#ancillary legal

[qqueenofhades]

I'm having a bit of a rough mood from seeing that the judge in the Georgia case dismissed some of the orange motherfucker's charges.

Can I get some your ever-insightful perspective on this, and if there's still hope for prison time for something? Anything at all?

I can offer a few pieces of context on this, yes. First, the judge did dismiss a few of the less-substantiated and secondary charges against Trump in the Georgia election interference case. However, these charges were primarily related to "soliciting others to make false statements," i.e. how he enlisted others in the purpose of overturning the GA election results, and do not contest or impact upon the actual fact of election subversion (which is at the core of the prosecution). The judge also openly invited the prosecutorial team to re-submit the dismissed charges with more substantiated evidence and clearer testimony, so this wasn't a from-the-bench hack job like the ones Aileen Cannon keeps running in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case (seriously, when can we appeal to the 11th Circuit to get her taken off? WHEN???) Which, considering that this is a Republican judge appointed by a Republican governor (Brian Kemp) is a good sign.

In short, this wasn't the judge saying "all these charges are bogus and inadmissible," it was the judge saying "I'll dismiss a few of these for not being as well substantiated as the others, but please resubmit with revisions/improvements and I will be happy to consider them again." And while I am not a lawyer, it is my understanding that prosecutors typically bring a multiplicity of charges, including some that might not ultimately stick, in case of this exact circumstance where some of them get dismissed/required to undergo judicial review/are otherwise ancillary to the central indictment. Which, in this case, is still intact. So no, Trump is 100% not "getting entirely off the hook" or "no longer under investigation in Georgia" or whatever else. I'm sure the GOP will try to spin it as such, but ignore them. The Trump "find me 11,780 votes" phone call to Raffensperger and the rest of his Georgia election interference has not been dismissed, and the RICO case still largely exists as first filed.

This is also a good sign that the judge won't order Fani Willis dismissed and the case completely shut down, as the Georgia Republicans have been trying to do with their hit-job inquiry into her personal life. If the judge was leaning toward dismissing Willis/the case entirely, this could have been a lot more sweeping intervention, but it doesn't look like he's going to do that, and in fact offered them an invitation to re-submit and make the case stronger. So that actually bodes better for the chances of eventually securing a conviction in the Georgia case, if the prosecutors have to go back to the drawing board and make sure everything is airtight. It's probably helpful to see all this in the above light and to understand that all legal cases drag on for years, with forward progress and setbacks. Especially this one, which is unprecedented in all ways.

However, I need to warn people again about thinking that Trump will be tried, convicted, and imprisoned before the election, and that this will spare us from having to vote against him or otherwise electorally dispose of him. SCOTUS, to nobody's surprise but still our disappointment, agreed to hear the Trump immunity case in late April (instead of just accepting the DC Circuit's opinion), and while they're likely to rule against him, that still creates another months-long delay. Importantly, though, the Department of Justice has announced that the "no legal proceedings 60 days before the election" rule does NOT apply to Trump, as he has already been indicted and the cases are currently being litigated. If they had decided that the 60-day rule applied, all trial proceedings would have to be frozen in the first week of September, but since not, they can continue into October and November. If the 60-day rule had been upheld, it would have drastically increased the odds of Trump avoiding trial entirely before the election, as few prosecutors would have wanted to proceed when they knew that there was an automatic kill switch built in. But if the DOJ holds to this, Trump could literally be on trial on Election Day itself. Which is good, obviously, but still: it will not be the magic solution. We still have to vote for Biden.

As I have said before, the stakes in 2024 are simple. The criminal trials will not get rid of Trump before the election. There will be another election that is Trump vs. Biden and therefore one of them will win the presidency. If Biden wins and Trump loses, Trump will be out of delay options and will go to prison almost 100% as all his criminal chickens come home to roost. If he wins, we will be fucked for generations to come. Vote accordingly.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts #the giant orange monster

[scribefindegil]

Thinking about the Presger as foils to the Radch. How in some ways the Presgar are to the Radch what the Radch are to the rest of the non-imperial galaxy: these bogeymen that could appear at any time without warning and destroy you and everything you love. How anyone who enters the Presger side of the station in considered to be legally dead--that they'll be taken apart and reconstructed--and how this parallels both the creation of ancillaries and the assimilation of empire. How the Presger train their Translators to act and speak like Radchaai. How Anaander tries to use the Presger as a scapegoat for her own dissolution (and how she's wrong, because the thing that makes the Presger terrifying is that they're completely incomprehensible. They don't destroy things for territory or resources; they're violence without motivation.) They're distorted mirrors of each other, so of course it makes sense that there are factions who believe they're actually all the same.

#may come back and try to be more coherent about this later i don't think i've quite said what i mean to #but currently i am being immobilized by a sleeping nate so this is the best i can do #imperial radch

[elfwreck]

Looking through the notes on the ao3 post got me kinda confused. What does ao3 spend there legal budget on? Do you know? (This isn’t supposed to be a gotcha about ao3 I like an support ao3 I’m just to tired to try and comb through their budget and figure it out) also somebody in the notes posted that if you want to actually fight against copy right to donate to archive.org not ao3 and I agree that ppl should donate archive.org epicially right now. If someone had to choose between ao3 and the archive I would say the archive is much more important…. But that isn’t what your response was about. Ur response (I think) was against the argument that u shouldn’t donate to ao3 because they aren’t actually fighting for anything/their lawyer budget is useless. That’s not true. They are fighting for stuff and from what I can tell their budget isn’t useless. Also also archive.org and ao3 have 2 very different goals and aren’t fighting for the same thing. Ao3 is specifically about transformative works and archive.org is not. I’m sure it will end up being 2 different legal battles.

The legal budget is for expenses related to legal work: Filing fees, printing, sometimes travel costs (they have sent the legal team to the Library of Congress to argue for our right to remove DRM from DVDs in order to make fanvids) (and they won), and so on. It's a very small amount.

There are no lawyer fees. All the work is donated, and it's covered in a different spot on the budget. (Lawyers have to track records of how much pro bono work they do, and report it.) If I understand it, they got about $185,000 worth of free lawyer work last year - not their whole operating budget, but that'd be a huge cost if they had to cover it instead of server maintenance!

What they actually do:

They file amicus statements in copyright cases. A lot of them.

They argue for DRM exemptions, every three years, because those have to be renewed. (After the first two times, the media companies seem to have basically given up. But we still have to re-file & argue for it every three years.)

They research cases, both in the US and around the world, that are related to fair use/fair dealing and similar copyright situations.

They provide advice to fans who are caught in copyright cases over fanworks. They stand ready to let the OTW be sued instead of individual fans, if a copyright owner files a DMCA takedown of fanfic at AO3.

They are fighting "fandom.com's" attempt to trademark the word "fandom."

They file comments with various governments about legal issues related to copyright or fanworks or both.

(Various other stuff; see links below; I am not part of the Legal Advocacy team and don't know any details beyond what they publish.)

Archive.org has a lot more money than AO3 does. It's been around longer, and it has sponsors with deep pockets - academic orgs and so on. But yeah, they're facing a tough lawsuit right now, and they need money.

If you can only donate to one this year, I'd recommend archive.org. The OTW has enough to operate and it's not facing big threats at the moment.

HOWEVER: In 2019, Archive.org had an operating budget of $36 Million. Your $10 or even $150 is not what makes the difference to them. (Not telling anyone not to donate. But don't do it if it's a hardship.) Wikimedia Foundation - the Wikipedia people - have annual operating expense of over $100 million.

The OTW's annual budget is a bit over $500,000 per year right now. The OTW operates on pennies and broken shoelaces compared to other nonprofit archives. $10 fan donations are meaningful to the OTW in a way they are not to archive.org or wikipedia.

Part of how they can do that, is that the OTW does not pay legal fees. Effectively none of the donations go toward the "Legal Advocacy" team - just a tiny amount ($2,500 to $5000) that covers ancillary expenses.

Most nonprofits don't have a team of free lawyers on tap, because most were not founded by a pack of academics and lawyers who were desperately trying to protect their community from puritans and capitalists.

#otw #ao3 #legalities

[mariacallous]

In October, Melissa began an in vitro fertilization cycle. A resident of Birmingham, Alabama, her fertility journey to that point had been not just difficult, but harrowing—earlier that year, she had nearly bled to death during a procedure to resolve a second-trimester miscarriage. When the IVF process yielded just a single viable embryo, she had it frozen, and a few months later started another cycle. “It’s very easy to lose an embryo,” she says. “This is such a delicate process.”

Melissa has a daughter, born when she was younger, but IVF represents her best and last chance to grow her family. After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that embryos are children, all of that is now on hold.

WIRED spoke with three women directly affected by the Alabama Supreme Court’s February 16 ruling, which stated that embryos are “unborn children … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.” Fearing legal liability given the broad scope of the language, several of the state’s most prominent IVF providers—including the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama Fertility, and the Center for Reproductive Medicine at Mobile Infirmary—have paused treatments. That means patients like Melissa, who is going by a pseudonym given the sensitivity of the topic, are stuck in limbo, and in some cases running out of options.

“I’m rapidly losing time,” says Melissa. The 37-year-old has an autoimmune disorder that she needs to plan IVF cycles around; her ovarian reserves are low enough that her doctors say she has a window of a month, maybe two, to try again. If the ruling holds for much longer, she may not have another chance.

During IVF, patients take hormone-stimulating medications to trigger their ovaries to release mature eggs. The eggs are then retrieved with a small needle and fertilized with sperm in a lab to form embryos. Sometimes a successful IVF cycle can result in several embryos, but doctors typically transfer just one or two into the uterus at a time. Success isn’t promised; about one in three embryo transfers results in pregnancy.

That makes Melissa’s situation especially urgent. There’s no guarantee that her one embryo will result in a birth. But the ruling has disrupted the lives of women at every stage of treatment.

Lochrane Chase started IVF in August, after nearly a year of trying to get pregnant and using less intrusive fertility treatments, such as ovarian stimulation. The 36-year-old Birmingham native was able to freeze and store over two dozen embryos, of which several appeared viable after genetic screening. An embryo transfer in October resulted in a pregnancy, but Lochrane miscarried a few days later. “It was the saddest I’ve ever been in my life,” she says. She tried again in December; again, she miscarried.

Before another scheduled transfer in January, her doctor noticed fluid in her uterine lining; Lochrane underwent surgery in mid-February to address the issue, and scheduled another embryo transfer for March 18. Despite the uncertainty caused by the ruling, she has started taking the necessary hormones anyway in hopes that the situation resolves by then. If not, the medications would have been for nothing, and she’ll be left with no way forward.

That’s due in part to the severity of the new restrictions on embryos in Alabama. Both Melissa and Lochrane looked into getting treatment out of state as soon as the ruling came down, but quickly found that was an unworkable solution. Companies that transport embryos have paused shipping out of the state while assessing the legal risks associated with the ruling. In a statement emailed to WIRED, a representative from the University of Alabama at Birmingham said the health system is working to identify a company that is willing and able to transport their embryos to another facility as soon as possible: “It is our goal to help patients who are interested in this option do so safely, but—at this time—there are no options available.”

Even if patients could transport their embryos, IVF treatment often requires close proximity with the health care provider, making it infeasible for many.

“You have to do blood work every three days. You have to do ultrasounds. To travel to go do that, it’s almost impossible,” says Melissa. Within 24 hours of finding out that her treatment would be affected, Lochrane had made contact with clinics in Boston, Atlanta, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina—conversations that ended when embryo transportation shut down.

The impact is one of lost time and opportunity, but also of cost. Lochrane says she and her husband have spent $50,000 on fertility treatments so far. Each transfer costs $3,500; each round of medication another $500 or so. For Paula, a 38-year-old Birmingham resident, the bulk of her expenses are carried by Progyny, a fertility insurance company that she has access to through her husband’s job.

Paula, who also asked to use a pseudonym, has already undergone one embryo transfer, in April of last year. It resulted in a miscarriage. She now has three frozen embryos left, and had gotten authorization from Progyny earlier this year to attempt another transfer. That authorization has a three-month window, which expires on March 28. “The concern is, if we don’t do it before March 28, will our insurance do another authorization for us, because we live in Alabama?” she says. “It’s been very stressful. My blood pressure has been through the roof.”

In an emailed statement to WIRED, Progyny CEO Pete Anevski said that health care providers “can shift the authorization as needed,” and that the company “will continue to support its member patients and its network providers in Alabama.”

That support can only go so far, though, as long as the Alabama Supreme Court ruling persists. While all three women have frozen embryos, even that practice may be at risk. One of the many uncertainties of the ruling is whether freezing of embryos will be able to continue. “The cryopreservation of fertilized eggs is an essential component of infertility care at this point, and that whole enterprise is very much threatened,” says Sean Tipton, chief advocacy and policy officer at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, a professional organization that represents fertility specialists. Using frozen embryos for IVF is not only safe but has a higher success rate than fresh embryos.

It’s also unclear how the ruling will impact the egg retrieval process. About five to six days after fertilization, an early-stage embryo, called a blastocyst, forms. But not every fertilized egg goes on to develop into an embryo. This happens naturally, as well as in IVF labs. Under the Alabama ruling, this scenario could also open up a clinic to a potential lawsuit. “With this legal ruling, the question is, if an embryo fails to develop, will these health care providers be found liable for wrongful death or murder or manslaughter?” says Betsy Campbell, chief engagement officer at Resolve, an infertility nonprofit association based in McLean, Virginia.

In a Facebook post, Alabama Fertility Specialists said it is putting new IVF treatments on hold “due to the legal risk to our clinic and our embryologists,” and is contacting affected patients.

In a statement emailed to WIRED, the University of Alabama at Birmingham said its Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility is pausing egg fertilization and embryo development because of “the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments.”

The patients whom WIRED spoke with all shared a sense of crushing uncertainty and anger.

“People don’t understand that when you’re put in a position to make decisions like [IVF treatment], you don’t make it lightly,” says Melissa. “That it sticks with you forever. That it changes you. To have laws that prevent you from making decisions that—as gut-wrenching as they are, as hard as they are—that you can’t make them for the health of your family, it’s an indescribable feeling.”

Even Lochrane, a lifelong Alabama resident, says that the ruling has made her seriously consider leaving. “I feel so powerless in this state,” she says. Lochrane is on the board of local nonprofits, serves as a deacon in her church, and is deeply involved with numerous civic organizations. Her family is here, as are her friends. Still, she says, the last week has dramatically shifted her perspective. “If I could move to Boston and have an opportunity to have a family there but not in Birmingham,” she says, “I would be at the airport now.”

IVF providers, patients, and advocates are hoping that the Alabama legislature could allow IVF to continue in the state. Last week, Alabama House minority leader Anthony Daniels, a Democrat, introduced a bill that would establish that a “fertilized human egg or human embryo that exists outside of a human uterus is not considered an unborn child or human being” under state law. Republican lawmakers are also expected to introduce similar legislation soon.

“We’re hopeful that there will be a legislative fix,” Campbell says. How long that fix takes, though, will have life-altering consequences for many Alabama IVF patients. And if it doesn’t materialize, most will be left with no options at all.

“We have healthy embryos,” says Lochrane. “We just want to be able to have children.”

[clonerightsagenda]

Having read all 5 Imperial Radch books, I am intrigued by how often they come back to the legal establishment and confirmation of identity. A lot of SF, especially when it brings AI into the mix, is about identity and personhood, and typically it lands on how you get to decide for yourself, that identity is a very personal thing that other people can't impose on you. Whereas in Imperial Radch... obviously we have the Radchaai concept of civilization where they divide between Radch and non-Radch, human and inhuman, civilized and uncivilized. At the end of the first book Anaander changes Breq from ancillary to human simply by saying so with the legal and political powers that she has. At the end of the main trilogy, Breq outmaneuvers Anaander and asserts her own identity not by asserting the moral high ground of any personal epiphanies (not that she doesn't have them) but by appealing to a treaty. She takes the issue to committee. In Provenance, another character escapes eir legal troubles by appealing to that same treaty and getting eirself legally defined as an alien. Then in Translation State, a Presger translator does the opposite and calls a committee to define e as human.

So much SF takes this very internal, emotional view of selfhood and identity and 'only you get to say who you really are!!' and Imperial Radch is like woe. committee meeting be upon ye. Sometimes characters are having personal epiphanies about their identity and sometimes they are doing this for convenience, but either way the win state involves appealing to bureaucracy.

#that was a very sweet realization about yourself you had there but now we are going to vote on it #imperial radch

[dvlwablu]

A List of Hiromasa's Direct Relatives + Random Facts

Saw some posts wondering about Hiromasa's other family, which prompted me to write this up. Info is taken from documents you can find in publicly accessible archives, albeit only in Japanese.

The Guy Himself 源博雅 - Minamoto no Hiromasa [918 - 980] Rank: Junior fourth rank, lower grade (later third rank) Position(s): Captain of the Right Division of Middle Palace Guards (右兵衛督) Middle Captain of the Right Division of Inner Palace Guards (右近衛中將) Ancillary Master of the Empress Dowager's Household (皇太后宮権大夫) When he was 17, he was removed from royal succession and bestowed the title Minamoto Ason*. Apart from the flute, he was also skilled with the biwa, koto and hichiriki. There are numerous stories about him and his incredible musical skill, which I will hopefully cover in a separate post some day. Maybe. He is also known as Hakuga no Sanmi (博雅三位) in reference to his final rank and Lord Long Autumn (長秋卿) in reference to his final position (the Chinese name for the Empress Dowager's household is "Long Autumn") *The Japanese term for this process is shinsekikouka (臣籍降下) This was done because emperors often had many children and under the Ritsuryo legal system, royalty had to be given a certain income, so ennoblement was a way of saving money. The first title of Minamoto Ason was given by Emperor Saga, who had 49 children.

Grandfather 醍醐天皇 - Emperor Daigo [884 - 930] Was emperor from 897 to 930. He actually abdicated the throne after falling ill in 930 and became a monk shortly before he died. He had 36 children across 21 different consorts.

Father 克明親王 - Prince Yoshiakira/Katsuakira [903 - 927] The first son and crown prince of Emperor Daigo. Hiromasa would have been 9 years old when he died.

Mother 藤原時平の娘 - Daughter of Fujiwara no Tokihira Fujiwara no Tokihira was the Minister of the Left (左大臣) for Emperor Daigo. Women often did not have their names recorded, instead being referred to by the title of their fathers or by their sons (e.g Murasaki Shikibu, with her father having a position in the Shikibu-sho (Ministry of Ceremonial Affairs) and Mother of Michizane, the author of Kagero nikki.)

Siblings Most of the info here is from the Honcho Koin Jounroku (本朝皇胤紹運録) (go to page 53) 源正雅 - Minamoto no Tadamasa (younger brother) Rank: Junior fourth rank official, lower grade Position(s): Ancillary Provincial Governor of Tosa Province (土佐権守) Tosa Province is now known today as Kochi Prefecture. 源清雅 - Minamoto no Kiyomasa (younger brother) Rank: Junior fourth rank official, lower grade Position(s): Chamberlain in the Ministry of Central Affairs (侍従) It's unclear whether Tadamasa was older than Kiyomasa or the other way round. 源助雅 - Minamoto no Sukemasa (younger brother) Rank: Junior fourth rank official, lower grade. Position(s): Master of the Western Offices (右京大夫) A lot of websites I've checked claim that Hiromasa also had a sister by the name of Kenshi (妍子女王), but I cannot for the life of me find and actual source for this claim. If you have any info, please tell me!

Children According to the Dai Nihon Shiryo, Hiromasa had four sons. 源信貞 - Minamoto no Nobusada Rank: Junior fifth rank, higher grade Position(s): Lieutenant of the Left Division of Middle Palace Guards (左兵衛尉) A flute player, like his father. He appears briefly in the Kaichikusho, a book on flute music written by musician Oga no Koresue. (go to page 20) 源信明 - Minamoto no Nobuakira Rank: Junior fifth rank, higher grade Position(s): Treasury Senior Assistant Minister (大蔵大輔) Also a known talented biwa player, like his father. 源信義 - Minamoto no Nobuyoshi Rank: Junior fifth rank official, higher grade Position(s): Chief Pharmacist (典薬頭) Chief Court Musician (雅楽頭) Once again taking after his father, being an excellent biwa and flute player. He is the author of the Shinkasho (神歌抄), the oldest surviving manuscript of kagura music. He and his older brother Nobuakira were known for playing music together. 源至光 - Minamoto no Yukimitsu Rank: Junior fifth rank official, lower grade Position(s): Provincial Governor of Hoki Province (伯耆守) Hoki Province is now known today as the western half of Tottori Prefecture. Couldn't find any info on him being a musician, but knowing his family, it wouldn't be out of the question.

#minamoto no hiromasa #heian period #general disclaimer that many of these documents are recounts so we can never be too sure #we're talking century old copies of documents that are centuries older than that #also there are SO MANY POSITIONS IN THE RITSURYO SYSTEM #i've translated them in this case but in many situations you'll probably see them just left in japanese (e.g. sadaijin=minister of the left #ALSO ALSO while i have listed the roles i do not actually understand what they all entail #feel free to correct me on anything because i am not in fact fluent in old japanese #i'm just very persistent

[itmightrain]

Favorite books I read in 2023

The Ones I Loved

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo - (genre: horror) idk what to tell you about this book, but you should read it. It's about ghosts and grief and Nashville and relearning how to be alive. The romance in it is gay and slowburn. If you love the All For the Game series, this book is for you.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri - (genre: fantasy) One of the cleverest fantasies about empire and rebellion I've read in a long time. The female characters are fantastic and complicated, and it's so fun to be inside their heads. The gay romance at the heart of this book is tender and fucked up in all the best ways. Highly, highly recommend.

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles - (genre: regency romance) Lovers to enemies to allies to lovers! A poor lawyer inherits an Earldom and discovers that the leader of the local smugglers is someone he is intimately familiar with. Very sweet and well written gay regency romance.

A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles - (genre: regency romance) A grumpy, embattled new Earl with a heart of gold meets a lonely, competent smuggler-turned-secretary with a ulterior motives. I can't overstate how much I loved this book, the characters and their relationship, the way they make each other's lives better and fuller, the way they come to make each other better people gah it's so good ;-; make sure to read the first book in this series first, even though it focuses on other characters

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar - (genre scifi/fantasy) I went into this book knowing nothing about it besides the meme, and I highly recommend that approach. It is gay, the writing is very lyrical and flower, and you will need to let go of the typical scifi genre expectation that the world in which the story takes place will be explained to you.

The Ones I Enjoyed a lot

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher - (genre: horror) relatable 30-something divorcee and 50-something gay barista find a passageway to another world. The world they find...is bad.

The Black Death: New Lessons from Recent Research by Dorsey Armstrong - (genre: nonfiction) summary of the latest research on the plague! V interesting and well explained. Originally a video but the audiobook is available on Hoopla.

Life in a Medieval Village by Francis Gies and Joseph Gies - (genre: nonfiction) great little deep dive into the daily life of Medieval peasants from how the legal system worked to marriage customs.

Ancillary Justice by Anne Leckie - (genre: scifi) the main character is the AI consciousness of a ship trapped in one of her ancillary bodies and her sidekick is one of her former lieutenants who was accidentally frozen for 1000 years and is having a very hard time about it.

Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer - (genre: regency era fantasy romance) this was a re-read from my childhood and it held up!

The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English by Hana Videen - (genre: nonfiction) did you know that "lady" evolved from the old english word for "loaf maker" and "lord" evolved from "loaf guardian"?

Role Model by Rachel Reid - (genre: romance) gay hockey romance between a hockey player and his new team's social media manager. Pretty standard romance novel but fun!

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh - (genre: fantasy) the green man of the forest is minding his own business when a young man shows up on his doorstep. english mythology vibes, also gay.

Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid - (genre: romance) gay hockey players, enemies to lovers/fuck buddies to lovers romance. if this was originally geno/sid rpf i would not be surprised.

#book recs #kell reads things #books 2023

[alexin-wonderlust]

Day 1 - Japan Blog - 7 February 2024

Day One: Adelaide to Tokyo Virgin Airlines via Melbourne and Cairns

Let's begin our departure to Japan. My sixth time visiting Nippon, and this time I hope to see and experience new things I havent been able to before.

My previous trips have been more to the cities to shop and to Disneyland but as I become more infatuated with this country, I am drawn to more meaningful experiences. It used to be about the video games, the collectables, the cute accessories and conveniences I couldnt get at home -- but now I am intrigued with the history, culture and nature of Japan. Hopefully I can manage to do everything I want to do and all the things, I wasnt expecting. (Because, theyre always the best!)

Leaving our house at 4am this morning was always a challenge; especially when I finished packing at 2am. So, we jumped in the uber which was driven by a super eccentric female driver who made me want to drop everying and start uber driving -- how is this even a thing I would want to do? She was so funny and chirpy and smart. It made the ride memorable and we made it to the airport with the rest of our holiday to look forward to.

Second up, checking in at Virgin Airlines in Adelaide Airport was also a huge highlight. The person helped us with our check in -- not that we needed it, but she upgraded our domestic flights to extra legroom which made my travel partner very happy.

I'm travelling with my partner of 4 years; Ben. He is 6"3 and loves an extra legroom seat! You'll probably learn a lot about him through my posts. He likes good food and music!

Well, after discovering that our VA fare is NOT a full service fare (I am NOT happy about this, shook, stricken, SLANDER!) as I would NEVER... but apparently; flying trans-tasman with VA doesn't mean you get a meal or a blanket or a pillow or a nice piece of metal. We are on a Boeing 737-800 Max for 9 hours with NO SNACKS. I think, because I booked this hastily, on their website (opposed to through a GDS with the option to see ancillaries) without the complete details -- I assumed it was a short haul international flight, and compared it with Qantas' service. I was wrong. The inflight entertainment is BYO device (which I didnt...) and the 737800 isnt fitted with Wifi onboard so I couldnt even download anything to watch. Their WiFi was working, so you could use their Free Entertainment, however I found it lagged and I couldn't even watch it through the buffering. So I just stuck to my knitting -- without music though because my Spotify decided I didnt need my downloaded music either.

It was a very long and semi-uncomfortable flight.

After the gruelling hours of trying to sleep, trying to finish my knitting and also doing some work... we landed in Haneda! HOORAY! Now time to do customs, and head to our hotel. Almost there.

For those playing at home; here is a quick breakdown of how to enter Japan.

-Grab an entry card and declaration card from your air host/ess. They will provide the physical card for you to fill in to give when you go through customs.

  or

-Alternatively; visit Japanweb.gov.jp (I dont have a photo of it, because you cant use cameras in customs, and I used the physical card option -- I love filling out these things!!) and you can do it all online and scan your QR at the gate.

The entry card tells the Japanese Government what your intentions on visiting Japan. IE: Tourism, visiting a relative, Business, etc -- and how long you intend to stay, where you're going to be staying -- all that jazz.

The declarations card is about what you are BRINGING in to JAPAN. So please dont bring things like fruit, meat, dangerous goods, illegal substances (this can be some medications like Codeine and Pseudoephedrine so please check with your doctor -- and get a note if you take medication regularly that might not be "legal" in Japan). If you dont bring any of this with you; you dont need to declare anything and you can walk straight through once you've shown your passport.

-Line up and have your passport at the ready. Keep your entry cards with your passport.

-They will scan your finger prints and take your photo first. (We had to do this twice...)

-Line up again to go through the gates.

-This is where they will stamp your passport and grant your access.

Once youve gone through this part; you're almost there!!

-Pick up your bags.

-Find the carosel with the flight you just arrived on. (IE: VA77 is on carosel 6) Your bags will come out here.

-Collect your bags and take them to the gates on the other side.

-Show your passport and declaration card and you *should* be good to enter.

Here we go! We are in JAPAN -- the first port of call is to get our mascot for the trip. This is something Ive done since my 2018 trip and it's fun and cute and it makes me happy to share my experience through a silly icon's eyes. Walk towards the "Keihan" Train Line which will get you to Tokyo. This is a trainline that goes direct from Haneda airport to Tokyo and connects to any of the main train networks in Tokyo. It really doesn't matter what neighbourhood you are staying in; 90% of the time this will be the train you need to get you to where you want to go. On the LEFT there is a 7/11 (get money from the ATM in the left corner, and then grab some snacks and a drink so you've got some coins..) because on the RIGHT there are a bunch of Gacha Machines where I like to find my mascot.

This time; NOTHING. No lil dudes. So, we will keep looking. 

Take the Escalators down to the train platform and board the train to TOKYO/SHINAGAWA and you're on your way.

Back to my blog; Ben and I had our heart set on this ramen place we found by accident last time we were in Akihabara. We call it "Midnight Ramen" because he wanted ramen at midnight and it came through with the GOODS... alas. We dropped our bags at our hotel in Shinagawa and did a quick change into something warm. (It was 36degrees when we left Adelaide and now we are facing 2degrees and SNOW!) Slammed on a beanie and caught the Yamanote to Akiba; to find that our ramen place was closed for renovations. The SADDEST TIME! Akiba isn't known for its ramen so we had to find something else... how devastating.

We found a Hakata style ramen place. It was a 6/10. It got a point for being open. Also, it was okay. The Nori (seaweed) had cute printed sayings on it which I thought was cute (gross, but cute). Then I found out that another branch of the other ramen place was open in Shinagawa, only a 6 minute walk from our hotel. Let's pretend like that didnt happen.

After we ate, we became acquainted with our new local Kombini (7/11, convenience store) attached to our hotel, and purchased some necessities.

#japan travel #travel #alexinwonderlust #bennyandthelex #japan february 2024 #travel blog #japan #tokyo

[qqueenofhades]

Congrats on your new journal article! Can you talk a little about your research? What’s your area of focus, what research plans do you have coming up? I have an insatiable interest in other peoples’ research!

I am a medievalist by training, though my focus has also expanded into early modernism and modernism, and one of my main research interests is how medievalism or medievally-themed ideas (for better and often uh, very much worse) operate in modern politics, culture, and media. My latest journal article is examining the premodern history and the culture of crusading in the current Russia-Ukraine war; the one that came out earlier in the year was premodern queer history and the crusades. I generally work on premodern (broadly defined) gender/queerness, law and society, war, crusades, religion, and politics, based in but by no means confined to Western Europe, with ancillary interests in the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. As noted, I also have a strong comparative-historiography interest in demonstrating how medieval history is used to inform modern society and why this is often very misleading.

My current research focuses on premodern queer history, which has been the theme and/or co-theme of most of my more recent stuff. I am developing a mini-book project based on my UK conference paper from this summer focused on reconsidering queer legal, textual, narrative, and physical space within the premodern/medieval context. The general disclaimer is often that this material is marginalized, individualized, ignored, irrelevant, or existing unremarked on the fringes of medieval society, far from the centers of power, which frankly I don't think is correct. If you look at the places in which the theme and substance of "queerness" (in the modern definition; this is not the same at all in the medieval world) exists, it in fact directly informs and creates some of the most central institutions (and anxieties) of European-medieval society, including the king, the church, the literature, and other areas of traditionally-defined "power." So while the study of queer silence, gaps, omissions, and other places where the heteronormative record has prevailed is useful in some amount of retrieving unsignified queer experience, this also gives rise to the notion that premodern queerness is only ever silent or subtextual, and places where it very explicitly appears or speaks have to be argued over or discredited or somehow created to say something other than what they say. So yes.

Because my current university role is primarily administrative rather than teaching-focused, I don't have nearly as much time for actual research as I would like. I am in the process of developing the written prospectus for the above project; it will go to the editorial board at a medieval and renaissance studies center and university press when I am done. We don't know when that will be, but we certainly hope something like a timely fashion (I also have another full-length research project/monograph on premodern queer history that will probably have to wait for a faculty post with dedicated research time, assuming I ever get one. We will see.)

#anonymous #ask #school stuff #history #medieval history #queer history

[scribefindegil]

love to imagine Sphene rolling back up to the Republic Of Two Systems with its weird spidery biomech bodies and its technically-legally-human passengers like "Heyyyyyy cousin I found a solution to my ancillary problem, also you're gonna LOVE these kids they made the Usurper's ambassador and the Translator's Office SO mad :) I am so great at ambassador-ing :)"

#translation state spoilers #imperial radch

[eretzyisrael]

by Armin Rosen

To put it nicely, CAIR’s record on Jewish matters has been a source of controversy and tension. Zahra Billoo remained head of CAIR’s Bay Area chapter after a widely condemned speech last year in which she described Zionist Jewish groups as an “enemy” and urged suspicion and hostility not just toward out-and-out fascists, but “polite Zionists” as well. More recently, CAIR has come to the defense of a City University of New York Law School graduate who used her commencement speech as a chance to rip the university for its entirely imaginary training of Israeli soldiers and to connect her legal education to “the fight against capitalism, racism, imperialism and Zionism around the world.” CAIR’s top leadership, including co-founder and longtime Executive Director Nihad Awad, have a decadeslong history of statements in support of Hamas and religious warfare against Israel. The group opposed the U.S.’s deportation of Rasmea Odeh, who omitted her past conviction for a deadly terrorist attack in Israel from her U.S. immigration application. The Anti-Defamation League has maintained a constantly updated web page about CAIR’s various antisemitism-related uproars since 2015.

In a message circulated to Jewish groups in the week after the plan’s release, the White House stressed that “It’s factually incorrect to suggest [CAIR] are part of the strategy. They are not part of the strategy—there are zero mentions.” The group was merely “listed in a supplemental document as one of the many independent organizations making commitments to help counter antisemitism.”

When reached for comment, State Department Antisemitism Envoy Deborah Lipstadt repeatedly stressed that “CAIR had nothing to do with the preparation of the plan.” I suggested that even the ancillary mention of a group with CAIR’s history threatened to detract from the strategy’s potential strengths. “If you’re asking if it’s detracting, this conversation should be about the plan and the things it’s going to try to do,” she replied.

#cair #antisemitism #national antisemitism strategy #biden administration #deborah liipstadt

[fideidefenswhore]

Do you think think the Boleyns were a dysfunctional family ?

well...the literal definition of dysfunction is to deviate from social/cultural norms. obviously, in the case of anne becoming queen (and thus, the 'patriarch' of her own paternal and maternal family, an unusual occurence, in both income and power), the boleyns were 'dysfunctional'.

but assuming you mean the implicit, ie, interpersonally dysfunctional... not in the big picture, but i think interpersonal dysfunction can be argued in how mary boleyn (then carey, then stafford) was treated. there's an argument to be made that the boleyns were merely conforming to social norms in their repudiation of her after her 'disparaging' marriage (that was the official term for a woman marrying beneath her status without the consent of her higher family and/or king and queen, an offense considered so taboo it could come with legal recriminations in the form of fines) to william stafford ... however, thomas boleyn's treatment of his daughter in the wake of her being widowed has always struck me as oddly cold and distant.

and there's something to be said for dysfunction brought by anne's rise, as well, it's likely to have brought this sort of inherent inequality in the dynamics between anne and her siblings and even the elders of the family. and this would have manifested in her queen-in-waiting period especially...anne becomes the most important person in her family, and this necessitates some self-effacement from her family, as they are bolstering her image and fighting in her battles, anne is always the priority: sustaining her spirit and comfort to keep her steady, defending her reputation, maintaining her hold over and influence with the king, all these things must be preserved at all costs, and it renders the rest of them secondary, ancillary, even (something which was likely humbling and might have caused some jealousy and resentment that really, only mary was brave enough to ever explicitly verbalize: "all the world did set so little by me", "had rather beg my bread with him than to be the greatest queen in Christendom", etc)

#redrosesandcharmingsouls

[ukrfeminism]

5 minute read

Six NHS staff workers are typically reported every week in England for sexually harassing a patient or colleague, the Telegraph can reveal.

Nearly a fifth of English trusts have recorded a rise in reports of sexual harassment within their services since 2017, while millions have been spent by the NHS on legal claims specific to sexual abuse over the same time period, according to newly-obtained data.

Health secretary Steve Barclay described the findings as “worrying” and urged NHS leaders to take “robust action in response to any such incidents in their organisation”.

Patient Safety Learning, a charity dedicated to improving patient experiences, said the Telegraph's “deeply troubling” revelations demonstrated an abuse of the “significant power imbalance” that exists between vulnerable patients and their care providers.

“Healthcare professionals need to recognise the power they hold over patients,” said chief executive Helen Hughes.

As the NHS reckons with its own ‘Me Too’ movement, the Telegraph can reveal that 16,082 reports of sexual harassment have been made against doctors and nurses, patients, and ancillary staff over the past five years – equivalent to 8.8 a day.

The data, acquired via the Freedom of Information law, is specific to 98 out of 184 trusts in England, and is therefore likely to underestimate the scale of sexual harassment reported within the NHS.

Position of trust ‘betrayed’

Further analysis of the data shows that at least 807 staff members have been accused of sexually harassing a colleague or patient across the 98 trusts between 2017 and 2022, while 45 have been found guilty.

When extrapolated to all 184 trusts, this suggests an estimated 1,607 NHS workers have been accused of sexual misconduct over the past five years – equivalent to six reports every week.

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust has one of the highest rates for reports of staff-on-patient sexual misconduct, recording 57 incidents since 2017. It said all reports of inappropriate behaviour are taken “extremely seriously, with the Trust having clear systems in place to ensure all reported incidents are recorded and investigated swiftly”.

As part of its investigation into sexual harassment within the NHS, the Telegraph uncovered the case of a mentally incapacitated patient who was raped by her healthcare worker and subsequently fell pregnant. The incident took place within the past five years at a major trust in the centre of England.

The healthcare worker, who is in his 30s, was recently jailed for eight months after pleading guilty to sexual activity with a mentally-disordered female. The patient and case cannot be named for legal reasons.

Joe Matchett, an expert lawyer at Irwin Mitchell who has secured settlements for survivors of abuse, said his firm continues to “represent a number of patients subjected to terrible abuse at the hands of hospital staff who have betrayed their position of trust in the worst imaginable way”.

Amid national efforts to clamp down on sexual misconduct within the health sector, the figures obtained by the Telegraph suggest that a rising number of people who work for or use the NHS are coming forward to report experiences of harassment within its services.

Of the 98 trusts who responded to our FOI requests, 39 provided a year-by-year breakdown for their data. Twenty-nine recorded an increase in reports since 2017, while five reported a decrease. The number of reports made annually at the remaining five trusts remained constant over the past five years.

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which has recorded a 65 per cent rise in reports of sexual harassment, increasing from 81 in 2017/18 to 131 in 2021/22, said it had a “high level of reporting”, which “indicates a healthy safety culture”.

A spokesperson added: “The figures reported include patient-on-patient; family-on-patient and patient-on-staff sexual misconduct, and many include repeated incidents involving one or two people.

“These could range in type from inappropriate comments, kissing, touching or indecent exposure.”

Although there is an acknowledgement that progress is being made in encouraging survivors of sexual misconduct and abuse to come forward in reporting their experiences, senior health leaders admit more needs to be done to purge the NHS of such behaviour.

The British Medical Association and Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) have both publicly acknowledged their shortcomings in tackling sexual misconduct and misogyny within their organisations.

In a statement released earlier this year, the president of the RCS said: “We have been aware that there needs to be a cultural change in surgery for some time …”

A senior NHS official meanwhile told the Telegraph “there’s more to do both to help people raise complaints and stop abuse in the first place.”

The source added: “The NHS staff survey suggests that sexual misconduct has persisted at a consistent rate in the last five years. The feedback we are getting, more concerns are being raised in male-dominated working environments.

“There do appear to be some particular problems in parts of the workforce, such as surgery and ambulance services, but in general it is something employers take seriously.”

Questions over misconduct procedures

While the NHS’ national staff survey does not specify sexual misconduct, it does ask whether workers have experienced harassment, bullying or abuse at work from a colleague, patient or manager. In 2021, 17.83 per cent of the workforce answered ‘yes’ – up marginally from 17.73 per cent in 2017.

“Inappropriate behaviours undermine trust in healthcare system and the ability to deliver safe care,” said Ms Hughes.

“Clinicians, managers and healthcare leaders have both a professional and moral responsibility to patients to ensure that there is a safe culture in healthcare settings and that misconduct is not tolerated.”

The data collected by the Telegraph also raises questions about the manner in which trusts handle complaints of sexual misconduct.

Information on investigative and disciplinary action was provided for just 1,973 out of the 16,082 reports of sexual misconduct.

Many trusts did not provide the data requested as they said it would breach General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Others said they couldn’t provide the information as it was not recorded in the trust’s incident reporting system, while some said the data was not easily accessible and that obtaining it would require reviewing each recorded incident.

Figures also show that, since 2017, the NHS has spent £4.47 million on legal costs specific to sexual abuse lawsuits filed by healthcare workers or patients. 

Expenditure rose from £806,408 in 2017/18 to £1.1 million in 2019/20, but subsequently dropped to £673,777 in the following financial year.

Em Wilkinson-Brice, national director for people, NHS England, said: “The NHS must be a safe space for all staff and patients – we do not tolerate any form of sexual misconduct, violence, harassment or abuse in any workplace setting and are clear that all NHS Trusts and organisations must have robust measures in place to ensure immediate action is taken in any cases reported to them.

“I would strongly encourage anyone who has experienced any misconduct in the NHS to come forward and report it and seek support.”

[goodqueenaly]

If Jorah Mormont went through with the plan to kill Dany and Robert pardoned him do you think he would be made lord of Bear Island again? And if he was what would the other Mormonts, Ned, and the rest of the North think/do about it?

I think whatever Jorah received would depend on the terms of the pardon. However, the glancing references we have to such a pardon in AGOT don't make it seem like Robert was prepared to offer Jorah the resumed lordship of Bear Island, much less that such an offer had been made. Robert explains to Ned that Jorah is spying on the Targaryens because he is "anxious to earn a royal pardon that would allow him to return from exile", while Renly later reminds the small council that Jorah "craves a royal pardon". That language of almost complete dependence on Jorah's part, as well as Robert's description of the pardon as "allow[ing] him [i.e. Jorah] to return from exile", seems to suggest to me that all that was on the table was Jorah no longer being sentenced to death for selling poachers into slavery (which is to say, being allowed to step foot in Westeros again without being turned over to Ned Stark's justice). Likewise, when in ASOS Jorah himself admits to the spy work, he explains that "Varys said ... [sic] I might go home", again indicating that mere legal return to Westeros, without the threat of reprisal for his crime, was the promised reward, rather than a full return to lordly glory. Maybe the idea of this pardon would have been that Jorah could come back to Westeros generally and maybe even Bear Island specifically, and even perhaps still be styled as a knight (as his knighthood was not dependent on, and indeed had nothing to do with, his former lordship), but would live as a non-dynast of House Mormont - a knight with a right to the family name but no claim to the lands or titles of the House, more like an acknowledged bastard than a trueborn son of the family.

(And obviously, all of this is without mentioning that Varys, who had first engaged Jorah's services as a spy, was not working with the ultimate aim of getting Jorah a pardon, especially as he, Varys, had no desire to keep the Baratheon regime on the Iron Throne long-term; whatever he, Varys, might have thought he could do with or give to Jorah if and when Daenerys returned to Westeros remains at best speculative, but ultimately ancillary to the political goals for which he had used Jorah.)

#asoiaf meta #jorah mormont

[dialux]

I am not an expert on either privacy or criminal law, but I have been having many conversations with experts in both those fields over the past few days as well as healthcare providers. Tl;dr: lawyers are concerned about two primary issues regarding overturning Roe: first, using online apps that sell your data to third parties, and second, using online anything before getting an abortion.

So. Online apps. Multiple posts have gone around talking about the dangers of using period-tracking apps, or apps that track birth control usage; these dangers primarily stem from those apps selling their users’ data to data brokers, who then package that raw information into pretty streamlined profiles and sell that information to anyone that wants it.

Yes. Anyone that wants it.

This can include the government. This can include law enforcement. This can include a shitty ex that wants to use this information as blackmail. If they’ve got the information, the motivation, and the means, they very much can access this data.

The US Supreme Court has established a level of due process necessary for law enforcement to get some information about a person (more on this later), but this isn’t comprehensive and, importantly, it doesn’t stop a cop (or a precinct) from just purchasing that information from data brokers, which they have actually gone and done multiple times.

But this is the narrow concern echoed in the posts linked above: there’s a wider privacy danger that we need to address before it’s too late.

The wider danger is the online anything.

These concerns include researching anything about abortion providers online, location history for your phone when going to get an abortion/meet with abortion providers, and other metadata on your phone.

Taking each of these three concerns one by one:

Online searches. You cannot be put in jail for anything that you search for online. But if your search coincides with potentially incriminating evidence (i.e., googling “how much acid needed to dissolve a body” hours before the police find a partially-dissolved corpse in your basement), this can be presented in court against you, and clearing your search history, internet cache, etc. won’t help you, because your ISP/browser will keep track of the digital footprint. The safest thing to do here is not to google things in the first place, but if you have searched something online, it isn’t the end of the world. As I said: you cannot go to jail for online searches. This is just a precautionary measure.

Location history. Cops can track location history by either buying the data from a broker or by getting a warrant to extract it from a phone. Using this information, they can determine if an individual went to an abortion clinic or not- which can be instrumental in the outcome of a criminal case. While this, again, cannot be the only piece of evidence against a person (it proves the phone was in a place, not that the person was with the phone), it can build up the body of evidence to the point of “beyond reasonable doubt,” which, yes, is a legal standard.

Other metadata on the phone. If a person uses a fingerprint or facial recognition software to unlock their phone, police don’t need a warrant to open it. Having a number-code is the safest method to maintain the integrity of a phone’s metadata. By metadata, I mean ancillary information that a person will keep on there- i.e., on the calendar, in texts, in photos or stored notes. This can all be used in a criminal case, particularly to prove that an abortion takes place post-6 weeks.

So what can be done?

1. Delete the app data

California’s got the current highest data privacy protections in the country, and most apps tend to follow California standards in terms of data architecture. The most important protection offered by the California regulation is the right to be forgotten, similar to Europe’s GDPR: you can call a company ask them to hand over all the data taken from your use of the app, and demand they delete all that information. Which you should. Immediately.

Certain states might have equivalency agreements, meaning that even if you don’t live in California, you can get the benefit of the CCPA; if your state doesn’t have an equivalency agreement, the app itself might find it easier to establish a single (higher) standard for data privacy across the entire US instead of giving a separate consideration for Californians, meaning that you can still ask them to delete your data. Which you should. And then you should stop using the app. Immediately.

2. Make the information functionally useless and then delete the app

If neither of the two scenarios above apply, make the information functionally useless. Whatever data you fed into the app, purposely make it incorrect: if your period app expects you to get your period on the fifth of every month, switch it up to the twenty-second. Change your birth control app this month so that you take meds on the fourth instead of the eighth. Change it again next month.

3. Refrain from using the app in the future

And once you’ve done the above- whether it’s removing your data or feeding incorrect information into the app- make sure you don’t continue to use the app. Use the interim time to set up helpful support systems, like a calendar on your fridge or a note on your bathroom mirror. Essentially: stop relying on it.

4. Communicate why others should stop using the app

Work to let others know why they should stop, and how to stop. Make sure that everyone around you knows what the concerns are- and how to mitigate them.

...

I know that this is hard. I know that switching away from a digital life might not be feasible for everyone, but the reality is that the digital world is monitored and tracked with greater scrutiny than any of us can stop right now, and the people hurt the worst from all of this are going to be the marginalized and the defenseless and the ones without resources, even as women everywhere face an egregious invasion of bodily privacy and autonomy. I know that this might seem like an overkill.

But in the case that it isn’t, we aren’t going to know that until a case goes public, until a woman’s privacy is stripped from her methodically and mercilessly, until all of her searches and fears and mistakes are laid bare to the public for our scrutiny- and the only way, the only possible way that we will mitigate that is to step away from the internet.

The only way to keep our data safe is to ensure we don’t give our data up.

#every drop of decency is fought for #misogyny #abortion #i've been speaking to so many people over the past two days. i've got a headache behind one eye #it really is beyond time to step away from the internet and really just... take a breath. realize what kind of world we've been living in. #and stop using our phones and electronic devices for anything beyond a) telling the time; b) contacting other people; #c) getting news; d) fun and games #it costs more to get an in-person therapist? yes but why is it so much cheaper? have you considered that???? #(hint: it's cheaper bc the cost is subsidized by the app selling your data!!) #SO much is cheaper bc the cost is subsidized by the sale of your data #SO MUCH

[onecornerface]

There is extremely little philosophy work on safe supply, in anything like its current proposed low-barrier forms. There is a decent amount of non-philosophy work on safe supply, some academic and some non-academic. There is also a decent amount of philosophy work on issues *related* to safe supply. There’s a handful of philosophy articles over the last 20 years on the related program of high-barrier prescription heroin maintenance—although, weirdly, a sizeable majority (?) of these articles seem to be disputes over *one* particular sub-issue, i.e. a debate over whether people with addictions can consent to a prescription of the drug to which they are addicted. That’s an important issue, but it’s bizarre that this one issue has spawned its own mini subgenre of philosophy papers, while neglecting the myriad other important philosophical aspects of prescription heroin. There’s also a handful of books and articles by philosophers on broad drug policy issues, such as decriminalization and legalization. Many arguments for legalization likely generalize to safe supply, which is arguably a form of legalization. However, pretty much all this work is at least somewhat abstract and effectively siloed off from the actual concrete state of drug reform movements, including movements for harm reduction and safe supply. Even more abstract, when philosophers have written on drug policy, it has very often been in some ancillary point to some broader issue, such as autonomy, paternalism, or legal moralism. So for instance an article or book on paternalism may contain some discussion on how a given theory applies to drug prohibition in the abstract, but without delving much into the specifics. There is a ton of philosophy of addiction, much of which is likely indirectly relevant to drug policy and safe supply, in many interesting ways. However, this work has rarely been explicitly connected to analysis of drug policy, harm reduction, or safe supply, except occasionally. There’s a handful of philosophy articles on harm reduction, including a bunch of 2020 articles (in "Health Care Analysis") that actually do engage somewhat with the current state of the movements. This is a welcome change, and I hope to see (and eventually contribute to) more follow-up to it. There ARE a LOT of philosophy books and articles on myriad issues more distantly related to safe supply—such as medical ethics, medical epistemology, precautionary principles, possibly consumer protection, etc. These and many other philosophy literatures contain a lot of resources with great potential to clarify and develop the case for safe supply, but nobody has done it yet.