#trent bascom

[delafiseaseses]

I thought about the NCR Sharecropper Farms and Concluded they should not Exist.

Strong opening line, 'ey? How's ol' Delafiseaseses gonna justify that?

Quite easily, actually. Y'see some people misunderstand the NCR Sharecropper Farms, they think it provides food to the Mojave. Not true. It provides food to the NCR, clues in the name, really. Its a Sharecrop, the NCR gets some of the crop and the sharecroppers get the rest of their crop as payment, the portion the NCR takes goes to NCR Military bases. As Romanowski says 'A lot of the crops grown here support the various NCR camps in the region - McCarran, Golf, and Forlorn Hope, to name a few. We can't have wastelanders popping in here for a free meal, so my squad and I are assigned to keep things from going to hell.' and when Romanowski says 'Wastelanders' he means 'people from the Mojave Wasteland' of course.

Do the sharecroppers sell their crops to Mojave citizens? Possibly, but remember all the sharecroppers are NCR citizens brought over by the 'Thaler Act', nobody from the Mojave directly benefits from this arrangement.

You may think 'Well, not like anyone in the Mojave before was using the land.' possibly wrong. While he's not from the Mojave (and is an unrepentant Enclave fascist, but that's irrelevant) Orion Moreno has this to say 'I came out here to get away from them - didn't work out so well. Next thing I know, I'm squatting in "their" land. Never mind that I'd already been living here for years.', and when he says 'years' he could mean up to over 3 decades. So we've got to wonder... was the land unoccupied? Moreno is a stubborn old Enclave soldier, he wouldn't scare easy, he gets harassed by the NCR, as he says when you first meet him 'Bah. Looks like I forgot to lock the doors again. If you're with the NCR, get out. This place is mine, and I'm not leaving.' or, if you am in NCR faction armour 'Look, trooper, I was living in this house long before your farms got set up. Don't even think about evicting me.' most people would be forced off by these tactics. So it is entirely possible the NCR has displaced Mojave residents to set up their precious farm.

Both quests involving the Sharecropper Farm also include a backdrop of NCR vs Mojave Locals. The most obvious is, of course, The White Wash. The Westside Co-Op, an actual local community farming effort (which does have some New Californians, but they're unaffiliated with the NCR), is only surviving because of the syphoning of water from the Sharecroppers by Tom Anderson. The water from the local water system that the NCR took over, I might add. Why do they get to claim ownership of Lake Mead's water and the Vegas water system?

And the second, Hard Luck Blues is more indirect. The NCR isn't at fault at all for this, the Vault 34 Civil War damaged their reactor and that was entirely on them. But the final choice between saving the Vault 34 Survivors or dealing with the radiation leak caused by the Vault 34 Civil War killing the survivors. So it is literally saving an NCR Asset or saving people who for over 200 years have lived in the Mojave.

Now, I'm not saying the Sharecroppers themselves deserve to suffer lower than needed water rations or radiation in their soil. They didn't set this up, they're just working class NCR citizens trying to survive, but, the thing is, the Sharecroppers can just... leave. And they do if these quests are resolved in ways that hurt the Farms.

After the White Wash siding with Anderson/Westside the affected sharecropper Trent Bascom says he's quitting because 'I wouldn't be able to meet the quota, and the NCR would kick me out of my job, anyway. Nah, it's better I get out on my own terms.' and he's even got a plan for his future 'I hear the Brahmin ranchers out in Redding are looking for some hard workers, so I might try there first. I hate working with Brahmin, though.' so, yeah, that sucks for him, but he's got a future. He may not like that future, but its more of a future than the Westsiders have if they lose their Co-Op.

And after Hard Luck Blues you can find some Sharecroppers out front of the Big Horn Saloon in Boulder City. The named member of this group is a woman named Anne, she has this to say 'We're heading back home. I hope our troops do the same. This land can't be saved. Trying to grow crops in this heat, with so little water, is bad enough, but now we've got radiation seeping into the farmlands east of New Vegas. We're done. Let the people of these hell-hole deal with their problems, I say.' and, y'know, I agree. Maybe the people of the Mojave should deal with their problems and not have a military force from somewhere else claiming their land and water? Especially since the area is still disputed at this time. They're literally fighting a bloody war which they have a 3/4 chance of losing during all of this.

To put this all in a shorter way: The NCR Sharecropper Farm's existence is an example of NCR colonialism.

Like, it's textbook fucking colonialism. They forcefully took over part of a land that's not theirs, brought in their own people to 'settle' the land and violently keep the locals out of it all, who suffer because of it. I've said before that the NCR playacts the USA and they certainly playact it accurately.

So, unless you're doing an NCR playthrough, I'd say its probably best to side against the Sharecropper Farm in every instance because the NCR Sharecropper Farms should not exist. It sucks for the Sharecroppers, but they'd be out of the job when the NCR withdraws anyway. Probably best for everyone if they get out before the NCR Military does.

[jamescrawleymaximusmeridius]

Talking To Trent Bascom

[full-imagination]

Alma J. Gosnell

Alma Gosnell, 87, of Spartanburg, SC, died Sunday, June 24, 2018, at White Oak Estates. Born April 25, 1931 in Jonesboro, TN, she was a daughter of the late Bascom and Bertie Rose Vance Crain and wife of Hugh R. Gosnell. She was a member of Fairview Baptist Church. Survivors include her children, Jean Seay (Tim) of Inman, SC, Darlene Riddle (Allen) of Easley, SC, Greg Gosnell (Kim) of Boiling Springs , SC and; eight grandchildren, Travis, Holly, Trent, Matthew, Maria, Dusty, Tiffany and Hanna; ten great-grandchildren, Breanna, Thomas, Dalton, Caden, Triston, Katie, Kennedi, Keelie, Elijah, and Katie Lynn and brothers, Freddie Crain of Mars Hills, NC and James Crain of Tennessee. Visitation will be 1:00-1:45 PM Wednesday, June 27, 2018, at Fairview Baptist Church, with funeral services following at 2:00 PM, conducted by The Rev. Keith Davis and The Rev. Ty Childers. Burial will be in Sunset Memorial Park, 1955 Cannons Campground Rd., Spartanburg, SC 29307. Memorials may be made to Fairview Baptist Church Life Center Building Fund, 1551 Bryant Rd., Spartanburg, SC 29303. Floyd’s North Church Street Chapel from The JF Floyd Mortuary Crematory & Cemeteries via Spartanburg Funeral

[anneapocalypse]

In my mind, Trent Bascom has a wife named Sadie, a sun-scorched grizzled old lady who's been farming since before she could talk, or so folks say. She has frizzy hair half-auburn half-gray tucked under a wide-brimmed straw hat, and is always ready with a sarcastic jibe. Never stops poking fun at the NCR troopers, or hollering at Trent to wear his goddamned hat before he roasts his dome in the goddamned sun.

[delafiseaseses]

NCR Sharecropper Barracks

So, you know the NCR Sharecropper Barracks exists? It’s where those NCR Sharecroppers like Trent Bascom sleep.

I think it just existing in general is pretty nice, but there are a few reasons that aren’t “This is an interesting bit of worldbuilding” to come in here. Namely

Pretty sure there’s less than 10 of those Training Manuals in the entire game (and I looked it up, yes there’s less than 10 in the entire game, there’s 8 total... with DLCs).

I also happened to find their first aid box quite well stocked...

But, I just like that the place exists because you get to see the conditions the NCR have provided to these farmers.

Look at them sleeping, blissfully unaware of the various ethical dilemmas surrounding the NCR Sharecropper Farm that threaten their jobs.

Although, speaking of that, I now remember that I missed a detail about The Big Horn Saloon. 

Hmm, I wonder, does Anne even spawn here? I need to investigate.

While looking for Anne I noticed Private Ortega go into the Barracks, the soldiers also use this barracks because no other beds are on this farm (when I went in to take this screenshot everyone’s beds had changed. Morgan was sleeping where Trent was sleeping. Trent where Morgan was sleeping. Ortega was where the unnamed Sharecropper was and the Unnamed Sharecropper was in the perviously empty bed between Trent and Morgan.

Yeah, I don’t think she spawns until after you do the thing. Still at least I spoke to Lieutenant Romanowski and took a screenshot of him to. So... yeah, look at him.