#now they all want us to shut up about climate change and go about our lives like normal

[shapeshifter-shenanigans]

#vent art?? having many thoughts about ongoing climate disaster #given my field of study it's hard to avoid thinking about ha ha #and also i think it's fucked up how adults used to tell kids like me we're gonna save the planet one day!! as if that was our responsibilit #now they all want us to shut up about climate change and go about our lives like normal #ANYWAYS #lyrics from Now by Paramore! #my art #fursona #rabbit furry #ecopunk

[alycremie]

Guys I know Climate Change is super scary in the news. I know it's terrifying and seems like the end of the world. And it could be! But it isn't going to be.

I want to take this time to remind all of you how far we've come in the past twenty-ish years since "An Inconvenient Truth"

Fossil Fuels

We use less fossil fuels now proportionally than we did in 2009. Coal used to be 50% of the United States's energy production, but now is down to less than a quarter, and is expected to continue to drop in the upcoming years. This is including in traditionally anti-renewable areas that rely on coal heavily, like Wyoming's shift to wind and solar and Kentucky and West Virginia's shift to hydroelectric.

Most remaining coal plants are either shutting down or using filtration systems to reduce the carbon, methane, and heavy metals put into the air. Coal mines are shutting down - the era of King Coal is over.

Yes, many states are shifting to natural gas, but the carbon density of natural gas is lower than both oil and coal. Extraction of it is less dangerous. It's not better than renewables, but is a great alternative for developing countries that don't have the money for renewables - at least for the time being.

Oil and diesel are gradually being phased out as well. Desires to be economically independent from oil rich countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia have driven policy makers away from it. Areas like Alaska that rely heavily on diesel for heating are switching to renewable energy and less energy intensive heat pumps.

Fossil fuel companies are continuing to do their lobby thing, but it doesn't matter. Climate change isn't even the driving factor right now - it should be, but the increasing cost of fossil fuel extraction is slowly breaking the industry. In the US, it's just not as profitable as it was thirty years ago.

Nuclear

Nuclear energy is fast-growing. While it's somewhat stagnated in the US, countries like France, Russia, South Korea, Germany, and Japan are relying on increasing amounts of nuclear energy - in France's case, almost 4/5ths of their electricity comes from nuclear energy.

We've found ways to make the Uranium and Thorium last longer in the reactor, and in fact, nuclear power plants are among the safest in the world. The only emission is water vapor - not including the construction - and we have hundreds or thousands of years left of nuclear energy at our current consumption, even more if we can find out how to harness ocean Uranium and seafloor Thorium or harness nuclear fusion.

Nuclear power plants produce absurd amounts of electricity - a single 6 gigawatt power plant (high end, but do exist) could singlehandedly provide the entire electric requirements of New York City - think of what several of them across the country could do. They generate power incredibly reliably.

Nuclear disasters like Fukushima and Chernobyl are far behind us. Fukushima was entirely preventable - they knew about the lack of safety regulations and did not fix them - and Chernobyl was 40 years ago. Technology has come a long way since then.

Hydroelectric

Hydroelectric dams that kill fish are out - tidal turbines and fish ladders are in. Fish ladders provide ways for fish to escape and not get caught in the turbine, though the reduced quality of life both up and downstream is an issue.

Enter tidal energy! Yes, really!

A startup in Scotland, MeyGen has proven that two-way off-shore turbines can provide significant amounts of electricity. Just four turbines were enough to provide electricity to over 4,000 homes. Tidal barrages have been used on bridges and coasts to generate hydroelectric energy from the incoming ocean waves.

There are no significant emissions beyond construction, AND the turbines and barrages *do not kill fish or sea creatures*. The turbines, at worst, caused dolphins and seals to simply avoid the area the turbines were in. They work when the ocean is flowing either direction, and can be put nearly anywhere - think about the power the Gulf Stream would generate!

Solar

Solar energy is fast-growing - and this part is my favourite. Homes are being designed with solar heating in mind. Not just in the panels, no - window placements, albedo, and materials have allowed homes to be heated by the sun in winter, but shielded from it in summer. A properly solar optimized home can cut on 75% of electricity use!

Solar panels are up to 46% efficiency now, which is insane. In parts of the western US, up to 8.6 kWh per m^2 of solar panels can be generated. For perspective, a single home uses about 30 kWh per day - a number that is decreasing. A home would only need about 43 square feet of solar panels to power their home, and lord knows roofs have more space than that.

Roofs are being designed to reflect heat, to reduce the heat island effects of big cities. Green spaces are being built for shade and cooling through transpiration. They've even invented a paint that reflects so much heat that it can cool your home by several degrees.

They've even invented thin-film solar panels that you can use as windows. Yeah! Solar panels YOU CAN USE AS WINDOWS! So skyscrapers that are covered in windows on all sides - think about the power generation. An office building doubling as a power plant. It's incredible.

Wind

Wind turbines don't kill that many birds. They used to, but they don't anymore - at least in most areas. The myth comes from the old 1960s turbines that were low to the ground and spun fast like a fan, so birds had trouble seeing where the blades were. The high up turbines nowadays are really only a problem for high-flying birds of prey, but even that's still being worked on. Wind energy is becoming increasingly efficient and producing more power than ever before.

Geothermal

Geothermal energy is going crazy. Iceland uses it to heat their homes and keep their streets ice-free instead of using snowplows in Reykjavik. There are systems in production now that would be able to generate power year-round using the heat of the earth.

By using a special liquid with a lower boiling point than water, electricity can be generated easily and without any kind of toxic waste that would normally result from groundwater energy production.

Geothermal plants can also be used for temperature regulation - the ground stays a relatively constant temperature. Say it's 65 degrees Fahrenheit in an area. In summer, you can pump that heat underground instead of into the air, which contributes to heat islands. In winter, when it's colder, you can extract the heat back out again. Heat and cooling are the single biggest energy sink in the US and in most parts of the world, and it's about to become completely clean.

Energy Consumption and The Grid

While CO2 emissions are increasing, that's mostly due to population increase. The emissions per capita has actually gone down - the average person produces almost 20 tons fewer of CO2 emissions than in 1990, and that number is going to continue to drop.

As we shift more towards renewable energy and working from home, those emissions per capita are going to drop more and more. People buy more local now. They use electric cars. Their household appliances have spiked in efficiency. LED bulbs produce significantly less emissions than the incandescent bulb, and the number of LED bulbs across the world is rapidly increasing.

The Grid is changing. Normally, the reason power generation produces so much CO2 is that power plants can't shut down - they have to produce at all hours of the day to remain economical. They produce more in the evenings when electricity demand is higher, and less in the early morning when it is lower.

The new electric grid would have energy storage. If a home or a power source, such as solar, produced too much energy, it would be sent back into the grid and stored for spikes in demand later - the system would become more efficient, and overproduction of electricity would no longer mean wasting it.

Conservation and Restoration

We can un-desertify farmland. We've figured out how to bring back rivers and streams that have dried up from overfarming in sub-saharan Africa. We can plant trees, we can enrich the soil, we can undo the damage that we've caused.

We can bring back coral. We can increase the albedo of the Arctic and Antarctic. We can re-introduce extinct animals and bring balance to the ecosystem again. We've massively reduced poaching and needless hunting of endangered animals. We know how to make sustainable, permaculture farming practices.

We have everything we need to fix the ecosystems we've damaged or destroyed - and people are already doing it.

Why it's actually gonna be okay

Guys, we're past the worst of it. Maybe not the worst of the effects of climate change, but certainly the worst of the emissions. We are going to have a clean future. Young people support environmental regulations the most, and there are enough passionate young minds that it's going to get done.

I know I talked most about the US here, but it's changes all across the world. I focused on the US because it has the highest per capita emissions of any country on Earth. Don't be fooled though - everyone is going green.

Meat is being eaten less than ever before. Fewer people drive cars. Fewer people waste and throw things away. Don't let the scary news of private jets and mega-corporations disillusion you. GOOD CHANGES ARE HAPPENING!

Enough of the doomer apocalypse viewpoint of climate change. There is a hopeful future for all of us. Let's achieve it together!

#climate change #climate crisis #hopeful ending #future #climate doomerism #my silly little posts #renewable power #renewable future #solarpunk

[fairuzfan]

in re: genocide joe, i feel like his election in the first place also just speaks to how incurably stagnant the us electoral system is. the overwhelming dominance of those who can afford to grow old (i.e. the wealthy white) means the pressing issues that the youth (and a percentage of the older generations, but often not the ones who make it to their 70s/80s/90s) care about, like climate change, anti-imperialism, labor rights, dismantling structural inequality, and overall Not Living In A Festering Pile Of Shit Country, just get ignored as 'acceptable compromises'. i had a conversation with my mom during the dem primaries about why i was so anti-biden then that was literally this exact thing: it is too late to compromise on these issues. if you wanted compromise, you shouldve compromised in the 80s, the 90s, hell even the aughts. but you didnt. you just passed the buck and ignored it. and now its the 20s, the world is on fire, and you have run out the clock. put up or shut up. there is no more time.

What's really frustrating is that yeah, the electoral system is supremely fucked and people acknowledge it, even dem voters, but they just don't think you can even try to change anything. I remember when Obama was elected, everyone was soooo excited and starry eyed about him but then by the second election, everyone just didn't want whats-his-face to win. No one really cared about Obama winning. And we did the same thing with Hillary. And now Biden.

At this point our judicial system is fucked too so no matter what, for the next like 40 years it's going to be Overwhelmingly Bad with domestic things like abortion and book bans and freedom of speech and even environmental rights. It doesn't matter if Biden SAYS he's not going to do something, the Supreme Court will do what it wants. And anyways, you trust Biden after all this to respect your rights? After him publicly allowing genocide to happen? After him FUNDING genocide? Fuck him.

Anyways, its been downhill for decades like you said, there's no fixing a system that's running exactly how it's intended to run.

[rainbow-nerdss]

Finding You (Part 4)

Written for @augustwritingchallenge day 29: Dark Buddie, 2k Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Read it on AO3

Buck's eyes caught on the photo frame, just as they had every time he walked into Eddie's house since the picture had been placed there, close to two years ago now.

It was them, arms around each other, though they'd been complete strangers the night before it was taken. Standing in front of a vintage fire engine — it felt something like fate, like a promise from the universe, bringing them back together.

Beside that picture were two more — one of Christopher and Shannon, and the other— the most recent addition — taken in the photo booth at May's graduation party a week before, Chris standing between Eddie and Buck, all three of them grinning at the camera.

"Eddie?" Buck called. "Good to go?"

"Almost!" Eddie's voice came from down the hall. He emerged from Chris's room holding a Lego set. "He forgot to bring it with him when Carla dropped him to school, apparently he needs it for show and tell. Do you mind making a stop?"

Buck laughed. "’Course not. We'd better get going, though, unless we want Bobby to write us up for being late.”

They’d been car-pooling, ever since Chris had done a project on climate change and insisted they start doing something to reduce their carbon footprint. He’d also been strictly monitoring their recycling habits, leaving sticky notes every time he found something in the wrong trash can.

Buck could never say no to that kid, and a little extra time with Eddie before and after work was always welcome.

They just about made it to work on time, slipping in the door just as Bobby was beginning his morning briefing.

It was a good day.

Until it wasn't.

A fire at a storage facility, which wouldn’t have been too bad, except it was on an auction day, and there were an unknown number of civilians inside the units.

Buck and Eddie walked through the hallways, knocking on each door they passed, making sure nobody was left behind.

They found one container with the door slightly ajar. No response, but Buck went in just to check, and Eddie followed him.

The door swung shut, slamming with a heavy thud.

They couldn't open it.

"Try the light?" Eddie suggested, but Buck couldn't find the switch.

Eddie radioed the team, letting them know what happened.

"Any sign of fire near you?" Bobby asked. "Any injuries?"

"Just to our pride," Buck answered. He heard Chimney laugh, meaning he'd taken the time to hit the button on his radio just so they would hear.

Rude.

"Alright, sit tight, guys. We'll get this fire under control, take care of our victims, then we'll come get you."

"Got it, Cap," they both confirmed.

Buck felt along the wall until he found a spot where he could sit.

"Guess we've got some time to kill," he grunted, shifting his weight slightly to get comfortable.

He heard Eddie moving around, then a clatter, swearing, and Eddie was tripping over Buck's legs and falling to the ground.

"Shit!" Buck reached out to help him up. "You okay?"

"All good," Eddie groaned. "Just a little bruised, I think."

"Maybe we should stay in one spot, while we're stuck here in the dark," Buck suggested, helping Eddie get situated sitting beside him.

"Probably for the best."

Their shoulders pressed together in the dark space, and Buck turned his head in Eddie's direction, even though he could barely see his outline.

"How long d'you think it'll take them?" Buck asked.

"No idea. It's not so bad here though."

"Are you kidding? It smells like something died."

Eddie laughed, Buck slowly joining him.

"You heard Maddie's news, right?" Buck asked after a few moments. Her and Chimney had just started telling people about their pregnancy, and Buck had been dying to talk to Eddie about it.

"You were there when I heard it, Buck," Eddie laughed. "Or should I be calling you Uncle Buck?"

Buck snorted. "You know, I had no idea what Chim was referencing when he said that at first? He had to sit me down and make me watch the movie so he could keep making jokes about it."

Eddie laughed again. "Why am I not surprised?" 

Buck nudged him.

"How are you feeling about it?" Eddie asked.

"Honestly? I can't wait. I'm gonna spoil the shit out of that kid."

"Really? I remember when Adriana had her first kid, I was… Well, excited isn’t the first word that comes to mind.”

Buck frowned. “How come?” 

He felt Eddie shrug beside him. “I just… I couldn’t picture myself as an uncle, you know? Then three years later, I was a dad, so.” Buck wanted to say something, but that was all so long ago, he didn’t know what he could say. He did the math in his head — it mustn’t have been long after Buck met them, he figured. He thought of the Eddie he had met back then, so young, so unsure of what he wanted. “I guess it’s different for you though,” Eddie continued. “You have more practice with kids than I did.”

“Thanks to you,” Buck said. They weren’t the first words that came to mind, though. No, the first thing Buck thought at Eddie’s words was I already feel like a dad. A frankly ridiculous thought to have about a kid he’d known for all of two years, not even a quarter of his life. 

Sure, he knew Chris cared about him, that he enjoyed their time together as much as Buck did. The three of them, Buck, Eddie and Chris, they just… fit together, in a way Buck had never allowed himself to think too closely on, for fear that it would all fall apart if he did. 

“You know,” Eddie’s voice broke through Buck’s thoughts. “When I told Chris the news, he was excited too. He said he couldn’t wait to have a new baby cousin.”

Buck turned red, suddenly grateful for the dark that surrounded them. “He did?” 

“Yeah.” 

“What did you say?” 

The pause before Eddie answered was a long one. “I didn’t correct him.” 

“Oh. Really?” The thought Buck had pushed aside before came back to the surface. If Chris thought of Maddie’s kid as his cousin, then it would suggest…

“Buck, I need to tell you something.”

Eddie’s voice was heavy with something Buck couldn’t recognise. It sounded serious, though. 

“You need to tell me something now? Here?” 

“I’ve chickened out too many times already, when there was somewhere else I could run, or when I could see your face.” 

“Okay. What is it? You’re making me nervous.”

Buck was ready for Eddie to say something which would hurt him. To say that he didn’t like how close Buck had gotten to Chris, how involved Buck was in their lives, that he was a burden on them in some way. Buck was the one who wanted to run now, to escape this conversation which neither of them would be able to move on from without something fundamentally shifting.

“I think I’ve been falling in love with you.”

It took Buck a full minute to process Eddie’s words. They couldn’t have meant what he thought they did, but he replayed them in his mind, and he couldn’t find another meaning beyond the obvious. 

Beyond Eddie loving him.

“Buck? Say something, I can’t see your face right now, and I need to know what—” 

Buck kissed him. Or, he tried to. In the dark, he sort of misjudged the distance between his face and Eddie’s, and the kiss landed what felt like somewhere between Eddie’s nose and his eye. 

He redirected, though, and this time he hit the mark.

He felt Eddie leaning into the kiss, lips soft against his own. “Eds, I started falling for you the day you sat next to me in a doorway in Boston, and I don’t think I ever stopped.” 

“Really?” Eddie whispered against his mouth, the sound sending a shiver down Buck’s spine.

“Really,” Buck assured him, preventing any further questions with another kiss.

Eddie’s gloved hand reached up to touch Buck’s face, and after a frustrated grunt it disappeared, replaced a moment later by Eddie’s warm hand. Buck pulled his own gloves off, pulling Eddie closer, sliding his hands under Eddie’s turnout coat, finding the warmth of his skin through his work t-shirt. 

Buck’s tongue darted out, and Eddie let him in with a soft noise. Buck moved, trying to get a better angle. This time, he was the one who fell, but Eddie didn’t help him up. He followed him down, until they were tangled together on the floor.

“Fuck, Eddie,” Buck sighed, feeling Eddie’s fingers slide through his hair. He lost himself in the kiss, the feeling of Eddie pressed up against him, lips pressed against lips, bodies flush from head to toe.

Buck didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but it was long enough for him to forget where they were and why, until he heard a crash from outside, followed by a stream of light pouring through the now-open door.

Eddie sat up, eyes wide in surprise, and Buck craned his neck to see the entire rest of the team standing in the doorway, staring at them.

“Why didn’t you guys radio to say you were there?” he asked. Eddie turned to look back at Buck, and it took everything in him not to pull him back down now he could see the kiss-swollen lips, glassy eyes and flushed cheeks, knowing he’d done that.

Chimney was grinning, gesturing to his radio. “You guys were kind of hogging the channel,” he said. 

Buck frowned and turned to look at his own radio. Sure enough, he was broadcasting. He must have hit the button when he fell back. His face heated up even more as he wondered how much they’d heard.

He pulled himself up to a seated position and switched the radio off, grumbling. 

“We thought you’d been injured at first, but… I guess not,” Bobby said. Buck fixed his gear, then helped Eddie to his feet. There was a moment, when their eyes met and Buck felt giddy, remembering those words. I think I’ve been falling in love with you.

Eddie smiled, almost shy, and Buck nodded, the smile on his face feeling like it might never leave. 

“We’d better go,” Hen said, interrupting their moment in a tone that Buck was sure meant they’d be discussing this later. 

The rest of their shift dragged. Teasing from the rest of the team, twenty minutes in Bobby’s office filling out HR forms, laying awake through the night in the bunk room because Eddie was right there in the next bunk over, just out of reach when Buck could be holding him close. 

He kept wishing for a call, just to stop him from saying screw it and doing something which would absolutely necessitate sitting through another round of HR bullshit.

Finally, their shift ended, and Buck followed Eddie to his truck, pressing him against the door and kissing him again. Eddie smiled against his mouth, then broke the kiss. 

“I gotta get home in time to bring Christopher to school. Meet me there?” Eddie asked. 

Buck nodded, kissing him once more, just because he could. He was barely inside his jeep before his phone was lighting up with a call from Maddie. He was surprised it had taken this long for Chimney to tell her, honestly, but maybe she had just been waiting for their shift to end so he couldn’t get away with inventing a call.

He turned towards Eddie’s, answering Maddie’s call on speaker and bracing himself for her to yell at him about being the last one to find out. 

He couldn’t even feel bad, not when he pulled into Eddie’s and let himself inside, not when he helped himself to a cup of coffee and waited for Eddie to get home from the school run, staring at the pictures of them on Eddie’s wall. He couldn’t feel bad, not when they’d greet each other at the door with a kiss when Eddie got home, then stumble back to Eddie’s room together, falling onto the bed to pick up where they’d left off in the storage facility, this time with light coming through the blinds so Buck could see every expression on Eddie’s face, every inch of his skin.

How could he be anything but the happiest he’d ever been?

#my fic #au gust 2023 #au gust fills #buddie #buddie fic #buck/eddie #evan buckley #eddie diaz

[kp777]

Montana youths take climate case to trial in historical first

By Megan Michelotti

Independent Record

Feb. 15, 2023

Some Montana youths say they are fed up with their big sky being polluted in Big Sky Country and their Treasure State losing its value to the obtrusive hands of climate change.

On March 13, 2020, 16 young Montanans filed a constitutional climate lawsuit against the state of Montana — two days before COVID-19 started shutting down the United States. Held et al v. Montana is now the nation's first-ever youth constitutional climate case set to go to trial.

The case asserts that by supporting a fossil fuel-driven energy system, the state is violating its own constitutional rights “to a clean and healthful environment and the rights of pursuing life's basic necessities, enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and seeking their safety, health and happiness in all lawful ways. In enjoying these rights, all persons recognize corresponding responsibilities,” according to Article II, Section 3 of Montana’s Constitution.

Montana's Constitution was adopted in 1972, replacing the original 1889 constitution.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare Montana’s State Energy Policy, parts C-G and the Climate Change Exception in the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) Section 2, part A that was passed in 1971 as unconstitutional. They also ask that the state be ordered to develop a remedial plan based on what scientific research recommends to protect the youth plaintiff's constitutional rights from continuing to be infringed upon.

Lander Busse, one of the 16 plaintiffs, said it is a matter of accountability. 

“As much as we want to think about the historical retrospect or how big of an impact this could have on a wider scale, our mission right now is to make sure we’re holding our Montana government accountable for their violations of our state constitution,” he said. “... It’s sad that it’s falling on us, the youth, to do this and not the adults, our elected officials, who know this material best.”

Montana’s State Energy Policy has goals of developing and utilizing Montana’s “vast coal reserves” and increasing oil and gas exploration in the state. In MEPA, Montana lawmakers codified a provision that prohibits the state from considering regional, national or global impacts when debating permits for projects that require an environmental impact statement.

The case states how greenhouse gas emissions are “triggering a host of adverse consequences in Montana,” such as increasing temperatures, extreme weather events, wildfires, glacial melt, changing precipitation patterns, droughts and floods and causing adverse health risks to many, especially children.

Other defendants named in the 104-page lawsuit are former Gov. Steve Bullock and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the Montana Public Service Commission.

The trial is scheduled for June 12 in front of Montana 1st Judicial District Judge Kathy Seeley.

Read more.

#montana #climate change #climate activism #fossil fuels #our children's trust

[wonderlandleighleigh]

Steve Rogers talks with you about toast

When I was eleven years old, my Ma came home with a pop-up toaster. 

It was 1929, and things were not going well for the American people. It was November, and the weather was getting cold. Food was getting a little hard to come by. Thankfully, Ma had a little job security, being a hospital nurse and all, but it wasn’t a sure thing. She knew she could be cut loose at any moment. 

But that night, plugging in our little metal toaster for the first time, she said “things may look bleak, Stevie. But at least we’ll have good toast.” 

When I got out of the ice, one of the biggest things that caused me anxiety was the idea that I wouldn’t like any of the new food available in the twenty-first century; that things would have changed so much that there would be nothing recognizable about what ended up on my dinner plate.

On my first day, Nick Fury took me out to breakfast. We didn’t talk much about what he wanted from me. We didn’t talk about what had happened to me. 

We talked about the menu. 

And on that menu? 

Rye toast.

I smiled so hard when I saw it that my face hurt.

Here’s something you might not know: Sarah Rogers and Winifred Barnes were very close friends. Neighbors, yes, and their sons were inseparable, but as two single mothers trying to make ends meet, they did all they could to support each other and keep each other safe. Mrs. Barnes didn’t speak much English, and she couldn’t read or write it, so when things came up that required explanation, my Ma was always there for her. 

And in return, Mrs. Barnes would make extra food for us. Ma worked, and she wasn’t really much of a cook, to be honest, god rest her soul.

But Winifred Barnes was amazing. And she was very good at lucking into food. A crate of potatoes once fell off of a truck right at her feet, and that tiny Jewish woman dragged it eight blocks home, and nobody stopped her. Neighbors and friends would hand her cuts of meat they didn’t know how to cook, and we’d all feast like kings. She kept ten bags of flour in her home at all times, even during the worst years of the depression. 

“Du hast mel, du hast broyt.” 

Yiddish for: “you have flour, you have bread.” 

Which brings me back to toast. 

In those days, butter, jam…hard to come by. We’d put gravy on the toast. Creamed corn. Ma read about tomato gravy: tomatoes, salt, flour. They used to put that on biscuits in the south.  

Every so often, Mrs. Barnes would luck her way into a box of fruit, and she’d make jam out of what she got. It was a treat back then! Sweet and sticky and satisfying. 

Now, today, it feels like there are endless things to put on toast. The most popular being egg, cheese and meat. 

Picture this: It’s three in the morning, you’ve just gotten your face punched in by a guy who should be dead, but keeps coming back, really for the specific purpose of punching you in the face. You turn a corner, and there is a lone shop with a light on. A corner bodega. You step in, and the clerk behind the counter’s first instinct is to reach for the emergency button under the counter, but then he recognizes your bruised face, and the shield you’re sliding into the holder on your back.

And he smiles. 

You limp up to the counter and you give a polite hello, even though one of your eyes is swelling shut a little, and request a sausage, egg and cheddar on an onion bagel.

Believe me, you’re not kissin’ anybody tonight, enjoy the onion.

And he hurries to make it for your, and you grab two waters out of the cold case: one for drinking and one for your face, and you pay (he offers it for free, but you insist, so he discounts it heavily), and soon, you’re eating your hot, gooey toasted bagel sandwich, leaning on the counter, chatting with the clerk about life, and how you wish New York had the climate to grow lemon trees, because lemons are so useful.

You may ask, “But Steve, that’s a bagel sandwich, that’s not really toast.” You toast the bagel, don’t you? Toast in my book.

You go home. You get a little sleep. You take a hot shower, and thank god that eye is healing up pretty well now, and then…

You pop some rye bread in your toaster, and once it’s popped, you scrape just a little butter on it, and then slather sweet, rich strawberry jam right on top. 

It’s quiet. There’s coffee. The toast has a good crunch, and the rye is thick enough to stand up to all that spread. 

And it’s a little piece of heaven right in your kitchen.

I keep hearing about avocado toast. People get really nuts about it, and I have to admit, I don’t get the hype, nor do I get the naysayers. This idea that an entire generation is too busy eating a fruit on a piece of toasted bread to get a job seems like something somebody who dislikes unions and paying fair wages would say. 

That’s an essay for another time.

For my money, if I’m going to be fancy about my toast, it’s going to involve fish and cream cheese. There were quite a few appetizing stores (shops that sell smoked and pickled fish instead of deli meat) in Brooklyn when I was a teen, and when we had a little money to burn, Bucky and I would hit one and I would get pickled herring: sour and fishy and filling as it was. 

And I know that’s not trendy now. It’s not what most people eat. But you might be surprised at how good it is if you give it a shot.

These days, when the mood strikes, I sneak into Russ and Daughters on Houston Street. I order my pickled herring and cream cheese on a toasted onion bagel (whoever I’m kissing is just going to have to suffer), a piece of cinnamon babka and a coffee. 

When Bucky is in town, he goes all out: lox and sable with dill horseradish cream cheese on a toasted everything bagel. He, too, does not care what the person he’s kissing thinks of his breath.

The bagels are always toasted perfectly. Browned and crisp, melting the cream cheese a little so the consistency is gooey and a good contrast to the cold, salty fish. 

I’ve decided, now that I have a little more free time, that I’m going to start making my own bread at home. See if I can get good at it. I do okay in the kitchen (Buck is way better than I am, having learned under his mother’s feet), and I’m hoping to get better. 

At the very least, I’ll have some toast

#fic #au #steve rogers #steve rogers talks with you

[bosetsu]

It's cold in Moscow right now and I REALLY don't miss twitter. Not something atypical but close to lowest numbers we usually get (day temperatures ~ -23C/-10F) At this time you get next annoying types:

1) "oh, cold lovers ARE YOU HAPPY?"

(yes, some are happy. I am not, I am more neutral but mostly because my hands always get cold too easily, it's annoying and painful. What is your point?)

2) "I want temperatures above freezing level again"

(Oh. This people are on my shit list. Above freezing aren't supposed to be normal for us. It means climate fucking change. It means our vegetation and animals dying because they can't survive this temperatures or they stop hibernating and do not have FOOD. GTFO GTFO)

3) this one is usually from people in other regions "but it's not cold, what are you whining about"

(do shut up! It is cold FOR US. Also a lot of homeless people go to warmer and more populated regions like Moscow and this temperatures kill them. Also you overconfident fuckers wouldn't survive -25 in St. P don't kid yourself)

Why am I angry if I am not reading all the discourse? Oh, it's been years, I've got Pavloved into being angry just from temperatures dropping

#ramblings

[darkoverord]

I need to have a rant about the UK, the heatwave we're getting next week, and shitty attitudes peeps might have about it :V

First just gonna if you're in the UK, we're about to potentially get our first ever 40C day next week (previous record was 38.7C for reference). Best advice is to keep your windows shut during the day, keep all the curtains shut and if need be put foil in the windows to reflect out heat (I'm legit considering the last point >_>). Make sure you keep hydrated, more than you think you need but not too much. Also make sure kids are adequately cooled and that you keep checking in on elderly people you are about 'cus both ends of age we end up with thousands dying in a year from heatwaves.

Second, people who are like "Oh but we get hotter temperatures regularly, wimps" and other similar shit just. Go past the memes, shut up for a moment and maybe read under the read more.

SO. Right. In 2021 the UK Met Office brought in to weather warnings "Extreme Heat", which seams standard enough except almost immediately after bringing that type of warning in they had to issue the 2nd highest level (within like, weeks IIRC?). A year later and we're now on the highest level, which they consider "an extreme risk to life"

Look, it me *points at Manchester*

Now I know what you're thinking, "why are you making such a fuss about this? Surely if you're getting these temperatures regularly then as a country surely you're getting used to it and mitigating it?" to which yeah we are trying to but we can only do so much with what we have.

Like I cannot spell out enough how rapidly these changes have happened (almost like climate change is real 🤔) but lets just, kind of point out some things that are happening:

UK building codes focus on heat but only in one direction, don't let it out - A properly insulated building would resist letting heat in as much as it resists letting heat out. However because until the past 20 years the UK was generally a cooler, wetter, country, it's never been a focus. Why wouldn't you want heat to come in when your climate is cooler? Well the answer to that is if a tiny portion of humanity decides it's okay to roast us alive for money you'd be able to deal with it.

The consequence of this is pretty simple. If your home equalises with the outdoor temperature (which you can try to mitigate), even if it cools down it can take days for that heat to finally get out unless you've got a home with decent airflow or just really shit insulation.

For example during last week's heat wave (yes... we've only had three days of respite...) it took 3 days for my flat to finally stop being 5C to 10C hotter than outside 'cus we just could not get the heat to shift. Now apply this principle to almost every home or public building you can think of like schools, pubs, offices, that don't have air conditioning. Oh yeah, that's the next point.

The UK generally doesn't have air conditioning unless you're rich or you're in a public building that is new or managed to retrofit it in - I'm not kidding. Most of us don't even have portable AC units 'cus they don't even properly fit our windows. We literally often end up dealing with heatwaves like this:

And god so often do we get these shitty "Oh just get AC" comments as if implying that AC is fucking cheap in the UK. Or that a lot of us own and don't rent our homes to get it installed.

The UK admittedly kind of has an obsession with buildings having large windows - Like even my flat has large windows? Not the best but they're generally always designed in a way to keep the heat in, so that's already a problem. I guess the idea is to let in as much light as possible so that the sun adds a bit of heating on a colder day. Now imagine if there were buildings with complete glass fronts suddenly dealing with direct sunlight at 40C, oh...

Okay so that's already three problems and the bulk of UK homes and offices date back to the 60s and 70s, which means they were already up to (and over with buildings from the 1800s) 70 years and more behind modern building codes. Even if the UK was preparing for these temperatures (since 2003, and we haven't been) the bulk of buildings simply wouldn't be able to cope anyway. There's two solutions to this, you knock all these buildings down and build new ones - or - you retrofit them all. Both of these are extremely expensive and the government will refuse to bank roll this. Don't die from heat stroke peasants!

And we're not even talking about infrastructure yet, I've only focused on "buildings which may contain people for more than a few hours". Lets look at that, with the first easy point that popped up even a decade or so ago...

UK Rail is not designed for regular high temperatures, it's designed for 27C stress free (so no trains on it) - (got a source for that one if you're curious) So trains will have to slow down because sometimes in these kinds of temperatures if the circumstances are right our railways could just buckle from expansion and in worst case scenarios kind of just pop out like springs 'cus railways are kind of designed to be at tension so when a big heavy thing goes over it it doesn't just, give way underneath the big heavy thing. So that's already one infrastructure "ah".

UK Roads are also not designed for regular high temperatures - An example given for this is that once the BBC took a temperature reading on the A68 Earlston in Scotland, 21.2C, but the road temperature was 49.2C, which is pretty much where our roads start melting like chocolate, but less delicious and more dangerous. You'll also note that this article is from 2013 and cites incidents in 2003 and 2006... Lets see what's happening this week, oh!

Which yeah, that's not a surprise if 21C in direct sunlight can start making roads tacky like taffy then boy, 40C will.

We're having at least one bridge fall apart because of heat causing it to expand - (Source) Again, a simple matter, especially with historical metal bridges (and I'd argue structures as well) like the Hammersmith Bridge where they were built to withstand load and temperature specifications long since gone. How often do you have to cover a bridge in foil to stop it getting too hot, and have to run cooling systems at night to also try to stop it getting too hot? I'd argue if you're in a country where you're used to these temperatures, rarely! Meanwhile...

Now in a normal sensible country not run by madmen who wish to only make a profit, these matters would be touched on. But all these points require public expenditures to adapt an entire country to deal with climate change. But it's not happening. That bridge? The government's Ministry of Transport refuses to provide any more than a third of repairs. Even though it's a historical bridge and a major crossing over the Thames.

If they're not willing to bankroll London you can bet your ass is Westminster's government not going to bankroll changes elsewhere.

Almost all these points point the blame squarely on poor planning by the UK government for 20+ years. - Not a shock of course, it's not like the UK doesn't have plenty of people who deny climate change, even MPs. But these are all reasons that with proper planning could've been mitigated well before the country starts melting. I believe the devolved governments are trying, but there's only so much they can do within their confines as they still technically have to deal with Westminster.

I could've given simple people reasons, British people are acclimatised to cool temperatures and so on. But they're often ignored and framed as us being unable to cope.

I could've pointed at the UK also having issues with wildfires now. I could've pointed at the fact that I'm in a particularly wet part of the UK it's not rained for two weeks.

But I know those kinds of points get shrugged off as other than the wildfires there's not really any "oh so that's why" reason. It just looks like the British public are idiots with temperature and should suck it up. (Granted given how often the general public lobster themselves in heatwaves that's not entirely an incorrect assessment...)

However maybe seeing that schools are having to shut ('cus most don't have air conditioning), hospitals having to cancel appointments (likely to deal with an influx of people suffering heat stroke) and our roads just melting, will kind of frame how this country was never ready for regular days of 25C, it wasn't ready for regular days of 30C and certainly was never ready for 40C.

The same works in reverse after all, Brits have no real right laughing at Texas when it snowed (well, okay, we could all join in and laugh at the "snow isn't real" conspiracy theories). If your infrastructure isn't ready then of course it's going to struggle.

Just, be a little more patient with people and not just go "Oh get air conditioning" as if it's some magical fix to the UK's climate change issues.

I do get ratty every year with this kind of thing and for genuine good reason.

Anyway now to price up how much tinfoil I need to cover our stupid windows.

#Don't mind DO #just grumpy about heatwaves in the UK

[pcttrailsidereader]

Flee for Your Life? Wildfires transform hiking in California's mountains

This is an excerpt from an article published on August 21, 2022 in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. I wish so many of our posts were not related to wildfires but fires have become a critical issue in trip planning and trip safety. Make sure you read to the recommendations at the end of the piece.

By Ethan Baron

Andrew Schrock woke around midnight smelling smoke on a backpacking trip late last month in California’s far north.

“I heard what I thought was rain but was ashes on the tent,” said Schrock, 43.

Using a satellite-based device from the Klamath National Forest near the Oregon border, he texted family and friends back home to find out what was happening – but “no one was up.”

He’d had cell service a mile back along the iconic Pacific Crest Trail that stretches from Mexico to Canada, so he set out alone in the dark, got online, and discovered that the McKinney Fire – which has since grown to more than 60,000 acres, killed four people and required the rescue of 60 hikers from the California side of the trail – had ignited behind him to the south the previous afternoon.

Ask anyone who hikes in California’s mountains about wildfires and you’ll likely get an earful about canceled trips, detours, lung-burning smoke and, possibly, harrowing escapes. Backcountry travelers are increasingly finding themselves on the dangerous edge of a changing climate that is driving drought, parching forests, spreading tree-killing beetles and altering weather patterns. Add in heavy vegetation buildup from decades of fire suppression, and you have frequent, ferocious forest fires that scramble hikers’ best-laid plans and demand new tactics for staying safe.

Schrock, of Long Beach, flew from Ashland, Oregon, to Fresno and then caught a bus to Yosemite to get back into the Sierra Nevada and finish his vacation covering more ground and enjoying the wilderness on his multi-year quest to complete the Pacific Crest Trail, he recalled while taking a snack break beside Lower Echo Lake near Lake Tahoe.

Dallan Clancy of Belmont, 68, finishing up a day hike 100 miles west of Sacramento at Carson Pass, said he had to cancel an overnight trip last September in the southern Sierra because the U.S. Forest Service shut access to all but one of California’s national forests over fire risks, including what the agency called “fire behavior that is beyond the norm of our experience and models such as large, quick runs in the night.” Clancy said he and four friends are aiming to do the trip this year, “unless it gets really bad.”

“We’ve always made note of escape routes, but on this trip, we actually planned our escape routes. We wanted to know the routes we could take to get out to a road,” said Jack Daro, a Southern California musician taking a break at Carson Pass during a backpacking trek to Yosemite National Park.

Hikers in years past “just went and did whatever you wanted to do wherever you wanted to go,” Wilkinson said. But 2020 marked a transformation, with the million-acre August Complex Fire, the Creek Fire northeast of Fresno that led to helicopter evacuations of hundreds of people including hikers on the John Muir Trail, and other massive blazes launching California into the age of mega-fires, Wilkinson said.

Nine of California’s 20 biggest fires since 1932 have occurred in the past three years, torching 4.1 million acres, according to Cal Fire. This year’s five biggest blazes have burned 116,000 acres, and “we’re just now getting into peak wildfire season,” Wilkinson said.

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman noted that fire can move much faster in today’s baked-crisp forests. “The window between OK and not OK,” Freeman said, “is becoming shorter and shorter.”

Backcountry journeyers who think seeing smoke but no flames means they’re fine may be mistaken, Wilkinson said. “Fire can move like a freight train, much faster than a person can run.”

Some hikers have dramatically changed the way they travel. Loetitia Saint-Jacques, 50, a Tahoe City veterinary technician, was on an overnight trip this month near South Lake Tahoe. Before the mega-fires, she and her companions would take long trips into deep wilderness. “We don’t go as remote now,” Saint-Jacques said. “Now it’s shorter trips. We do overnights, instead of five to eight days.”

Long-distance speed-hiker Ella Raff had multiple run-ins with wildfire and its fallout after embarking on the Pacific Crest Trail in June to walk from Mexico to Canada. Last month, the Washburn Fire in Yosemite shrouded her in smoke for two days. “I was just breathing heavy smoke 24/7. It’s not very fun,” said Raff, 29, of Portland. Farther north in California, traversing 85 miles of trail charred from last year’s nearly million-acre Dixie Fire left Raff covered in ash and dismayed by a “surreal” landscape with little animal life.

Soon after, she smelled smoke from the McKinney Fire. As she was nearing the Oregon border, authorities shut the trail ahead. More than 100 miles of the route remain closed, with the fire, which started July 29, now almost contained. Raff made her way to Portland, then to Washington to hike the trail southward from Canada.

Changing jumping-off points, routes, destinations, or timing to cope with uncertainty about fires is now routine for hikers in California. The Caldor Fire, which ravaged 220,000 acres southwest of Lake Tahoe last year from August to October, forced Truckee artist Danae Anderson, 63, to cancel three backpacking trips. “Everything was too smoky up here,” said Anderson, hiking beside Lower Echo Lake. She went to Yosemite instead.

Reckless target shooting by a father and son allegedly caused the Caldor Fire. The inferno’s scar stretches nearly 50 miles southwest of Echo Lakes in a swath up to 15 miles wide, much of it a blackened wasteland of lifeless trees, some downed, some standing without greenery, granite on many boulders shattered in places by the intense heat. More than 80 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail were closed from the fire’s start last August until early this year. Hikers passing through such areas may find water scarce, and standing dead trees can pose a deadly toppling hazard, said Matt Rump, a trail stewardship staffer for the Pacific Crest Trail Association.

Crews take down the most dangerous trees, but because there are so many dead, and they provide important wildlife habitat, officials accept some risk to hikers, under the calculus that “if you get whacked, it’s your time,” said Cheryl Bailey, 73, a volunteer for the Tahoe Rim Trail Association, as she walked along the 2 1/2 miles of the rim trail that run through the Caldor scar and that she’s been helping rebuild.

Some hikers console themselves with fire’s importance to forest health, but many of today’s blazes burn so hot they kill trees accustomed to lower-intensity fires.

In the Echo Chalet store where Schrock, who fled the McKinney Fire, bought snacks, cashier Georgia Sprague, 22, chatted with the trekkers whose ebbs and flows depend on fires and smoke. Many expressed urgency over climate change.

“They feel a lot of a push to get out,” she said, “and see the world before it burns up.”

Wildfire safety tips for hikers

Recommendations for staying safe while hiking in the age of mega-fires:

Check websites such as InciWeb for fire information and PurpleAir for air-quality information before, and if possible during, backcountry trips.

2. Give friends and family your itinerary, always know your location and pay close attention to your surroundings in case you need to retreat.

3. Know whether fires are prohibited where you’re going.

4. Carry paper maps in addition to any digital maps or apps.

5. Use cell phones and satellite-based devices to monitor weather, fires, wind, air quality and alerts such as Red Flag wildfire warnings, and to stay in close contact with people not in the wilderness who may have better access to weather and fire information. Many satellite-based messaging devices such as the popular Garmin inReach also act as rescue beacons; trekkers wishing to stay less connected may prefer personal locator beacons that are only for emergency rescue.

6. Pay attention to signs at trailheads and trail junctions.

7. Gather crowd-sourced fire and trail information from reliable websites and forums.

8. Carry an N95 mask in case of smoke.

9. Watch the sky for smoke, and use your nose to detect it.

#Fire #Fires Safety #N-95 #Paper Maps #Caldor Fire #McKinney Fire #Inci-web

[aestheticvoyage2023]

Day 236: Thursday August 24, 2023 - "History Books"

History is still being written about this disastrous Presidency, that we once marched on and protested for this exact reason so many years ago. Sickening to think that this man has sucked up so much of our collective headspace and airspace for almost 10 years. And we still haven't reached bottom. The night before, I tuned into the GOP primary debate, and cringed at the theatre and the lies and the propaganda for smaller minds and populist worlds to soak up and be entertained by - I couldn't even joke with Audrie about enjoying it without feeling gross for having tuned into Fox News. The only good thing that can possibly come from this is Audrie and I being able to tell our Grandkids, that we hated everything to do with this horrible man, and this horrible chapter in our country's history. Far worse than any Gulf War or WMD. This nightmare just keeps rolling on worse and worse. And so as work ground down today, I closed myself off in the front "green" room to watch history unfold yet one more rank-smelling chapter, this time involving a Presidential Mugshot as the Grand Ole Party continues to circle the drain, in their unbelievable race to the bottom. The Trump plane landed in Atlanta, and got a full motorcade and press pool in a way that felt eerily like OJ's chase - yes, a historic moment in time, that lasted about one hour tonight, but will echo in history books around the world, one way or another on how this unfolds, sad as it is, nowhere near being done.

I've been resisting 45 since the beginning. And I don't take any joy in seeing him be arrested and have a mug shot to fundraise off of (7 million + in the first weekend, though if you want to bankroll a twice impeached, four times indicted man to help run our country further into the ground - here's your sign.). Today's history isn't good for anyone. And I feel like my history/poli sci degree is complete trash now - because its all gotta be re-written, as I sat there watching this bold history culminate in the red-tied-mancheeto tell the cameras that he's the victim and has done nothing wrong. And people believe that?! The fact that trying to scheme to overturn a legit election is somehow polarizing in America? And doesn't disqualify a man from representing the party? This is complete non-sense. Every day - the news is non-sense. Its a daily race to the bottom, distracting with pre-planned and strategized garbage. And while climate change burns our beautiful places and melts our ice caps, we're left with the dissatisfying consolation prize of seeing an obviously practiced mugshot of a man so fallen from grace to mark another terrible moment in time where we were to focused on this national narcissist to care about the things that really matter. And for that hour plus, so was I. But having paid my witness, and not needing any editorial blunder, I switched it off, screenshotted the newly released mugshot to show Audrie, and then shut it off and had dinner with my family, not mentioning his name or his sick game. After all these years and all the things he's done, he's not welcome here, and I can only hope that somewhere behind the derangement, he knows it, and this his legacy was trash long before this legal mess was tied to it. Now I can only hope that he is found guilty on all 91 felony charges and somehow sometime can go away completely broke and burdened by his own self-created big lies. The rest of us, just need to get on with it already and let this legacy on us all, rot away.

Song: Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North of Richmond

Quote: "Only during hard times do people come to understand how difficult it is to be masters of their feelings and thoughts." ~Anton Checkhov

[sunfoxfic]

about the “recognizing stereotypes is actually what’s racist” thing NO BC THAT TAKE HAS BEEN SO AGGRAVATING TO ME FOR SO LONG.

without going into the eight page long essay about how passionately i feel about this, all i have to say is how important it is to recognize stereotypes in media in order to accurately understand what’s wrong with them and criticize the media we consume in our everyday lives.

if you just Watch Media without recognizing the problems the stereotypes represent, you just end up internalizing them. to better describe what i mean, its just like the problem with anime and misogyny. you see it happen again and again and again and again, and eventually your brain (since it learns from patterns and familiarity) starts to expect that women and feminine-presenting people are in those roles and Only those roles.

go into it with a mindset of “oh these stereotypes are okay, i cant think about it or else im the bad one” and suddenly theyre just like the people on tiktok who just throw around buzz words without any critical thought behind it.

okay thats all, thank u for coming to my summarized ted talk

Anon, you're so valid. It was such a bizarre take and unlike anything I've personally run into before. It's like?? It almost treats coding as though it's a retroactive association with *insert group here* rather than an intentional insinuation. Coding in and of itself is a neutral thing - plenty of coding is used for good, plenty of coding is used for bad. Sometimes it's really hard to tell the difference between subtext and coding, too (and subtext is also in and of itself neutral).

When you frame coding, and in particular racist sorts of coding, as a retroactive association, it turns it into a no-win situation - the person who points out the coding is the one creating the association, and therefore is the one who is bigoted.

In my eyes, when you're calling out bigoted stereotypes via coding, the "best" outcome is for the creator to have been thoughtlessly replicating bigoted media. We'll never know if she-who-shall-not-be-named was doing it intentionally or unintentionally at first (it being anything you can think of, there are more than a few examples) but clearly her reaction to being called out is to dig her heels in the ground, so considering the "best" outcome is kinda moot in this particular case.

But yeah, you're really spot on with the thing about stereotypes. Because even if you can recognize that the stereotype is wrong while simultaneously keeping your mouth shut about it in fear of someone thinking you're the one who's doing the coding, you're the one who's bigoted - even if you can manage that, you're letting these ideas perpetuate to someone who doesn't know.

My politics recently have shifted to the ideology that "what works > what is ideal." I'm not interested in debating whether the person who knew it was wrong and said nothing is more innocent than the person who wasn't educated on the matter and adopted the ideas without critical skills to challenge them. I'm not interested in debating whether the latter was a victim, whether the former is part of the problem. Ideals are great when applied inwardly but nothing trumps results when trying to change the world - and it is true, great is the enemy of good.

In an ideal world, everyone could just agree to stop this sort of bigoted coding in works and then we don't have to worry about whether it's retroactive or not. We don't live in an ideal world. The actual way that it works is that, regardless of innocence and morality, change depends on Person 1 calling shit out so Person 2 doesn't fall into it. Is that sort of act an act of social justice, or just what a good citizen does? Should people get credit for it?

Man, fuck if I know. People in three hundred years won't be studying me in their textbooks either way because I don't want them to, but where we are now, people are dying and the climate is changing, so I really prioritize making a world where they have trees to make into textbooks and a history that's written not only by the victors, but the good guys.

#this ended up taking a lot wider of a scope than i expected ajkhsfdhkjasd #i just. yeah anon. you're right #as an english major it's really frustrating to see people taking these concepts out of context so the ''right'' people are the enemies #you can use words in as many orders as you want to say that this person is bad #what will saying that actually DO #when a person from a vulnerable group says they're being hurt. stop the problem at the ROOT #go for effect over ideal #anyway #ask to tag #asks answered #anonymous

[solipseismic]

my friend, what is blue/fainn from? coz ur tags were very :eyes:

HOHOHO this is the ONE GUY that i will NEVER shut up about so thank you for enabling me!! this literally made my whole evening ❣ mentally i am kissing u on the mouth

blue is one of my ocs from as-yet unnamed space opera wip! the name his mother gave him is sepehr fainn which he occasionally uses for Official Business but everyone calls him "blue" (or "sek" which is blue in kahali) because he's had his hair (shaved short on the sides and back but long and in neat lil brads on top) dyed THE most Obnoxious blue in existence.

so re: the tags: "thinking about blue (fainn) and despite how long and hard he fought for freedom he will never truly belong to himself." short answer, he's a Man of the People and he will never escape his mother's legacy. long answer ...

so ok imagine there is space korea (sporea, if you will) and it is a planet called kahal. previously, it has been invaded by another colonizing race but got their asses kicked and sent on their way--after about a hundred and fifty years of occupation. in the wake of this, kahali society split into three main social castes--the noble ruling class, the military, and Everyone Else (artisans, farmers, merchants, etc). contrary to what many think, the military is not just at the bottom of this social ladder but perhaps six feet below it. the ruling class use and abuse their military for centuries, driving them to greater and greater heights yet all the while denying them basic human rights

about five hundred years of this goes by, and kahal becomes one of the most formidable planets in the system--not just for their exports, but because their military is unconventional but also the Scariest around (built on guerilla tactics with an emphasis on ending wars before they begin via assassination)

this is mostly just a Vehicle for me to insert themes about compressed modernity in a post-imperialism, post-invasion society (and the implementation of children / future generations to achieve impossibly high standards economically and societally that comes with this) into even MORE of my writing

so our guy blue is a soldier at the time of the five hundred-year mark. his mother, sikan fainn, is formerly the leading general of kahal's military and also his trainer*--and as a result, she pushes him the hardest out of anyone else. in a very bad way. his childhood is Brutal. at age 12 he decides he's had enough of this and runs off on his own to another planet, where he makes friends and heals from his trauma in healthy and fulfilling ways. at age 18, the socio-political climate on kahal is ripe for change--and this comes in the form of a revolution led by This Guy Right Here, who's been surreptitiously keeping tabs on the whole thing even though he left

blue and his cadre (closest friends, also all soldiers except for this one guy called formosa who used to be one of the ruling class) overthrow the noble elite and essentially upend the entire system and re-haul the governmental system top to bottom. it's all very fast and efficient and results in lots of executions, despite people (blue) trying to keep bloodshed to a minimum

after this, blue is known as the Revolutionary of Kahal, or just the Revolutionary, and now he is no longer his own person--if he ever really was. he's a representative of kahal and its people, formally or informally, whether he wants to be or not

"but sol," some might say, "you never covered his mother's legacy! also, how on earth is a child doing all this! he is a baby!"

WELL! kahali soldiers are known for hypercompetence from scarily young ages as a result of how they are trained and how society is set up--you don't go into the military, you're born into it. blue may be the most mentally healthy of my ocs (the bar is in the ninth circle of hell), but he does have mommy issues the size of at least half of alaska (for those not living in the states, this is Large). blue was never a child, he was a weapon. he was a tool in the hands of his mother and in the hands of the elite and though he may have freed his kin and repudiated his mother, he was stepping from one forge into another. if that makes sense.

*note on the training system: typically a one-to-one ratio of an experienced soldier training a Child from exceedingly young ages. these trainers are often one of the child's parents or legal guardian

fun trivia:

the elite are on average like 6'5 and the soldiers are usually in the 5'3 range. everyone else is somewhere between, but because of the social stratification that is more or less most rigid between the soldiers and nobility, the biggest discrepancy is There

blue is 5'7 because he's only half kahali, so he's considered Very Tall for a soldier

a cadre is essentially a squad of soldiers raised and trained together (sometimes) with whom one generally forms close ties with. blue's cadre was nine people strong, but two died in the Civil War--i talk about adeth del, zhelan nox, 27, and formosa fuyue a LOT as well, but there's also beran mire who's Just a Guy albeit one that is banned from 37 planets

#he's technically also a jedi oc but i do not let my sw content escape containment (the sw blog) #sepehr fainn #thank u SO much for asking about him u are the best ❣❣ #pov u took a class on compressed modernity in korea and not only is that one of your problems but u are also now going to make it everyone #else's problem! #there's art of blue and hasseleh (blue's padawan) Somewhere floating around and im doing a peice with adeth del and formosa is next #on the list ...

[chargetheintruder]

Hey.  You, the so-called “president.”

Yeah, I’m taking a different approach on this.  Because I, for one, get tired of being a cyber-bully to a sitting President of the United States, and nearly 80-year old man besides.  It gets tiresome.  It’s like beating an old pillow--it’s just this limp thing that does nothing no matter how hard you hit it or tear into it.  This advanced “rope-a-dope” business would be a fine tactic too, but not under current circumstances, and especially not ones that urgently DEMAND leadership, from a leadership position.

So here’s what news articles on Yahoo! are saying and my take on them:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/makes-no-logical-sense-biden-190056723.html

In short words: HELL NO, you NEVER listen to these guys.  Get this through your head, these assholes are our ENEMIES.  Good god, of COURSE the Trumpist Party is going to oppose everything you can imagine doing, down to saying the sky is blue or taking a breath because living things DO THAT.

Get it together please, get that Executive Order on VAST Student Loan Forgiveness DONE already, whatever amount you have in mind.  Your ENEMIES there have already torn down Roe v. Wade.  They could not care less about anyone but the One Percenter Traitors (including Trump) who have their hands up their Muppet Asses.  Moving on.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/democrats-want-biden-scorched-earth-100000137.html

Again, here’s a concept that superficially seems accurate but it’s flawed.  “Scorched Earth” in military terms already implies a defeat.  It assumes that liberals and Democrats “just can’t win” when newsflash, YOU GUYS WON.  The increase in aggression is welcome but the defeatist assumption it’s based on is NOT.  You, Mr. Biden, and yours in Congress, need to go ALL IN on the idea that they--the Trumpist Party, the traitors who slander Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt by calling themselves “republicans”--need to be PUNISHED.  Not just accused, not just exposed--Trump was both of these things and in the end they meant nothing, because his butt-buddy Bitch McConnell said so.  Our ENEMIES, and the ENEMIES of our society in the United States, need to be held to strict account and punished.  PUNISHED.  Trump and all of his lot need to be found GUILTY and sent to PRISON wherever possible, for as long as possible.  And when you can’t send people (like Joe Manchin, Marjorie Taylor Greene or Bitch McConnell) to prison, you need to have Congress IMPEACH them and/or batter them with the 14th Amendment’s anti-insurrectionist clause, as much as possible.  Pick your targets NOW, and go HARD NOW.  You and yours have already wasted FAR FAR TOO MUCH TIME.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-holds-off-declaring-030218279.html

And again, HELL NO.  Don’t hold off, don’t waste one more day, what are you even HERE to do??  What part of the word “Emergency” don’t you understand Mr. President?  You needed to do this at the beginning of this year, right after January 6th.  You needed to declare:

--An Emergency over Climate Change, --An Emergency over Logistics and the Economy (doing more to stop inflation and shortages BEFORE they became a talking point), --An Emergency over the Insurrection.  Meaning yes, declare Limited Martial Law, crack down on Crime and protests, demand that Congress USE the 14th Amendment, and generally assert as much IMPERIAL power as you need to to shut Bitch McConnell, Trump and his the fuck up.

But no, now look where we are: you’ve wasted half of this year too and the whole summer besides, in addition to last year.  You and Congress have wasted SO MUCH TIME just over those bought traitorous scum Manchin and Sinema alone it makes me want to get armed and fix that mess for you, forcibly.  Maybe with some large-caliber rounds through their knees, amputating their fucking legs by bullet.  Let’s see them get on the fucking team when they can’t stand up or walk away.  But nah, all y’all have to do the Learned Helplessness bitch business and GO LIMP whenever a Trumpist or a Wannabe shows up, isn’t that right?  And truth be told I hate guns.  My father was a licensed gunsmith, an NRA fanatic and an antisocial, abusive psycho besides, I’ve spent my whole adult life swearing to not be like him whenever possible.  And yet here you are tempting me with depravity, ruin, and a hail of cheap 9mm bullets from your local brown-shirt wannabe fascist police.  And you wonder why my attitude burns inside.

(oh yeah, and this is before you consider the OTHER Emergency: Vlad Dracula Putin, you know the favorite son of guys like Trump and Bitch McConnell?  Him, having tantrums over Ukraine, to the point of wanting to start nuclear warfare and end the WORLD before he loses, oh noes)

Point is you need to stop wasting time and DO THINGS already, Joe Biden.  Wake the fuck up and DO THINGS, will you??  It’s like you went a dozen bridges too far in becoming President Obama’s Tamed Little Do-Nothing Cocksucker, didn’t you?  No really, what did you do with the aggressive Joe Biden?  What did you even eat him with? But yeah.  DO THINGS.  Today.  Tomorrow.  Don’t wait until November because by then the Trumpist party will just make it illegal to not be one of them or some dadaist fucking thing.  And the pathetic part is that both the One Percenter CEO Scum and the Idiot 28 Percent of every state (the anti-vax, anti-choice, anti-woman, pro-QAnon psycho crowd) will drive us all to extinction supporting that mess.

#political #POTUS #President Joe Biden #DO THINGS #getting real tired of doing this

[bopinion]

2022 / 26

Aperçu of the Week:

"If you don't have a hammer, you don't want to see a nail anywhere. If you have a hammer, all problems start to look like nails."

(Robert Kagan, U.S. neoconservative author, speaker and political consultant)

Bad News of the Week:

Putin won. With his plan to destabilize the West. It's summer 2022, and society (not only) in Germany is deeply divided. There is, for example, the struggle of the social systems against significantly increased defense spending in a state budget that, after all, has not grown. Or the inflation and devaluation of purchasing power that can be clearly felt in the average citizen's wallet against the further perversely growing wealth of the rich, above all, absurdly, investors in fossil energy. Or the competition of sustainable convictions against rising energy prices, for example when it comes to restarting coal-fired power plants for electricity generation. Or the prioritization of gas use between residential heating versus industrial needs. Let's take a closer look on this.

We all want to be warm at home, even when it's cold outside. And decide on the water temperature in the shower according to personal taste. Half of German homes - 48.2%, to be exact - are heated with gas. Followed, by the way, by 25.6% with oil, which is even worse, but let's not go there. Our house is one of them. When our landlords built it in 2016, a modern gas boiler seemed to you a contemporary technology: relatively efficient, reasonably clean, affordable to install and operate. Supply shortages seemed unthinkable. After all, even the Soviet Union had always delivered reliably during the coldest of all wars. That now seems far away - the good old days.

Today, energy is a highly political issue with relevance for war and peace. Because Putin is now doing just that: using energy as a weapon. As a highly effective one, because time is playing into his hands. Germany does not have a single LNG terminal today, fracking does not exist in this country, alternative suppliers cannot step in for two to three years, the shutdown of the last three active nuclear power plants at the end of this year cannot be changed, a flight forward into coal-fired power generation - the dirtiest power generation of all - would be an environmental role backwards. Putin has us in his grip. And leads us on a short leash that looks like a pipeline. Europe's largest country is held hostage.

All the more remarkable that our government is not putting up with it. And the Green Minister for the Economy and Climate condemns Russian aggression just as much as his French or British counterparts - even if their energy policies cannot be remotely compared: after all France is the world's largest nuclear energy user and Britain burns Scotland's North Sea oil. But now there is naked fear. On July 11, Germany's most important natural gas pipeline will be routinely shut down for about ten days of maintenance. And it seems a real option that it won't be back in operation after that. Why should it, when there are so many more straightforward buyers in China and India than those pesky Europeans with their raised index fingers.

This would confront Germany with a fundamental problem. The currently foreseeable supply situation, if Russia were to throttle back further or even shut down, would only allow the supply of private households or industry. Neither I can replace the gas boiler in the basement with a heat pump. Nor can my old schoolmate Gero change the production processes. He works at BASF, the world's largest chemical company. Which needs gas not only as an energy source, but also as a raw material. And its complex plants can't just be throttled back or shut down, because (no joke, that's just how chemistry works) they would then break down. Not to mention other industries, such as glass, ceramics or paper. This would not only lead to further supply bottlenecks worldwide (yes, Germany is the world's largest export nation after China), but also to unemployment, a destitute state, recession, bankruptcies, poverty. Putin has won. And we are getting scared. In the end, of the consequences of our naive blindness over the last twenty years. It's our own fault.

Good News of the Week:

Last week, the G7 summit came to an end. Just around the corner from us, in the Alps near Garmisch-Partenkirchen. With astonishing results. By that I don't mean (only) various remarkable statements in the final declarations. But above all a change in the mindset of this... humm, what actually? Panel? Let's take a brief look back: the "Group of Seven" was founded in 1975 - initially as the "Group of Six", since Canada joined only one year later. The member states represent only about 10 percent of the world's population, but generate about 45 percent of the world's gross national income. So it was logical to think that this was a kind of association of Western-oriented economic nations that was concerned precisely with economic aspects. Or so we thought. For a long time.

Now, against the current background of the Russian war, a political body has emerged from the G7. But it does not stop at this topic and new sanctions, because this time it has also initiated other remarkable projects: A "climate club" that goes beyond the Paris Agreement. A gigantic infrastructure development program for the second and third world as a counterweight to China's "New Silk Road." The integration of emerging economies. A global alliance against hunger and for food security. A Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Ukraine. All catchy headlines for themselves.

This is especially remarkable because the G7 is merely an informal framework for cooperation. There is no administration, no secretariat, no apparatus in the background. Alternately, one country takes the chair and takes care of the organization with its resources. The implementation of any agreement is up to the individual members. It is therefore all the more astonishing to see the clout that has developed over the years. Especially in contrast to the World Economic Forum a few weeks ago. Already forgotten? See...

Personal happy moment of the week:

35 years ago I experienced the most important year of my life in Québec. It was an intercultural exchange program that not only introduced me to a new culture, but also to very valuable people. Among them, of course, my present wife, at that time my first great love. And I was able to discover what family means with an extremely warm and welcoming host family. So it was a great pleasure for me to learn last week that my French-Canadian father will come to Germany this summer. It's been five years since I've seen him and I've always been lazy about keeping in touch, social media and digital options or not. All the better that he's making the trip across the pond with his wife and dropping in on us, too. Bienvenue au Bavière, cher Maurice!

I couldn't care less...

...that Google has announced it will delete location records of abortion clinics from its users' movement data. And activists are calling for menstruation apps to be deleted, since they also record pregnancies or their "premature end". As apparently the encroachment of the US state, increasingly controlled by an arch-conservative Supreme Court, is reckoning on what is actually personal data. In a democracy, it is actually relatively simple: the people's representatives with whose positions or actions one does not agree are not elected. So go vote in the midterms. And choose wisely.

As I write this...

...I am shocked by the gun deaths of the last few days. No, not in the U.S., because there it has unfortunately become a daily occurrence. But even Denmark, one of Scandinavia's open, progressive societies, is not spared from maniacs who have too easy access to guns. Yes, it is ultimately people who kill. But guns are the tools that make it possible for someone to do such damage in the first place. We need more gun control. Everywhere.

Post Scriptum:

A year ago, severe flooding in the Ahr Valley in Rhineland-Palatinate left 148 people dead. Many are still shocked that climate change is causing fatalities in this country as well - and already. All the more shocking that this is a ridiculously low number compared to 19,000. Because an evaluation by the Robert Koch Institute, the German Weather Service and the Federal Environment Agency on Friday puts the number of above-average heat deaths in the three summers from 2018 to 2020 that way. Which were so hot because of climate change. It's real, it's happening, it's threatening. Right now, right here.

#thoughts #aperçu #bad news #good news #news of the week #happy moments #politics #Robert kagan #putin #russia #ukraine #natural gas #divided #heating #industry #germany #g7 #summit #garmisch partenkirchen #bavaria #quebec #host family #dad #google #gun deaths #denmark #flooding #heat wave #supreme court #canada

[dfnkt]

So the "green revolution" is just gonna be neolibs destroying South America for lithium as it becomes increasingly uninhabitable huh. It looks like the game plan is basically, fuck those mountains and those forests and the HUGE carbon sink potential it has if we'd stop deforesting it. The Panama canal is gonna dry up? Guess we'll just build a highway across the fucking continent like we always wanted to anyway.

Can't wait to see how America treats all the climate refugees at our southern border that WE created. 10k people a day or more some days at present. Picture hundreds of thousands and then millions as crisis looms and remember how our government handles people in need, regardless of whether its the red dictator or the blue dictator. Consider how both parties already weaponize fears about immigration using "displacement" or "loss of culture" or lack of available resources aka artificial scarcity. And then fucktuple that and tell me that genocide Joe is gonna make things better. Tell me that the American nation can get exponentially more radical and survive. We will be at full scale war and brazen occupation of South America probably by 2040 if I had to ballpark it, but we'll see. South America will basically resemble USNATO prison camps and military states. I can already imagine the justifications we'll offer about making trade possible in the region, curbing "terrorism" et cetera. Basically we'll do exactly what we did and are still doing to the middle east.

Gonna be fascinating. I get more sure that I'm going to witness the fall of modern civilization in my lifetime every year considering we cannot survive a 2C+ climate, but we can't avoid that climate without such extremely rapid degrowth and rewilding that it is only theoretically possible in human manpower. Like, our best case scenario is basically "if the whole global economy shifted overnight and everything was severely kneecapped especially for the most gluttonous capitalists corporations by a really huge factor then we have the *chance* at having a habitable planet for humans by 2100, albeit at a reduced population and with a smaller habitable zone for the foreseeable hundreds of thousands of years." And every single day is a case of "we should have done this a day/year/decade/century ago". Meanwhile emissions are rapidly increasing at exponential rates. The political will does not exist to save the planet. Even if we made all the right changes now, we are already locked in to changes that will reduce the quality of life of everyone on this fucking planet in the lifetime of every Gen Z and younger, and most millennials, even in wealthy nations. We may well already have signed the commitment for as much as 4C or more degrees of warming by 2050. Guess what doesn't exist at +4C? The global capitalist economy. New iPhones. Oh, or vertebrate mammals. That's you. Your mom. Your dad. Your best friends and future children. All the food you eat and everything you've ever loved. Why are we not acknowledging that we are being thrown off the cliff like Disney's lemmings?

I feel like I'm insane, living in a parallel reality. We should be shutting everything down. Nothing matters more than this. We should, quite literally, be shutting the world down in order to save it. Nothing else will. You can thank neoliberals for pushing this disaster off of capitalism and onto people's "personal carbon footprint". None of my friends can talk about this subject because they are just all too afraid, which I always respect. I don't know anyone else familiar with the science of things either, so I have no one really to commiserate with about the profound grief of watching the world end. Even if I get to live out my natural lifespan, I will witness some of the most horrible atrocities that mankind has to offer. We all are witnessing that right now. If you don't think climate change could be an extinction level event in your lifetime, then you should really seriously evaluate what kind of life you want to live and then live it while you can. That is all any of us can do anymore.

#chat #im sure i sound schizoid and tbf i am on a new pill lmfao #however #this is just what the science says #and this is more like a diary anyway its not like i tag this shit for other people to find #i just want to be able to remember how i felt at this point in the collapse #2016 was my wake up call and it has literally gotten impossibly worse since then #we are in a period of accelerated warming #planet talk

[ancestorsofjudah]

2 Kings 6: 24-33. "Gangster Governments."

The Torah and Tanakh warn against Sieges in Aram, the High Places, where the "sacred cows" of society dwell. Pro-Life is a good example. Pro-Life is illegal. By law, women are allowed to have full health care coverage. Yet we think this is wrong because of ways we have "burned incense in the High Places". We have fogged our minds and state houses up with nonsense and once again we are dealing with Pro-Life a topic that is long since been obsolete.

The same is true about gays and lesbians, drag shows, about Jews themselves. High Places are misty illusions and delusions we have about things but treat them with deadly importance. They are not.

Food, water, shelter, basic services, an excellent education, the ability to own property, and freedom from tyranny and violence these are the things belong in the High Places, the list of traditions and tenets we respect because they are respectable.

When societies place more importance on a drag queen than feeding the poor, climate change, all the bullets and missiles filying overhead, it is called a Famine because this implies there is not enough good sense going around to feed the brains.

Eventually things have to return to normal, and this requires firm study and implementation of the Torah. Implementation of the Torah in favor of the silliness of the stuff that can often by found On High is the job of the King of Israel.

Famine in Besieged Samaria

24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. 

25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels[a] of silver, and a quarter of a cab[b] of seed pods[c] for five shekels.[d]

26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”

27 The king replied, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?” 28 Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?”

She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ 

29 So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.”

30 When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and they saw that, under his robes, he had sackcloth on his body. 

31 He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”

32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?” 

33 While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him. The king said, “This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”

The famine which resulted from an uprising in the Kingdom turns population ravenous for Mashiach. As a result, the price of a Donkey's Head, the symbol of messianic tendencies undergoes dramatic inflation.

Things are so bad, a woman, which represents the Temple, says to the King she wants him to give the people his son, the Prince, to eat.

Donkeys and Princes are not food, they are that which feeds us. The eating of a donkey or Prince like they are bread violates the law. All of this is wrong.

In the Jewish religion, the donkey is not a kosher animal. In the Zohar, it is considered avi avot hatuma i.e. an ultimate impure animal, and doubly "impure", as it is both non-ruminant and non-cloven hoofed.

Donkeys are 860, חואֶפֶס‎‎, huafes, "he who is coming to bring peace." We only slaughter animals that reveal our humanity to us upon their demise. We put them behind us. the Donkey's head is ahead of us.

To eat a donkey or the Prince at the behest of the woman means it is time for Mashiach as something essential about the Jewishness of the world is lacking:

"G–d demands that a Jewish home – every Jewish home – should have a Jewish character, not only on Shabbat and the holidays, but also on the ordinary weekdays and in “weekday” matters. It must be a Jewish home in every respect.

What makes a Jewish household different from a non-Jewish household is that it is conducted in all its details according to the directives of the Torah. Hence the home becomes an abode for G–d’s Presence, a home for G–dliness, one of which G–d says, “Make Me a sanctuary, and I shall dwell among them.” (Exodus 25:5)."

But what caused the uproar and what does this section say about the relationship between controversey in the Temple, the Polity and the Throneroom? The Gematria will explain:

v. 24: King Ben Hadad, a "son of the Thunder" [a Jew] got a buzz in his beehive and marched his entire army to Samaria, the Tower of the Guard.

Armies are conscripts, they represent duties. We are in the army when we force ourselves to stop at a stop sign, obey the Decrees, etc.

The Value in Gematria is: 3303, גגאֶפֶסג‎‎‎, gagaphesag, "a gathering of on the roof, to breathe in and discuss the Tree." [Adam and Eve's, of course.]

v. 25: We know what the donkey's head is, but each of the elements of the price on his head have separate Gematria:

eighty shekels of silver=the Value is 1717, אז‎אז‎‎, "so then"

a quarter of a cab of seed pods=964, טוד‎ , todd, "to be surrounded by mandrake, a man who is loving."

five shekels=950, טהאֶפֶס, tahoefs, "suck on the nipple and provide the elemental instruction for the intellect, like feeding a clean bird."

The Value in Gematria is: 7801, זחאֶפֶסא‎ , zahapesa, "the Passover will begin."

v. 26: a king who walks the Wall is standing on the line between what is physical and ethereal, what is ethical and immoral and most importantly what is Jewish and non-Jewish. Our Aramaic Ben Hadad is obviously quite concerned about this.

The Value in Gematria is: 5576, ההזו‎, "this one" = echad.

In Hinduism, we say God is One, without a second. Jews say He is One, plus the rest.

"In resolution, it is explained that this is precisely the intent. G‑d’s singular oneness is taken for granted. Were this not to be true were He a composite of different entities He could not be G‑d.6 What is unique in the description of Him as one is that this material world that appears to exist in its own right, as a separate and distinct entity, is one with Him."

v. 27-28a: The Threshing Floor is where grain is hulled. This specifically refers to the moment a Crown is born, where evil ends and justice takes place because the appropriate authority is named.

The Wine Press, gath, is the Elixir of this justice which is consumed when for some strange reason everyone in the world starts getting along.

The Value in Gematria is: 8055, ח‎אֶפֶסה‎ה‎, "it's empty". An empty threshing floor and winepress are the problem- the society mentioned has no sense of duty nor justice and is therefore being deprived of righteousness and all the blessings of God Plus One.

The son is consumed, cutting off the Royal Line as during the Passover. The King expects the the people to do the same, but they hide their sons, their way of insisting the next generation will be free:

v. 28b-29: The Value in Gematria is: 15191, אה‎‎אטא‎ ‎, "Ah, I will"= "I will become."

The Hebrew words for "I will be" are ehyeh, which means "I will act on My Desires" and for God this means He Who Causes That-Which-Is To Be & He Who Causes That-Which-Can't-Be To FallHouse Of Information Technology, House Of The Alphabet, House Of The Great Human Library."

-> this dovetails nicely with my comments that we are stowing the wrong ideals above the rafters of our religions and politics. God has more than often stated how He really wants us to live in the Torah and the Role He wants to play. And nothing we are doing resembles any of it.

v. 30-31: Elisha Son of Shaphat, "is a government born of rule of law."

To tear one's clothes and reveal sackcloth means to separate oneself from the cause of trouble, put the past into the fire, turn it to ash and carry them forth in sackcloth, a state of regret, so one does not forget.

The Value in Gematria is: 11866, יאח‎וו‎ ‎Yahweh. Yhwh, Yaweh, "beatification in God" has a cohort, nwh, naweh, that is more pertinent here:

"Dictionaries list three separate roots נוה (nwh), but on closer scrutiny these roots blend together in a fundamental meaning of government, and the beauty and eminence that follows from a country that is properly governed — as opposed to a country that is plagued by anarchy and gangs and gangster governments."

v. 32: The Value in Gematria is 11461, יאדוא‎‎, yadua, "to know of the power of knowledge through the human hand."

The Elders penned a message using Angelic Script and sent it to the Prophet. What does it say? "Cut your hair", not "we are going to cut off your head."

This means the tradition of cutting the hair to reveal the sidelocks, the ears, must be observed according to a political ordinance.

v. 33: The Value in Gematria is 9506, טהאֶפֶסו, thafesu‎‎, "you shall observe the Torah Festival" presumably this means Shavuot. "and you shall choose to be free."

"It's not clear where this word comes from but anyone with a poetic slant might notice that it looks suspiciously like an outgrowth of the second personal pronoun συ (su) or σοι (soi), meaning you.

Whether that notice has any substance to it is for all to guess at, but it would correspond with the function of the English language that relates some indefinite "other guy" to the word body: anybody, somebody.

Note also that the verb σωζω (sozo), to save, comes from the adjective σως (sos), meaning safe, whereas the word σος (sos) is the possessive adjective of the second person plural: yours, which indeed derives from the second personal pronoun συ (su). In fact, the Greek σω- root yields quite an array of words that have to do with wholeness.

Another so- word of unclear pedigree describes the familiar concept of σοφια (sophia), commonly translated with "wisdom". Those at a loss for wisdom will confuse it with the pursuit of knowledge or perhaps even that of truth, but those in command of it know that sophia pursues convention: sophia explores ways to accomplish agreement between parties without demanding that they compromise their integrity or curb their concerns.

This obviously goes hand in hand with understanding the laws of nature, which in turn starts with respect for the Creator (ROMANS 1:20, Proverbs 9:10).

Better yet: natural law is not at all alike human law; it's not a set of rules that is established somewhere separate from the world it is to govern, but much rather a statistical expression of the behavior that all separate elements in their freedom "chose" to pursue.

Natural law, quite literally, is most alike language, that naturally forms from the cooling chaos of wild interactions and collisions, into a system of rules that folks may reject at will or accept at will.

Those who reject the rules of language will stay mute, misunderstood and bound by darkness. Those who accept the rules of language will achieve freedom-of-speech, a union of minds and true spirituality."

So the problem was and is freedom of speech, which was absent due to a fundamental flaw in how we perceive Religion. Gangster governments, propped up by troublemaking tarts and their pizza faced, fat husbands are the cause of this.

The Melachim says people need to use their heads. Governments like this cannot be permitted to survive.