Justice, post merge, finally able to pet a kitty without it biting him or running away bc he reeks of death: I am once again struck by how marvellous the world of mortals is. Look at these soft triangle ears. These squishy little toe beans. This fluffy little face. It is truly a gift to be able to experience this beauty.

Anders, in the back of their mind: Fuck, Justice, you're so right, look at those feetsies. Shit like this makes life worth living.

The whole criminal system is pervaded by similar inconsistencies in the “rule of law.” To take one ubiquitous example, the Constitution requires that every guilty plea waiving the constitutional right to trial by a jury of one’s peers be knowing, intelligent, and voluntary.69 But no one who works in the criminal system thinks that contemporary plea bargaining produces voluntary agreements. The vast majority of plea bargains are accepted by people who are told that they will be imprisoned for longer if they do not give up their right to a jury trial. Many of these people are in jail and are told that pleading guilty is the only immediate way out of jail.70 In no other cultural context would the word “voluntary” describe this arrangement. Should my coworker ask a person out on a dinner date but tell the person that, if he does not accept, he will be placed in a cage, no one would view the person’s agreement to dine with my coworker as voluntary. That’s not how we understand “voluntary” actions. And yet, because we are attempting to arrest and process historically unprecedented numbers of people in the punishment bureaucracy, the system would collapse if people exercised the jury right envisioned by those who wrote the Constitution.71 For that reason, the most important “rule of law” in our legal system—the Bill of Rights—is ignored as a matter of practice in millions of cases every year.72 The U.S. Supreme Court itself has acknowledged that it will not deem threats-based plea bargains involuntary in part in order to facilitate the mass caging of human beings.73 In this respect, the post-arrest criminal system is not “law enforcement,” but a bureaucracy designed and permitted to circumvent the “rule of law” when necessary to pursue the aims that political elites have assigned to it.

The Punishment Bureaucracy: How to Think About “Criminal Justice Reform”

Shame masks were a type of embarrassing punishment device used in Europe during the middle ages until 18th century. They were usually made of cold, unyielding metal, and the masks were created in various mortifying designs.

The goal of shame masks was quite simple: punish and ridicule the offender so as to control the behavior. Townspeople looking at people wearing such masks, or participating in humiliating activities such as "riding the stang," would certainly get the message. Don't gossip. Don't be a pig. Know your place. Reinforcing cultural norms and expectations was certainly important enough to Europeans to develop such... strange methods.

Justice (1469-1472). Piero del Pollaiolo (Italian, 1441-1496). Tempera grassa on wood. The Uffizi.

Justice is seated on a bench, sword in hand, with the tip pointing upwards. On her knees she holds a globe. Her clothing consists of an elegant dress, woven through with gold, and a grey-green cloak; it includes the harness and couter of a suit of armour. The iconography of Justice at arms became established in the 14th century, perhaps with the aim of vindicating the principle of certain penalty as a guarantee of peace and good government, or to indicate the righteous use of power. The globe probably alludes to the field in which Justice is called upon to exercise her reign, referring to the judgmental functions of the magistrature for which the painting was executed.

@hannahmichelledraws

Please share this image WIDELY

Just to be super clear.

The Glorious 25th May, how do they rise up?

From @stivaktis on Twitter stivaktisArt.Etsy.com

No healthcare and housing in the United States but Jeff Bezos is on the moon

Another Warden doodle dump because I guess I'm still not done with these. Wanted to draw some more companions too. I won't promise that this is the last one.

→First one

Alright but can we talk about how Greece's far right neo-nazi party Golden Dawn, with over 400,000 voters was charged as a criminal organisation and was kicked out of parlement today?

Helltaker by 悪餓鬼

video credits: @officalwehustle on tiktok

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Housing Crisis PT. 1

Please watch this video. It’s deeply devastating to see so many people unable to afford a home. A PLACE TO LIVE! I cannot imagine how lonesome, terrifying, and utterly dehumanizing it would be for someone if they had no place to go.

We have the resources, yet choose to not “give handouts to people who don’t work for them.” Well, newsflash: not everyone can afford to live, regardless of how hard they work and how much effort they put into find job opportunities.

It will always be immoral to condone homelessness and starvation when there is the ability to prevent it. Keep this in mind when millions are at risk of losing their jobs, homes, lives.

I wrote an essay about the importance of rage, kindess (as opposed to niceness), and justice as highlighted in Pratchett's work, and posted it in a group of Pratchett fans on Facebook. It went like this:

This one [is directly relevant to Pratchett and his work] and covers: Anger and Kindness, among other things.

It's taken me a while to work it out, but one of the reasons why I still engage so strongly with Pratchett's work is because of these two themes running through the thoughts and actions of pretty much every main character to whose point of view we get to bear direct witness. That, and the notion of Justice as opposed to Mercy.

Pratchett's main characters are almost all angry, often as a ground state of being - Granny Weatherwax and Commander Vimes springing immediately to mind. Polly Perks (and, to be fair, pretty much everyone except perhaps Lieutenant Blouse in Monstrous Regiment), Archchancellor Ridcully, The Patrician, Susan Sto Helit, Esk, Glenda Sugarbean, Agnes/ Perdita Nitt, Angua von Uberwald, and Tiffany Aching, to name a few more, are people to whom rage comes easily, and is a motivating force. Even those who are seen as generally more easygoing or placid of temperament have illuminating moments of anger which tip them over the edge to somewhere inspired, and that click of fully engaged rage is often a pivotal moment (for a near perfect example: Magrat's core is revealed to be sheer, molten ire when her personality is ablated by the Faerie Queen).

That's not to say that inchoate choler is venerated - the malicious, bubbling spite of Corporal Strappi is vilified as destructive, and the ever-seething, undirected bile of Mister Tulip is likewise outlined as useless because he is unable to focus it himself (hence depending on Mr. Pin's guidance).

Which brings us to kindness. Pratchett's heroes have all realised, at some level or other, that anger is a force that can - and should - be used for good. Weatherwax and Vimes, in particular, are constantly vigilant against the darkness inherent inside themselves which could snap at any moment under the weight of a wicked world and set it alight for a better one to be rebuilt from the ashes. They know that they shouldn't (it's pretty much treating people as things, after all), but that's ever constant. That's not to say, however, that the anger is never shown, utilised openly, or acknowledged by those around them. Vimes and Granny have both owed their survival against powerful, wicked creatures to rage's primal surge, but also to the enormous, almost terrifying love they bear the world.

Granny tells us that kind is not the same as nice. Nice is pretty, petty, and a lie. Nice is slapping an attractive plaster over a wound without cleaning it properly first, or dealing with the thing that caused the injury in the first place. Nice paints a gloss over injustice and asks us all to be quiet for the sake of those for whom the world works just as it should. Nice is self-delusion, and a wilful one at that. Which isn't to say that we should never indulge in a little of that - peel every cover off the world and it's too much, too raw, all at once, and we all need our masks in this world of fake it til you make it - but the Turtle cannot move if it never acknowledges the epic tides against which it must strive, and the Turtle Moves. It must.

Because justice moved Pratchett and, through him, all his finest creations. His villains were remarkable for their ability to subvert justice, to delude - themselves and/ or others - and to take and take for the sake of sometimes strange, but, all too often, all-too relatable motives. Money, power, comfort and, above all: control. And his heroes were glorious for their ability to see past the smoke and mirrors, the age-old inequities held up as a normalcy that must be protected at all costs, and tear through unjust conventions to make the necessary changes for everyone to step that bit closer to being truly free, with all its inherent terrors and responsibilities.

Pratchett wasn't nice, or whimsical - he was angry and (increasingly explicitly) vocal about justice in his works. And none of his heroes - our heroes - are either. They are kind, they serve justice, and they kick arse on behalf of those with less power, but they are neither nice, nor insipid, nor silent. And neither should we be.

Change is uncomfortable. Change feels like a death, which is why, no matter how positive the shift, we all move through the grief cycle of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance and exploration. True bravery is being afraid of the pain of righteous change, of letting go of who we were, of bidding farewell… and doing it anyway.

Be brave, [Pratchett Fans]. Be bold and angry and loud about justice, and strive for true equity.

The Turtle Moves. And so should you.

This is from ACLU. This is what is currently happening right now.

Last night, the Supreme Court did not respond to our emergency request to block Texas' radical six-week abortion ban, Senate Bill 8.

That means the law will now take effect today – prohibiting most abortions in the state. The impact will be immediate and devastating.

This extreme and blatantly unconstitutional law bans abortions at six weeks – before many people even know they are pregnant. But, there's more.

The law also actively encourages private citizens to act as bounty hunters by awarding them at least $10,000 if they successfully sue another person for providing an abortion or assisting someone who gets an abortion at around six weeks of pregnancy.

The bounty hunting abortion ban is intentionally designed to overwhelm clinics in the state with lawsuits and legal bills, ultimately forcing them to shut down. And due to structural racism and inequities, laws like Texas' abortion ban disproportionately harm Black and Brown people, people with low incomes, and those living in rural areas. The impact would be so sweeping, it would effectively end abortion access in Texas. we can't allow it.

We – in partnership with a steadfast coalition of reproductive health care providers, advocates, and nonprofit partners – will keep vigorously pursuing this lawsuit to have this extreme law struck down. And, with your support, we will do everything we can to protect the reproductive rights of people in Texas and help clinics stay open.

The ACLU is pushing back against a massive assault on access to abortion – in Texas and across the country. And you've helped us win some critical battles. Earlier this summer, we successfully blocked Arkansas' ban on abortion, the latest and most direct attack on abortion by anti-abortion politicians in that state. In addition, our ongoing litigation is currently blocking bans in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Tennessee.

But, the attacks on our abortion rights are not letting up – and we urgently need you by our side.

Don't let anti-abortion extremists win.

Together, we have to keep fighting for access to reproductive healthcare for everyone, everywhere. Please donate as quickly and generously as you can.

Jennifer Dalven

Pronouns: She, her, hers

Director of the Reproductive Freedom Project, ACLU

P.S. The ACLU was made for moments like this – when people's fundamental freedoms depend on our strength and persistence. Thank you for your passionate support for reproductive freedom and all of our civil liberties.

(Source)