#union's second committee

[wealmostaneckbeard]

The politics in Lancer the mech pilot TTRPG seems center left to me. A good way to explain what's going on in that game's universe is with this overly long metaphor:

Imagine an alternate history where Nixon somehow beat JFK Jr to the white house, and once in office he lets Kissinger go nuts setting fascists up on an accelerated schedule. That's what Union's Second Committee was like. Then Tricky Dick procedes to nuke Vietnam a couple times. That's the Hercynia Crisis and that FTL Piston weapon launch. JFK and company ride the shock and horror of approaching nuclear war into office on the promise of de-escalation and enforcing civil rights, and they deliver. That's the coup that formed Union's Third Committee. Kissinger, Nixon, and the entire pentagon/raytheon corp take over NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida where they form a tolerated corporatocracy in exile. That's basically Harrison Armory on the planet Ras Shamra. Now a United liberal-leftist front of America is actively trying to tear down dictatorships around the world that Kissinger set up (he got assassinated at some point in this time line) and replace them with socialist democracies. That is Union's Justice/Human-Rights Department and a few other government branches. So far they've had some success although people are pointing out that it's a bit hypocritical that the liberators are using weapons from corporate conservative states where civil rights are discretely curtailed. That's what's driving political discourse in 5016u in Union's legislative body, the Central Committee and it's myriad political parties.

So yeah Lancer's political intergalactic landscape is a bit like modern day? Except also cthulhu is giving out reality-breaking tech to militant civil rights advocates and random civilians? That's what HORUS basically is, btw.

Now that I've written this out, it would make for a good american alt-history with mechs campaign in Lancer...

#henry kissinger #lancer rpg #alternate history #union's third committee #union's second committee #harrison armory #science fiction #table top role playing #ttrpg #mech #mecha #usa politics #usa history #richard nixon #john f kennedy #us history #us politics #horus

[rincewindsapprentice]

Two minor things I wish were a bit clearer to people about the American political system:

Lawmakers will often propose bills that have no hope of passing in order to make a political statement, appeal to a specific electoral demographic, or appeal to their donors/lobbyists. Just because a super progressive or absurdly fascist bill is proposed does not automatically mean it will leave committee (i.e., will not face a full vote) or even have a hope of passing.

The FDIC is funded entirely by banks themselves. It is insurance, after all. Taxpayers only indirectly fund it by having their money in a bank. The recent "bailouts" of Silicon Valley Bank and the other failures were to cover the deposits of clients not to bail out the bank. Those deposits were more than covered by the large amount of money the FDIC has been able to accumulate over the years. While deposits above $250,000 aren't automatically guaranteed by the FDIC, they can still be covered if the FDIC has the money. It is, once again, insurance after all.

#the first I think a lot of trans people need to recognize #mostly so we don't completely burn ourselves out over every single anti-trans bills #because most won't pass committee! #the second is specifically about the FDIC and its role #I think most people (including me a few weeks ago) don't understand how it works #also the NCUA is the alternative insurance for credit unions that works the same way #also SVB and the other failed banks are actively seeking buyers of their banks #this is not like 2008

[alwaysbewoke]

At a Black Student Union meeting at UCLA's Campbell Hall on January 17, 1969, Bunchy Carter and John Huggins, another BPP member, were heard making derogatory comments about Karenga, the founder of Organization Us. Other versions mention a heated argument between Organization Us members and Panther Elaine Brown. An altercation ensued during which Carter and Huggins were shot to death. BPP members originally insisted that the event was a planned assassination, claiming that there was a prior agreement that no guns would be brought to the meeting, that BPP members were not armed, and that Organization Us members led by Ron Karenga were. Organization Us members maintained the meeting was a spontaneous event. Former BPP deputy minister of defense Geronimo Pratt, Carter’s head of security at the time, later stated that rather than a conspiracy, the UCLA incident was a spontaneous shootout. The person who allegedly shot Carter and Huggins, Claude Hubert, was never found. During the Church Committee hearings in 1975, evidence came to light that under the FBI's COINTELPRO actions, FBI agents had deliberately fanned flames of division and enmity between the BPP and Organization Us. Death threats and humiliating cartoons created by the FBI were sent to each group, made to look as if they originated with the other group, with the explicit intention of inciting deadly violence and division. Following the UCLA incident, brothers George and Larry Stiner and Donald Hawkins turned themselves in to the police, who had issued warrants for their arrests. They were convicted for conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of second-degree murder, based on testimony given by BPP members. The Stiner brothers both received life sentences and Hawkins served time in California’s Youth Authority Detention.

america has NEVER been great. never ever.

[yourtongzhihazel]

My dad is an excercise in the futulity of trying to be a member of the petite bourgeoisie.

Ever since he was a boy he was poisoned by american propaganda (movies) which sold him an unrealistic and unreasonable view of life in the states. Then he grew up, got a phd in physics, married my mom, then went to the states.

Wow! Land of hamburger and freedom so cool!!

First job, get mistreated and exploited for being an immigrant. Second job, get mistreated and exploited for being inexperienced. Ok, clearly this "employment" thing isn't working. It is time to become petite bourgeois. (AN: obviously him getting mistreated and exploited isn't his fault. What is, is him not recognizing it as exploitation and seeking to uproot it rather than participate in it)

Set up a small business in some niche market (uh oh) with a large competitor (uh oh x2) while having a really thin capital stream (uh oh x3). Exploit me for everything from cleaning to product manufacturing (???) to business advice (?????) and paying me in "we put a roof over your heads this is the least you can do" (did I mention i was a high schooler at the time? Talk about child labor!). Struggle to survive for 5 years, let alone make money. Get pushed out of the market. "Damn this american market sucks. I should move this operation to China, known dictatorship of the proletariat, for a better market". Move the operation to china, including all your material capital (machines). A year goes by, things are going pretty smoothly! No money is being made but at least you have capital flow and employees and be trying to go public!

Knock knock.

It's the CPC.

"hello!!!!! What a nice business you have here! Very high level technology which we don't have domestic production for!! Look at all your employees too! And you're going public! Congratulations, petite bourgeoisie! You have won a prize! Its unionization and CPC board members and oversight committee. Enjoy and thanks for doing business in the People's Republic of China!"

Now he's seething about having to slash overtime and give mandatory breaks and raise wages.

Honestly i couldn't care less about those complaints.

#me irl #common china w

[hra-official]

Hercynian Refurbished Armaments is open for business

Greetings to the denizens of the omninet!

Now that the Hercynian United Cities have the first official trade agreements with Union, we're happy to announce the opening of our digital storefront.

As you may already know, until recently our whole planet was locked in a war for survival against the forces of the Second Committee first and their leftover autonomous weapons later.

Now that the war has finally ended, we're left with a wealth of early-model frames, weapons, combat drones and subalterns and military vehicles, as well as five hundred years of experience with keeping them in fighting shape despite the lack of printers or large scale industrial facilities.

Hercynian Refurbished Armaments was founded with the mission of turning these instruments of war into funds to build a new peace by selling you dependable last-gen hardware at competitive prices.

Make no mistake, our inventory is no mere second-hand workshop: each and every item has been brought back to pristine, milspec condition by technicians with centuries of battle-tested expertiese, and inspected by veteran member of the Hecrynian Ranger Corps for any defect or lack of reliability. We have trusted these armaments with the fate of our civilization, and so can you!

#lancer rpg #lancer ttrpg #lancerrpg

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A Starbucks cafe in south Calgary has made history in Alberta, becoming the first of the chain to unionize in the province and the second in the country.

The United Steelworkers (USW) announced a three-year collective agreement on Friday after workers at the Millrise Centre location voted to accept the contract on Thursday.

“Reaching this deal is such a ground-breaking achievement for us because it does not just benefit the Starbucks workers in Calgary, it sets a precedent for all Starbucks workers as well as the broader coffee industry,” Jacob Dickenscheid, USW Local 1-207 bargaining committee member, said in a statement.

The union said during the bargaining process, it was able secure improved working conditions, better job security, dispute resolution processes and wage increases: five per cent upon ratification and an additional five more per cent in the next two years. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @abpoli

#cdnpoli #Calgary #Alberta #Starbucks #workers' rights #union organizing

[ourflagmeansbts]

Source (Season 2 - November 9th 2023)

sambaschutte: Well, the SAG AFTRA strike is over. And I’m overjoyed at seeing fellow creatives finally being able to share and celebrate their work. So many have suffered and struggled during these 118 days. My heart goes out to everyone, especially our below the line workers. As for me, it was hard not being able to promote the second season of “Our Flag Means Death” or do all the promo things I had planned around it. I love this show. We work so hard to have meaningful wins in this industry and want to celebrate those milestones with fans. But I’m happy we have a deal our union is happy with. I’m happy we get to celebrate, and you’ll probably get sick of me posting. But I want to celebrate our tireless crew in New Zealand, our writers, our showrunner, our eps, our amazing cast and everyone involved with the show. Thank you for your support. And to our SAG neg committee, strike captains, volunteers and everyone who gave what they could during this tough time. May fairness, joy, love of the arts and celebrating in unity prevail. May we be light amidst the chaos in the world. And now, get ready for a bunch of pirate bts…🙏🏾❤️✨🏴‍☠️

#ofmd #ofmd bts #our flag means death #our flag means death bts #s2 #2023 #sambaschutte #matthew #nathan #samba #leslie #taika #fane #kristian #nat #joel #vico #samson #madeleine #ruibo #con #rhys

[fans4wga]

“This Was A Negotiation For The Future”: Fran Drescher & Duncan Crabtree-Ireland On SAG-AFTRA Deal, AI & Informed Consent + Importance Of CEOs

"'We know that generations from now they’ll be talking about this seminal contract and reaping the benefits of it in the way that we have been for the last 65 years with a contract that was negotiated when Ronald Reagan was in my position,' says SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher of the new contract the actors guild made with the studios on Wednesday after 118 days on strike.

Worth more than $1 billion over the next three years, the tentative agreement has an “extraordinary scope” and is full of “unprecedented provisions,” according to SAG-AFTRA. While the fine print won’t be made public until the 160,000-strong guild’s board votes on it Friday, we know the new deal includes increases in minimum rates, a streaming participation bonus, new health and pension caps, diversity guardrails, and hard fought for AI protection provisions.

The recently overwhelmingly reelected Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland were at the heart of the strike and the talks. “This strike was about people who are trying to make a middle class living, and I think when the whole deal is put out in the public and people have all the different pieces of it, they will see that there is an overall commitment to improving the economic viability of a career as an actor in this business,” Crabtree-Ireland notes.

Frequently attacked and underestimated by the AMPTP and others, both the union president and national director were out on the picket lines day after day as well as in negotiations with the CEOs Gang of Four of Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav. Back at the bargaining table for the second set of renewed talks starting on October 24, a month after the WGA reached their own tentative agreement with the studios, the duo, SAG-AFTRA’s chief contracts officer Ray Rodriguez and other members of the negotiating committee unanimously approved the deal Wednesday evening. That vote came as the studios had set a 5 pm PT deadline that could have seen everything go back to square one.

Today, Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland spoke with me about getting to that deal, power of the picket lines, role of the Gang of Four and the importance of the new contract for the entire industry. The duo also revealed some of the AI specifics in the new contract and the battles to come.

DEADLINE: What was the turning point that brought this deal together?

FRAN DRESCHER: We got the protections we needed in AI. We got the funds that we needed for the new revenue stream. That was the two biggest outstanding pieces.

The money was in place earlier, it was the protections that we really were holding out for. With AI, things move very fast, and three months is equivalent to a year in how things can change. So, if we didn’t close that up now then you’ll be so far behind you’ll never be able to catch up. It was really important to us, that we got the protections we felt that we absolutely needed to sustain this contract until the next one. I mean, there’s still things that we’re already working on to get for the next contract, but there are so many milestones in this one.

DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELAND: I would say it’s been a roller coaster since we got back in the room late last month.

DEADLINE: No doubt.

CRABTREE-IRELAND: Yes, and AI has proved to be one of the most challenging topics in this negotiation from the very beginning all the way to the very end. It was on the table Day 1 and it was on the table on Day 118 of the strike.

DEADLINE: So, how did you seal that deal, so to speak?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: It’s clear that the direct engagement of CEOs was essential to reaching the deal. I think that it is also clear that the companies had to push beyond their initial comfort zone to find a path that could actually give us enough assurances that our members could say yes, we’re going to walk forward into this coming couple of years with a feeling that there is sufficient protection against any kind of abuse from the way AI is being implemented.

For me, I think the key moments really had to do with the kind of dialogue that we had directly with the CEOs, and with Carol, and our committee which has just been so strong and so united. That really gave us the power we needed. Outside the room, the other thing I would just add is having the chance to be out on picket lines in our rallies with our members. That was incredibly not only energizing for me and for the committee but also really helped us make sure we were hearing from all facets of our membership.

DEADLINE: How so?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: Because the picket lines are a very democratizing unifying place and members from all walks of life and all aspects of people’s careers, and all types of specialties are all there.

DEADLINE: In this final round of talks, one of the things that came up a lot from the studio side, but also on the picket lines, was the notion that everyone was running out of time. Running out of time to get a TV season and summer slate off the ground. Running out of time to get people back to work. As we reported yesterday, the AMPTP even gave you guys a 5 pm PT deadline Wednesday or they were going to take their ball home. How real was all that to you?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: You know, I took it as an expression of how concerned they were about this timing and that they were really trying to send us a message of the realities of their production environment – that meant that the timing was real for them. I never take a deadline like that as a given because we’re we live in a world of human beings and our committee was working as quickly as we could. So, I personally thought we were going to be ready before that anyway and we were – but, that deadline was what partially drove us. The desire to make sure that that we could make a deal as quickly as possible because of the ongoing harm that that being strike causes to workers. That’s really what drove us.

The other thing, Dominic, that I will say made it possible was the studios coming through with the final pieces in AI. We’ve made it clear to them from the very beginning and it was true all the way along: AI was existential for our members. And if we didn’t have the right protections, we weren’t going to be able to make a deal. So, I think they ultimately believed that, understood that and they did what they had to do to give us those assurances.

Also, people need know that just strike was not about celebrities per se, this strike was about working actors. This strike was about people who are trying to make a middle class living, and I think when the whole deal is put out in the public and people have all the different pieces of it, they will see that there is a overall commitment to improving the economic viability of a career as an actor in this business. And that’s really good for all of us.

DEADLINE: Fran, did you worry with the deadlines the studios were trying to impose, that this could go off the rails?

DRESCHER: Well, I didn’t know what you mean by go off the rails because it was either going to protract the strike or they were going to appreciate the gravity of certain points that really were deal breakers. About AI, I told them that to their faces: This is going to be a deal breaker, I could tell you right now.

DEADLINE: Clearly, they got the message at some point…

DRESCHER: In a negotiation, you don’t ever get everything, that’s understood. But when the opposition in a really appreciates that we are prepared to go longer, that we’re already on strike. We were prepared to go the distance on this. They heard us, so thank God.

DEADLINE: You’ve indicated you’re already thinking about down the line, the next contract. From what I know about this contract, while it is a three-year contract, this seems multigenerational and it plants pillars that are going to be a strong part of a vastly changing industry. Do you see it like that? DRESCHER: Without question? I mean, we said that to ourselves last night when we passed this, without objection, which in itself is a historic triumph. We know that generations from now they’ll be talking about this seminal contract and reaping the benefits of it in the way that we have been for the last 65 years with a contract that was negotiated when Ronald Reagan was in my position.

DEADLINE:I know that we’re going to get more details tomorrow on AI when the board votes, but Duncan can you give us a sense now of what these protections are?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: I will say, I think our proposals are more specific than the ones that you’ve seen in other contracts because our members are experiencing the use of AI right now. This is not something that’s coming down the road. This is something that’s currently happening.

So, we do have very specific protections around the creation and use of digital replicas, including informed consent for any creation and use as well as compensation structures for how people should get paid both for the creation and use of digital replicas.

DEADLINE: How will that work?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: One way is to protect against the use of generative AI to create what we would call synthetic fakes, which are synthetic assets that are created out of potentially multiple actors inputs. Where there’s any kind of recognizable elements of that there will be protection and a right of consent, as well as a right for the union to be notified when they’re created and a right to bargain for compensation.

Really, the theme around all of this Dominic is informed consent and fair compensation

 Also, I do want to just say because I know people have wondered this whole idea about zombie actors. There are now the consent requirements that apply if an actor is deceased. It wasn’t always that way during this negotiation, but where we’ve ended up is the producers will have to seek consent from the heirs or representatives of the estate of a deceased performer to get concerned for ad use of their image like this voice or performance and the creation of a digital replica, unless that consent was explicitly granted informed consent prior to the person’s death. Just with those examples, I think you can see it’s a very robust set of protections. Protections that address all of the areas of concern that we’ve raised in connection with how actors should be treated as the industry moves forward. Because, let’s be honest, nobody’s immune from evolution, and that includes the studios

DRESCHER: Also, part of the caveat of this negotiation is that the guild and the studios have agreed together to meet semi-annually so that we can always stay on the pulse of where technology is going. Because in many ways, we’re going to find ourselves on the same side fighting in Washington for a kind of legislation that protects all of us against piracy, and more.

DEADLINE: To that, on more than one occasion you guts put out stuff publicly about bullying techniques that AMPTP loves to use and has used over the years, and more How did that affect the tone in the room and or the tone in the virtual room sometimes? CRABTREE-IRELAND: You know,  it wasn’t really acknowledged directly in the room. You know, as an openly gay man, I’ve been bullied plenty in my life including as a kid, and what I’ve always found is when you call it out, that takes away some of its power.

DEADLINE: Amen.

CRABTREE-IRELAND: So, to me, if I feel like those kinds of tactics are being used, my first reaction is to just acknowledge it publicly, openly and take away the power that it has as a result. That was our approach. I will also say, I’m not sure everything is as tightly choreographed on the studio side as people would think. There are multiple companies and there are different opinions, even within their group about tactics and strategy and things like that. Even so, in the end, I think it’s important to just really be open and be direct about it. And when we were in our meetings with the CEOs, you know, I didn’t perceive that as was happening there. And nor was that topic specifically ever discussed during those meetings. DEADLINE: One thing that was discussed, as Deadline exclusively reported at the time, was Netflix’s Ted Sarandos saying to guild leaders last weekend, once the studios had presented their so-called last, best and final offer: We didn’t just come towards you. We came all the way to you. What’s was your take on that, was it true? CRABTREE-IRELAND: Well, I mean, I don’t think that’s correct. I think it’s a good rhetorical point and Ted is a very powerful orator and persuader, obviously, but you know, this has been a negotiation.

We started out with an admittedly aggressive side of asks in our initial proposals, and we knew we weren’t going to get everything that we were trying to achieve it just as they knew they weren’t going to get everything that they were trying to achieve. In fact, where this deal has landed. I think it’s very favorable. It’s very successful. For us, it’s groundbreaking, but it’s not everything that was in our initial proposal package, and there are battles that will have to be fought another day.

So, did they come all the way to us? No. Did they come far enough to us to make a deal that provides our members the protections that we that we really need and provides them with a level of respect to this agreement that members can be excited about? Yes, and I do appreciate them ultimately getting there, although I wish it would have happened a lot sooner.

DEADLINE: Of course, but also there was a lot of bitterness, a lot of agendas in this strike, in the negotiations and in the getting there. What do you think, if anything the studios and the AMPTP leadership learned from this half year of strikes?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: One thing I do wish, and I hope that this will take hold in the industry and future cycles of negotiation, which is if there are strikes, it’s not a good strategy to just let everyone sit there. It’s not going to wear us down. It’s just going to cause more harm to the industry and it’s unnecessary. So, hopefully in the future, there won’t be these long periods of time, like the 100 days before the studios went back in with the Writers Guild to restart talks. There shouldn’t be those kinds of time periods of no talking, because the only way to solve these problems is through discussions and negotiations

DRESCHER: As we said all along: One day longer, one day stronger.

DEADLINE: Fran, there were a lot of attacks on you, on your leadership, on your abilities – some of which you have responded to. Some of the attacks were open, many were whispering campaigns. Now, with this contract, do you feel vindicated and what would you say to those who took potshots at you?

DRESCHER: The people that know me were not surprised that I was going to rise to the occasion. Yet, I think that sadly, women in leadership positions often are faced with the lowest hanging fruit ploy, which is to find any way to discredit them. Duncan’s actions in the negotiating room were a non-issue, never discussed. For me, the pendulum swung from being you know, overly aggressive to frivolous to everything in between. But I will tell you, I merely saw that all of that as an opportunity to create a womaqn and girls movement that I can lead and be exactly me, which is what I did.

DEADLINE: It seems there was a lot of underestimating and undermining here…

CRABTREE-IRELAND: I agree. I think they didn’t think they were going to go on strike in the first place.

DRESCHER: I don’t think so either.

CRABTREE-IRELAND: This entire process has been one of the studios opening their eyes to the reality of SAG-AFTRA, its membership and its willingness to do what it takes to make sure that they’re protected.  

We came in with a strike authorization vote that was unprecedented. We then tried really hard to get a negotiated deal without going on strike, including the extension, which was also unprecedented. We did that and then I really think that they believed at the end of that we were stop.

DEADLINE: But you didn’t, why?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: Because the thing was, it wasn’t good enough for our members at that point. So, we couldn’t do that and so we went on strike with the WGA.  Even then, I believe that their strategy was to wear us down, but our members didn’t get worn down. Yes, everyone’s hurt the whole industry, all the workers hurt and I don’t want anyone to ever think we didn’t know that and feel that. I did, all of us did. But what we’re fighting for something that was wasn’t just a regular three-year marketing cycle, we always knew that.

DEADLINE: How did that manifest itself?

CRABTREE-IRELAND: This was a negotiation for the future. For the future of our members and our industry. And members stayed strong at our picket lines. I’d say the last few days have been as strong as ever. Our members did not get weakened. They did not get discouraged. They knew that we were fighting a battle we were going win. Ultimately the studios and the streamers had to recognize. Also, the fact that the public and the rest of the industry really did hear us when we talked about we were fighting for was great.  Between us and the Writers Guild, I think the public support was extraordinary, and I think the studios had to acknowledge that as well. So,  there was a lot of elements that came together to really help us get here.

DRESCHER: One thing I made sure of too was that every community and every major concern for this contract was well represented. Represented by not only our amazing staff and chief negotiator, but experts. Our experts were with us every step of the way, in all fields, and that’s why we got so many, I believe, groundbreaking new things language in the contract that never existed before. This time called for that. I’m just grateful that the AMPTP recognized where we were coming from heard us and met the moment.

CRABTREE-IRELAND: Yes, there was a lot of progress made, and the last very last thing was negotiation on the toughest issues. I guess that’s to be expected, because all of the underbrush had been cleared and all of the points that could be addressed most easily had been addressed. In the end, we did things to send signals that we were not holding on to anything that we didn’t really need. To let the AMPTP know, and see, at the end this wasn’t a case of negotiating just for everything we wanted. It was for things that our members really needed, that were really important. As the studios really started understanding that, they realized that if they wanted to have an agreement in the timeframe that they were looking for, that they would have to do something to address those needs. And they ultimately did. So, a day after we agreed on a deal, I appreciate that very much, because that is what helped us get this across the line in the end.

#long post #sag-aftra strike #sag strike #actors strike #fran drescher #duncan crabtree-ireland #hollywood strikes #fans4wga

[rppr-podcast]

Lancer: Solstice Rain - Part 1

For 500 years, the planet Cressidium has been isolated from the wider galaxy. Turned from a fledgling colony into a refuge for those fleeing from the fall of the Second Committee, the people of Cressidium have struggled and fought to build a home for themselves while casting off the shadow of SecComm’s tyranny. Five centuries later, an encounter with a Union exploratory mission has ignited an…

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#caleb #chris #maddy #ross

[redditreceipts]

women's rights in Palestine

Women in Palestine face a double burden: first, from the islamic patriarchal society they live in, and second, from the Israelian occupation. According to the recent UN report, the main factors are:

Palestinian women’s rights organisations are hindered in their activism as they get labeled "terrorist organisations" by Israelian authorities.

Because of the focus on Israeli occupation, the political climate in Palestinian society makes it so the women’s liberation movement in is considered of secondary importance. 

The Gaza blockade has an especially heavy toll on women and girls by limiting their access to essential services and increasing their care burden.

The difficult living conditions make women more dependent on male family members and vulnerable to gender-based violence.

Violence outbreaks and economic insecurity in Palestine are responsible for a stronger adherence to gender and patriarchal norms, as is observed everywhere in the world. 

Women’s access to quality health services is undermined by Israeli policies restricting the movement of people and goods, for example medical staff and supplies. Also, hospitals in Palestine are frequently bombed, so the construction of a solid health infrastructure is near impossible. While men face direct injury more often, women are vulnerable to the indirect consequences of the conflict, such as lack of access to reproductive medicine. This leads to a higher rate of maternal mortality: from 2019 to 2020, the maternal mortality rate rose by 43 percent. Pregnant and lactating women are especially vulnerable to malnutrition because of their lack of access to nutrient-rich foods. The lack of healthcare services disproportionately affects women, because oftentimes, they are the ones carrying the burden of caring for sick family members. 

Destroyed hospital in Gaza. (source)

The patriarchal Palestinian society also burdens women with high rates of gender-based violence. This is exacerbated by the lack of a stable justice system, so many cases of domestic violence, rape and femicide don’t get reported. The lack of access to employment makes women dependent on their husbands, which also increases the rate of gender-based violence and makes women unable to leave their abusive partners. 

Living conditions in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. (source)

Also, women’s rights campaigns in Palestine suffer from the Israeli occupation. In October 2021, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees was one of six Palestinian organisations labelled a “terrorist organisation” by the Israeli Government. Other organisations such as the National Women’s Coalition for the Implementation of the CEDAW Convention, which is a coalition of human rights and women’s rights organisations and trade unions, are under fierce attack of conservative Palestinian forces such as clan leaders and right-wing political forces in Palestine. 

Khitam al-Saafin, chairwoman of the Union of Palestinian Women's Committee, was sentences by Israeli authorities to three months in "administrative detention" without trial or charges. (source)

The United Nations’ report concludes: “[A]s  long as the Israeli occupation, policies and practices, including violence against Palestinians, continue, the enjoyment of rights by Palestinian women will remain unattainable.”

Women in Palestine should not be the ones to suffer from religious patriarchal oppression from Palestinian society nor from Israeli occupation. A stable and just democracy is crucial for women’s emancipation, and for that, the Israeli occupation and the blockades, as well as the patriarchal oppression from their own society, have to end!

(source)

#radical feminism #radical feminists do interact #radical feminists please touch #feminism #emancipation #womens liberation #palestine #palestinians #women in palestine #womens rights #women's rights #feminist #radical feminist #anti colonialism #colonialism #Israel #free palestine #gaza #palestinian #hamas #jerusalem #marxist feminsm #Khitam al-Saafin #Israel does not fight for women's rights

[stupidsexymecha]

SSC Metalmark

The Metalmark is the backbone of SSC’s BELLA CIAO mil-spec chassis line, fully equipped with a comprehensive suite of proprietary design and engineering hallmarks to ensure its survivability, deadliness, and agility. Under the increasingly militaristic reign of Union’s Second Committee, SSC’s corporate board pushed to develop the company’s mil-spec supply, logistics, and personal defense divisions; following the advent of the mechanized chassis, the budding SSC SupLogDef division was restructured and refocused to concentrate on chassis development. The first iterations of the Metalmark were designed for the Second Committee’s WARRIOR NEXT program: however, before the chassis could be tested, the Hercynian Crisis spiraled out of control, toppling the Second Committee. The Metalmark was retired in the wake of the Crisis and the restructuring of Union’s Central Committee, deemed too time consuming to produce as a mass-market chassis. SSC reworked the frame, tapped it to lead their new BELLA CIAO line, and concentrated on small-market, exclusive security contracts. The Metalmark is now a valued model among security forces. Its form reflects SSC’s deep-space and long-patrol heritage, blending anthropomorphic and aquiline design elements, sturdy construction, and multiple redundant systems. Leaning fully into their operator-specific marketing, all Metalmark models come standard with a Smith Custom Leather gimbaled pilot seat to ensure comfort on long deployments.

#lancer rpg #lancer ttrpg #lancer smash or pass #mecha #tumblr polls

[tumblrisweird]

Crash Course on Lancer, the best TTRPG

I've been obsessed with Lancer lately, so I thought I'd put together a quick and dirty crash course on the key aspects of the system so people could see if it interests them.

Basics:

Lancer is a ttrpg system "centered on shared narratives, customizable mechs, and the pilots who crew them"

It is co-created by the author of the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons, who also provides some of the official illustrations

The mech design is primarily inpired by Titanfall, but there is a wide variety and plenty of options available to suit your taste.

Mechanically, it's most similar to D&D 5e, but with major improvements (imho).

The game and community are super inclusive of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people.

Lore:

Lancer takes place in our universe, but several thousand years in the future

in the near future, human society collapses due to all the shit going on. ten generation ships are sent out to colonize space, but contact with them is soon lost as everything on Earth goes tits up and humanity enters a dark age for almost 5000 years

Eventually, humanity on Earth comes back, creates Union, and returns to space and tries to contact those generation ships, a few of which have founded new civilizations in deep space. Relations with these civilizations doesn't go great.

Union also finds a weird super-robot-mind-thing old humanity built on Mars, which lets them predict the future. After about a thousand years, it ends up producing a sort of super-AI called RA (I will get into this later).

The above event also lets Union develop FTL tech (using something called Blinkspace).

In the process of expansion, humanity runs into its first (and so far only) sentient alien race. Things go bad very quickly. The people in charge do very bad things and for this end up being overthrown. This is also when mechs first start getting used for combat.

A new committee in charge of Union takes over and has a strong anti-colonial, humanitarian ethic. This however is harder to reinforce the further you are from Earth (now called Cradle by some)

Some of the still independent civilizations and mega-corporations get in some fights. Union tries to keep the peace. This is where we are now.

AI

So there are two different types of AIs in Lancer.

The first kind are regular AIs which can act human but don't really have free will. They can be found all over the place.

The second kind are called NHPs (Non-Human Persons). These (mostly) came from that super-AI called RA I mentioned above. Their basic consciousness is "paracausal" (i.e. magic), so they have to be "shackled" to be able to even think like a regular human. They can often do really powerful things. They are hard to get and heavily regulated because they become really dangerous if they get unshackled.

Player Characters

Character creation in Lancer is incredibly fun. There's two main aspects of a character: the pilot and the mech

Pilots

The pilot is who you control during narrative scenes. While they can do combat, they generally are not suited for it, especially against mechs.

You can choose a background for your character, but this is purely flavor.

You get some "triggers", which are different skills you get bonuses in to use in narrative scenes. Default triggers include things like "lead or inspire", "read a situation", "apply fists to faces", "hack or fix" and many others. You can also create custom triggers (with your GM's permission). These are what you use for narrative scenes. You start with +2 to 4 different triggers and get another +2 at each level

You also get to choose things like armor, pilot weapons, and three pieces of equipment.

One expansion also adds a mechanic called "Bonds" which are like character archetype powers. These encourage you to roleplay more.

Mechs

You also have a certain number of "Talents" which help in mech combat. Each talent has 3 tiers and focus on things like using certain weapons or fighthing certain ways (e.g. grappling, spotting, hacking, etc.). You start with three tier-1 talents and get another tier each level.

Levels are referred to as "License Levels". You start at LL0, but this doesn't mean you can't do anything. You have access to the starter mech frame, which is a very good all-rounder. You may also have access to two more if you have certain expansions.

Mechs have two main sets of health: actual HP and "Heat". You get heat mostly by being hacked or using heat-generating weapons. Each player mech also has 4 points each of Structure and Stress, which correspond to these two sets of health. When your HP hits zero or your Heat goes above its max, you lose a point of Structure or Stress, respectively. You will also suffer other consequences like status effects or losing parts of your mech. If either hits zero, your mech gets destroyed (though this doesn't necessarily kill your pilot, and you can rebuild your mech). Also having 50% or more of your max heat means you're in the Danger Zone, which may let you do certain things.

Mechs will have a certain number of SP (system points), which you use to add different systems, equipment that gives you abilities and bonuses.

You also get to put points into 4 different "Mech Skills": Hull, which affects HP and physical stability, Agility, which affects speed and evasion (the thing enemies roll against to hit (most of the time)), Systems, which affects hacking ability and SP, and Engineering, which affects Heat management and ammo. You get another point each level.

There's other stats as well like Armor, Sensors, E-Defense, and Save Target, but I won't get into them now.

Mech's also have a certain number of weapon mounts, which determine what kind of weapons you can attach to it. The four weapon sizes are Auxiliary, Main, Heavy, and Superheavy. Most of the mount types match a specific weapon size. The only exception is Flex, which lets you mount one Main or two Aux. Also for a Superheavy, you need a heavy mount plus one other mount.

Player mechs come in 4 sizes: 1/2 (basically a suit of power armor), 1 (just big enough where a person could sit in the chest cockpit), 2 (much bigger than a person, about the size of heavier Titanfall mechs), and 3 (fucking huge, though maybe not quite as big as the mechs in Pacific Rim). NPCs can be even bigger. :)

This set of memes is a great way to get the idea behind several mechs.

While most mechs have a default appearance, they're highly customizable, and there are a couple of exceptions. Most Horus mechs have no default appearance, and the starting mech, the Everest, has no canon appearance, meaning it can look however you want.

EDIT: forgot to mention, every mech has a Core Power that you can use once per mission (usually). It typically gives you access to a really cool weapon or ability or otherwise powers up the mech for the rest of the scene.

Levels/Classes

Ever notice how in 5e, multiclassing kinda sucks unless you have a very specific thing in mind? That's not at all true in Lancer!

In addition to the stuff mentioned above, each LL you get to gain one level in the license for a certain mech! You can think of these as similar to classes.

Each level gets you two specific pieces of equipment from that license, generally either weapons or systems. Additionally, at the second level for a license, you get access to the mech frame.

Each license only has 3 levels to get, so you are very much encouraged to mix and match. Additionally, you gain levels at a more even rate than in 5e. Basically it's a milestone system I will explain later.

There are 4 manufacturers to choose from, each with a default of 7 licenses to choose from (more with expansions). ISP-N mechs are sturdy, reliable, and mundane. Smith-Shimano mechs are sleek, agile, and precise. Harrison Armory mechs are powerful and good at dealing with/using Heat. Horus mechs are extra weird and fucked-up.

Each session will generally consist of a few different "scenes", often including one combat scene. There may also be one "downtime" scene (usually at the beginning or end), which is sorta like a short rest. You can make limited repairs and change out equipment, as well as pursuing personal goals. A few sessions together constitute a "mission". After a mission, you get a level and can do a full repair, which is like a long rest. Get all your resources back and can completely rebuild a destroyed mech (or make a new one).

Action Economy

Each turn the player can take the following actions:

One Protocol (generally granted by a system, only at the beginning of the turn)

A standard movement, which can be taken in part or all at once.

Two Quick Actions or one Full Action

Quick Actions are things like Boost (take another full movement), Skirmish (attack with one weapon mount), Hack, Hide, Grapple, Ram, and Lock On.

Full actions are things like Stabilize (clear all heat or heal HP), Disengage, and Barrage (attack with two mounts or one Superheavy mount).

One Reaction, which can be taken on other characters turns when activated. The two default reactions are Overwatch (skirmish against an enemy that starts a movement in your threat range, which is 1 by default but more with some melee weapons or CQB weapons) and Brace (reduce damage from an incoming attack and be harder to hit, at the cost of losing actions on your next turn).

One Overcharge, where you take increasing amounts of heat to get another quick action.

There may also be certain systems or talents that grant certain Free Actions under certain circumstance

Combat

Combat in general is very fun, though a full round of turns may take half an hour or more. In my experience, most combat scenes are over within 8 rounds.

Using your systems and abilities in cooperation with your teammates is very important to surviving.

Of note is that getting advantage on a roll is much rarer than in 5e.

Much more common is Accuracy or Difficulty. Each point of Accuracy is an extra d6 you roll to add as the accuracy bonus. You pick the highest of your accuracy rolls to add as the bonus. Difficulty is the same except you are subtracting the number from the roll instead of adding it. For example, Lock-On lets you add an accuracy to a roll, but soft and hard cover add 1 and 2 difficulty respectively. Also points of accuracy and difficulty cancel each other out, which reduces the amount of rolling you have to do. So if your weapon has +1 accuracy but your target is behind hard cover, you roll the attack with 1 difficulty.

Resources:

you can get the core rulebook (minus npc info and detailed lore) for free here

here's the official fan-run discord server. it is very helpful for finding games that are looking for players and talking about the game.

You can use the official app called COMP/CON to build and manage characters. I fucking love making character in this. It makes things super easy and fun. You can also download .lcp files for various expansions to play around with the stuff they add as well. These are available for free for the official expansion, meaning players can play with extra stuff from expansions without needing to buy them.

In conclusion, Lancer is a great system that you should give a shot to if any of the above sounds appealing.

#lancer #lancer rpg #lancer ttrpg

[barbieaemond]

I have this OCD to read all the tags in people’s reblogs and I’m observing a LOT of people thirsting for Otto in my latest gifset.

Folks, we need to assemble, unite, form some kind of trade union or a Hot Peepaw committee. We can have badges, even purple hearts for the brave ones who look at him for three seconds straight without saying daddy. Cmon, don’t let your lust for the old man go to waste.

#otto hightower #rhys ifans #hot peepaw #peepaw nation

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Thomas Fountain Blue

Thomas Fountain Blue, the first African American to head a public library in the United States, was also a civic, educational, and religious leader. Blue was born in Farmville, Virginia, on March 6, 1866, to Noah Blue, a carpenter, and Henry Ann Crawley Blue. They were parents of two other children, Alice Blue and Charles Blue.

Blue enrolled in Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, in 1885 and graduated in 1888. In 1894, he enrolled in Richmond Theological Seminary (now Virginia Union University) in Richmond, Virginia, finishing in 1898 with a Bachelor of Divinity degree. One week later, when the United States declared war on Spain after the sinking of the USS Maine off the coast of Cuba, touching off the Spanish-American War, Blue joined the Sixth Virginia Volunteers battalion comprising African American soldiers and was stationed first in Camp Poland in Tennessee and later at Camp Haskell in Georgia.

In 1905, Blue was selected to lead the Western Branch Library of the Louisville Free Public Library on South 10th and Chestnut Street, the first Carnegie Library in the nation to serve African American patrons with an exclusively African American staff. The facility cost $31,024.31 to build and when completed had over 4,000 books and 53 periodicals.

In 1914, Blue opened Louisville’s second Carnegie Library for African Americans, the Eastern Branch Library. During World War I, Blue was drafted, left the branch, and was appointed the Education Secretary at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, one of sixteen national Army training camps created across the nation. Blue worked with Black troops who mostly had supporting and laboring roles in the United States.

After the war ended in 1918, Blue returned to Louisville, and a year later, in 1919, he was named head of the “Colored Department” for the city’s public library system and supervised eight African American assistants. The Colored Department was the first in the United States to have a staff which served multiple Black library branches.

In 1922, Blue was a presenter at the American Library Association Conference in Detroit, Michigan, where he gave a paper titled, “Training Class at the Western Colored Branch,” and led the subsequent discussion with the Negro Roundtable composed of other African American Library staffers from across the nation.

On June 18, 1925, Blue married Cornelia Phillips Johnson from Columbia, Tennessee, and they parented two children, Thomas Fountain Blue, Jr., and Charles Blue (named after his younger brother). Two years later, in 1927, Blue founded the Negro Library Conference and conducted its first meeting at Hampton Institute.

Later becoming a minister, Reverend Thomas Fountain Blue—who held membership in the American Library Association, the Special Committee of Colored Ministers of Louisville on Matters Interracial, and was a charter member of the Louisville Chapter of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History—died on November 10, 1935, in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 69.

At the 2003 joint conference of the American Library Association with the Canadian Library Association Annual Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Blue was posthumously honored when the organization passed a resolution recognizing his leadership in promoting professionalism among the staff of African American libraries across the United States. In 2022, a headstone honoring Blue and his wife, Cornelia Phillips Johnson, was placed at Eastern Cemetery in Louisville by the Frazier History Museum.

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/thomas-fountain-blue-1866-1935/

#historical #black history month #library

[todaysdocument]

Letter from Eugenia Y. Genovar Regarding Comic Book Censorship

Record Group 46: Records of the U.S. Senate Series: Committee Papers of the Committee on the Judiciary

[stamped] NOV 27 1953 [handwritten in red ink] Carl 1-6-5X [handwritten] ID 2-2 [crossed out in red ink, illegible] 271 St. George Street St. Augustine, Florida November 24, 1953 My Dear Senator Hendrickson, I see in today's Florida Times-Union that you have been appointed to head a committee for the investigation of juvenile delinquency. This is indeed a very fine idea for really a mother today lives in constant fear because of the awful increase in crime among the young, and especially the dreadful increase of sex crimes and depravity. My dear Senator Hendrickson as an American mother I offer you these suggestions. First, please read the article in the November issue of Ladies Home Journal on "What Parents Don't Know About Comic Books" by Dr. Frederick Wertham. I am positive that he has the right idea! If the mothers of our beloved country would unite to have these pernicious comic books banned I am sure it would be a great step forward in the control of the young, especially the young boys. Second, all the awful crime stories and murder mysteries sent out to pollute the air and corrupt the minds of our younger generation. I do not want to bore you with onerous detail but I have found that even though a mother is alert and does not allow her children to waste their money or time on these cheap and filthy comics, one's children can read them at the book stands or read them when they visit their friends. Third, reading all these lurid, highly colored comics ruins a child's appetite for good books as the better literature sounds too tame after this other highly seasoned diet. I believe that the P.T.A's all over the country could unite to have these comics banned, many cities have done this and as Dr. says, we have laws that prohibit selling poison, why can't we prohibit these people from selling poison to our children's minds? I do not think that it is necessary or just to conduct an investigation that will cause the long suffering, over taxed American citizen a great deal of money when the evidence is right in front of our eyes and the way to stop it is so very simple. Of course you will have educators (?) and others who will rise up and say these comics do not harm the minds of the readers but I think the proof that they do is right in front of us, in increased juvenile delinquency for as you know, we do spend a great deal of money on our schools, our recreation programs, ect, and the great majority of the parents are trying to bring their children up right, yet, in spite of all this we are appalled at what we read in the papers every day and hear from our neighbors, friends, nurses and doctors. I will not take up any more of your time. With heartfelt best wishes, I am, Sincerely yours, Eugenia Y. Genovar

#archivesgov #November 24 #1953 #1950s #comics #comic books #censorship #book bans

[toaster-boi]

heyg tell about Lancer pls

👉👈

ok so basically it takes place 15,000 years in the future, and about 5,000 years before it takes place an entity called Union was formed as basically a pan-human government. Union's history is basically split between three Committees: First, Second and Third, shortened to FirstComm, SecComm, and ThirdComm.

FirstComm was basically hyper-vigilant institutionalized PTSD as humanity had nearly fought itself to extinction. SecComm was imperialistically expansionist and best described as Anthro-Chauvinist, and as a result they committed xenocide against the one sapient species humanity has encountered yet in the setting. this incident, known as the Hercynian Crisis, happened in ~4500u, or 4500 years after the formation of Union.

this resulted in 1.) the invention of mechs, 2.) the ThirdComm Revolution, which ousted SecComm from government and Union's navy, and 3.) the formation of Harrison Armory, an interplanetary imperial corpo-state run by a SecComm arms dealer, who was so horrified that people would protest the use of mechs to render a planet uninhabitable that he bought the production rights immediately.

in the game's present, 5016u, ThirdComm does their best to use soft power and diplomacy to enforce the Third Committee's Utopian Pillars (right to movement, right to have physical needs met, right to not be held in bondage), but that isn't always enough. this is where Lancers come in.

a Lancer, generally, is a mech pilot with access to a large-scale 3D printer capable of rebuilding a mech from scratch within a day. additionally, they have to be trained at a minimum to operate Union's standard mech, the General Massive Systems (GMS) Standard Pattern 1 "Everest."

this mech is basically the galactic standard; the benchmark for whether a unit is good or bad at something is whether an Everest can be built do the job better. it deliberately lacks any kind of official artwork or physical description, specifically so that players can make it look however they want. plus its frame-specific traits straight up improve your action economy, giving it what is debatably the best core power in the game.

progression is through License Levels, usually shortened to LLs. they give you more points to invest into pilot talents, and one point per level to invest in a mech license. each mech (other than the Everest and the other GMS mechs) has three levels in its license, each giving you pieces of equipment, while the frame itself unlocks at two levels invested in the license. as such, the entire progression system is effectively stacking more and more multiclasses on top of one another.

if you wanna know more, lemme know, i could go on and on about this game

#toaster thoughts #asks #lancer rpg