#migrant farm hands

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

#class war #class warfare #classism #agriculture #farming #food insecurity #migrant workers #migrant farm workers #farm hands #migrant farm hands

[doctorcrusher]

watching people tie themselves into knots to dunk on vegans is so fucking bleak dude. vegans are bad because they eat soy. on the other hand eating meat from factory farmed animals who were fed on soy is fine. vegans are bad because of problems in large scale agave farming. drinking tequila is fine though. vegans are bad because palm oil is a driver of amazon deforestation and it isn't a pet issue for them. the fact that monoculture crops grown to feed livestock are a larger driver of amazon deforestation is irrelevant. vegans are bad because migrant workers who pick produce are exploited. because vegans are the only people who eat fucking vegetables and exploited migrant labor isn't involved in any part of meat and dairy agriculture. don't you get tired.

[aheathen-conceivably]

By the time the sun had fully risen, Josephine and Zelda were in Violette’s new room helping her to unpack all of her toys and dresses. The room was already outfitted with a small bed, dresser, and a dollhouse that was just like the one Violette had in New Orleans.

Violette was enchanted by it all, but most of all by the ornate Victorian dollhouse. She scurried about the room looking for her favorite dolls to unpack, her olive eyes shining as she tucked each one into the outfitted rooms rather than notice the peeling wallpaper or her aunt’s intermittent bouts of distraction.

Her own trepidations about the move had long been allayed by her mother and aunt’s reassurances that this was a land of magic. The Land of Enchantment, they had told her, the place where all her dreams could come true. How much of their hope and optimism was feigned for her sake as well as their own on that day, she was still too young to decipher.

Outside the window, Antoine was sitting with Gio on a truck that he had bought when he first moved out that way, smoking and watching the occasional Ford pass by the road that ran in front of their farmhouse. 

“So when you said find work, I should have known, I should have asked…stupid. Stupid and hopeful.”

Gio beat a pack of cigarettes between his hands, holding it out to Antoine as he spoke, “Not stupid, old sport. If I’m being honest, I should have spent the extra cents to tell you more, but part of me feared if you knew the whole truth none of you would come. Especially Jo. Just, don’t tell her about any of this, alright? It’s not like I’m trying to trick her or anything, I just know what it’s about to be like in New Orleans. A city full of dock workers with no goods? No jobs to be found and no food to grow? I’m only trying to make sure we’re safe, me and her and all of you. But I fear she won’t see it that way.”

For a moment Antoine’s anger rose for his sister, dragged out here away from her home not only by Giorgio, but by him too. He had seen her hesitation when he had first contacted Gio, but had told himself that they had few other options. Now, knowing that they had to sustain a lie just to keep her here was almost enough to make him turn around and pack his bags.

Then he thought of the way she had reacted when she had seen Giorgio yesterday, and how her own pride trumped even his own. He knew that Gio was right, that there was nothing left for them in New Orleans. But most of all he knew that Josephine would never have accepted his help willingly, and she would see his actions as a way to control her; then she would run, no matter how much she loved him.

But more than anything, Antoine remembered the last time he had left her alone and the means she had resorted to to survive. How could he protect her if she ran, if they had nowhere left to go? He looked toward the house where she was now playing with Violette, together with her family. Happy. Safe.

He quelled the protective anger growing in his chest and looked back at Giorgio, “But what about money, Gio? What about food?”

Gio took a long drag and a sharp intake of breath, “I tried for years old sport, years. I can get it to grow but it always dies before it fruits. I’ve been trading for goods and taking odd jobs, but they’re harder to find every damn day. We need to grow at least enough to eat. Enough to ensure that if the work dries up the land will give us something.”

He stared at his lit cigarette for a while before he threw it onto the ground, the dry sand immediately engulfing the remaining embers, “And if I’m being honest, I’ve got reason to believe the time’s comin’ soon. There’s migrants passing through here, Antoine, makin’ me think it’s about to get a whole lot worse. Okies, they call them. This whole business, it’s turned into a shitstorm. The farm prices tanked only months after I got here and now the land is worth less than I paid for it and the farmhouse combined. I managed to see it coming and take out a loan on it before it got too bad though, enough cash to get us through a few years. But we’ve got to move fast, make sure we’re secured before things really go south.”

Must find work, he had written. Antoine threw his lit cigarette on the ground next to Giorgio’s; now it all made sense. He had brought his family on board a sinking ship.

#1930 #sims 4 historical #ts4 historical #ts4 decades challenge #sims 4 decades challenge #sims 4 legacy #ts4 legacy #sims 4 story #the darlingtons #1930s #zelda darlington #josephine duplanchier #violette darlington #antoine duplanchier #giorgio mistretta

[unicornachos]

Getting tired of seeing gotcha posts on Tumblr lately shitting all over vegans. They've gotten more common over the past few years...

Usually it'll be a post criticising a choice like maybe 3% of vegans actually make, or more usually an imaginary vegan they've pulled from thin air based on their own stereotypes and assumptions, followed by vibes along the lines of' "I know better, actually you don't care about sustainability or human rights at all! You're completely uneducated about (insert any topic here). Gotcha! Who's the morally superior one now, huh" Followed swiftly by the implication that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, so why try at all.

Like yeah maybe there are some young idiot vegans who think buying pleather boots is ok for the environment, but every vegan I've ever met is more likely to get a second-hand pair of leather boots at an op-shop, because it's better for the environment. Every vegan I know has cared immensely about issues with soy and quinoa, about where their food comes from, about water use and microplastics, who picks their fruit and veg, and human rights in general. More than any non-vegans I know.

So why are we still constantly berated for not doing every single other thing that non-vegans want us to do? It's starting to feel like people have a very specific idea of vegans in their heads and need an outlet for weird anger and misery and frustration, and we're an easier punching bag than the large corporations and governments who dictate the rules of our late-stage capitalist hellscape, so why not have a go?

It really feels like people are unconsciously mad with themselves that they can't do more to help the world and possibly have unexamined issues or guilt with consuming animals themselves, and feel better about themselves after telling vegans they're just not doing their activism hard enough, and that everything they buy from the grocery store is a human rights violation, so really you're just as bad as the rest of us.

Idk man I just. It really feels like a lot of whataboutism most of the time from non-vegans who have a weird, skewed view of militant white vegans, while the majority of vegans (who aren't all white, might I add) are just living their lives, trying to make the world a slightly less shitty place. We should absolutely criticise racist white vegans. Take them the fuck down. I don't think you think vegans are who you think they are, though. Vegans are from intersecting identities just like everybody else, and come from many different countries. And also there are some silly, uninformed vegans with misplaced ideas, just like there are silly, uninformed non-vegans with misplaced ideas. But if you imagine a vegan to be someone you'd hate, it's a lot easier to ridicule them to make you feel like you're right and good.

I just wish that the people who make these posts and the folks who join in and/or reblog, would take a look at themselves and think about what they themselves are doing to prevent cruelty in this world, in any shape or form. Like are you painstakingly making sure you're not buying clothes with plastic in it? Are you checking the label of every food item you buy to make sure you knew where it came from? Do you only buy your veg from local farms within 10km or only eat things from your own garden? If not, idk what to tell you, but it's probably that you should give vegans a break if you're not doing all the very things you tell us we should be doing.

It just feels like a lot of misplaced anger. Why are you so, so enraged at vegans not being perfect people when you could be going and protesting outside the farms of migrant workers, if you're so pissed about where our fruit and veg comes from? If you're mad about fruit and veg, wait till you hear of the human rights abuses in abattoirs.

When someone tells a vegan that there's no ethical consumption under capitalism, it just feels like a cop-out. You're not trying so why should anyone else, right? I just think people should be allowed to try to make the world better in their own ways, and not be ridiculed for not living up to an unattainable standard set my non-vegans.

Being vegan is about doing the least harm you can, within your means. It's not an on-off switch- it's a sliding scale of effort to do less harm. It's not stupid to acknowledge unnecessary suffering and choose not to take part in what's within your means to abstain from. Some vaccines still use animal products. Some of my medication has animal product ingredients. Am I going to go off my meds and become an anti-vaxxer? No. Do I think Indigenous Peoples should stop eating the foods they have always eaten, often for tens of thousands of years before colonisation? Of fucking course not. It's possible try to unsubscribe to shitty things in this world without doing it perfectly. The whole world would be a lot better if most people consumed 70% less animal products, than 2% of the world doing veganism perfectly.

I think most non-vegans are too afraid of what they might find out if they actually research animal agriculture so they stubbornly make excuses not to bother. So that's their choice, but until you're as perfect as how you claim we should be, literally shut the fuck up and find something more productive to do with your time, like actively try to fight against the very things you think we've all somehow decided to turn a blind eye to. Because I bet the majority of people consuming whatever unethical product you've decided on aren't vegans.

Coming across one silly vegan on the internet doesn't mean you have permission now to write off the crucial need for our planet to massively reduce animal agriculture, and the possibility that you might potentially be able to opt out of it. Criticising veganism doesn't mean you've absolved yourself of any harm you yourself are doing, and also doesn't absolve you of finding ways to do less harm to people, animals, and the planet.

And if you're pissed about vegans having moral superiority, I'd really like to see non-vegans examine their own moral superiority they seem to feel they have over vegans.

Ok signing off lol

#that felt so good #i needed to get this out of my system so bad #its a trend that i am so sick of seeing lately #veganism #vegan #i hope my username adds another layer to this post lmao #apologies about the use of stupid im tryinf to avoid ableist language but i know some slipped in there #I've been vegan for 10 whole years now and the number 1 hardest thing about going vegan is people's reactions to vegans #ridiculing vegans doesn't make you the cool edgy critical thinker you think it makes you #it actually just makes you an asshole

[floatingstirnerhead]

If you use migrant labour in your business you are a white supremacist full stop.

The ONLY reason people hire migrant workers is because they cannot say no to you, they can't unionize, they have no support network. Every farmer who tries to justify it always has the same story about how their white interns or farm hands stood up to themselves so now they always hire migrant.

These people would have been outright slavers in another life and I'm tired of pretending otherwise.

[vibinwiththefrogs]

Intro to U.S. Agriculture Book Recommendations

Requested by @languagesandpain

Healing Grounds by Liz Carlisle

If you're interested in agroecology this is a great place to start. It highlights a handful of Black, Latino, and Asian American farmers and their lives, history, and research. It's a great all-around book too because it touches on animal agriculture, produce, and mushrooms (which I don't see get talked about much), and also different methods like agroforestry and pasture systems.

Grain by Grain by Bob Quinn and Liz Carlisle

This book is basically the story of Bob Quinn and his farm, there's a lot of good info in it. This is the first book that really struck home to me that I need to listen to people in conventional agriculture even if I personally don't like it, because there's important experiences that need to be heard. It touches on topics like converting farms to more sustainable methods, heirloom crops, and how we deal with food/diet related science in the US. I don't have any health issues of note, but after reading this book I found an organic bread with Kamut wheat in it to see how it was, and it totally takes away any white on my tongue when I'm eating it daily. Pretty fascinating.

Perilous Bounty by Tom Philpott

This book widely covers major problems in US conventional agriculture, mostly covering major agriculture corporations and environmental impacts but also some labor issues, and small/mid size farm struggles. I'm not going to lie, this one is depressing. I generally do well with tough topics but near the end I had to put it down a few times because it was making me feel a bit hopeless. Which I fault the author with a bit for not dealing with better, because we need more hope to be able to believe these problems are fixable. He also doesn't cover the eastern US which irks me a bit because the south is a major agricultural region. But overall, a lot of great info and some interesting ideas for solutions near the end.

With These Hands by Daniel Rothenberg

I haven't actually read this one yet, but I've read sections. It looks like another tough read, but covers the experiences of migrant farmworkers across the US. Definitely trigger warnings for modern day slavery, racism, abuse, and more.

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

I found this one to be a bit pessimistic honestly, but I read it a while ago so I dont remember what exactly bothered me. But it's a good overview of agricultural collapse through history, soil science, and issues in soil today.

Lentil Underground by Liz Carlisle

(Can you tell I've read all of Carlisle's books yet). So this book didn't really make much of an impression on me. But I'm recommending it because if anything it kind of illustrates the tediousness of policy change, changing people's minds, running an unconventional farm. It's a bit boring compared to the other recommendations but if you're in the industry there's things to think about in it.

Non-book recommendations

For a while was listening to Real Organic Podcast. After about 10 episodes (not in order) you notice they start to really repeat a lot of ideas. But they have a lot of episodes that highlight problems with chemical use, water use, how movements like organic get co-opted by big corporations, and more.

I also recommend the news website Civil Eats. They post a lot of book recommendations, as well as cover a whole variety of agricultural issues across the world.

If anyone has any additional recommendations feel free to add on! I'm always looking for more books >:)

#not langblr #agriculture #agroecology #sustainable agriculture #regenerative agriculture #environmentalism #environmental justice #book recommendations

[denimbex1986]

'2023 was awash with leading queer men (finally), from Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in the psychological ghost story All of Us Strangers and Jonathan Bailey and Matt Bomer in toe-sucking drama Fellow Travelers...

One of the most anticipated new films, however, is The History of Sound. The queer romance drama, adapted from Ben Shattuck’s titular novel, had pulses racing when Mescal and God’s Own Country star Josh O’Connor were cast as the leads back in 2021. (We can understand why. We suffered the same fate.)

From cast members to the plot, here’s a recap of everything that we know so far about The History of Sound.

What’s the plot?

The History of Sound is based on the Pushcart Prize-winning novel by Ben Shattuck, a collection of 12 short stories that are set across three centuries and explores the generational patterns of love and loss. Each following story provides a revelation of the previous entrant.

The title story follows two young men in the shadows of WWI who are determined to record the lives, voices and music of their American countrymen. Lionel (Mescal) and David (O’Connor) begin to log the events, whilst falling in love in the process.

The adaptation is being directed by Oliver Hermanus and produced by Tim Haslam, Andrew Kortschac, Lisa Ciuffetti and Andrea Roa. Hermanus is best known for his Queer Palm Award-winning romance Beauty (2011). He also serves as the director and executive producer of Sky Atlantic’s upcoming historical queer series Mary & George, which stars Oscar winner Julianne Moore and Red, White & Royal Blue’s Nicholas Galitzine...

Who is in the cast?

The only two cast members confirmed for The History of Sound are Mescal and O’Connor.

O’Connor memorably starred in the critically-acclaimed same-sex romantic drama God’s Own Country. The heartfelt love story develops when a Yorkshire farmer’s (O’Connor) life changes with the arrival of a Romanian migrant farm hand named Gheorghe (Alec Secăreanu). Despite initial tension, the two soon become engaged in a passionate meet in nature.

Mescal, who rose to fame in BBC’s Normal People, recently starred in Andrew Haigh’s psychological adaptation of Japanese ghost story All of Us Strangers opposite Andrew Scott. The film follows Adam (Scott), a screenwriter who is pulled back into his childhood home “where he discovers that his long-dead parents are both living and look the same age as the day they died over 30 years ago”. At the same time, Adam falls in love with his “mysterious” neighbour Harry.

In an interview with Variety at the time of the cast announcement, Hermanus opened up about the powerful love story and working with Mescal and O’Connor.

“I instantly fell in love with Ben Shattuck’s flawlessly beautiful short story and knew I had to be involved in its journey to the screen. Paul and Josh are two of the most promising actors of their generation who will share with us deeply soulful performances,” he said.

“This is an unexpected love story that needs to be told — it is a journey through the life of America, across the 20th century and the traditions of American folk music, all seen through the bond between two men immersed in the history of sound.”

Has filming started?

The film had been slated to begin filming in summer 2022, across the US, UK and Italy. However, Mescal revealed in a May 2022 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that the film was on pause due to conflicting schedules.

“But the learning for me is that I’m just dying to make films with people I like, and Josh is one of those people that I would work with in a heartbeat,” he shared.

On 11 January 2024, FilmUpdates posted that the film was due to begin filming in March, this year...'

#Paul Mescal #The History of Sound #All of Us Strangers #Andrew Scott #Jonathan Bailey #Matt Bomer #Fellow Travelers #Josh O'Connor #Ben Shattuck #Oliver Hermanus #Normal People #Andrew Haigh #God's Own Country

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

Catching Out: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.1k

Summary: Spencer has his suspicions about your parents but you refuse to even listen to him. There is nothing going on with your parents... right? No, they’re normal parents that are just overprotective of you. Spencer is just being paranoid.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: So, I know in previous episodes I had mentioned the reader's birthday is in February, but I forgot that when I wrote this episode. I have decided to change it to April since I've also based some other episodes around her birthday being in April. So, from now on, the reader's birthday is now in April.

I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

x

As it turns out, all the big farms set up housing camps for the workers during harvest. However, these camps are partly subsidized by the state, so they require ID and a strict sign-in policy, giving you a way to track migrants. Penelope called the camps and asked for their sign-in lists, and now all you have to do is cross-reference to your unsub.

While you've been busy with the newest murder, Derek and Rossi tried to figure out the first house that the unsub hit, and they came up with a woman named Mildred, his first murder. Why did it start with her? Why is she so special? Mildred Younce was sixty-eight at the time of her death. She lived by herself, making her an easy target for the unsub. She was killed in her bed just like the others, but there were no signs of a break-in.

Rossi and Derek can't come up with a suspect because they found seventeen different prints inside the house. Most of them belonged to transients since she was known to offer food in exchange for work around the house.

However, right outside her house are train tracks as well as another place where homeless people stay. They'd draw symbols around their camps that would signify if the water around there is clean to drink, whose houses were safe to go to, etc.

Rossi and Derek found those same symbols around Mildred's house, which is what the unsub used to determine if her house was safe or not. You don't think he's staking out properties for days at a time. He's using these symbols to pick out the vulnerable houses.

You walk outside to give yourself a break from seeing the deaths of the couple over and over again. Hotch is out there on the phone with JJ.

"Hey, I got an update from headquarters. Rossi and Morgan are on their way to that farm in Tehachapi. I found a representative from the local housing authority, Cesar Jimenez. He's expecting you. The press release went out to the media with a photo from the pawn shop, and I'm waiting to hear back from Garcia about tracking migrants who may have traveled the same route as our unsub."

"JJ, what are we going to do without you when you go on maternity leave?" Hotch chuckles.

"You think I'd just leave you hanging?"

"Does that mean you have a plan?"

"I don't know. You'll see."

Hotch hangs up with a smile, and you approach him from behind.

"She's irreplaceable, you know."

"I know."

The farm where Cesar Jimenez is packed with workers in and out of the field. A small truck passes by with four people in the bed of the truck. They look at you, but they don't say a word. Cesar meets you halfway and shakes hands with Hotch.

"I'm Agent Hotchner."

"Cesar from the housing authority."

"These are agents Prentiss, Y/N, and Reid. Thank you for meeting us here."

"Does this man look familiar to you?" Emily asks, showing him a picture of the man in the security footage.

"It's kind of hard to tell."

"Have you had any complaints in the camps? This man would show disruptive behavior. He might be stealing things from other workers or starting fights, and he sniffs chemicals to get high."

"Well, our facilities have a zero-tolerance policy. No drinking, no drugs, and certainly no violence. Anyone who cannot follow these rules would be kicked out."

"Have you kicked anyone out recently?" you ask.

"More than I'd like to. The camps in this area are at full capacity. We have to turn people away."

"Thank you." You four step off to the side to speak privately. "If he's pawning the jewelry he's stealing to get money, why is he still working in the fields?"

"Here's another question: Why is he circling the farm towns at all? What's keeping him here? Or, who? It could be a family member that he wants to watch over."

"It's a possibility."

Your phone rings, and you answer Penelope's call. You place her on speakerphone.

"Okay, mini-lesson. Migrants travel and work in these groups and the groups are called Cuadrillas. Now, I have found one such Cuadrilla that was in Chico at the same time as our unsub. Then, I checked the other towns, and they were in Sacramento, Modesto, and Vacaville at the same time as our unsub as well."

"What about the first town?"

"I got employment records from the apple farm in Tehachapi. This Cuadrilla last worked there two days before Mildred Younce was killed. Now, here's the whammy. A man named Armando Salinas checked in with this group in Tehachapi. Then, he falls off the map. There's no sign of him in any of the camps."

"Interesting."

"Double whammy," Penelope says. "Customs and immigration have a rap sheet on him for theft and assault, and he's wanted in connection to some burglaries."

"There's the record we've been looking for," Spencer says.

"Man, I am on a roll. Triple whammy! His fingerprints were one of the seventeen found at Mildred Younce's house."

"Get us his photo and get JJ to get it out to the media. We're going to need the public's help," Hotch says.

"I'm sending you his mug. The group that he's been following checked into Lockeford early this morning. That's not far from you."

Cesar knows exactly where this group is, and is familiar with them. He's the best chance you have of finding this person. If he can calm the locals, then you might be able to get them on your side. They're not going to like that the FBI is here, but that's why you have Cesar. You reach the camp in no time, and they are on high alert.

Cesar begins to speak to them in Spanish.

"Good evening. Sorry to disturb you. I am with the Farm Workers Council. These officers here have a few questions for you."

Almost immediately, people began to fear you. Some of them even run away from the group, and Hotch orders the officers not to chase after them. You're not here for them.

"We're sorry to interrupt your evening, but we've come here because we need your help."

Cesar translates whatever Hotch says to them. Cesar explains what is going on, and Emily passes out the picture of the man you're looking for. There is one man that can't seem to look Emily in the eyes, and he doesn't look at the picture in her hands.

She says something to him in Spanish, and he nods shamefully.

"It's his brother," Emily reveals.

The man, Ruben Garcia, is taken back to headquarters so that you can gain more information on his brother. He isn't too happy to be doing this, but it looks like he isn't surprised. He might not know what he is doing exactly, but you know he knows something about his brother's escapades.

"When was the last time you spoke to your brother?" Emily asks in Spanish.

"A few months ago in Tehachapi."

"Do you know that he's been following you?"

"Yes. He calls me from time to time. He likes to know where I'm going," Ruben says in English.

"Why does he have to follow you? Why isn't he with you anymore?" you ask knowing he can speak and understand English well.

"He's not a good worker. He got us fired from a big job. My Cuadrilla wanted him gone."

"So, you kicked him out?"

"Sí."

"Your brother has been following you ever since, burglarizing homes and killing people in every city."

The look Ruben has can be chalked up to one word: horrified.

"Is that where he gets the money from?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's been leaving me money at the camps."

"Does he know you're in Lockeford right now?"

"I found this at the camp today."

Ruben takes out a white envelope full of cash. Armando is here. This is your only chance to get at him before he goes to a different city.

"Would you excuse us?" You and Emily leave the room and join Spencer outside. "The killings started in Tehachapi. I think his brother rejecting him must have been a stressor."

"Morgan and Rossi made it there, and they're with rail security. Hotch and Liman are patrolling neighborhoods."

"Okay, we need to get these guys going." Emily clears her throat and addresses the entire room filled with officers. "Excuse me! Could we have your attention, please? This is Armando Ruis Salinas." You start to pass out his photo to everyone. "He is thirty-eight years old and a Mexican national. We believe he is currently in the vicinity of Lockeford and its outlying towns."

"He'll only target homes within a mile of train tracks. You'll be assigned search quadrants. Think the way a burglar would. Pay close attention to houses that have no exterior lights on, no security alarm signs, and no barking dogs nearby. Let's go."

All of the officers leave to do their job, but you and Spencer stay behind with Emily to talk to Ruben some more.

"Are you surprised the police are looking for him?"

"He's my half-brother. I wasn't around for him when he was young. He's been in trouble all his life, even being in jail in Mexico. I thought if he came to work with me, he would change. I'm grateful to work, but Armando hated work. Hated the camps. He always complained that he never had a nice bed to sleep on. When he was a kid, he slept on the floor. In jail, he slept on the floor. All he ever talked about was having a house of his own... a bed to sleep on."

It's clear he needs time to process what's going on, so you leave him alone to think. You don't know what he'd do if his brother is killed, and unfortunately, that exactly happens. Derek and Hotch found him in the freight yard trying to escape, but Derek ended up catching him.

Armando died trying to escape, and Ruben breaks down in tears at the news.

This isn't one of those cases you want to remember.

It's hard to forget something like this, so when you arrive back at the BAU, you try your damndest to think about something positive, like Spencer's birthday.

"Do any of you have plans for tonight?" Spencer asks.

"We do. Your birthday is tomorrow, baby. I have something planned for the two of us. We're celebrating."

"You're on your own, kid," Derek chuckles.

After grabbing your things, you head to the elevator with the rest of your team. JJ stops you before you can get on, and you look at the woman to her right.

"Before you leave, I wanted to introduce you to someone. This is Agent Jordan Todd. She'll be taking over for me while I'm on maternity leave."

"Agent Jareau has told me so much about you all. You must be Agent Prentiss."

"Yes, nice to meet you," Emily grins and shakes her hand.

"Hello, Dr. Reid and Agent Y/N. Agent Morgan. It's nice to see you again," she grins.

She must be the woman Derek met before at the cafe.

"Nice to see you, too. So, this must be the good news."

"This would be my brownie."

"Have you two met?" JJ asks.

"Briefly."

"Well, Agent Todd comes to us from seven years at counter-terrorism."

"I'm looking forward to working with the Behavioral Analysis Unit."

"We're starting her training now."

"Wait, right now?"

"We're kind of running out of time," JJ smiles and pats her big stomach. "Let me introduce you to the rest of the team."

"I'll see you in the field... team," Jordan grins.

She and JJ leave, and you're free to return to your own lives. You and Spencer head to your car, but before Spencer can get into the passenger seat, you toss him your keys.

"You're driving." Spencer doesn't drive often, so when he does, he takes joy in it. He doesn't like it, but he doesn't mind once in a while. "We're not going home."

"Where are we going?"

Spencer stops at a red light and looks at you in confusion. You lean over and place your lips to his neck, and he stiffens up. He grips the steering wheel tightly, refusing to let his feelings get in the way of his driving. You kiss his neck slowly while sliding your hand across his thigh. You can feel him tense under your touch, but that doesn't stop you.

You nip at his sensitive spot before licking up to the shell of his ear. You bite his ear gently, and he strangles out a moan.

"I got us a hotel for the weekend," you whisper. "I don't plan on leaving the bed with you at all. I have your real present later, but right now, all you have to worry about is getting me naked."

All reasonable thought has left Spencer's mind. He closes his eyes for two seconds, and the car behind him honks. His eyes fly open to see the light is green. You giggle and return to your seat, but your hand doesn't leave his thigh.

This is going to be one helluva weekend.

"Beyond the East the sunrise, beyond the West the sea, and the East and West the wander-thirst that will not let me be." - Gerald Gould

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fan fic #spencer reid fan fiction #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid angst #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fan fiction #criminal minds fan fic #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds angst #criminal minds series rewrite #series rewrite #cm season 4

[eccentric-nucleus]

so there's this entire youtube niche of 'homesteading' videos, where people go and live on homesteads and try to get to food-sufficiency, or like, feel-good pastoralism videos, you know the drill. people love a good time-lapse of things happening. "here's how we planted a food forest on our property" kinda thing. apparently a fair number of them end up ending like, "actually it turns out subsistence farming with no machinery is an enormous amount of work and it's exhausting so we stopped doing that". there's a lot of people only watching other youtube videos and deciding to get into living on a homestead and biting off way more than they can chew.

anyway one that caught my attention recently is this guy who bought ~350 acres of degraded desert land in west texas. the first several videos are mostly about him trying to even find a maintained road to his property. but also as of time of writing he's had the property for two years and has mostly just dug some demi-lunes and also tried to build some rock dams on the various arroyos on the property. there's no well and there's no year-round water; just flash-floods after storms in the rainy season. it sounds like a lot of it has been like, go down there for a week camping in a tent (it's a 2 hour drive from the nearest town and it's a like 9 hour drive from where he actually lives) and try to make some earthworks, and then repeat that every so often, and then hope that once yearly when it actually rains any of that does anything. repeat for x years until there's any kind of meaningful rainwater capture/soil accumulation

also the guy has no prior, you know, ranching, gardening, agriculture experience; he's literally a software developer who watched a bunch of ecosystem restoration videos on youtube. he is literally as qualified as i am.

and like on the one hand sure there's a certain amount of schadenfreude about watching him painstakingly document how he has no clue what he's doing but on the other hand, well, good on him for actually attempting to do something i guess

but also: his property is in remote west texas. by the border. he put up game cameras and the first thing they recorded was people in camo with heavy backpacks traveling at night. "only 50-50 chance it's drug mules". he made a whole video about him repeatedly coming across migrants trying to hike across the border, which is like, that'ssss kind of rough. it's almost like you cannot escape geopolitics by retreating to a fantasy of pristine land with no prior baggage

[tunneldweller]

tw: human rights violations, injuries, death

In early August 2021, asylum seekers started showing up in unusually large numbers in Poland near the border with Belarus. The border area is mostly covered with forests and bogs with farming villages past the woods. It's chock full of gorgeous landscapes, including Europe's largest remaining stretch of primeval forest west of Russia - the Białowieża Forest, a largely pristine ecosystem with so damn much biodiversity. Bison, lynx, three species of shrew, the last remaining European populations of various insects, tons of birds, fungi, mosses, you name it. Scientists and environmentalists love it [and forestry officials want to manage it, but that's a story for another day].

So: asylum seekers. Hungry, filthy, exhausted people from places like Afghanistan or Syria, which incidentally do not share a border with Poland. The locals, being decent folk, started feeding and helping these new arrivals, because that's just what you do when a tattered wraith shows up on your doorstep speaking some weirdass language and making the universal gesture for "I'm hungry". The Border Guard, being in violation of national laws as well as international conventions Poland had ratified, started trucking these asylum seekers back to the border and forcing them to cross back to Belarus, which is called a pushback. The Polish government, elected in part due to vicious anti-refugee propaganda, stated that the border must be reinforced to prevent the entry of "waves of unauthorized persons" participating in "hybrid warfare" and declared a state of emergency along the entire border. These migrants, they said, were extremely dangerous. Culturally foreign.

Why would seeking asylum be considered hybrid warfare? This links back to Europe's last remaining dictator west of Russia: Alaksandr Lukashenka, Supreme Ruler and Deathless Emperor of Belarus. His people allegedly came up with a clever racket: they started selling Belarusian visas in various poorer countries many people want to emigrate from and transporting migrants to the Polish border, claiming that this would be their gateway to a better life in the European Union.

So: asylum seekers. According to Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. [Incidentally, Poland is a signatory of the UDHR.] Regardless of their country of origin, people crossing over from Belarus have the right to request asylum in Poland. And they do. Every time they get caught. In English, in Polish, in their native languages… Upon hearing a request for asylum the Border Guards are supposed to transport the migrants to a processing center where they would then wait for their application to be reviewed. But because these migrants are extremely dangerous, the Border Guards trash their belongings and dump them on the Belarusian side without shoes, without meds, phones, jackets, in any kind of weather, regardless of any injuries. And there are many. The terrain can be tricky to cross if you're not used to this type of boggy temperate forest. Or if you haven't had your meds in a while. Or if you're six. It won't be easy even if you're a - just like the current government's fearmongering election ads warned a few years ago - healthy young male with a cell phone.

When Belarusian Border Guards come across these ejected migrants, they force them back toward the Polish border. People keep ping-ponging between two walls of armed, uniformed enforcers who are getting more violent with every passing week. Some manage to get through and make it to Germany to request asylum in a law-abiding country. Others don't. 48 bodies were recovered along the border so far. NGO workers creep through the woods handing out hot soup and donated shoes to migrants; according to them, this is a fraction of the real number of casualties and some bodies will simply never be found. Volunteer medics get their tires slashed, aid workers get harassed, detained and charged. But the Border Guards don't kill, yet. Not directly. We're Europeans, after all! We're civilized!

It's a humanitarian crisis and an international shame. And the [abridged] wall of text above provides the necessary context to why I can't schadenfreudenly cackle over the latest government scandal, even though I love to point and laugh when that bunch steps on a rake.

See, earlier this month a Deputy Foreign Minister got fired for helping with a work visa racket. When the border crisis began to unfold, he'd already been ~facilitating procedures~ for like a year. This country needs workers; a significant chunk of the workforce up and emigrated, including many healthy young males, and the national birth rate is still failing even though the government did everything like the Catholic Church said. The deputy minister wouldn't even come up with a list of in-demand jobs; diplomatic missions are slammed with work after other changes he did implement, so he'd personally order consulates in some Asian and African countries to expedite certain applications. And all that time his party has been openly approving of unconstitutional pushback procedures targeting people from similarly "culturally foreign" [read: Muslim] countries. Incidentally, this far-right party is called Law and Justice. Hypocrisy is a virtue and cruelty is the point.

I wanted to end this with a punchy, quotable call for action, but my words ran out. The border crisis is still happening, even though it's clear by now that Poles and Poland can handle an influx of refugees far larger than the groups coming through Belarus. Summer is almost over and the coming months are likely to be cold and rainy. All I can do is signal boost and donate to aid groups.

[phantoids]

Fuck it. Take some dsmp countries worldbuilding for an AU I'm working on.

Snowchester. originally it was l'manberg's industrial sector of claimed land, including a nuclear research lab (not limited to weapons but mostly yea, i like to think they had a decent physics department and were trying to figure out nuclear reactors to help power the city when things started getting worse) but ofc it turned into an industrial town since workers migrated there. you have small farms of hardy vegetables and their own traditions and such. it ends up gaining independence of lmanberg as like a separate country but it's still a colony yk since they wanted to be allow the people of snowchester to be seen as their own people whilst being able to easily keep their lmanberg citizenship and such given they're all first generation migrants basically. snowchester's main things are engineering (electrical, mechanical, anything they can get to do with mechanics), physics and nuclear physics. they've got some primary industry in extracting natural materials required for the nukes (the specific area is where there's a lot of very deeply buried inactive nuclear ore) and ofc secondary industry in the processing of those materials too since they're refined there too. snowchester has very little tertiary industry, and quite a bit of quaternary in terms of engineering and designers and such. meanwhile l'manberg has quite a bit of quaternary and tertiary industry but not nearly as much secondary (they mainly export food products, however, and often jewellery too) and basically no primary industry.

snowchester remains one of the more populated areas on the server after the egg, with how it's self sufficient and a bit too cold for the vines still. some are creeping up the shore though and nobody's too sure how long they have til the town is uninhabitable.

the dsmp specialises in primary industry and tertiary. all its manufacturing is either outsourced to lmanberg or the badlands. cause like. the badlands is an extremely good place to have a lot of manufacturing and quaternary as well, and they just do fuck all everything. they are THE manufacturing specialists (also cause sam would definitely like that kind of thing and help out with it).

kinoko exports agricultural goods and has one of the most popular brewing industries on the server, as well as being renowned for the general quality of ingredients and the amount of cafes. also has a lot of builders, there's a decent amount of construction done there due to the materials used in most of the buildings, it attracts a lot of carpenters and construction workers who want to test their skill working with mushrooms sturdy enough to build a house with. las nevadas is entirely tertiary and quaternary industry, they outside a lot to lmanberg and the badlands. basically after el rapids dispersed they created las nevadas so the few people who lived there moved to las nevadas, and people probably migrated from elsewhere too, but el rapids was planned to have a decent entertainment industry. las nevadas has lots of builders and carpenters and jewellery sellers but it's all bespoke stuff, and a lot of it is high end or hand made goods too. it's where you'll go to find the best restaurants and hotels and night clubs and casinos. it's where you meet the big business execs and where there's a lot of cramped office buildings, and the food is quite lovely since it's so close to kinoko they get fresh ingredient imports every day.

also foolish's summer home is a tourist attraction and resort. you've also just got foolish there. he's always seen building smth.

#void talks about writing #worldbuilding shit #god i love it so much. #tteote au

[mariacallous]

Israeli defense officials have called Israel’s surveillance apparatus in Gaza one of the most sophisticated in the world. But it failed on Oct. 7.

At dawn, Palestinian militants broke through Israel’s multibillion-dollar border fence separating the blockaded Gaza Strip from Israeli communities, breaching the barrier in as many as 80 different places. The militants navigated small drones that disabled Israeli cameras, remote sensing systems, and automated machine guns that would have alerted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that the fence had failed.

After they crossed, militants swarmed Israel’s Zikim military base, killing many soldiers and taking some hostage. Over the next six hours, Hamas fighters would kill or take hostage hundreds of Israeli civilians as well as scores of foreign nationals. Militants massacred 250 revelers at a desert rave and hundreds of other people in their own homes, shooting entire families at point-blank range. More than 200 soldiers and civilians—including infants, children, older people, and migrant farm laborers—were shoved onto motorcycles or into golf carts and driven back over the border into Gaza as captives. (Four have since been released.) Residents of cities farther north were roused by air sirens warning of incoming missiles, as news alerts began revealing the scale of the attack.

In total, the operation killed more than 1,400 Israelis. It had been planned for months, if not years, and mobilized more than 1,500 militants from Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, as well as some from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group.

The failure by Israeli intelligence to anticipate the massacre was a shock, given the country’s cutting-edge surveillance systems and weaponry pioneered by its technologically advanced military. From borders equipped with hundreds of sensors, cameras, robotic machine guns, and automated drone swarms to biometric databases and spyware, high-tech systems have helped enforce a 16-year Israeli blockade of Gaza and its 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants. These systems have also been deployed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as part of a broader regime of population control.

Yet, on Oct. 7, that intelligence apparatus did not work as promised. Security experts and human rights advocates in Israel say the atrocities are evidence that technology can never be a tenable salve to regional insecurity. It is time to reconsider whether high-tech solutions to violence can ever stand in for political ones.

How exactly Hamas defeated Israel’s sophisticated technology—including a $1.1 billion border wall fortified with underground and aerial remote sensing technologies—is still being investigated. For more than 16 years, the IDF thwarted all but a handful of breaches to the border fence with deadly aerial bombardments, sniper fire, and dragnet surveillance.

But from early indications, it seems the Palestinian militia operated right under Israel’s nose. Hamas compiled troves of information about Israel’s intelligence capabilities and security infrastructure for months. Operatives reportedly trained for the onslaught at a sprawling base near the Gaza-Israel fence for more than a year. They drove through the barrier on trucks and motorcycles, flew over it on bright beach paragliders, and motorboated up the Mediterranean coast.

“They [the Gaza militants] studied us very well. They knew what kind of technology we had on the fence. They knew what needed to be destroyed before getting through the fence. They also knew where the army units were, the tanks, and the bases,” said Yohanan Tzoreff, a senior researcher with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv.

“Nothing alerted us that something was wrong along the border. Nothing gave us a picture of what happened in this area,” he said.

While in the occupied West Bank, Israel relies on spy networks, embedded informants, and secret agents, its tactics in Gaza largely rest on digital and automated systems. Israel controls and limits access to telecommunications and internet across the territory, and the military deploys automated drones in nearly 24/7 aerial reconnaissance of densely populated urban areas. Yet somehow, Hamas mapped the sensors, cameras, watch towers, and military bases along the border—planning its sabotage without triggering a single alarm.

The group hid its preparation by avoiding digital communications altogether while planning for the attack. Many of its operations were moved to underground bunkers equipped with hardwired phones outside the range of 2G networks monitored by the IDF. But components of the attack were also rehearsed in broad daylight in plain view of Israeli military personnel. IDF officials even wrote off a September propaganda video of Hamas exploding the border fence; the army simply assumed the border was impenetrable.

Members of Israel’s security establishment have publicly denounced the IDF’s overreliance on technology to contain Gaza in the wake of the attack. Some also lamented that resources were directed away from ground troops on the Gaza border and toward a tech-obsessed military, which had become, in the words of retired IDF Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Barik, “swollen with arrogance.”

“If most of your intelligence comes from sigint [signals intelligence], then I suppose you’re in a way blind if anyone is operating without cellphones or digital communications,” said Ami Ayalon, the former head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency. “We just assumed they [Hamas] wouldn’t attack now.”

Ayalon, who has devoted his retirement to advocating for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, told Foreign Policy that the military used technology as a “bandage,” focusing on quick fixes to regional volatility while the government abandoned any possibility of bringing about a lasting peace.

“Our [Israel’s] policy has been, we should do everything to maintain this situation, to manage the conflict, not to solve it, because to solve would mean we would pay a huge price”—such as pulling hundreds of thousands of settlers from the occupied West Bank and forfeiting swaths of land in the name of a two-state solution.

Israeli investments in high-tech security and surveillance systems took off in the early 2000s, in response to a surge of Palestinian suicide attacks and other violence of the Second Intifada. Under increasingly right-wing leadership, Israel’s military spent billions of dollars to develop more effective ways to manage regional violence (much of the money came from U.S. military aid) rather than addressing its root causes.

Generals assured the world that biometric cameras, automated drones, targeted spyware, and smarter border walls could effectively quell Palestinian militant groups across the region. Once these generals retired from the military, many of them sat on the boards of weapons companies that promised the technologies would enhance global security. Israeli assaults on Gaza doubled as opportunities arose for Israeli defense firms to unveil automated reconnaissance and strike drones, which were then exported around the world.

As one Israeli columnist put it: “For every significant threat originating in Gaza since Hamas took control in 2007, Israel responded with technological solutions.” The country experienced unprecedented economic growth, powered in large part by the military technology sector, as Gaza endured an economic crisis compounded by the collective trauma of unending war.

Human rights advocates say the Israeli government’s tech-heavy policies helped shield Israeli society from the violence and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. “The situation in Gaza has been repressed for so long by Israeli society,” said Miriam Marmur, the director of public advocacy at Gisha, an Israeli nonprofit that promotes freedom of movement for Palestinians in Gaza. “Now we’re seeing it surface in horrifying and terrifying ways.”

Israel’s belief that technology can act as a salve to geopolitical volatility mirrors global trends. From NATO- and U.S.-sponsored drone warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq to predictive policing algorithms in the United States, militaries and police forces worldwide have touted high-tech innovation as a silver bullet to quell chronic insecurity. Yet precision strikes and algorithms have done little to address the root causes of violence in all these places. Nearly two decades of drone warfare failed to eliminate al Qaeda—or stop the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. In the United States, predictive policing software, which is rarely accurate, has diverted resources from social services that might more effectively deter crime.

An Israeli approach to Palestinians that would have genuinely improved their lives and offered them hope for independence may well have strengthened the more moderate elements in the West Bank and Gaza and weakened Hamas—a group whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saw political advantages in allowing Hamas to continue ruling Gaza.

As recently as 2019, Netanyahu said strengthening Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank would keep Palestinians divided politically and sabotage any chance for a viable two-state solution. It would also potentially abet the Israeli far right’s goal of annexing the West Bank.

Israel’s military leadership promised that sophisticated weaponry and missile defense systems could maintain this equilibrium. Recent wars between Gaza and Israel hardly disturbed social and economic life in Israel’s urban centers. The status quo, which exacted Palestinian pain and suffering, felt sustainable to most Israelis.

But Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack destroyed the image of a sleek and efficient Israeli war machine that Netanyahu and his allies tried so hard to cultivate. It took one of the most vaunted militaries in the world hours to respond to pleas for help from civilians locked inside their homes or hiding under piles of dead bodies as Hamas militants poured in from Gaza and went on a killing spree. In some cases, off-duty or retired military personnel donned uniforms to rescue their own relatives, driving alone into besieged towns to engage in direct combat.

Intent on redeeming itself, the IDF has responded in an unrestrained and brutal way. The Israeli air force is carpet-bombing Gaza’s crowded urban centers to pave the way for what is likely to be an even deadlier ground invasion. Israeli strikes have so far killed more than 8,000 Palestinians, with thousands more injured, according to Palestinian health officials. Some 700,000 Palestinians in Gaza have fled their homes. Already, one Israeli publication has said the next phase of war will be “a proving ground for some of Israel’s latest military technology.”

Yet any escalation of the war will only lead to more deaths, no matter the technologies deployed. “Do not destroy the Gaza Strip,” Neta Heiman wrote in Haaretz days after Hamas kidnapped her 84-year-old mother, “that won’t help anyone and will only bring an even more ferocious round of violence the next time.”

[chroniclingworlds]

Proboscoids

Like their relatives the Vesicae, the Proboscoids have a strangely rounded body and unusual skeletal structure. The Proboscoids take this to the extreme with almost no neck and a head nearly fused into their body. This may have evolved as a defense against predators, as the neck is a target and a more rounded body has fewer vulnerable points. To reach food and water, their jaws have developed bizarrely, on a long flexible trunk connected to the body with only the highly extended esophagus and flexible soft tissue.

Worm-mouths

Pictured: the spotted worm-mouth, native to the open woodlands south of the Black Mountains.

These are iconic Proboscoids, with incredibly round bodies and a long, tentacle-like prehensile mouth. Because of the highly specialized nature of the jaws, they do not have room for a full jawbone, and instead just contain a sharp bony nub for snipping off leaves, which are swallowed whole. Smaller and swifter than their relatives, they roam the plains in herds and sprint off at the slightest sign of danger. When they run, the trunk is lifted and tucked up against their head and back, keeping it out of the way.

Snouties

Pictured: the woodland squeaker, named for the strange high-pitched alarm calls they make, found on the outskirts of the far eastern Southern Forest.

With a very flexible upper lip, the Snouties are named for their ability to grasp and hold things with this “snout”. The Snouties have the most muscles and nerves of any Proboscoids, making the mouth incredibly dexterous and sensitive, almost able to operate like a hand. They have even been seen delicately picking parasites off each other. Living along the fringes of the southern forest, they reach up into trees to feed on tender leaves and fruiting bodies. Generally these animals are very shy and hang around in the shadows of the forest, nervously keeping watch for predators.

SawBacks

Pictured: the sickle-claw SawBack, native to the plains of the Eastern Rise.

These creatures have a shorter, stiffer trunk with more developed bone-teeth for feeding on tough desert plants that grow on the seasonal plains. And that isn’t all they use their sharp teeth for; they have also been observed eating small animals, making them the only known Proboscoids to engage in omnivorous activity. With ridged armor on their backs and an elongated claw on their second toe for self-defense, they are difficult for predators to take down. They are also known to be somewhat aggressive, charging defensively at any perceived threat.

Orbiphants

Pictured: the white-crested Orbiphant, the species once used as war mounts in a famed Xaraka battle, found on the plains between the Pinnacles and the Black Mountains.

The largest of the Proboscoids, these animals roam the midlands in herds of up to 20. Their trunks are shorter and lined with bony projections for grinding food as it travels down the esophagus, making them very effective at feeding on tough semi-arid plants. These are far-roaming seasonal migrants, often spending summers in the open woodlands fringing the Southern Sea and winters in the hot savannas surrounding seasonal watering holes. Although they are far from being considered “domesticated”, there is at least one Xaraka culture that historically used these as riding war-beasts. Several villages west of the Black Mountains still have a familiar relationship with them and allow the animals to feed from their farms.

#speculative biology #planet strix

[power-chords]

This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence—to the spirit as well as to the body. It is about ulcers as well as accidents, about shouting matches as well as fistfights, about nervous breakdowns as well as kicking the dog around. It is, above all (or beneath all), about daily humiliations. To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us.

The scars, psychic as well as physical, brought home to the supper table and the TV set, may have touched, malignantly, the soul of our society. More or less. ("More or less," that most ambiguous of phrases, pervades many of the conversations that comprise this book, reflecting, perhaps, an ambiguity of attitude towards The Job. Something more than Orwellian acceptance, something less than Luddite sabotage. Often the two impulses are fused in the same person.)

It is about a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying. Perhaps immortality, too, is part of the quest. To be remembered was the wish, spoken and unspoken, of the heroes and heroines of this book.

There are, of course, the happy few who find a savor in their daily job; the Indiana stonemason, who looks upon his work and sees that it is good; the Chicago piano tuner, who seeks and finds the sound that delights; the bookbinder, who saves a piece of history; the Brooklyn fireman, who saves a piece of life . . . But don't these satisfactions, like Jude's hunger for knowledge, tell us more about the person than about his task? Perhaps. Nonetheless, there is a common attribute here: a meaning to their work well over and beyond the reward of the paycheck.

For the many, there is a hardly concealed discontent. The blue-collar blues is no more bitterly sung than the white-collar moan. "I'm a machine," says the spot-welder. "I'm caged," says the bank teller, and echoes the hotel clerk. "I'm a mule," says the steelworker. "A monkey can do what I do," says the receptionist. "I'm less than a farm implement," says the migrant worker. "I'm an object," says the high-fashion model. Blue collar and white call upon the identical phrase: "I'm a robot." "There is nothing to talk about," the young accountant despairingly enunciates. It was some time ago that John Henry sang, "A man ain't nothin' but a man." The hard, unromantic fact is: he died with a hammer in his hand, while the machine pumped on. Nonetheless, he found immortality. He is remembered.

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, Studs Terkel, 1974.

#studs terkel #notes for the michael mannzine

[voidgenesis]

can we talk about Sasha's character on AOT for a second? just listen to me for a moment.

majority of the mainstream fandom has reduced her to the comic relief/potato girl who loves to eat but I think she deserves so much more than that. especially when she died, most are only sad over it to have a reason to hate Gabi because "huhu bitch child killed our potato girl kyahh"

(of course there are handful of fans who understood her and saw the depth of her character. but I was really hoping her TV death arc will bring out more people who didn't just saw her a cartoon cardboard character)

Sasha is a wonderful native-migrant representation, at least in my perspective. She came from a rural area and community of farmer/hunters that are greatly affected by the continuous occupation of urban born citizens. Mainland Paradisians shamed and ridiculed their way of living until they lost their own homes and turned to urbanizing the forest/mountains. To Sasha hunting and farming are parts of her identity, to give it up for those who never understood them in the first place is a complete betrayal of herself and their heritage. She hated the idea of abandoning that just because a world she's not a part of is changing.

But in her father's words, they are all part of a bigger world that is connected regardless. So she ended up joining the Corps as a soldier, among those who might be prejudicial towards her identity as a native. Those subtle details of Sasha practicing code switching (hiding her accent, rarely talking about home, talking too polite around others) goes well with her character.

As someone who spent most of her life being a subject of prejudice and mockery because she's a minority, Sasha is seen to be warm and eager to know about the rest of the world. She rejoiced on Niccolo's cooking, curiously asked about why Onyankopon looks different and saw Marley in an eyes of a kid instead of a soldier who's planning to destroy it.

That's what made her death even more tragic. She is the least person on the team that could be ignorantly hateful towards Marleyans or other Eldians, because she knew what it's like to be a subject of social prejudice. Yet she died first, on the hands of their own who only saw her as nothing but faceless devil. Sasha lived a life of unjust discrimination and bigotry just for being different, and in the end she died for the same reason.

She was either a lowlife farmer girl or a devil of paradis.

But it's not fair to sum up her story like that. Sasha was a naturally warm and radiant person, but also brave and skillful. She has a knack on both hunting and cooking which she gladly shared to her comrades. She cared for them as much as she let on. And as heartbreaking her death was, I couldn't imagine her having to live through the Alliance and Rumbling arc because that will surely break her.

#attack on titan #aot #shingeki no kyojin #snk #sasha braus #sasha blouse #sasha braus analysis #attack on titan analysis

[aurianneor]

Immigration

The images are frightening. We see caravans of migrants crossing Central America on their way to the United States. We see boats filled to the brim off the coast of Florida or in the Mediterranean. In border towns, we see hordes of young men on the streets, destitute, jumping the barriers of detention centres, living in squats, sometimes addicted to drugs.

European countries and the United States claim to be so overwhelmed that they delegate their borders to Mexico, Turkey and the countries of North Africa. They pay them to process asylum applications before the migrants have set foot in the destination country. The detention centres are inhumane and the migrants jump the barriers to get to their destination. The barrier is very easy to jump. Migrants enter countries illegally because it is inhumane to ask to enter legally. So they don’t assert their rights.

Faced with these terrifying images, we hear the Right telling us that these illegals must be punished more severely, and we hear the Left telling us that there are no problems with migrants. These migrants work for a tenth of the price and cannot assert their rights before a judge. The people most affected by migration are the rural and poor. The result of this situation of irregularity is to create an extremely cheap labour force that cannot compete with European or American labour. It is legitimate to feel helpless when faced with these migrants. The fields in the United States and Europe are full of illegal workers and the fields are not controlled. The current policy simply creates more scope for employers. The people living in rural areas are concerned, and only the right wing is addressing them.

In the short term, many migrants are arriving at the borders of the West and there is no reason why their treatment should not be organised in humane conditions. Those who wish to assert their right to asylum do not deserve prison.

In the long term, the European and North American powers have largely contributed to making the countries of the South unliveable. We must stop actively destroying these countries. Multinationals must be held criminally responsible when they commit an act in these countries that would be a crime in the West. They must be tried in the West for pollution, subversion, corruption, forced labour, child labour, etc. On the other hand, the West can and must support democratic regimes when they emerge in these countries. African revolutionaries have all been killed. This has to stop.

It is only under these conditions that development aid can be effective. If we give development aid when these conditions are not met, it feeds corruption. Only effective development aid will create decent living opportunities in these countries and reduce the number of migrants.

Taking stronger action on climate change is also important to ensure that these countries do not become hellholes.

If these countries end up receiving a fair income from their resources and labour, they will become long-term customers and trading partners and will be able to deal with the sanitary problems that threaten us all.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Peru, biodiversity in danger: https://www.aurianneor.org/peru-biodiversity-in-danger/

“How can you frighten a man whose hunger”…: https://www.aurianneor.org/how-can-you-frighten-a-man-whose-hunger-is-not/

Fair trade and organic farming: https://www.aurianneor.org/fair-trade-and-organic-farming/

How can we win back trust?: https://www.aurianneor.org/how-can-we-win-back-trust/

Humiliated by the Republic: https://www.aurianneor.org/humiliated-by-the-republic/

“Calais ou pas caler”: https://www.aurianneor.org/calais-ou-pas-caler/

Solidarité Hélvétique: https://www.aurianneor.org/solidarite-helvetique-democratie-semi-directe/

License on the Red Planet – A science fiction story: https://www.aurianneor.org/license-on-the-red-planet-a-science-fiction/

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