANNIE BACK ON MY BIRTH MONTH!!! BEST PRESENT EVER

I like the parallels to Trost, especially the part with the thunder spears sort of mirroring the thing with the guns and the elevator from S1

  WHO WAS THIS CHAPTERS MVP? 1,988 Responses

Despite the influx of negative commentary, 38.2% of respondents agree that Gabi’s persistence to save Falco and reconciliation with Kaya earned her the MVP title this month. The strongest contenders were Shadis and Jean.

Annie saved this chapter from the Gabi / Kaya focus

Connie- the underrated suffer boi

Gabi best girl!

I am proud of Jean for taking charge, he acted like a real commander.

Reiner Best character 😔👌

SHADIS IS THE MVP AND I LOVE HIM

  WHICH CHARACTER WERE YOU MOST DISAPPOINTED WITH? 1,998 Responses

“None of the above” was a popular suggestion (25.2%) but Connie edged that choice out by a percentage point (26.3%) . At least you guys listen when the evening news says that stealing children is bad.

Silly of you to ask us which character we're most disappointed with. We're always disappointed with Floch in every panel he shows up in

it's good to have a connie development, but I was a little sad about his attitude

I'm not so much disappointed with Connie in this moment as I am with the direction his character arc has gone lately in general. I miss when he was fun instead of angry all the time.

I think everyone is acting super irrational. Eren is going to destroy the world but all the SC are "accepting" of it. I think deep down they are all horrified and in a completely insane mental state causing irrational decisions and thoughts such as Jean being okay with genocide.

I understand that Connie is desperate to find a comfort after all the ppl he lost, but I'm still extremely disappointed in him for wanting to murder a child. Not just Connie tho, the same goes for Jean and Armin. Armin didn't say "Let's not kill a freaking child" he just objected because he didn't want to provoke Reiner and Pieck.

  WHAT DID YOU THINK OF REINER’S ROLE THIS CHAPTER? 1,889 Responses

Reiner takes a back seat this chapter, and just barely over half of the fandom believe he deserves that nap after all he’s been through.  Another quarter, at 25.8% are wishing he could just die at this point, for better or worse.

"Enough already. Just sleep." - Reiner to Eren in 117

Can Reiner pick an opinion and stick with it for .2 seconds. he's like hardcore ready to kick ass and then immediately turns around and is ready to die again

Game over man

He's cute. End of the story.

I think it was bizarre that Gabi just let him fall asleep and left him in an enemy territory where he could be captured or eaten by a mindless titan

I understand him being tired an all, but sleeping in the middle of a warzone and at the start of the apocalypse???

Helos needs his rest and good dreams of Bert

I think it is set up for his future death : saving Falco by being eaten by Connie's mom (he was there with Connie in Ragako village)

Madlad goes to sleep instead of dying

Man literally too tired to die

There were certainly worse ways than "passed out from exhaustion" that he could've been written out of the chapter. At least we know his current status this way, unlike a certain duo...

He need some milk

Reiner votes for “Can’t he just die already?”

  WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE EREN PARALLEL IN GABI AT THE MIRROR? 1,869 Responses

Gabi’s design is based on Eren, and she’s had similarities and parallels to him in the past, what does the parallel in this chapter mean stacked on top of all of that?  About 70% say it’s to further emphasize how similar she is to him at her core.  12.7% don’t think it was an intentional parallel to that Eren scene, 7.7% say she’s going to receive his titan, and a solid 1% wrote in the eloquent thesis of “Fuck Gabi.”

A bit too on the nose

Both have the common factor of determination and the desire to fight to save someone else. "Fight, fight" = "Like I'd give up" In Eren's case, his scene in the mirror is portrayed in a darker, more aggressive environment, he must fight to save his loved ones, but for this goal he must destroy everything. On the other hand, Gabi shows a more heroic/pure attitude, the light is predominant, and his words refer to the desire to fight to save Falco without taking this violence path unlike Ere

Eren cant copyright this hairstyle

How dare she stand where he stood.

I didn't like any parallels that include Gabi. Not this one, and most certainly not the one with Sasha.

It definitely foreshadows something, but I don't think it's that she'll inherit his titan. I think she's going to be the one to end this madness and break the cycle. Unlike Eren, who fights for freedom both for himself and his loved ones, Gabi will fight for peace and equality: a different kind of freedom.

It symbolizes Gabi's character arc starting to go in the opposite direction of Eren, rather than showing them being similar.

It symbolizes Gabi's change in motivation to do anything to save her friends. Just as Eren's motivation in the mirror scene really marked the moment he turned genocidal to protect his friends.

  DO YOU AGREE WITH JEAN’S CONCLUSION THAT EREN IS DOING WHAT HE’S DOING TO PROTECT THOSE HE LOVES? 1,950 Responses

Jean believes he’s figured out why Eren’s doing what he’s doing, does the fandom agree?  The large majority think that’s at least a part of it, as 40.8% think it’s solely that goal in mind, and another 53.5% believe it stemmed from that desire but has evolved and become more complex.  3.3% of fans don’t believe that’s where his motivation stems from at all.

But if that's his goal it still doesn't explain chapter 112

EREN is doing it to protect his friends. YMIR wants vengeance and bloodshed.

I agree, because I really don’t know what else could have been done. The Eldians were hated all over the world and Talk-No-Justu is a folly.

I don't know what to think. At first, Jean seems to be in denial (like most of the 104th), but perhaps it's his way of realizing things. No, Eren must love them a lot, there's absolutely no way that his genocide is unjustified. Right...? Wait…

I think he's being pragmatic and analytical. Like a real leader. Something I expected from Armin. However Armin has strokes of genius during critical times so I'm expecting something.

In a breaking bad way, yes

Yes, although I believe Eren's old and complex relationship with the idea of freedom also plays a big part in this situation.

No, because he isn't doing anything about the mindless titans and treated his friends like trash. I didn't see any kind of concern while they were in danger. I think he's more eager to set his ideals into action.

  WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS THE CORRECT RESPONSE TO WHAT TO DO WITH FALCO? 1,958 Responses

Another serumbowl type discussion arises, yay!!...?  The vast majority, at a combined 81.4% don’t want to feed Falco to anyone, and just want to wrap him up and not start any more conflict.  11.6% think he should be fed to a known titan such as Pixis, and only 4.3% side with Connie’s reaction of feeding him to his own Mama Springer.

Falco is too important. He and Connie will probably have an arc.

Feed him to Floch, jaw titan always dies stupidly and Floch never dies so it should cancel out

Feed him to Levi that way we get jaw Levi and his hand back.

Feed Zeke to Connie's mom instead and take Falco somewhere safe

I don’t have anything against Falco personally, but it makes since to feed him to someone else

I like Falco, but Connie has lost far more than anyone outside the Walls. If feeding Falco to Connie's mom gives Connie some semblance of peace, so be it

NILE !

In a perfect world Connie can have the satisfaction of feeding ZEKE to his mother. Kinda proud that I predicted the “Connie tried to revive his mom” plot point but I think the fact that it’s falco means that Connie fails

There's no right answer here, but I can't imagine any mother would be able to live with the fact that she ate someone else's child in order to live again, so that's probably the worst option.

Well, logically speaking, Falco should probably be fed to Pixis. But my heart calls out for me to wrap him in a blanket.

  WHAT DID YOU THINK OF CONNIE SEEMINGLY SNAPPING ON THE OTHERS AND INSISTING FALCO BE FED TO HIS MOTHER? 1,947 Responses

Understanding prevaled with close to 80% of the fandom selecting “I don’t agree with his actions but I wholeheartedly sympathize with his reasoning”. Only 13% indicated that they were disappointed with him.

Falco's a kid, man! You don't cross that line!

Connie, if your mom needs a kidney transplant, you don't just shank another person to steal their kidneys. Just saying.

Connie has been pushed to his limit. He needs a nap and a minute to cry.

Although Connie is not thinking clearly, I'm glad they're not blindly hating on him like some have been doing for Eren.

Connie's break is truly amazing to me. The guy was always so good and chill and dedicated before these hard times. To see him at his breaking point, horrified by everything that is happening and overwhelmed by the situation, and thus reverting into single-minded dedication to one fundamental goal - saving his mother. It's tragic to see him like this and it's probably not the best "logical" action, but it makes complete sense that he'd do this. He's sick of this clusterfuck. He has a ticket to save his mom and he's gonna take it. Poor Falco though, of course.

I didn't see it coming, but it's not like it's unthinkable. When the world collapses we often want to run back to our mama.

I disagreed with him, but I thinks his feelings are understandable and, also, I liked a lot that he pointed out 104's hypocrisy. The serum drama is coming back to bite their asses.

I understand he wants to see his mom again but does he really want to give her the cruel fate of becoming a titan shifter?

I understand his reasoning, but this is literally the WORST possible time to cause an internal crisis

I'm sad for him & deeply uncomfortable by it.

I’m mad at Connie only because he straight up abandoned his duty to pacify the Titan situation.  He left Jean, Mikasa, and Armin to take care of it without him. Lucky Shadis was there to help.

  REGARDLESS OF YOUR VIEWS ON CONNIE’S ACTIONS, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HIM FINALLY GETTING SOME TIME IN THE SPOTLIGHT? 1,946 Responses

More than half the fandom was happy to see him speak his mind and get some character development (53.3%). 16% were absolutely thrilled. Those who don’t care, and those whose disappointment over how he returned soured the moment came in at 10%... I’m willing to bet at least one of those votes is because he doesn’t have a new hair style.

Going to the dark side doesn't suit the former sunshine called Connie.

My man has been in the story since the beginning. He is well overdue for an arc.

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

But why FALCO? He's the ONLY character outside the Walls I actually LIKE!

Finally we get to see him say something about his mother. Yeah, maybe he's not one of the most important charcters overall, but what he lived through when he saw his mom on that roof finally deserves some thoughts and emotions. Connie was on the margin of the story for way too long, and I'm happy we get to see him talk about how he feels.

Glad he’s doing stuff but he’s 100% going to die

I haven't really liked his development. He's, altho understandably, just an angry dude that can't help himself from getting overcome by his emotions. Not a good look.

I really liked his whole "Eren's crossed the line", now he's making the same mistake. A bitter irony, but does Isayama have time for that?

I'm really disappointed in Connie's "friends" for basically telling him to "chill out, you can't save your mother because we need to make our enemies happy". Hell no to that, I completely sympathize with Connie far more than his "friends" especially since Armin is being the world's biggest hypocrite

It's good because it now opens up the possibility of Connie finally getting his revenge on Zeke

My Boi Connie deserves his own plot-line, so I'm really excited

  TITAN ACTION! BUT OF THE PURE AND AVERAGE VARIETY INSTEAD OF COLOSSALS, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THAT AS THE FOCUS OF THE CHAPTER? 1,936 Responses

A chapter in the endgame that’s almost reminiscent of the defense of Trost with respect to mindless titan action and defending a base.  Despite many other happenings such as the rumbling going on currently, 46% were totally fine with the focus on mindless titan action and thought it was written well, whereas 35.6% enjoyed it, but wished there was a bit more beyond checking that box.  10.8% wanted a larger focus on the titans in the rumbling, and 5.5% would have preferred a focus shift away from Shiganshina entirely.

I love the fact that shows how prepared and easy fighting mindless titans is for them now. When the titans attacked Trost they were hopeless and Jean was the one frozen in fear. Now we get to see him clear up the titans with ease.

I think showing smaller happenings before the big reveal of Eren's titan and the effects of the rumbling are important buildup.

I would have rather focused on what's happening to Pieck and the others near the wall.

I didn't feel that was the focus, but either way, I liked it.

I wish more would’ve happened outside of it BUT it’s important to show them being dealt with otherwise readers would be like “wait, what about all those people who turned into titans?” So not the best, but necessary.

I'm not crazy about fighting scenes, I prefer the ones where they discuss stuff, but these were really emotional with Shadis and Pixis and everything. Like, it wasn't even so much about fighting itself, for me at least, but about Shadis uniting people again and Armin setting Pixis free finally.

I wish the chapter had explored the idea of Titans appearing now that the Military has begun using weapons which are more effective against humans than Titans. I had thought that the reappearance of Titans would do much more damage since the Military is no longer equipped to handle such threats.

Reminds me of the Trost arc and I love it, but it will probably end up being the last time we see pure titans as this much of a threat.

I love the Season 1-esque fan service. How this series has evolved.

I just wished they didn't have to kill their comrades...C'mon this poll question is so heartless wth?

  AFTER EREN GAINED THE FOUNDER, WHY WHERE THE MINDLESS TITANS STILL ATTACKING THE SOLDIERS? 1,944 Responses

Nearly half of the fandom are giving Eren the benefit of the doubt that he simply cannot control the titans, rather than not caring about them or using them. Although many believe that he’s too focused on other things to concern himself with them, and many others feel certain that mindless titans attacking the soldiers is part of his greater plan.

3 times it was mentioned that Eren/Zeke can't control the Titans, I think someone else is controlling them. Possibly Ymir, maybe we'll see Eren getting betrayed.

Eren can't control the mindless Titans because they're Zeke's Titans

It's highly likely the Founding Titan's power and control over Pure Titans has a collective effect of sorts. That is, it can turn Pure Titans back into humans, but if it did, it would happen to ALL Pure Titans, not just a specific group of them. It's possible that is how the Fritz royalty used the Pure Titans while maintaining the Eldian population during ancient times. Here, if Eren were to use that aspect of the Founding Titan's power, both the Military Branch Officer Titans AND the Wall Titans would be turned back into humans. Right now, Eren is bent on using the Wall Titans to flatten the World, so he most likely does not want to use the power of the Founding Titan to turn all the Pure Titans in Shingashina + Connie's mom into humans; otherwise, the Wall Titans would turn into humans again too, and that would ruin his rumbling plan.

Regarding Eren and the mindless titans, control issues aside, I just don't think he cares.

  WHAT WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE TITAN KILL THIS CHAPTER? 1,968 Responses

In a chapter full of titan action, several titan kills stood out as both awesome and tear jerking.  Just over half of respondents, at 51.6%, most remember Armin taking out Pixis after thanking him for his service to the cause.  In a very narrow battle for second place, Keith Shadis sowing the recruits how it’s done won out over Gabi taking a cue from Sasha and saving Kaya.

All of them were pretty darn cool

Gabi's and Mikasa's tie for me

Hard to choose, they're all good

I didn't find any of them memorable if I May be honest

Can I choose all? Because I am.

It's a tie between Shadis arriving to save the recruits, Gabi saving Kayo from the Nile Titan, and Armin killing the Pixis Titan. If I was forced to pick, I'd say Armin's scene because of his sorrowful dialogue upon seeing Pixis as a Pure Titan and the flashback to one of Pixis's earliest highlights when he believed in Armin and Eren shortly after they first met.

Literally all of them what kind of sadistic question is this how could I possibly choose

Loved all the kills!!!

ALL OF THE ABOVE

  THERE WAS A LOT OF DEBATE AS THIS CHAPTER WAS COMING OUT ABOUT GABI, AT THIS POINT DO YOU LIKE HER AS A CHARACTER IN THE STORY? 1,985 Responses

Nearly two-thirds of of the fandom currently enjoy Gabi’s overall character, despite what their first impressions may have been (65.1%) . Though there are still many who have yet to warm up to her, if they ever do (34.9%).

Gabi is beginning to grow on me enough I feel neutral about her.

Gabi is a LITTLE more favorable to me, but I still hate her and I wish she never existed. She can never earn forgiveness for Sasha.

gabi is good you guys are just mean

  WHICH THOUGHT BEST MATCHED HOW YOU CURRENTLY FEEL ABOUT GABI? 1,977 Responses

One of the most controversial characters in the story is of course Gabi Braun, but what do fans truly think of her?  Almost half, at 45.9% don’t profess love for her character from the mountains, but understand why she’s important to the story.  In contrast, 19.6% firmly believe the story would be better off if she never existed, and 17.6% want to see even more of her in the upcoming chapters.  16.9% just think she’s been in the spotlight a little bit too much.

Fuck Gabi, Eren will always be better, not this carbon copy Mary Sue

gabi fucking GANG

Such a great chapter! I’m glad that the Gabi hate is stopping now.

Don't know why are people surprised about Gabi. Her closure with the Braus family is something I figured was gonna happen eventually. Guess Isayama wanted to get that out of the way early.

Of course my opinion of Gabi is unchanged. I still hate her no matter how much "development" she gets.

Gabi is a super uninteresting character to me

i really liked gabi’s character development in this chapter, especially since i was previously a gabi hater.

She is the new MC now. Upgrade.

I see why Gabi exists but she’s just such a forced character. The parallel between her and Sasha was so forced and just felt wrong. Don’t care about her killing Sasha her character is just a forced rehash of eren.

I'm disappointed in her as she is becoming more likeable

Gabi's character development finally completed in a brilliant way

Like Eren, she's fighting for people she cares about, even if she's wrong/vicious with her methods.

I’m tired of Gabi

Really wish we wouldn't have Gabi shoved down our throats, she's not a good character, let alone person

I'm really proud of Gabi and how far she's come from her original POV. I'm really hoping that this influences Eren and I really hope Falco and Gabi get to reunite.

yams wants us to like her more

She has the same motivations as Eren once had, to save the world, basically.

I will admit Gabi has gone through a lot of development. But that doesn't mean I have to like her. I still hate her, and I will NEVER EVER forgive her for what she did to Sasha.

Gabi's haters being mad is so funny. My girl truly shined this chapter, I love her even more.

Gabi.... I feel like I would absolutely hate being around her irl but I guess I do appreciate her as a character in the story.

Never wanted to kill a child so badly in my existence

Death to Gabi Braun!

I don't hate Gabi enough to want her dead, but "too much spotlight" is the understatement of the year, especially when there is still a lot that has yet to be resolved with the main characters

She just wants to protecc

I love Gabi but she gets too much screen time at this point in the story. I want to see Historia and hopefully Eren later.

I LOVE GABI SO MUCH SHE IS THE BEST GIRL

I like Gabster. Gabi Gang Gabi Gang

Me no likey bad bad

  NOW THAT ALL OF THE ORIGINAL BRANCH HEADS ARE GONE, WHO SHOULD BE IN CHARGE OF THE PARADIS MILITARY? 1,955 Responses

The head of all of Paradisian government, Darius Zackly, went out with a bang, and now we’ve lost the interim head Pixis, as well as Nile Dok.  Who’s going to pick up the torch?  There’s a big three that seem to have emerged as popular choices, with Jean winning out, Hange coming in second, and Shadis taking up third.  

A combination of several people noted above.

Hanji+SC Armin+Garrison Jean+MP

Anyone but Floch

Jean. He's the only one that can view the Rumbling objectively and not rule it out as bad because their enemies are destroyed

Armin for strategy, Jean for leadership, Hanji for progress

Daz

Shadis should take over, but only untill Jean can get a little more experience leading.

As long as they agree Marley needs to be wiped out for the sake of Paradis, I'm okay with any leader that accepts that responsibility

Definitely not Hange. She wanted to make peace with Marley. Not leadership worthy at all.

Rico ;-;

Hange may be commander, but they are unfit for taking on as the head of the military. Same goes for Keith, though in this chapter he shows courage by stepping up to push the trainees to fight, I doubt he is willing to go back into a similar position as he was before as the Survey Corp's commander. Among the candidates, Armin may seem like a promising candidate, but aside from his proven intellect, just like Hange both do not possess the level of prowess of leading all three branches (four if count the training squad)of the military. More I think about it the "best" candidate in this list may surprisingly be Jean, but so far he hasnt been giving me the impression as someone who can take on such a massive role.

Erwin

  WHY DID FLOCH ARREST THE VOLUNTEERS? 1,903 Responses

The fandom is fairly divided on Floch’s motives, with a three-way split that comes close to being even. The highest amount of respondents feel he is arresting the Volunteers because he doesn’t trust them based on past actions. In the middle, people feel that he doesn’t want to be associated with any non-Eldian people. And in third place, people felt that he doesn’t trust Yelena specifically, and is taking her group down with her.

As far as I've seen, Floch is on Eren's side, not Zeke's. So that would make Yelena, who hasn't heard about her boss and the euthanasia plan, dangerous as fuck. Even with that, Floch's following his own principles. He has different reasons than Eren, but he just needs the "devil" figure to project his own will.

He always knew Yelena and Zeke's intentions because of Eren, and now he's arresting them to prevent more trouble caused by them. I think Eren "trusts" and is working with Flcoh more than the fandom expect.

Because they conspired to sterilize/euthanize the Paradisians.

He's a completely inconsistent character whose personality and character motivations change at the drop of a hat in order to create conflict in the story.

He thinks Yelena can take over his position of the best Yeager fanboy and he can't have that.

He was never really on their side at all! Just like how Eren saw them - they were a means to an end, a useful tool but a dangerous one that could never really be trusted. Now that Eren has made his intentions clear and the ideological split is visible, he's fully turning on them and suppressing them from potentially pursuing their own agendas further.

There’s not enough room on Paradis for both of those eccentric hair cuts

  GABI AND ARMIN BOTH SEEM INTERESTED IN PUTTING ASIDE THEIR DIFFERENCES: WILL THE SURVEY CORPS AND WARRIORS TEAM UP? 1,928 Responses

After having been warring factions since the beginning, will the warriors and Survey Corps finally team up as one?  62.9% feel a team up will happen, but not everyone from both sides will want to be involved, and a solid 30% believe a full team up is in the cards.  Only 5.8% don’t feel that it’s possible at this point.

Any cooperation will be a compromise, so maybe?

At this point I really don't know. Their passivity disappointed me fully this chapter. They need their TRUE leaders who are MIA at the moment.

I hope it happens but I think Armin is acting under Bert's influence

I hope not, it sounds lame.

i think maybe they will be forced to work together to stop the titans because they are attacking both sides.

It's the ideal scenario I suppose

Only until the Rumbling stops. After that, the SC needs to dispose of all the remaining Warriors to end the war for good.

PLEASE MAYBE REINER WILL GET SOME CLOSURE OUT OF IT

Probably but it’s waaay to cliché. Please don’t Isayama

They'll team up to stop Eren, if that works they'll be enemies once again

Yes and Yes! I've been saying this for months: warriors and SC are going to have to work together. Magath is going to play a role in this too.

  ANNIE!! THOUGHTS: 1,948 Responses

91 chapters.  91 Months.  7 and a half years.  Longer than we were with the characters pre-timeskip.  Annie has been in a crystal, but now she's free!  33.4% think she came back at the perfect time and Isayama has nailed his writing once again.  18.4% are excited for her return, but don’t feel there’s much time left in the story for the wait to be worth it.  15.7% aren’t worshippers at her crystal, and so aren’t too hyped out of their minds.  29% however: A N N I E

akueeoekskfnfjyfjekqwiruuri MY GIRL IS BACK BITCHES, AND I NEED POST-AWAKENING MIKANNIE FANFICTION NOW

glad she's back but the plot has nothing for her to do anymore

How he brought her back makes perfect sense and I love it. If she chose to come out at this time rather than being forced, it would have been awkward and forced to be honest. But Eren taking away all hardening is the best way to bring her back AFTER SEVEN FUCKING YEARS.

glad to have her back but sceptical of her importance

go back into hibernation

Good in-story reason, great writing, but waited far too long. Not sure if she will even be relevent for the remainder of the story that already has a lot of loose ends.

Hentannie

I am not hyped because it took too long and the series has gone too far down a path I can no longer follow.

I DID MY WAITING! TWELVE YEARS OF IT! IN AZKABAN!

I don't know what Annie can do at this point of the story that will make her return worthwhile

I don’t think Isayama and his editors would allow her to be brought back for a poor plot point/reason, so I’m curious to see what role she’ll have.

I wasn't too concerned about Annie at this point in the story but I'm glad that her return makes sense with the events currently taking place and I'm interested to see what Isayama has planned for her.

I'm no fan of her so I'm not excited at all, but I assume she'll drive the plot somewhere soon.

She's got a lot of catching up to do. Concerned it won't be handled well.

The reasoning is sound, and I am glad that Isayama thought that part through, but we have a limited number of pages left, so I am worried about how this will play out.

Took too long so it ended up being very 'meh' for me, but congratulations Annie-stans, have a drink tonight

Should've been way sooner, her potential as a character feels wasted since we're almost done now. All she'll have time to do is get caught up on what happened and then have a couple reunions.

I honestly have no idea what Isayama plans to do with her but I’m just GLAD SHES FINALLY FUCKING BACK!!!! MY BABY GIRL IS BACK!!!!

  ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT WHAT ANNIE WILL DO NEXT? 675 Responses

Annie will have a run-in with Hitch, get things explained and head towards the main conflict.

Dare I say it, Assist With Armin’s Talk No Jutsu with Eren

"Run"

Definitely try to get to her dad.

Try to find her warrior friends

Determine her situation and act accordingly

She won't be too surprised at what Eren's become. She remarked how when the "good guys" take power, then it's all over to Marlowe in Season 1.

A girl can dream of her and Pieck being badasses.

All the titan shifters will come together (location-wise), it seem like a flag? Since all the shifter's powers is a part of Ymir herself, having them close might have significant meaning.

ANNIETHING

Be traumatized by manga spoilers? Wonder wtf happened?? Try to find Reiner??

Annie will join Eren.

Not give a shit about anything apart from Papa Leonhardt

Annie will play a huge role in stopping Eren, in some way.

be a badass like usual and FEMALE TITAN ACTION?????

Change her clothes because why is she wet

umm take a shower lol

Character development and teaming up against Ereh

I think Hitch will be the one to find her - she was in charge of guarding the crystal. I think she'll be too weak to fight right now though, so I'm worried that she's just going to be used as a Titan Shifter snack :(

Somehow affect Eren's mindset. Not sure exactly how.

Go kiss Armin pls

I'm hoping for Armin to transform into the Colossal Titan. Annie will see this thinking it's Bertoldt, and then have a good character moment upon finding out that Armin ate him.

Her endgame is to at least partially counteract the rumbling with her scream ability.

Confused --> Shocked --> Mad --> or all at the same time. Anyway, she will probably meet up with Armin and the gang and they will explain the shit situation to her and somehow they will come up with a plan or smth.

I think she’ll be forgotten about for a few chapters then show up in the battle. It’ll be interesting to see what side she takes at that point. I’m sure someone will conveniently fill her in on the last few years.

She's a wild card, but the last we saw her she wanted to get back home. I'm sure she will be invested in saving the world from annihilation.

She is FAR away right now. I think dealing with Annie is a good wind-down after all this World-ending stuff has been dealt with, like when they save the Shire after defeating Sauron

Crystallize

Yeet to Marley and die with her papa.

Annie's first move will be to find a toilet sure she must be dying for a pee like

  HOW HAS YOUR OPINION ON THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS CHANGED?

Shadis, Jean and Gabi are the big winners in the opinion poll this month with the majority selecting “More Favorable” reaction to them. Shadis had 1379 respondents selecting “more favorable”, Jean had 1076 and Gabi came in third with 980. Fighting titans so soon after surviving a bear attack is impressive, so I’m not surprised with these results. At the other end of the spectrum, Connie (542) and Floch (496) had the most number of “Less Favorable” selections. While the good outweighed the bad, Gabi again proved to be polarizing with 432 people choosing “Less Favorable” despite her positive development this month.

  FAVORITE NEW TITAN DESIGN? 1,926 Responses

Isayama’s nods to his television viewing habits continue with the appearance of the “Better Call Saul” titan. Our appreciation of Isayama’s sense of humor continues with more than 50% of us selecting it as “Favorite New Titan Design” (51.5%). Pixis was a distance second with close to a quarter choosing his titan form (23.7%) as their favorite.

Still laughing over the Saul Titan. Good ol' slippin' Jimmy

the Better call Saul titan looks more like Bolsonaro (Brazil's president)

one last hurrah to the Pure Titan mayhem the series was originally known for, and witnessing the tragic end to Nile and Pixis

  WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO SEE NEXT CHAPTER? 1,926 Responses

The three elements of the story which have been absent for months, or even years, take the top overall votes for what the fandom would like to see next. 33.6% are dying to see present-day Levi and Hange again. 24.1% are still eager to get Historia’s perspective. 23.6% are still hoping to one day see Eren’s inner thoughts.

All I want for Christmas....Is Historias POV

I'm missing Connies adventure on the 'What are you hoping to see next chapter?' question.

Bitch give me Levi. It’s been more than half a year.

I literally only care about the 104th characters so the more of them we can see next chapter the better

Give me more Eren action pleaseee

So why is Annie pov not an option for next chapter?

I have waited for 7 years, finally, Annie is back. I wanna see more of her story and  character development. I cant wait to see her conversation with Hitch and Armin!

Please Isayama give me more good Shadis content

I really want to see Eren's full complete titan. Issayama, stop blueballing us please!

I would actually like to know more about that spine creature that is evidently the source of Titans.

Is there a Kiyomi option?

  WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 1,843 Responses

With close to 200,000 members it’s no surprise that Reddit continues to dominate the discussion field (47.7%), followed distantly by Tumblr (15.5%), Real Life (9.8%) and Discord (6.7%). Amazingly, 9% don’t discuss it at all. This month, FIVE of you said Snapchat, up from four last month, so while there’s still technically a possibility that you guys are actually forming some weird snapchat cult and this isn’t an elaborate psyop, I’m still not convinced. But regardless of where you discuss the series, or if you even do, we truly appreciate your participation in the chapter poll!

  ADDITIONAL COMMENTS? 416 Responses

OMG! Okay, it's happening! Everybody stay calm! Annie! Annie! Annie!

Annie got crystalized in chapter 33, and now she's out, 91 chapters later. Since 12 chapters are published in a year, we have been waiting for her (not including flasbacks and her just chilling in the crystal) 7 years and 7 months. I salute all the diehard Annie fans, you had a long wait.

Once again I have marked my calendar. May 9, 2012 - December 5, 2019. After 7 excruciating years our queen is FINALLY awake. This deserves a new record for longest amount of time a character has been comatose in real life. Thank GOD it's finally over I still can't believe it.

I'm a big fan of all of the smaller storylines coming together, hoping for everything to be wrapped up nicely and characters from different factions (i.e Hange, Annie, Historia) all coming together to address the rumbling.

It felt a little like a breather chapter, despite all the action. It was nice to slow down and get some character development for everyone.

“Everyone has a devil in them” is a great message. Hope they all team up and stop Eren. Very curious about what Annie will do!

The parallels to Trost arc were nice, but I felt like the endgame was finally amping up only to be put on hold.

Great chapter! I like Pathland, and the flashback with Levi and Hanji was great, but it was a relief to get some current time action. Gabi is best girl, Armin just went up by leaps and bounds in my book, and Annie is back!! So excited for the next chapter…

Great one ! The fear from the mindless titans in back, like in Trost. Many side characters development/deaths (Nile, Pixis, Shadis, Kaya, Nicolo, Gabi, Annie, Connie, Jean...). So much good stuff, I almost forgot about the rumbling going on !!

Amazing. If Isayama maintains this quality til the end, then this will be one of my favorite series, of any media, ever.

I'm wondering what Annie can realistically do at this point. Sure she beat Eren before but now he's in another level.

Guess we don't have to deal with the genocidal jock for a while

REINER HELOS BRAUN WILL SAVE THE WORLD (after his power nap)

ANNNIIEEEEE; Shadis' comeback was wonderful. I hope he can make up for the loss of Pixis and Erwin and such. He has great potential and he's a well developed character. Jean is asking the real questions, but the showdown between him and Floch is about to go down.

I said previously that if Floch survives I wanted my money back. But you know what? I'll take my refund in Annie store credit. Thanks for that bright spot, Isayama!  Also: this chapter pointed out how many good people in the world will suffer if Eren succeeds. And I felt as frustrated with the remnants of the 104th as Gabi. Nicolo and Shadis became my unexpected heroes this chapter.

Is Zeke still alive? Is he still controlling the mindless titans?

Floch didn’t do anything particularly bad this chapter but every time I have to see his face my opinion of him becomes less favorable. When Jean said “so you lived...” I FELT that disappointment lol.

I love the Braun siblings interaction in this chap. And Nicole's "we'll try to get out of the forest" sends chills. I think that's one of the point ISTM is trying to get across.

Does Connie realise that if his mother was given one of the nine titan powers she would be made to fight? Getting one of the titan powers is very much a curse not a blessing (especially with the Jaw titan)

At this point the Eren/Gabi parallels are feeling a little overdone and forced.

If Gabi receives Eren’s Titan it will be the stupidest most disappointing thing to happen in this- no all of manga! Besides, what is the damn point of her “paralleling” Eren anyways? But the Sasha paralleling was even more gnarly YUCK!

It's true that the people of Paradis will benefit from this shit, but I highly disagree with any justification when it comes to Eren's horrible actions. GENOCIDE IS NEVER THE OPTION. I think Jean is disappointed too but he's trying his best to rationalize the crap Eren's carrying out for he still doesn't want to believe his friend is committing genocide. I expect he comes back to his senses soon otherwise I no longer will appreciate him as a character.

That "who are you most disappointed" will sadly be filled with Armin hate tbh. And in the end he was just wanting to avoid unnecessary conflict... tbh Anyone hating on Connie, Gabi and Armin doesn't seems to know how humans emotion work in helpless situations...

What Yams is doing to Connie is further proof he is ruining his main characters (the good ones) to make room for his precious Marley characters (the crappy ones)

Connie's regression and frustration was more and more visible since Sasha died. He's lost everyone close to him. I am happy to see him finally snap at Armin and go his own way. This was foreshadowed for a while now.

I hope Isayama sensei doesn't forget to include World Millitary's raid in the action. They already mention in some previous chapter by Zeke.

Quantity-wise, the chapter wasn't centered around Gabi, okay. But. BUT. Gabi got quite a few powerful scenes, very Gabi-centric scenes, and I'm not happy about that. I don't see how and why the fandom so easily forgave her for what she's done. Isayama drawing parallels between Gabi and Sasha was insulting and distasteful.

It is highly likely that this is the last time we are going to see Pure Titan mayhem in the series now that the Rumbling is taking place, so I think it was great to that focus in this chapter. I thought it was handled well, especially with Shadis's scenes, the parallel of the new recruits seeing the Pure Titans peaking through the hole of the fortress tower much like a similar scene in the Trost arc, the tragedy of seeing Pixis and Nile (two of the last remaining head honchos of the military not counting Hange and Shadis) as Pure Titans and getting killed off for good, and how characters like Armin and Jean fought those Pure Titans.  

WARMASTER FLOCKE, TO LEAD THE ARMIES OF ELDIA TO VICTORY! Haha no I guess not. I'm torn between Flocke, Jean, Eren, and Shadis. All could be good picks but all outcomes would have different implications on the story and what it means. I guess if I had to pick, it'll be Shadis or Eren for now and then perhaps Jean later when things have settled and they've grown up more.

I honestly can't keep up with how many faces Floch has.

With how the pacing is handled there's no way this is ending in 6 chapters. The real climax is Eren having to go against his friends because there's no way in hell Mikasa is allowing him to genocide kids

As heartbreaking as this chapter has been, I already had my hopes destroyed when 119 was released. Today has been the confirmation for two awesome characters, who fell because of the non-veteran rule. I don't know why I still hope to see Keith staying alive, but at least we got an awesome moment of his.

Characters are being balanced relatively well. Isayama's got a lot of characters and plot threads to deal with, and while Levi, Hange and Historia are getting less focus than I would like, I think he's doing a pretty good job of keeping each character relevant and giving them all some good arcs/ moments

Everything (except for Gabi scenes) was perfect for me!

Eww Gabi-focused chapter…

I simply hate how cowardy the 104th is acting. It's clear they're only fighting in their own interest and are just pulling excuses after excuses for supporting Eren. At least Floch is honest about it.

Man, the 104th always been the group I care the less in the story, but this chapter they're being so annoying (apart from Mikasa). Well, I can forgive Connie because of everything he went through, but Jean... why are you saying this ""there was no other choice, eren is protecting us"" bs ? Nice of you to be complicit of mass genocide. (Yes, I know his face shows he's conflicted, but he still sides with eren) Also Armin... at least he's horrified at what's Eren's doing but when he said that if they don't kill Falco there would be no conflict with the warriors since Marley will be gone....that's just dumb. Their home and families are going to be destroyed, but ok Armin, go off. And getting into another serumbowl situation, with one of my fave uncounscious while the SC decides who will eat him... I don't like it. (I don't think Falco will be eaten tho, the whole thing raised many death flags on Connie)

Great chap, Isayama seems to finally give closure to certain plot parts. End is near.

Here's a crazy idea: feed GABI to Connie's mom instead of Falco, there would be nowhere near as much arguing with that

Highlights that people can rise above their conditions to become better people, offering a counterargument that humanity should be wiped out.

I don't get why the story pacing was disrupted so much. Why build up to a climatic cliffhanger with the rumbling, only to basically ignore it for the entire following chapter?

I honestly wonder if titan shifting still works as it used to. I'm afraid of seeing Falco get eaten for nothing. Honestly I'm worried about Falco dying for nothing while people right over him as a pawn in general.

Quite interesting chapter. Had fun with it. Much, much slower paced than expected almost. But then again we need time to cover all this stuff. And I'm happy it all took place in the current rather than another flashback. Not really a fan of the Gabi stuff but it is what it is. The other character developments were quite nice. Reiner literally just falling asleep tho lol. Overall I guess I wouldn't say it's a "big" chapter but it is necessary to bridge what came before with whatever comes next. And at long last Annie is back, so that's GLORIOUS.

I hope Annie will have such a big role she gets repaid for the all years she's been gone😞

I hope Isayama uses the slowdown in the pace to better sell the scale of the rumbling, we already see part of that by hoe Eren's dino titan still isnt complete, even after all this time

I love how the story is progressing.The next chapter is always something I personally don't expect and it's always exciting. The hype at the beginning/end of the month is unreal. As for the chapter itself, it's always refreshing to see Jean's perspective on Eren's plans because I love his interpretations on him. #TEAMJAEGER

i love my waifu annie i missed her so much

I love you Connie and I'm sure your mom is nice and all but Falco is a precious bean who needs to be protected.

I really hated the Gabi-Sasha and Gabi-Eren parallels. I also still think Gabi was never needed in this story, in fact I don’t know how I’ll be able to stomach season 4. Ugh, the first half will be completely and utterly Gabified. Gabi in color and motion plus speaking, YUCK!  Anyways I hope that the next chapter will have an update on Hange, Levi, and Historia. And maybe Floch getting punched by Shadis that would be the Cherry on top.

It was an average chapter, not bad but nowhere near as good as the previous ones. Plus I'd appreciate if other characters, outside of Gabi, had more spotlight. Her arc and development is done, give more development and screentime to other characters such as Mikasa please.

Just being disappointed. The pacing is very slow. Also the main cast's reactions were too passive. I hated it.

Just great. Just great. The drawings were incredible and the plot just keeps getting better.

Less Gabi, more Historia!

Levi and Hange better return in some way, shape, or form, or Yam's is in for it.

Levi is the new Annie

Love getting to see thoughts from many different characters and where they stand. A lot of them are still left behind trying to rationalise things to make it emotionally palatable, or simply stuck not being able to accept the reality, whereas Gabi has kind of gone ahead and realised there's evil on both sides, and she's willing to kill Eren or work with him if she can best protect the people she cares about (eventually probably not just her friends and family either, but the outside Eldians as a whole).

My baby is back!!!!!!!! I wanna see more of ANNIE!!!!!!

Nicolo talking to Kaya and Gabi was cringey af. Did they really do back to that derpy forest analogy? If this series ends with them holding hands and singing around a campfire imma legit be so disappointed. I need me my Rumbling!

This chapter felt like a nostalgia trip, but I wasn't in for the ride. It was a mess of short catching-up moments when I just want to pick Eren's brain. I want to see Levi and Hange alive or hear what Annie and Historia think about the events, but at the moment I don't care about even those storylines. I just want to know what the relationship between Ymir and Eren is now that the walls came down.

The first panel being Mr. Leonhart was a pretty strong indicator to me that Annie would be released in the last panel, and it was. I felt that to be extremly poetic, and the timing is good too. Another wildcard in the plot. Excellent.

Compared to the previous chapter, this one turned out to be very disappointing. I was excited to see the rumbling and getting a glimpse of Eren’s thoughts and feelings. But instead I got Reiner going to sleep, Gabi being paralleled to Eren (again) and Sasha, the 104th busy arguing over what to do with Falco instead of, you know, focusing on THE RUMBLING

Good chapter, but if S4 is the final season and airs Autumn 2020, and with a monthly release, curious as to how isayama might tie up these "last minute" plot threads such as the new developments with Connie and Falco.

What else can I say except it's amazing and it was worth the wait

Where is Levi damnit

[aeneasx]

Here’s Which Notorious Serial Killer You’d Be, Based On Your Zodiac Sign

check rising sign and mars sign

Aries

(March 21st to April 19th)

Paul Knowles (Born April 17th)

Also know as “The Casanova Killer”, Knowles was a serial strangler convicted of killing at least 18 people in 1974, despite his claims to have murdered at least 35 individuals. Impulsive and hotheaded, Knowles committed all of his murders within one year. In typical Aries fashion, Knowles demonstrated a lot of tenacity and drive in the beginning of his killing career, but grew too sloppy and overly emotional to have the ability to carry out his crimes without being caught. He was arrested after attempting to crash his car through a police blockade, was chased on foot, and then was apprehended by a civilian with a shotgun.

Taurus

(April 20th to May 20th)

H. H. Holmes (Born May 7th)

Leave it to a Taurus to go so over the top they create an actual Murder Castle. H. H. Holmes, sometimes referred to as “America’s First Serial Killer”, was a serial killer and con-artist in Chicago around the turn of the 19th Century. Overly ambitious, money hungry, and a bit on the dramatic side, Holmes would lure people into his murder castle (filled with secret passageways and hidden rooms) where they would never be heard from again and Holmes would attempt to collect their life insurance policies. Although he was only pinned to around 5 murders, many people suspect he actually killed closer to 200 people.

Gemini

(May 21st to June 21st)

Jeffrey Dahmer (Born May 21st)

Jeffrey Dahmer was a serial killer who notoriously raped, murdered, and mutilated 17 men and boys from 1978 until his arrest in 1991. Dahmer was also a necrophile and cannibalized some of his victims, as well as preserved body parts and bones from the bodies of the young men who he murdered. Charming and personable, Dahmer was able to lure the young men back to his apartment and often convinced them to pose for photographs before the nightmare began. But the true shift in personality from a Gemini like Dahmer came in prison where he fully committed himself to Christianity and completely atoned for his crimes before being bludgeoned to death by another inmate. Pretty big personality shift from someone who kept an alter of body parts in their home as a shrine to themselves…

Cancer

(June 22nd to July 22nd)

Genene Jones (Born July 13th)

Biography Genene Jones is a suspected serial killer thought to be responsible for the deaths of up to 60 infants while she was a licensed vocational nurse between the 1970s and 1980s. Cancers are known for their big hearts and wanting to take care of people, but Jones’ heroine complex took her to a murderous level. Jones would inject infants with lethal doses of succinylcholine in order to get them close to death with the intention of reviving them for praise and glory. After being convicted for the death of 15-month old Chelsea McClellan, she was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Leo

(July 23rd to August 22nd)

John George Haigh (Born August 10th)

Only a dramatic, attention seeking Leo would end up being someone known as “The Acid Bath Murderer.” John Haigh was a serial killer in England between 1943 and 1949. Haigh would bludgeon or shoot his victims before dousing their bodies in sulfuric acid in order to destroy the evidence. He would then cash in on their belongings by forging papers and selling what he could find for substantial amounts of money. But like Leos typically do, he became so excited about his sinister plan he misunderstood a key detail. Haigh believed that under corpus delicti if there was no body he couldn’t be convicted of a crime. This was not the case and there was enough evidence to sentence him to death by hanging in 1949.

Virgo

(August 23rd to September 22nd)

Rodney Alcala (Born August 23rd)

Known as a “killing machine” by many, it’s no surprise that someone as methodical, careful, and tactical of a killer like Rodney Alcala is a Virgo. Alcala would kidnap victims after luring them by promising to take their photograph and enjoyed “toying” with them before they died. He would strangle them to the brink of death only to revive them and torture them all over again. Alcala was convicted and sentenced to death for 5 murders, but new victims continue to be revealed while he has been on death row. Hundreds of photographs of naked men and women were found in a storage locker in Seattle, and many are believed to be victims of Alcala. Some believe Alcala was responsible for upwards of 130 murders.

Libra

(September 23rd to October 22nd)

Patrick Kearney (Born September 24th)

Patrick Kearney, also known as “The Freeway Killer”, is an American serial killer who hunted young men in gay bars and along freeways in California in the 1970s. Kearney would shoot his victims before dismembering and mutilating their bodies, sometimes even beating the corpses as a way to “release his rage.” Libras often have trouble with saying no and with their self-control, and Kearney took this to the extreme with his inability to satiate or control his murderous and necrophilic urges. However, also like Libras, Kearney was eager to come clean when caught and immediately confessed to all of his crimes in order to avoid the death penalty. He is currently serving 21 life sentences at California State Prison, Mule Creek.

Scorpio

(October 23rd to November 22nd)

Charles Manson (Born November 12th)

Charismatic, captivating, and ultimately completely self-serving and terrifying when crossed, it’s no shock that one of the most notorious cult-leaders, Charles Manson, is a Scorpio. Leader of the infamous Manson Family, Charles Manson lead his “family” around California in the 1960s, and eventually ordered several gruesome murders between July and August of 1969. Manson believed in what he coined “Helter Skelter” which would be an apocalyptic race war. He believed the murders would spark this war. Since 1989, Manson has been single cell-housed in the Protective Housing Unit at California State Prison, Corcoran.

Sagittarius

(November 23rd to December 21st)

Ted Bundy (November 24th)

Arguably one of the most famous serial killers to have ever existed, Ted Bundy was a rapist, necrophile, burglar, and murderer known to have killed at least 20 people during the 1970s. That being said, like most Sagittarians Bundy was prolific and grandiose, so it’s heavily suspected that he murdered far more people than he ever copped to. Sagittarians are also incredibly unpredictable, which is evidenced in the fact that Bundy did not have simply one method of murder. If he wanted to kill someone, he would find a way to do it. After escaping prison twice (again, so Sagittarius of him to not go down without a fight), Bundy was eventually captured and convicted in Florida, where he was eventually executed by lethal injection.

Capricorn

(December 22nd to January 20th)

William Bonin (Born January 8th)

Described as “the most arch-evil person who ever existed”, William Bonin was a serial killer who preyed on and murdered 21 young boys and men between 1979 and 1980 in Southern California. Expertly careful and practical like a true Capricorn, Bonin created a perfect murder/torture venue in the back of his Ford Econoline van. Bonin removed all of the inside handles from all of the doors aside from the driver’s side in order to minimize the chance one of his victims could escape, and would kill them inside of the van before dumping their bodies along various highways in California. The only reason Bonin was caught was because someone heard him raping and strangling a 17-year-old boy in the back of the van, which lead to his arrest. Bonin was the first person to be executed by lethal injection in California in 1996.

Aquarius

(January 21st to February 18th)

Robert Hansen (Born February 15th)

Detached, unpredictable, and incredibly secretive, Aquarians make the perfect serial killers. This is why it’s no surprise that someone who enjoyed literally hunting people was Aquarius Robert Hansen. Hansen would kidnap women and after raping them, set them loose in the Alaskan wilderness where he would hunt them down like animals. He’s known to have murdered 17 women, but is suspected of killing at least 30. As part of his plea bargain Hansen helped locate the bodies of other victims, and was eventually sentenced to 461 years in prison.

Pisces

(February 19th to March 20th)

John Wayne Gacy (Born March 17th)

A Pisces is a natural dreamer and can get caught up in their own imagination, so it’s no surprise that Pogo the Clown aka: John Wayne Gacy ended up being the sinister side to this sign. Gacy raped, tortured, and murdered 33 young men and boys and buried many of them in the crawl space of his Norwood Park home. Like a highly emotional Pisces, when it was evident police were cornering in on him Gacy gave a rambling, drunken confession to his attorneys. Gacy remained on death row for 14 years before being executed in 1994.

[skeptic42]

Breaking this off the original thread.

Me:

This is what happens when people are given a little bit of knowledge, yet not taught to think critically.

When @ace-pervert says something like:

Yeah as long as you have things which can test them

He’s right in that not everyone has a LHC lying around the garage to just fire up and test for the Higgs Boson.  However, it is possible to get an education specializing in the right field and get access to a particle accelerator.  And run some tests.

But then you get worried when he says,

You almost never get the same result twice when testing something

This shows a complete and total lack of understanding in science and how it works.  If nature was as chaotic as he implies, then we could never know anything.  And before he whips out with the whole quantum universe thing, there are tests that we can conduct and repeat experiments.  Plus the quantum universe thing is only applicable below the atomic level.

What we can know can change.  Science doesn’t collapse and all knowledge disappear when we discover something knew.  Theories (that is not guesses or speculation, but testable, repeatable ideas supported by evidence through getting the same results no just twice, but hundreds of times) are adjusted.  It’s only when they are totally proven false, like cold fusion, that they get scrapped.  Relativity supplanted Newtionian physics, but we still use it because it works for things here on earth.

But you have to be worried when you read,

it took so long for us to succesfully [sic] prove that the sun revolved around the earth

I’m hoping this is a typo.

provided you can demonstrate it exists to begin with which is impossible when it comes to things like intelligence which cant be tested directly but are assumed to exist but in truth are only hypothetic in nature and therefore not demonstratable.

First, there’s a difference between the abstract, like the mind, and the physical, like the brain.  Now, we know intelligence exists, we are currently using devices that result from using intelligence.  It also helps to actually define intelligence.  Being smart like Einstein and being a con artist like Trump.  Not the same thing, but some people can’t tell the difference.

We might not understand something, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.  Consciousness is a good place to start.  It does exist.  It can be tested.  It’s as immaterial as intelligence.

Next we have @chillimanjaro:

“There are dozens of aspects of reality we don’t understand, including other dimensions. We don’t fully understand things like quantum mechanics or even physics. Not fully.”

Other dimensions may exist, but so far only in mathematical formulas on paper.  We understand quite a bit about quantum mechanics and physics.  We don’t know everything, sure, if we did, we wouldn’t study it.  Our knowledge is expanding all the time.  We’re developing new tools and building more powerful ones.

As for “something beyond this reality,” it makes for great fiction and fun speculation, but if it can interact with nature then there would be a way to test it.  Just because there are wavelengths of energy that can’t be seen doesn’t prove that every other thing we can conceive of could exist.  We can conceive of a wizarding boy that goes to a magical school, but I think lending it credence instead of relegating it to fiction isn’t the best way to go about thinking about things.

That’s the great thing about curiosity and science, we keep looking for more answers.

Response:

chillimanjaro:

I’m not saying lack of understanding is proof of God existing. I’m saying that you cannot reasonably dismiss the concept of a diety just because you personally have not observed him. That regardless of what you or I say about a god has no impact on whether a god exists.

It’s not a matter of not observing or feeling a god, but understanding that all gods were created in the minds of men.

I could sit here and say I have felt the presence of God in my life. I could do that, but I know me saying that I believe I have felt God, that I’ve heard his voice, that I’ve had a religious experience is my anecdotal evidence and will be dismissed as such.

Very true.  People have felt a lot of stuff and been entirely wrong.

But I’d rather say that the dismissive nature of saying well I can’t see it, I’ve never felt it, I’ve never had that experience is not a proper way to address the question of Gods existence.

Again, it’s not a matter of not seeing.  I did give an example of something we can’t see, yet we know it exists.

You lack any faith in God existing because you’ve never seen anything to attribute that to the world and that’s all well and fine but that still wouldn’t determine the existence of God.

Nor would feelings or being able to conceive of a god.  Just look at history, all the gods were human or animal or hybrid, things people have seen, yet none existed.  The box you open has your god in it, yet no other gods.  Why?  Why is your god the one true god, but none of the other gods?  There may very be some super powerful being, but the idea is pointless.  god needs to be relegated to mythology, with the rest of them.  In the other box where you put all the gods.

To dismiss the possibility is just simply not reasonable.

To dismiss evidence is unreasonable.  To believe is unreasonable.  The possibility is not worth the effort or the time, except in fiction.

It’s as just as unreasonable as seeing the infinitely expanding universe and saying the only place with life on it must be our planet.

This is actually a very reasonable statement.  Is there life elsewhere in the universe?  Possibly.  Given the law of large numbers, it’s very likely.  Where the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe and the possibility of a deity existing differ is in one single point:

We know life exists in the universe.

And since it exists here, it is actually very probably it exists somewhere else in the universe with hundreds of billions of galaxies with hundreds of thousands of stars with trillions of planets.  It like the lottery, the chance of one ticket winning is microscopic.  The chance of a ticket winning is extremely likely.

I’m not saying that you must believe God exist because the chance is there that God does exist.

The greater chance is that god was created in the minds of men, like the 5,000 some odd other gods.

I’m saying very simply that that you can’t just say, nope not possible at all.

The possibility is a moot point, nor does it increase the likelihood.

All I can really say is that if you seek God, not to prove existence of God for yourself, but if you SEEK GOD TO FIND GOD you will find God.

Yes. When you really want something to be true, it is all the easier to believe it’s true when you don’t and can’t prove or disprove it concisely.  It’s even easier when that god is invisible, untestable, unobservable. unprovable, and exactly what you conceive.

Also comparing the Bible, and more specifically the gospel of Jesus Christ, to Harry Potter is not a valid comparison.

They’re both fiction, and mention real places.  

Harry Potter has been stated by its author to be fictional and is not that old.

Yes, we know it’s fiction.   However, the Iliad and the Odyssey are much older, yet we don’t believe they are real.  The Sumerian flood myth is even older then the bible, yet we know that wasn’t real either.

Something that has stood the test of thousands of years,

What test?  People being forced to believe it?

has the most original copies of any documents in the ancient world

Do you mean the thousands and thousands of fragments?  You do realize that copy means not original.   Some of which prove they’ve been altered (like the addition of the last several verses of Mark).  

 (and I’m talking ancient documents dated around the time that it is claimed Jesus did what he did) especially when it was widely persecuted with crucifixtion, prison, and being burned alive at the time it began and still faces persecution in many parts of the world has a bit more value than that.

This seems a little odd, like you’re running at least two ideas together.  I’ll try to pull them apart.

The only documents about the existence of jesus are the gospels.  Everything else was derived from that or from the people who believed it.  There are no original accounts (and the gospels are full of contradictions, read Bart Ehrman).

We do know that crucifixions happened.  Doesn’t prove jesus existed.  It just proves the writers used that along with the OT to fabricate the jesus story.

I’m not sure how people being persecuted today proves the bible true.  I think your working toward the logical fallacy known as appeal to popularity (many people believe it, so it must be true).

If people did not believe Jesus came back from the dead then they would have renounced their faith in him under scrutiny especially when faced with his same type of death.

Called it.  People believe because they wanted to believe.  Belief in gods was rampant at that time.  Many religions sprang up and had instant followers.  christianity happened to survive the ages, not through fact, but belief.

If they didn’t believe in the miracles that they claimed to have seen and were just saying so then they would have given up, not given their life.

That doesn’t follow.  Just because people gave up their lives for their beliefs doesn’t prove anything except they gave up their life for their beliefs.

No one actually saw anything.  (Why are there 4 different accounts of jesus talking to Pontius Pilot that differ in almost every way and yet none of his followers actually witnessed any exchange?)  We have 4 canonical and numerous apocryphal accounts, all created at least 30 years after the supposed events.  Yet somehow, no one wrote down anything at the time, only 30+ years later, during an age of illiteracy, rife with supposed gods, with many wandering illiterate itinerant apocalyptic preachers.  Jesus was a common name, derived from Joshua, a Jewish hero. The practice of giving your children great names hasn’t changed.

No one is out there dying for Harry Potter (except JK Rowling lol) but people refuse to give up their faith in Jesus and die for it plenty to this day.

I hope not.  But if people were, that wouldn’t suddenly prove Harry Potter is real.  There however is a possibility that J.K. Rowling wrote about real events, but due to the magic protecting muggles and keeping them out of the wizarding world we are completely unaware of this unseen world around us.  Rowling may have even had these events transmitted to her mind so as to foster further disbelief in the wizarding world and protect it from discovery.

I’d really recommend looking into Lee Strobel if you’re interested for more answers. They actually have a movie based off his book on Netflix last time I checked. It’s called The Case For Christ.

Wow.  Talk about coincidence.  (But when I think about it, it’s actually a very likely coincidence.)  I just read about his book.  Now I’ll have to go back and reread that article again, so I won’t address it here.

I’d also recommend that you actually read the New Testament of the Bible, not necessarily the whole thing but the first 4 books give a clear understanding of Jesus Christ.

I have.  I used to go to church.  Been baptised, believed it because everyone else did.  But when I started to develop critical thinking, questioning things, I began to realize that I didn’t believe it.  

I recommend you read it as well, but read it in parallel.  Find the stories that overlap.  See how they are different.  Read Bart Ehrman, Jesus Interrupted and Misquoting Jesus (I think that’s the names).  He’s a top NT scholar.  I don’t agree with everything he wrote, but he is good.

Another good one (though I will tell you that not everything between the pages of that book has the same value) is What Time Is Purple? It’s very short, shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes to read at max.

Maybe.  I have like 2,000 other books to read.

I recommend How to Think About Weird Things.  I’ve just started Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, it promises to be excellent.

[bigskydreaming]

So with the latest refocus on climate change and the immediacy of the danger there, we should be talking more about how this is linked to the rise of nationalism in various regions, and why conservatives in particular have been so resistant to spreading awareness of it.

Hate to get all conspiracy theory, but its the world we live in. Conspiracies are our bread and butter these days, because let’s face it....that’s what people with enormous wealth, resources and access to information do with all that. They conspire among themselves to keep all that. And then they use their control of major information hubs and outlets to spread the cultural message that it’s wrong and foolish to assume shady greedy old men are conspiring against the rest of us.

So. The thing that doesn’t get acknowledged much is the position of the far right’s support base is NOT the same thing as the position of the far right’s leadership, donors and most influential figures. The position of their support base is simply the position their leadership WANTS them to have, and wants them to be vocal about. Basically, shouting down attempts to either stop climate change, reverse it, or even just the attempt to spread awareness about what it means for our future, globally.

The leadership of far right nationalists and white supremacists across the globe has always known climate change is real, and was headed this way. And....its not really a problem for them. In fact, I’d be willing to bet many of them have long viewed it as a solution to most of their other problems.

Ie, their dwindling hold on global power, influence and resources as population demographics shift away from their favor.

Because see, while climate change is scary as hell, it is NOT synonymous with the end of the world. It’s not an extinction event in and of itself, even as many of us adopt language that presents it as the end of human civilization. We have the technology, resources, and knowledge needed to ensure the human race survives this massive shift in our planet’s climates and ecosystems.

If we fail to reverse, stop or slow down climate change in time, which we basically only have the next ten to fifteen years to do, before these changes hit critical mass and become a runaway train we can only adapt ourselves to survive - then civilization will still be here a hundred years from now. And no, it’s not necessarily going to look like a post-apocalyptic Mad Max wasteland of desert outposts.

But it is going to look very different. That part’s inevitable. What exactly it looks like, is still up for grabs....and THAT is what the far right is so desperately grabbing on to all across the globe.

What climate change means, practically speaking, is a global shift in key population centers. Mass migrations to escape parts of the earth newly susceptible and thus less innately resistant to natural disasters. Shifts in what resources are most prioritized and where those resources are most concentrated. The current world powers and influencers, most of whom occupy those positions due to advantages stemming from their location, resources, and yes, climates....will fade in power as these advantages drain away, and their populations with them, either to death, famine, disease, emigration, or all of the above. New world powers will emerge in places that currently are less advantaged, but whose advantages and thus desirability and influence grow in response to the changing planet and the changing needs of the planet’s population.

Basically....if we hit critical mass with climate change and doom ourselves to a rapidly changing planet over the next hundred years....the human race, on the whole, most likely will do what the human race has always done in the face of massive ecological shifts, natural disasters, restructuring of regional or global power, and even potential extinction events. It’ll adapt. It’ll find new ways to survive, to live, to rebuild, to not even start over necessarily, but at least dramatically shift direction.

And in the face of this planetary shift, in order to adapt and survive, a lot of the human race is going to have to move. Physically. Pulling up stakes, and migrating in huge numbers, following the reshaped landscape and repositioning of global resources and settling in new locations better suited to survive and thrive in. Just like any number of previous civilizations did any number of times throughout human history....but which hasn’t happened on any kind of mass scale like we’re looking at now for centuries at the very minimum....because for thousands of years, our planet has been relatively stable and civilization had advanced to the point where we were able to adapt or ride out any of the relatively minor changes our planet threw at us, without having to uproot entire civilizations.

But if climate change keeps happening and worsening, people are going to have to move in massive, unprecedented numbers, and in very specific directions:

North. And inland.

And the far right, in any number of countries, has been planning to already be there when people do.

There is nowhere on Earth that won’t be affected by climate change over the next hundred years. BUT, those changes are not all going to look the same. Global warming means the planet is getting hotter, even as people point to colder winters in their area as proof that sounds ridiculous. But the intricate ways climate systems are all interconnected means that overall increases in temperature of course lead to colder weather in some places and climate systems shift....but global warming is still global warming. The planet IS getting hotter. Ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and this means a handful of very specific things.

1) An increase in hurricanes, flooding and extreme weather along coastal regions, gradual erosion of current coastlines, etc. Unpredictable and extremely destructive hurricanes like Hurricane Michael are going to become more and more commonplace. Rising sea levels means literal less space and more and more coastal land gets overtaken by the ocean. Some coastal regions are going to become completely uninhabitable, and the remaining will at the least become completely undesirable until the planet’s new climate patterns stabilize either naturally or due to future human intervention, and sea levels stop rising, allowing for new coastal population centers to safely emerge.

In the meanwhile, the very things that made coastal regions the hubs of any number of countries’ economies as well as concentrations of their more progressive and liberal populace, are the very things that are going to make these among the hardest hit by climate change. Ports are a convenient way to travel and trade, as well as an easy way to spread information, culture, and points of views as travelers from various parts of the globe intermingle. That’s the way its always been. As long as the coastlines have been relatively stable. With unpredictable and extremely hostile oceanic weather patterns on the rise, as well as a lack of infrastructure along the new, ever shifting coastlines to receive ocean-going vessels, we’re likely to see a huge decline in ocean-going travel and trade. Meaning no more influence for formerly coastal regions and populations. No desirability to live there. Mass emigrations either by choice or by weather conditions or lack of resources driving people....inland.

Where the far right have long been consolidating their power bases, and are already well dug in and established, holding most of the power and resources. Look at the US as an example....with major liberal hubs like California and New York in a state of rapid decline....the central US is going to become more and more a hub of its political power and haven for populations fleeing the coastlines and needing to rely on the assistance of those currently entrenched there in order to re-establish themselves and rebuild.

2) Next look at global temperatures in general. The planet getting hotter doesn’t just mean rising sea levels, it means heat waves in locations that are already extremely hot, or even just moderately temperate. The southern hemisphere and equator is going to become more and more inhospitable in general. Some places, the heat is just going to become too unbearable to live. More and more, in greater and greater numbers, people are going to migrate north. To places where its currently less desirable to live because of the cold. Because winters are harsh on agriculture. 

Temperatures spiking in the areas that are currently deemed to have optimal weather means temperatures spiking in areas with suboptimal temperatures too. The places that are too cold now, are going to become just right, fairly soon.

And once again....look where the far right has been consolidating power. 

This is what I mean by the rise of nationalism being no coincidence. Because look specifically at WHERE nationalism has been most on the rise. Yeah, its a global thing, but also pay special attention to places where that nationalism has been boosted, vitalized and encouraged by support from wealthy conservatives from other nations.

I’m talking north central US (Montana, the Dakotas, etc, as well as Maine and Alaska, which are coastal regions that are widely considered to be in the sweet spot where their shorelines will likely remain about where they’re at now, due to the way currents distributing the melting ice water from the polar regions are arranged.) But I’m also talking about Canada. Northern European countries, specifically. Russia. 

These are the areas that are best positioned to a) have built in resistance to natural disasters or lie in areas where such natural disasters are least likely to increase, b) have stockpiles of resources as well as natural resources that are most climate-change proof, and thus best positioned to become the new global trade currency or lead the way in shaping the new directions human civilization takes, c) be most resistant/least vulnerable to rising social tensions, riots, wars over dwindling resources IF they consolidate their key/desired population densities in time.

And by the time new climate patterns stabilize or human technology comes up with ways to stabilize them, the map of global power will be completely redrawn. With the far right sitting smack on top of the most desirable locations and resources with white nationalist populations who are grateful that their leaders had prepared for the worst and allowed them to weather the coming upheaval relatively unscathed, seeing it as affirmation they were right to put their faith in them all along, rather than seeing that their leaders could've helped prevent all this upheaval but chose to capitalize on it instead.

Too much focus has been spent playing up the myth of the stupid, self-destructive GOP and other far right governments willing to destroy the whole world rather than give up the reins.

People are forgetting the number one defining character trait of people that greedy, that ruthless, that GOOD at exploiting people and power and influence in order to consolidate this much wealth and power in the first place - they don’t want to give it up. EVER. Not even in death.

They’re not out to watch the whole world burn....just enough of it that it leaves them holding all the seeds of future civilization when its time for reforestation. 

Why try and kill off all the people you’re unsure you can maintain power and control over when you can get the planet to do it for you?

So here’s my take - yes, we absolutely need to be doing everything we can do slow down climate change, make the changes we need on a society wide level in time to keep the worst of all this from happening. And that means voting, trying to take back democratic control of the current global regimes, getting legislation that curbs and regulates the environmental offenses of the 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, most of which are controlled by exactly these people, mandates the introduction and proliferation of more sustainable, less ecologically damaging systems and power grids, etc.

But if climate change’s critical mass is still gonna happen, if the changes we need to make can’t be made in time, if it takes too long to oust those currently in power and replace them with more conscientious public servants?

Well. All those liberal progressives who talked about moving when Trump got elected, fleeing the country, going to New Zealand or whatever....fuck that. You want to move and you actually have the privilege of being financially secure enough, have enough resources and means and opportunity to be able to do that? The places to move are Maine, Alaska, Montana, northern Europe....all the places that are deeply red and with the far right just trying to make more so. Go there. Establish yourselves there now. Dig in. Build a foothold. Wrestle away some power on a local scale. Try and reshape the political climate of these places in case the worst happens, while there’s still time.

Build up means and infrastructure to be able to help and receive immigrants coming north and inland without means or resources of their own as climate change forces them from their homes. Don’t force them to rely on the kindness of people we know have none for anyone who isn’t straight, white, and with them 100%. 

And if we’re somehow able to pump the brakes in time, pull back from the brink, stop the rise of nationalism and climate change? Great, fantastic, you haven’t wasted anything, you’re still helping to spread out the distribution of progressive politics, mindsets and resources to better resist whatever nationalists turn to next to try and consolidate their power even further.

[musicmixtapes]

September 26, 2018 Mix

This week as I was curating the playlist, I got to thinking a lot about the way that our mood at a particular moment affects the music we choose to listen to. Some people say that they pick music the opposite of their mood to counteract a bad day, some choose to delve into that feeling and get in touch with it. I, being the latter, am having a memory ridden, reflective sort of week, so I chose songs that talk about the past a little bit and how they can influence the present/future. I hope you enjoy and find something that suits your mood. 

Spotify Playlist 1. Planet Hunter by Wolf Alice - This song is all about trying to recreate memories of something or with someone that happened awhile back, events which were really positive, but they cannot be rehabilitated. The artist reminds me of if Taylor Swift had not become a pop music sellout and instead taken a dark moody indie music route, and well, the results are stunning because she creates a depth of feeling to the music that most pop cannot do, in my opinion. The part I relate to the most that struck me was the repeated phrase of "I left my mind behind in 2015" which reaches a point where we, as listeners, realize that there are peaks in our lives that we wish to return to, especially at some of our valleys. I love this because it is an upbeat song about feeling out of place in the present, which is really fascinating. 2. St. Paul by Ritchy Mitch & The Coal Miners - Honestly, the piano that tinkles into a wonderful melody/rift in the beginning has to be the most alluring part of this song, which eventually becomes a much bigger feeling as it continues on. There aren't many striking piano-driven songs these days, so I was impressed with that along with the fact that this song clearly disses a saint, yet doesn't seem offensive in the slightest because it is so personal and not an attack on anything but oneself's feelings. The instrumentals and their uncertainty directly correlate with the restlessness of the lyrics and the crunchy sound of the singer's vocals; we love to see a parallel of the sound of the music to the actual meaning behind the song. All the literary techniques used to write a song is the reason why our ears are so attuned to it. 3. Window by Nana Grizol - Going along with the recurring theme of memories and the past, this song is literally a metaphor for a window looking into the past of what something once was. The defining line of this song comes when the singer refers to the window of the past and saying that "we can lift them/and focus on the moments that we lift in" which is a beautiful shift in tone from a reminiscent tune to one that look towards changing for the better and leaving the memories (whether good, bad or ugly) behind for someone else to revolve around. The artist, Nana Grizol, often covers really broad topics, such as negative feelings, the passing of time, moving on in a really succinct way that reaches an audience who needs to hear mantras in a refreshing way. I like to think of this song as a meditative yoga for the ears, please practice daily. 4. Solitary Daughter by Bedouine - I found this song in the most interesting way, so here it is: I was in the Mcnally Jackson bookstore on Prince Street in the city, rifling through the poetry section (as one does) and stumbled upon a book that transcribed songs into poems and included commentary from other writers and from the artists themselves, in a lot of cases. Reading these lyrics as a poem in a book was so thrilling because I often talk a lot about how some songs are really just poetry set to music, and in this case, other people must have thought so too. This piece is incredible in its way of speaking about a woman not needing someone to rely on or anything to sustain her, except for her own self, her home is herself, which is so liberating to both hear and read. I highly recommend reading the lyrics alongside listening. 5. Chemicals by Gregory Alan Isokov - Off of his brand new EP "Dark, Dark, Dark" which was released not but six days ago, is this peaceful and meaningful acoustic folky ballad by a personal favorite of mine. This piece is especially interesting because it plays off of the notion of the different ways in which chemicals can affect a person's body, kind of like the way a person who is really important in one's life can do the same. An image that I love to see showing up in art is the trope of hands trying to reach one another, whether it be in the "Creation of Adam" or an old film. This song plays with this lost hands imagery, in the line "how my hands can't seem to find your hands in the dark", which if I wasn't already in love with the song, sealed the deal for me 100%. Definitely check out the other two tracks off of the EP, they are wonderful as well. 6. Slipped by The National - This week's mix all began with this one sad ballad by my current favorite group and it just built off of this. I cannot express with words, on paper or in person, how much I am tethered to the lyrics of this song. Something about the raw and honest way that this was strung together speaks to a person who is done with being vulnerable to someone who has no intention in showing hidden parts of themselves back. In this narrative song, the speaker is talking to a girl who left the city to go to a more rural area in the South, thus separating the two, and telling how tragic it is to break away from something when he could not be what she wanted him to be. This is a solemn and intense vow to oneself that they will not break down and fall apart because of a love ending, this is another mantra. 7. We're So Lost by Voom - Upon first instinct, I would like to classify this song under tracks I would listen to whilst laying under the stars and thinking about our existence in such a big place or while slow dancing with someone and contemplating what is going on. But now, even in a good mood this song makes sense because no matter how you feel in terms of being in this world, everyone can agree that we have no idea what we're doing most of the times and are mere beings that are floating through time and space, trying to determine why we were placed here in the first place. In some ways, this can be thought of as a slow rock philosophical crisis song, or you can just love it because of the waltz like beauty of it. Your choice. 8. Fuck Love by Lalić - I definitely expected a cynical, bitter, anger driven song when looking at the title, but if I can say any cliché here, it's don't judge a song (book) based on its title (cover). If anything, it's more of a love song, explaining that the speaker has no real reason to be saying things like "fuck love". I think this is interesting because oftentimes, people don't like to be honest with themselves about their emotions, so instead they put up their walls immediately and turn to sarcastic, defensive comments like "i hate everyone" "love suck" or.... "fuck love". Being one of these people, this song opens up that term and exposes us hate poseurs who are very sensitive and truly love to love. The low fi rock sounds with a strong guitar line is nice to hear as well. 9. Blood Bank by Bon Iver - He is so detailed in his description of bags of blood, I have to believe that he actually had a conversation with someone he loved at a blood bank, discussing the differences between people's blood... which is... interesting. It is also vital to this song to understand that the two separate memories he tells about are very closely related because he is explaining the variability of relationships and how to decide whether it is prudent to enter into an affair or to be your own person and indulge in lonely behavior. Of course, it never hurts to be told really emotional things like this with Bon Iver's delicate crooning and layered harmonies that build throughout with such simple complexity, unmatched by other singers in his genre. 10. How It Gets In by Frightened Rabbit ft. Julien Baker - Your first question after listening may very well be "how what gets in?" as my first question was this exact thing. Maybe what gets in is this undeniably wonderful call and response song along with angelic harmonies. But maybe, what gets in, at least in terms of this song, is the literal healing of an open wound and how to properly dress it and make sure it doesn't get infected, or at least that was what was accounted by the singers in question. I interpreted the song to be a recounting and lesson on how love can come into one's life in unexpected places, and how just because there was hurt and pain in the heart for a long time, does not mean it has to stay that way forever. 11. NFWMB by Hozier - This acronym is probably the smartest thing I have experienced in a song's title in a long time: NFWMB is really Nothing Fucks With My Baby, expressed in a classy way, courtesy of the forest prince and love of my life, Andrew Hozier-Byrne. As always, there are several biblical references and apocalyptic death metaphors, which always leaves me feeling very confused and inspired at the same time. The very jazz and blues influenced low key rock song is so different from other love songs that it kind of creates its own category in that sense. It is described by others as "the love song for the end of the world" therefore going back to my feelings of apocalypse, decay and biblical tellings. 12. One In A Million by Hudson Taylor - "You gotta be cruel if you wanna be kind" ok this just hit me way too hard and true. The only way I even discovered this artist is actually because they are opening up for the Hozier concert I am attending tonight and now I am super excited to see them perform as the opening act as well. They remind me of a toned down version of The Kooks in a lot of shared vocals and chord progressions and upbeat instrumentals, except they are a duo hailing from Ireland and they classify themselves a folk band, though the punk/alternative rock influences found in this song are undeniably present. Also present is the message of knowing someone doesn't care about you the way you care about them and needing to be released from that sort of madness... cool. 13. Into The Mystic by Van Morrison - I'm probably not introducing anybody to this song for the first time right now and certainly not the last, but something about the changing of the seasons and the shift of weather from summer to autumn calls out to the mystical and slow dance vibe that this classic and iconic folky rock song inspires. There is absolutely nothing better than the buildup from quiet lull to the horn heavy chorus and interlude that just makes you want to stop and dance wherever you are in your day. Another musical aspect that is highly appreciated by yours truly is the intricate acoustic guitar rift that is taken and shifted into a lot of newer acoustic based songs that we hear all the time these days. The past influences the present and the present is heard in the past all the time, especially in music. 14. Size Of The Moon by Pinegrove - Shifting into a more heavy punk, angst themed style of music is this memory driven song which tells us about a time where the speaker is thinking on the communication issues that occurred in a relationship and how they could have easily been remedied, but there was no effort on the other half's side. From an interpretation of the song, one person smartly said, "It’s really easy to indulge in nostalgia when you’re at a rocky part of a relationship. Suddenly everything appears better than the present, no matter how imperfect those times were." I have to concur with this notion because our perception of the past changes over time and when we miss someone, at times, we look at bad memories and they even start to seem better than being alone... but they are not. 15. Kathleen by Catfish and the Bottlemen - Another song geared towards a relationship not working out the way it's supposed to is from a band that is one of my all time favorites. Their comical British style of lyrics is so appealing to my American way of thinking of things and the heartfelt honesty heard in their songs play along quite nicely with the super power rock style in which they are written. This tune in specifics, is not about the past, but the present and trying to reflect on what is going on in the "now" which is a really complicated thing to try and do, when you are infatuated with someone. The instability is heard not just in the lyrics, but also in the interchanging chords of the electric guitar and the fast paced anxiety ridden drumbeat, which is awesome.. 16. Holland, 1945 by Neutral Milk Hotel - This band is one of the weirdest, coolest ones that only the people who love grating vocals and intense lyrics can truly appreciate to the desired capacity. The whole album, from the 90s, "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" depicts the story of Anne Frank and the tragedies behind what happened to such an innocent person, along with her youthful romance and how it all devolved in such a short time. A lot of fans of this album have also speculated that there is a second layer of meaning between the World War II references, being that is expresses the kind of tension and tragedy that occurs when you lose some so important in your life, and how the mourning of this loss can only be remedied through appreciating this person afterwards. 17. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You by Black Kids - Okay, so I'm pretty sure that we can all understand the meaning of the song strictly through the title of this song, negating my opinion before on how you should not judge a song based on its title... well in this case, you can absolutely do that. Not only does it have the best dance tune in the world, but it is also so adorable that the singer's only common connection with the girl he is speaking about is their affinity and adeptness with dancing. Although I definitely have "two left feet" as the singer describes the boyfriend having in this song, I relate to this in terms of music. If there is a person who I really care about, the connection I automatically have is usually in a musical sense, and I am greedy about this relation. We all have something we won't teach someone else's boyfriend/girlfriend if we care about them. 18. 123 by Girlpool - I love this so much. It depicts a relationship where the speaker is asking the partner/SO to tell them everything that is wrong with them in a really sarcastic and aggressive way. It's comical and honest and vulnerable all at once which I have to give a hand for because mixing comedy with painful relationships is something that I always attempt in my writing. The song deals with an interpersonal relationship that is simultaneously “toxic and loving" as described from a contributor on Genius Lyrics, which is a website I often refer to on advice and other commentaries on music I really enjoy. The girl rock power that is disseminated with this track is so strong and empowering, for any gender, so please don't hesitate to sing this when you're feeling angsty about someone. 19. Million Years Ago by Adele - I don't think I ever really talk about my deep appreciation for Adele on here, because I try to branch out from popular artists and focus on more under-appreciated and undiscovered types; but I'm making an exception because although she is one of the most iconic voices of the modern generation, this specific song is so underrated in terms of her best songs. It sounds so french/spanish acoustic ballad inspired and makes me feel like I am transported to a black and white film from the 50s with the sadness and depth that it gives me in such a simple way. It ALSO follows along with my theme of the week, which is looking back in order to look forward, because she sings about the troubles of missing things from the past and dealing with the issues of transforming into a different person. 20. Apocalypse by Cigarettes After Sex - Finally, one of the best mixes of every song I have spoken about previously, is this moody sad love tune by the moodiest, saddest, love bands of the modern generation. There is an unspoken cheesiness of Cigs After Sex songs that for some reason, I am completely enamoured with because I feel like the notion of expressing things in a hyperbolic way has been tossed by the wayside. This group brings back the feeling of needing to tell someone how much they care and not caring about what anyone else thinks, which is important in a world that so often ridicules the ridiculous emotions that love brings about. In particular this song speaks to the feelings of needing to get someone out of a feeling they are trapped in, so to be with them fully, and telling the person they will be there in their lowest and darkest times. 

Hope you enjoyed listening with me, see you next week!

[aion-rsa]

Top New Young Adult Books in February 2021

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The young adult genre is still booming, providing romance, adventure, and more for teens and adults alike. Here are some of the YA books from February 2021 we’re most looking forward to or are currently consuming…

Top New Young Adult Books February 2021

The Project by Courtney Summers

Type: Novel Publisher: Wednesday Books Release date: Feb. 2 Den of Geek says: This critically-acclaimed thriller has won praise for lush writing and thrills. An exploration of power and sisterhood in the shadow of a cult no one believes is a cult, it sounds chilling and thorny in the best way. Publisher’s summary: Lo Denham is used to being on her own. After her parents died, Lo’s sister, Bea, joined The Unity Project, leaving Lo in the care of their great aunt. Thanks to its extensive charitable work and community outreach, The Unity Project has won the hearts and minds of most in the Upstate New York region, but Lo knows there’s more to the group than meets the eye. She’s spent the last six years of her life trying―and failing―to prove it.

“The Unity Project murdered my son.”

When a man shows up at the magazine Lo works for claiming The Unity Project killed his son, Lo sees the perfect opportunity to expose the group and reunite with Bea once and for all. When her investigation puts her in the direct path of its charismatic and mysterious leader, Lev Warren, he proposes a deal: if she can prove the worst of her suspicions about The Unity Project, she may expose them. If she can’t, she must finally leave them alone.

But as Lo delves deeper into The Project, the lives of its members, and spends more time with Lev, it upends everything she thought she knew about her sister, herself, cults, and the world around her―to the point she can no longer tell what’s real or true. Lo never thought she could afford to believe in Lev Warren . . . but now she doesn’t know if she can afford not to. Buy The Project by Courtney Summers.

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria

Type: Novel Publisher: Inkyard Press Release date: Feb. 2

Den of Geek says: Asexual protagonists in fiction are becoming more common (and have existed for decades at least), but it’s always refreshing to see another one. And the steampunk-esque world building in this fantasy adventure promises robots and a mystery that combines science fiction and fantasy politics. Publisher’s summary: Orphaned and forced to serve her country’s ruling group of scribes, Karis wants nothing more than to find her brother, long ago shipped away. But family bonds don’t matter to the Scriptorium, whose sole focus is unlocking the magic of an ancient automaton army.

In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible―she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father―their nation’s greatest traitor―once tried to destroy the automatons.

Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries.

This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria.

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

Type: Novel Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers Release date: Feb. 9 Den of Geek says: A Station Eleven reference goes a long way. The plague or zombie element might be rote, but the mention of a magical portal and some weirder things make this an intriguing mash-up of ideas. Publisher’s summary: When a deadly Fly Flu sweeps the globe, it leaves a shell of the world that once was. Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, on a voyage devised by Nico’s father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, raised in an old abandoned cinema; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together. As swarms of infected Flies roam the earth, these few survivors navigate the woods of post-apocalyptic New England, meeting others along the way, each on their own quest to find life and love in a world gone dark. The Electric Kingdom is a sweeping exploration of art, storytelling, eternal life, and above all, a testament to the notion that even in an exterminated world, one person might find beauty in another.

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Type: Novel Publisher: Delacorte Press Release date: Feb. 9 Den of Geek says: It’s hard to resist a good call to adventure or chosen warrior, and Deka’s story will bring that particular fantasy for Black girls and everyone else. High praise and that gorgeous cover suggest this one might be good for fans of dystopian YA who are also ready to go on an adventure like Marvel’s Black Panther. Publisher’s summary: Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself. Buy The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna.

Top New Young Adult Books January 2021

You Have a Match: A Novel by Emma Lord

Type: Novel Publisher: Wednesday Books Release date: Jan. 12

Den of Geek says: Theres something quintessentially charming about summer camp stories, where kids trade their day-to-day for the wilderness. But this protagonist can’t escape everything at camp, and she’ll need the help of her sister to figure out the story of more than one family.

Publisher’s Summary: When Abby signs up for a DNA service, it’s mainly to give her friend and secret love interest, Leo, a nudge. After all, she knows who she is already: Avid photographer. Injury-prone tree climber. Best friend to Leo and Connie…although ever since the B.E.I. (Big Embarrassing Incident) with Leo, things have been awkward on that front.

But she didn’t know she’s a younger sister.

When the DNA service reveals Abby has a secret sister, shimmery-haired Instagram star Savannah Tully, it’s hard to believe they’re from the same planet, never mind the same parents — especially considering Savannah, queen of green smoothies, is only a year and a half older than Abby herself.

The logical course of action? Meet up at summer camp (obviously) and figure out why Abby’s parents gave Savvy up for adoption. But there are complications: Savvy is a rigid rule-follower and total narc. Leo is the camp’s co-chef, putting Abby’s growing feelings for him on blast. And her parents have a secret that threatens to unravel everything.

But part of life is showing up, leaning in, and learning to fit all your awkward pieces together. Because sometimes, the hardest things can also be the best ones. 

Buy You Have a Match: A Novel by Emma Lord.

Lore by Alexandra Bracken

Type: Novel Publisher: Disney-Hyperion Release date: Jan. 5, 2021 Den of Geek says: A twist on Greek mythology from an accomplished author promises creative world-building and fantasy adventure. Publisher’s summary: Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals, hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality. 

Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world in the wake of her family’s sadistic murder by a rival line, turning her back on the hunt’s promises of eternal glory. For years she’s pushed away any thought of revenge against the man–now a god–responsible for their deaths.

Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek out her help: Castor, a childhood friend of Lore believed long dead, and a gravely wounded Athena, among the last of the original gods.

The goddess offers an alliance against their mutual enemy and, at last, a way for Lore to leave the Agon behind forever. But Lore’s decision to bind her fate to Athena’s and rejoin the hunt will come at a deadly cost–and still may not be enough to stop the rise of a new god with the power to bring humanity to its knees.

Buy Lore by Alexandra Bracken.

Siege of Rage and Ruin by Django Wexler

Type: Novel Publisher: Tor Teen Release date: Jan. 5, 2021 Den of Geek says: This month’s high fantasy installment is the finale in a popular series, and one that makes us want to see how the characters arrived and where they go from here. Ghost ships! Mind control!  Publisher’s Summary: Isoka has done the impossible―she’s captured the ghost ship Soliton.

With her crew of mage-bloods, including the love of her life Princess Meroe, Isoka returns to the empire that sent her on her deadly mission. She’s ready to hand over the ghost ship as ransom for her sister Tori’s life, but arrives to find her home city under siege. And Tori at the helm of a rebellion.

Neither Isoka’s mastery of combat magic, nor Tori’s proficiency with mind control, could have prepared them for the feelings their reunion surfaces. But they’re soon drawn back into the rebels’ fight to free the city that almost killed them.

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Buy Siege of Rage and Ruin by Django Wexler.

The post Top New Young Adult Books in February 2021 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[readyaiminquire]

Old Pandemic, New Future

"There is great chaos under the heavens; the situation is excellent" -- Mao Zedong

  Even a broken clock is right twice a day. I think we may have found one of the two times Mao was correct. If you want to produce societal change, few things are as effective as a good dose of crisis. In the context of Mao and wider revolutionary politics, the fact that a revolution often stems from chaos is tautological to some, though let's not forget that chaotic times affect all societies - and only a minority of these end up with a 'typical' political revolution. Wars, natural disasters, famines, and of course epidemics & pandemics have often left the world both scarred and changed. These capital-E Events create a break with the past, and require those who live through it to reimagine the world, to understand it differently - and it would be naïve to imagine we will go through the current COVID-19 pandemic without permanent changes to society and culture. However, of particular interest right now is the social response. While the virus is unquestionably deadly, it is far less deadly than some of the historical head-line pandemic. We are, in a sense, going through the motions of an apocalyptic Hollywood-esque event, without effectively risking that sort of cataclysm (though, for anyone who loses a loved one, such a tragedy should never be diminished). In addition, this pandemic has highlighted on how unprepared society at large appears to be to these sort of shocks, and therefore has the potential to eventually ask more fundamental questions - what should society be to avoid this in the future? What should our future be?

 Let me explain. Firstly, we need to understand hauntology. A phrase originally coined by Jacques Derrida, he posits that we never experience things as fully present. They're always either reflected through the past or distorted by the future. We can only make sense of any present moment by comparing it to the past, and by anticipating the future. A very basic example of this is music. Taken in its isolation, any one note lacks melodic quality - It is only by comparing a note to previous notes and anticipating future notes that we make any sense of the melody itself. The melody is never fully present but only emerges through an interplay of past, present, and future. Taking a step back, all our experiences are like this: we can only make sense of the present by looking to the past and anticipating the future. In this sense, our experiences are haunted - by that which no longer exists, and by that which does not yet exist. Hauntology, as word, is hauntological (to be really meta about it), being a mixture of "haunted" and "ontology", ontology being the philosophical study of the nature of being. This becomes even clearer in French, Derrida's native language, where the H is silent, so hauntology and ontology are pronounced the same. The only way to tell the difference between the two is by writing them down, the H therefore gains a hauntological quality.

 The way hauntology is applied to culture is of course far more specific. Cultural theorist Mark Fisher, one of my favourite thinkers, popularised the term in cultural theory. He argued that our pasts haunt how we imagine the future, typically clearly visible in our popular culture. Specifically, he referred to how we - often paradoxically - turn to our pasts to relive our anticipation of futures that never were. What Fisher effectively argues is that because of neoliberalism we have reached a cultural impasse; we are incapable of imagining new futures. Neoliberalism demands short term solutions, and as a result new imagined futures are never created. Even in areas where development is increasing, technology for example, these new developments don't open up for new modes of cultural exploration, but rather are subservient to the pre-established cultural modes. In this sense, Fisher argues, it is only logical that we have turned to nostalgia: reboots, remixes of old music, or aesthetics that seem to return in cycles. And the new technology that exists today is subservient to these cultural modes, often, again paradoxically, using new techniques and practices to reproduce the old. In Fisher's own words "the future has been cancelled." What Fisher writes here harkens back to Frederic Jameson and Slavoj Žižek's notion that "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism", insofar as capitalism, and specifically neoliberalism, has positioned itself as the "be-all-end-all" ideology. There is nothing beyond; there cannot be anything beyond.

  The future is indeed cancelled.

 If we can imagine the end of the world but not the end of capitalism, what happens during the dress rehearsal for the apocalypse? We live, so we are told, in a post-ideological society. We are, as Žižek puts it, no longer subjects of duties - serving society, expected to sacrifice ourselves if needed, and so on - but rather subjects of pleasure. What we do is to chase our pleasures, to consume our pleasures and through that we serve society. Just like neoliberalism has made new developments subservient to the wider ideological hegemony, so too has late-capitalism made 'the world' conceptually subservient. Capitalism isn't a part of this world, this world is a part of capitalism. Functionally, however, it is clear that this is not the case. Recurring crises, economic, environmental, and now pandemic shows that late capitalism is indeed not a superstructure, but rather maintains an illusion of such - a form of internalised ideology. What we're seeing here is a sort-of reversed "equivocation" to borrow a word from Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, in which two conceptually distinct words have come to be understood as ontologically the same. This, of course, creates a paradox.

  As we continue with our dress rehearsal for the apocalypse, it has become abundantly clear to me - and I believe many others - that our society is simply not geared towards dealing with these sort of wide-spanning crises and shocks. This is both systematic unpreparedness, as the system itself seems largely unable to absorb an external shock, but also social. People are largely unable to make sense of what is going on and instead attempts as much as possible to continue as they have. Indeed, going back to Fisher, what are the alternatives? With capitalism as a system and the world such as it is being seen effectively the same, seeing the façade of our world crack will invariably damage how we view capitalism as a system. Perhaps, then, there will be an apocalypse? A world will be destroyed in our combined cultural imaginations - and with the death of such a world, it will hopefully leave space for a new one. What exactly might come from this is impossible to speculate. Some of the slew of social changes that have already taken effect are likely to remain, and these will, in turn, produce additional effects as social conventions are reimagined, reconstituted, and codified. It is even, of course, possible that the changes and the new future that may come of this will be worse than we have today, of course, a factor that shouldn't be ignored. However, the hopelessness of Fisher's hauntological analysis might finally be shattered. With this crisis, we may be able to dream once more of a new future - and as long as we can imagine, we can at least give ourselves hope.

Selected references:

BADIOU, A. 2003 Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism (Translated by: R. Brassiered ). Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.

FISHER, M. 2012 “What is Hauntology?” in Film Quarterly 2012 Vol. 66:1, pp. 16-24.

FISHER, M. 2014 Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. London: Zero Books.

VIVEIROS DE CASTRO, E. 2004 Perspectival Anthropology and the Method of Controlled Equivocation. Tipiti 2, 3–22.

ŽIŽEK, S. 2012 A Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (transcript / subtitles). Found online here: https://zizek.uk/the-perverts-guide-to-ideology-transcriptsubtitles/ (Last accessed: 16/03/2020).

[mosaicabstract]

Has anyone answered yet? I love the robins. I especially love Damian. He's such a brat. I adore him being obnoxious while the other Robins try to ignore him. Also that he like him well enough if he would stop being the son of Batman and the son of Talia Al Ghul and the Grandchild of R'ah... so many different reasons to be a bit entitled. But all Batfam is awesome. Batman being himself is amazing too.

(ok, so this is going to be kind of weird, but here’s the thing. i’ve been sitting on this massive unfinished batfam fic for over a year and i’m never going to finish it so instead of writing a new drabble... i’m just gonna post it here. it’s much longer than a drabble and not finished and could either be shippy in the sense of jaydick or seen as just brotherly bonding but there’s some damien and tim in there as well at the end. let me know if you want another drabble and i’ll write you one!!! i just figured that i’m never gonna finish this thing but i like it, so i might as well let it see the light of day....)

*

Despite the shitty lighting from the single, dying securitylamp at the mouth of the alleyway, Jason knows it’s him. There’s no possibleway to mistake him: the long, sinewy arms, the straight line of his spine, hisimpeccable posture… the “OG” boy wonder himself. He can’t even see the brightblue bird strapped across his chest but he knows it’s there. He doesn’t evenknow how acrobat boy got there; probably some death defying shit, but hedoesn’t have time for this.

Putting out his cigarette and sliding his helmet back on, hewatches as Dick slinks stealthily along the dark alleyway, silent but visible, which is his first mistake.

Did Daddy teach younothing, Dickieboy? Bruce always drilled it into Jason that it was betterto be heard rather than seen. Sound can be distorted. Sight is vulnerability.And here he is, sitting on the roof of a modestly high-roofed bank, watchingthe asshole he used to quietly idolize, his brother of circumstance, crownjewel of their fucked-up little family, make an idiot out of himself in anattempt to stop the hostage situation currently happening right underneathJason’s ass in the bank below.

What pisses him off the most is that he has this under control. Yes it’s technically closer to Blüdhaventhan to Gotham Proper, but on the outskirts. Maybe technically Nightwing’s territory, yes, but Jason got here first, and some childish part of himthinks that’s good enough reason for him to handle this solo.

He’s in the middle of his own variety of trying to fix thesituation: stay on top of things (literally), watch, and wait for the perfectopportunity to shoot off a couple of rounds through the slightly openedskylight beside him into the base of these motherfuckers’ skulls. He has aperfect view of the bank through the propped-up skylight cover, and all three perps,but the time hasn’t been right yet. They’re too busy flirting with the cops,jeering threats from behind ski masks. Besides which, they’re too antsy. He cansee the way they shift around, nervously looking at all of the exits, waitingfor something (or someone, likely with a cape) to jump out and foil theirscheme. They haven’t gotten comfortableyet.

The second any ofthe prickless pieces of shit holed up below him set eyes on a masked vigilanteof any sort (let alone a pretty boy in a leotard), they’ll blow the brains outof the three hostages they currently hands on with guns to their heads. They’vethreatened as much to the police, at least, and maybe they don’t have the ballsto actually do it, but Jason knows that people like himself exist in the world,people who pull the trigger first and find time for guilt later. And there’s always time for guilt.

Dick pauses in front of the back entryway to the bank, mutteringinto his wrist comm too quietly to be heard. Jason assumes he’s calling home toBabs, trying to get an update on the situation or a shred of information thatwill help him carry out his mission.

Jason lifts his pointer and middle finger and his thumb, forminga hand-gun which he aims carefully down at the dark form below him.

“Boom,” he whispers, pulling the imaginary trigger, thinkingof just how easy it would be forsomeone even half as good a shot as him, at his same angle, to splatter Dick’sgenius brains all over the grimy brick and asphalt. Clearly, regardless of allthe bullshit he’s seen in the world, Dick Grayson is far too trusting ofhumanity. Of circumstance. Taking down the bad guys is what Dick lives for,helping people out, but he’d never expect something so random and brutal tohappen as someone watching him, stalking him, taking him out when he’svulnerable.

But that wouldn’t do, would it? Jason imagines that any painBruce felt after he died, he wouldfeel it tenfold more if his precious Richard were to snuff it. But Bruce’sreaction isn’t the one that gnaws at him, makes him shutter. Tim would likelymalfunction like a glitched operating system and implode if his hero were todie. Babs would wreak havoc on the world at large. And then there’s the little shitheadheir apparent. Jason finds it hilarious hearing stories about how Damian usedto despite and mock Dick to no end when now he would likely burn down the worlddefending Dick’s honor, possibly even over his own father’s.

Dick has that effect on people. Always has. Jason, back whenhe still donned the campy ol’ red, yellow and greens, had harbored a borderlineobsessive crush on the older boy, even if he’d only catch glimpses of him.Dick, always a gentleman to strangers (nice strangers that weren’t trying tokill him), had regarded him with a sort of hesitant kindness that Jason didn’tfully understand until Jason saw Tim in costume the first time. The feeling ofbeing replaced cut deep, even if deep down he knows now that he couldn’t haveasked for a better protégé to pass the torch to. He likes Timmy. Knows he’s a good kid. Knows that Dick probably neverfelt that sort of acceptance and appreciation about him as Robin, but he can’tblame him. Tim’s as noble as Dick. Jason’s always been the unstable fuse in thecircuit.

For a while, things seem to calm down from a boil to asimmer, the hostages huddled back in the corner of the bank behind the welcomedesk silent with the robbers staying spread out, sometimes shouting commandsout to one another. One of them shuffles back toward the vault in the back, outof Jason’s sight, and he curses. He glances back down at Dick, and at the samemoment he does, the emergency light goes out with a purposeful buzz.

Now all he can see is the dark, sinister outline ofNightwing traced against the shadowy brick and it sends a thrill down hisspine.

“Jay,” Dick greets darkly.

“Dickhead,” Jason retorts, smirking and leaning forward,“fancy seeing you here.”

“Lay off. This one’s mine.”

“I got here first.”

“Don’t be so childish.”

“I’m not the one in tights.”

He can sense Dick’s scowl rather than see it, and it makeshim laugh.

“Chill out, Grayson. I’ve got this. I have eyes on two ofthem and I know the location of the third… it’ll be as easy as skipping rockswhen the time comes.”

“Sorry Jason,” Dick responds, moving even further into theshadows and out of Jason’s field of vision. “You know I can’t let you do that.”

Jason can’t help but roll his eyes, tugging off his mask sohe can fully glower down into the darkness in hopes that Dick can see howunamused he is.

“Not gonna happen, bird brains. Not interested in fightingyou tonight when three teenage girls have guns to their heads right now andnineteen more hostages are crammed in a corner, waiting to die. I’m gonna dealwith this how it’s supposed to bedealt with.”

“It can be dealtwith,” Dick says in the dangerous voice he usually only reserves for Bruce whenthey’re on bad terms, “in a way that doesn’t involve murder.”

Jason laughs, maybe a bit louder than he intends to, but itforces its way up out of his esophagus like a mocking tune. “This is why we’llnever see eye to eye. You’re too much like him,Dickiebird. Too righteous. Too ‘moral’. Maybe I’ll of let these cocksuckerswalk away with shattered tibias and blunt force trauma if, and only if, theydon’t put a bullet into any of those little girls, or the other hostages. Ifthey do, they’re dead. And you can’t stop me.”

Dick stays silent for a long moment and Jason imagines himwith that look of righteous fury etched onto his pretty face that he used tolong to wear himself but could never quite get it right.

Before Dick can respond, however, Jason can hear the heavysound of gunfire. It shakes the foundation of the building and makes his earsring. With a practiced instinct, he stands and yanks his handguns out of hisbelt in one motion, both pointer fingers resting on triggers. Out of the cornerof his eye he sees a flash of neon blue from below as Dick finally makes a moveto kick down the back door. At the same moment, on top of another chorus ofgunfire, he hears a cop out front yell into a radio:

“No hostages dead, just injured! They just shot at a copbecause he got too close! Hold your fire, goddammit!”

Shit.

The thoughts move through Jason’s mind at the speed of soundas he flies into action. His thought process is as follows:

1.      He and Bruce have their issues, this much istrue, but he doesn’t hate him enough to allow him to experience the pain oflosing another kid. Another robin. Heseemed pretty broken up about him after the Joker blew him up, or so he’sheard, and Jason can’t fathom what his reaction would be if his precious Dickwas killed. Possibly apocalyptic.

2.      As much as he thinks Dick is a cocky, pompous,over-optimistic fuckhead sometimes who’s too kind for his own good as a masked hero,he doesn’t deserve to die.

3.      If Dick does,in fact, end up six feet under because of this little mishap, Jason’s going tomake sure to pump lead into whoever’s responsible. He won’t go unavenged. Notlike Jason did.

In the same second that Dick launches himself through theback door, Jason kicks the latch of the skylight fully open and shatters theglass with his boot, jumping down into the chaos below.

He lands with practice, bouncing off his heels and rollinginto a kneeling position with guns out. Quickly, he assesses what he sees infront of him.

The three perps are spread evenly in a triangular fashionthroughout the store. The first is standing near the front glass swinging doorswith his hostage carefully positioned to be in view of the police with a gun toher head. The second’s back near the teller booths, hostage sitting in a chairin front of them. The third is back near the vault against the wall, his ownhostage seemingly handcuffed to him. He assigns them names in his head: FuckerA, Fucker B, and Fucker C.

Dick’s coming in from the back, closest to Fucker B.

What happens next happens fast.

Jason gets eyes on the robber nearest to him, Fucker A, a builtman with combat boots and tattoos covering his pale arms. He rages like a bullwhen he sees Nightwing and charges, hostage still under his arm, but Jason getsa bullet in his head before he has time to harm her or Dick. After making surethe hostage crawls to safety with the others, out of the corner of his eye,Jason sees Dick pivot to look at him in a fluid motion that he imagines wouldlook like shock on anyone else. But all he sees is a grimace.

“Hood, what the hell are you-”

Jason sees Fucker B fling his hostage aside and pull thetrigger before he can swing his own gun on him, and it’s followed by thedisgusting sound of flesh ripping and bone snapping. Dick’s left shoulder jerksback and the rest of his body goes with it in one fluid motion. He doesn’t godown right away, but manages to take a few steps over to a pillar for support.Jason shoves this information temporarily to the back of his mind, ignoring theanger threatening to force its way out of his chest and into his throat likebile. With gusto, he turns one of his guns on Fucker B, seeing a glimmer offear flash across his shiny eyes from behind the mask before he squeezes thetrigger, watching as his bullet lodges itself in his skull right between hiseyes. With hard eyes, he turns toward the Fucker C, who’s backed up against thewall with his own hostage.

“Don’t fucking move,” Fucker C says from under his mask,reaching behind himself and retrieving a small black device with a shaky hand.“One funny move and I blow this fuckingplace straight to hell!”

It’s rigged to blow. Whyis it always rigged? Jason’s eyes dark back to the slightly askew vaultdoor behind C, imagining that the explosives have likely been set up in there. Somethingakin to panic nags at the back of his mind – some post-traumatic bullshit maybe,sometimes his constant and forceful repression doesn’t always hold up – but heignores it and instead turns to look at the crumpled figure of Dick Graysonslumped against a pillar, a hand pressed to the gushing wound in his claviclearea.

“I won’t touch you,” Jason grunts at him, tossing down hisguns. “Just let me go make sure this idiot isn’t dying.”

“You think I give a shit about your friend dying, man? Youjust killed my brothers!”

Jason glowers at the little shit and looks down at the twocorpses he just made.

“Listen, I get it. ‘Desperate times call for desperatemeasures’. But these hostages? Children? Really,dude?”

“Just… don’t…fucking move.”

Fucker C’s voice cracks and Jason sighs, trying to gaugejust how young he could be. Seventeen, eighteen… poor kid. Maybe he was evenforced into doing this by his brothers, told to stay put in the back with thebomb trigger in case worst came to worst. And now they’re lying on the floormotionless, and it appears that worst has indeed come to worst.

Jason holds up his hands, palms forward.

“Listen, what would you rather? Me walking ten steps in thatdirection to help him stop bleeding, or all of us dying? Because let me tell you, buddy… getting blown upis not an ideal way to go.” Not that I’d know any other ways, butgetting blown up wasn’t exactly pleasant. Or painless. Or quiet.

Fucker C seems to contemplate his offer, falling intosilence and staring over at where Dick is starting to slump forward. He shrugs;a quick, twitchy movement of his shoulder.

“Fine. But put all your weapons on the floor. Now.”

“Already did, kid.”

“All of them.”

Smartass. Jasonpulls the taser out of his jacket and the blade out of its ankle strap andtosses them both on the ground before putting his hands back in the air andmaking his way over to Dick, slowly. The last few steps turn into a sprint ashe slides down beside him, gritting his teeth.

“Dammit, Grayson,” he snarls quietly. “Why couldn’t you havejust left this one for me?”

Dick’s eyes shoot up to look at him like two blue flares,slightly hooded and out of focus.

“Didn’t know you were gonna be here,” he grits out. “But Iwould’ve still come if I did…”

Jason sees Dick look past him at the two bodies on theground and rolls his eyes. Typical Grayson, trying to claim the moral highground even in a situation like this.

“Whatever.” Jason pulls Dick’s hand away from the entrywound and presses his own hands down to it in an attempt to stop the bleeding,but the blood gushes out through his fingers in a slow trickle down over hisfingerless gloves and down his wrists. He shutters thinking about having toscrub it off later, regardless of the outcome. He quickly calculates thatDick’s probably lost about two pints of blood so far, which explains whybeneath his fingers Dick starts to shiver violently, probably slipping intoshock. “Hey,” Jason chides, shaking his shoulder a bit. “Keep your eyes open,Nightwing.”

Dick does as he’s told, but his eyes are glossy and distant,staring upwards past him like something – maybe his life, maybe not – isflashing before his eyes. They seem to be moving in a sweeping motion up anddown, and Jason wonders briefly if he’s having a blood loss-induced vision ofthe night his parents died, something he only knows the vague details of.

Soon, maybe in three, five minutes, Dick will faint, andsoon after that he’ll be dead, leaving Jason with very few options except toact quickly and hazardously. He swears and pats Dick down, trying to find anyof Bruce’s fancy tech that could ignite a flame. He comes up short, cursingDick for having decided to run light tonight.

It’s a huge gamble, but he figures he could out-wit the kidwith the bomb. The only problem is the hostage. He’ll have to be fast enough,take out the kid efficiently without the girl with long black hair gettingcaught in the crossfire. She doesn’t even look twelve. Then again, the kiddoesn’t even look eighteen. If there’s an option to put him down withoutkilling him, Jason would take it without question. He often saw them – young,ignorant juveniles with fear in their eyes – and thought of himself beforeBruce had plucked him off the streets only to put him back out onto them as aweapon.

He needs a gun, though. One of his automatic hand guns, sohe could fire a few rounds into the ceiling and get the barrel hot enough toclose the wound. He’s never done it before… but in theory, it should work. Shockingly,this isn’t something learned from the League of Shadows, but rather the Bathimself. Bruce had taught him a lot of fucked up ways to save a life; ways toclose a wound, ways to get a heart up and started again, ways to reverse theeffects of arsenic poisoning. All things cute little boy wonder Jason hadlistened to eagerly while hoping never to use.

“This might not end well,” Jason mutters to him beforestanding again and slowly turning toward the kid.

“Listen.” He takes a step forward, eyeing his guns layingstrewn on the clean tile. “We need to work something out here. Why don’t youjust give this up and walk out of that door, alive, with your hands up? Thepigs will treat you much better than I will, or whatever bomb you’ve riggedback there. You have a choice, right now, to live. Are you gonna take it?”

Silence. The kid looks like he wants to collapse and cry,his eyes scrunched up and wet. Jason takes another small step forward, one thatputs his toe right up against the butt of one of his guns. The kid flincheshugely and lets go of the girl, pointing his gun at Jason.

“Don’t FUCKING move!” he screams. Jason puts his hands backup in the air, watching as the girl scrambles to safety over to her parents,who envelop her in their arms and sob.

“I’m not. Relax.”

“Move and this place goes sky-high.”

“I’m not moving,kid. Breathe. Set down the trigger, and the gun, and walk away. It’s thatsimple.”

He hopes that behind him, Dick’s still conscious and eatingall this mercy shit up.

But then that just reminds him of Dick. Dick’s dying, anymoment now. He doesn’t have time forthis.

He gives the kid five seconds to make up his mind. Five. He considers it generous.

After quietly counting in his head, Jason moves. He lurchesforward, tipping the gun up with his foot to get a good handle of it and surgesforward, aiming for his head.

In the same second that he squeezes the trigger, the kidsqueezes the button. Jason sees it, the smallest of movements, and he canalmost feel whatever’s in the vault cometo life. When the kid falls, dead, Jason stays perfectly still, waiting for theexplosion, waiting for the all-too-similar searing pain of fire tearing throughflesh and bone, tossing him through the air like he weighs nothing. The fear hewas holding back, pressing below his diaphragm for Dick, rushes up in a floodand makes him dizzy, makes his vision swim. His helmet suddenly feels like it’ssqueezing, closing in on him, and everything’s too hot and too close.

He falls to his knees, dropping his gun to clutch at hishelmet and scream, his throat closing and his heart pounding so hard it feelslike it might burst out of his ribcage to wreak havoc on his other organs. Fora fraction of a second he’s thereagain, bleeding out, watching the electric glow of the timer numbers as theyburn his retinas. But then, there was peace. He accepted it, he let it happen. Thereisn’t peace now. No, now he knows what it feels like to have every bone in yourbody broken, all of your skin charred and peeling off the muscle. He knows whatit’s like to die, to know you’redying, to feel it happen…

Not again. Not fuckingagain.

But the pain never comes. Jason glances up, glances at allthe hostages staring at him, waiting for some kind of cue.

It makes no sense. Werethey lying? No, he wouldn’t have bothered to press the button. And Jason heard it, the hum of circuits coming tolife. He felt the way the air stills before it gets assaulted with energy andfire.

It dawns on him then that they’re likely hanging in adelicate balance of the bomb having been triggered but not detonated. It’s afluke, a glitch, and it could go off at anyminute.

The panic comes back, but this time it has determination tofight with.

Any movement, any vibration of the floor, could detonate theexplosives. The bomb’s both lit and unlit. He’s sitting right the fuck insideof Schrödinger’s Bank.

“No one move,” he says after he’s sure his voice will work. It’s hoarse, and he still feels like he’sfighting his own throat to stay open, but it comes out in a serious enough tonethat the group of hostages, who were starting to get restless to find a way tothe exit, stop dead in their tracks. “The bomb didn’t go off, but that doesn’tmean it won’t.” His mind is swimming. All he wants to do is get the fuck out of there, get Dick the fuck out of there, but he’sstill Batman’s son, no matter how hard he tries not to be. To be better.

He looks back at Dick to find him still awake, watching himwith bleary eyes. There’s some sort of sealed sticker over his wound –something Jason assumes is one of Bruce’s gadgets – and it seems to be haltingthe bleeding. He must’ve gotten Babs on the comm to ask what to do. She alwaysknows what to do.

With Dick stable, he has to find a way to get everyone elseout alive.

“We have a better chance of survival if we go out in pairs.Two bye two, children first. Crawlcarefully toward the exit, on your knees and forearms, sliding. Tell the copswhat’s happening, see if they can get the bomb squad here as fast as they can.”He’s shocked at how calm he sounds compared to what he’s feeling, the way hismind’s reeling and his body feels like it’s shutting down from panic.

He watches as they organize themselves, sending out the girlwith long black hair and a kid that looks like her little brother, obviouslythe youngest in the group. They carefully slide along, but their shufflingbecomes a bit frantic.

“Slower,” he tells them, gesturing to them with his palmdown, “gently.  Like you’re on ice.”

They follow his instructions, sliding gingerly across thetile. Jason thanks the stars that it isn’t hardwood. Eventually, they breakthrough the front door slowly. Against the flood of headlines and neon red andblue, he makes out the outline of three cops rushing forward to collect them.

Two down, nine to go.

“Nightwing,” Jason calls behind him without turning hishead, “how’re you doing?”

“I’m fine, Hood,” is Dick’s reply. “A bit woozy, but I’mfine.” He pauses, drawing in a wheezy breath that makes Jason nervous again.“So do you think it’s gonna blow?”

“Not if I can help it.”

“Seriously.”

“I don’t know. I mean, I doknow. It’ll go off unless it’s diffused. Which I’m sure I can do, but it’svolatile. Any vibration, any movement, hell, a light breeze could set that thing off. When I set foot in there I need toknow everyone’s out. Including you.”

He glances back again, Dick looking at him with some kind ofshadow over his eyes, his lips pressed into a hard line.

“Jay- Hood. Youneed to get out of this too. There’s no sacrificing yourself this time, okay?You’re not getting blown up again. I won’t allow it. B won’t allow it.”

Jason shutters but lets out a small bark of laughter.

“Shut up. You’re down, I’m fine, I’m going to figure thisout. I’d rather not get blown up again either.”

“I’d have liked not to have gotten shot again, but sometimesthings don’t work out the way we want them to. You get out after them, I’llstay and try and diffuse the bomb.”

“I should shoot you again for even suggesting that,” Jasonall but snarls, feeling his fists clench up by his sides.

     He turns his attention back to the hostages, now in theirfinal stages of escape. A middle-aged woman helps an elderly man shuffle hisway across the floor on his stomach. And then, and then, they’re out. And then it’s just Dick, him, and the bodies hemade.

“Go,” Dick urges and Jason turns on him, risking themovement, just to glare venomously.

God, Jason thinks,why does he have to be such a martyr?Jason’s over the sacrifice bullshit. If it meant saving Dick’s life, fine. Butjust because he isn’t afraid of death anymore doesn’t mean he isn’t afraid of dying, no matter how much he’d like todeny or deflect. He realizes then that no, this bomb’s not worth diffusing. Thebomb’s not worth his life. He grins.

“Shut the fuck up,Grayson. You’re gonna live another day to listen to that stupid fucking pop music you love so much, eata thousand pieces of pizza and never gain a goddamn pound, and make Bats so, so proud. And I’m gonna live another dayto torment you for all of it.”

The corner of Dick’s lip quirks as he lifts his head, hiseyes so tired but brimming with somerenewed sense of hope.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Jason slides carefullydown to his stomach, slithering across the tile slowly. Dick lets out a weaklaugh.

“How are you gonna get me out, then? Am I gonna ride on yourback like a giant snake with a saddle or something?”

“Where the hell do you think of these things, Grayson?”Jason can’t help but laugh as well. “You’re gonna lay down on top of me andwe’re both gonna slither out of her like a fucking snake, okay?”

Dick looks down at him dubiously when he reaches him, butJason simply gives him a wicked smile.

“Climb aboard, circus boy.”

Dick snorts.

“I’m so never gonna let you live this down, Jaybird.”

The nickname warms Jason from somewhere inside of him hedidn’t know existed anymore. Dick whimpers a bit as he bends over, his bodypressing down into Jason’s back. He starts sliding.

Then he hears it: the tinny, obnoxious beeping of a timerset to go off from somewhere behind them. The glitch fixed itself.

No.

He dumps Dick off of him, who rolls to the ground with asurprised oof and a wince, beforestanding and lifting him, sprinting as fast as his legs will take them withtheir combined weight bearing down. And damn,Dick is lean as hell but he’s all muscle. It’s like carrying the concretelikeness of a normal person, but allhe concentrates on his his feet hitting the tiles at a decent pace, carryingthem forward.

They make it to the door, and for a beat Jason smells thefresh air and hears the screeching sirens and the cops yelling at them before awave of hot air and fire propels them forward violently, and Jason has a momentto think about how he might have made it out on the right side of the explosionthis time before everything goes black.

  **

 “Drake, I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but staringintently at him will not wake him up.”

“Shut up, Damian. I’m trying to detect eye movement. Ithought I saw his eyes twitching, meaning he’s entering REM sleep, meaning heshould be awake soon.”

“Whatever.  I am goingto go make sure Grayson’s not in an indecent amount of pain.”

Jason feels the bed shift from under him, meaning thatlittle shit was sitting on his bed.Unusual behavior, at best. Suspicious behavior at worst. The room falls quietagain.

“Jay,” Tim says softly. “I know you’re awake. Yourbreathing’s changed.”

“You do make it your business to know everything,” Jasonsighs, opening his eyes blearily. He half expects to see the sterile whiteceilings of a hospital, but is instead met with the Green Day poster he oncepinned to his ceiling in his Wayne Manor bedroom. Fuck.

“Twerp.” Jason attempts to sit and winces. Broken ribs. Wonderful.“What the hell am I doing here?”

“Bruce insisted you come here so he and Alfred could lookafter you.”

Jason resists the urge to roll his eyes so hard he snaps hisown neck.

“How’s Dick?”

Tim chuckles.

“Awake, raising hell, trying to do things to the point whereBruce has the physically restrain him… the usual.”

[find-your-rp-partner]

looking for a long-term rp partner (originals only)

♦ 21, finnish, game art/animation uni student.

♦ I roleplay via email and skype. I'm only looking for OC x OC and original settings (taking inspiration from other things is fine tho), no canon stuff for me this time. 

♦ I write in third-person and multiple paragraph responses, however I tend to match my replies to my partners. Please be willing to write at least 4-5 sentences, one liners are not my thing. 

♦ English is not my native language and I’m just a mere human so mistakes are bound to happen. I’m looking for a partner who understands this and is relaxed about roleplaying (!).

♦ I want to chat OOC and joke about our characters. Plotting, dumb character memes, they are all part of the fun imo. I just want to get invested into our characters! Make me sad when we eventually tear our OCs lives apart. 

♦ I’m fine with m/f, f/f, m/m. Currently more interested in m/f and f/f as I have plenty of m/m ships.

♦ I prefer playing females, but if we are doubling you can expect characters from all range (females/males/nonbinary). In all honesty I would prefer doubling, as it makes things more interesting.

♦ I love drawing so I would love to draw our characters (as long as my partner is fine with that). I am also into creating playlists, pinterest boards, you name it. Faceclaims are cool with me too! 

♦ Am I ok with violence, smut, kinks and darker themes? Absolutely YES. There is not much I won’t do, as long as we discuss it beforehand. Btw, if you are not 18+ smut is not gonna happen, kay. 

S T I L L H E R E ? Okay, now to the juicy bits! I’m interested in genres such as high fantasy, post-apocalyptic, medieval fantasy, horror, supernatural, sci-fi, honestly all goes expect… Slice of life. I love world building, and overly complicated plots. The more weirder/creative the plot is the more fun it is! That’s my jam, man. I like monster pairings, enemies to friends to lovers trope, endless snark and putting my characters into weird situations where they don’t know what the heck to do. Fluff and angst, that too, please.  P L O T S Some plots I have in mind. Please suggest your own though, this is not just a one way street, y’know! History is written by the victors Centuries ago monsters attempted to conquer the world, and back then only The Order, a religious group formed by village elders, could stop them. After the great war The Order aided the world to flourish again. They built shelters, fed the hungry, and trained hunters to protect the villages… The monsters decreased and so did attacks, and there came a point in time where monsters were thought to be extinct until a more evolved, stronger force came forth. The monsters’ descendants were almost human-like, able to blend in and live among humans. The Order began to call these creatures Xavierans which in their language meant “the cursed ones”, and the witch hunts began. If you were suspected of being a Xavieran the sentence was death by various torturous methods. Villagers would turn against each other, innocents would be sentenced, and rumors spread. It did not matter what was the truth or if the cursed one in question was a harmless child - if the blood was black it demanded a penalty. Gradually Xavierans formed groups, living outside of villages and cities in the peace of forest, some plotting retribution and others only wishing to live like humans do. Most Xavierans have been cursed with a short life span. Their bodies so mutated, they can barely function. Many of them are known to go insane and lose their humanity, to the point where they cannot recognize their own family. If another Xavieran sees signs of their peer growing ravenous they try to end their life as soon as possible. It is called mercy killing, because if they are left as it is they will keep on growing and mutating until they do not resemble any bit of human and only hunger for human flesh. I would like to play a huntress, raised and taught by The Order to loathe Xavierans. Lately, The Orders methods has made her question if whatever they are doing is right, but it is not enough for her to turn on her own people. If we were to double, I have a wider cast in mind but that can be discussed in further detail via skype/email if you are particularly interested in this plot. Know hope Are you into post-apocalyptic settings? I sure am! I do not have a clear, defined idea for this one but I would like the setting to take inspiration from Mad Max, Borderlands (vg) and zombie films. A ragtag group of thieves and criminals are brought together by sheer happenstance. How are they going to survive? And how many will die? Reborn “In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle, foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors.” What if Ragnarök resulted into Gods being reborn as meekly modern time humans? Humans who cannot remember their past lives as Gods until it starts to come back to them in bits and pieces as hazy dreams and terrifying nightmares? What if their powers returned, but because their human bodies are weak and frail, they cannot control them? (This can really be taken to any direction we want to, meaning I do not have a clear idea for this plot yet.)

Just some I came up with! Feel free to suggest more (in fact it would be great if you did). I’m not picky, and want to work on these as a team. C O N T A C T S

EMAIL:  corvusmonedulas (a) gmail.com SKYPE: rrhaella TUMBLR: here

Let me know who you are and what you like, I hope to hear from y’all soon. c: Also please tell me about yourself, what kind of pairings you like, if you are interested in any of the plots above or have your own ones you would like to build upon, etc. Let’s chat!

[fyrapartnersearch]

looking for a long-term rp partner, originals/OCs only

♦ 21, finnish, game art/animation uni student.

♦ I roleplay via email and skype. I’m only looking for OC x OC and original settings (taking inspiration from other things is fine tho), no canon stuff for me this time.

♦ I write in third-person and multiple paragraph responses, however I tend to match my replies to my partners. Please be willing to write at least 4-5 sentences, one liners are not my thing.

♦ English is not my native language and I’m just a mere human so mistakes are bound to happen. I’m looking for a partner who understands this and is relaxed about roleplaying (!).

♦ I want to chat OOC and joke about our characters. Plotting, dumb character memes, they are all part of the fun imo. I just want to be invested in our characters! Make me sad when we eventually tear our OCs lives apart.

♦ I’m fine with m/f, f/f, m/m. Currently more interested in m/f and f/f as I have plenty of m/m ships.

♦ I prefer playing females, but if we are doubling you can expect characters from all range (females/males/nonbinary). In all honesty I would prefer doubling, as it makes things more interesting.

♦ I love drawing so I would love to draw our characters (as long as my partner is fine with that). I am also into creating playlists, pinterest boards, you name it. Faceclaims are cool with me too!

♦ Am I ok with violence, smut, kinks and darker themes? Absolutely YES. There is not much I won’t do, as long as we discuss it beforehand. Please be aware that if you are not 18+ I am not going to smut with you. Naw. 

S T I L L H E R E ? Okay, now to the juicy bits! I’m interested in genres such as high fantasy, post-apocalyptic, medieval fantasy, horror, supernatural, sci-fi, honestly all goes expect… Slice of life. I love world building, and overly complicated plots. The more weirder/creative the plot is the more fun it is! That’s my jam, man. I like monster pairings, enemies to friends to lovers trope, endless snark and putting my characters into weird situations where they don’t know what the heck to do. Fluff and angst, that too, please.  P L O T S Some plots I have in mind. Please suggest your own though, this is not just a one way street, y’know! History is written by the victors Centuries ago monsters attempted to conquer the world, and back then only The Order, a religious group formed by village elders, could stop them. After the great war The Order aided the world to flourish again. They built shelters, fed the hungry, and trained hunters to protect the villages… The monsters decreased and so did attacks, and there came a point in time where monsters were thought to be extinct until a more evolved, stronger force came forth. The monsters’ descendants were almost human-like, able to blend in and live among humans. The Order began to call these creatures Xavierans which in their language meant “the cursed ones”, and the witch hunts began. If you were suspected of being a Xavieran the sentence was death by various torturous methods. Villagers would turn against each other, innocents would be sentenced, and rumors spread. It did not matter what was the truth or if the cursed one in question was a harmless child - if the blood was black it demanded a penalty. Gradually Xavierans formed groups, living outside of villages and cities in the peace of forest, some plotting retribution and others only wishing to live like humans do. Most Xavierans have been cursed with a short life span. Their bodies so mutated, they can barely function. Many of them are known to go insane and lose their humanity, to the point where they cannot recognize their own family. If another Xavieran sees signs of their peer growing ravenous they try to end their life as soon as possible. It is called mercy killing, because if they are left as it is they will keep on growing and mutating until they do not resemble any bit of human and only hunger for human flesh. I would like to play a huntress, raised and taught by The Order to loathe Xavierans. Lately, The Orders methods has made her question if whatever they are doing is right, but it is not enough for her to turn on her own people. If we were to double, I have a wider cast in mind but that can be discussed in further detail via skype/email if you are particularly interested in this plot. Know hope Are you into post-apocalyptic settings? I sure am! I do not have a clear, defined idea for this one but I would like the setting to take inspiration from Mad Max, Borderlands (vg) and zombie films. A ragtag group of thieves and criminals are brought together by sheer happenstance. How are they going to survive? And how many will die? Reborn “In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle, foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdallr, and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and returning gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors.” What if Ragnarök resulted into Gods being reborn as meekly modern time humans? Humans who cannot remember their past lives as Gods until it starts to come back to them in bits and pieces as hazy dreams and terrifying nightmares? What if their powers returned, but because their human bodies are weak and frail, they cannot control them? (This can really be taken to any direction we want to, meaning I do not have a clear idea for this plot yet.)

Just some I came up with! Feel free to suggest more (in fact it would be great if you did). I’m not picky, and want to work on these as a team. C O N T A C T S

EMAIL:  corvusmonedulas (a) gmail.com SKYPE: rrhaella TUMBLR: here

I hope to hear from y’all soon. c: Also please tell me about yourself, what kind of pairings you like, if you are interested in any of the plots above or have your own ones you would like to build upon, etc. Let’s chat!

[courtneytincher]

Climate Migrants May Number 143 Million by 2050

Turjoy Chowdhury/NurPhoto via GettyThis story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 220 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. ROME—Manu remembers vividly the grim conditions he faced when he left coastal Bangladesh just three years ago to try to start a new life in Europe. The 45-year-old woodworker was one of millions of people in his South Asian country who had, for years, adjusted to seasonal flooding, moving in and out of their homes as the higher tides passed with the seasons. But in recent years, the rising seas didn't subside, and Manu lost his home, his belongings and finally his livelihood when trees vital to his craft disappeared under the rising sea. In 2016, Manu made his way to Italy where he requested asylum, which very likely won’t be granted. “There isn’t even a category on the application to request protection from the changing climate,” he told The Daily Beast. “No one even recognizes the problem.”Some do, in fact, but too few, and global society cannot ignore the problem much longer. The World Bank estimates that by the year 2050, at least 143 million additional migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America—already the greatest migrant and refugee-producing areas—will be on the move because of rising seas, droughts, and extreme weather. Adding to the injustice for those most affected is the fact that the climate change crisis is not the fault of those on the move. Founder and executive director of the Environmental Justice Foundation, Steve Trent, tells The Daily Beast that the poorer communities, affected first and worst, are those least able to mitigate the impacts of the heating planet. “The world’s least developed countries produce only a fraction of greenhouse gas emissions and have had far fewer of the benefits reaped by richer countries from our addiction to carbon, yet they are suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis,” says Trent. “This summer, entire villages in India were abandoned, leaving only the sick and the elderly, as the country baked in 50°C [122°F] heat. Right now in the Bahamas, the death toll in the wake of Hurricane Dorian is expected to [continue to] rise dramatically.”  Trent points to the fact that the European Union alone was responsible for 40 percent of all global C02 emissions between 1850 and 2011. “Yet in an unjust world, 99 percent of all deaths from weather-related disasters occur in the world’s 50 least developed countries,” he says. “Countries that have contributed less than 1 percent of global carbon emissions. This is not justice.”A new doomsday report  by the World Bank’s climate scientists, migration experts and statistical researchers paints a picture of what's to come so dire it verges on the apocalyptic. According to Kanta Kumari Rigaud, the World Bank’s lead environmental specialist who compiled the report, events like crop failures due to droughts or floods will create what he calls “hotspots” that force people to move at first within national borders. Most will be go from rural to urban areas, but that influx will create new concentrations of poverty and cause people to start moving beyond borders.To meet this challenge, the report suggests, many urban areas and their environs need to prepare for an influx of people with improved housing and transportation infrastructure, social services, and employment opportunities. If managed correctly, the migration could create a “positive momentum” in some areas facing depopulation. But in others, it will only put additional burdens on already overwhelmed systems. Look at the recent global migration crises that have relatively little to do with climate change, and the way those have shaken developed nations. The rise of the xenophobic extreme right in Europe was spawned in part by the 2015 influx of a million refugees, largely from war-torn Syria. Central Americans trying to reach the United States by way of Mexico have faced a figurative and perhaps soon-to-be physical wall. Rohingya people fleeing inter-communal wars in Burma were met by some of the most abhorrent human rights violations since the Holocaust. To date, sub-Saharan Africans fleeing war and poverty trying to reach Europe though Italy have been met with harsh policies and closed ports, but only a fraction were fleeing the impact of a changing climate. Now, as a recent report by UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, points out, drought is compounding security woes and people are fleeing to Ethiopia. Many will then try to move on to Europe.Now imagine the extra migration pressures imposed by “natural” disasters related to climate change. The U.N. today counts 68.5 million forcibly displaced people in the world due to war, poverty, and natural disasters. Imagine tripling that figure.Some migrants will have it much harder than others. The United Nations special rapporteur on poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, warns of a disaster made worse by wage disparity. “We risk a ‘climate apartheid’ scenario where the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger and conflict while the rest of the world is left to suffer,” he wrote in a report to the U.N. in June. “Perversely, while people in poverty are responsible for just a fraction of global emissions, they will bear the brunt of climate change, and have the least capacity to protect themselves.”Alston also warns that climate change will impact democracies as governments try to cope with the consequences. Aid agencies have yet to define what it means to be a climate migrant or refugee, and without crucial designations there won't be policies and legal protections. “Most human rights bodies have barely begun to grapple with what climate change portends for human rights, and it remains one on a long laundry list of ‘issues,’ despite the extraordinarily short time to avoid catastrophic consequences,” Alston said when he presented his report. “As a full-blown crisis that threatens the human rights of vast numbers of people bears down, the usual piecemeal, issue-by-issue human rights methodology is woefully insufficient.”UNHCR has been reluctant to designate the new category for people moving due to climate change. John Podesta, founder and director of the Center for American Progress, outlined the issue of classification in a recent report for the Brookings Institution.  “The UNHCR has thus far refused to grant these people refugee status, instead designating them as ‘environmental migrants,’ in large part because it lacks the resources to address their needs,” Podesta wrote. “But with no organized effort to supervise the migrant population, these desperate individuals go where they can, not necessarily where they should. As their numbers grow, it will become increasingly difficult for the international community to ignore this challenge.”He believes the international community will be forced either to redefine what a refugee is to include climate migrants or create a new category and institutional framework to protect climate migrants.“However, opening that debate in the current political context would be fraught with difficulty,” he said in the report. “Currently, the nationalist, anti-immigrant, and xenophobic atmosphere in Europe and the U.S. would most likely lead to limiting refugee protections rather than expanding them.”All agencies that eventually will be tasked with managing the new migration have reached the same conclusion: the developed world has to act to cut emissions and stave off the apocalyptic disaster in the making. But vulnerable countries need to act, too. The World Bank is helping Bangladesh, which is projected to produce a third of South Asia’s climate migrants by 2050, to develop a “Perspective Plan for 2041,” that, while pessimistic, recognizes that people need to start moving away from coastal areas in order to integrate and find new skills. Mexico is also working on a plan towards adaptation, which will help retrain workers who rely on industries that will disappear as the real effects of climate change take hold. The World Bank says that if the industrialized world starts to act by cutting greenhouse gases now and integrating a climate migration contingency into all development plans, the inevitable disaster does not have to become a worst case scenario.  Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines

Turjoy Chowdhury/NurPhoto via GettyThis story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 220 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. ROME—Manu remembers vividly the grim conditions he faced when he left coastal Bangladesh just three years ago to try to start a new life in Europe. The 45-year-old woodworker was one of millions of people in his South Asian country who had, for years, adjusted to seasonal flooding, moving in and out of their homes as the higher tides passed with the seasons. But in recent years, the rising seas didn't subside, and Manu lost his home, his belongings and finally his livelihood when trees vital to his craft disappeared under the rising sea. In 2016, Manu made his way to Italy where he requested asylum, which very likely won’t be granted. “There isn’t even a category on the application to request protection from the changing climate,” he told The Daily Beast. “No one even recognizes the problem.”Some do, in fact, but too few, and global society cannot ignore the problem much longer. The World Bank estimates that by the year 2050, at least 143 million additional migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America—already the greatest migrant and refugee-producing areas—will be on the move because of rising seas, droughts, and extreme weather. Adding to the injustice for those most affected is the fact that the climate change crisis is not the fault of those on the move. Founder and executive director of the Environmental Justice Foundation, Steve Trent, tells The Daily Beast that the poorer communities, affected first and worst, are those least able to mitigate the impacts of the heating planet. “The world’s least developed countries produce only a fraction of greenhouse gas emissions and have had far fewer of the benefits reaped by richer countries from our addiction to carbon, yet they are suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis,” says Trent. “This summer, entire villages in India were abandoned, leaving only the sick and the elderly, as the country baked in 50°C [122°F] heat. Right now in the Bahamas, the death toll in the wake of Hurricane Dorian is expected to [continue to] rise dramatically.”  Trent points to the fact that the European Union alone was responsible for 40 percent of all global C02 emissions between 1850 and 2011. “Yet in an unjust world, 99 percent of all deaths from weather-related disasters occur in the world’s 50 least developed countries,” he says. “Countries that have contributed less than 1 percent of global carbon emissions. This is not justice.”A new doomsday report  by the World Bank’s climate scientists, migration experts and statistical researchers paints a picture of what's to come so dire it verges on the apocalyptic. According to Kanta Kumari Rigaud, the World Bank’s lead environmental specialist who compiled the report, events like crop failures due to droughts or floods will create what he calls “hotspots” that force people to move at first within national borders. Most will be go from rural to urban areas, but that influx will create new concentrations of poverty and cause people to start moving beyond borders.To meet this challenge, the report suggests, many urban areas and their environs need to prepare for an influx of people with improved housing and transportation infrastructure, social services, and employment opportunities. If managed correctly, the migration could create a “positive momentum” in some areas facing depopulation. But in others, it will only put additional burdens on already overwhelmed systems. Look at the recent global migration crises that have relatively little to do with climate change, and the way those have shaken developed nations. The rise of the xenophobic extreme right in Europe was spawned in part by the 2015 influx of a million refugees, largely from war-torn Syria. Central Americans trying to reach the United States by way of Mexico have faced a figurative and perhaps soon-to-be physical wall. Rohingya people fleeing inter-communal wars in Burma were met by some of the most abhorrent human rights violations since the Holocaust. To date, sub-Saharan Africans fleeing war and poverty trying to reach Europe though Italy have been met with harsh policies and closed ports, but only a fraction were fleeing the impact of a changing climate. Now, as a recent report by UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, points out, drought is compounding security woes and people are fleeing to Ethiopia. Many will then try to move on to Europe.Now imagine the extra migration pressures imposed by “natural” disasters related to climate change. The U.N. today counts 68.5 million forcibly displaced people in the world due to war, poverty, and natural disasters. Imagine tripling that figure.Some migrants will have it much harder than others. The United Nations special rapporteur on poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, warns of a disaster made worse by wage disparity. “We risk a ‘climate apartheid’ scenario where the wealthy pay to escape overheating, hunger and conflict while the rest of the world is left to suffer,” he wrote in a report to the U.N. in June. “Perversely, while people in poverty are responsible for just a fraction of global emissions, they will bear the brunt of climate change, and have the least capacity to protect themselves.”Alston also warns that climate change will impact democracies as governments try to cope with the consequences. Aid agencies have yet to define what it means to be a climate migrant or refugee, and without crucial designations there won't be policies and legal protections. “Most human rights bodies have barely begun to grapple with what climate change portends for human rights, and it remains one on a long laundry list of ‘issues,’ despite the extraordinarily short time to avoid catastrophic consequences,” Alston said when he presented his report. “As a full-blown crisis that threatens the human rights of vast numbers of people bears down, the usual piecemeal, issue-by-issue human rights methodology is woefully insufficient.”UNHCR has been reluctant to designate the new category for people moving due to climate change. John Podesta, founder and director of the Center for American Progress, outlined the issue of classification in a recent report for the Brookings Institution.  “The UNHCR has thus far refused to grant these people refugee status, instead designating them as ‘environmental migrants,’ in large part because it lacks the resources to address their needs,” Podesta wrote. “But with no organized effort to supervise the migrant population, these desperate individuals go where they can, not necessarily where they should. As their numbers grow, it will become increasingly difficult for the international community to ignore this challenge.”He believes the international community will be forced either to redefine what a refugee is to include climate migrants or create a new category and institutional framework to protect climate migrants.“However, opening that debate in the current political context would be fraught with difficulty,” he said in the report. “Currently, the nationalist, anti-immigrant, and xenophobic atmosphere in Europe and the U.S. would most likely lead to limiting refugee protections rather than expanding them.”All agencies that eventually will be tasked with managing the new migration have reached the same conclusion: the developed world has to act to cut emissions and stave off the apocalyptic disaster in the making. But vulnerable countries need to act, too. The World Bank is helping Bangladesh, which is projected to produce a third of South Asia’s climate migrants by 2050, to develop a “Perspective Plan for 2041,” that, while pessimistic, recognizes that people need to start moving away from coastal areas in order to integrate and find new skills. Mexico is also working on a plan towards adaptation, which will help retrain workers who rely on industries that will disappear as the real effects of climate change take hold. The World Bank says that if the industrialized world starts to act by cutting greenhouse gases now and integrating a climate migration contingency into all development plans, the inevitable disaster does not have to become a worst case scenario.  Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

September 23, 2019 at 09:43AM via IFTTT