#which would be considered to be putting millions if not billions of lives in danger | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theculturedmarxist · 11 months

Text

Having read the below article in Scientific American, I have to confess it actually addresses many good points. It drives home the facts that endlessly growing consumption (capitalism, essentially) is unsustainable and a declining human population would help solve many of our greatest challenges.

It also goes on to note that we (read: our leadership and ourselves) have to get our shit together on a number of fronts, including putting human rights square in the center of the overall solution of reducing population growth, consumption, etc.

But here’s the problem: our world is run by a bunch of greedy, thoughtless wealthy elites who don’t see us as human, who don’t give the slightest fuck about us. The politicians are just puppets they manipulate.

We keep asking things like why has COVID been allowed to run rampant? While many of us have surmised the answer – the mass culling of us proles – here we have it now laid out in a major publication, in Scientific America. The authors don’t point fingers, but I’m happy to do so.

COVID was a gift to the Davos crowd (the billionaires, essentially). They’re perfectly aware of how dangerous SARS-CoV-2 is, and they’re also perfectly aware of how transmission can be prevented. And even those who aren’t in the Davos league but are rich enough know better send their kids to Davos-safe schools (e.g., Ashish Jha and Rochelle Walensky).

But the oligarchs tell us – the proles, the worker bees, the expendables – through their bought and paid for politicians and media outlets that it’s just a cold, just the flu, nothing to worry about! Masks are bad. Vax and relax! Or don’t vax at all. It’s all good. You do you!

Just like from the movie “They Live,” our purpose in life is to breed, to work, to consume, to enrich the billionaire class, and maybe create a few more Davos scions who are seen as sufficiently morally bankrupt as to be worthy of elevation.

“But how long can mass disablement and death go on before even the Davos elite are impacted?”

Good question. I don’t have a specific answer, but let’s consider: there are currently around 3,000 billionaires (depending on which source you read) in the entire world who’ve amassed over $12 TRILLION in wealth. And remember, that’s only what those 3,000 or so individuals have in their pockets, it says nothing about additional assets – and power – they may directly or indirectly control, including politicians across the globe.

That 3,000 works out to about 0.0000375% of the world’s population; I figure it’s likely more like 100 to 500 families, as some of the billionaires are in the same family groups. Even if you added in the 56 million or so millionaires globally, that’s only 0.7% or so of the population. And let’s face it: in the eyes of the billionaires, the millionaires are just higher-ranked proles, nothing more. Even our wealthiest politicians are nothing more than boot-licking kapos to the billionaires.

So, do you think the billionaires and their families NEED anywhere close to 8 billion people to build their yachts, service and fly their private jets, or – when the climate becomes so extreme we proles are dying by the millions – to raise their atmosphere-controlled gilded domes and ivory towers? Of course not. Somehow, I’m sure they’ll have the “human resources” they require.

I doubt the super wealthy want to live in cages, though, even gilded ones. They must realize how the endless human growth and consumption that has made them wealthy beyond dreams is also poisoning their world (yes, to them it’s “their” world, not ours). Granted, some won’t give a damn and want to do the ultimate YOLO in their own lifetimes. Others, like Musk, think they’ll find salvation on Mars; I suspect he and his followers will be badly disappointed. Still others, I suspect, would like to salvage this planet. They don’t want to live in a shithole any more than we do.

To do so, however, billions of proles globally must die. Yes, billions. But this is a difficult problem to solve. While war could do it (and would make a LOT of money in the process), war is messy, has a great deal of uncertainty (you don’t want someone blowing up any of YOUR yachts or mansions!), and the only way to kill billions in a reasonable amount of time is the generous use of nuclear weapons, which are *really* messy.

Starvation can help, but typically works only on impoverished countries: most of the problems (e.g., climate catastrophe, pollution, etc.) beyond raw “surplus population,” as Scrooge might say, are actually created by the wealthy countries, and starvation isn’t going to work on them. The same with water: while some countries in the northern hemisphere (the rich) are going to suffer under the coming water shortages, they won’t suffer enough. A few million dying here or there simply won’t do.

What about…a plague? A pandemic? Hmm. Now that has some possibilities. We’ve had several major human depopulation events stemming from plagues in the past. You could argue that SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t have a high enough fatality rate to really “do the job” (and I’m not being glib as I write these awful things: I believe this is the cold calculus the Davos elite are using to compute our fates). That would be true, perhaps, if we only take into account deaths from acute infections – a few tens of millions in three years is hardly a dent, after all!

On the other hand, mass disablement leading to latent sudden death, infections by other pathogens due to compromised immune systems, premature death, the collapse of health care services leading to more deaths, plunging life expectancy among the proles…now we’re talking!

And yet, one set of problems remains: how to get people to embrace mass infection, disablement, and death when viral transmission can be broken fairly easily? If people were properly informed about the virus, the pandemic could be brought under control with a proper layered strategy enabled globally, which would cut the party short.

How to get past this conundrum?

That’s an easy one: lie to the proles! Terminate collection and distribution of the data showing what the virus is doing. Demonize or outright prohibit masking and other mitigations, along with the people promoting them or trying to get the proles to see the truth. Demonize vaccination for one demographic, and make it difficult to get vaccinated/boosted with vaccines that already do little to prevent infection, transmission, and long COVID for another. Have the billionaire-owned politicians and media outlets censor information about the pandemic except to say it’s over, COVID is no worse than a cold or the flu, vax and relax. Live your best life! YOLO!

This is what they’ve done, and on a global scale. SARS-CoV-2 may not be THE solution…but it could go a long wy. Consider where we’ll be in 10 or 20 years with multiple infections per year if we don’t globally try to stop it: hundreds of millions, and quite possibly billions, will die of the sequelae or other infections, if not from the acute infections themselves, or being left to die after being disabled, or “humanely euthanized.”

Even climate change: could that be intentional? The rich and shameless know it’s real and what’s causing it (us, primarily from using fossil fuels), but they’re doing nothing to change course. Why?

A workable theory is that they WANT it to happen, because it will likely kill hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, in a matter of decades. There will still be habitable, even nice, places left, and that’s where the billionaires will have us proles build their new ivory towers.

But what about supply chain disruptions? Grain and food shortages? Water? Fuel? Energy? Surely the “big issues” are going to disrupt the rich and shameless as millions or billions die, right? Right?

No, they’re not. Remember, these are people who buy blue water yachts on a whim, often have multiple personal helicopters and private jets, plop down millions of dollars for a warehouse full of fancy cars, have mansions on every continent but Antarctica, and enjoy a lifestyle that most of us literally can’t even imagine. They see themselves as lords and act like it.

Do you think ANY of the things that affect our survival are going to affect the Davos elite? Don’t be foolish: they simply buy their way to the front of the line for anything and everything they want. When it comes to it, they’ll have their own personal armies just like feudal lords of old. There’s no “competing” with this demographic: they take what they want, when they want. They don’t even see us as real people. The only value we provide in their world is whatever we can do for them. And right now, the vast majority of us are nothing but useless eaters in their eyes and just need to die, the faster, the better.

But what about productivity? If too many of us die, won’t we stop making them rich? Again, literally billions of us could die and there would be plenty of proles to keep them in comfort: they control the system, they control the dynamics, and they’ll rearrange things to suit their needs. When you own all the assets that are worth owning (that’s called “privatization,” folks), the nature of “income” and wealth change, and the rest of us be damned.

That’s what it really boils down to: this small group of people (and those who are really pulling the levers are no doubt only a small subset of this group of 3,000 or so) have damned the rest of us to suffering and death. They have embraced SARS-CoV-2 and likely climate change as at least part of the solution to planetary overpopulation. They’re driving this agenda, which is a long-term one, home through their influence over and ownership of our leaders, media, and various proxies who have been waging a war of information to convince us that mass infection is good, that mass disablement and death are normal, that there’s no reason to worry about climate change. Everything’s going to be okay. For them, at least.

Finally, if you think this is limited to one party or another, or one segment of the political spectrum, you’d be sorely mistaken. The Davos crowd aren’t liberals or conservatives. As I said earlier, they see themselves as lords unto themselves, and we are here only to serve them.

#davos #capitalism #social murder #covid pandemic #class war

2 notes · View notes

sublimeobservationarcade · 1 year

Text

The Reserve Bank of Australia Economically Out Of Touch

Many of us are doing it tough downunder. Stagnant wage growth over the last twenty years and now, rampant inflation is screwing the ordinary Australian. Is the Reserve Bank of Australia economically out of touch? Is Governor, Philip Lowe, who is instigating the fastest rise of interest rates on the cash rate ever seen in the nation’s history doing more harm than good? His warnings about the dangers of a wage-price-spiral are rooted in the experiences of the 1970s and not relevant to the causes of inflation in 2022-23. The RBA’s primary role is to protect the Australian currency and beating inflation is paramount to that function. If the governor, board, and bank’s economists do not properly grasp what is going on in today’s economy aren’t we flying blind?

Corporations Recording Record Profits While We Struggle

A recent release from The Australia Institute and its chief economist Dr Jim Stanford has identified corporate profits during this period as the main culprit in a profit-price-spiral fuelling the 7.8% rate of inflation in Australia. Corporate profiteering is the difference between a level of inflation in the RBA’s desirable target range of 2-3% and what we are actually experiencing. The proof is in the figures, because if these price increases by companies were justified they would not be recording record profits. - Qantas records a half yearly $1.6 billion profit. - Commonwealth Banks of Australia (CBA) records a $5.1 billion half yearly profit. - Santos records a 300% half yearly profit increase to $1.66 billion. - Ampol records a 30% half yearly profit increase to $325.5 million. - Woolworths profits up 25%, and Coles profits up 11%. Does it make you feel good to know that these companies are rolling in record profits whilst you and I are doing it tough? “A Profit-Price spiral is the main driver of inflation in Australia, rather than a supposed “Wage-Price” spiral, which does not exist.” - (The Australia Institute, 24th Feb 2023) RBA Board Bereft Of Voices Representing Ordinary Australians The RBA board is made up of bankers, wealthy business people, and economists. Their world is the top end of town. Record profits are a sign of their success in their eyes. Philip Lowe tells Australians that some of them are going to have to do it tough for a number of years while he endeavours to wrestle inflation back under control. Rising interest rates impact upon the broader community through the flow on effects. Dampening spending within the economy costs jobs as workers are laid off during economic downturns. Rents are at record levels throughout Australia because of a shortage of housing and social housing in particular. Property owners and investors in debt to the banks are forced to pay more, every month, to maintain their loans. These imposts are, often, passed on wherever they can. Higher costs are distributed throughout the economy. Hundreds of thousands of Australians are struggling to keep their heads above water, financially speaking. Energy prices are high and going up even further. Food costs are very high, especially fresh food. The cost of living is biting many Australians. Philip Lowe earns more than a million dollars a year in his job, as governor of the RBA. Australia’s Economic Commitment to Unemployment Australia, under the economic guidance of the RBA, has had an acceptable 5% unemployment rate for much of the last 50 years. This has been the RBA’s anti-wage-price-spiral setting to provide a permanent unutilised labour pool to put downward pressure on wage growth in the Australian economy. I think about all those hundreds of thousands of working age Aussies who have been surplus to requirements. I probably consider myself to have been one of them over this period. We could have had a real commitment to full employment by our governments but the economic thinking in the 1970s was to have this inflation fighting fail safe in place instead. These folks were the sacrificial lambs for the Australian economy and the RBA economists running the show. Voices are speaking up about the failure of the RBA under the leadership of Philip Lowe. People who represent sections of Australian society who do not have a seat at the top end of town. “Sally McManus from the Australian Council of Trade Unions wants to see the board — and RBA — broaden out what it knows about wages. "They're so sort of stuck in a 1970s way of understanding how Australia works," she argued, pointing to massive changes in the labour market around unions, industrial laws and collective bargaining. "Wages have been depressed because workers' bargaining power has been depressed. constantly talk about a 'wage-price spiral' where this was never on the cards. "They have a blind spot. They don't understand, in the 2020s, how wages work in Australia. And that's a big, big problem when you're making such large decisions that affect everyone." - (Gareth Hutchens, ABC News, 28th Feb 2023) Workers Not Sharing The Wealth Of The Nation Workers in Australia have not been sharing in the wealth of the nation for a long time. Successive Coalition governments have championed the top end of town at the expense of ordinary Australians. Union powers have been diminished. The voice of the ABC, as an independent media source has been attacked by Coalition members of government time and time again. This has been accompanied by cuts to the ABC budget and consequent reductions in its service. Record corporate profits have come at the cost of rampant inflation. Companies are gouging profits back after the pandemic, despite the fact that many corporations’ bottom lines were improved during the pandemic. Swiss Bankers & Low Inflation In Switzerland Switzerland is a nation famous for its banking sector. Inflation has been far more moderate in Switzerland over the last 18 months in comparison to places like Australia, America, and the UK. The Swiss have kept their utilities in government hands, which has meant there have been price controls mitigating the effects of the war in Ukraine on energy prices for their citizens. More generally, if companies in Australia are profiteering during the current economic climate, which the evidence from Dr Stanford’s research suggests, then, price controls may need to be considered. Neoliberalism & The Billionaires The popularity of Neoclassical economics and neoliberalism in government economic policies over the last three decades has seen the privatisation of numerous sectors, here in Australia and around the globe. Have these deregulations and privatisations delivered better outcomes for the majority of consumers? We, the people, were told it would mean cheaper power bills and that has never happened. No, they have delivered untold wealth to a small coterie of insiders, creating a class of billionaires. The price shocks we are seeing in energy and other industries where oligopolies exist are because of the market and the lack of safeguards present. Ordinary people are being ripped off by the market and by corporate greed fuelled by a lack of competition for consumers. This is not the free market operating as it should, this is a manipulation of the economy by a select group of insiders. Right wing conservative governments have feathered the nest of political donors, mates, and such like at the expense of ordinary citizens. How often do you see government ministers who made decisions in favour of these companies ending up on their payroll once they have left office. Too bloody often for it to be a coincidence. This is corruption and it has been occurring under the noses of an apathetic electorate. Many Australians are sold a narrative by these same political operatives that their wealth is at risk from socialism, when they are being fleeced by these insiders under the guise of the free market. Trump voters in America are in the same position, supporting a Teflon billionaire who is ripping them off and claiming to be their champion. Stupid is as stupid does. "Philip Lowe says that profitable banks are good for Australia, it's good for us. But I think we have to ask good for who?" Ms Kuehlmann isn't alone in asking questions about the Reserve Bank and the leadership of its governor, Philip Lowe.” - (Daniel Ziffer, ABC News, 28th Feb 2023) The current economic system in Australia is set up to make the wealthy wealthier. Housing is unaffordable for the vast majority of Australians. Even those who are not trying to own property are struggling to afford the rents on the rooves over their heads. What kind of nation makes housing an unaffordable factor for its citizens? How is that an indicator of economic success for the RBA and the government of the day? Prices on essentials like food, rent, and energy are too high for the working poor and the unemployed. Wage growth has stagnated on Philip Lowe’s watch. Now, inflation is way above where it should be and his actions are to make things economically worse for those least able to afford it by raising interest rates to depress the economy. Whilst crowing about record bank and corporate profits for his buddies at the top end of town. This is the Australia we live in 2023. by Robert Sudha Hamilton ©WordsForWeb Read the full article

0 notes

reddancer1 · 1 year

Text

The death of shame What do Marjorie Taylor Greene, George Santos, Jared Kushner, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump have in common?

Robert Reich

At President Biden’s State of the Union address last week, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene repeatedly yelled “Liar!,” Tennessee Republican Rep. Andy Ogles shouted, “It’s your fault!,” and another Republican yelled “Bullshit!”

Fourteen years ago, Republican Rep. Joe Wilson was formally rebuked by the whole House after shouting “you lie” at Obama.

Yet now, anything goes.

Meanwhile, Rep. George Santos remains in Congress despite mounting revelations of outright lies, fabrications, and shady deals that years ago would have sent a member of Congress packing.

We’ve also just learned about Jared Kushner’s quid pro quo with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).

As Middle East adviser to his father-in-law, Kushner gave MBS everything he wanted — Trump’s first trip abroad, permission to blockade Qatar, a pass on imprisoning leading Saudi citizens until they paid him billions and another on killing and dismembering journalist Jamal Khashoggi (as Trump later put it, “I saved his [MBS’s] ass.”).

Then, after Kushner left the White House, MBS reciprocated by putting $2 billion from the sovereign wealth fund he chaired into Kushner’s private equity company.

Where’s the shame?

Elon Musk’s concern about the dwindling number of people seeing his tweets prompted the zillionaire to convene a group of engineers last Tuesday to discover why his engagement numbers were tanking. When one of the company’s two remaining principal engineers explained it was likely due to waning public interest in Musk’s antics, Musk fired the engineer.

We used to call such behavior shameless. Now, it’s just what the rich and powerful do.

Shame once reenforced social norms. Through most of human history, survival depended on extended families, clans, and tribes. To be shamed and ostracized for violating the common good often meant death.

Charles Darwin, in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, thought shame may have evolved as a way to maintain social trust necessary for the survival of a group and, therefore, of its members.

In a 2012 paper, psychologists Matthew Feinberg and Dacher Keltner and sociologist Robb Willer found evidence that shame and embarrassment function as a kind of “nonverbal apology” for having done something that violates social norms. A display of embarrassment shows others that the embarrassed person is still aware of the group’s expectations and is still committed to the group’s well-being.

Four centuries ago, public shaming included scarlet A’s. “Ignominy is universally acknowledged to be a worse punishment than death,” wrote Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who also sought to put an end to public stocks and whipping posts.

A more recent version of public shaming occurred in 1954 when Joseph Welch, then chief council for the U.S. Army, stood up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy before a nationwide television audience. During a hearing in which McCarthy accused the army of harboring communists, McCarthy attacked one of Welch’s young assistants for having once belonged to the National Lawyers Guild, which McCarthy considered a communist front.

Welch responded: “Until this moment, Senator, I think I have never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness …. Have you no sense of decency, sir?” Millions of Americans watching the proceedings from their living rooms saw McCarthy as the dangerous bully he was. By shaming him, Welch shamed America for having tolerated McCarthy and the communist witch hunt he was leading. It was the beginning of the end of McCarthy’s reign of terror.

But today, shamelessness has gained a certain elan. Audacity, insolence, and impudence are welcomed. Irreverence is celebrated. We hoot when someone gives society the bird. Many Americans love Donald Trump’s loutishness.

Meanwhile, instead of being directed at behavior that undermines the common good, shame is now often deployed against people who don’t fit in. Social media unleashes torrents of invective on people who do little more than say something silly or look different or are socially inept. Shaming like this can cause a sensitive teenager to take his or her life.

Why are those who violate social norms now treated like Wild West outlaw heroes, while those who are different are ridiculed? Why are bullies now applauded while those at the margin are ostracized?

1 note · View note

bitcofun · 2 years

Text

Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies TL; DR DXY (United States Dollar Index) hit 20- year high at 109.6 The market has actually reduced expectations for a 75 bps trek at the September FOMC conference as the joblessness rate leaps to 3.7% The United States 2-Year Treasury Note went to its greatest portion level considering that 2007 Japanese Yen was up to a 24- year low, breaking 140-- an essential mental level Eurozone inflation struck 9.1%-- greatest on record Quantitative Tightening increases from $475 billion to $95 billion from the 1st of September Gold briefly fell listed below its 3-year assistance of $1,700 an ounce As of Sept. 2, 900,000 Addresses hold one or less Bitcoin Third most substantial long liquidation of 2022 for Bitcoin-- approximately $155 million Lightning Network capability struck all-time high of over 4,600 Bitcoin Bitcoin problem increased over 9%-- the most significant change considering that JanuaryCryptocurrencies Macro Overview Jackson Hole wrap-up When markets opened on the 29 th of August, Fed Chair Powell supplied the majority of the drama by stating that rates will continue to increase till inflation is brought under control. He pressed back on market expectations, which saw U.S. equities sink, short-term rates reach their greatest because mid-June and the two-year treasury yield struck its greatest level because 2007. The Fed was not the only reserve bank stressing its hawkishness. According to a Sept. 2 Reuters report, the ECB's prepare for a 75 bps trek rate in its September conference was backed by remarks from Governing Council member Robert Holzmann, who stated: "50 basis points is the minimum for me ...75 basis points need to become part of the dispute." The remark sent out the 2-year bund +35% greater. Eurozone crisis enhances case for 75 bps Eurozone reported 9.1% CPI inflation on Aug. 31-- the greatest on record. The eurozone has actually been reporting record levels of inflation for the last 9 months, which has actually put extra pressure on the ECB-- making a 75 bps trek more than likely. Austria's biggest energy provider Wien Energie is insolvent and needs EUR1.7 billion to stay liquid, according to regional media. The Austrian Federal Government needs to action in if it wishes to conserve the business. Gas and electrical power costs continue to leave control for Europe, with residents all over Europe having a hard time to fulfill both living and small company expenditures. A ripple effect might result in less individuals eating in restaurants, which would lead to dining establishments having a hard time to survive. If dining establishments go under, industrial homeowner with heavy direct exposure to the food organization would follow, which would trigger losses for loan providers. As loan providers battle and possibly collapse as they performed in 2008, so might sovereigns. Although the euro continues to topple and is now securely lost its parity with the dollar. The ECB is stuck in between a rock and a tough location, down 16% from the start of January. EUR/USD: (Source: TradingView) United States h ouse costs start to topple House cost gains are a distant memory as the year-over-year rate of boost in the Case-Shiller home cost index slowed to 18% in June from 19.9%. The decrease is the biggest portion modification considering that 2008. However, more vibrant steps would reveal costs in decrease. With home mortgage rates practically 2x greater than a year earlier and unsold stock flooding the marketplace, we need to see a visible decrease in September. Case-Shiller (Source: TradingView) Correlations Euro, Sterling and Yen are all in decrease as they discover brand-new Lows From Aug. 29 to Sept. 4, the DXY edged towards a two-decade high at 109.6. As the DXY reinforces danger properties will continue to carry out inadequately with an ongoing divergence in between the DXY and BTC. Another driver for a strong USD has actually been the development of weaker currencies. As you can see listed below USD versus the EUR, GBP, and JPY are trending towards brand-new lows.

The euro is 16% down year-to-date versus the dollar, with Italian Treasury yields increasing, the ECB is presenting a brand-new anti-fragmentation tool-- Yield Curve Control-- to make sure another financial obligation crisis does not emerge. They are more cheapening the currency in the procedure. The Japanese Yen was up to a 24- year low due to the Bank of Japan's yield curve control, which does not enable the 10- year Treasury to exceed 0.25%. The drawdown is the worst because the Asian monetary crisis in 1997. Sterling continues to sink lower and is presently standing at 1.15-- its most affordable because 1985 leaving out a 2-day panic throughout the pandemic. Currencies (Source: TradingView) Spot to Futures connection From the start of 2022, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) were signed up with at the hip in regards to rate action; nevertheless, from mid to late June, ETH began to outshine BTC considerably due to the buzz around the Merge. A great deal of speculators are greatly purchasing the upcoming Merge through the derivatives opportunity, which saw ETH practically struck $2,000 from a regional bottom of approximately $900 in mid-June. In mid-July, ETH futures volume stood at $23 billion and has actually considering that increased to over $32 billion, which added to ETH's cost discovery. We have actually highlighted in previous reports that the combine might be a " purchase the report, offer the news" occasion. BTC futures volume has actually substantially decreased and area cost action has actually been more powerful than futures (0.24) over the past 30 days-- which is a much healthier indication for the Bitcoin environment. BTC & & ETH Price (Source: Glassnode) BTC & & ETH Futures Volume (Source: Glassnode) Spot To Futures Ratio (Source: The Block) Equities & & Volatility Gauge The Standard and Poor's 500, or just the S&P 500, is a stock exchange index tracking the stock efficiency of 500 big business noted on exchanges in the United States. S&P 500 3,924 -2.59% ( 7D) The Nasdaq Stock Market is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is ranked 2nd on the list of stock market by market capitalization of shares traded, behind the New York Stock Exchange. NASDAQ12,075 -1.74% ( 7D) The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, is a real-time market index representing the marketplace's expectations for volatility over the coming 30 days. Financiers utilize the VIX to determine the level of threat, worry, or tension in the market when making financial investment choices. VIX25 -0.11% ( 7D) Nasdaq goes into bearishness Equities have actually had a bad week considering that Aug. 29 due to provide chains breaking down, the expense of capital increasing and markets getting less effective following the Jackson Hole conference. Business revenues are most likely to suffer and equities most likely to continue to carry out improperly. Nasdaq is back in the bearishness area, down 20% from Aug. 1, while SPX is down 15% for the year. Markets have actually lost approximately 50% of the gains made throughout the summertime rally. We are now in a duration of stagflation, low to absolutely no development, and high inflation-- a comparable circumstance to the 1970 s, when equities were fairly flat for the very first 5 years in between 1970 and 1975. However, gold's efficiency was extraordinary, climbing up over 350%. With Bitcoin thought about digital gold 2.0 it might carry out as gold performed in the 1970 s throughout this stagflationary environment. Gold vs Equities (Source: MacroTrends) Commodities The need for gold is figured out by the quantity of gold in the reserve bank reserves, the worth of the U.S. dollar, and the desire to hold gold as a hedge versus inflation and currency decline, all assistance drive the rate of the rare-earth element. Gold Price$ 1,734 -1.3% ( 7D) Similar to the majority of products, the silver rate is figured out by speculation and supply and need. It is likewise impacted by market conditions

(big traders or financiers and brief selling), commercial, business, and customer need, hedge versus monetary tension, and gold costs. Silver Price$18 -4.2% ( 7D) The cost of oil, or the oil cost, usually describes the area cost of a barrel (159 litres) of benchmark petroleum. Crude Oil Price$88 -5.32% ( 7D) Uncertainty around energy The significant news in products originates from the energy futures market which is acting like a meme stock and signaling that there may be difficulty ahead. The eurozone remains in a little bit of a pickle, with record inflation, and a seriously compromising currency however the triple risk is increasing energy rates. German Power 1 year ahead reached EUR1400 kWh, prior to drawing back down to simply under EUR1,000, a 5x boost from January2022 The futures market is signifying unpredictability and anticipating the worst. When winter season comes, rolling blackouts, factories closing down and power lacks might end up being truth. Is the energy futures market completely responding to a worry of collapse? Energy Futures (Source: TradingView) Gold and oil see heavy drops amidst economic downturn worries The more powerful the dollar gets the most likely there will be a wave of defaults resulting in a financial obligation crisis. Gold is suggested to be a sanctuary property however is trading down over 5% year-to-date and fell listed below $1,700 on Sept. 1. BRICS nations-- Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa-- have actually been building up gold. Russian President Vladimir Putin has actually been incredibly singing in current months, about the cash printing by Western nations and how it harms emerging market nations as they export their inflation to the weaker nations, while ending up being net importers. China net imported 169 tonnes of gold in July. In current history, this has actually just been surpassed by one month in2018 This assists to discuss the substantial outflows from Comex. BRICS are purchasing all the gold and the West is offering it at a discount rate. Crude Oil continues to plunge in the middle of economic crisis worries, suggesting that no possession is safe in this international deleveraging occasion. Rates & & Currency The 10- year Treasury note is a debt commitment released by the United States federal government with a maturity of 10 years upon preliminary issuance. A 10- year Treasury note pays interest at a repaired rate when every 6 months and pays the stated value to the holder at maturity. 10 Y Treasury Yield 3.1% 2.66% ( 7D) The U.S. dollar index is a step of the worth of the U.S. dollar relative to a basket of foreign currencies. DXY109 1.00% ( 7D) United States Dollar functions as a flight to security The U.S. Dollar (DXY) is the world's reserve currency. The DXY continues to set brand-new highs and is squashing other market currencies. The DXY is the main system of represent trade worldwide. It is a step of strength versus numerous other fiat currencies such as the euro, CHF, yen, and the British pound. The DXY is presently trading around 109. One of the primary factors for the strength of the U.S. dollar is the flight to security. As financiers end up being interested in the policies of foreign reserve banks, and underlying financial strength they selected to move into U.S. the dollar. Additionally, we are seeing a boost in rate walkings by the federal reserve, setting its funds rate at 2.25%-- 2.5% in July. We are seeing the most aggressive 1 year hawkish outright modification in the fed funds rate given that records started, which reveals the seriousness and speed of these rates of interest increases. The Federal Funds Rate is the rate of interest banks charge each other to obtain or provide excess reserves over night. Percentage Change Fed Funds Rate (Source: FRED) 2-year treasury note greatest given that November 2007 The last time the 2-- year t reasury yield was 3.5% was on Nov. 15,2007 Relatively, the portion was 0.20% on Sept. 2, 2021 The bond market is informing the federal reserve that there's lots of space to raise rates.

The 2-year treasury is experiencing its greatest detach from Fed funds in several years. The Fed is anticipated to continue raising rates of interest up until a deleveraging occasion happens. A lot of treking cycles end in a deleveraging occasion, and because 1982, we have actually set a greater low with the fed funds rate. Debt levels are traditionally high, and if the 2-year treasury is any indicator, getting beyond 3% will be a battle. Because 1988, each time Fed funds satisfied the 2-year treasury, the guard dog ended rate walkings in the cycle. 2 Year Treasury vs Fed Funds Rate (Source: TradingView) United States Fed Funds Rate (Source: BofA)Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Overview The rate of Bitcoin (BTC) in USD. Bitcoin Price$19,860 0.54% ( 7D) The cost of Bitcoin increased the variety of coins in flow. Bitcoin Market Cap$3798 B 0.58% ( 7D) The procedure of Bitcoin's overall market cap versus the bigger cryptocurrency market cap. Bitcoin Dominance3967% -2.44% ( 7D) Throughout the week Bitcoin has actually been flirting above and listed below the $20,000 cost variety and has actually turned it into resistance. Bitcoin has actually sat listed below the Realized Price (200 WMA) all week which is presently over $21,000 Asia has actually been net accumulators today which supports our thesis they are still the wise cash Active Addresses and Entities continue to stay stagnant and remain within the bearish market channel Difficulty increased over 9% today Whales are discharging Bitcoin at an aggressive rateCryptocurrencies Addresses Collection of core address metrics for the network. The variety of distinct addresses that were active in the network either as a sender or receiver. Just addresses that were active in effective deals are counted. Active Addresses771,504 0.27% ( 7D) The variety of special addresses that stood for the very first time in a deal of the native coin in the network. New Addresses 2,777,380 2.78% ( 7D) The variety of special addresses holding 1 BTC or less. Addresses with ≥ 1 BTC900,681 0.16% ( 7D) The variety of distinct addresses holding a minimum of 1k BTC. Addresses with Balance ≤ 1k BTC 2,140 -0.37% ( 7D) A soft week for addresses A rather soft week from an active and brand-new addresses point of view recommended that very few brand-new individuals got in the environment over the week. The soft week is probably an effect of Bitcoin remaining in the middle of a bearishness and a substantial deleveraging procedure going on in the macro. New and active addresses have actually remained rather flat which includes the wider patterns of the year. Among the brilliant stimulates this year were addressees with a non-zero balance building up at an incredibly aggressive rate however that has actually lessened in current weeks. Bitcoin: Number of Addresses with Non-Zero Balance (Source: Glassnode) Addresses in Profit are still over 50% unlike any other bearish market The portion of distinct addresses whose funds have a typical buy rate that is lower than the existing cost. "Buy cost" is here specified as the rate at the time coins were moved into an address. Every bearish market cycle has actually seen addresses in revenue drop listed below 50%, however we have actually created a greater high after each cycle. Is this time various, or do we go lower? Throughout the bearishness lows;-LRB- In 2012-- 13.5% of addresses remained in earnings In 2015-- 30.5% of addresses remained in revenue In 2019-- 42.9% of addresses remained in earnings In 2020-- 40.3% of addresses remained in revenue In 2022-- 53.9% of addresses remained in earningsCryptocurrencies Entities Entity-adjusted metrics utilize exclusive clustering algorithms to offer a more exact quote of the real variety of users in the network and determine their activity. The number of special entities that were active either as a sender or receiver. Entities are specified as a cluster of addresses that are managed by the very same network entity

and are approximated through sophisticated heuristics and Glassnode's exclusive clustering algorithms. Active Entities225,327 0.98% ( 7D) The variety of BTC in the Purpose Bitcoin ETF. Purpose ETF Holdings23,792 0.11% ( 7D) The variety of distinct entities holding a minimum of 1k BTC. Number of Whales 1,712 -0.64% ( 7D) The overall quantity of BTC hung on OTC desk addresses. OTC Desk Holdings 4,034 BTC 3.01% ( 7D) Active Entities continue to put in a greater high each bearish market cycle Active and brand-new entities as an entire act extremely likewise to addresses, it's revealing indications of an essential weak point in the environment. The active entity is an excellent gauge to comprehend the day-to-day users of Bitcoin, for the previous couple of weeks we have actually remained in this stagnant duration, if Bitcoin were to fall even more it would reveal extreme weak point in user adoption. A lot of remarkably, in each bearish market cycle, Bitcoin continues to put in a greater high of active users, which shows more entities entering the network and staying. Bitcoin: Number of Active Entities (Source: Glassnode) Shrimp associates continue to collect Bitcoin Shrimps have actually been among the most revitalizing entities in the environment for Bitcoin this year, their rate of development has actually been absolutely nothing except exceptional. Shrimps are specified as holding one or less Bitcoin, not just has this group seen rapid development in regards to stacking Bitcoin however 2022 has actually been the year which has actually seen the best net position modification surpassing2017 Even with all the worry, unpredictability and doubt, they continue to build up and hold. It will be intriguing to watch on the shrimps with an economic crisis on the horizon, Bitcoin is the most liquid possession to offer to settle your fiat responsibilities. Bitcoin: Shrimp Net Position Change (Source: Glassnode)Cryptocurrencies Dervatives A derivative is an agreement in between 2 celebrations which obtains its value/price from a hidden possession. The most typical kinds of derivatives are futures, choices and swaps. It is a monetary instrument which obtains its value/price from the underlying properties. The overall quantity of funds (USD Value) designated in open futures agreements. Futures Open Interest$1149 B -1.69% ( 7D) The overall volume (USD Value) sold futures agreements in the last 24 hours. Futures Volume$1766 B$ -3.99( 7D) The amount liquidated volume (USD Value) from brief positions in futures agreements. Total Long Liquidations$6395 M$ 0 ( 7D) The amount liquidated volume (USD Value) from long positions in futures agreements. Total Short Liquidations$37 M$ 0 ( 7D) Shorts determine the marketplace whilst take advantage of continues to increase Derivatives today have actually been incredibly eventful, we have actually seen a ruthless quantity of shorts in the futures continuous financing rate, not seen given that the lows in mid-June. Keep in mind, the typical financing rate (in %) is set by exchanges for continuous futures agreements. When the rate is favorable, long positions regularly pay brief positions. Alternatively, when the rate is unfavorable, brief positions occasionally pay long positions. This is among the metrics CryptoSlate searching for to verify a cycle bottom, each cycle's bottom is when shorts are ruthless and vibrant. Bitcoin: Futures Perpetual Funding Rate (Source: Glassnode) More hunger for danger CryptoSlate is likewise seeing a lot more danger being taken which can be thought about an advantage as there is a great deal of money resting on the sidelines. Crypto-Margin Futures Open Interest is at comparable levels to May 2021 of around 210 thousand BTC being utilized as security and has actually been working its method greater considering that the March bottom. This metric is specified as the overall quantity of futures agreements open interest that is margined in the native coin (e.

g. BTC) and not in USD or stablecoin. This likewise accompanies the most amount of take advantage of in the system, a substantial uptick in Futures Estimated Leverage Ratio (ELR) in August. The ELR functions as an Indicator that determines the ratio in between open agreements waiting for execution and the reserve of currencies on futures trading platforms. The chart reveals the ELR has actually reached an all-time high of 0.32-- showing the capacity for high volatility ought to there be big cost swings. Bitcoin: Futures Open Interest Crypto-Margined (Source: Glassnode) Bitcoin: Futures Estimated Leveraged Ratio (Source: Glassnode)Cryptocurrencies Miners Overview of vital miner metrics associated with hashing power, income, and block production. The typical approximated variety of hashes per 2nd produced by the miners in the network. Hash Rate261 TH/s2794% ( 7D) The present projected variety of hashes needed to mine a block. Keep in mind: Bitcoin problem is frequently represented as the relative trouble with regard to the genesis block, which needed roughly 2 ^32 hashes. For much better contrast throughout blockchains, our worths are represented in raw hashes. Difficulty133 T10992% (14 D) The overall supply kept in miner addresses. Miner Balance 1,833,866 BTC -0.21% ( 7D) The overall quantity of coins moved from miners to exchange wallets. Just direct transfers are counted. Miner Net Position Change-47,654 BTC-15,428 BTC ( 7D) Second most significant boost for trouble sees miner earnings continue to capture Bitcoin mining trouble increased today by over 9% the most significant boost considering that January of this year, and is less than 1% far from its perpetuity high. As hash cost (miner revenue/TH) is approaching perpetuity lows, as is typical in Bitcoin bearishness. Miner margins continue to squeeze, which is most likely to lead to narrower earnings margins for the market. Bitcoin: Mining Difficulty (Source: Glassnode) Miner Revenue Per Terra Hash (Source: Glassnode)Cryptocurrencies On-Chain Activity Collection of on-- chain metrics associated with central exchange activity. The overall quantity of coins hung on exchange addresses. Exchange Balance 2,344,809 BTC17,491 BTC ( 7D) The 30 day modification of the supply kept in exchange wallets. Exchange Net Position Change-404,157 BTC125,374 BTC (30 D) The overall quantity of coins moved from exchange addresses. Exchange Outflows Volume221,105 BTC32,258 BTC ( 7D) The overall quantity of coins moved to exchange addresses. Exchange Inflows Volume238,610 BTC58,332 BTC ( 7D) The 2022 bearish market is various to the 2018 bearish market as need is strong During the 2018 bearishness cycle, CryptoSlate can observe from the metric, Exchange Net Position Change a great deal of inflows and deposits took place consisting of the cycle bottom. Throughout this previous week, need has actually been exceptionally strong. Over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin has actually been withdrawn every day, which reveals the cravings financiers still appear to have. Compared to the 2018 bear market cycle, saw a frustrating quantity of Bitcoin put back onto exchanges up over $3 billion leading up to the 2017 bull run peak. Bitcoin: Exchange Net Positions Change (BTC)-- All Exchanges (Source: Glassnode) FTX just has 17 K Coins left on Exchanges In current weeks, outflows of BTC have actually happened from FTX, which sees just 17 thousand BTC left on exchanges however beginning the year with over 80 thousand BTC. Coinbase has actually likewise seen over 155 thousand BTC being pulled from exchanges this year, these are bullish long-lasting patterns. Bitcoin: Balances on Exchanges [BTC] (Source: Glassnode)Cryptocurrencies Geo Breakdown Regional rates are built in a two-step procedure: First, rate motions are designated to areas based upon working hours in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Regional rates are then identified by computing the cumulative amount of the cost modifications gradually for each area.

This metric reveals the 30- day alter in the local rate set throughout Asia working hours, i.e. in between 8am and 8pm China Standard Time (00: 00-12: 00 UTC). Asia769 BTC 4,904 BTC ( 7D) This metric reveals the 30- day alter in the local cost set throughout EU working hours, i.e. in between 8am and 8pm Central European Time (07: 00-19: 00 UTC), respectively Central European Summer Time (06: 00-18: 00 UTC). Europe-11,453 BTC -8,144 BTC ( 7D) This metric reveals the 30- day alter in the local rate set throughout United States working hours, i.e. in between 8am and 8pm Eastern Time (13: 00-01: 00 UTC), respectively Eastern Daylight Time (12: 00 -0: 00 UTC). U.S.-18,854 BTC -6,261 BTC ( 7D) Uncertainty triggers worry for United States & & EU, purchasing chance for Asia A great deal of unpredictability is happening in all markets and areas today, and something we have mentioned in previous posts is Asia continuing to be the clever cash, purchasing when costs are low and offering high. Today that pattern continues, albeit booked build-up from Asia. Asia vs. EU vs. the United States (Source: Glassnode) A brand-new metric Glassnode launched is the Year-over-Year Supply Change which intends to offer a price quote for the year-over-year modification in the share of the Bitcoin supply to be held/traded in Asia. During the late 2021 bull run supply went unfavorable (highlighted in red) and dropped as low as -4%. Because the turn of the year, their share of supply has actually just grown due to reduced costs being a chance to build up. Bitcoin: Asia Year-Over-Year Supply Change (Source: Glassnode)Cryptocurrencies Layer-2 Secondary layers, such as the Lightning Network, exist on the Bitcoin blockchain and enables users to develop payment channels where deals can take place far from the primary blockchain The overall quantity of BTC secured the Lightning Network. Lightning Capacity 4,683 BTC 2.12% ( 7D) The variety of Lightning Network nodes. No. of Nodes17,479 0.22% ( 7D) The variety of public Lightning Network channels. No. of Channels85,956 0.51% ( 7D) Lightning Capacity strikes all-time high Lightning Network capability in regards to Bitcoin adoption continues to increase and set a brand-new all-time high of 4,631 BTC-- a 4x development in 2 years as capability was approximately 1,000 BTC on Sept. 2, 2020. Bitcoin: Lightning Network Capacity (Source: Glassnode)Cryptocurrencies Supply The overall quantity of flowing supply held by various mates. The overall quantity of distributing supply held by long term holders. Long Term Holder Supply1357 M BTC 0.29% ( 7D) The overall quantity of flowing supply held by short-term holders. Short Term Holder Supply 3.19 M BTC -1.51% ( 7D) The percent of distributing supply that has actually stagnated in a minimum of 1 year. Supply Last Active 1+ Year Ago66% 0.08% ( 7D) The overall supply held by illiquid entities. The liquidity of an entity is specified as the ratio of cumulative outflows and cumulative inflows over the entity's life-span. An entity is thought about to be illiquid/ liquid/ extremely liquid if its liquidity L is ≲ 0.25/ 0.25 ≲ L ≲ 0.75/ 0.75 ≲ L, respectively. Illiquid Supply1484 M BTC 0.07% ( 7D) Long-term holders continue to build up Long-term holders (LTHs) have actually been increasing their holdings and hold an approximated 13.5 million BTC since Sept. 5. LTHs capitulated after the LUNA collapse however have actually now begun to collect once again. in previous cycles LTHs purchased when rates were reduced and offered in the bull run, while short-term holders (STH) did the opposite. Information reveals the exact same divergence is playing out once again, with LTHs collecting and STHs supply reducing. Bitcoin Price Short vs. Long Term URPD Suggests Low Volume Below $20 K UTXO Realized Price Distribution (URPD) reveals at which costs the present set of Bitcoin UTXOs were developed, i.e. each bar reveals the variety of existing bitcoins that last moved within that defined rate container.

Volume was really low when markets struck the $25,000 regional resistance throughout the August rally. In addition, volume was likewise low when BTC was up to its June low of $17,600 URPD can be dealt with like a volume profile, with all the volume focused in between these 2 locations which have actually been drawn up by short-term holders. As time goes by we want to see this volume modification from STHs to LTHs and a boost in volume at these lower bound locations. Entity-Adjusted Unspent Realized Price Distribution (Source: Glassnode)Cryptocurrencies Cohorts Breaks down relative habits by different entities' wallet. SOPR - The Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) is calculated by dividing the understood worth (in USD) divided by the worth at production (USD) of a used output. Or just: cost offered/ cost paid. Long-term Holder SOPR 0.942260% ( 7D) Short Term Holder SOPR (STH-SOPR) is SOPR that takes into consideration just invested outputs more youthful than 155 days and functions as a sign to evaluate the behaviour of short-term financiers. Short-term Holder SOPR 0.98 0.00% ( 7D) The Accumulation Trend Score is an indication that shows the relative size of entities that are actively building up coins on-chain in regards to their BTC holdings. The scale of the Accumulation Trend Score represents both the size of the entities balance (their involvement rating), and the quantity of brand-new coins they have actually acquired/sold over the last month (their balance modification rating). An Accumulation Trend Score of closer to 1 shows that on aggregate, bigger entities (or a huge part of the network) are collecting, and a worth more detailed to 0 suggests they are dispersing or not collecting. This supplies insight into the balance size of market individuals, and their build-up habits over the last month. Accumulation Trend Score 0.1251240000% ( 7D) Whales are discharging Accumulation Trend Score by Cohort breaks down the Accumulation Trend Score into the relative behaviour of different wallet associates. The relative strength of the build-up for each entity's balance size is determined by both the size of the mate, and the variety of coins they have actually gotten over the last 15 days. A worth more detailed to 1 suggests that individuals because associate are building up coins. A worth better to 0 shows that individuals because accomplice are dispersing coins. A list of entities consisting of exchanges and miners, are left out from the estimation. Entities that have 10 thousand BTC or more have actually been dispersing BTC at an aggressive rate, revealing that whales have actually slowed their Bitcoin build-up this month as they remain in crimson, indicating they are enormously net selling. Other associates appear to be meandering around 0.5 which reveals the unpredictability in the market, with financiers not sure of building up or dispersing. Trend Accumulation Score by Cohort (Source: Glassnode) Old whales moving over 5K Bitcoin An intriguing deal happened today, with 7-10- year-old coins being invested nearly 0.5% of the supply (approximately 5 thousand BTC), the 2nd greatest costs from this associate for over a year and a half. The last time this accomplice invested huge remained in April at the peak rate of $48,000 right before the Luna collapse. These "OG Whales" have actually acquired much experience and tend to offer or de-risk prior to significant disadvantages. This associate has actually seen lots of a "FUD", several drawdowns, and fork wars. As we mentioned previously, comparable motions have actually not benefited Bitcoin's cost which is why whales are thought about clever cash. Bitcoin: Spent Volume Age Bands (Source: Glassnode)Cryptocurrencies Stablecoins A kind of cryptocurrency that is backed by reserve properties and for that reason can use rate stability. The overall quantity of coins hung on exchange addresses. Stablecoin Exchange Balance$3684 B 3.8% ( 7D) The overall quantity of USDC hung on exchange addresses.

USDC Exchange Balance$ 2.82 B -1.76% ( 7D) The overall quantity of USDT hung on exchange addresses. USDT Exchange Balance$1669 B 3.8% ( 7D) Over $40 B in stablecoins all set to be invested With over $40 billion in stablecoin resting on exchanges waiting to be invested, a healing might possibly emerge rapidly in BTC. While billions in worth offered in stablecoin can be deemed bullish for the whole crypto market-- it does not suggest that this worth will stream straight back into BTC when the marketplace goes risk-on once again. All Stablecoins: Balance on Exchanges (Source: Glassnode)The chart above just represents the following Stablecoins: BUSD, GUSD, HSUD, DAI, USDP, EURS, SAI, sUSD, USDT, USDC)$ 1B each day left Binance's USDC hot wallets today. More than $3 billion in stablecoins was withdrawn from the balance on exchanges which is a significant quantity. The last time such an occasion happened was throughout the collapse. Additional analysis exposes that over $ 1 billion USDC left Binance hot wallets each day today. USD Coin: Exchange Net Position (USDC) (Source: Glassnode) Read More

0 notes

sylvielauffeydottir · 3 years

Text

Hello, it is I, your friendly neighborhood historian. I am ready to lose followers for this post, but I have two masters degrees in history and one of my focuses has been middle eastern area studies. Furthermore, I’ve been tired of watching the world be reduced to pithy little infographics, and I believe there is no point to my education if I don’t put it to good use. Finally, I am ethnically Asheknazi Jewish. This does not color my opinion in this post — I am in support of either a one or two state solution for Israel and Palestine, depending on the factors determined by the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli Government does not speak for me. I hate Netanyahu. A lot. With that said, my family was slaughtered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I have stood in front of that memorial wall at the Holocaust memorial in DC for my great uncle Simon and my great uncle Louis and cried as I lit a candle. Louis was a rabbi, and he preached mitzvot and tolerance. He died anyway.

There’s a great many things I want to say about what is happening in the Middle East right now, but let’s start with some facts.

In early May, there were talks of a coalition government that might have put together (among other parties, the Knesset is absolutely gigantic and usually has about 11-13 political parties at once) the Yesh Atid, a center-left party, and the United Arab List, a Palestinian party. For the first time, Palestinians would have been members of the Israeli government in their own right. And what happened, all of the sudden? A war broke out. A war that, amazingly, seemed to shield Benjamin Netanyahu from criminal prosecution, despite the fact that he has been under investigation for corruption for some time now and the only thing that is stopping a real investigation is the fact that he is Prime Minister.

Funny how that happened.

There’s a second thing people ought to know, and it is about Hamas. I’ve found it really disturbing to see people defending Hamas on a world stage because, whether or not people want to believe it, Hamas is a terrorist organization. I’m sorry, but it is. Those are the facts. I’m not being a right wing extremist or even a Republican or whatever else or want to lob at me here. I’m a liberal historian with some facts. They are a terrorist organization, and they don’t care if their people die.

Here’s what you need to know:

There are two governments for the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza. In April 2021, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed planned elections. He said it was because of a dispute amid Israeli-annexed East Jerusalum. He is 85 years old, and his Fatah Party is losing power to Hamas. Everyone knows that. Palestinians know that.

Here’s the thing about Hamas: they might be terrorists, but aren’t idiots. They understand that they have a frustrated population filled with people who have been brutalized by their neighbors. And they also understand that Israel has something called the iron dome defense system, which means that if you throw a rocket at it, it probably won’t kill anyone (though there have been people in Israel who died, including Holocaust survivors). Israel will, however, retaliate, and when they do, they will kill Palestinian civilians. On a world stage, this looks horrible. The death toll, because Palestinians don’t have the same defense system, is always skewed. Should the Israeli government do that? No. It’s morally repugnant. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s hurting people without the capability to defend themselves. But is Hamas counting on them to for the propaganda? Yeah. Absolutely. They’re literally willing to kill their other people for it.

You know why this works for Hamas? They know that Israel will respond anyway, despite the moral concerns. And if you’re curious why, you can read some books on the matter (Six Days of War by Michael Oren; The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich; Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergmen; Antisemitism by Deborah Lipstadt; and Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis). The TL;DR, if you aren’t interested in homework, is that Israel believes they have no choice but to defend themselves against what they consider ‘hostile powers.’ And it’s almost entirely to do with the Holocaust. It’s a little David v Goliath. It is, dare I say, complicated.

I’m barely scratching the surface here.

(We won’t get into this in this post, though if you want to DM me for details, it might be worth knowing that Iran funds Hamas and basically supplies them with all of their weapons, and part of the reason the United States has been so reluctant to engage with this conflict is that Iran is currently in Vienna trying to restore its nuclear deal with western powers. The USA cannot afford to piss off Iran right now, and therefore cannot afford to aggravative Hamas and also needs to rely on Israel to destroy Irani nuclear facilities if the deal goes south. So, you know, there is that).

There are some people who will tell you that criticism of the Israel government is antisemitic. They are almost entirely members of the right wing, evangelical community, and they don’t speak for the Jewish community. The majority of Jewish people and Jewish Americans in particular are criticizing the Israeli government right now. The majority of Jewish people in the diaspora and in Israel support Palestinian rights and are speaking out about it. And actually, when they talk about it, they are putting themselves in great danger to do so. Because it really isn’t safe to be visibly Jewish right now. People may not want to listen to Jews when they speak about antisemitism or may want to believe that antisemitism ‘isn’t real’ because ‘the Holocaust is over’ but that is absolutely untrue. In 2019, antisemitic hate crimes in the United States reached a high we have never seen before. I remember that, because I was living in London, and I was super scared for my family at the time. Since then, that number has increased by nearly 400% in the last ten days. If you don’t believe me, have some articles about it (one, two, three, four, and five, to name a few).

I live in New York City, where a man was beaten in Time Square while attending a Free Palestine rally and wearing a kippah. I’m sorry, but being visibly Jewish near a pro-Palestine rally? That was enough to have a bunch of people just start beating on him? I made a previous post detailing how there are Jews being attacked all over the world, and there is a very good timeline of recent hate crimes against Jews that you can find right here. These are Jews, by the way, who have nothing to do with Israel or Palestine. They are Americans or Europeans or Canadians who are living their lives. In some cases, they are at pro-Palestine rallies and they are trying to help, but they just look visibly Jewish. God Forbid we are the wrong ethnicity for your rally, even if we agree.

This is really serious. There are people calling for the death of all Jews. There are people calling for another Holocaust.

There are 14 million Jews in the world. 14 million. Of 7.6 billion. And you think it isn’t a problem the way people treat us?

Anyway (aside from, you know, compassion), why does this matter? This matters because stuff like this deters Jews who want to be part of the pro-Palestine movement because they are literally scared for their safety. I said this before, and I will say it again: Zionism was, historically speaking, a very unpopular opinion. It was only widespread antisemitic violence (you know, the Holocaust) that made Jews believe there was a necessity for a Jewish state. Honestly, it wasn’t until the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that I supported it the abstract idea too.

I grew up in New York City, I am a liberal Jew, and I believe in the rights of marginalized and oppressed people to self-determine worldwide. Growing up, I also fit the profile of what many scholars describe as the self hating Jew, because I believed that, in order to justify myself in American liberal society, I had to hate Israel, and I had to be anti-Zionist by default, even if I didn’t always understand what ‘Zionism’ meant in abstract. Well, I am 27 years old now with two masters degrees in history, and here is what Zionism means to me: I hate the Israeli government. They do not speak for me. But I am not anti-Zionist. I believe in the necessity for a Jewish state — a state where all Jews are welcome, regardless of their background, regardless of their nationality.

There needs to be a place where Jews, an ethnic minority who are unwelcome in nearly every state in the world, have a place where they are free from persecution — a place where they feel protected. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that place being the place where Jews are ethnically indigenous to. Because believe it or not, whether it is inconvenient, Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. I’ve addressed this in this post.

With that said, that doesn’t mean you can kick the Palestinian people out. They are also indigenous to that land, which is addressed in the same post, if you don’t trust me.

What is incredible to me is that Zionism is defined, by the Oxford English Dixtionary, as “A movement [that called originally for] the reestablishment of a Jewish nationhood in Palestine, and [since 1948] the development of the State of Israel.” Whether we agree with this or not, there were early disagreements about the location of a ‘Jewish state,’ and some, like Maurice de Hirsch, believed it ought to be located in South America, for example. Others believed it should be located in Africa. The point is that the original plans for the Jewish state were about safety. The plan changed because Jews wanted to return to their homeland, the largest project of decolonization and indigenous reclamation ever to be undertaken by an indigenous group. Whether you want to hear that or not, it is true. Read a book or two. Then you might know what I mean.

When people say this is a complicated issue, they aren’t being facetious. They aren’t trying to obfuscate the point. They often aren’t even trying to defend the Israeli government, because I certainly am not — I think they are abhorrent. But there is no future in the Middle East if the Israelis and Palestinians don’t form a state that has an equal right of return and recognizes both of their indigenousness, and that will never happen if people can’t stop throwing vitriolic rhetoric around. Is the Israeli Government bad? Yes. Are Israeli citizens bad? Largely, no. They want to defend their families, and they want to defend their people. This is basically the same as the fact that Palestinian people aren’t bad, though Hamas often is. And for the love of god, stop defending terrorist organizations. Just stop. They kill their own people for their own power and for their own benefit.

And yes, one more time, the Israeli government is so, so, so wrong. But god, think about your words, and think about how you are enabling Nazis. The rhetoric the left is using is hurting Jews. I am afraid to leave my house. I’m afraid to identify as Jewish on tumblr. I’m afraid for my family, afraid for my friends. People I know are afraid for me.

It’s 2021. I am not my great uncle. I cried for him, but I shouldn’t have to die like him.

Words have consequences. Language has consequences. And genuinely, I do not think everyone is a bad person, so think about what you are putting into the world, because you’d be surprised how often you are doing a Nazi a favor or two.

Is that really what you want? To do a Nazi a favor or two? I don’t think that you do. I hope you don’t, at least.

That’s all. You know, five thousand words later. But uh, think a little. Please.

#jumblr #free palestine #zionism #gaza #signal boost #antisemitism #jew tag

3K notes · View notes

plaguedocboi · 3 years

Text

More scary waters, by popular demand!

Since my last post ranking bodies of water really, really blew up, I decided to make a second. Some of these were suggested by people (in which case I’ll credit them), and some were just ones that didn’t quite make the cut for the first list.

I’ll also be doing a third list ranking the most toxic bodies of water in the world, so stay tuned for that.

Also, keep in mind that these aren’t ranked by how dangerous they are. They’re ranked by how scary I, personally, find them. So if the rating seems off, it’s due to which ones inspire a visceral reaction in me and which ones don’t.

Silfra Rift, Iceland

This one is something that I actually find very beautiful rather than scary, but it still seems like something that others might be freaked out by. The Silfra Rift is the point where the Eurasian and North American continental plates are pulling apart, creating a crack in the earth that filled with water. The water here is incredibly clear, and you can see all the way down to the bottom even in the deepest spots (which are almost 200 feet down, by the way). It’s the only place in the world where you can put your hands on two different continents at the same time! I’ve had the privilege of snorkeling here, and although it’s definitely deep, I wasn’t terribly scared due to the fact that the rift is just so beautiful. The only danger to swimmers is the temperature; it stays between 35-39 F year-round, meaning anyone getting into the water needs a full drysuit to avoid getting hypothermia or worse. I give the Silfra Rift a 1/10 fear rating because I thought I would be much more freaked out by it than I was.

Dragon Hole, China

While not as visually striking as the Great Blue Hole in Belize, this sinkhole in China is the deepest “blue hole” in the world. This pit descends 987 feet down. This earns a 2/10 purely because this is just a goddamn hole in the ocean that’s almost 1,000 ft deep and I don’t care for that.

Lake Tanganyika, multiple countries (suggested by @iguessiamhere)

This lake didn’t quite make the cut for the first list because it comes in second to Lake Baikal. It’s the second-oldest, second-deepest, and second-largest (by volume) lake in the world. But someday, Lake Tanganyika may be number 1, because just like Baikal, it’s a Rift Valley. It’s getting bigger every day, and in a few million years when Baikal is an ocean, Tanganyika might be the largest lake by default. Its 4,820 ft depth earns it a 3/10.

Lake Superior, US/Canada (suggested by multiple people)

This is the largest of the Great Lakes, and the third-largest lake in the world. It reaches depths of over 1,000 feet and has a surface area of over 31,700 square miles. Lake Superior is the site of over 350 shipwrecks and contains roughly 10,000 dead bodies. The reason these bodies are never recovered is because the lake is very cold, and very deep. The lake bottom is essentially a sterile environment, where bodies are preserved for eternity instead of floating up as a normal body would. This lake holds onto her dead. 4/10 for sheer danger and alarming amount of dead bodies.

Cenote Angelita, Mexico ( @olive-k wanted a cenote, and this list has two!)

This is a cenote with an underwater river running through it. No, I’m not kidding. Underwater rivers are actually quite common, but they rarely exist in places that humans can see them. Usually they’re caused by a current moving in a different direction than the majority of the water, or a boundary between water with different density (as is the case here). The “river” appearance in Angelita is enhanced by dead trees, giving the appearance of a bank. For the first 100 feet, this cave has regular freshwater. But a little deeper lies a layer of hazy hydrogen sulfate, and beneath that is 100 feet of salt water. This ranks 5/10 because can you imagine descending towards a hazy patch of water and branches that you assume is the bottom, only to pass right through it and see a gaping black expanse beneath? No thanks.

Devil’s Hole, Nevada

As a biologist, this is somewhere that I actually want to visit. This tiny waterhole in the desert is the only place that the endangered Devil’s Hole Pupfish lives. But we’re not here to learn about cute fish, we’re here to read about unsettling waterways. And hooo boy, this one is pretty weird. Because despite its appearance, this isn’t a little rainwater pool. It’s the opening to a huge cave system, which reaches depths of at least 500 feet. We’re not totally sure, though, because the bottom has never been mapped, and several people have died trying to attempt it. 6/10, since it’s very deep, hasn’t been fully mapped, and is apparently haunted.

Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole, Florida

There is literally a sign in front of this sinkhole that reads “STOP. Prevent your death. There is nothing in this cave worth dying for” accompanied by a picture of the Grim Reaper. Need I say more? Probably not, but I will anyway. This sinkhole is the only surface opening to a cave system that stretches several miles and plunges to over 300 feet deep. Miles of twisting, confusing, narrow passages with only one exit make for an extremely dangerous cave system. For some fucking reason, it’s a very popular dive site. At least 11 people have died here since the 80’s, and is referred to as the “Underwater Mt Everest” because of how dangerous it is. 7/10.

Zacatón, Mexico

This cenote was literally considered “bottomless” for a long time, because no one could find the bottom. Multiple expeditions were attempted, including one where a man died after reaching 925 feet without finding the end. It took a multi-million dollar operation funded by NASA to find the bottom of this hole. I’m not kidding. Turns out, it’s 1,099 feet deep, making it the deepest cenote in the world. It disturbs me that it took NASA and a robot designed to map alien moons to locate where this hole ended, so it earns an 8/10.

Saltstraunen, Norway (suggested by anon)

This narrow strait is home to the strongest tidal currents on the planet. Roughly 110 billion gallons of seawater move in and out of this corridor every six hours, creating violent currents. These tidal movements are so strong they create a phenomenon very similar to the whirlpool in Scotland—the Saltstaunen Maelstrom. This vortex is 33 feet across and forms four times a day as the tides go in and out. Although this whirlpool is only 16 feet deep (very shallow compared to Scotland’s) the currents alone would probably destroy you if you ever fell into this strait. 9/10 because damn.

Blue Lake, Russia

Despite having the least creative name of all time, the Blue Lake is anything but boring. Like the Zacatón, this lake had a reputation for being bottomless for a long time. A diver died after descending to 394 feet, and another barely survived after going down to 685 feet. Neither found the bottom. Eventually, the bottom was discovered and it came as a surprise. The lake itself is only 770 ft by 426 ft, but it is 846 ft deep. This lake is deeper than it is long. It is also a constant 48 degrees F, making hypothermia a risk for any swimmers. If that’s not bad enough, it’s also full of hydrogen sulfide, which makes the air around the lake potentially dangerous. However, people do still dive here on occasion (mostly for research purposes) and the lake is surprisingly beautiful beneath the surface. Still, that doesn’t make it any less deep, cold, and poisonous, so this is a 10/10 for me.

Honorable mention: The Mariana’s Trench, because although it’s not really a specific body of water it’s the deepest point in the ocean, at 7 miles below the surface!

#bathophobia #water rating part 2 #long post

9K notes · View notes

nogunsjustrosess · 3 years

Note

Israel 'defending itself' is a laughable phrase when they have all the military power and technology and respond to whatever attacks Palestinians initiate with homemade rockets and rocks tenfold with more civilian deaths. they wouldn't have to defend themselves if they weren't occupying palestinian land and brutally suppressing its people. the fixation on Hamas which was created YEARS into the conflict, long after Israel had already been perpetrating war crimes, is just a way to deflect from the reality that Israel is a colonial project that is killing Palestinian babies in the name of self defense. consider why you want to justify IDF soldiers shooting at people who are running away from them, surrendering. these people live in a prison. they have no clean air or water. Israel controls everything - their electricity, their sewage systems, controls where they come and go. they have no freedoms. it is not even a remotely comparable situation. Israel has ALL the power, Palestine has NONE.

I will answer you thoroughly because I want you to take the time and read this response, there are MANY incorrections and misconceptions here that I hope are the results of being simply misinformed and not something way worse.

not gonna flood your feed so I’m putting everything under the tag.

“Israel 'defending itself' is a laughable phrase when they have all the military power and technology and respond to whatever attacks Palestinians initiate with homemade rockets and rocks tenfold with more civilian deaths.”

The asymmetry you’re talking about - tech and military wise - being your justification as to why Israel just has to endure ‘homemade rockets and rocks’ is fucked up. First of all, these are NOT just homemade rockets.

Hamas has multiple types of rockets - and let me tell you - they are NOT homemade. Hamas is the third wealthiest terror organisation according to forbes. They receive money from Qatar and Jordan, as well as many other countries that think they fund help for the Palestinian. They don’t, Hamas uses all that money to launch thousands of top notch rockets and missiles to Israel, instead of helping the people of Gaza. Do you think homemade rockets look like this? do you think they can do this? maybe this?

this?

or that?

I wrote about the rocks Palestinians throw at soldiers and civilians here, last week, an Israeli Jewish man was beaten to death and murdered by rocks in Lod by radical Israeli Arabs who identify as Palestinians. This is only the most recent occurrence - but it happens all the time and poses a serious life threat since the rocks thrown aren’t cute little beach stone, they’re big chunks of rock meant to kill, and using them as weapons is illegal in multiple countries around the world because of how dangerous it is.

Gaza has more civilian deaths, that’s for sure. Again asymmetry that raises the brutal question - why there aren’t more Israeli people dying? Now, Israel does have a better system and way better protective measures against missiles and rockets. Do you want to know why? Israel invests millions in shelters, protective spaces and most of all - the Iron Dome. Hamas invests the same amounts of money in arming itself with missiles they launch at Israeli civilians (Jewish, Arab and Christians). Also, Hamas launches missiles and rockets from civilian areas so when they malfunction they also blow up around the same areas.

“they wouldn't have to defend themselves if they weren't occupying palestinian land and brutally suppressing its people.”

Do you realize that they wouldn’t have to ‘defend themselves’ if they weren’t shooting at Israel in the first place? They are NOT defending themselves, Hamas has been continually sending missiles to Israel with no regard to human lives - not Israel’s nor theirs. Also, Israel has withdrawn all its settlements in 2005 with the exception of some parts in the Gaza strip, so not so much for your occupation, unless you believe the entire land of Israel is an occupation, and in that case - you’re historically incorrect.

“the fixation on Hamas which was created YEARS into the conflict, long after Israel had already been perpetrating war crimes”

The ‘fixation’ on Hamas is the direct result of the pure fact they are actively trying to MURDER Israeli civilians every single day. You are correct by saying the conflict is way older than Hamas and way more complicated than them (you see, that’s why you DON’T get your info from infographics folks) but before Hamas there was the terror organisation Hezbollah from Lebanon (that very recently decided to join the party and fire missiles from the northern border to Israel as well), the Muslim Brotherhood and of course, ISIS. They are the terror organisations that continuously try to wipe Israel and everybody in it for good, committing endless war crimes. You all shout war crimes when Israel is the only country trying to minimise and prevent the harm done to Palestinians, often on its own expanse - like here, yesterday Israel tried to ship some resources to Gaza but the shipments were attacked by Palestinians.

“a way to deflect from the reality that Israel is a colonial project that is killing Palestinian babies in the name of self defense.”

You guys love that argument - Israel killing Palestinian babies. Well here and here you can see well planned attacks on Hamas HQ and offices that were called off last minute because it was revealed civilians and children were present. This is something the army tries to avoid at all cost, even if it means losing millions, as well as months and sometimes years of intelligence gathering. That’s because Israel values human lives more than anything! Every possible effort to eliminate the threat to innocent lives WILL be made on the expense of anything. Except, Hamas doesn’t play by those rules, they have been known to deliberately hide Intelligence HQ, offices, and even high level terrorist amongst civilians, as well as schools, hospitals - and our newest example - news buildings. Putting human lives in danger because they use Israel’s refusal to kill civilians as an advantage. Unfortunately, that also means many time Israel doesn’t know about the presence of civilians there and horrible deaths happen. That’s very much on Hamas.

“is just consider why you want to justify IDF soldiers shooting at people who are running away from them, surrendering. these people live in a prison.”

Listen, IDF soldiers are rarely allowed to shoot anyone - most of them don’t even carry any weapons but pepper spray. But the ones who do suffer very severe consequences if they misuse their weapons and they need to justify themselves in a court marshall . For example a couple of years ago a 19 years old soldier shot a terrorist that tried to stab his friend, he went through multiple court marshalls and even a civil trial, as well as months in prison. Believe me, this is not something any soldier would want to go trough unless their life was in grave danger and they had to shoot. (maybe America could learn a thing or too).

“they have no clean air or water. Israel controls everything - their electricity, their sewage systems, controls where they come and go. they have no freedoms. it is not even a remotely comparable situation. Israel has ALL the power, Palestine has NONE.”

Lastly, please do your research. First of all, Gaza is currently controlled by Hamas. And has been since its election almost 15 years ago. They control the resources Palestinians get or don’t get, and again - they choose to spend the billions they get in funds by buying missiles and weapons. The only thing Israel truly controls is the border with Israel, and like any other border it’s monitored and controlled, especially since it’s a favoured place for terrorist to execute attacks. Don’t forget there’s a border with Egypt as well.

We’re not talking about Israel vs Palestinians. We’re talking about Israel vs Hamas - a blood thirsty, antisemitic terror organisation that has no value for human lives whatsoever. And still, Israel is the one who gets blamed and condemned.

(and i have to thank @mysteryspotillusions because she did such a great job and I link to her posts several times!)

#zionism #israel #free palestine #anon

49 notes · View notes

thanksjro · 3 years

Text

More Than Meets the Eye #32 - Nobody’s Ever Actually Dead in Comic Books

Our band of merry guys-who-weren’t-on-the-Lost-Light-in-issue-#1 approach the shattered husk of the Lost Light, in a gruesome scene that is only slightly marred by the graphic design.

Font doesn’t really suggest danger, does it? Here, for comparison, is something I slapped together in fifteen minutes (including recreation of background) using a font I got off a free font site.

Now, one could say that my version is rather derivative, flat, and arguably cliche, but you know what else it is? Appropriate for the fucking mood of having found a destroyed, hemorrhaging ship after everyone you knew disappeared.

I’m available, IDW! Hit me up.

Theorizing that this is the ship that the Coffin Rodimus came from- remember that? It was a few issues ago- the gang flies in for a closer look. The ship blood is actually something called quantum foam, which allows for quantum space travel to happen. It’s not supposed to be outside of the quantum quills, but the ship’s pretty junked up, so it is.

Because the ship is so very full of holes, the gang can set down for repairs pretty easy. They land in Swerve’s, finding it in less-than-pristine condition. They also find evidence of Crosscut having gotten creative, as a poster for the play he was working on is hung up in the room. Considering he was still writing it when he disappeared, this might seem a bit odd. But then you remember that this is a ship from the future, and it stops being so odd.

Because this is a future ship, with evidence that Crosscut did some stuff, it stands to reason that, at some point, everyone is going to come back from being disappeared.

Just to die.

Which is a bummer, but one crisis at a time.

Megatron disembarks the Rod Pod, with Ravage following, and everyone is just a touch put off by the duo. Everyone but Nautica, who proceeds to commit a microaggression.

Nautica, that’s Soundwave’s father you’re petting like a common animal.

Ravage, angered by this over-familiarity, swats at her. Skids questions letting an active Decepticon roam around, but Megatron brushes off these concerns, saying that finding any still-living crew members is more important. With that, the search begins.

The gang splits up to look for clues, despite Riptide thinking this is a horrible idea. They’re on the clock for this one- the quantum foam is liable to explode if it touches anything, and there’s an awful lot of the stuff floating around right now.

Nightbeat and Nautica leave the rest of the group to their own work, seeing as Nautica has the most appropriate alt-mode for traversing the gaps in the ship.

Man, that’s pretty cool. Wish Nautica hadn’t been regulated to being “girl best friend” for her character arcs, I would have loved to see her do some neat stuff for her own development. Guess that’s what happens when you get introduced as main cast late, and have to compete with all the faves who had dozens of issues to be established and who also don’t have to deal with the whole “token girl character” thing.

The rest of the gang- Megatron, Ravage, Riptide, Skids, and Getaway- start looking in the area they’re already in. Seems a little lopsided, but whatever.

Ravage finds someone almost immediately, identifying Ultra Magnus through smell alone. Only, it isn’t just Ultra Magnus.

The Magnus armor lays not terribly far away, having had its hands cut off to prevent the recall signal from being activated before being gut-murdered.

Gut-murdered wiTH A FUSION CANNON, MEGATRON

Of course, Megatron was forced to destroy his fusion canon after it was decided he would be joining the Lost Light, but you can buy these things off the black market like it’s nothing. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Brainstorm had a few stashed in his lab.

As it currently stands, nobody can trust the guy who has a storied past of killing Autobots, on a future ship where the only folks who could stop him are dead. Megatron, at least, has the good sense to not argue this fact, and suggests that the boys lock both Ravage and himself up until they suss out exactly what happened.

Meanwhile, over with Nautica and Nightbeat, we run through all the weird shit that’s happened in the last day or so.

Nautica, you’ve been on this ship for months now. How did you miss the fact that the only couple within 800 miles got annihilated by way of Phase Sixer? I feel like that attack might have come up at some point.

Since they’re on the subject of spouses, Nightbeat asks Nautica if she’s married, or if she has friends. Though noting that such a direct line of questioning might get him slapped with someone else, Nautica reveals that she is single, though she does have a best friend. Nightbeat is also single, probably because he pulls shit like this.

While this conversation is going on, Nautica uses her Sonic Screwdriver wrench to open a door with the literal push of a button. Brainstorm tricked out her wrench so hard it turned into a magic wand, which is good, because they’re going to need all the help they can get now that space is literally warping around them thanks to the quantum foam.

Nautica kicks something on the elevator, and that something turns out to be Brainstorm’s mysterious briefcase. Too bad Swerve is gone, he was so invested in what it contained. Luckily, Nightbeat is just as interested.

Back over on the other side of the ship, it seems as though Megatron kept his word about not resisting, as both he and Ravage have been locked in a cabinet. Wonder how that’s going for them.

Oh, better than I expected.

Ravage is fucking pissed that Megatron joined the Autobots, thereby turning his back on everyone who supported his cause during the last four million years. Despite this grievous betrayal though, the Decepticons haven’t stopped moving. Turns out, Galvatron’s in charge now.

But only if Autobot Megatron isn’t some sort of ploy.

It’s at this point that we learn just why Ravage is here to begin with- to see if Megatron’s truly given up the Decepticons, and if he has, to murder him. But first he’d like to know why this is happening.

Megatron views himself as a monster, having perpetuated a war that ended the lives of billions, destroyed the Cybertronian way of life, ostracized his race from the rest of the universe, and killing just to have something to do. He doesn’t like feeling this way about himself, so he decided to walk away from that life by joining the other team.

Don’t think it’s quite that easy to do, but okay.

Ravage isn’t so sure that this change of heart is going to stick, still convinced that Megatron will snap back to his old self with just a bit more time. Problem is, Megatron may not have a ton of that resource left.

Didn’t they build that body in like an hour so you wouldn’t die? Yeah, no wonder it feels as ill-fitting as a twenty-dollar suit. Thing’s probably made out of pig iron and duct tape.

The lights come on before further self-reflection can be done, and the duo realize that they’ve had guests this whole time.

Someone put the kettle on.

Obviously some fucked up shit happened on this ship. Megatron isn’t so sure that it’s him who did these dirty deeds, however, as he reaches into Ratchet’s mouth and pulls out his brain. Which feels like something that doesn’t really absolve one of guilt, but okay.

Also, ew.

Back with Nautica and Nightbeat, things are getting weird.

Now, this sequence might seem confusing at first blush, but this is because the laws of reality are collapsing around them. Going by clues in the background, we can find the proper, linear progression of time, and thus is conversation. This is what is actually happening:

With the mystery of Brainstorm’s briefcase eluding us once again, we move on to see more graphic aftermaths of violence. Poor Tailgate has been nailed to the wall with a chunk of a metal beam that’s almost as big as he is. The mood lighting for this scene is gorgeous, but I’ve hit my limit for exposing y’all to gore for this issue, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one. Then they find something even more interesting.

Who’s ready for Under Cold Blue Stars… 2!

Back over on the opposite side of the ship, Riptide’s found something nasty. It’s a bunch of dead bodies!

Including, uh, Pipes.

Who already died a while ago.

Hm.

All the bodies in this room are in their alts, and it looks like they’ve all been shot and drilled into, for some reason. Skids brings up that he had a friend who could identify the placement of any robot’s brain module just by knowing what they turned into. Then he reaches into a corpse to see what the drill-hole’s all about. It makes him sick, though maybe not for the reason you might think. He gets on the phone with Nightbeat, who’s called to tell them that they’ve found Overlord.

Still locked in his weird body harness.

And decapitated.

Megatron is on the other line, calling because he’s figured out the same thing Skids has. Someone paid a visit to this ship. Someone nasty.

The gang regroups, and Nautica gets the basics on the DJD, because I guess nobody’s mentioned them even in passing in the last six months, either.

God, what do they even talk about on this ship? Certainly not their feelings.

The reason that one room was filled with alt-modes was because of Tarn’s addiction to transforming; t-cogs are easier to remove when they’ve been used recently.

We get a quick 4/5ths-page gore-fest, then it’s back to making it all about Megatron.

Maybe you should have thought about that before you FUCKING DEFECTED, YOU POOL NOODLE.

Nightbeat’s beginning to put two and two together. There’s an Overlord in the basement. That shouldn’t be, because Overlord got exploded by Chromedome when he mercy-killed Rewind. Something is off about the past of this ship.

Before he can establish his MTMTE everybody-lives-but-then-dies AU though, the quantum foam fucks with the ship. These sons of guns need to get the hell out of here, pronto.

Oh god, what now?

Ravage smells someone inside the Magnus armor, someone who isn’t a part of the usual nesting doll lineup. Megatron reaches into the Crackerjack box and pulls out one hell of a prize.

HE LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES

Chromedome would be so thrilled, if he still existed.

#transformers #jro #MTMTE #slaughterhouse #issue 32 #maccadam #Hannzreads #incoming analysis #text post #long post #comic script writing

64 notes · View notes

fuckyeahtx · 3 years

Text

Letters From An American

August 3, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: former president Trump has raised $102 million since he left office, but aside from a recent donation of $100,000 to his chosen candidate in a Texas race which is not yet in the public disclosures (she lost), has spent none of it on anything or anyone but himself. Since January, he has convinced donors to fund his challenge to Biden’s election and to fund Trump-like candidates in the midterm elections. But election filings and a release of donors to the Arizona “audit” show he has not put any money toward either. So far, about $8 million has gone to the former president’s legal fees, while funds have also gone to aides.

The second piece of news that is surprising and yet not surprising is an ABC story revealing that on December 28, 2020, the then-acting pro-Trump head of the civil division of the Department of Justice, Jeffrey Clark, tried to get then–acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue to sign a letter saying: “The Department of Justice is investigating various irregularities in the 2020 election for President of the United States. The Department will update you as we are able on investigatory progress, but at this time we have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.”

It went on to say, “While the Department of Justice believe[s] the Governor of Georgia should immediately call a special session to consider this important and urgent matter, if he declines to do so, we share with you our view that the Georgia General Assembly has implied authority under the Constitution of the United States to call itself into special session for [t]he limited purpose of considering issues pertaining to the appointment of Presidential Electors.”

The letter then made the point clearer, saying the Georgia legislature could ignore the popular vote and appoint its own presidential electors.

This is classic Trump: try to salt the media with the idea of an “investigation,” and then wait for the following frenzy to convince voters that the election was fraudulent. Such a scheme was at the heart of Trump’s demand that Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky announce an investigation into Hunter Biden, and the discrediting of 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over an investigation into her use of a private email server.

In this case, Donoghue and Rosen wanted no part of this antidemocratic scheme. Donoghue told Clark that there was no evidence of fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election and wrote: “There is no chance that I would sign this letter or anything remotely like this.” Rosen agreed, saying “I am not prepared to sign such a letter.”

The less obvious story today is the more interesting one.

Trump and his loyalists feed off Americans who have been dispossessed economically since the Reagan revolution that began in 1981 started the massive redistribution of wealth upward. Those disaffected people, slipping away from the secure middle-class life their parents lived, are the natural supporters of authoritarians who assure them their problems come not from the systems leaders have put in place, but rather from Black people, people of color, and feminist women.

President Joe Biden appears to be trying to combat this dangerous dynamic not by trying to peel disaffected Americans away from Trump and his party by arguing against the former president, but by reducing the pressure on those who support him.

A study from the Niskanen Center think tank shows that the expanded Child Tax Credit, which last month began to put up to $300 per child per month into the bank accounts of most U.S. households with children, will primarily benefit rural Americans and will give a disproportionately large relative boost to their local economies. According to the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent, “the...nine states that will gain the most per capita from the expanded child allowance are all red states.”

The White House noted today that the bipartisan infrastructure deal it has pushed so hard not only will bring high-speed internet to every household in the U.S., but also has within it $3.5 billion to reduce energy costs for more than 700,000 low-income households.

Also today, after pressure from progressive Democrats, especially Representative Cori Bush (D-MO), who led a sit-in at the Capitol to call for eviction relief, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that in counties experiencing high levels of community transmission of Covid-19, it is extending until October 3 the federal moratorium on evictions that ended this weekend. It is doing so as a public health measure, but it is also an economic one. It should help about 90% of renters—11 million adults—until the government helps to clear the backlog of payments missed during the pandemic by disbursing more of the $46 billion Congress allocated for that purpose.

Today, the president called out Republican governors who have taken a stand against mask wearing and vaccine mandates even as Covid-19 is burning across the country again. Currently, Florida and Texas account for one third of all new Covid cases in the entire country, and yet their Republican governors, Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, are signing legislation to keep Floridians and Texans unmasked and to prevent vaccine mandates. Biden said that he asks “these governors, ‘Please, help.’ But if you aren’t going to help, at least get out of the way of the people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives.”

At a Democratic National Committee fundraiser last night, Biden told attendees that Democrats “have to keep making our case,” while Republicans offer “nothing but fear, lies, and broken promises.” “We have to keep cutting through the Republican fog,” he said, “that the government isn't the problem and show that we the people are always the solution.” He continued, “We've got to demonstrate that democracies can work and protect.”

#fuck teh gqp #fuck abbott #call your reps

10 notes · View notes

dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 years

Link

BY ANITA SIRCARAUG. 17, 2021 9:28 AM PT

My patient sat at the edge of his bed gasping for air while he tried to tell me his story, pausing to catch his breath after each word. The plastic tubes delivering oxygen through his nose hardly seemed adequate to stop his chest from heaving. He looked exhausted.

He had tested positive for the coronavirus 10 days ago. He was under 50, mildly hypertensive but otherwise in good health. Eight days earlier he started coughing and having severe fatigue. His doctor started him on antibiotics. It did not work.

Fearing his symptoms were worsening, he started taking some hydroxychloroquine he had found on the internet. It did not work.

He was now experiencing shortness of breath while doing routine daily activities such as walking from his bedroom to the bathroom or putting on his shoes. He was a shell of his former self. He eventually made his way to a facility where he could receive monoclonal antibodies, a lab-produced transfusion that substitutes for the body’s own antibodies. It did not work.

He finally ended up in the ER with dangerously low oxygen levels, exceedingly high inflammatory markers and patchy areas of infection all over his lungs. Nothing had helped. He was getting worse. He could not breathe. His wife and two young children were at home, all infected with COVID. He and his wife had decided not to get vaccinated.

Last year, a case like this would have flattened me. I would have wrestled with the sadness and how unfair life was. Battled with the angst of how unlucky he was. This year, I struggled to find sympathy. It was August 2021, not 2020. The vaccine had been widely available for months in the U.S., free to anyone who wanted it, even offered in drugstores and supermarkets. Cutting-edge, revolutionary, mind-blowing, lifesaving vaccines were available where people shopped for groceries, and they still didn’t want them.

Outside his hospital door, I took a deep breath — battening down my anger and frustration — and went in. I had been working the COVID units for 17 months straight, all day, every day. I had cared for hundreds of COVID patients. We all had, without being able to take breaks long enough to help us recover from this unending ordeal. Compassion fatigue was setting in. For those of us who hadn’t left after the hardest year of our professional lives, even hope was now in short supply.

Shouting through my N95 mask and the noise of the HEPA filter, I introduced myself. I calmly asked him why he decided not to get vaccinated.

“Well, I’m not an anti-vaxxer or anything. I was just waiting for the FDA to approve the vaccine first. I didn’t want to take anything experimental. I didn’t want to be the government’s guinea pig, and I don’t trust that it’s safe,” he said.

“Well,” I said, “I can pretty much guarantee we would have never met had you gotten vaccinated because you would have never been hospitalized. All of our COVID units are full and every single patient in them is unvaccinated. Numbers don’t lie. The vaccines work.”

This was a common excuse people gave for not getting vaccinated, fearing the vaccine because the Food and Drug Administration had only granted it emergency-use authorization so far, not permanent approval. Yet the treatments he had turned to, antibiotics, monoclonal antibodies and hydroxychloroquine were considered experimental, with mixed evidence to support their use.

The only proven lifesaver we’ve had in this pandemic is a vaccine that many people don’t want. A vaccine we give away to other countries because supply overwhelms demand in the U.S. A vaccine people in other countries stand in line for hours to receive, if they can get it at all.

“Well,” I said, “I am going to treat you with, remdesivir, which only recently received FDA approval.” I explained that it had been under an EUA for most of last year and had not been studied or administered as widely as COVID-19 vaccines. That more than 353 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the U.S. along with more than 4.7 billion doses worldwide without any overwhelming, catastrophic side effects. “Not nearly as many doses of remdesivir have been given or studied in people and its long-term side effects are still unknown,” I said. “Do you still want me to give it to you?”

“Yes” he responded, “Whatever it takes to save my life.”

It did not work.

My patient died nine days later from a fatal stroke. We, the care team, reconciled this loss by telling ourselves: He made a personal choice not to get vaccinated, not to protect himself or his family. We did everything we could with what we had to save him. This year, this tragedy, this unnecessary, entirely preventable loss, was on him.

The burden of this pandemic now rests on the shoulders of the unvaccinated. On those who are eligible to get vaccinated, but choose not to, a decision they defend by declaring, “vaccination is a deeply personal choice.” But perhaps never in history has anyone’s personal choice impacted the world as a whole as it does right now. When hundreds and thousands of people continue to die, when the most vulnerable members of society, our children, cannot be vaccinated — the luxury of choice ceases to exist.

If you believe the pandemic is almost over and you can ride it out, without getting vaccinated, you could not be more wrong. This virus will find you.

If you believe I’ll just wait until the FDA approves the vaccine first, you may not live to see the day.

If you believe if I get infected I’ll just go to the hospital and get treated, there is no guarantee we can save your life, nor even a promise we’ll have a bed for you.

If you believe I’m pregnant and I don’t want the vaccine to affect me, my baby or my future fertility, it matters little if you’re not alive to see your newborn.

If you believe I won’t get my children vaccinated because I don’t know what the long-term effects will be, it matters little if they don’t live long enough for you to find out.

If you believe I’ll just let everyone else get vaccinated around me so I don’t have to, there are 93 million eligible, unvaccinated people in the “herd” who think the same way you do and are getting in the way of ending this pandemic.

If you believe vaccinated people are getting infected anyway so what’s the point?, the vaccine was built to prevent hospitalizations and deaths from severe illness. Instead of fatal pneumonia, those with breakthrough infections have a short, bad cold, so the vaccine has already proved itself. The vaccinated are not dying from COVID-19.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has mutated countless times during this pandemic, adapting to survive. Stacked up against a human race that has resisted change every step of the way — including wearing masks, social distancing, quarantining and now refusing lifesaving vaccines — it is easy to see who will win this war if human behavior fails to change quickly.

The most effective thing you can do to protect yourself, your loved ones and the world, is to GET VACCINATED.

And it will work.

Anita Sircar is an infectious disease physician and clinical instructor of health sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine.

#op-ed #Anita Sircar #vaccination #global pandemic #COVID-19 #LA Times #the plague #get vaccinated #science #medicine

8 notes · View notes

robertreich · 4 years

Video

youtube

Monopoly Mayhem: Corporations Win, Workers Lose

Why do big corporations continue to win while workers get shafted? It all comes down to power: who has it, and who doesn’t. Big corporations have become so dominant that workers and consumers have fewer options and have to accept the wages and prices these giant corporations offer. This has become even worse now that thousands of small businesses have had to close as a result of the pandemic, while mammoth corporations are being bailed out. At the same time, worker bargaining power has declined as fewer workers are unionized and technologies have made outsourcing easy, allowing corporations to get the labor they need for cheap. These two changes in bargaining power didn’t happen by accident. As corporations have gained power, they’ve been able to gut anti-monopoly laws, allowing them to grow even more dominant. At the same time, fewer workers have joined unions because corporations have undermined the nation’s labor laws, and many state legislatures -- under intense corporate lobbying -- have enacted laws making it harder to form unions. Because of these deliberate power shifts, even before the pandemic, a steadily larger portion of corporate revenues have been siphoned off to profits, and a shrinking portion allocated to wages. Once the economy tanked, the stock market retained much of its value while millions of workers lost jobs and the unemployment rate soared to Great Depression-era levels. To understand the current concentration of corporate power we need to go back in time.

In the late nineteenth century, corporate power was a central concern. “Robber barons,” like John D. Rockefeller and Cornelius Vanderbilt, amassed unprecedented wealth for themselves by crushing labor unions, driving competitors out of business, and making their employees work long hours in dangerous conditions for low wages.

As wealth accumulated at the top, so too did power: Politicians of the era put corporate interests ahead of workers, even sending state militias to violently suppress striking workers. By 1890, public anger at the unchecked greed of the robber barons culminated in the creation of America’s first anti-monopoly law, the Sherman Antitrust Act.

In the following years, antitrust enforcement waxed or waned depending on the administration in office; but after 1980, it virtually disappeared. The new view was that large corporations produced economies of scale, which were good for consumers, and anything that was good for consumers was good for America. Power, the argument went, was no longer at issue. America’s emerging corporate oligarchy used this faulty academic analysis to justify killing off antitrust. As the federal government all but abandoned antitrust enforcement in the 1980s, American industry grew more and more concentrated. The government green-lighted Wall Street’s consolidation into five giant banks. It okayed airline mergers, bringing the total number of American carriers down from twelve in 1980 to just four today. Three giant cable companies came to dominate broadband. A handful of drug companies control the pharmaceutical industry. Today, just five giant corporations preside over key, high-tech platforms, together comprising more than a quarter of the value of the entire U.S. stock market. Facebook and Google are the first stops for many Americans seeking news. Apple dominates smartphones and laptop computers. Amazon is now the first stop for a third of all American consumers seeking to buy anything. The monopolies of yesteryear are back with a vengeance. Thanks to the abandonment of antitrust, we’re now living in a new Gilded Age, as consolidation has inflated corporate profits, suppressed worker pay, supercharged economic inequality, and stifled innovation. Meanwhile, big investors have made bundles of money off the growing concentration of American industry. Warren Buffett, one of America’s wealthiest men, has been considered the conscience of American capitalism because he wants the rich to pay higher taxes. But Buffett has made his fortune by investing in monopolies that keep out competitors. -- The sky-high profits at Wall Street banks have come from their being too big to fail and their political power to keep regulators at bay. -- The high profits the four remaining airlines enjoyed before the pandemic came from inflated prices, overcrowded planes, overbooked flights, and weak unions. -- High profits of Big Tech have come from wanton invasions of personal privacy, the weaponizing of false information, and disproportionate power that prevents innovative startups from entering the market. If Buffett really wanted to be the conscience of American capitalism, he’d be a crusader for breaking up large concentrations of economic power and creating incentives for startups to enter the marketplace and increase competition. This mega-concentration of American industry has also made the entire economy more fragile -- and susceptible to deep downturns. Even before the coronavirus, it was harder for newer firms to gain footholds. The rate at which new businesses formed had already been halved from the pace in 1980. And the coronavirus has exacerbated this trend even more, bringing new business formations to a standstill with no rescue plan in sight. And it’s brought workers to their knees. There’s no way an economy can fully recover unless working people have enough money in their pockets to spend. Consumer spending is two-thirds of this economy. Perhaps the worst consequence of monopolization is that as wealth accumulates at the top, so too does political power. These massive corporations provide significant campaign contributions; they have platoons of lobbyists and lawyers and directly employ many voters. So items they want included in legislation are inserted; those they don’t want are scrapped.

They get tax cuts, tax loopholes, subsidies, bailouts, and regulatory exemptions. When the government is handing out money to stimulate the economy, these giant corporations are first in line. When they’ve gone so deep into debt to buy back their shares of stock that they might not be able to repay their creditors, what happens? They get bailed out. It’s the same old story. The financial returns on their political investments are sky-high. Take Amazon – the richest corporation in America. It paid nothing in federal taxes in 2018. Meanwhile, it held a national auction to extort billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies from cities eager to house its second headquarters. It also forced Seattle, its home headquarters, to back away from a tax on big corporations, like Amazon, to pay for homeless shelters for a growing population that can’t afford the city’s sky-high rents, caused in part by Amazon!

And throughout this pandemic, Amazon has raked in record profits thanks to its monopoly of online marketplaces, even as it refuses to provide its essential workers with robust paid sick leave and has fired multiple workers for speaking out against the company's safety issues. While corporations are monopolizing, power has shifted in exactly the opposite direction for workers.

In the mid-1950s, 35 percent of all private-sector workers in the United States were unionized. Today, 6.2 percent of them are. Since the 1980s, corporations have fought to bust unions and keep workers’ wages low. They’ve campaigned against union votes, warning workers that unions will make them less “competitive” and threaten their jobs. They fired workers who try to organize, a move that’s illegal under the National Labor Relations Act but happens all the time because the penalty for doing so is minor compared to the profits that come from discouraging unionization.

Corporations have replaced striking workers with non-union workers. Under shareholder capitalism, striking workers often lose their jobs forever. You can guess the kind of chilling effect that has on workers’ incentives to take a stand against poor conditions. As a result of this power shift, workers have less choice of whom to work for. This also keeps their wages low. Corporations have imposed non-compete, anti-poaching, and mandatory arbitration agreements, further narrowing workers’ alternatives.

Corporations have used their increased power to move jobs overseas if workers don’t agree to pay cuts. In 1988, General Electric threatened to close a factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana that made electrical motors and to relocate it abroad unless workers agreed to a 12 percent pay cut. The Fort Wayne workers eventually agreed to the cut. One of the factory’s union leaders remarked, “It used to be that companies had an allegiance to the worker and the country. Today, companies have an allegiance to the corporate shareholder. Period.” Meanwhile, as unions have shrunk, so too has their political power. In 2009, even with a Democratic president and Democrats in control of Congress, unions could not muster enough votes to enact a simple reform that would have made it easier for workplaces to unionize. All the while, corporations have been getting states to enact so-called “right-to-work” laws barring unions from requiring dues from workers they represent. Since worker representation costs money, these laws effectively gut the unions by not requiring workers to pay dues. In 2018, the Supreme Court, in an opinion delivered by the court’s five Republican appointees, extended “right-to-work” to public employees. This great shift in bargaining power from workers to corporate shareholders has created an increasingly angry working class vulnerable to demagogues peddling authoritarianism, racism, and xenophobia. Trump took full advantage. All of this has pushed a larger portion of national income into profits and a lower portion into wages than at any time since World War II.

That’s true even during a severe downturn. For the last decade, most profits have been going into stock buybacks and higher executive pay rather than new investment. The declining share of total U.S. income going to the bottom 90 percent over the last four decades correlates directly with the decline in unionization. Most of the increasing value of the stock market has come directly out of the pockets of American workers. Shareholders have gained because workers stopped sharing the gains. So, what can be done to restore bargaining power to workers and narrow the widening gap between corporate profits and wages? For one, make stock buybacks illegal, as they were before the SEC legalized them under Ronald Reagan. This would prevent corporate juggernauts from siphoning profits into buybacks, and instead direct profits towards economic investment. Another solution: Enact a national ban on “right-to-work” laws, thereby restoring power to unions and the workers they represent. Require greater worker representation on corporate boards, as Germany has done through its “employee co-determination” system. Break up monopolies. Break up any bank that’s “too big to fail”, and expand the Federal Trade Commission’s ability to find monopolies and review and halt anti-competitive mergers. Designate large technology platforms as “utilities” whose prices are regulated in the public interest and require that services like Amazon Marketplace and Google Search be spun off from their respective companies. Above all, antitrust laws must stop mergers that harm workers, stifle competition, or result in unfair pricing. This is all about power. The good news is that rebalancing the power of workers and corporations can create an economy and a democracy that works for all, not just a privileged few.

#monopoly #antitrust #unions #wages #jobs and wages #video #videos

216 notes · View notes

stones-x-bones · 3 years

Text

Pretty Weird Problems || Milo and Bex

TIMING: Last Night PARTIES: @wickedmilo and @inbextween SUMMARY: Bex runs into Milo on a midnight walk and the two decide to stop skirting around what they both already suspect. CONTENT: Domestic abuse mentions, internalized homophobia, Medical blood

Bex was having a good day, and good days usually led to good nights. She’d opted to go for a walk through the Commons, enjoying the fact that it was no longer so flooded. They’d even managed to get the fairy lights that lined the gazebo working and Bex cut across the field to stroll over to it. Mina was busy this evening and Bex had needed a distraction, and what better way to distract herself than taking a nice, long walk. She’d...walked really far, actually. It was strange how free she felt. She’d rode the ferry across the canal and walked all the way from the station to here, without missing a beat. Being normal felt so-- normal. No aches in her body, no fear about being seen, no worries about having to go home and wondering which set of hands was waiting for her. No, she could just go out and do what she wanted, live her life. Live the life she’d always wanted. She finally had everything she wanted.

She wondered if it would all go wrong at some point. That was something that would happen, especially here, especially to her. But, for now, she’d enjoy it. She circled back around the gazebo to the little rock archway and started down, when she heard a familiar voice. It was hazy through her drunken mind, but she recognized it. Moving quickly through the brush, she turned and came upon the boy that had helped her out not too long ago, by swiping a bottle of alcohol for her. She beamed, she couldn’t wait to tell him she was normal. And if she could get what she wanted, maybe he could, too. “Milo!” she called out, waving, “It’s Bex. What’re you doing here?”

Milo had been on the phone to Rio, talking about next to nothing as he cut across the common in a bid to make it home. There was plenty of time before the sunrise was due, but sometimes it was a nice change of pace to sit in the apartment he shared with Harsh. They would cook together, or watch tv, or even pay Summer and Quinn some attention. The older vampire had become a comfort, though he would never admit that out loud. When things were beginning to overwhelm him, he felt safe with Harsh. He felt capable. White Crest, as always, had other plans for him though. And despite having just left Orion’s home, he begrudgingly said goodbye, ending the call as he turned to face whoever had called his name. Slipping his phone back into his pocket, it didn’t take him long to notice Bex. She looked decidedly more upbeat than the last time he had seen her. He wasn’t sure whether that was due to the lack of alcohol in her system, or something else entirely. Glancing up at the sky, as though double checking it was dark, he caught her eye again with a quizzical grin. “How could I forget?” He teased, crossing the distance between them both so that she would no longer feel the need to shout. “What are you doing here?” He countered. “Isn’t it a bit late for a walk?”

“No, I don’t really think so,” Bex said, shrugging. She looked back up and to the sky, fading quickly from sunset oranges to nighttime blues. “I mean, maybe, but the Common is pretty well lit and safe at night. Usually. Back when the portals were open, it sure wasn’t, but that’s all over now! Just a strange bit of gravity fluctuations and occasional snowfall,” she pointed out, grinning. “And I guess the constellations are all whacky, but there’s not much we can do about any of those.” Even if everyone else she’d talked to had been rather distressed about it all, she was finding it hard to be. Not when everything felt good, great. She brought her eyes back down level with Milo’s and smiled. “If you’re worried about me, you don’t need to be. And I uh-- never properly said thanks for last time.” It was still a blur in her mind, stumbling drunk in the park, then being walked back to his apartment and laid in a bed. When she’d woken the next morning, she’d crawled out of the apartment, wincing under harsh sunlight and pretending like she wasn’t curious about his ‘don’t look in the fridge’ rule. Her curiosity had always seemed to be a bane, but like this, it felt more like a boon. Asking questions didn’t get her in trouble anymore. At least, not with her parents. “You never answered my question-- are you just out for a walk, too?”

It wasn’t the first time Bex had said something Milo struggled to keep up with. He only knew about the portals through the experiences of others. Whatever was happening with gravity, and the weather hopefully wouldn’t affect him. Deciding not to ask too many questions, lest he accidentally tempt fate and start floating up towards the sky, he laughed quietly. “White Crest can be really fucking weird.” He muttered, glancing up at the stars himself to see if he might notice any difference in their arrangement. “I mean… it’s probably better to just ignore it, right?” He was only half serious, but it had proven to be a rather efficient coping strategy. Especially when he was faced with the supernatural, things he still didn’t understand, or feel familiar with. Turning his attention back to Bex he was glad to see she seemed to be taking the same approach of acceptance. If something happened to them, they could deal with it. Until then, how was worrying going to help? Returning her smile, he hurried to brush off her thanks. Taking her home to sleep off the alcohol had been far easier than first anticipated. As predicted there was human food in the fridge which he had encouraged her to eat before sleeping. And she had been more than respectful of the boundaries put in place to stop her from finding anything distinctly vampiric. “We’ve all got our shit to deal with.” He shrugged, letting her know he wasn’t about to baby her because she used alcohol to deal with her baggage. Wasn’t he guilty of doing the very same?

“And I trust you.” He added. “If you say you’re okay, you’re okay.” It was the very least he could offer her. He had been told so many times that he had problems, even after adamantly denying the fact. It was important to feel heard, to know you could trust the person you were with. “I mean- you look okay. Good-” He corrected himself. “You look good.” He caught her eye, his smile growing in response as he properly took her in. There was something different, a weight that seemed suddenly absent from her shoulders. “Your question? Oh-” He laughed, pushing his glasses further up his nose. “I actually just left a friend’s house, so kind of? I’m supposed to be walking home, but if you’re up for some company I wouldn’t mind a midnight stroll.” He prompted, secretly hoping she would take him up on his suggestion. He wanted to know why she looked so content, what had compelled her to call out his name. “You can tell me about how miserable it was trying to get home with your hangover. That can’t have been fun.”

“I don’t think ignoring it is really the right answer, no,” Bex said, wringing her hands together, “but knowing what you can and can’t handle is probably a good idea around here.” Her eyes went back up to the stars, and the distress they’d originally caused her was still there, floating just above their heads, millions of billions of miles away. Stars didn’t move. But she had to remind herself that that also meant she wasn’t capable of moving them, either, and therefore nothing could be done. Especially when she didn’t have magic anymore. And she didn’t want it anymore. She smiled. “True, we do, but, like, sometimes we can help each other out with our shit, you know? At least, I’d like to be able to be someone who can help others out, like how you helped me out. It was-- nice, not having to go home for a night.” And it was nice, now, to be able to go home to a life that didn’t threaten her every moment she did something wrong. “Well, thanks, then. For trusting me.” Not many people did, in that way. She’d always been too naive, too ignorant, too “out of the loop” as far as the supernatural was concerned.

She let out a gentle chuckle, in stark contrast to the ridiculous laughter that had consumed her while she’d been drunk. “It’s fine, I know what you mean. I feel good, too. But sure! Yeah, I wouldn’t mind the company. I was just gonna kinda walk around here, maybe towards the lake. Where the night takes me.” Even if she’d been reminded several times that the lake was dangerous and now, without her magic, maybe even more so. She didn’t really care, though. “Oh, god, please don’t make me recount that tale. It was miserable. More so because it was so damn sunny out. I’ve never hated the sun more so than that morning. Or...afternoon. I don’t remember what time it was, just that once I got home I slept the rest of the day.”

Milo laughed, unable to help himself. Despite strongly suspecting Bex was more than human, or at the very least somebody who knew about the supernatural, the idea of her being able to help him with his problems didn’t quite feel believable to him. Even his closest friends couldn’t take away the pain or the trauma. And apparently there was nothing he could do about the constant thirst for blood. “No offense, but I’m not sure what you could do to help me with my shit. Ignoring it has proven to be a pretty reliable mechanism.” Maybe not always, but on the few blissful nights he had been able to drink and forget, he almost, almost felt normal. Human again. And that was as close as he seemed to get to being genuinely okay. A smile tugging at his lips despite the bitter nature of his thoughts, offering Bex a place to stay had been the obvious course of action. He hadn’t considered the fact that he might be helping her beyond ensuring she was safe. “Oh, I- it wasn’t a big deal, you know?” He brushed off her comment with a shrug. “I just- you didn’t want to go home so… I wasn’t about to make you.”

Watching her carefully, curious to understand why trusting her was something she felt the need to thank him for, his smile began to grow. He really did enjoy her company, he wanted her to know that. “You don’t need to thank me for trusting you.” He insisted. He figured he should probably thank her for trusting him too, for not going through his things, or trying to look inside of the fridge. But that would only draw attention to the strange rules he had put in place, and he wasn’t sure that would be a very smart move. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” He added, hoping she could see he was being sincere, while simultaneously diverting the conversation. It didn’t take a genius to realise she was going through a lot, and everyone deserved a break from their struggles, regardless of how they managed to achieve that temporary escape. He laughed again at her reaction to her hangover being mentioned. But this laughter came easily, it was a product of good company. Of memories that were tinged with underlying emotion, but happy on the surface. He could look back on them with a strange sense of fondness. “Yeah, me and the sun don’t exactly get along.” He admitted. “I’m sorry about the blackout curtains, I guess they can make it pretty disorientating when you leave the apartment during the day…” Shit. He realised too late that he had essentially done exactly what he had been trying to avoid. Maybe he hadn’t drawn attention to the fridge, but he had just reminded her the entire apartment existed in a perpetual state of darkness. Nice one, Milo.

Bex had never thought that she was all that good at making friends, but that was back when fear had dictated her every move. Fear of if people might judge her for how she was born, fear of if they would find out about her magic (although she hadn’t called it that back then), fear of if she might hurt them or them her. Fear of if her parents wouldn’t approve and they’d get taken away before she even got a chance to grow close. But that was before, and this was now, and maybe she liked the idea of being friends with Milo, because he was sweet and he was helpful, and she liked that she could make him smile in a way that seemed almost relaxed. “Well, if you ever do think of a way, anything, really, just lemme know. I’d like to, you know, pay it back somehow. Even if it’s just a small thing.” She was quiet for a moment, her face drawing pensive for a moment. “It was a big deal, for me, at least. Even if it wasn’t for you.” She smiled again-- whatever the situation was back then, it didn’t exist now. “But we don’t have to talk about it.”

She perked back up, smoothing her hands along the fringes of her dress. It was one of her dresses that her mother rarely approved of, except at gatherings where she could catch the eye of some rich politico that could help the family. Bex liked it because she felt nice in it and she looked good in it and she’d wanted Mina to see her in it. “Thanks. I hope things are going well for you, too. There seems to be a bit going on around town, huh?” She shrugged, trying not to less the curious questions in her stomach bubble up. Her tendency to run her mouth and ask too many questions had been a downfall for her quite a few times. “Do you like, work overnights or something?” she found herself asking before she could stop herself. She didn’t want to automatically assume anything, but not being out in the sun, having blackout curtains, and an aversion to people looking in the fridge gave Bex a few too many questions.

Milo wasn’t necessarily touched by the sentiment, many people had said similar things to him in the past. He was touched by the fact that Bex obviously meant what she was saying. There weren’t many people he felt like he could genuinely approach with his problems, but despite only knowing each other for a night, and maybe half of a day, Bex was quickly becoming one of those people. A rather impressive feat, all things considered. “I’m not making any promises.” He teased. “I have, uh- some of my problems can be pretty weird.” His smile faltering as he noticed his company’s expression shift, he fell silent again, giving her the space she needed to feel comfortable. “Oh…” He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting her to say, and the rush of emotion that followed her words was unexpected. Not for the first time he felt the unusual urge to protect her, to keep her safe. Was this the way Dani used to feel about him? Before he changed? Before she stopped loving him? He cleared his throat, feeling awkward in the face of such unguarded honesty. “You know the offer is always there… I mean- if you ever need a place to stay. You know where I am.” He might be taking a risk but he almost didn’t care. Her wellbeing was suddenly far more important to him than being sensible.

Not failing to notice the way she brushed herself off, seemingly putting the conversation behind her in preparation to move on, he nodded, taking a moment to contemplate her question. “I didn’t notice for a long time,” he scuffed his feet as he spoke, feeling ridiculous for being so oblivious now that he knew how obvious the Weird of White Crest actually was. “But yeah, there always seems to be a lot going on in this town. The chaos has become pretty hard to escape these past few months.” Would he ever be able to escape it again? He tried not to dwell on the question. “But you know… I guess it is what it is.” Lowering his gaze, the phrase never really helped him to feel any better, but every time he uttered it he found a part of him was secretly hoping it might. He only looked back up again when Bex mentioned the blackout curtains, and he cursed himself for being so stupid. Of course she was going to pick up on that. Of course she was going to be curious. “Oh, I… my roommate does.” It wasn’t technically a lie. Harsh worked nights more often than not, only sneaking out for the occasional day shift when the weather was dark, and gloomy. “I think it’s easier just to leave them up, his schedule can be pretty unpredictable so…”

“Good, you shouldn’t make promises,” Bex said, perhaps a little too excitedly for the topic. It was hard for her to not be happy right now, really. She had everything she ever wanted, and while it wasn’t much, it made her entire life different. Better. “Especially to people you don’t know-- know well.” She caught herself, giving a chuckle at the end of her sentence to try and cover up the slip. “Just cause, you know, sometimes people get weird about that stuff. Especially here. Speaking of which, I was kinda like that, too. Technically I grew up here, but I didn’t ever notice how--” she chewed her tongue a moment-- “strange the place really was until recently.” Until she started leaving her home regularly. Until she’d met Nell in that computer lab. But those details weren’t important. She didn’t even remember telling Milo about Morgan and Nell last time they’d been together, drunk in the park. “And thanks, for the offer. I won’t say it’ll never happen again, but I think I’ve got a good thing going now, so hopefully I won’t have to crash your pad again any time soon.” But in a town like this, she supposed it was a ‘never say never’ sort of situation.

“The offer is there for you, too, you know,” Bex said suddenly, noting the way the conversation shift had turned a bit tense. Maybe not tense, but sometimes people had secrets that they didn’t want to share, and Bex’s curiosity could be seen more as nosiness or digging into things she shouldn’t be digging in. She hated that idea, but people were allowed their secrets, no matter how bad she wanted to know. “Does he? That’s cool. It’s nice that you don’t mind the curtains, either, then. I’m such a morning person. And a night owl. Actually, I don’t really sleep much, but I definitely have never been able to sleep long in the mornings.” Even when she was laying next to Mina, wrapped in her arms. “Are you like, more of a night person, then? The two times I’ve run into you have been at night, which technically isn’t enough for a pattern, but it could be leading to one. No judging if you are! Of course not. It’s just that this place is kind of-- you know, dangerous at night.”

Milo had only been suspicious until now, but after hearing Bex warn him about making promises he would be willing to bet almost anything on her knowing about the supernatural. But how? She didn’t strike him as a hunter, although Dani had always presented herself as caring, and kind. If she was a slayer, wouldn’t he already be dead? So what? A witch, a mara, a werewolf? Or maybe even a human in the know? He wanted to ask, to sate his curiosity, but he forced himself to hold his tongue. “You’re not the first person to tell me that.” He said carefully, wondering whether she might out herself if he hinted at being a part of her world. Raising his eyebrows when she mentioned taking a while to notice the truth of White Crest, he ran over the implication behind her words. Had she been turned too? Was there any way for him to uncover that information without actively asking her? “I know how that goes.” He admitted, framing his words as casual. “Waking up and realising everything is just… different. It’s not an easy thing to navigate but… we’re still here.” He smiled at her, hoping she was right. He had never been the type to judge others but the idea of her being happy enough to no longer need her crutch was a genuinely nice one. One he was willing to root for.

Surprised to hear his own offer echoed back to him, he felt his demeanour soften. Every instinct in him was telling him he could trust Bex. It was so hard to remind himself that those instincts could possibly be wrong. “They don’t… they don’t bother me.” He said, debating how far he could conceivably push the conversation before he was being too open, before he was putting himself at risk. “I don’t really sleep anymore… but I used to sleep until noon when I could.” Not that he hadn’t tried more than once to do so again, the best he could achieve was a strange, trance-like lack of consciousness. He hated it. “Oh, yeah… I’m definitely a night person. I always have been… before I started partying I used to study at night.” He laughed quietly at the contrast in activities. “My life would be very different if I didn’t abandon academia.” A soft sigh escaping him, he caught his friend’s eye when she told him the town could be dangerous. He could still remember what it felt like, living in blissful ignorance. He missed it. “Believe me, I know. I kind of found out the hard way… but I appreciate the heads up.”

“Really? Well, that’s good.” Bex nodded slowly. Her suspicion was slowly being confirmed-- Milo knew something about the supernatural. She didn’t know how he fit in, but she assumed he had the same thought about her. How did they both fit in? And who would break first? It would be Bex, she knew that. Being a witch wasn’t as precarious as being something like a zombie or a werewolf. Something that people actively hated and hunted. Witch hunters, for all she was aware, were a rare and unnecessary occurrence. She wasn’t in danger of them. “You should listen to that advice, then. And also maybe even hold off on saying ‘thanks’ too much. My girlf--” the word stuck in her throat, like it always did, and she swallowed it, “--one of my friends told me to try and replace ‘thanks’ with ‘I appreciate that’ or ‘I’m grateful for’. They’re better to say, anyway.” Smiled, trying to brush off the mishap. It was strange to her that possibly telling someone she had magic was easier to swallow than telling someone she was dating a girl. “I think, for me,” she started off, brows knitting together a moment, “it was less waking up and just realizing it and more...finally admitting to myself that things here were different. Like, I’d always known, but pretended I hadn’t. But then things happen and you can’t really deny it anymore, you know? And so I admitted it,” she shrugged, “I think things technically got better after that, although sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.”

She examined his face as they walked and wondered what the strange curve of his brow meant as he answered her. She’d never been good at reading expressions on people, unless they carried anger. She tilted her head in contemplation. “You know, you can always go back,” she said, “to school. College doesn’t have an age cap.” Sometimes she’d wished she’d been able to wait to start college, but not because she was disinterested. But because her life had been messy back then, and maybe if she’d been smarter, had known more about the world, she wouldn’t have fallen into bed with the first girl who cast her an empathetic glance. She turned away, cheeks slightly tinged. “Yeah, me, too. I-- I take it you’re okay now? It-- I mean, physically? Whatever happened. Was it--” had something attacked him, too? Did he also have the sting of scars on his body from an ignorance that had left him vulnerable?

“I guess my friends are much smarter than I am.” Milo was only half joking. Even after suffering at the hands of the supernatural, he was reckless in his behaviour. Without Rio constantly pressing him to stay focused, to pay attention, he would probably be in a lot more danger, and he wasn’t afraid to admit that. “I try.” He admitted, being entirely honest. Trying meant he failed more often than not, but the warning was always there in the back of his mind. A knowing smile tugging at his lips as Bex stumbled over the word girlfriend, it was an act he had seen many times before, and one he knew not to interrupt. That didn’t stop his eyes from shining as he wondered who this ‘girlfriend’ might be. “My friend told me the same,” he thought back to his conversation with Orion. It was the first night he had ever spent in his house, and he held the memories very close to his heart. Falling silent to listen again, he dissected the explanation he was given in his mind. If she hadn’t woken up to a different White Crest then maybe she had been born into it. Surely it took Dani a long time to realise the way she was being raised wasn’t normal. Could it have been the same for Bex? “They did?” He asked quietly, hope lacing his tone as he wondered whether there was a chance for things to get better for him. Maybe one day he could fully embrace being a vampire. It could become what he was and not what someone had made him.

“Go back?” It took him a few seconds to realise what his company meant. He laughed quietly, shaking his head. “I don’t need to,” he explained. “I got my degree, you know? I did what my parents wanted me to do, even if it wasn’t in the way they wanted me to do it.” Hiding whiskey in his coffee during exams, and skipping out on morning lectures because he was hungover from the previous night definitely wasn’t a part of their plan. Neither was a degree in English Literature. But as far as he was concerned, it was an achievement, all the same. What would he study if he did decide to return? And how would he work around the schedules when the majority of classes took place during the day? Furrowing his brow, he forced the thought to the back of his mind. He had chosen his path, and it had led him here. There was no going back. “Oh- I-” He wasn’t prepared for the sudden change in direction, and his hand absentmindedly moved to rest against the scars on his neck. “That kind of depends on your definition of okay.” He murmured, thinking about Dani, how she saw him as a monster. Then Harsh, who told him he was dead, but being dead was simply an opportunity to start anew. Then Macleod, who insisted with vehement conviction that he wasn’t dead, he hadn’t died. Only changed. Evolved for better or for worse. “How did you find out?” He asked, uncharacteristically bold in his question. They had been dancing around the subject, but he wanted to know now, far more than he wanted to protect himself. Even if he wasn’t quite ready to give up his secret. “That White Crest was different?”

“They did? Oh, well, then, you should definitely listen to your smarter friends,” Bex nodded. Had she said too much? Did Milo know about the fae? Was Milo’s friend a fae? Oh, she hoped she hadn’t just exposed someone, even if she was curious. But the tone in his voice stopped her short of any other thoughts on the subject, when he gave the smallest response to her announcement that things had gotten better for her. It was hope, and it felt like it might strangle Bex. Should she tell Milo about Erin? Was that her place to? Was his pain anything like hers? Did he need saving like she had? She swallowed. “They did. Get better. But not easily. Not out of nowhere.” She lifted a hand to her ribs-- the injury was gone, but she could still remember the pain. Still remembered what it felt like when her head had hit the dumpster, over and over and over again. “I had help, too. So, if-- just, you know, so you know...it’s okay to accept help, if you need it.” Maybe that was the best answer she could give for now. She clasped her hands together behind her back as they walked and watched her feet a moment, shoes brushing against grass under the rubber soles.

“Well, you know, you could always go back and do what you wanted to, you know,” she pointed out. “Instead of what your parents wanted of you. But only if that’s something you want to do.” She didn’t much like his answer to her question, either. Things didn’t seem as at ease as she’d thought they were when she first spotted him. She bit her lip, then sighed. “I blew up a computer lab with my mind,” she blurted, suddenly. “Well, not my mind, technically. Maybe? I’m still not sure what magic actually comes from. My mentor says it’s from the soul or the energy inside of us, but if our bodies are our minds, then I guess technically it is my mind. From my mind. So, yeah-- I blew up a computer lab with my mind and after that, it was hard to deny all the things I’d known for so long but never wanted to accept.” She looked over at Milo. “What um...what about you?”

Milo laughed, nodding in agreement with Bex. “I don’t think I would be here if I didn’t.” He admitted. Maybe there was an element of exaggeration to his words, but the information provided by people like Rio, and Macleod was invaluable. There was no doubt in his mind that it might save him one day. Fingers still pressed against the base of his neck, he could feel the scars beneath them. A frown creasing his brow as he listened to Bex explain things were difficult, they hadn’t miraculously changed for her overnight, it was impossible for him to understand what she meant without a little extra context, so he nodded quietly. Letting her know she still had his full attention. “Help?” He asked, curious to know what kind of help. “Do you mean your friends?” Lowering his hand, chewing thoughtfully on his bottom lip, he wondered what things would look like for him if they did get better. It was a vague concept, it could mean so many different things. “I don’t need help-” He insisted, breaking off as he reminded himself she wasn’t talking about his habits. Repressing the instinctive response, he forced down any part of himself that was becoming defensive. Bex clearly wasn’t about to order him to walk into an AA meeting. She was talking about something else. “I mean… thank you. But I think I’m okay… kind of, anyway. I have some good people in my life… when things get weird, they’re usually there waiting for me to freak out.”

Thinking for a moment, allowing a few beats of silence to pass, he realised with a start that he didn’t know what he wanted to do. For so long he had told himself he was content with working in the comic book store, couch surfing to avoid any form of genuine commitment. Even English Literature had been the easy choice, not necessarily the choice he would have made if he was a different person. If he had more motivation, a determination to do well. “Even if I knew, I don’t know how possible it would be to just go out and do shit.” He shrugged, brushing off his honesty before it could hurt him, before he could dwell on it for too long. But then Bex was distracting him with her own honesty, honesty he had prompted, but definitely not been expecting from her. It took him a few minutes to fully process what she was saying, but when he did he faltered to a halt, eyeing her with an even mixture of disbelief, and satisfaction. “Wait- what?” So not only was she supernatural, she had totally caved first. Was it wrong to feel so smug about that? “You’re a witch?” He asked, despite her just having confirmed the fact. “I…” He trailed off as she turned the question back on him, not prepared to answer it himself. But he owed her, he couldn’t exactly walk away after she had put herself in such a vulnerable position. A soft sigh escaping him, he steeled himself to tell her his own story. Or a part of it, at least. “Someone with fangs decided I looked like a snack… I guess they overindulged because…” He offered her a hesitant smile, revealing his fangs in the way Harsh had taught him to. He tapped one absentmindedly, wrinkling his nose. “Well, I woke up with these.”

Bex was a little perplexed at his immediate denial of needing help, clearly he needed help-- anyone in this god forsaken town needed help, if she was being honest. But just as much as she’d needed to understand that she couldn’t do things alone, so did he. She wouldn’t push it, it wasn’t a lesson she had the right to teach anyone, when she was still learning it herself. She nodded slowly. “Okay, well, if you do ever need it, just know I’m here. Don’t hesitate to ask. And--” she looked at him sincerely, genuinely hoping he understood that, even if they’d only known each other from two run-ins, she would help him. It was really all she wanted to do, help people. Understand things better so she could do that better. Understand this world. “I’m glad you have people there to help you. Having a support system is always good.” She wouldn’t have survived this town without hers, that was for sure. A subconscious hand ran across her chest. Kyle’s life would have been ruined had he actually killed her that first night. She wanted to make sure something like that never happened again. And it wouldn’t, now that her magic was gone.

“Why not?” Bex asked, not understanding the restrictions Milo might face without knowing what he was. She didn’t want to push, though. She turned away, even as he stopped in his tracks, and shrugged. “I prefer the term spellcaster,” she said, picking at a seam on her dress. And the proper wording would’ve been was a spellcaster, thanks to the wish. She didn’t feel like explaining that part yet, though. His hesitation brought her gaze back up. “I-I’m sorry! You don’t have to answer, I understand--” but then he was answering. Someone with fangs. A vampire. Bex felt her chest squeeze and she swallowed, trying to remind herself that vampires were people, too, and her one run-in with the woman outside the library wasn’t representative of all vampires. She had no reason not to trust Milo. What would Mina say? She shook her head. “Oh,” she answered, finally, “I-- that must be difficult, to-- to adjust to.” A pause. “But,, you know, night school is a thing. And there’s plenty of overnight jobs here. And-- I have a friend who’s also undead. They go to the butchers here to get food and they’re really good about it. And being discreet. Do you-- I mean the blood thing-- do you have enough? Do you get enough food? You drink animal blood, right?”

Milo looked at Bex as she paused, somehow everything she wanted to say was conveyed in her brief moment of silence, and he knew. He understood. “Thank you.” He said, his voice gentle and sincere. They hadn’t known each other for long but he felt as though they had more than a few things in common. Coping mechanisms, and trauma. The kind of things you could bond over. The kind of things that made you want to protect each other. When he had helped her into the bar, when he had stolen her that bottle of vodka, he had recognised something in her. Something that reminded him so deeply of himself. Even without the alcohol it was still there. He could still see it. “Do you have one?” He asked, remembering her mention of Morgan, and Nell. People she had been so sure she would never be able to see again. “A support system?” Making a vague gesture with his hands, brushing off her question as to why he wouldn’t be able to follow his non-existent dreams, he offered her a smile instead of an answer. “Spellcaster?” He echoed, using her correction as a way to move the conversation forward. Away from the things he could no longer do. “Is that personal preference, or just a general rule?” He was reminded of Macleod, the way she hated any terminology that referred to her as dead.

His smile growing somewhat as she hurried to insist he didn’t have to tell her what he was, keeping the information to himself would feel incredibly unfair, but he appreciated her attempt at making him feel comfortable. “No, no- it’s okay…” He did his best to assure her. “You were honest with me… it’d be kind of a dick move if I wasn’t honest with you too.” His hand moving once again to rest over the scars on his neck, he heard her heart rate elevate, but she made no outward move to imply she was nervous. He didn’t enjoy the idea of scaring people, and hopefully it wouldn’t take long for her to realise he wasn’t a genuine threat. But it still hurt, jut a little. “It was.” He agreed. “It is… I mean- I was thrown into this world I didn’t even know was real. The guy who did this to me, he left… I literally didn’t know anything.” A quiet laugh escaping him at the mention of night school, he shook his head. He couldn’t even begin to imagine going back to school. What would he achieve? What would he gain from doing so? This was his life now, and there was no escaping it. “I assume you mean Morgan?” He asked, at the mention of a friend being dead. “You mentioned her when you were pretty out of it… but I know her. I’m pretty sure she hates me.” His eyes shining to let Bex know he was half teasing, he thought back to his last conversation with Morgan and wondered whether there might be some truth to his words. They didn’t exactly see eye to eye. “Oh-” He was pulled out of his thoughts by the mention of blood, caught off guard by what felt like an incredibly personal question. “For a while…” He admitted. “I got lucky. I don’t want to out anyone but I have a friend with a habit of taking a blood bag or two from the hospital... It’s enough to keep me going.” Maybe more than enough, but he didn’t want to make Harsh sound like more of a deviant than he technically was. If he got the man into trouble then their collective supply would be in danger. “Everything kind of worked out…”

“I do have one, yeah,” Bex answered with a nod. For a while there, she hadn’t. Or, well, she’d rejected it, because she thought they’d be hurt by her family if she’d kept trying. They’d all been hurt, anyway, though, so it hadn’t mattered in the end. She’d made the wrong decision. But that was the past, and she couldn’t change that past anymore than she could change the way she grew up. “It was...rough for a while, i tried to do it without them, but it was a mistake. There’s--” she took in a breath, wrapped her arms around herself, “--I learned the hard way that I can’t protect anyone by keeping them away. Even if keeping close means they might get hurt, it-- it’s better that way. It really is.” And she was still learning that, too. Even now, with a normal life, a regular life, she was learning to accept people back into her life, despite the possible threats she’d be introducing them to. She shook her head, grateful for the change of conversation. ‘Nope, just a me thing.” She glanced over at Milo. “I think it’s all kind of the same meaning, but I just-- witch carries a weird connotation for me, I guess. I’m not pagan so I just...don’t feel right being called that.”

HIs next words made Bex’s heart constrict a bit. He was right, it was really only fair of someone to be honest with another if they shared something deep and personal. Her thoughts jumped to Eddie and his confession to her and she bit the inside of her cheek. She needed to tell him. He deserved to know, even if she could barely admit it outloud still. “Oh, I-- i did? So you know about her?” she was surprised, but not too surprised. She loved Morgan, of course she’d talked about her while wasted. She rubbed her hands together. “I-- I don’t think she hates you. I think it takes a lot for Morgan to hate someone. I’d probably know if she hated you, she’s not subtle about it.” It was her turn to falter and pause, and she felt herself take a small step backwards. “You-- so you--” her eyes went to his fangs, then his eyes, his hand still pressed over his neck, presumably where his scars were. She had some of her own, even if they hadn’t turned into a reminder of death. “You drink human blood?” ethically sourced, at least. Well, more ethical than getting it from a warm body itself. Stealing blood from the hospital wasn’t exactly the most moral thing to do, but morality, she reminded herself, was skewed in the supernatural world. She rubbed her neck. “I-- I should probably um, head home, though. It’s getting late and Mina is expecting me back soon.” She didn’t want to things to suddenly feel tense, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t know how she felt about a vampire who still drank human blood, and she didn’t think figuring out here was the best idea. She liked Milo, she didn’t want to ruin that.

“That’s good.” Milo smiled, remembering how insistent Bex had been when she was drunk, determined to believe she couldn’t let people in. The fact that she seemed to have changed her mind felt important, and he was reminded of her telling him things were better now. Better how? What was suddenly so different? “I think there’s always a risk of getting hurt… or of other people getting hurt. Isn’t that just the nature of friendship?” And romance, though he could hardly say he was experienced in that particular area. “What matters is that you care, and that these people care about you too… that’s all you can ask for, really. Isn’t it?” Staying silent as his company began to explain why she preferred using the term spellcaster, he hadn’t been expecting to understand her logic, even he was determined to respect it. But he did understand. It was so similar to Macleod, and sometimes even the way he felt. Vampire had connotations too, dark ones, and ridiculous ones. Honestly, there was something appealing about the theatrics of sleeping in a coffin. He was almost sad that wasn’t a legitimate thing.

“I do, yeah. And you might have mentioned her.” He teased, catching her eye with an easy grin. “Only in passing, don’t worry. You didn’t tell me anything you shouldn’t have. You made it pretty clear you were friends, that’s all.” Laughing at Bex insisting Morgan didn’t hate him, he shook his head, remembering some of what was said during their last meeting together. If she didn’t hate him then she was about as close as a person could get before crossing that line. “Ask her about me, see what she says.” He wasn’t being entirely serious, but he had a strong suspicion the zombie wouldn’t have anything positive to say. Not that it mattered. If she wasn’t going to help him then he didn’t give a shit what she thought. Faltering at the sudden shift in the way Bex was looking at him, he saw her gaze flicker from his fangs, to his hand, and he realised he was still touching his neck. Lowering his arm, he retracted his fangs with a surprising level of ease, his own expression shifting too. “I do,” he said quietly, watching her with open concern, trying to ignore the way his heart was sinking. Maybe he was wrong, maybe she didn’t trust him in the way he thought she did. “I- what?” He cursed himself for being so emotional, but he couldn’t stop tears from stinging at his eyes. “I’m not- I wouldn’t hurt anyone... I swear…” He swallowed, unsure what he could say to make her believe him. If she was uncomfortable, he wasn’t about to force her to stay. But did she really want to leave because of what he was?

“Yeah,” Bex admitted quietly, “I guess it is.” Even if she still hated the thought of people getting hurt because of her, for her. But they returned the sentiment, and wasn’t rejecting their help hurting her? It was still confusing, but the one thing Bex did know was that being at Morgan’s, even if it put her and everyone in that house in possible danger, felt better than being alone, trapped in her room where people got hurt because of her anyway. She rubbed her palm against her cheek before folding her arms across her chest again, nodding. “Yeah, it is. And it’s-- a lot. But I know now I can ask for that. And-- I think everyone deserves that.” Even people others deemed bad or evil. No one deserved to suffer alone. She wasn’t even sure she believed her mother deserved that.

“Oh, good. Good. I...can run my mouth sometimes. I’ve been told it’s very unbecoming of me, but I don’t really care anymore,” she said, the last words bitter on her tongue. She swallowed it. Her heart clenched again, at the way Milo was looking at her. She was caught between her own trauma and her want to change, to accept people, to accept this world, and it felt sticky. She hated it there. But she’d forgiven Kyle, and he’d been the one to directly attack her. Fuck, she probably even forgave the wolf that attacked the Moose Caboose, even if everyone around her seemed to think that was wrong to do. “No, no! It-- I don’t mean it like that. I swear it’s not because--” she stopped herself, trying not to let the shame crawling up her throat tinge her words, “I just-- something happened to me. With a vampire. And I don’t want that to, to affect how I feel about you. I really don’t. But it’s-- you know, hard? I don’t think you’re going to hurt me, Milo. And-- and if you did, I know it would be an accident. I promise it’s not because of you. I promise.” She’d promise to a fae, too, but there were none around, and she knew Mina would chastise her for it. She offered a hand out to him, instead, in a show of faith. “I really do need to be home, though.” She held up her phone, “they get worried if I’m late.” Because of the one time she’d been kidnapped by Frank, but that wasn’t important to mention. He was dead, now, and her life was normal. Things like that just didn’t happen anymore.

Milo had a feeling Bex was talking more to herself than to him, so he allowed her to speak, listening patiently until she fell silent once again. It wasn’t something he considered very often, so wrapped up in the chaotic nature of his life. Friends used to come and go, aside from Dani who had stood by him for so many years. Only now was he beginning to realise how badly he had taken her for granted. Though he had new friends now, friends who weren’t about to abandon him because of something he couldn’t help, a part of himself he couldn’t ever hope to change. She was right. Everybody deserved to be cared for, to be surrounded by friendship, and unwavering support. Offering her a smile when she told him she had a habit of saying too much, he could definitely relate to that. His love of bitter quips, and sulking petulantly about his new state of being had resulted in him essentially outing himself on more than one occasion. “I can relate to that.” He admitted. “But don’t worry, you didn’t say anything you should be concerned about. And you’re right not to care. Screw unbecoming, just be who you are… there’s no point in trying to be anybody else. It’ll only make you miserable.”

His expression faltering when Bex hurried to insist her sudden desperation to leave had nothing to do with him telling her he was a vampire, he wanted to believe her, but he couldn’t. “No offense, but I don’t know how else you could mean it…” He muttered, letting out a quiet huff of breath. He averted his gaze, avoiding eye contact so that he could stare down at his feet. He should let her go, he knew he should. What use was there in trying to cling to a friendship as new as this one when she was so clearly uncomfortable now that she knew what he really was? Swallowing his emotion, he frowned, hesitantly catching her eye again. “No shit... something happened to me with a vampire too.” He pointed out. “I didn’t ask for this. You think I don’t know how hard it is to get over? Try waking up as the thing that attacked you…” Feeling his shoulders drop when she assured him she felt safe, part of him still felt worried she wasn’t being entirely truthful. But the sentiment mattered, the fact that she was even trying to assure him mattered. Allowing his anger to dissolve, he knew it was too late to take back his words. So he moved on. Caught off guard by the unexpected promise, a weak smile began to tug at his lips. “You know… you really shouldn’t make promises.” He teased, unable to help himself. He couldn’t think of a better way to alleviate the tension. Ignoring the phone as it was held out to him, he gently reached out to take her hand, linking their fingers for a brief moment, hoping to convey everything he didn’t know how to put into words. He was trying. He was good. He was a victim too. “You should, uh… you should get home.” He said finally, ignoring what was left of the awkward tension. “It’s okay…”

Bex gave a sigh of relief. At least she hadn’t outed Morgan or Nell. She never would’ve forgiven herself, even if it was to someone who wouldn’t use it against them. She’d never had problems drinking before, but those nights had been spent locked up in the library or her room while she cradled the bottle as if it were her only lifeline. She gave a short, self-deprecating chuckle before her lips curled into a thin smile. “Trust me, I know that.” She’d been miserable her entire life because she’d done just that. But things were different now, she reminded herself. Things were better.

Her heart sank, knowing that she’d already done more damage than she’d ever meant to. But Morgan had told her to not just ignore her trauma, that wasn’t good for her. And as much as she didn’t blame the vampire on campus, she still thought about the attack and what Dani had said. She wasn’t going to stop. And if she hadn’t, Bex would be standing with the same pain as Milo, or not here at all. She let him be upset, he was allowed to be upset. She hadn’t asked for any of this, either. She understood that feeling. “You’re right,” she said, “I don’t know how that feels.” But she did know how waking up after being attacked by a friend felt. She did know the fear of thinking she might wake like that, or not wake at all. She rubbed her chest. Smiled enough to try and brush off the feeling. “You can if they’re really important,” she answered. Squeezed his hand back, before pulling away. “I’ll talk to you later, okay? Maybe next time we can just hang out somewhere nice. I know a few good places.” Her phone buzzed again and she glanced down at it. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t,” she said to him, a small tease, before she waved and headed off back towards home. She wondered what Morgan might think. She wondered what Mina might think. She wondered if, at the end of the day, it mattered. She liked Milo, and she wanted to be his friend. She owed it to him to try, at least.

#chatzy #chatzy: milo #wickedswriting #pretty weird problems #milo #domestic abuse tw #internalized homophobia tw #medical blood tw

5 notes · View notes

land-of-classpects-and-analysis · 4 years

Text

Mage of Hope

Everyone has their own struggles and battles, big and small. It’s a fact of life that there will be times of hardship and suffering, but it’s simply how we handle these moments that can help to define who we are as people. There are those who constantly fight without ever showing signs of giving up, others who try to find an answer or dig down to the root cause as to why this is happening, those who take their pain and make it into something beautiful, and so on. Then there are the people who simply feel as though there is no point in any of that, and instead are more willing to allow themself to wallow in their misery. Some people who know of them may claim that it is a rather sad sight to see, but may be just as quick to mention how, if they just tried a little harder, life wouldn’t be so bad. It’s hard, though, to look for a silver lining in the stormy clouds when the sky behind that dark gray blanket seems to only be darker. It’s hard to look for that one star in the sky when it has the dullest glow. Even if it could be seen, everyone knows that not only is it billions of light years away, but it’s been dead more than millions of years. Such a feeling of dread and helplessness is one the Mage of Hope is extremely familiar with, and it is, unfortunately, the main driving factor for them to reach the beginning of their journey.

The case for the Mage of Hope is not that they are lacking in their Aspect entirely, much like all the other Mages, but rather that they don’t know how to look for it. If one were to ask the Mage of Hope to grasp the thought of their Aspect and what it means, or try to explain it, chances are that they would say that they can’t do that. Granted, they may also say that Hope is dead and it means nothing to them, or that it only ever brings them great pain and suffering - so they don’t try to think about it. The biggest struggle for the Mage of Hope is that they don’t know what their own Hope looks like, if only because they have never been able to find and experience it. This is to say that the Mage of Hope may find traces of other people’s Hope and mistake it, quite easily, for their own Hope. A book, show, or movie having a happy ending and a promising moral may give them Hope to live a happy ending such as the characters within it, but once the memory of that ending leaves their mind, that Hope follows with it. A friend may have hopped over to a grand milestone in life, such as moving out, getting married, graduating, or getting their dream career. The Mage of Hope may get some momentary Hope from this and believe that their life will get better, but if that does not happen sooner than they like, then they once again may find themself feeling lost and hopeless.

In a way, there is a fine line the Mage of Hope walks between struggling with their own personal demons and being downright petty, envious, and/or jealous of those around them. After all, why is it fair that their friend gets to be happily married while the Mage of Hope continues to struggle with their love life? Why do all of these seemingly perfect characters get to have happy endings, go on grand adventures, and make incredible memories, while the Mage of Hope has to work countless hours, deal with horrible people and a stressful environment, and constantly be beaten over the head with the idea that they will never be enough? Why, pray tell, will they never be enough? Such thoughts often cross the Mage of Hope’s mind, and it is these thoughts that are necessary in order for the Mage of Hope to become fueled enough that they will finally seek out the answers they so wish to find. However, it is the wording of these words that bring the Mage of Hope to teeter a line so thin and delicate, yet strong and sturdy. Perhaps that is another question they have buried deep within their heart; is the world against them, or are they against the world?

One of the biggest dangers the Mage of Hope faces, though, is someone coming along and taking advantage of their lack of Hope. While the Mage of Hope may insist on handling these battles on their own, there may come a time where they have allowed themself to fall into desperation. When one finds themself in such a state - when it feels like the world and reality itself is falling out of your grasp - it is best to try and grab onto anything that can act as an anchor, yes? Technically speaking, it would indeed be wise to do so. However, it would also be even more wise to be wary of what is considered to be a good, healthy, and truthful means of protection from the storm. It is highly likely that the Mage of Hope is someone who will encounter at least one horrific person - a devil dressed like that of an angel - who will see the Mage of Hope as only another person to use and twist and mold into exactly someone they can control. They will promise the Mage of Hope a far more concrete and sturdy understanding of their Aspect, but as the Mage of Hope will eventually discover, only they can teach themself what their own Hope looks like rather than blindly following someone else’s. It will take a long, long time for the Mage of Hope to come to this discovery, though, as Hope-bound are often known to be rather late-bloomers amongst all the other Aspects.

There is no doubt how tragic this period of time will be for the Mage of Hope, but little does anyone know that this experience, or perhaps even experiences, will help to finally set off the explosion that the Mage of Hope needs to finally be set loose on their journey. Much like how there are many ways for the Mage of Hope to go about handling their Aspect, there are just as many ways for them to begin their journey. Let’s begin with the Mages of Hope who choose to go about seeking out knowledge through Hope. These Mages are ones who have a rather interesting journey ahead of them, as their entire approach to their Classpect is quite peculiar. After all, they are known to be ones who don’t know what Hope is truly like - at least in regards to their personal Hope. It can be well assured that in the beginning of their journey, they still do greatly lack such awareness. Therefore, it begs the ultimate question of: what Hope are they using to seek out this knowledge? It is an intriguing question with an even more intriguing answer. The Hope that they are using is that of the Hope of everyone else around them. What the knowledge they are seeking out exactly may vary from Mage of Hope to Mage of Hope, but an overall knowledge they may be seeking out is answers to the questions they feel burning inside of them. The Mage of Hope is not completely blind to their Aspect, but rather their Aspect inside of them. For all anyone knows, the Mage of Hope may not even believe them to have any hint of their Aspect inside of them. Everyone has a little bit of Hope inside of themself, though, even if it isn’t their defining Aspect. If everyone has even a trickle of Hope within their blood, though, then why does the Mage of Hope struggle so much to understand and know their own Hope? This is one of the most defining traits of the Mages who go about seeking this knowledge through Hope, all the while unaware that, having such conviction to know and understand has small inklings of Hope within it.

As the Mage of Hope goes around to those they know and inquires about their own visions of Hope, though, little do they know that they are slowly building up their own vision. It may start out with something small, like a flinch or pinching sensation at the way someone phrases their own convictions and beliefs - a knee-jerk or instinctual reaction to want to make a counter-argument to what they said. This is not on the same level as a Mage of Hope who actively seeks out Hope, as that is a far more personal journey, wherein these Mages use the people around them in order to gain such knowledge. Indeed, the more they question people and gain these answers, the more often they may feel that knee-jerk reaction to what some people say. Another means of gaining such knowledge could be from books that relate to Hope, whether it be a book of motivational writings, religious texts that promise a pure and just outlook on life and morals, or a law book that lists down to them all of the rules and norms put forth by society. These are all examples of Hope, and although there will be times that the Mage of Hope wishes to gnash their teeth in anger, stomp their feet, or even cause some vandalism, that is simply a means for their journey to continue. Where their suffering truly comes in, though, is having to learn to deal with the knowledge that they learn and how to live with the Hope they have found within themself. Changing from a life of dread and hopelessness, to now having become so aware of all the harshness in the world, some of which they do not approve of, can be quite a difficult change indeed.

However, it is with this new-found Hope that they may gather even more knowledge, as they have a stronger sense of their morals, convictions, and how they view the world. They gained their initial knowledge through everyone else’s Hope, but now that they have their own Hope patched together, they can truly begin to find what they deem to be the best and most truthful answers. For the Mages who have come this far in their journey, they now most cross over another thing line. They may use their Hope as a civil and polite means of gaining this knowledge, using it as possibly a plea for someone to give them the truth. On the other side, they can use it as a way to twist someone’s arm, manipulate them into getting what they want, or even going as far as to try and black mail someone. After all, Hope-bound are known to do right for right’s sake, and if the Mage of Hope finds that they have to play dirty in order to fulfill their version of doing what is right, then so be it. They are someone who could make an excellent interrogator, capable of playing both good cop and bad cop all on their own. If someone they love has been hurt, as well, and they must find that assailant, then the Mage of Hope will stop at nothing until they find who has brought upon such pain and travesty to someone they deem to be an innocent life.

The rest of that is for later on in the analysis, though, so let’s check in on the other group of Mages, yes? They are the ones, as mentioned before, who go through a far more personal journey in regards to their Aspect. The previous group of Mages found their own Hope through everyone else’s and all recordings of past generations of Hope, but these are the ones who must look towards the bigger world if they wish to come to an understanding of their own Hope. They actively seek out knowledge of Hope, and the reasons for this could range from a great number of things. Perhaps they were horribly hurt by someone who promised them Hope, they encountered and rekindled a relationship with someone - someone who gives them happiness, confidence, and eventually Hope - they lost touch with, or they simply got tired and frustrated for always getting stepped on by life and misery, so they took the initiative to finally find out why they have been struggling so long. They have heard of this silver lining in the clouds, or the diamond in the rough, yet whenever they try to seek out these things, it often leads to them becoming hurt and disappointed. The biggest point of suffering for these Mages is having to realize Hope is not a solid thing - it fluctuates and changes its form from person to person, culture to culture, and more. This is a rather easy way for the Mage to become not only frustrated, but sometimes even downright aggravated. All they want to do is find their own Hope rather than rely on these small, fleeting feelings of it. They don’t want constant emotional one-night-stands with their Aspect, but rather a far more committed and real relationship with it. The Mage of Hope hates feeling hopeless, but they also hate having to chase after the knowledge of something so fluid and metaphysical.

What the Mage of Hope needs to realize, though, is that they can look towards places full of instances of Hope and never truly know what their own Hope looks like. There are so many forms, shapes, colors, and faces that Hope takes on, that the Mage may drive themself mad trying to wrap their head on all the physical forms of Hope. No, the only way these Mages can seek out knowledge of Hope is by looking within themself and reflecting on who they truly are as a person. There are most definitely Mages of Hope who do follow other people’s versions of Hope, which has left their vision clouded or even blind to what their own Hope looks like. Sure, they have an understanding of someone else’s Hope, but what about them? What do they truly believe? What do they really want in the world? Are they really mad at their friends for seemingly being so flawless and successful, or are they just upset with themself for not meeting society’s expectations? It is these thoughts that highlight the Mages of Hope who actively seek out knowledge of their Aspect, if only because they are tired of following in someone else’s footsteps, playing to their expectations and rules, and now wish to know what it is like to have autonomy over their convictions and how to deliver them.

A rather cheesy way to describe their journey is that of a spiritual one, wherein they must traverse the landscape of their own mind and heart to discover what they truly want. This is the biggest point of trouble for many of these Mages of Hope, as there will always be the lingering fear that they are betraying those who promised to give them Hope - who sheltered and loved them when no one else will. Very few people wish to become an outcast of a group, one who is cast away from a place they once knew as home and shunned by the people they saw as family. No one wants to be truly alone. However, such a sacrifice is necessary for the Mage of Hope to fully achieve the completion of their journey, even if it brings great mental and emotional turmoil for the Mage of Hope. Even after that hurdle has been leapt over, there will always be that constant voice whispering in the back of their head, promising them that if they turn back now, maybe there will still be a place for them at the table of false Hope and promises. Those with a weak will and heart will most definitely succumb to this voice, no matter how far into their journey they are. While some may be welcomed back with open arms, ready to pull them back into their old, false beliefs and harmful practices, there are those who will forever be turned away and shunned, leaving them to be a lost wanderer or a hopeless vagabond. As for the ones who do manage to power through it - through all the sleepless nights filled with nightmares, endless tears, and whispered prayers for forgiveness - they are the ones who come to find their own sense of Hope. What that looks like exactly, as the Hope Aspect is known to do, fluctuates from Mage to Mage. No matter what, though, they are now fully aware of the Hope inside of them, and have started to learn to embrace it. Whether it is for the better or for worse, though, is yet to be determined.

The Mage of Hope is one who begins their journey feeling lost in life and having no real idea nor motive to try and turn their life around for the better. Wallowing in their misery, they lend themself to be easy pickings for any vultures who wish to swoop in and try to win over the Mage, preying on their lack of stability and sense of misfortune. While this may seem like a blessing to the possibly desperate Mage, it is, unfortunately, anything but. It is through this misguidance of their Hope, though, that lends them to become tired of feeling so lost and not truly knowing what their own Hope is. Even if they have a comfortable living situation, and are surrounded by people who claim to love and care for them, deep down the Mage knew it was only a conditional love that forced them to play by and follow rules that perhaps left them feeling a tad bit uncomfortable. Whether it be the path of seeking out knowledge of their Aspect or knowledge through it, the ultimate goal and endgame for the Mage of Hope is to not only discover their own Hope, but embrace it as who they are as a person - even if it goes against all the other Hope they were taught to follow and believe. It may greatly hurt the Mage of Hope to turn away from the comfort they knew, but deep down they know that if they ever truly wanted to move on in life and begin to recover, they would have to leave the nest eventually.

In terms of their powers and how they interact with a group of people, the Mage of Hope takes on the role of being a fascinating and somewhat highly inspiring, while also posing the threat of being a stubborn and overwhelming, person to be around. For the Mages who actively sought knowledge through Hope, they are the ones who are often far more protective of their flock. If they find out that someone within their flock has been harmed, they will do everything they can to bring that person to justice - specifically the Mage’s own version of justice. Depending on just what that justice looks like, it would be heavily advised to not harm those the Mage of Hope holds close. In a way, these Mages of Hope also pose the promise that, in some fashion or another, they could be like that of prophets or messiahs - capable of getting knowledge through their own faith and convictions. However, whether this knowledge truly does come from a being of higher power than the Mage of Hope, especially if they achieve Godhood, or if it is their own imaginative voice speaking to them is something that most likely will never be answered for certain. With the Mages who sought out knowledge of their own Hope, they play a far more supportive role to their friends and allies. They are the one you would go to if you needed to confess to something, vent about an issue, or look for guidance in a rather troubling time. These Mages of Hope are true miracle-workers in that, no matter what, they will always be capable of guiding anyone out from the darkest of moments. Being knowledgeable of Hope itself, they would be able to see all positive outcomes to a situation, or at least the ones where justice prevails. However, this doesn’t exactly mean for certain that such a thing will happen within the Alpha Timeline, as the Mage of Hope will most likely only see in-the-moment images and glimpses into these possible futures. As long as they are capable of bringing peace to a loved one, though, then they are perfectly fine giving them a promise that may never come true.

While the Mage of Hope has the most promise to be a force of warmth and comfort, they pose themself just as much to be a threat and force to be reckoned with. They are simultaneously the most non-judgemental person, while also holding a great skill in putting others under a sense of heat and pressure, as though expecting a diamond of truth to be made from their foes. Even if they pose themself to be someone free of all sin and imperfections, anyone who truly knows the Mage of Hope will know just how dirty and devilish they can truly be. If the Mage of Hope is one with a good heart and a kind soul, then they will do whatever they can to help anyone they deem worthy of their help while bringing those they deem sinful to beg for forgiveness from a person who has no more pity for them. However, if they so wish to be someone riddled with envy and hatred, then they could easily picture a world, a timeline, where they are at the top of the food chain with no one around to question their authority. If that is a future they believe to be better than the one they know now, even if they are not that of a Bard or Prince, all Hope-bound are allowed to have a little destruction not only as a treat, but a reward if they deem their vision to be better than the reality they live in. The Mage of Hope is a person of mystery, and chances are they know this - even if they have a rather large following of friends, allies, and strangers. Despite being slow and cautious to open up to most people, if you prove yourself to be someone in need of a place to rest and recuperate, and perhaps even in need of a flock to be a part of, the Mage of Hope may just deem you worthy enough to rest beneath their wing. They are someone who knows what it is like to be lost and alone, to be left without a flock, and it is a loneliness they do not wish unto anyone. Being a monolith of hope, love, kindness, and warmth - that is what the Mage of Hope strives for.

#Mage #Mage of Hope #Homestuck #Hiveswap #Mage of Hope Analysis #Hope Aspect #Oculus October #Hope

33 notes · View notes

srbachchan · 4 years

Text

DAY 4459

Jalsa, Mumbai May 22/23, 2020 Fri/Sat 4:19 AM

Birthday - EF Amit Ladva .. Saturday, May 23 .. greetings and wishes on your birthday and happiness ever ..

This be the morning .. not the night before .. the night before went in earlier .. it gave indication that this missive could and would be done the day next morning, and the detail as always to be given in the manner as seen in most details when the next day has appeared but the post content is of the previous ..

Makes sense .. perhaps not ..

Many ask and wonder why the details of the time and date in the manner that it is .. simple .. the date if within the hour of the ending remains the date .. the date when the hour of the post has gone beyond midnight, then the next day has appeared but the post is of the previous, so the dual date and day .. the time reflects the actual time .. and since it is beyond the midnight hour, the date reflects that .. it does not reflect two dates .. it is but one .. but the inflect is to give the right date and day .. the content is for the day before ..

Today, as an example : the time has gone beyond the midnight hour .. it is now 4:29 AM as I write, of the date May 23 .. but the Blog for the DAY 4459 is for the date of May 22 .. so in order to give the right inflect .. it is posted as being written at the time of the hour 4:29 AM, of May 23, but is for the date May 22, and the DAY 4459 ..

If tonight, that is May 23, at the time of writing the post is before midnight .. before it changes to May 24 .. then the DAY will and shall be 4460 .. as must it should .. but right now, the writing is being done for DAY 4459, on the morning of May 23, because the time of writing has crossed the midnight hour ..

It has an element of correctness .. all this .. and by now it is assumed that the Ef too have understood ..

The reference to the greetings for the Birthdays are done on the DAY of the writing for the Birthday of the next DAY, because that is when the birthday arrives .. it arrives after midnight .. it is right is it not .. to let the Blog know that the Birthday is arriving the next DAY, in order that the wishes and greetings can come as soon as the midnight is crossed .. otherwise if I had to wait to wish the birthday on the date of the Birthday, because of the timing , an entire day would have passed and the wishes would be delayed - that is if the next DAY blog were to come before midnight .. what if it was written after midnight .. the birthday day, would have passed and long gone .. hence Ef Amit Ladva who’s birthday is May 23, is mentioned in the date of May 22, so there is an entire day to greet and wish Mr Ladva .. the day of May 23 ..

It may sound cumbersome .. but for me that is the practicality of the situation ..

Expressing the mind in words is of the most practical or impractical deliberations that mankind ever invented , practised and gained or suffered from ..

The most accomplished and educated , well versed in the language of the expression , could be in possession of the most eloquent capacity and quality of their writing ability .. yet .. how it is interpreted , how it is effective , in which situation it has been written for , by whom and where , is the biggest dilemma of the Universe ..

Before the methodology of conveying one to another in writing was introduced, it was the voice that said it all .. language and writing introduced expression in these strange images that we see .. as you read ..

Why was the ‘e’ of the, or the ‘e’ that we see in see, the ‘e’ it should be in the shape and pronounce .. letters were invented, sounds were attributed to them and ‘boom’ .. language was invented .. the sound given was accepted universally .. then each region area collective human in every collective mass gave themselves their own word language and sound .. what a massive exercise this must have been .. and what enormous effort gone in to stabilise this as the conveyance accepted and formalised ..

Different and diverse languages and sounds erupted the world over .. each gaining relevance, as time went by and its meanings were given a development over time ..

We read today or learn today of the variety of the various languages that exist .. admire their creation and importance from the region it comes .. when spoken it is understood .. or not understood if it comes from a different region ..

BUT ..

For me what is wished to be said is that .. a sentence written has a million connotations in the way it is written perceived .. and a million connotations in the way it is spoken or given sound to perceive ..

The written when read, is of a meaning to the reader in the individual mind of the reader .. how he shall pronounce , how he shall give sound to it and how that read and sound shall be in his or her interpretation .. because the sound that the reader gives is his or hers , in his or hers interpretation .. it may never be in the sound and therefore meaning, of the sound with which it was written ..

I could write ..” how are you ?” , with the greatest of affection .. because that was what the sound in my mind was when I was writing it ..

.. but consider this .. put the inflect or the pronounce or the effort in different tone and the meanings for the reader could change ..

So , the ‘how are you’ said with the writers affection , can be interpreted as ..

‘how are you ?’ , spoken in sound of a sarcastic inflection, or given the sound inflection of ‘doubt’ or an inflection of ‘what do you mean how are you’ and the world has changed .. it has driven the moment into a battle of understanding .. or rather a misunderstanding ..

The dramatic inflection of the written in sound creates the moment for the reader or listener .. and the ever danger or worry is that the emanator could never be right .. just as the reader or the interpreter of that could be entirely wrong ..

And here begineth the reason lesson for misinterpretation, for misunderstanding, for right and wrong ..

The biggest exercise of mankind is the correctness of the ‘other’ to be able to read the sound of the emanator , when it comes in writing .. or to be able to hear the sound of the writing from the emanator ..

SO ..

.. when the receiver gets the write or the sound of the write .. he or she then sends that cerebrum initiated meaning for its interpretation ..

.. if the cerebrum be in its normalcy of mood , the interpret shall be normal .. if not then the mood of the cerebrum shall decide the mood or the tone of the interpret .. a hassled or irritated cerebrum shall interpret the most kindest of write in the most unkindest manner .. the preordained preset dramatised cerebrum , will ever interpret each incident in drama to the excess .. when in fact the communication was quite the opposite ..

Any , any individual that has inflicted himself or herself with the condition that the entire universe is ostracising them, rejecting repudiating them , excluding them .. even before they actually are .. shall ever take each communication or situation as an attempt against them .. when the fact is the exact opposite ..

.. and ne’er shall be any rectification , change or understanding ..

SO ..

.. in a condition, where you are bound, connected physically morally legally, or in any other order .. the existence shall ever be abnormal ..

Nature builds that into you .. through your birth your genes your DNA .. call it what you may .. live with it .. tolerate it .. or get rid of it .. those could be the only solutions, if solution is being sought .. otherwise , you slam the door towards the cerebrum mood element .. unaffected by any circumstance ..

.. AND RIDE .. ride well into life and living ..

FOR ... the human is an exceptional being .. and of the 7+ billion beings that reportedly exist in this Universe , we have 7+ billion EXCEPTIONAL humans !

Right wrong difficult likeable irresistible unapproachable disgustable hateable .. or every other able .. we are all in the same ruddy boat .. rudderless ..

SINGULAR .. ISOLATED .. segregated .. remote .. ALONE ..

.. so help me God .. !!

Amitabh Bachchan

92 notes · View notes

arcticdementor · 3 years

Link

In the past I had often fervently wished that one day everyone would be passionate and excited about scientific research. I should have been more careful about what I had wished for. The crisis caused by the lethal COVID-19 pandemic and by the responses to the crisis have made billions of people worldwide acutely interested and overexcited about science. Decisions pronounced in the name of science have become arbitrators of life, death, and fundamental freedoms. Everything that mattered was affected by science, by scientists interpreting science, and by those who impose measures based on their interpretations of science in the context of political warfare.

One problem with this new mass engagement with science is that most people, including most people in the West, had never been seriously exposed to the fundamental norms of the scientific method. The Mertonian norms of communalism, universalism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism have unfortunately never been mainstream in education, media, or even in science museums and TV documentaries on scientific topics.

Before the pandemic, the sharing of data, protocols, and discoveries for free was limited, compromising the communalism on which the scientific method is based. It was already widely tolerated that science was not universal, but the realm of an ever-more hierarchical elite, a minority of experts. Gargantuan financial and other interests and conflicts thrived in the neighborhood of science—and the norm of disinterestedness was left forlorn.

As for organized skepticism, it did not sell very well within academic sanctuaries. Even the best peer-reviewed journals often presented results with bias and spin. Broader public and media dissemination of scientific discoveries was largely focused on what could be exaggerated about the research, rather than the rigor of its methods and the inherent uncertainty of the results.

Nevertheless, despite the cynical realization that the methodological norms of science had been neglected (or perhaps because of this realization), voices struggling for more communalism, universalism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism had been multiplying among scientific circles prior to the pandemic. Reformers were often seen as holding some sort of a moral higher ground, despite being outnumbered in occupancy of powerful positions. Reproducibility crises in many scientific fields, ranging from biomedicine to psychology, caused soul-searching and efforts to enhance transparency, including the sharing of raw data, protocols, and code. Inequalities within the academy were increasingly recognized with calls to remedy them. Many were receptive to pleas for reform.

Opinion-based experts (while still dominant in influential committees, professional societies, major conferences, funding bodies, and other power nodes of the system) were often challenged by evidence-based criticism. There were efforts to make conflicts of interest more transparent and to minimize their impact, even if most science leaders remained conflicted, especially in medicine. A thriving community of scientists focused on rigorous methods, understanding biases, and minimizing their impact. The field of metaresearch, i.e., research on research, had become widely respected. One might therefore have hoped that the pandemic crisis could have fostered change. Indeed, change did happen—but perhaps mostly for the worst.

…

Personally, I don’t want to consider the lab leak theory—a major blow to scientific investigation—as the dominant explanation yet. However, if full public data-sharing cannot happen even for a question relevant to the deaths of millions and the suffering of billions, what hope is there for scientific transparency and a sharing culture? Whatever the origins of the virus, the refusal to abide by formerly accepted norms has done its own enormous damage.

…

Many amazing scientists have worked on COVID-19. I admire their work. Their contributions have taught us so much. My gratitude extends to the many extremely talented and well-trained young investigators who rejuvenate our aging scientific workforce. However, alongside thousands of solid scientists came freshly minted experts with questionable, irrelevant, or nonexistent credentials and questionable, irrelevant, or nonexistent data.

Social and mainstream media have helped to manufacture this new breed of experts. Anyone who was not an epidemiologist or health policy specialist could suddenly be cited as an epidemiologist or health policy specialist by reporters who often knew little about those fields but knew immediately which opinions were true. Conversely, some of the best epidemiologists and health policy specialists in America were smeared as clueless and dangerous by people who believed themselves fit to summarily arbitrate differences of scientific opinion without understanding the methodology or data at issue.

Disinterestedness suffered gravely. In the past, conflicted entities mostly tried to hide their agendas. During the pandemic, these same conflicted entities were raised to the status of heroes. For example, Big Pharma companies clearly produced useful drugs, vaccines, and other interventions that saved lives, though it was also known that profit was and is their main motive. Big Tobacco was known to kill many millions of people every year and to continuously mislead when promoting its old and new, equally harmful, products. Yet during the pandemic, requesting better evidence on effectiveness and adverse events was often considered anathema. This dismissive, authoritarian approach “in defense of science” may sadly have enhanced vaccine hesitancy and the anti-vax movement, wasting a unique opportunity that was created by the fantastic rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines. Even the tobacco industry upgraded its reputation: Philip Morris donated ventilators to propel a profile of corporate responsibility and saving lives, a tiny fraction of which were put at risk of death from COVID-19 because of background diseases caused by tobacco products.

Other potentially conflicted entities became the new societal regulators, rather than the ones being regulated. Big Tech companies, which gained trillions of dollars in cumulative market value from the virtual transformation of human life during lockdown, developed powerful censorship machineries that skewed the information available to users on their platforms. Consultants who made millions of dollars from corporate and government consultation were given prestigious positions, power, and public praise, while unconflicted scientists who worked pro bono but dared to question dominant narratives were smeared as being conflicted. Organized skepticism was seen as a threat to public health. There was a clash between two schools of thought, authoritarian public health versus science—and science lost.

…

Honest, continuous questioning and exploration of alternative paths are indispensable for good science. In the authoritarian (as opposed to participatory) version of public health, these activities were seen as treason and desertion. The dominant narrative became that “we are at war.” When at war, everyone has to follow orders. If a platoon is ordered to go right and some soldiers explore maneuvering to the left, they are shot as deserters. Scientific skepticism had to be shot, no questions asked. The orders were clear.

…

Heated but healthy scientific debates are welcome. Serious critics are our greatest benefactors. John Tukey once said that the collective noun for a group of statisticians is a quarrel. This applies to other scientists, too. But “we are at war” led to a step beyond: This is a dirty war, one without dignity. Opponents were threatened, abused, and bullied by cancel culture campaigns in social media, hit stories in mainstream media, and bestsellers written by zealots. Statements were distorted, turned into straw men, and ridiculed. Wikipedia pages were vandalized. Reputations were systematically devastated and destroyed. Many brilliant scientists were abused and received threats during the pandemic, intended to make them and their families miserable.

Anonymous and pseudonymous abuse has a chilling effect; it is worse when the people doing the abusing are eponymous and respectable. The only viable responses to bigotry and hypocrisy are kindness, civility, empathy, and dignity. However, barring in-person communication, virtual living and social media in social isolation are poor conveyors of these virtues.

Politics had a deleterious influence on pandemic science. Anything any apolitical scientist said or wrote could be weaponized for political agendas. Tying public health interventions like masks and vaccines to a faction, political or otherwise, satisfies those devoted to that faction, but infuriates the opposing faction. This process undermines the wider adoption required for such interventions to be effective. Politics dressed up as public health not only injured science. It also shot down participatory public health where people are empowered, rather than obligated and humiliated.

A scientist cannot and should not try to change his or her data and inferences based on the current doctrine of political parties or the reading du jour of the social media thermometer. In an environment where traditional political divisions between left and right no longer seem to make much sense, data, sentences, and interpretations are taken out of context and weaponized. The same apolitical scientist could be attacked by left-wing commentators in one place and by alt-right commentators in another. Many excellent scientists have had to silence themselves in this chaos. Their self-censorship has been a major loss for scientific investigation and the public health effort. My heroes are the many well-intentioned scientists who were abused, smeared, and threatened during the pandemic. I respect all of them and suffer for what they went through, regardless of whether their scientific positions agreed or disagreed with mine. I suffer for and cherish even more those whose positions disagreed with mine.

There was absolutely no conspiracy or preplanning behind this hypercharged evolution. Simply, in times of crisis, the powerful thrive and the weak become more disadvantaged. Amid pandemic confusion, the powerful and the conflicted became more powerful and more conflicted, while millions of disadvantaged people have died and billions suffered.

I worry that science and its norms have shared the fate of the disadvantaged. It is a pity, because science can still help everyone. Science remains the best thing that can happen to humans, provided it can be both tolerant and tolerated.

#tablet magazine #john p a ioannidis #science #read the whole thing

1 note · View note