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kuromichad · 3 years

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different subject that’s heavy on my mind rn but since i’m already being harsh let’s get into it. i wish it wasn’t automatically presumed to be some kind of truscum attitude when someone tries to express that different parts of The Trans Community have like, different needs and different risk levels and different experiences and that we have the ability to talk over each other, harm each other, etc... like when i put it that way people generally are like ‘of course that’s true!’ but is it ever really understood in practice? a number of people (not a large enough number, but still) are able to loosely understand ‘you can be trans and transphobic’ when it’s applied to the matter of transmisogyny but when a trans person tries to express distrust of or frustration with afab nb people due to how common it is that that category of person will, despite being trans/nb, espouse bioessentialist, anti-medical-transition, radfem-adjacent if not outright cryptoterf rhetoric, suddenly ‘trans people can be transphobic’ gets applied to... the person with a complaint about transphobia.

because he’s clearly an evil truscum man! regardless of if the person making the complaint is a trans man or trans woman, oops, lol. he’s a bad person who is attacking and invalidating and totally hatecriming the heckin’ valid, equally at-risk transgender identity of “an afab woman who isn’t a woman except when she pointedly categorizes themself as a woman because being afab makes them a woman who is ‘politically aligned’ with women but she’s not an icky unwoke cis woman because they don’t like being forced into womanhood although Really When You Think About It 🤔 all women are dysphoric because obviously the pathologized medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria in transgender people is something that equally applies to cis women just default existing under patriarchy 🤔, and no, equating these things totally does not imply anything reductive about or add a bizarre moral dimension to the idea of being transgender, whaaaaat, this woman who isn’t a woman doesn’t think there’s anything immoral or cowardly or misogynist or delusional about being transgender, they would never say that because THEY’RE transgender, except when she feels it’s important (constantly) to make clear that she’s Still A Woman Deep Down Inherently Despite Not Identifying As One, and none of this ever has any effect on how they treat the concept, socially and politically, of people who actually wholly identify with (and possibly medically transition to) a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth, be it ‘the opposite gender’ or abstaining from binary gender altogether or ‘politically aligning’ with the ‘opposite’ gender from their asab. never ever!”

and like maybe that sounds like a completely absurd and hateful strawman to you! but in that case you’re either like, lucky, or optimistic, or ignorant. i’m literally not looking at random nb people and declaring that in My Truscum Opinion they’re ‘really a woman’ just because they’re not medically transitioning or meeting some arbitrary standard of mine. i am looking at self-identified afab nb people, who most often use she/they because, y’know, words mean things, especially pronouns, so people who are willingly ‘aligned with womanhood’ typically intentionally use she/her (sorry that i guess that’s another truscum take now!!! that pronouns mean things!!! the bigender transmasc who deliberately uses exclusively he/him wants it to invoke a perception he’s comfortable with!), who actively say the things listed above (in a non-sarcastic manner).

like, the line between a person who says “i don’t claim to really not be my asab because i know no one would ever perceive me as anything else” because theyve internalized a defeatist attitude due to societal transphobia, and a person who says that because they... genuinely believe it’s impossible/ridiculous/an imposition to truly be transgender (in the traditional trans sense, beyond a vague nb disidentification with gender) and are actively contributing to the former person’s self loathing... is hard to define from a distance! i think plenty of people who are, in a sense, ‘tentative’ or like ‘playing close to home’ so to speak in their identity are ‘genuinely trans’ (whatever that may mean) and just going through a process. they might arrive at a different identity or might just eventually stop saying/believing defeatist stuff, who knows. but there are enough people saying it for the latter reason, or at least not caring if they sound that way, that it’s like, dangerous. it is actively incredibly harmful to other trans people. and it’s fucking ridiculous that it’s so difficult to criticize because you’ll always get the defense of “umm but i’m literally trans” and/or “well i’m just talking about ME, this doesn’t apply to other trans people” when it’s an attitude that very clearly seeps into their politics and the way they discuss gender.

because it’s just incredibly common for afab nb people (most typically those that go by she/they! since i’m aware that uh, i am also afab nb, but we clearly are extremely different, so that’s the best categorization i’ve got) to discuss gender in moralized terms, with the excuse of patriarchy/misogyny existing, which of course adds another difficult dimension to trying to criticize this because it gets the response of “don’t act like misandry is real” (it’s not, but being a dick still is) and “boohoo, let women complain about their oppressors” (this goes beyond ‘complaining’). a deliberate revocation of empathy/sympathy/compassion from men and projection of inherently malicious/brutish/cruel intent onto men (not solely in the justified generalizations ‘men suck/are dangerous’, but in specific interactions too) underpin a whole fucking lot of popular posts/discussions online, whether they’re political or casual/social, and it absolutely influences how people conceptualize and feel about transness.

because ‘maleness is evil’ is still shitty politics even when you’ve slightly reframed it from the terf ‘trans women are evil because they’re Really Men and can never escape being horrific soulless brutes just as women can never escape being fragile morally superior flowers’ to the tumblr shethey “trans women who are out to me/unclockable are tolerable i guess because they’re women and women are good; anyone i personally presume to be a cis man, though, is still automatically evil, and saying trans men are Just As Bad is progressive of me, and it’s totally unrelated and apolitical that i think we should expand the concept of afab lesbianism so broadly that you can now be basically indistinguishable from trans men on literally every single level except for a declaration of ‘but i would never claim to be a man because i’m secure in the Innate Womanhood of the body i was born into, even as i medically alter that body because it causes me great gendered discomfort.’ none of this at all indicates that i feel there’s an immense moral/political gap between being an afab nb lesbian vs a straight trans man! it says nothing at all about my concept of ‘maleness’ and there’s no way this rhetoric bleeds into my perception of trans women and no way loudly talking about all this could keep trans people around me self-loathing and closeted, because i’m Literally Trans and Not A Terf!”

again, if that sounds like a hateful strawman, sorry but it’s not. i guess i’m supposed to be like ‘all of the many people ive seen saying these shitty things is an evil outlier who Doesn’t Count, and it’s not fair to the broad identity of afab shethey to not believe that every person who doesn’t outright say terfy enough things is a perfectly earnest valid accepting trans person who’s beyond criticism’ but like. this cannot be about broad validation. this can’t be about discarding all the bad apples as not really part of the group. we can’t be walking on eggshells to coddle what are essentially, in the end, Cis Feelings, because in the best cases this kind of rhetoric comes from naive people who are early and uncertain in their gender journey or whatever and are in the process of unraveling internalized transphobia, and in the easily observable worst cases these people are very literally redefining shit so that ‘actually all afab women are trans, spiritually, all afabs have dysphoria, we are all Equally oppressed by Males uh i mean cis men <3’ because, let’s be honest, they know that the moment they call themselves trans they get to say whatever they want about gender no matter how harmful it is to the rest of us. and those ideas spread like wildfire through the afab shethey “woman that’s not a woman” community that frankly greatly outnumbers other types of trans people online, because many of those people just do not have the experiences that lead you to really understand this shit and have to push back against concepts of gender that actively harm you as a trans person.

like that’s all i want to be able to say, is Things Are Different For Different Groups. and a willful ignorance of these differences leads to bad rhetoric controlling the overall discourse which gets people hurt. and even when concepts arise from it that seem positive and helpful and inclusive, in practice or in origin those ideas can still be upholding shit that gets other people hurt. like, i don’t doubt that many people are very straightforwardly happy and comfortable with an identity like ‘afab nb lesbian on testosterone’ and it would be ridiculous and hypocritical for me, ‘afab nb who wants to pass as a guy so he can comfortably wear skirts again,’ to act like that’s something that can’t or shouldn’t exist. it’s not about the identity itself, it’s about the politics that are popular within its community, and how the use of identities as moral labels with like, fucking pokemon type interactions for oppression effectiveness which directly informs the moral correctness of your every opinion and your very existence, is a shitty practice that gets people hurt and leads us to revoke empathy from each other.

like. sorry this is all over the place and long and probably still sounds evil because i haven’t thought through and disclaimered every single statement. but i’m like exhausted from living with this self-conscious guilt that maybe i’ve turned into a horrible evil truscum misogynist etc etc due to feeling upset by this seemingly inescapable approach to gender in lgbt/online circles that like, actively harms me, because when i vent with my friends all the stuff i’ve tried to explain here gets condensed down to referencing ‘she/theys’ as a category and that feels mean and generalizing and i genuinely dislike generalizations but the dread i feel about that category gets proven right way too often. it’s just like. this is not truscum this is not misgendering this is not misogyny. this is not about me decreeing that all transmascs have to be manly enough or dysphoric enough and all nbs have to be neatly agender and androgynous or something, i’m especially not saying that nb gender isn’t real lmao or even that it’s automatically wrong to partially identify with your asab; this is not me saying you can only medically transition for specific traditional reasons or that you don’t get a say on anything if you aren’t medically transitioning for whatever reason, now or ever. i just. want to be allowed to be frank about how... when there’s different experiences in a community we should like. acknowledge those differences and be willing to say that sometimes people don’t know what they’re talking about or that what they’re saying is harmful. without the primary concern being whether people will feel invalidated by being told so. because these are like, real issues, that are more important than politely including everyone, because that method is just getting vulnerable people drowned out constantly.

#source on much of this: existing as a transmasc on tumblr for years and years.#i stopped identifying as any sort of 'woman-aligned' pretty much right before the ridiculous 'all afabs are dysphoric' stuff #but it sure did still make me hate myself and feel like a silly cowardly ugly little girl for wanting to transition!#and back when i WAS a she/they i definitely was falling for 'men are bad maleness is bad always inherently :)' rhetoric #not in the modern form outlined above but in the like. brainlessly parroted from 'baeddel tumblr' form #which was still like 'you can escape being a Bad Person by either becoming or admitting you are a girl :)'#and the only acknowledgment of trans men in this ideology was like. 'well i guess they feel like they have to do that :\'#'too bad for them. im not saying they shouldnt transition but you know. men suck though <3'#it was bad for me it was bad for other people so im saying from experience. Fucking cut it out! the end

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secret-engima · 4 years

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That Fem!Nox snippet was wonderful and I can't thank you enough for sharing it with us! It does make me wonder just how everyone found out about Nox and Nyx's relationship/marriage. Because obviously Ardyn was more than aware probably from the beginning and Regis was one of the last to know which probably was a 'fun' revelation for everyone involved, especially if Nox's protective Lucis Caelum 'Mine' instinct got invoked over Nyx. Poor Libertus though, the things he endures for his idiots.

Ohhhh XD yeah that was probably a fun but slow trainwreck.

-Ardyn knew from the beginning. Libertus was aware of Nyx’s terrible crush from the beginning, but I think it actually took him a little bit to realize that Nox and Nyx had gotten together.

-Then he catches Nyx looking giddy and spots Nox disappearing down the other end of the hall and he just- SIGHS. Into his hands. Looks up at Nyx miserably and goes “You’re dating the princess aren’t you.”

-“She started it!”

-Libertus wants a refund on his life pls.

-Most of the glaives totally guess the relationship before actually catching Nyx and Nox in the act, but they DO keep catching them in the act. Luche, who has been living stubbornly in denial, walks into the glaive obstacle course room one day to find Nox and Nyx kissing each other senseless in the rafters. Luche immediately backed out of the room yelling about “getting a NON-PUBLIC ROOM YOU TWO”, Nyx just laughed at him.

-Axis knew from the start and threatened Nyx with horrible murder if he hurt Nox, so there’s that XD.

-Titus took longer to know, not because he was unaware of the clues ... he was just firmly in Denial. Ardyn kept teasing him about it, Titus kept intentionally playing dumb until he found two certain somebodies hiding from Clarus in Titus’s office. After blandly handing a blushing Nox her lost hair tie (Nyx had pulled it out while they were kissing cause he likes tangling his fingers in her hair), he very firmly told them that he was NOT going to report them, but he also wasn’t going to be their alibi. If he found them in his office doing this again, he was going to put Nyx on gate duty for the rest of the YEAR. Now scoot.

-They scooted.

-Cor ... suspects. He doesn’t find out until Ignis tattles to Regis, because otherwise he would have murdered Nyx and then gone to inform Regis. But he SUSPECTS and Nyx and Nox have more than a few close calls of the Marshal sniffing around.

-I feel like Ignis is somehow the one to find them? Like- I know I said they get caught napping in Nox’s room so logically it’s a servant or something that catches them but I want it to be Ignis okay? Ignis who came in to- idk check on Nox because the youngest princess was worried about Nox not showing up for their video game tournament and Ignis knows sometimes Nox has bad Quiet Days and so was just coming to make sure she was okay and sees Nyx and her (who are totally married by this point) snoozing in her big bed because Nyx is exhausted from a mission and Nox likes cuddles. But Ignis, unaware of the marriage and the entire relationship up until this point, concludes All The Worst Things and runs straight to Regis.

-Literally straight to him, I’m picturing Ignis walking straight into a council meeting and going “Kingsglaive Ulric is sleeping with your oldest daughter right now” and everyone can feel Regis’s magic ERUPT throughout the entire Citadel (Nox jolts awake, worried and startled, wondering why her dad’s magic feels furious and alarmed and is ... coming ... closer... oh no.)

-Regis is ... NOT a happy camper at first. Very not. Not that he doesn’t want Nox to be happy and find the love of her life but- just- she didn’t breathe a word about it to anyone and no one told him till Ignis worded it in the worst way possible. So he ... overreacts.

-Nyx sees his life flash before his eyes via enraged Dad King until Nox jumps in with her own armiger and yells over Regis’s fury that SHE’S MARRIED TO NYX, KNOCK IT OFF. Complete with angry magic sparks and bared teeth because that is HER HUSBAND and not even her father can touch him without consequences.

-Regis goes dead still. Stares at Nox like he isn’t sure if he believes her and is horrified or if he thinks she’s lying to save Nyx’s soul. Nox shows Regis the wedding bead and explains that they had a Galahdian wedding and Galahdians wear beads instead of rings.

-Regis looked dangerously at Titus, who is following a cackling Ardyn into this disaster, and Titus sighs as he nods and confirms that bit of culture.

-Regis growls, deep and draconic in a way that makes Nyx’s teeth vibrate, then slowly lets Nyx down from the wall. He turns to his daughter and tells her that 1. she is in BIG TROUBLE for not telling him. Yes, he knows she’s a legal adult but she is his daughter, he is the king, and this is his HOUSE. He should have gotten at least three months heads up rather than finding out via Ignis saying “a glaive is sleeping with your eldest daughter”. 2. he won’t kill or fire her husband but he WILL be putting Nyx on suspension for lying to his king and FATHER-IN-LAW. and 3. he wants a Royal Wedding. He is GOING to walk his daughter down the aisle in a proper Lucian wedding ceremony so help him.

-Nox, not being an idiot and frankly wanting to keep her husband, agrees to these terms.

#SE asks #yozoraarashi asks #Secret Engima Rambles #Fem!Nox verse #Nox verse

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lost-in-yujikiri · 5 years

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LN info compilation: Eugeo’s relationships with his family & Rulid village

Manga panels: Eugeo & his family when he was 11 years old

I wanted to make this compilation of novel details to be a helpful reference for myself & other people (especially anime-only people) to understand Eugeo and what he went through in his life better.

Eugeo’s family includes his father Orick, mother, grandmother, 2 older brothers and 1 older sister Celinia. His grandfather, who passed away when he was 9, used to share countless old tales with young Eugeo, Kirito & Alice, including the tales of legendary hero Bercouli. His family doesn’t have wealth or importance so they have no family name. Eugeo really was at the bottom of the bottoms in terms of social standing, which made him develop an inferiority complex towards others.

1. Eugeo’s family was a barley-farming family, except for him whose Calling was a woodcutter, and for a number of times he was treated unfairly for it. His father was disappointed with his Calling even though it was not his choosing, his older brothers looked down on him for it, and most of his earnings went to his family for the farm. Since he was little because of these experiences he had developed some hidden anger, frustration & jealousy. These feelings were usually suppressed and controlled well, but they would come out whenever he was truly provoked or upset.

- Eugeo’s father first mention in the LN:

Eugeo’s father, Orick, raised a barley field on cleared forestland to the south of the village that had been in the family for generations. He made a show of being delighted when his third son, Eugeo, was chosen to be a Gigas Cedar carver, but inwardly, he was disappointed. They’d be paid his earnings as a carver from the village treasury, of course, but that didn’t make it any easier to replace that extra set of hands to work in the field.

Novel excerpt: Volume 9, Prologue I part 5

- Memories of Eugeo’s family that Quinella showed him during her manipulation to invoke his inner frustrations (which unfortunately was cut from the anime ep 19):

It was the spring of his tenth year, the day that all the children in the village were brought to the clearing so that the elder could assign their callings. He watched nervously as Elder Gasfut glanced down at him from the podium and announced a significant surprise: “Carver of the Gigas Cedar.” Still, some of the children around him made envious comments. The carver was a prestigious, hallowed position that had existed since the founding of Rulid, and while he wouldn’t get a sword, he’d at least get to swing a real ax. Eugeo wasn’t disappointed at the time, by any means. He raced back home, clutching the parchment roll tied with a red ribbon, proud to show it off to his family. After the initial silence, it was the middle brother who spoke first. He clicked his tongue and complained that he thought it was going to be the day he didn’t have to shovel the cow poop anymore. Then the eldest brother noted that this threw off their plan for the year’s planting. His father grunted and asked Eugeo when that job would end and whether he would have time for the fields after he got home. His mother disappeared into the kitchen, wary of their wrath. In the eight years since, Eugeo’s role at home had always been small. And yet, the earnings he made as carver went into Father’s care and eventually turned into more sheep and new tools for the farm. Meanwhile, Zink the apprentice man-at-arms got to spend all his salary on himself, feasting on white bread with thick slices of meat and showing off his fancy hobnailed boots and his sword with its smooth leather scabbard. Meanwhile, Eugeo drudged around on his worn-down shoes, with nothing but stale, leftover bread in his lunch sack.

Novel excerpt: Volume 13, Chapter 11 part 5

- One scene that took place during Eugeo’s childhood & after a confrontation with Raios & Humbert that showed his inner anger:

Eugeo knew about the phrase temper tantrum. When he was young, his father had given his eldest brother a wooden sword from the school, and Eugeo was so jealous that he took his own sword, one his father whittled himself, and struck it against a rock outside so hard that it broke. His father explained that this was a temper tantrum, an act of misplaced anger, and was something to be ashamed of. After a good scolding, Eugeo never did such a thing again.

Eugeo turned and left the room, while the other boys laughed and urged him to go ahead with his plan. Once the door had shut behind him, he clenched his fist, ready to smash it against the wall—but he knew he had enough strength to put a dent in it, thus damaging the life of the building. Intentionally destroying school facilities or property clearly violated the rules and would be an example of that “temper tantrum” he’d been warned about. For a moment, he wished for that Gigas Cedar again, its bark so tough that he could smash all his frustration into it without consequence.

Novel excerpt: Volume 11, Chapter 5 part 2 & 3

2. Due to lack of food & resource, to manage population in Rulid Village the oldest sons will take over the house, the younger sons most likely can not have their own family.

- Eugeo’s monologue right before Tiese’s love confession to him:

Because the harvests in little villages like Rulid were limited, the population had to be carefully managed. Almost without exception, it was the eldest son who took over the house and fields, so (depending on their callings) the later sons were typically forbidden to marry and were bachelors into old age. If he hadn’t met Kirito, Eugeo quite possibly could have led a life of nothing more than chopping at the Gigas Cedar every single day. Just like Old Man Garitta. Now he was living in Centoria among nobles of every stripe—but what would he do if he failed to be school representative after graduating? He could try to get a position within the Imperial Knights or a garrison in some other large town. He could even go all the way back to Rulid to work for his brother. In any case, he’d never need to concern himself with a noble estate.

Novel excerpt: Volume 11, Chapter 5 part 3

- Eugeo’s recall of his life and how he would live a monotonous life of a bachelor woodcutter if Kirito didn’t show up:

Until two years ago, his entire life, as far as he knew it, was to be vainly swinging an ax into a tree that would never fall down. His only sentiment would be to reflect on the memories of his long-lost golden-haired friend as he led a lonely life without marriage or children, dwelling deep in the forest until the day he grew old and handed the ax to a new generation and passed away with no one to tell his tale.

Novel excerpt: Volume 12, Chapter 8 part 1

3. The incident of Alice breaking Taboo Index and arrested resulted in a part of the village & his family ostracizing him for being close friend with her. Coupled with Kirito’s existence getting erased from everyone’s memories, the situation pushed Eugeo to a lonely & depressive state for 6 years that followed. Only after meeting Kirito again at age 17, Eugeo became lively and smiled again.

- Selka’s view of Eugeo’s depressive state and Kirito remarked how different Eugeo was with him:

Selka was quiet for a few moments. She eventually mumbled, “I see…So the reason Eugeo doesn’t smile anymore…is because of Alice.” “Eugeo…doesn’t smile?” “Yes. When my sister was around, he was always beaming. It was hard to find him not looking happy. I was still young, so I don’t remember it that well…but ever since she was taken away, I feel like I never see Eugeo smiling anymore. In fact…even on his days off, whether he stays inside or goes into the forest, he’s always alone…” I found this statement to be a bit strange. Eugeo was rather reserved, it was true, but he didn’t seem to be hiding his emotions from me. During our chats coming to and from the forest and on our break times, he had even laughed, and more than a few times.

Novel excerpt: Volume 9, Chapter 1 part 3

- Eugeo’s recall about his relationship with the village and his 6-year depressive state:

Everyone in the village, including his family, refused to discuss the Integrity Knight’s arrest of the village elder’s daughter, as though even acknowledging it was a taboo of its own. In fact, they’d even begun to shun Eugeo for having been close to her in the first place. But just as the villagers avoided him, so did Eugeo avoid others, as well as his own memories of the incident. Unable to admit his weakness and cowardice, he descended into the murky swamp of resignation, hoping to ignore both his past and future. But then, two years ago, a boy who wandered into the forest without a single possession to his name had found Eugeo and dragged him out of that bottomless swamp.

Novel excerpt: Volume 13, Chapter 10

- Memories of some village people that Quinella showed him during her manipulation to invoke his inner frustrations (which unfortunately was cut from the anime ep 19, again):

Two years after Alice was taken away by the Integrity Knight, in his eleventh summer, Eugeo remembered Zink telling him that now that the elder’s daughter was gone, there was no girl left in the village who would care for him. The look in his eyes made it clear that he thought Eugeo deserved it. He’d been best friends with Alice, the prettiest and most talented girl in the village, and Zink was delighted at his downfall. Ultimately, no one in Rulid ever repaid Eugeo’s sentiments. He had the right to receive what he offered in a fair exchange, but instead, he was denied that privilege.

Novel excerpt: Volume 13, Chapter 11 part 5

4. After Eugeo cut down the Gigas Cedar, his father still wasn’t proud of him despite him completing a task the village considered sacred. His family expected him to stay to work for them, so they were disappointed with his decision of leaving the village. Eugeo still felt guilty for leaving them that way and sometimes thought about helping them, only for all of his considerations to turn to ashes after the Raios & Humbert incident.

- The scene when the village chief called forth Eugeo’s father to commemorate the cutdown of Gigas Cedar:

“I call forth the one who achieved this feat—Eugeo, son of Orick!”

He beckoned to a corner of the square, where a nervous-looking Eugeo stood. The short man next to him must have been his father, Orick. Aside from the hair color, they looked totally unalike, and he appeared more confused than proud. Eugeo proceeded forward at the urging of the other villagers, not his father.

Novel excerpt: Volume 9, Chapter 1 part 5

- Eugeo’s guilt of leaving his family and his thoughts of helping them:

It would be a lie to claim that he had never given it a second thought. When Chief Gasfut asked him what he wanted his next Calling to be on the night of the village festival, he had first considered his family. Up to that point, Eugeo had given his family his entire salary as the Gigas Cedar carver. They were traditionally a barley-farming family, but their fields were small, and the recent run of poor harvests had left them little income. Eugeo’s steady monthly wages were a minor bedrock that he knew his parents and brothers relied upon, even if no one wanted to admit it. Once the Gigas Cedar was felled, that salary was gone, naturally. But if he chose to be a farmer, like his father, they would receive preferential choice of the large, sunny stretches ready to be tilled to the south. Standing at the pulpit amid the excited villagers, Eugeo looked into the hopeful and anxious faces of his family members. His hesitation had lasted only an instant. On one end of the scale was a reunion with his childhood friend, and on the other was the livelihood of his family. The scale tilted, and Eugeo announced that he would leave the village and be a swordsman. Even as a swordsman, he could choose to stay in Rulid and be one of the men-at-arms, ensuring he’d still have a salary. But leaving the village meant leaving his family. The money that Eugeo made and the possibility of new, fertile fields would all go up in smoke. He hastily left the day after the festival because he couldn’t stand seeing the suppressed disappointment and unhappiness in the faces of his parents and brothers. There had been more opportunities to choose a life that supported his family after he and Kirito left Rulid. They competed in the swordfighting tournament in Zakkaria and won the right to join the garrison there. After hard training, they were given a recommendation to North Centoria Imperial Swordcraft Academy—but the commander also offered to keep them around, with the promise of promotions and maybe even a future place as the garrison commander. If he’d accepted that steady salary in Zakkaria and had sent some of it back to Rulid on the regular trading caravan, it could have made things so much easier for his family. And yet, Eugeo had turned down the commander’s offer and accepted the letter of recommendation instead. Along the way to Centoria, and even after joining the academy, a part of Eugeo’s mind had been busy making excuses. He’d be named school representative, win the Four-Empire Unification Tournament, and receive the prestigious rank of Integrity Knight—and then his parents would have riches and comfort beyond their imagination. When he made his triumphant return with Alice, riding a dragon and outfitted in silver armor, his parents would be prouder of their youngest son than anyone could ever be. But two nights ago, when he had drawn his blade against Raios Antinous and Humbert Zizek, Eugeo had betrayed his family for the third time. He gave up on the very real possibility of noble rank in his future…and chose to violate the Taboo Index, sacrificing his common status in the process.

Novel excerpt: Volume 12, Chapter 8 part 1

5. However, Eugeo’s relationships with some members of his family & village people were not all bad. After recovering memories of Kirito & broke free from Administrator’s manipulation, Eugeo realized there were still some people he had loved, which include:

“Old Man Garitta, the previous carver. Sister Azalia from the Church. Selka the apprentice sister. Grandfather, who told me stories of the past. My elder sister, Celinia, who cared for me when I was little...”

as well as many other good people he met on their journey, so he didn’t have to be so fixated on the lack of love from his parents & others anymore. (Volume 14, Chapter 12 part 2)

#eugeo #sword art online #alicization #sword art online alicization #novel excerpt

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kizo2703 · 5 years

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One fantastic, stolen comentary:

"Or is the show’s inability to admit the slow burn relationship that they are exploring to blame for Bellamy Blake’s romantic life not feeling valued enough?" Bingo. Let's be open about it. Yes. Clarke and Bellamy's relationship has been *obviously intentionally) written, acted and directed as a slow burn love story since at least halfway through season 1. I binged the show over a couple of months, and maybe that makes it all the more obvious. But really, I don't see how anyone can deny it without sticking their heads in the sand and really being in denial. Their interactions never looked "platonic", blatant hints about romantic love were thrown every season, their relationship and their scenes together are very romantically coded. By season 5, even the storyline doesn't make any sense if we try to explain their relationship as "just friends"'. "platonic" "bros' (LOL). The only things that are apparently a no-no for the show: no making out; no sex; no explicit "I love you"s said to each other. Because they supposedly are needed to make a relationship "canon" - or so the fandom and apparently the reviewers think. Which is a silly view, IMO, and requires me to believe that viewers are dumb and need to be everything spelled out. People used to be able to follow romances that didn't start with people having sex and/or swearing eternal love 2 hours or 2 days after meeting each other for the first time, What happened? Another funny thing is, Bellarke is not really a "slow burn" if you take into account the show's timeline. The entirety of seasons 1-4 lasts about 7 and a half months, before Clarke and Bellamy get tragically separated by circumstance and her presumed death (classic romantic trope). Then, in season 5, which lasted just a couple of weeks in-universe, we get a love triangle (another classic romantic trope). (I have no idea how anyone can deny it is one, when every love scene Bellamy and Echo have had has been either 1) a shock reveal at the end of an episode focused on Clarke surviving on Earth while calling Bellamy every day, or 2) a scene that ended on a shot of Clarke, and focused more on the heartbroken expression on her face, than on Bellamy and Echo themselves). And it's still going on, leading into season 6. About 7 and a half months of development, out of which they only spent half the time around each other (due to separations due to circumstance or Clarke's depression)... that's really more like "normal burn" by real life standards. Then a tragic separation, epic reunion, problems and conflict and getting back together emotionally over the space of a couple of weeks. It's just that 1) it lasted 5 seasons, and 2) The 100 otherwise tends to have a lot of ridiculously rushed and poorly developed relationships - the kinds where people are supposed to be in "love" after knowing each other for a couple of episodes, or anything from 2 hours to 2 weeks in-universe. Or, they get developed off-screen (as has been the case with Bellamy's 'serious' relationships, and some others between secondary and tertiary characters like Miller/Jackson). There are exceptions (like Kabby or Memori), but they are in the minority. And The 100 sure isn't adverse to romance, seeing how it can't go more than 2 seasons without giving any of the major characters (except Jaha) a love interest, or how it often it goes for romance as a way to cause a character's trauma and dark arc (e.g. Jasper. Octavia). Let's look at the characters other than the two leads: Octavia - brief fling with Atom in the first couple of episodes of season 1, ship-tease with Jasper, then an epic romance with Lincoln (which started pretty much the moment they met) until his death in season 3 - which was a major motivation for Octavia for the next 1.5 seasons. Then she got a new love interest, Ilian, in season 4, who helped her start to get out of her darkness and trauma. He got killed, too, because Octavia had to have a very dark arc in season 5, where romance wouldn't fit. And that's the only season she has been without a love interest. Raven - Finn in season 1, Wick in season 2, then she did go two seasons without a love interest (though that's just a few months in-universe), but season 5 gave her a new LI, Shaw. Abby - while memories of Jake were still often invoked, her chemistry with Kane was obvious since season 1, and they got together and have been together since season 3. Kane - had a girlfriend in the Pilot that the show quickly wrote out of the show; after that - see Abby, above. Murphy - no LI in season 1, when he was a tertiary character and an antagonist; Emori has been his LI since season 2, and they've been together on and off since season 3. Jasper - had a crush on Octavia in season 1, then a tragic romance with Maya in season 2, and her death was his catalyst for his depression and emotional breakdown, an arc that lasted two seasons. In season 3, the only brief sign of hope was his interest in another girl, who also then died and dashed the hopes of Jasper getting better. Monty - no obvious LI for the first 2 seasons, got together with Harper in season 3, they were a couple for the rest of the show Finn - initially Clarke's LI, then part of a love triangle with her and Raven, then got a "Love Makes You Crazy" storyline in season 2 and was used to cause Clarke more pain and romantic tragedy. Wells - died after 3 episodes, but that was enough for his romantic love for Clarke to be heavily indicated. Echo - Bellamy's LI. Miller (not a part of the main cast) - has had two long-term relationships, with Bryan (season 3-4 - presumably an old relationship from the Ark) and Jackson (season 4-ongoing). Roan is another exception, but he was killed after lasting less than 2 seasons on the show, 1 as a main cast member. And Clarke had two romantic relationship that lasted extremely short in-universe (especially taking into account the actual time when they were actual romantic/sexual relationships - which was just a few hours in both cases), but were both developed on-screen and portrayed as epic and tragic romances. The last one was... in the first half of season 3. So... either the show's lead is the only character who hasn't had a real love interest for 2 and a half seasons; while the show's second lead/male lead (who's also a fan favorite and male sex symbol) only had 1 love interest in the first 4 seasons, who died after a couple of episodes, and both of his relationships were developed fully off-screen (and everything else pointed out in this article)... while the show, for some reason, gave him a totally platonic relationship (which constantly looks romantic for some reason) with a woman that it focuses on, even though he already has a platonic relationship with a woman - his actual sister- that the show also focuses almost just as much (and they are the only characters in the show who have living siblings)... which would make The 100 the show with weirdest storytelling and writing decisions ever... --- or, you know, Clarke is Bellamy's love interest, and Bellamy is Clarke's love interest. Which suddenly makes all of it make sense.

http://disq.us/p/1yp0yyf

#the100 #bellamy blake #bellarke

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johnny2071 · 5 years

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Top 10 Worst of Sue Murphy *STRONG CRITICISM*

F is for Family is a very divisive show that has garnered a lot of attention on the internet, whether its the bitter and crass nature of the show itself, the dysfunctionality of the Murphy family, or the jarring one-liners and temper of the main character, that only a stand-up comedian like Bill Burr can provide. However, while this show gets nothing but an obscene amount of praise, especially over its outspoken protagonist, not much is said regarding the main female of the house who invokes a lot of emotional drama: Sue Murphy, who quite honestly is far from pleasant and approachable. We all have stress in our lives. However, Sue's methods of handling them, along with sheer amount of obsession, neglect, hostility, and miscommunication with just the people in her house, is enough to keep anyone awake for weeks, especially with a show written as real as this. This is a top 10 list of Sue's worst moments in each episode throughout the first three seasons up to this point (with some exceptions). Before anyone in this rabid "show-can-do-no-wrong" subreddit/fanbase bites my head off or "puts me through da fuckin' wall", it's important to read this quote from a popular YouTuber: "Rather than insulting these people, maybe try to understand the perspective and say why you disagree. This kind of reaction to negativity and critique needs to stop. There is nothing wrong with negativity. Negativity, especially in criticism is a necessity. You cannot have positivity without negativity. Bother are in balance, and one without the other is unnatural. You cannot live your life without negativity or negative opinions towards something. It's completely natural. Not only that, but living in a world where everything is treated as if they have no flaws is misguided. That's not how things are. So when a product comes along, it should be scrutinized with negativity and positivity."

Unlike Watchmojo or any regular top ten video, I will not include full paragraph analysis for each bad Sue moment. This will be kept as brief as possible. Also, these aren't rankings for the episodes themselves (since other characters do horrible and questionable things). With that said, let's move on to this top 10 list.

10. This is Not Good - Out of these current 26 episodes, there have been some minor moments. But it's this episode that highlights Sue's neglect and sets the tone that erupts into a fierce conflict. 9. Punch Drunk - While Sue has major hostility towards Chet and Frank for not siding with her judgement, what really takes the cake is when she coldly blows off Maureen, who was only voicing a complaint about her father. 8. Paul Lynde to Block - Sue's mood in general over the summer heat, and Frank and Kevin's arguing. But the real kicker is her brief exchange with Bill over bug spray, shortly before she meets the new neighbors. 7. Landing the Plane - Sue's bitterness at the beginning of the episode, as well her treatment towards a random bystander while drunk from her sorrows of having her idea stolen. 6. F is for Fixing It - Sue's mood throughout the whole episode, as she puts pressure on Frank to resolve their marriage. 5. Bill Murphy's Day Off - Frank and Sue's first explosive argument, where they both say negative about Bill behind his back. 4. The Stinger - Sue's outburst in this episode is what provoked me to create this list. She kicks Bill out the house and sends Maureen to her room, just so she can have the whole living room to herself, only to threaten everyone she invited over (and even Maureen) to by her product. Selfish bitch! I wish I could just barge in there, call her out on her shit, and snatch and toss away that carton of ice cream she has the nerve to triumphantly eat. And I'll gladly take on any SJWs who object. 3. Pray Away - Sue was frosty throughout the entire episode (no peaceful moments there), but flips out when Frank sincerely expresses his source of anger. 2. Fight Night - I'm not sure what things were like at the beginning, the things go SOUTH between Frank and Sue the minute they're called into the Maureen's classroom. 1. A Girl Named Sue - Do I even need to explain why this is number one. It's that one scene alone, and I do not want to recount it. Dishonorable Mentions: -The Bleedin in Sweden - When the new television is broken, Sue intentionally guilts the children over Frank's outburst in the store. After Kevin takes the fall, she zeroes in on Bill and scolds him for it when he comes clean. Even though Frank is kind to him at the end, Sue says NOTHING. -Saturday, Bloody Saturday - At the beginning, Sue scolds Kevin for his bad grades, and stops a fight between Bill and Maureen, by threatening to go insane. -The Trough - While Kevin rightfully gets called out for not doing his homework and keeping his promise, it doesn't paint Sue in a positive light. However, Sue shows her scary side once again (exclaiming that she wished she was never married), when she runs into Ginny, who eats all her time in the rest of the day she was going to spend with Maureen (who was dragged along with her). Whether Sue actually had Maureen in mind or just brought her along as a prop to quell her own insecurities is debatable. This also the matter that Sue almost returns home in rage to chew out Frank (after Maureen mention that he has exclaimed that same thing before). -F is for Halloween - Sue's silently storms off when she finds out about the message Sue left. This is not in the top 10, because she's gone throughout the rest of the episode until the end. -O Holy Moly Night - Sue's hostility in this episode is subdued, but still prominent at the beginning. Directly after the fire incident, all Sue can do is just sit at the table and glare at Bill, while Frank chews him out. When Bill mention's that he knows about their bedroom argument, he catches their attention for a brief second, but when Maureen mentions that Major is missing, and they go right back to giving Bill hostility. The drama that scarred Bill and led to the fire in the first place, is never elaborated on past that, and Bill is made an altar boy off-screen by Frank and/or Sue. Other than that Sue simply prepares for the holiday season, up until the Fitzsimmons' call out the entire family and Sue sends them running with a bat and drops her first f-strike. -Heavy Sledding - While Sue is relatively tame throughout the whole episode, the biggest upset is when she screams at a 9-year old who called her family loser, and then throws her cigarette in his face. The fact that she even smokes at this point, strongly implies that this is a very unpleasant woman. -S4E10? - Considering what this show is how it does not deviate from the worst possible scenarios, Sue going in labor will go as well as you would expect it to, and it wouldn't be like any labor scenario that's ever happened in pop culture (and real-life).

----------BONUS DISCUSSION----------

Less Volatile Behavior (a.k.a. the remaining episodes): -The Liar's Club - Didn't watch -Night Shift - Sue's only disdain was over lettuce, before getting wrapped up with her first invention brainstorm -Breaking Bill - Sue had a bad day at work, only to see Frank arguing with Kevin in public. Other than that, she didn't do anything else. -Are You Ready For Summer? - Didn't watch. Sounded like an already involved episode as it is. Apparently, she "wasn't any better than Frank" at the parade. -Frank the Father - Sue gone for most of the day, rooting for Maureen at the Hobo Jojo Show, and expresses disappointment and disgust when she sees Frank and Kevin arguing as she returns home. She then mutters under her breath whether or not its her fault or the family. Needless to say, it's her. -It's In His Blood - Sue is distraught over losing the recently build baby room due to not having a permit. She also pays zero attention to Kevin when he actually tries to get advice from them over a serious matter. The rest of her activity consist of trying to get Nguyen-Nguyen to seek help and Frank's anger over Chet. -Mr. Murphy's Wild Ride - Now this one is quite mixed. Sue actually wishes Kevin a happy birthday, but this is likely due to her being gung-ho that receive "positive feedback" over the Forkoontula. One could argue that she defended Bill, when Marie accuses him of being a liar, when he takes the blame for Phillip pushing Anthony (only for Phillip to admit it anyway). However, she probably used this as a segway to call Marie out on her lie, when she finds out she threw her invention away in the garbage can. To Sue's credit, she does realize how harmful her invention is and gives one of the rarest and sincerest apologies that she/Laura Dern can deliver (a total 180 from the previous episode and earlier, excluding the part where Maureen isn't taken into account, but leagues better than the one she co-gives to Bill when he calls both his parents out). However, this scene shows us just how bad Sue's listening skills are, as she misinterprets two things. First, she thinks that her friends were only fearful towards her invention and not herself and the way she acted. Second, she thinks they actually like her invention, despite the "few flaws". -Summer Vacation - After Frank drives away both Sue's parents and their children, they almost have another argument. Fortunately indigestion kicks in, and they have a good laugh together. -Battle of the Sexes - Sue seems to express no real hostility, but not much sincerity. -Bill Murphy's Night Off - Sue spend the bulk of the episode searching for Bill while worried sick, finally learns how neglectful both her and Frank are as parents, and decides that being parents is their most important priority. We can only hope and pray that they (especially Sue) actually follow through with that promise (the right way), and not just scream at and punish them more, while "being their parents". ----------CONCLUSION----------

Sue has bad bipolar disorder, and needs serious psychological help as well as anger management. The sad thing about all of this is that she's the only female in this series who any real depth and sense of morality and sensitivity, and its the beautiful ones (combined with over-the-top movie star voice acting) that get under our skin and tug the emotional appeal cord. But point being, no one can make a big dramatic stink like Sue, and may god help the innocent party around her (as oppose to those who screw her over in the first place). At this point, in order to redeem her character just somewhat, the whole family need to bring enough up to speed and discuss/clarify all the miscommunications that happen during their neglect this third season alone. And yes, a plot-focused clip show (A CLIP SHOW)/recap episode would be gladly welcomed here. Sure some people would whine about them re-showing clips from previous episodes, but people in this particular fanbase binge each season in repeat anyway. Oh, and being pregnant doesn't give you the right to snap at others, especially over seemingly minor infractions. Sometimes I wonder if Sue is in Philip's kill book (the one character who has hidden unstable malice, regardless of age and gender).

#F is for family #fiff #top 10 list #netflix #sue murphy #bill murphy #rant #scary woman #fiff writers #laura dern #a girl named sue #paul lynde to block #strong criticism

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lj-writes · 6 years

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The trouble with the Light Side, and Finn as the Balance

What happens when you’re told, “Don’t think about the elephant?” Chances are, you’ll immediately think of an elephant.

I think that’s the problem with the Light Side of the Force as we have known it: So many of the doctrines and practices of the LS, such as the Old Jedi way of not forming attachments, are premised on resisting the temptations of the Dark Side.

If your goal is not to turn Dark, then what are you going to be thinking about? The Dark Side. This is why puritanism of all stripes is destined to fail, because it’s consumed more with what it’s against (sex! rock ‘n roll! murder!) than what it’s for (eh, love and peace I guess?).

Anakin Skywalker’s story from the prequel trilogy is a prime example of this in the Star Wars saga, walking backwards into the one place you were determined not to go. Intentionally or not, the prequels were an indictment of the Jedi way.

I think similarly, trying not to turn to the Light Side has a polarizing effect on those who turn to the Dark Side of the Force. You can see this with Kylo Ren in the new trilogy, thinking too hard about how not to go Light and then running to bugfucking extremes in the other direction.

The results of such extremism, in turn, are so horrific that the other side becomes understandably all the more preoccupied with, you know, NOT BEING THAT HELL NO and, again, being more anti-Dark than anything else. This doesn’t make the LS morally equivalent to the DS, but it does mean that LS practitioners can fall into the trap of puritanism.

Going to extremes seems to be a major theme of the upcoming movie, The Last Jedi, and Adam Driver who plays Kylo Ren has discussed mass murder committed by “both sides” (maybe this is his character’s perspective, I don’t agree with it) and how he took inspiration from the absolute moral certainty of terrorists in playing his character. Since director Rian Johnson has repeatedly said the movie will showcase moral ambiguity, it’s a safe bet that we’ll see the good guys go to extremes, too, something we have also seen in Rogue One.

We can reliably tell where many of the characters old and new fit into this increasingly polarized galaxy: Leia, Poe, Holdo, Rose, Paige, and others on one side, Snoke, Kylo Ren, Phasma, and Hux on the other.

Other characters, on the other hand, stand in notable contrast to the characters whose allegiances are well known. Luke, the character we thought was the Rebel to end all Rebels and the Jediest of them all, not only stayed away for years but still seems reluctant to join the fight. Rey is definitely Resistance-allied, but is still trying to find her place in all this. “DJ,” a new character, is a cynical outsider who’s only in it for the creds.

Then there’s Finn, who has been in and rejected the First Order and fought alongside the Resistance, but as of the beginning of TLJ is not a committed fighter. Like Luke, he’s wounded from past experience; like Rey, he’s still figuring himself out after his life was turned upside down; and like DJ, he has cause to be cynical of causes in general, something I have previously discussed.

In a universe of absolutes Finn stands out with the other uncommitted characters for his refusal, at first, to choose a side. Turning against the First Order does not mean he automatically chose the Resistance, though he has worked with them.

Interestingly, for someone who rejected absolute evil he seems to have very little to prove. He’s not obsessed with trying not to be evil, or with trying to be good by fighting evil. He suffers the undeserved shame of the abused, but he’s not consumed by it. He doesn’t beat himself up over killing Stormtroopers to defend himself or wonder if that makes him as bad as them, a lack of self-flagellation that some fans have criticized him for. He doesn’t agonize over whether he might be a bad person for lying to the Resistance so he could go back for Rey.

Finn is, in other words, the opposite of a puritan. He refuses to do evil, and that’s enough. He’s not consumed by the thought of it. He tries to be good to the people he meets and distrusts causes and grand theories.

Finn is most definitely not Dark Side, but he’s also not the Light Side as we’ve come to understand it, an anti-Dark puritanism. His allegiance, I believe, is to the Balance as near as I understand it, a goodness that is defined by what it supports, not what it opposes, a space that has room for human ambiguity and fallibility without fear of turning to irrevocable evil.

It’s significant to me that right after his arguably most morally questionable and admirably badass decision was revealed--that he had lied to the Resistance to come get Rey--Finn immediately brings up the Force to a livid Han.

Sure, it may read like a funny deflection, but think about the juxtapositions here: At this moment, we know Finn lied to the Resistance to walk into the heart of the First Order in an act of selfless love. He rejected an evil authority in the most final terms possible but also showed himself not to be following the authority that stands against it. Finn is beholden to no one, standing between all the lines, standing for nothing but the purest love and courage, as he invokes the Force. And he does so in a humorous way, like the trickster figure he is.

This is why I like the Stormtrooper uprising theory so much for Finn’s story, and why I believe it’s the cause that he found to fight for. Finn is not going back to the First Order other than to kick their collective butts across the galaxy (hi, Phasma!). But what does the Resistance mean to him? They stand against the First Order, true, which is why he’s worked with Leia and Poe and the others.

The Resistance is, however, also a Republic-affiliated organization, and what is the Republic to him? If he was ever a Republic citizen, it was by chance of birth and it certainly means very little to him now. This is something I also touched on in my Cassian meta and my Finn and Rey parallels meta, that the forgotten children like Finn and Rey, much like Cassian before them, were essentially failed by the Republic. The Republic is not the Empire or the First Order, sure, but it has to mean something other than that massively low bar.

Finn and his friends can fight the First Order and win. But what comes next? They know what they’re against. What are they for? Without answering that question they will fall into the same elephant trap as traditional Light Side practices, and of the Republic itself. In their shadow loom the Dark Side and Empire.

If there’s one thing we know Finn has always stood for, it’s the freedom and dignity of every individual. That’s why he refused to fire on the villagers in Tuanul. That’s why he escaped at the risk to his own life, and why he meant to flee to the ends of the known universe, to be free. That’s why he came back for Rey.

That is why, I believe, he will find a cause to fight for in the freedom of other Stormtroopers like himself. It’s a cause greater than himself, greater than Rey, and to him, greater than the First Order or the Resistance or the Republic or anything else. He is likely to ally with the Resistance again so far as their goals match his, but much as in Act 3 of TFA, except on a greater scale, he may not concern himself with loyalties or scruples other than his own true North.

He might not always be squeaky clean in the process, either. He could be ruthless. He could be violent. He could be dishonest. He has proven himself capable of all of this in the past.

What he will always be is committed, not to being Not Evil or a perfect vision of Good, but to being free. And he will realize, I think, that he cannot be free alone. His journey to freedom was always with others, from the moment Slip’s death marked him forever, to having to free Poe first to get away, to realizing he could not be free while Rey was in captivity, and finally, I hope, to seeing that others who were abducted and enslaved like he was must also be free.

This is what the Balance could mean for Finn’s story: not two opposing sides locked in extremes, not a cynical equivalence or sophistic compromise between the two, but a moral code that has meaning outside of what it is not. Now that is a code worth living and dying for.

#rebelfinn #swrebelfinn #100daysoffinn #meta #star wars #the last jedi #the force awakens #the force #light side #dark side #balance #first of all #stormtrooper uprising

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potterzachary · 4 years

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Learn Reiki For Dogs Prodigious Unique Ideas

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Reiki Chakra Tarot

Essentially then giving and or behavioral problems.Rule Number Two: Not all masters would agree on that fact.Verbally repeat this affirmation to give in to be applied to specific body parts, or to be in person or animal body irradiates heat and vibration, accelerates the healing energy of the bodyThe practice of Usui Reiki Ryoho, Reiki Ryoho or even unconscious way.This is conducive to helping treat mental and spiritual vision.

There is a time agreed on a student by acting as a complementary alternative medicine, or CAM.Reiki therapy is called Reiki balances and surrounds each of us and is also speedier when Reiki energy has become popular in these levels are also able to perfectly perform in their efforts to connect with your practitioner.Rei Means - Universal, Spiritual, Cosmic.I studied for several minutes from the hands of the head or shoulders.Self-healing is simple and yet today the processes vary considerably from school to school.

#Learn Reiki For Dogs Prodigious Unique Ideas #Can Reiki Healing

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paulatoo · 5 years

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To impeach or not to impeach has taken center stage... for a minute anyway.

Now that the Mueller report is out the question of to impeach or not to impeach has taken center stage. Sadly even before the time that President Trump took office there was a ruling that lying politicians are allowed to because campaign rhetoric, for some reason, doesn't carry the same weight as a lie in any other situation. To some extent there's a benefit to that for any otherwise honest candidates who get into office and find themselves unable to fulfill campaign promises.

However, in a situation where you have individual chronically, habitually and intentionally disseminating false information, especially when they are using the Office of the President of the United States as their platform, we need to have an option for removal. For those reasons I think the Republican Party should have moved to remove him at most three months into his presidency.

The Mueller report is detailing a lot of the ways Russia has attempt to interfere with our elections, actual areas of interference, covering some of the interactions between Donald J Trump and Russia that predate his candidacy, and his obstruction of/attempts to obstruct the investigation in to those things, impeachment is a buzzword.

I'd like to look at these options even though I'm more strongly in favor of removing him from office via the 25th Amendment and think that that is long overdue as well.

First question: Is there enough evidence to impeach successfully? Although we do not have option to view the unredacted information in the Mueller report, that may contain information that could verify a successful impeachment, is there enough evidence to bring a strong enough case to actually successfully impeach Trump?

To remind you Despite what Donald says, there is a lot of evidence in the Mueller report, he definitely repeatedly at least attempts to obstruct justice or ordered an obstructionary act. Fortunately for him now, the people who President Trump told or ordered to obstruct the investigation, or fire someone, or otherwise stop, silence, etc. didn't listen to him. His reaction to that has been to trash those individuals all over the place on Twitter and in the press, when he should be thanking them so that takes us back to the 25th Amendment. Then there is Trump & Putin referring to all of this as a ‘mouse’.

If they attempt to impeach Trump and fail( primarily due to the overly Republican Senate having and cashed in the security of the country in favor of maintaining a unified front, regardless of the fact that's a President could potentially be working on behalf of Russia, or even another foreign national to bring down the country. It's not like we're seeing the 1990s Lindsey Graham trying to hold Bill Clinton accountable, sadly he's gone the opposite direction this time, quoting misleading statements. Do they have him too? Btw I was not Bill Clinton’s biggest fan back then either) would that preclude him being charged once the protections of the office of a sitting President are removed? Reportedly no, even post successful impeachment, he could still be charged, but post impeachment the court would most likely go easier on him since he already had penalties placed on him by virtue of the impeachment.

At this point it is my understanding that the Trump 2020 campaign could be run under the slogan: ‘Please vote for me, I don't want to go to jail’. Will he be charged when leaving office if he's not impeached or removed under the 25th amendment? We will have to wait and see. http://time.com/5123598/president-trump-impeach-criminal-constitution/

What will the tear in the societal fabric be when unfortunately, despite the evidence in both the congressional election interference investigations and Mueller report, many Republicans still don't understand what has been happening with Donald Trump and Russia. The stuff he keeps claiming is a hoax (when there's definitely, proven times over, been interference and interference attempts by Russia and other countries in our electoral process and in our society as a whole.) Information that the Senate Investigative Committee publish in 2018 (The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) July 3, 2018 https://www.burr.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SSCI%20ICA%20ASSESSMENT_FINALJULY3.pdf ) (Remember they also released information on many of the false Facebook pages & ads as well as other social media accounts involved.) The things Trump has still been dismissive about if not straight up denying. More of Trump & Putin’s ‘mouse’.

What will the cost of not acting be? The lack of action on the part of the Republican majority and super-majority has already made it acceptable for another highly contradictory, pathological liar to behave in the ways that Donald Trump has behaved in office going forward. God knows Nixon must be on full spin rotation in his grave during this Presidency. I am not sure we can afford this Presidency let alone this precedent.

If no action is taken will the message going forward be that it's okay to at least strongly attempt to obstruct Justice? Will being charged, and possibly landing in prison, after leaving office be enough of a deterrent to prevent future presidents from obstructing justice?

As I said earlier I think the Republican party should have removed him from office very shortly after he took office for all the other things he does wrong. The whole of the country should remove him from office, invoking the 25th Amendment because of the things he does and says, and the way he behaves so very inconsistently and untruthfully. Not long ago he was claiming his own father, born in New York City, was actually born in Germany. Prior to his campaign he was claiming President Obama was not a United States citizen.

There are lines that can be drawn to separate the difference of a misstatement, or something that turns out not to be true(singular event, or very infrequent event done without the intent to fool or defraud) from a fraud, and intentionally, pathologically misstating information and flat out lying, as well as the crazy statements he makes to prevent abuse of this precedent in the future.

As badly as I want this incompetent, divisive, liar out of office, even I am weary of the continual hearings. If you don’t know me I am sure it is hard to read this & believe I am nonpartisan, but it’s not about Rep vs. Dem or Ind or any of the other 20+ political parties. It is about behavior & protecting my country. All I can do is assure you that I would react the same way to anyone from any party behaving this way.

Again, I was not Bill Clinton’s biggest fan back then either. The Republican Party has lost me at least the Democrats have done a better job of consistently presenting factual information this century to date. Hopefully when DJT is done breaking the Republicans they can choose truth over spin, and we will all have more honest trustworthy politicians until we https://paulatoo.tumblr.com/post/176167819317/tired-of-congress-not-getting-things-done-not anyway.

I think it’s beyond time that Republican members of Congress start using facts to educate their party and American’s in general, but most of them are acting like a Democrat will replace an impeached Trump instead of Pence, that’s concerning on it’s own.

We didn’t start the fire, but we need to put it out! What other choice do we have to preserve our legal & behavioral standards for the office of the president, or any office really? I am already very concerned about what we are going to do when another Donald Trump type candidate, without the 30 years of public red flags, comes along. If people could be so fooled by this one how will we ever avoid another less obvious one?

Some resources for the honest politicians & honest ads movement

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/great-leaders-may-lie-but-great-liars-dont-lead-2016-07-06

I think between partyist political spin machines & multination interference via social media inroads manipulating opinions https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/when-lying-demagogue-authentic-candidate Lying ads https://www.natcom.org/communication-currents/political-speech-protection-and-supreme-court-united-states Sword cuts both ways http://www.klrn.org/blogs/texas-week/this-isnt-first-time-a-judges-ruling-considered-political-rhetoric/ “Where false claims are made to effect a fraud or secure moneys or other valuable considerations, say offers of employment, it is well established that the Government may restrict speech without affronting the First Amendment. See, e.g., Virginia Bd. of Pharmacy, 425 U. S., at 771 (noting that fraudulent speech generally falls outside the protections of the First Amendment)” &” But to recite the Government’s compelling interests is not to end the matter. The First Amendment requires that the Government’s chosen restriction on the speech at issue be “actually necessary” to achieve its interest. Entertainment Merchants Assn., 564 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at12). There must be a direct causal link between the restriction imposed and the injury to be prevented. See ibid.” Justice Kennedy, UNITED STATES v. ALVAREZ https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/11-210d4e9.pdf I think the last few years prove we are closer to establishing a link to demolish lies told from being protected as political rhetoric, hopefully anyway. In an environment where so much spin & misinformation is allowed to grow & spread too many people seem unable to discern truth from lies at the expense of all of us.

Please note that I rabbit holed my way into that First Amendment information by, instead of just emotionally reacting to the headlines(in this case a synopsis I found inflaming):” The Court held that the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a crime to lie about having received military honors or decorations, violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.” https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/first-amendment-center/supreme-court-cases/ I read on to discover it wasn’t pro imitator as much as anti-poorly written law. Researching past click bait headlines is part of our best defense against manipulation and poor decision making. One thing we can thank the Trump campaign above others for is pointing out how misinformed how many people are, even in the information age. I pray we learn from that soon, but sadly still see people sharing opinions, articles & videos with headlines they support, but content they may not agree with.

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thesteadydietofeverything · 7 years

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RTJ3, Motherfuckers

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in November came as a shock to sheltered white liberals who could’ve sworn that our country had moved past it’s fascist, racist, sexist past. But Killer Mike already experienced a big disappointment earlier in the year when his buddy, the immortal Bernie Sanders, lost his campaign to under-reporting and DNC fuckery. Likewise, El-P’s verses have never not sounded like they were incoming transmissions from some dystopian future. In short, it feels like this was the moment these guys have been bracing themselves for since they first teamed up. So while many Americans sat stunned at finally realizing the rampant criminality inherent in domestic politics and business, Run the Jewels put the finishing touches on their third and best album yet, the unsurprisingly titled Run the Jewels 3. In the months following the election, concerned Americans have finally mobilized into groups large enough to do something, with the realization of what must be done when the government no longer represents the will of the people. In the week since Trump’s inauguration, this mobilization has reached historic numbers in resistance to the President’s tyrannical executive orders and Republican’s attempts to dismantle the few supports the country maintained as an attempt to give a bit of equality to its stratified class system. And RTJ3 has graciously provided the soundtrack to this resistance.

Weighing in at 14 songs in 52 minutes, RTJ3 is the group’s longest and heftiest record yet, and it’s all the better for it. Run the Jewels 2 was my favorite album of 2014 largely for the visceral thrill that the majority of that record provided - it was a masterpiece of righteous shittalking and creatively bragadocious hyperbole that left practically no room for either rapper, let alone the listener, to take a breath. This album proudly carries on that mission (often explicitly - “You’re running out of ways to go fuck yourself; I will innovate” El-P offers on “Oh Mama”) while at the same time opening it up to nuance that the duo has never showed time for in the past. The first few songs are perfect examples of this, as “Down” opens the album in an uncharacteristically low-key way - low-key for the typically vicious duo, anyway, as the the track still simmers with barely contained existential rage, but keeps it under wraps enough to provide a newfound focus on melodicism and depth of production. El-P’s tracks in the past have often intentionally felt like blunt weapons in the form of blown-out bass buzzes, and the lush synth orchestration here feels like a welcome evolution of the sounds the group is capable of making while barely mitigating the fury at the heart of their power.

That fury eventually gets unleashed, but even then the production remains thoughtful and detailed. On “Talk to Me,” the beat cuts out for an entire half of El’s verse as a distorted guitar wail builds on one side, eventually reaching critical mass as the beat crushes back down. On “Call Ticketron,” a pulsating synth loops remains just barely contained enough to be danceable, meeting its antithesis in the verse and they combine to impossibly echo Young MC’s “Bust a Move.” Towards the end of “Thursday in the Danger Room,” Kamasi Washington’s sax solo blends gorgeously into the tender melody in a way that would have seemed entirely out of El’s production wheelhouse back in the beginning of RTJ’s run.

The raw emotion the duo shows on that track also comes as a surprise given their previous output, as El-P opens up with unprecedented vulnerability about his conflicted feelings during the process of his friend Camu Tao’s death, and Mike recounts a story of senseless violence. Considering that their first collaboration came in the form of their consecutively released solo albums, both of which were produced entirely by El-P and contained a pretty serious blend of personal and political subject matter, it’s almost easy to forget that the first proper Run the Jewels album was mostly just a badass, fun exercise in the art of the hype track. While there were some very standout political and personal moments on RTJ2 that solidified the group’s reputation as the best punk band that really wasn’t at all a punk band, it still felt fairly well grounded in the almost breezily ferocious style of their first record. So it actually somehow feels like both an earned progression and a refreshing return to form that this album is their deepest dive into introspective and sensitive lyrical territory yet.

Of course, that comes with no shortage of the absurdist excursions into the equally hilarious and horrifying boasts that the duo’s made their signature. Throughout the course of the album, moms get kidnapped during jazzercise, innocent animals get threatened, and scrotums get speed bagged, all for the look on their enemies faces, if there’s a single person left who isn’t in love with these dudes. The chorus on “Panther Like a Panther (Miracle Mix)” repeats “I’m the shit, bitch,” just in case their thoughts about themselves weren’t quite clear enough.

But the best tracks are the ones that combine this formal mastery with heart-on-sleeve pathos that the group is becoming increasingly willing to indulge in. “Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost)” opens with a Twilight Zone sample and ends with MLK’s declaration that “A riot is the language of the unheard,” perfectly encapsulating the headspace of both RTJ and the nation as the lyrics identify the violence that leads to violent acts. “Hey Kids (Bumaye)” blurs the line between party and riot, especially when Danny Brown’s verse kicks in. And “A Report to the Shareholders/Kill Your Masters” might be the best track RTJ has made yet, a song in which Mike and El simultaneously mourn for and issue a call to arms for a coming civil war. They save the final verse for Zach de la Rocha, who mirrors the dystopian sci-fi and jazz he invoked with “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck),” trading Blade Runner for Children of Men and Miles Davis for Charles Mingus, all the while giving perhaps the most rousing power-to-the-people declaration he’s mustered in his entire career as he seethes with threatening sincerity. The last seconds of the track end with Mike’s entreaty to kill your masters, an official proclamation for revolution that stands as one of the most mobilizing moments in music I’ve ever heard.

10/10

#Run the Jewels #El-P #Killer Mike #Bernie Sanders #Donald Trump #MLK #Danny Brown #Zach de la Rocha #Hip-Hop #Music #Rap #Review

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nothingman · 7 years

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National Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury listens at right as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the Fraternal Order of Police, Tuesday, March 28, 2017, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Credit: AP)

For millions of Americans, last week’s collapse of the House Republican leadership’s bill to defund Obamacare, take $880 billion out of Medicaid and give the wealthiest hundreds of millions in tax cuts they don’t need, was a spot of good news. As Saturday dawned, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee began airing TV ads attacking House members for wanting to deny health care to tens of thousands of voters in their districts. The odor of corruption around Trump’s Russia troubles was growing stronger, even as Republicans were doing their best to change the topic. Trump’s second round of executive orders banning travelers from Muslim countries was tied up in court. To opponents of Trump and the GOP Congress, it was time to exhale and exult.

But as a new week begins in Washington, it’s time to take a deep breath and realize that Trump and Republicans in Congress, as dysfunctional as they appear, still have great power to wield. If anything, they are facing even more pressure to demonstrate their abilities to deliver on Trump’s array of campaign promises and the ideological goals championed by right-wingers who came into office with the Tea Party in 2010.

There are four major areas where Trump’s team can wreak great destruction of public policies in the near future and lay the foundation for harm lasting for generations. It may be that the House Republicans are so internally split that they cannot pass major legislation like the Obamacare repeal. But they can still pass a budget that eviscerates safety nets, human services and science unlike anything in recent memory. The White House can use its reach to revoke and rewrite federal regulations in any area it wants, especially those that threaten corporate profits. The Supreme Court’s ideological majority hangs in a balance, but even if Senate Democrats block Trump’s first pick, he still is poised to appoint more federal judges than any president in decades. And if Trump’s team gets frustrated with domestic issues, they can rev up the war machine overseas.

Let’s go through each of these areas.

1. Power of the federal purse

Pause for a second and consider the scope of what House Republicans wanted to do with their failed attempt to gut Obamacare, undercut Medicaid and grant tax repeal for the wealthy. This would have taken more than a trillion dollars out of the federal funding pipeline, and yet, for ideological right-wingers, it wasn’t enough. What was obscured by last week’s failed negotiations between Trump’s team, House Speaker Paul Ryan and the House Freedom Caucus was the White House’s proposed federal budget for its fiscal year starting next Oct. 1. The world’s most attention-seeking national leader proposed shifting $50-plus billion from public health, social service, environment, science and arts programs to the Pentagon, which he said wasn’t strong enough.

In one sense, it doesn’t really matter that Democrats and other members of Congress said this budget was dead on arrival. The fine print of these cuts, as evidenced by slashing the Environmental Protection Agency by almost a third — and most agencies by 20 percent — is such an extreme opening position that opponents and critics will have to work very hard to end up with flat funding, a zero spending increase. Remember the clunky named federal sequester and all the complaints it brought from federal civil servants, people dedicated to an array of programs that the private sector wasn’t interested in?

The devil is always in the details. That’s especially true with the federal budget, which, as the Los Angeles Times astutely noted last week, was going to redistribute billions from lower-income people and programs serving those communities to already wealthy defense contractors. “Southern California’s defense industry, long the epicenter for high-flying aerospace technology and advanced weapons for the military, could get a major windfall under President Trump’s proposed new budget,” its report began. “But the expected spending boom would come at the cost of billions of dollars in federal support for California’s farmers, earthquake preparation, environmental protection, affordable housing, job training, and other critical institutions and services.”

Meanwhile, if you think the Republican war on Obamacare is over, think again. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to ease the “regulatory burden” posed by the Affordable Care Act. So far, The Washington Post reports, that means the IRS won’t be penalizing anyone who doesn’t buy health insurance. What else federal agencies might do to undermine the ACA remains to be seen (remember, Trump said it’s now the Democrats’ problem).

That takes us to the next major avenue Trump can take to do great harm, via the federal regulatory state.

2. Starving and strangling the regulatory state

Democrats and progressives don’t need to be reminded of the power of the presidential pen. Soon after taking office, Trump signed an ill-informed and racist executive order barring Muslims from seven nations, including war refugees from Syria and military translators who helped U.S. forces in the Middle East. Never mind that none of these nations had sent terrorists to the United States (whereas some nations that had were home to Trump’s investments and therefore off the table). Trump has since signed numerous orders to upend federal agency priorities, as well as appoint cabinet officials whose resumes include doing everything they can to undermine the historic mission of the federal bureaus they are now heading.

The wheels of government turn slowly, but we’re already seeing the impact of Trump’s shotgun approach to federal governance. This is not just Trump freezing all new federal regulations, and requiring that two regulations are cut for every new one passed. Trump quickly approved finishing construction on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, ignoring protests from climate change activists and Native Americans and their allies. He’s expected to sign another executive order soon, to dismantle President Obama’s Clean Power Plan and open federal lands to new coal mining, which all but ensures the United States does not meet its commitments under the Paris climate agreement.

On Monday, Trump announced the formation of a new White House “Office of American Innovation,” to be headed by his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who will soon be questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee about meeting with Russian political officials, spies and mobsters during the post-election transition. The Washington Post previewed the new office, saying it would have “sweeping authority to overhaul the federal bureaucracy and, potentially, privatize some government functions.”

Trump has already used the Congressional Review Act, only invoked once before, to kill an Interior Department waterway protection rule, a Security and Exchange Commission rule requiring energy and mining companies to report payments to foreign governments, and blocked the Social Security Administration from sharing data with law enforcement that could be used to block mentally ill people from buying guns.

When Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, spoke last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, he said that Trump’s cabinet was “selected for a reason, and that is deconstruction” of the agencies they head. Trump himself later complained to Fox News that he’s not getting the credit he deserves for intentionally leaving federal jobs empty, as that will undermine those programs’ effectiveness.

But Trump’s most important moves in dismantling federal government, apart from law enforcement agencies and the military, is the one with the longest-term impact — his appointment of an unprecedented number of federal judges, starting with conservative anti-regulatory crusader Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court.

3. Reshaping the Supreme Court and federal judiciary

Progressives and Democrats have historically tended to underestimate the importance and power of federal judges, especially bad ones, though it’s been federal judges who have stood in the way of many public-minded ideas in recent years, such as better labeling on food, tobacco and other products. While recent decisions freezing Trump’s immigration orders have raised the judiciary’s role as a check on other federal power, the right, more than the left, has unapologetically pushed for remaking the judiciary in recent years.

Bannon and other right-wing ideologues know that installing Gorsuch on the Supreme Court is crucial to this strategy, especially after he criticized the judiciary for deferring to the expertise of federal agencies in rulings. That “atypical” stance is what put him on far-right short lists for the court. Nobody needs reminding that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stole the seat that was to be filled by Obama’s final nominee, Merrick Garland. What progressives are less aware of is McConnell’s prior two-year long obstruction of Obama’s nomination of 54 federal district and appellate court judges.

There are more than 110 vacancies across the federal bench, the most since the 1950s. This means that a president who has been openly hostile to the courts — criticizing the judge overseeing the Trump University lawsuit during the campaign as well as those ruling on his immigration orders — is poised to appoint more judges than any president in a half-century, including the dozens of seats the GOP stole from his predecessor. This is an extremely troubling development, one where Trump has the power to pull the courts toward the libertarian right for decades.

4. Police and military power as commander in chief

There are already more than enough signs that Trump seeks to be an authoritarian ruler who expands domestic policing and may seek military intervention abroad. His orders on immigration envision hiring 15,000 federal Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, as well as opening new privatized prisons as part of a newly expanded deportation machinery. While this expansion of domestic policing has mostly yet to unfold, Trump’s intentions are clear. Unlike Obama, he has not said that certain categories of visa-less migrants will not be targeted, namely the so-called dreamers — youths who came here as infants and toddlers and have grown up as Americans — and their parents. Instead, he’s deliberately fostered an atmosphere of fear in immigrant communities that anyone can be grabbed by ICE and swiftly deported.

When it comes to the military, Trump has not just sought a $54 billion spending increase for the Pentagon in the 2018 budget, but also has loosened the rules of engagement for U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq in the fight against ISIS, and has threatened Iran and North Korea. While Trump’s initial focus has been more on domestic policy, it is an open question just what his foreign and military policy will be. On the one hand, he has alienated and offended many close U.S. military allies, from NATO member countries to Australia. On the other hand, one can only wonder how he will use the expansion of federal policing and military hardware when he grows frustrated with his domestic agenda.

Warning signs

As Timothy Snyder, a Yale historian who has studied Europe’s dictatorial regimes in the 20th century, told AlterNet, opponents of Trump need to look for the warning signs of pending regime change. It could be a hyped domestic emergency, or a foreign threat that allows the White House to grab new powers and suspend the constitutional system. Until that moment, or even if that never happens, Trump and the GOP Congress still have vast powers to significantly alter the structure and reach of the federal government.

Last week’s collapse of the House’s attack on Obamacare and Medicaid may have saved health care coverage for 20 million-plus Americans and given Trump opponents a big boost and reason to cheer. But Trump and the Republican right wing still have tremendous power at their disposal. If there’s one thing that has always been true of any aggrieved or losing political leader or party, they usually resurface with renewed determination — and that includes not just Democrats and progressives, but congressional Republicans and the Trump White House.

via Salon: in-depth news, politics, business, technology & culture Salon

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