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Star Benjamin Netanyahu, Hanan Ashrawi

Duration 114 Minutes

year 2019

Liked it 116 Vote

average rating 7,8 of 10

Writer Rachel Leah Jones

Our Demographic here in MensLib tends to skew younger, and unmarried. So I wanted to bring some attention on these policies so that as we grow older and one day might choose to start a family, we can be better informed now, so these polices will be in place when that moment comes. This post will largely consider the American system, but please do not limit discussion to the U. S. or your personal experience with other programs below. Theres been a lot of consternation in the U. over healthcare policies and it tends to overshadow a lot of other related proposals. Policy-wise, when it comes to child care theres generally two things progressives look at. First, how to make child care more affordable in the pre-school years through various initiatives and tax credits. Or through daycare facilities (private, government or employer sponsored) and private care workers. Second, how to make the process and financials of major life events mesh better with the expectations of work and economic stability – be it the actual birth of a child, or another medical emergency for yourself or a loved one. This post considers the latter, and assumes another system for child care after parental leave will take over. This is not the time to advocate for less working hours to stay home, for high enough wages to afford a nanny, for workers to get their share of leisure and wage growth from increases in productivity through technology and automation. In an economy that currently expects both parents to work without serious protections for workers and economic stability, and a country where child-rearing is still a heavily gendered responsibly, we must advocate for programs with clear progressive values, positive results and that already show the political will to enact. PFML = Paid Family Medical Leave FMLA (1993. Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 What is Paid Family Leave and who does it affect? Sometimes referred to as parental leave, paid family leave is a workers benefit provided by employers or the government to allow paid or unpaid time off from work for or a certain duration to parents for the purposes of recovering from child birth, parental bonding, and economic/job security. Paid leave typically provides a reduced wage replacement during this period that is administered by either the government or the employer. Most people in the U. do not have paid family leave. Only 19% of workers in the U. have paid family leave to care for a child or a seriously ill loved one. Sometimes parents can be covered by Employer Short-term Disability Policies, but still, only 40% of workers are covered in those cases. Access to paid family leave has only grown 6% over the last 5 years (13% 19. where the highest wage workers have seen as 12% increase (22% 34. and low-wage workers have seen a 2% increase (4% 6. Nearly two-thirds of full-time employees (63% who are parents did not take paid parental leave in the US and over three-quarters of women (77% indicate their spouse/partner is not eligible for paid parental leave. Millennials (48% are much more likely to take paid parental leave compared with parents of older generations when they had children. 7% of people who filed for bankruptcy cited the birth of a child as the cause. “Sandwich caregivers” are those who are caught between the demands of both childcare and caring for an adult family member. National Alliance for Caregiving cite these caregivers provide 22hrs a week of care and have to cut hours during prime working and long-term saving years. Sandwich caregivers are 19% Baby Boomers, 31% Millennials and 49% Gen X and often lack workplace benefits while juggling care. A History of Family Leave in the U. The U. is one of a very small number of countries (“one in two”, “only industrialized nation”, “one of three within in U. N. ” “only rich country”, “only OECD Country”) that has no guaranteed paid leave of any kind. Often, we dont think about it as economic security or support and that means people rely on a patchwork of state policies, other family members (and their employee benefits if they have it) vacation/sick time, or taking unpaid leave via 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, but theres no standard or guarantee that says you deserve, and should have access to, paid family leave no matter where you live, where you work, the type of job you have, or whether youre caring for a child versus an older facility member dealing with a serious illness. culturally prioritizes work, and fetishizes hard work as the key to social mobility. It is the reason why you see work requirements in a lot of welfare programs despite them not working. PFML likewise is designed with workers in mind who will continue working. And unlike some European policies that are pro-natalist that historically (some still do) separated men and women because for gender roles, its critical that PFML in recognizes parents regardless of gender will work and will need leave at some point to take care of themselves, a child, or a family member. Traditionally, the movement for paid leave has largely centered on state and local policies or those voluntarily adopted by employers or negotiated through union contracts. The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 Prior to 1992, George H. W. Bush vetoed a FMLA twice. When Bill Clinton was elected it became a domestic priority. The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993, signed into law by Clinton, provided the following measures. Eligible Employers: Private-sector employer, with 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year, including a joint employer or successor in interest to a covered employer; Public agency, including a local, state, or Federal government agency, regardless of the number of employees it employs; or Public or private elementary or secondary school, regardless of the number of employees it employs. Eligible Employees: Works for a covered employer; Has worked for the employer for at least 12 months; Has at least 1, 250 hours of service for the employer during the 12 month period ( 24hrs a week) immediately preceding the leave* and Works at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles. This effectively restricted these benefits to 41% of the workforce. It entitles eligible workers up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period for: The birth of a son or daughter or placement of a son or daughter with the employee for adoption or foster care; To care for a spouse, son, daughter, or parent who has a serious health condition; For a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job; or For any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that a spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a military member on covered active duty or call to covered active duty status. Some states picked up where the government left off. California was the first state to implement a state program for family leave in 2002 (effective 2004) New Jersey the second. These two states have served as a model for much of the future legislation. Since 2002/2004 California has made several improvements and expansions and the overall effects have been: Improved Labor Force Participation, Improved Earnings (particularly for women, POC, and low wage workers) people are taking more care of their family members, reduced utilization of nursing homes by 11% addtl. Medicaid savings) decrease in shaken baby syndrome diagnosis and improved outcomes around ADHD and Education. Plus, more men are spending time with their new children. Utilization for men have gone increased form less than 15% to 40% of all baby bonding claims, foreshadowing a cultural shift in gender equality. In Rode Islands program 1/3 of all leave takers were men. When men takes leave it makes it easier for women to go back to work, there is less gender bias, and women have better outcomes. Nationally, among U. adults “who have taken – or who needed or wanted but were unable to take – parental, family or medical leave in the past two years” Pew Research says the median length of leave taken by new fathers is 1 week, compared to 11 for new mothers. Workers making more than 75, 000 a year will take on median twice as much leave as those making less than 30, 000. Ernst and Young places the average of paid leave at 4. 5 weeks for women and 2. 3 weeks for men. As of July 2019, eight states (California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Oregon) and the District of Columbia have enacted laws that grant parental leave as part of state paid family and medical leave insurance laws, with 4 being effective currently. As of 2016, 12 states (Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming) have passed zero legislation protecting working families since the FMLA in 1993. Originally California had a wage replacement of 55% and a cap of 1, 000 a week, and New Jersey had a wage replacement of 66% and a cap of 500 a week. Both programs were found to be insufficient for low wage earners and the higher of both values became the basis for future legislation, including the National Paid Family Leave Act sponsored by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn. Some states (Oregon, California, D. C. Massachusetts) have benefits granted on a progressive scale - either where more wage would be received at the beginning weeks of leave to help workers transition or by giving more family leave benefits to workers with less income. Theres a new calling for a national standard: The Family And Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act (H. R. 1185/S. 463) Every Year since 2013, this bill has been reintroduced. When it was first introduced it had support from 6 senators (all democrats) and 57 house seats. And now it has 37 senators and 203 house members, including 1 House Republican! Chris Smith – NJ. You can see whether your senator or house member are Co-sponsors by following these links. Republicans oppose it because it is an increase in taxes. The FAMILY Acts goal is to create a national Paid Family and Medical Leave program set up as a social insurance fund that would guarantee workers up to 12 weeks paid (at 66% of their wage, capped at 4, 000 /month indexed yearly) to care for a new child - through birth, adoption, or foster placement, medical emergency and all the same considerations that already exists in the 1993 law without the eligibility restrictions and with pay. The Social Fund would manifest as a 4/10ths of 1% payroll contribution (a. 02% tax increase a week on both the employee and employer side - equivalent to 1/18th of social security. It would look like social security in the way funds are taken out on your paystub and is conceptually and structurally similar. That cost would pay for the benefits itself and the administration, outreach, and education of the program. The Center for American Progress estimates that the FAMILY Act would make 77 percent to 84 percent of all U. workers eligible for paid leave. Employers will still be able to compete by offering workers more than this standard requires. I heard theres an Election, What are the Candidates Saying? First off, they are listening to the people: 8 in 10 voters support a comprehensive national paid family and medical leave policy that covers all people who work (84. 8 in 10 feel the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) needs an update (82. Voters prefer paying for a national paid family and medical leave policy through a shared cost between employers and employees. Despite the makeup of the current support for the FAMILY ACT, it receives bipartisan support from Republican and Democratic voters. The CATO Institute poll is unreasonable and an outlier. Median Wage workers can expect to pay between 76. 85 and 97. 72 depending on part-time work status. Most anyone will pay a year is 250 year for the highest wage. CATOs poll still says 78% of Americans support a federal program and a majority of Americans (54% support 200 on a federal leave program. Small Business 7 in 10 in favor payroll tax contribution, family leave insurance Almost all presidential candidates have policies. All of them who do use the FAMILY Act as baseline, but some have gone farther. Many candidates also have polices detailing other worker protections like sick/vacation days, childcare, and early education. I only researched candidates polling above 3% on average. Sen. Bernie Sanders – Co-Sponsor of the FAMILY Act Sen. Elizabeth Warren – Co-Sponsor of the FAMILY Act Former V. P. Joe Biden – How long should paid maternity leave last? 12 weeks. Should maternity leave be paid for by employers? Government? Combination? Government. (Note: Government paid is the least popular method according to polling) Mayor Pete Buttigieg – “enhanced” version of the FAMILY Act Michael Bloomberg – supportive. Details unknown. His company provides 6 months (27 weeks) of leave. Andrew Yang – How long should paid maternity leave last? Nine months to be split between parents; six months for a single parent. Should maternity leave be paid for by employers? Government? Combination? Combination. Amy Klobuchar - Co-Sponsor of the FAMILY Act Donald J. Trump – proposal includes paid leave for mothers, fathers, and adoptive parents. (only parental leave, no medical) The proposal provides six weeks of paid leave, is financed through state unemployment insurance (UI) systems in partnership with the federal government, and is paid for by offsetting reforms to the UI system. During his administration progress has been made for parental leave (no medical leave) for federal employees for 12 weeks. Notably, Kamila Harris, before she dropped out, advocated for a 6 month 100% wage replacement policy. I dont Like the FAMILY Act, What are the Alternatives? Many of these alternatives only cover family leave. They do not cover medical emergencies and other exigencies. Do Nothing, Cost of the Status Quo Center for American progress estimates families aggregated lose 20. 6 billion dollars a year because of inadequate or no PFML, babies not taking wellness visits and immunizations, 23% of people returning to work within 2 weeks, 95% of dads who are not even taking 2 weeks, low wage workers dont have bargaining power to get similar benefits, costing 300, 000 on income and retirement savings for older workers who leave work to care for aging parent, higher nursing home expenses, businesses with higher turnover, higher spending made by other programs and personal bills not being paid. A regulatory mandate as opposed to a social fund Where employers are required to provide it, the government wont be in involved. This has the potential to allow employers to discriminate against people in the hiring process (example: women who might become pregnant, or workers who appear to have a serious illness) as a business is incentivized not to make these payouts when avoidable. There would also be reasonable exemptions for small business and a social fund instead of a regulatory mandate will provide more flexibility to how money gets spent. Even larger businesses are advocating for uniformity as they are forced to comply with multiple state regulatory processes making compliance expensive. Stating: “Legislation should provide uniform standards that apply to all covered employees and that adhere to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act requirements. Doing so would benefit employees needing coverage as well as help businesses challenged by the growing patchwork of competing and inconsistent state plans … Legislation should give employers flexibility in managing paid family and medical leave benefits”. They do differ on the particulars of implementation but do want the federal government to preempt these policies. Keep in mind though what business incentives are, Walmart received a gold star in a lot the press by offering leave 6 weeks for family leave … for full time workers … 60% of Walmarts workforce is part time … Small business as mentioned are in favor of a government administered tax fund. Subsidize the Employer Marco Rubio was the first republican to come forward with paid family leave plan. It was a subsidy awarded to businesses as a “25% non-refundable tax credit that voluntarily offer at least four weeks of paid family leave, limited to twelve weeks of leave and 4, 000 per employee each year. ” and included raising the child tax credit by 2, 500. A similar plan ( Paid Family Leave Pilot Extension Act) ended up inside the 2017 Tax Bill by Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb) which provided a tax credit of 12. 5% up to 25% of what the company pays towards the worker for the company. It requires companies to offer at least two weeks (12 weeks to receive the full credit) of family leave where the employee both makes less than 72, 000 a year and the paid leave covers 50% of their wage. This provision was designed as a test and lasted until the end of 2019. “Social Security Parental Leave Program” by the Independent Womens Forum / “Economic Security for New Parents Act” introduced by Marco Rubio (R-FL) and sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO. A parent of a new child could take up to 12 weeks of leave per year and receive on average 45 percent of their pay. Individuals would need to delay their retirement by about 25 weeks for each 12 weeks of leave or see a cut in their Social Security retirement benefits if they retire earlier. In addition the Urban Institute states “Participants who take 12 weeks of paid leave would experience a 3 percent decline in lifetime Social Security retirement benefits, but losses would be significantly higher for people with larger families who take multiple leaves. ” With Rubios version it allows for each parent to pull from their Social Security Benefit in order to take 2 months of family leave, with their respective weeks transferable. According to the Urban Institute, this would be an improvement, and “replace slightly more than one-half of earnings for parents who leave work for three months and about four-fifths of earnings for parents who leave work for two months”. Naturally you would be borrowing from your future self under the assumption you'll still be able-bodied to work past the retirement date. 58% of people oppose this plan according to National Why take leave, when you can pull out a Loan? The Advancing Support for Working Families Act……. Bipartisan duos, U. Reps. Elise Stefanik & Colin Allred and Senators Bill Cassidy & Kyrsten Sinema have proposed legislation where new parents can get an advance (one-time interest free loan) on the future value of their child tax credit. It would allow parents to claim 5, 000 of their tax credit with a new child and then over the next 10 years receive& 500 dollars less of the aforementioned credit. Im #ChildFree without any intent of having a child, why do Parents get all the benefits? It is paid family and medical leave. Virtually everyone will use this program at one point or another in their life. These things are combined for a few reasons. First, it makes sure everyone is able to have some sort of skin in the game, whether youre a parent or that your parents will grow old one day and requires care – this makes support of the program go up, as well as builds more political will to make it happen. Second, birthing is still a medical process with a lot of expensive care required and even in adoption preparing a new home for a little one is costly on top of the actual process of adoption. Third, this program is about creating economic stability for families and low wage workers that requires a more holistic approach for the ways life interrupts our work. With the Family Leave Medical Act of 1993, approximately 55% of people used it to recover from their own illness, 21% a new child, and 18% for family care giving. The FAMILY Act will cover all the same reasons but workers will also be paid. By 2050 up to 20. 2% of the American population is projected to be over the age of 65. According to Ernst and Young, 25% of millennials already care for another family member. Also, heres a link the U. House Oversight Committees hearing on Examining the Need for Comprehensive National Paid Family and Medical Leave that happened just last month. Testimony are provided by: Jacqui Silvani - Newfields, New Hampshire The Honorable Robert Asaro-Angelo – Commissioner, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Aaron Seyedian – Founder, Well-Paid Maids Jennifer Tucker – Senior Policy Advisor, The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation Vicki Shabo – Senior Fellow, Paid Leave Policy and Strategy, Better Life Lab, New America Advocacy: In todays world, youve got to go back to work while youre bleeding or your mother dying. Sources: GENERAL: FILE/ FMLA 1993 FAMILY ACT CANDIDATE POLICIES ALTERNATIVES POLLING.

 

Advocate Torrent Advocate [2018] Full Movie HD Carltoncinema. It's important to understand sexual consent because sexual activity without consent is sexual assault. Before you flip out about how "everyone knows what consent is. that is absolutely not correct! Some (in fact, many) people are legit confused about what constitutes consent, such as this teenager who admitted he would ass-rape a girl because he learned from porn that girls like anal sex (overwhelmingly not true, in addition to being irrelevant) or this ostensibly well-meaning college kid who put his friend at STI risk after assuming she was just vying for a relationship when she said no, or this guy from the "ask a rapist thread" who couldn't understand why a sex-positive girl would not have sex with him, or this guy who seemed to think that because a woman was a submissive that meant he could dominate her, or this 'comedian' who haplessly made a public rape confession in the form of a comedy monologue. In fact, researchers have found that in acquaintance rape- one of the most common types of rape. perpetrators tend to see their behavior as seduction, not rape, or they somehow believe the rape justified. Yet sexual assault is a tractable problem. Offenders often rationalize their behavior by whether society will let them get away with it, and the more the rest us confidently understand consent the better advocates we can be for what's right. And yes, a little knowledge can actually reduce the incidence of sexual violence. So, without further ado, the following are common misconceptions about sexual consent: An overwhelming majority of people require explicit (i. e. unambiguous) consent for any sexual activity beyond kissing in a new relationship. However, even an unwanted kiss can be fatal if the person being advanced upon feels unsafe due to a large discrepancy in size/strength. "Token resistance" to sex is virtually nonexistent, particularly for first encounters. The overwhelming majority of men and women who say no to sexual advances really do mean no. It's never reasonable to assume that when someone says no, they don't really mean it (unless you have previously mutually agreed to role-play and have decided on an alternative safe word, in which case it's not an assumption) even if the person has sent extremely "mixed signals. or even engaged in some sexual contact ( as many sexual offenses often entail. As in other social interactions, sexual rejections typically are communicated with softened language ( Next time. Let's just chill. I really like you, but. and often don't even include the word "no. These rejections are still rejections, and any subsequent sexual activity is still sexual assault. Both men and women are capable of understanding these types of refusals, and to pretend otherwise is disengenuous. Perpetrators often misrepresent their own actions to garnish support, avoid responsibility, blame the victim, and conceal their activities, and re-labeling sexual assault or rape as a "miscommunication" accomplishes those goals. It may not be a good idea to recommend to someone that they try to communicate more forcefully, because like domestic abusers, rapists often feel provoked by blows to their self-esteem, so encouraging someone to communicate in ways that are considered rude could actually lead them to danger. Sex offenders are more likely to be physically violent, and 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men has experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner, so it is far from outrageous to take precautions against physical violence by being polite. Most young women expect words to be involved when their partner seeks their consent. 43% of young men actually ask for verbal confirmation of consent. Overall, verbal indicators of consent or nonconsent are more common than nonverbal indicators. More open communication also increases the likelihood of orgasm for women. Consent is not synonymous with arousal. For one, there are common misconceptions that an erect penis or erect nipples necessarily signify sexual arousal. It's also possible for someone to be aroused and still not want to have sex. Women often have a physiological sexual response to sexual stimuli that is independent of desire, and that may serve a protective effect against injury from unwanted sex. Misperception of sexual interest may increase risk of sexually coercive or aggressive behavior, and studies consistently show men perceive women's actions to be more sexual than the woman intends ( 93% have misperceived sexual interest on at least one occassion, though most correct their understanding before engaging in nonconsensual sexual contact. Men who date women are less likely to accurately label sexual assault when the victim's interest is even a little ambiguous. If the victim has an orgasm, that does not retroactively mean the sex was agreed to. Relatedly, one of the most common reasons women fake orgasms is to end unwanted sexual encounters. Sex with an aroused person who hasn't consented is still sexual assault. Consenting to engage in some sexual activity does not imply consent for further sexual activity. The kinds of sexual behaviors one finds appealing is highly individualistic. The law is clear that one may consent to one form of sexual contact without providing blanket future consent to all sexual contact, yet most sexual assaults happen during a hookup when a man forces a higher level of sexual intimacy than the woman consented to. Most women do not achieve orgasm during one-night stands, and are less likely to want to engage in intercourse as part of a hookup. Physical resistance is not required on the part of the victim to demonstrate lack of consent, nor does the law require evidence of injury in order for consent to be deemed absent. Women who try to physically resist rapes are more likely to end up physically injured, while those who try to argue or reason with the offender are less likely to be injured. The increased probability of injury may be small, but the consequences serious. Consent can be legally communicated verbally or nonverbally, and must be specific to engage in the sexual activity in question. Behaviors which don't meet the bar for communicating explicit consent for a particular sexual behavior (like accepting an alcoholic beverage, going to a date's room, kissing, or getting undressed) are at best indicators of likelihood for future consent. Nonconsent can legally be communicated verbally or by pulling away or other nonverbal conduct. Submitting to sex is not legally the same as consenting to sex. Some sex offenders kill their victims to avoid getting caught; victims often become compliant during an assault as a protective measure. It's possible for someone to be too intoxicated to give valid consent. Contrary to popular belief, alcohol is not an aphrodisiac. (in fact, sober sex tends to be more wanted and enjoyable. Most college sexual assaults occur when the victim is incapacitated due to intoxication or sleep. Deliberately getting a victim too drunk to resist is a tactic used by some perpetrators to commit sexual assault or rape. If someone is blackout drunk, it's a good idea to assume they cannot consent to sex. Here are some easy ways to tell if a person is blackout drunk. Intoxication is not a legally defensible excuse for failure to get consent. Heavy alcohol consumption increases the risk of sexual offending in certain high-risk men. Intoxicated men who are attracted to a woman are particularly likely to focus their attention on signs of sexual interest and miss or discount signs of disinterest. Intoxicated predators will also often pick out victims they know to be impaired by drugs or (usually) alcohol and make them have sex even when they know them to be unwilling. If intoxication were a legally defensible excuse, rapists would just have to drink heavily (or claim they were drinking heavily) to get away with rape. Wearing someone down by repeatedly asking for sex until they "consent" to sex is a form of coercion. Some forms of coercion are also illegal in some jurisdictions. Genuine consent must be freely given, or a human rights violation has occurred. Silence is not consent. Fighting, fleeing, and freezing are common fear responses, and thus not signs of consent. In fact, most rape victims freeze in fear in response to unwanted sexual contact, even though most rapes are committed by someone known to the victim. It is necessary to obtain consent from men, too, as men are not in a constant state of agreement to sex. Consent must happen before sexual contact is made, or a violation has already occurred. Legally, sexual contact that takes a person by surprise deprives them of the opportunity to communicate nonconsent. There is often a long period of uncertainty described in victim's rape accounts where she felt shocked by the rapists behavior and unsure of what was transpiring. In fact, most unwanted fondling, and many rapes, occur because the victim didn't have time to stop it before it happened. Most victims also become compliant during an assault, which is a protective behavior that does not signify consent. Consent is ethically and legally required before removing a condom. STIs are on the rise, many people are unaware they have an STI they can transmit to a partner, there is an antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea on the rise that could literally be fatal, there is no reliable HPV test for men, and herpes might cause Alzheimer's. It's simply intolerable in a civilized society to knowingly expose someone to those risks without their knowledge or consent. The NISVS includes using lies or false promises to obtain sex in their definition of sexual coercion. For example, pretending to be someone's S. O., pretending to be a celebrity, lying about relationship status or relationship potential are all forms of sexual coercion that cross the line. Marriage is not an automatic form of consent. While couples who have been together for awhile often develop their own idiosyncratic ways of communicating consent, laws of consent are just as applicable within a marriage. Marital rape is one of the more common forms of sexual assault, and may more often be about maintaining power and control in a relationship, rather than sexual gratification like other forms of acquaintance rape. The physical and psychological harm from marital rape may be even worse than stranger rape, for a variety of reasons. Consent is at least as important (and just as required) in BDSM relationships. It's true that sexual fantasies involving dominance and/or submissions are somewhat common; however, even 'rape fantasies' which would more accurately be called "ravishment play. snce no one actually wants to get raped) must be carried out within the context of mutually agreed-upon terms. It's never reasonable to assume that a particular person A) wants to be dominated B) by a particular person C) at a particular time. Sexually dominating a kinky person who hasn't consented is still sexual assault. Affirmative consent is generally required on college campuses, and a growing number of legal jurisdictions. For examples, have a look at Yale's sexual misconduct examples, Purdue's consent policy, Illinois' Michigan's, Harvard's, Stanford's, Wisconsin's, Minnesota's, Wyoming's, Indiana's, or Arkansas' university policies on sexual consent (or California's, Canada's, Spain's, Sweden's, etc. A requirement for affirmative permission reflects the contract-like nature of the sexual agreement; the partners must actively negotiate to change the conditions of a joint enterprise, rather than proceed unilaterally until they meet resistance. Logically, it makes much more sense for a person who wishes to initiate sexual activity to get explicit permission for the particular sexual activity they would like to engage in, rather than the receiving party having to preemptively say "no" to the endless list of possible sexual acts. If all of this seems obvious, ask yourself how many of these key points were missed in popular analyses of this viral news article. Anyone can be the victim of sexual violence, and anyone can be a perpetrator. Most of the research focuses on male perpetrators with female victims, because that is by far the most common, making it both the easiest to study and the most impactful to understand.

[WARNING: Long Post. Much MATH. See "Results" or TL;DR at the end for quicker reading] During the 4th Presidential debate, Senator Corey Booker said this regarding Andrew Yangs UBI plan: “We need to raise the minimum wage to 15. 00 … That would put more money in people's pockets than giving them 1, 000 a month. So, is this true? Would US citizens have more take home pay if we increased the minimum wage to 15. 00 instead of 1K per month? Lets see what the MATH says about that with 3 examples: Case #1 (The MATH) First, lets give Mr. Booker the benefit of the doubt by looking at the lowest paid hourly workers and how they stand to benefit from 15. 00 per hour vs 1, 000 per month: The current federal minimum wage is 7. 25 per hour. If we assume that a worker being paid the federal minimum wage is working full-time (At least 35 hours per week, but typically 40 or more) and does not take any unpaid time off (52 weeks per year) we get this annual pay amount: 7. 25 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 15, 080 per year. If this worker was increased to 15. 00 per hour and if their employer would not reduce their hours AND if their tax burden would not increase (Both unlikely, but lets roll with it) then 15. 00 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 31, 200 per year. This would be an effective increase of 16, 120 per year. Which is 4, 120 higher than the proposed 12, 000 annual increase from the Freedom Dividend. However, if the worker is only working part-time (30 hours per week or less) at the same rate of 7. 25 per hour: 7. 25 per hour x 30 hours x 52 weeks = 11, 310 per year. 15. 00 per hour x 30 hours x 52 weeks = 23, 400 per year = effective increase of 12, 090 annually. So, For workers making the Federal minimum wage of 7. 25 and working at least 30 hours per week, the 15. 00 minimum wage is “more money in their pockets” (before taxes) compared to the freedom dividend. But this is assuming their hours would not be reduced, which is unlikely if you suddenly increase their base rate from 7. 25 to 15. 00 per hour. The latest available data from the BLS (Bureau of Labor and Statistics) estimates that there were 1. 7 million workers that were paid at the Federal minimum wage of 7. 25 per hour or less in 2018. Of those 1. 7 million, about 742, 000 (43. 6% of them were full-time (at 35 or more hours per week. Source: Open table 1, full-time vs part-time breakdown is shown at the bottom) Result #1: So for about 742, 000 Full-time American workers at 7. 25 per hour, an increase in pay to 15. 00 would give them higher take home pay compared to the 1, 000 per month from the freedom Dividend. (Assuming they dont pay higher taxes due to the higher rate and maintain the same number of work hours, which certainly wont be true for everyone. Some portion of that population would lose hours. But for anyone working less than 30 hours per week @ 7. 25 or more, there is virtually no scenario where an increase to 15. 00 would result in a higher monthly income compared to a 1, 000 monthly increase from Yangs Freedom Dividend. Case #2: But what about other Full-time workers that are paid over 7. 25 per hour already? How does 15. 00 per hour vs 1, 000 per month compare for them? For the workers making a higher base rate than 7. 25, the effective annual pay increase between their current rate and 15. 00 per hour shrinks by about 1, 040 for every 0. 50 raise in the starting pay rate. Examples: 8. 00 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 16, 640 per year. 15. 00 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 31, 200 per year. effective increase of 14, 560 annually. 8. 50 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 17, 680 per year. 31, 200 per year = effective increase of 13, 520 annually. 9. 00 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 18, 720 per year. 31, 200 per year = effective increase of 12, 480 annually. 25 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 19, 240 per year. 31, 200 per year = effective increase of 11, 960 annually. So, 9. 23 per hour x 40 hours x 52 weeks = 19, 188 per year. 31, 200 per year = effective increase of 12, 002 annually. Result #2: If we assume that a full-time workers hours wont be reduced by their employer AND their tax burden wont increase due to a 15. 00 minimum wage (both situations unlikely. Then an increase to 15. 00 per hour would be more take home pay for full-time hourly workers making less than 9. 24 per hour (19, 220 annually) when compared to an increase of 1, 000 per month. However, any US worker that is working less than 30 hours per week would benefit more from a 1, 000 per month increase vs an minimum wage of 15. Case #3 (The DATA) So, how many full-time US workers are making less than 9. 24 per hour/19, 220 annually? We already found from Case #1 that there were about 742, 000 Full-time American workers at 7. 25 per hour in 2018. But this still does not get us the number of US fulltime workers making less than 9. 24 per hour. For that I had to do some more digging. I found free US Census DATA that includes the self-reported income of US workers here: Under the section that says “Both Sexes” and “15 Years and Over”. I opened the file that said “All Races”. This should be the full population of US workers captured in the Population Survey for 2018. (The file name should download as “”. Thats the one Im looking at. The worker populations are broken down based on Full-time vs Part-time, Weeks worked per year, and annual income in increments of 2, 500 (the numbers are listed in thousands, meaning that this spreadsheet has the reported earnings data for 263. 5 Million Americans. 167. 5 Million of whom reported a positive income in 2018. The other 95. 9 Million would presumably be Students, Stay at Home parents, Retired, unemployed, etc. Comparing this data quickly to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As of September 2019, the BLS counted a total US Workforce of about 164 million. (131. 7 million Full-time, 26. 8 million part-time, and 5. 5 million unemployed. This is very close in number to the 167. 5 million figure from the 2018 US census data that reported positive annual earnings, so we should be able consider the Data to be reasonably accurate. So going back to the Census data spreadsheet, we are looking for the total number of workers that had earnings between 11, 310 (7. 25 x 30 hours x 52 weeks) up to 19, 219. 20 (9. 24 x 40 hours x 52 weeks. This is the group that would presumably benefit more from a 15. 00 minimum wage than 1, 000 per month. The DATA we have available to us is in buckets of 2, 500, so we must widen our criteria to 10, 000 up to 19, 999 annual earnings. (Approximately 4. 80 per hour up to 9. 60 per hour for full-time. A wider range than we are looking for, but its just how the data happens to be reported. Widening the range like this is yet another favorable assumption in favor of the 15. 00 min wage position. On the spreadsheet, this would be sum of cells B21, B22, B23, and B24. Which comes out to an (over) estimate of 19. 01 Million workers. Is this number accurate? Well back in 2014, pew research published an article that estimated there were about 20. 6 Million workers under 10. 10 per hour, but the article did not give an estimate on how many were full-time vs part-time. (Source: 10. 10 per hour is also slightly higher than our 9. 24 target. But given that article is using data from 2013, while we are using data from 2018/2019, its reasonable to assume that the number of workers making between 7. 25 to 9. 24 has decreased since that time, as several States, counties, and Cities have raised their minimum wage to higher than 10. 10 since then. A decrease of 1. 5 million workers (or more) makes sense for this group given the many state minimum wage increases in the last 5 years (California still had a 8. 00 per hour minimum wage back in 2013 for example. In 2019 it is 12. 00. OK, now remember from Case #2 that we determined a 15. 00 minimum wage is only better than 1, 000 per month for those working at least 30 hours per week (Full-time. 52 weeks per year. Well the census data that we have also breaks down the Full-time population by number of weeks worked in 2018. The Sum of Cells E21 – E24 gives us the Full-time population that worked 50 weeks or more, which is about 6. 58 Million workers. If we add those who worked 27 to 49 weeks (Cells F21 – F24) we have another 1. 98 Million. If we add the next group, those working full-time, but 26 weeks or less, we need to exclude the 3 brackets of 12, 500 up to 19, 999. Because if someone worked only 26 weeks at 40 hours per week, but managed to earn 12, 500 or more; then they would have an effective hourly rate of 12. 01 per hour or higher. Well above our threshold of 9. 24 per hour for full-time workers. So we will only add Cell G21 for the last group. Result #3: Summing up those numbers we get an (over) estimated total of 9, 219, 000 American workers that would potentially benefit more from a 15. 00 minimum wage than receiving 1, 000 per month. But we had to make several assumptions to get there. (All assumptions that were in favor of the 15. 00 Min wage position. Most importantly, the assumption that employers would not reduce the workers hours to offset the cost of increasing their base wages between 5. 76 up to 7. 75 per hour. TL;DR/Conclusion: The main takeaway here is that if you earn at least 9. 24 per hour at 40 hours per week, then 1, 000 per month is a larger effective raise than increasing your base rate to 15. And if you earn more than 9. 24 per hour, OR work less than 30 hours per week/52 weeks per year; then 1, 000 per month is an even BETTER proposal for your situation. Its an even higher effective raise for you. And for those already working 40+ hours for 52 weeks per year at less than 9. 24 per hour? There are about 9. 2 Million workers in this situation that would be better off with a 15. 00 minimum wage, but only if they dont have their hours cut, dont have a greater tax burden, and dont have their jobs outsourced or automated away. (Which are all huge assumptions. According to the data from the BLS. the total US Labor force consists of about 164 million workers, and an increase to a 15. 00 minimum wage is “more money in peoples pockets” for about 9. 2 million US Workers, which is about 5. 6% of the total US workforce when compared to a dividend of 1, 000 per month. However, if Andrew Yang advocates for a minimum wage of at least 9. 25 per hour in addition to his Freedom Dividend plan, that would close the earnings gap for the remaining 9. 2 million workers that stand to gain more from a 15. 00 min wage instead the freedom Dividend. It would virtually guarantee that every hourly American worker, regardless of hours or number of weeks worked, is better off. This means a minimum wage of about 9. 25 plus an effective increase of 5. 77 from the FD just plain superior to a 15. 00 minimum wage by itself. It increases all full-time hourly workers annual wage floor to a minimum of 28, 835 to 31, 240 (the same as 15. 00) but also includes the additional benefits of a UBI. So Id like to see Yang adopt a stance of increasing the min wage up to about 9. 25 - 10. 00 per hour to go along with his UBI plan. The MATH shows that this would benefit pretty much every hourly worker more than a 15. 00 minimum wage, regardless of their number of hours/weeks worked. Feel free to check my work. Peace.

I live in Kansas, I have a girl(27f) who has been after me(24f) since 2016. I finally got up the nerve to go and get a protection order which is currently being served, I felt that I needed to get this order because she has been stalking my fiance and I HARDCORE. My fiance is her ex husband that she emotionally and physically abused (she would destroy his belongings, push him, scream at him saying she was going to kill herself, and even started throwing herself into walls or thwacking her wrists against door frames and scream "YOU'RE HURTING ME, YOU WOMAN BEATER. I witnessed him jump from a second story balcony because she was doing this in order to keep him in the house. She thinks I stole him from her so she stalks us to events and concerts and tries to throw drinks at us or get her friends to scream at us. She also found out where we live (45min away from her) and she will drive around our apartment, so we're worried we will wake up one day and there will be damage to our cars. She sends her friends to harass us over Facebook, and has created upwards of 8 fake profiles to stalk us from. She's gotten her friends to take it as far as posting " insert my full legal name here) issa baby killer" and to drive her 8 hours across the state line to follow us to an event. SHE EVEN FOUND OUT WHAT HOTEL WE WERE STAYING AT. She also started dating my ex husband, who I had a protection order against for domestic abuse, and helped him send messages to me via third party. She knew full well what the protection order was for and that even third party contact is a huge no-no. Thankfully my ex was found guilty of violating the protection order. She's taken my name, phone number, and email address and pretended to be me while she signed me up for auto dealerships, rehabilitation centers, etc. This was after she was caught downloading apps for fake numbers to call me with, so I'm assuming she did it so it would be a never-ending string of calls. I changed my number of course and continue to do so if I get any inkling she might have found it. She threatened my safety multiple times this way. She managed to find a way into my fiance's google account (she demanded she know all his passwords, so she linked herself to most of his accounts) and she downloaded some NSFW pictures of me from it. She then ADMITS to distributing them AND threatened to submit them to pornhub. She and her mother claim to have hired a PI and blasted all these crazy egregious lies about my family and I. There were smaller ones like my dad is apparently a car thief, or that I steal the identity of my family members. Here's the whopper, which also ties into her friend calling me a "baby killer. She claims this PI uncovered that I prostitute myself and make sure the man knocks me up. Then I blackmail them into over paying for abortions and I pocket the extra money, get the cheapest abortion possible and then move on to the next man. Exactly how crazy do you have to be to make up this shit? I was indeed pregnant at one time, by my current fiance, and she then proceeded to bribe me into getting an abortion so she could get back together with him. When that didn't work, she tried to blackmail me! Since THAT didn't work, she moved on to threatening the lives of me and my unborn children (I was pregnant with twins. I will be getting married next year, we are looking for a house to buy and we have decided that we will try again for a baby while on our honeymoon. I'm absolutely over the moon with my relationship but sometimes I realize that my happiness is going to make her go crazy. I'm honestly scared of what she will do if she finds out when I get pregnant again. The protection order from stalking will be amazing to have, but when I was speaking with a victim's advocate they looked at me and all the screenshots I had and told me these could be criminal charges. Part of me wants to go through with it but I don't know if I really have a case. Do I have a case? Should I go for it.

Ok, so it's starting to get real in Virginia, which means we need to first protect our lines of communication. I'm writing this guide from a new account to help inform my fellow Boogalooins on how to stay safe, and coordinate effectively. Hide your browsing & IP address. Download the TOR Browser here: OpSec Tips: Only use TOR for boog business. Don't use it as your "daily driver" browser Before you use the TOR browser, make sure it's updated. You'll see a little green arrow in the top-right corner of the browser window if it's not. Even when using TOR, don't do something dumb like saying "my name is XYZ, and I live in ABC" because then you've still compromised yourself. Don't even say what the weather is like, because that's enough to narrow down your location. Alternatively, create a bootable TAILS USB drive: This is a full Linux OS that will enforce TOR traffic for all apps run inside of it - including the browser. Communicate Safely. Get an anonymous email address at OpSec Tips: Protonmail will ask you to "verify" yourself using SMS, email, or a donation w/ credit card. Select the Email option, and use a temporary email services to complete that. TempMail works for this, as of 12/16/2019. Don't use SMS or the donation option. Don't use the Proton mobile apps Never access your Boog email outside of the TOR browser. For extra security use Protonmail's TOR specific URL: ProtonMail servers are based in Switzerland, so it's harder (but not impossible) for the USG to reach them. Only use this email address to register at other websites. Protonmail will comply with legal orders, so don't actually use it for secret communications. And if you don't like Protonmail, then pick some other throw-away email provider. Register on Reddit using a throw-away account, and your new ProtonMail account, using TOR Register on using a throw-away account, and your new ProtonMail account, using TOR Regardless of your thoughts on Trump, the fact is that this is a censorship resistant website, and can be a useful fallback if we start getting banned on Reddit & Twitter. Learn how to use HAM / CB radios We should expect that government will jam / cut signals, so localized radios will be most useful here. Likely, many civilians will be on CB channel 19 or 17 in most of the country. Channel 9 is for emergencies For longer range radios, get a handheld HAM radio. Baofeng UV-5R is a good affordable option (search on Amazon) You can even buy these radios in a 6-pack for your squad. Know your local frequencies, and coordinate a channel with your local Boogalooers. Keep print-outs of the most used frequencies - Virginia Police uses a trunked radio system called "STARS" It's an encrypted network, so unless someone steals a radio and/or reverse engineer the keys, it's unlikely anyone will be able to listen in. Some frequencies can be "jammed" by keeping a radio mic hot, and playing music over it. (I am not advocating you do this, as it would be illegal) Other VA law enforcement frequencies: OpSec Tips: Expect all radio frequencies to be monitored and recorded. Be careful what you say Be careful where you transmit signals, because it can eventually be triangulated. Stay on the move if possible Consider channel hopping, like the Bandit and Snowman do: Get a burner cell phone Get cash and take a taxi to a place 4 or 5 blocks away from a local BestBuy. Walk the rest of the way there, and try to pass through a large area with no security cameras. Wear a hat and sunglasses to hide your face Pay for cellphone using cash, and activate it using your Boog email address over TOR. Use fake names, etc. Keep the phone off, and tightly wrapped in aluminum foil when not in use. The foil will block any wireless signals. Don't unwrap the foil or use the phone at home or at work Only charge this phone using a wall outlet. Never connect it to a computer or another phone. Solar chargers + batteries is a good option too. Use the Signal app to communicate encrypted. Utilize the self-destructing messages feature - Consider other Peer-to-Peer communication options If cell signal is jammed, we can use P2P communication options to keep communications lines up Short Range. 500 meters) Firechat app: Uses bluetooth for P2P group chats. Hong Kong protesters are using this widely. Long Range. 4 miles) GoTenna Mesh: Pairs this with your burner phone, for encrypted off-grid messaging. Get a couple for your squad Small cells of close friends is nearly impossible to infiltrate. Keep that in mind when working with strangers. And Remember: Stay Safe, Protect your Rights, and Praise Dale! Picture of AR-15 to stay relevant to r/weekendgunnit. P. S. Beware of the misinformation comments in this thread. Everything I've posted here is good privacy advice. Anyone spreading FUD, while also providing no solutions, doesn't want you to have secure comms. Feds are up-voting FUD posts. No glowies allowed.

The Trump-Defense Rebuttal Spreadsheet How to Use When Trumper repeats Trump Defense they've heard from FoxNews, respond with Factual Rebuttal. Continue with conversation wherever you left off. Thats it! Happy Turkey-Day! Trump Defense Factual Rebuttal Ukraine, not Russia, interfered with our 2016 election. All 16 US Intel agencies have repeatedly insisted that Russia and only Russia attacked our elections in 2016. Ukrainian interference is a lie spread by Russia. Fiona Hill, widely considered the foremost expert on Russia, the USSR, and Ukraine formerly in Trump's administration, repeatedly testified under oath that spreading this conspiracy is harmful to America and that it is a "fictional narrative. Bad but not impeachable. Trump can set whatever national security policy he wants. Presidents do this all the time. No president has ever conditioned congressionally-approved, taxpayer-funded aid for dirt on a domestic political rival.   Ukraine, Biden/Burisma is corrupt, Trump was justified. Ukraine is historically corrupt, but Trump has been quoted by Sondland and Holmes as saying Trump "doesn't give a shit about Ukraine" and that he only cared about the Biden/Burisma investigations. The Biden/Burisma corruption has been thoroughly debunked by every witness who has testified under oath. These include most of the foremost Ukraine and Russia experts in the country and George Kent, who specializes in anti-corruption. Even Sondland and Volker, who themselves pursued the investigations, have both now testified under oath that they have no reason to believe or can provide any evidence that they are credible. Gordon Sondland explicitly testified that Trump only cared about the * announcement * of investigations. Zelenksy didn't even need to open the investigations, as Sondland understood it. This demonstrates that Trump didn't care about corruption, he simply wanted to damage a political rival.   Biden interfered with Ukraine first! Shokin wasn't corrupt. Shokin was seen as corrupt by just about everyone outside of Russia and Trump's circle. Biden operated in the open with the approval of the US government, European officials, and the International Monetary fund, all advocated for the firing of Shokin; who wasn't fulfilling his campaign promises to fight corruption.   What about Hunter Biden making 50k per month? It appears Hunter Biden was paid approximately 1. 5 million before taxes by Burisma over 18 months. No one is defending the obvious nepotism here. While certainly not a good look for him, he broke no laws and was ostensibly there to help reduce corruption in an organization with a history of it. The Trump family is notorious for far worse behind the scenes dealing and nepotism than this. For example, Trump himself was being paid 200k annually by age 3 and was a millionaire by age 8. Aid was released to Ukraine in 2017 and 2018 without delay, yet Hunter Biden's position with Burisma was already publicly known. The only factor that changed in 2019 was Joe Biden announced his candidacy for POTUS. This demonstrates that nobody, not even Trump, really cared about Hunter Biden until his father became a political opponent for Donald Trump. Trump didn't want the investigations until they were worth something to him.   Ukrainians didn't know military aid was held up. Laura Cooper testified Ukraine was already inquiring as to why they hadn't received aid on July 25th (yes, the same day as the phone call. Multiple other witnesses have testified to Ukrainian awareness. Even if they didn't, it does not matter if the Ukrainians knew or not. Victims do not have to know they have been the target of bribery or extortion for it to be a criminal act.   Perfect phone Call! No quid pro quo. July 25th call; Zelenksy asks about aid, Trump immediately says, I need you to do us a favor, though" before bringing up the Crowdstrike conspiracy. Quid: The release of congressionally appropriated funds that are being withheld without appropriate notification to Congress in violation of 2 U. S. Code § 683 * Pro: Being swayed in the performance of an official act in exchange for a thing of value in violation of 18 U. Code § 201 * Quo: Contribution of thing of value (which case law extensively shows to include opposition research) from a foreign national in connection with a federal state or local election in violation of 52 U. Code § 30121 Zelensky said he didn't feel pressured to announce he was opening investigations. Zelensky is caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand he ran on an anti-corruption platform, winning with 70% of the vote. If he were to be seen as taking part in an investigation that is only relevant to the domestic politics of an allied nation, it would undermine the credibility of his anti-corruption efforts. On the other hand, he is reliant on military aid from the U. to protect his country from Russian aggression. He cannot afford to be seen as weak at home or losing the support of the U. President.   Hearsay! No evidence Trump was involved. Gordon Sondland, David Holmes, Alexander Vindman, Fiona Hill have all testified under oath about first-hand interactions with Trump tying aid/WH visit to investigations. The only reason we do not have testimony about Trump from first hand witnesses is because their testimony is being blocked by Trump himself. Deep state hit job! Trump's accusers are just never-Trumpers. Hill, Hale, Morrison, Volker, Yovanovitch, Kent, Taylor, Sondland and others were all appointed by Trump or his cabinet to their positions, and all testified under oath against Trump's wishes. They provided testimony that Trump was demanding an explicit quid pro quo; military aid/WH visit for announcement of investigations into Biden.   Partisan witch hunt! This is just revenge for Clinton. The entire process is illegitimate. Republicans don't need to cooperate or take it seriously. The House has full control over the impeachment process. By definition, it is legitimate. The Democrats did not start this process quickly or lightly. Support for impeachment of Trump has been over 30% since the Mueller report came out. William Barr has asserted the president cannot be prosecuted citing a DOJ memo. Trump's other lawyers have made the argument in court that a president cannot be investigated or stopped if he were to go on a literal shooting spree. Impeachment is the only check available for a president and the Democrats have followed what little established precedent there is for impeachment to the point of using the same rules for impeachment the Republicans used in 1998 in the impeachment of Bill Clinton. But the Whistleblower though! Whistleblower's identity is protected by law. Every detail of the WB report has already been corroborated by sworn testimony. Speaking with WB is now pointless.   Nothing happened! There were no investigations or White House meeting but the aid was released anyway! An investigation into the Burisma was initiated. Aid was only released after the White House received notice a whistle blower report would go public. Prior to impeachment, Zelenksy had an interview scheduled with Fareed Zakaria of CNN to announce the investigations. The interview was cancelled as soon as aid was released. Watergate was a failed burglary. Nixon was forced to resign because of the obstruction and cover-up. Trump has been even less cooperative with the impeachment inquiry than Nixon was.   Obama never gave Ukraine Javelins! Conditions change. Fiona Hill testified that both providing and not providing weapons was the right choice at the time. Laura Cooper testified the same, adding that the Defense Department needs to certify the Ukraine has made sufficient anti-corruption progress. They only do this after a DoD assessment of what the conditions for military aid to Ukraine should be. This process takes years and the first time Ukraine received Javelins in 2017 was the result of a process beginning in 2016. So, the Javelins weren't even Trump's decision.   The Russia Hoax! At least 6 known Trump associates have pled or been found guilty of crimes related to the scope of the Mueller investigation since the inauguration in 2017. • Campaign chairman Paul Manafort ( 8 counts] Conspiracy against the US, tax evasion, bank fraud, hiding foreign bank accounts, conspiracy to obstruct justice) Never cooperated. Currently serving a 7. 5 year sentence. • Trump personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen ( 8 counts] tax evasion, lying to a bank, campaign finance violations, lying to Congress) Partially cooperated. Currently serving a 3 year sentence. • Trump campaign official Rick Gates (conspiracy against the US, lying to the FBI) No prison time, cooperating with investigators. • National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (lying to the FBI) Currently awaiting sentencing, cooperating with investigators until recently. • Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos (lying to the FBI) Cooperated with investigators. Served 14 day sentence. • Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone ( 7 counts]lying to Congress, obstruction of Congress, witness tampering) Currently awaiting sentencing. Robert Mueller's report did not find evidence directly linking Donald Trump to the Russian interference campaign of 2016. However, he was unable to exonerate the President of obstruction of justice. This was because Mueller's team was unable to obtain all of the evidence it requested from Trump, nor schedule an interview. Trump answered some questions in written form, although it is worth noting he refused to answer many questions and has been shown to have lied in some of the responses he gave. That, and a DoJ OLC memo from 1973. Trump REALLY BELIEVED the Ukrainians were out to get him. It was an honest mistake! That is not an excuse, it is insanity. If that is his defense, he is mentally unwell and unfit for office. Ignorance is not an excuse; Trump has received daily intel briefings since before he took office. He knew how the Russians were interfering in our election even before the public, and yet he still chose to repeat conspiracies about Ukraine he heard from Putin and Giuliani. Either it was intentional, or it was insanity. The president can choose whoever he wants to be his ambassador. This is true. But Rudy Giuliani isn't appointed to any position in the government, he doesn't have any of the clearances or credentials every ambassador has to have, and he is under the employment of Donald Trump exclusively. He is promoting his client's interests, not the interests of the United States. Leveraging the State Department in this capacity is outside of the President's authority. Feel free to share any corrections or recommendations.

Free streaming. Here are 18 ridiculous bias complaints filed on college campuses Since the beginning of 2019, The College Fix has investigated reports made to university bias response teams operating on campuses across the country. So far, The Fix has obtained nearly 300 incident reports at 11 schools through public records act requests. The requests sought all reports filed during the fall 2018 semester at each campus. The results run the gamut. Reports bemoan everything from hurt feelings and professors jokes to off-hand comments and simple misunderstandings. Heres a list of some of the most ridiculous, puzzling reports weve uncovered so far. 1. Student reports roommate for watching Ben Shapiro video (Michigan State) 📷 A Michigan State University student awoke from his nap to see his roommate sitting at his computer. There was a video playing, and the student realized his roommate was watching a video of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. The student then filed a complaint with the administrations bias reporting system against his roommate for watching the Shapiro video. “Ben Shapiro is known for his inflammatory speech that criticizes and attacks the African American community, ” the student wrote in his report against his roommate. “I thought hate had no place on MSUs campus yet MSU has roomed me with someone who supports hate speach [sic. ” In response to the complaint, the university tasked an investigator to look into the matter, who was told to work for a “room change if the claimant would like one. ” 2. 70-year old student tries to attend talk on “microaggressions, ” is turned away for being too old (Indiana) At Indiana University, someone filed a complaint on behalf of a 70-year old nontraditional student auditing a language class who believed he had suffered age and sex discrimination. The man subscribed to an e-mail list for the Center of Excellence for Women in Technology and when he received notification of a seminar on “microaggressions, ” he RSVPd to attend. Yet when the 70-year old man arrived at the talk, he was approached by a female host of the seminar who allegedly asked, “Why are you here? ” and told him “I dont recognize you. ” When he explained he was a part of the list serv and was registered for the event, the man was asked the same question, “Why are you here? ” by a male student employee of the catered event. He described feeling unwelcome at the event (despite noticing that there were other male attendees) and felt as if he was “profiled” and discriminated against for his age – at an event promoting anti-discrimination. 3. Female student upset at being made to read economics book by men (Utah) A 22-year old female University of Utah student reported her business professor to campus administrators for, among other things, assigning too many historical texts written by influential male economists of the past. “I understand the importance of studying the work of those before us and the importance of context, ” wrote the student in a complaint to the universitys bias reporting system, where she labeled the professors transgressions “derogatory, ” “degrading, ” and “intimidating, ” thereby causing a “hostile learning environment. ” “I believe it to no longer be necessary when teaching the foundations of our countrys economic system and those who helped build [its] ideals to be presented in conjunction with their sexist beliefs that have already planted their roots within our global and local communities, ” the student stated in her complaint. In the female students bias report, she stated that while her professor “never applauded these philosophers on their sexist beliefs, ” he “never outright said they were wrong” and “continued to place them upon a pedestal. ” 📷. 4. Female resident advisor thinks fraternity is racist after seeing a picture of a black student dressed as Santa (Indiana) At Indiana University, a resident advisor saw a fellow employee scrolling through the Instagram feed of one of her residents, finding some pictures of a fraternity party he had attended. The pictures seemed to suggest the party was not a costume party – everyone in the photos was dressed in “sweaters, sweatshirts, flannels, and dresses. ” Yet, for some reason, the male resident was dressed up as Santa Claus. This “unsettled” the Briscoe Hall RA, as the male resident appeared to be the only student of color at the party. “The way the people are posing for these photos makes me feel that [the male student] was chosen to wear this costume for a specific reason– these photos make me feel that [he] has been targeted because he is a minority, ” the RA wrote. “I am disgusted to say the least, ” the RA added. “This is an exercise of white power and this is discrimination, along with many other unethical acts. ” 5. Student in library refuses to force a power plug into his dying computer (Utah) In a University of Utah library, a group of four male students were sitting at a table studying. A female student just finishing up a group project noticed the table of male students being “loud and distracting. ” At one point, a young man wearing a black shirt and khaki shorts complained that his laptop computer battery was dying. One of the other men at the table offered his charger to the student but said the charger is incompatible with his laptop. The student offering the charger replied it would definitely work if you “just force it. ” The student put his hands around his mouth and loudly whispered, “Thats rape. Im not raping my computer. ” The student was then reported by a bystander who overheard the exchange. 6. Food court employee reported for saying “hello” in Japanese (Minnesota) At the University of Minnesota, a student stopped by one of the restaurants in the Coffman Memorial Union to pick up a snack. At the register, a food service worker said something the student didnt understand. When the student said they didnt get it, the woman at the register said she was saying “hello” in Japanese, and asked where the student was from. “Wisconsin, ” the student replied. The cashier laughed and told the student to have a nice day, but the student did not find much humor in the experience. The student reported the cashier to the campus Bias Response and Referral Network, claiming “these type of microaggressions occur too often on campus” and “this implicit bias needs to be addressed. ” The bias team then referred the incident to dining services and referred the complaining student to the campus “Ethical Advocate Program” in case they “want to talk further about the experience. ” 7. Someone was offended the word “Redskins” appeared on a video wall (North Carolina State) At North Carolina State University, an individual came upon a large video wall featured in Hunt Library. The “Art Wall” happened to be set to Google Trends Hot Searches, and featured the word “Redskins” in relation to a professional football game being played that weekend. “It was hurtful seeing a racial slur against my kids and myself repeatedly featured on the Art Wall, ” the person wrote in a complaint to the university. “The even larger, overarching problem is widespread social acceptability of this slur, ” the complaint continued. “Having it displayed in bright letters over your family is simply a symptom of a bigger problem. ” In the section where the complainant is supposed to identify the “Impacted Person/Group, ” the individual wrote “I dont know. ” 📷. 8. Complaint about Hawaiian shirt night (Utah) A student group at the University of Utah called Outdoor Adventures was scheduled to host a “Hawaiian shirt night. ” “I view this as a micro/macroaggression against our Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population, ” reported one female staff member. “Itd be great if OA can change their item to a more inclusive one, ” they wrote. 9. Student complains about a discussion of Janet Jacksons nipple (Indiana) In a freshman media studies course at Indiana University, a guest lecturer discussed “net neutrality” and the role of the Federal Communications Commission. To demonstrate the FCCs duties, the educator cited the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, in which a portion of singer Janet Jacksons breast was exposed to a national audience of nearly 90 million people. The incident became known as “nipplegate” and reportedly prompted over 540, 000 complaints to the commission. The complainant, who identified themselves as an associate instructor for the course, told campus officials the scholar mentioned the pop stars nipple several times. “As a South Asian PhD student who studies race, gender and class representation in the media, I am appalled that such misogynoir was casually conveyed to a 100-level class full of freshmen with no sensitivity whatsoever, ” the complaint read. The student reported that these “offhand misogynistic comments about a Black womans body were not clarified as ‘wrong by [the lecturer] no further explanation was given. ” 10. Trump sticker in faculty window causes hostile learning environment (Nebraska) A University of Nebraska-Lincoln employee was in Omaha when they noticed a Donald Trump sticker in a faculty member office window facing the hallway. “While it was an individuals office space, it is reflective of the college and creates a climate that can be challenging particularly for women, LGBTQA, and students of color, ” the employee reported. 📷 11. Professor reported for calling students a ‘waste of space for failing exam (Florida) University of Florida chemistry Professor Jeffrey Gower was displeased with how some of his students had performed on an exam hed given them the previous night. According to one of the students in his chemistry class, he said the students were “disgusting” for failing the exam and called them “a waste of space. ” The next morning, Gower, an adjunct lecturer, found himself the subject of an official complaint filed by a student through the universitys “Bias Education and Response Team” website. The student who had made the complaint against Gower deemed it “bias” against “ability, ” noting “respect goes both ways. ” 12. Student denied fraternity membership because hes wearing political socks (Florida) At the University of Florida, a student hoping to gain membership to the co-ed Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity wore a pair of socks emblazoned with a photo of their favorite political candidate. Later, a friend told the student he or she had been denied membership to the group because of their political affiliation. The student believed the socks were the giveaway, allowing fraternity members of opposite political beliefs to turn down his or her membership request. 13. Woman accused of racial bias for suggesting student was trying to sell her a Hewlett-Packard printer (Indiana) One day in between classes, a student happened upon a woman in the Neal-Marshall library on the Indiana University campus. The student tried to help the woman print a document on one of the Hewlett-Packard printers in the library, telling her there is an HP app she could download to scan and copy documents. “She was very rude and told me she did not have time to hear ‘my product selling spiel, ” reported the student. “In addition, after I left the conversation alone because I had not tried to sell her a product, I just wanted to show her the app to make her life easier, I go back to my designated computer and hear her speaking about being irritated at someone trying to sell her a product after she has pressed she was busy. ” The student added the womans rudeness may have been racially motivated. “All and all I would like to not have encounters with this woman every time she is here, ” the student wrote, saying she was “unprofessional” and saying she was biased against “colored students” at the university. The student noted that the Neal-Marshall library is a particular place where black students like to study. 14. A random comment about LGBT students (Nebraska) A number of gender non-conforming and LGBTQA+ students were walking together to dinner. According to a bias report, a person walked past them and sneered “ach, genderfluids” 📷. 15. Professor compares Kavanaugh hearings to biblical story (Oregon) In a University of Oregon classroom, a professor discussed a PowerPoint slide that referenced “Potiphars Wife, ” a Biblical story in which a married woman makes an offer to have sex with one of her husbands slaves, Joseph, only to have him turn her down. To punish him, Potiphars wife then accuses Joseph of rape. “This is an issue in our society, ” the professor allegedly said. “Now that you all know what this phrase means, you can go use it to describe the Kavanaugh trial. ” The class occurred at the same time U. S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was facing allegations from psychology professor Christine Blasey Ford that he had assaulted her as a teenager. Using the schools bias reporting process, a female student reported she was “deeply offended by this professors false, ignorant, biased commentary that outwardly projected his political opinions (defending Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh) and completely discredited sexual assault survivors like myself and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, among countless other women. ” “Many students sitting near me were visibly conflicted” by the professors statement, wrote the student, “which blatantly insinuated that cases of accused rape and/or sexual assault are really just instances of vengeful women lying about innocent men who denied interest in them. ” 16. Woman jokes about sometimes being “schizophrenic” (Portland State) At Portland State University, a student overheard someone in their classroom making a comment about sometimes feeling like they having schizophrenia. “She then stated she was not trying to make fun of schizophrenia, ” the student reported, “but that sometimes she can be ‘schizophrenic. … She stated this in a joking manner and even laughed about it. ” 17. A triggering game of hangman (Michigan State) At Michigan State University, a discarded game of “hangman” was left on a whiteboard in a residence hall; the word “SOUTH” was the last one played. This resulted in a bias response complaint. 📷. 18. A jokester triggered by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (North Carolina State) “Elizabeth Warren claimed shes a Person of Color yesterday, ” read one report to the North Carolina State bias reporting team. “As a self-identifying black transgender woman, Im triggered. I dont know what to do when white women start Womansplaining how they gon [sic] be another race thats different than their white skin. If she can claim shes a person of color, she can steal my welfare check & Obamaphone, ” it read. The complaint was filed with the public institution right around the same time Warren, a 2020 presidential hopeful for the Democratic Party, released the results of her DNA test that found she is roughly 1/1024 Indian, which is considered far less than the average American. The tone of the complaint indicates it was likely a joke or an attempt to mock the bias response team. from.

Author note: The Cryopod to Hell is a Reddit-exclusive story with over three years of editing and refining. As of this post, the total rewrite is 196 parts long and 820, 000+ words. For more information, check out the link below: What is the Cryopod to Hell? Official Discord Server. Support me on Patreon! Every dollar helps, and you get access to lots of art and other cool stuff! Want to read the whole story without waiting? Click here. It's free! I will be reposting the full story on HFY until I've caught up with the current timeline. During that period, I will update the reposted parts to edit them more cohesively, as well. Once I catch up, new parts will be posted on HFY and RedditSerials, alongside my main subreddit as they become available. Thank you for reading, and enjoy. Previous Part. Part 001. Whaddya mean Phoebe left. I ask, while staring at the guard in disbelief. "She was here only four minutes ago. As usual, people mill around us in the Core. A goblin here, a lady there. The man before me shrugs. "They seemed agitated. I didn't want to bother Miss Berthol- I mean, Miss Hiro. She got in her truck and left. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I shake my head and sigh. "Yeah, I know. Christ. I thought she'd go hang out in a corner or something. Now I have to chase her down like a weirdo. Thanks. Anytime, Your Majesty. The soldier nods at me and spares only a passing glance toward Solomon's eerie ghost figure. As he pushes past, the young man seems slightly unnerved. His discomfort at the presence of a half-dead spirit might make me laugh under different circumstances. Sadly, my mind is focused entirely on finding my wife so I can apologize to her and Samantha. Solomon watches as the soldier walks away. "It's been quite literally thousands of years since someone looked me in the eye. I'm used to staring at people's soul energy, not holding conversations on equal terms with flesh-and-blood beings. I turn and start walking toward the gate to Tarus II. "How does that work? Staring at, err, soul energy. I mean. When I spoke to you in my mind, I thought we were talking man-to-man. Nope. You appeared to me like a shapeless blob of milk floating in the air. The projection you saw was little more than your imagination filling in the blanks for my brilliant countenance. Of course, my Crown did provide a little assistance. After stepping through the portal, I yawn to pop my eardrums. "Neat. Do you think Phoebe went to Hero City, or elsewhere? Maybe she and Samantha went out for a picnic. Solomon groans. "Jason. When women are mad at you, they wish to be left alone, but generally, a picnic is not at the top of their itinerary. They'll probably chat with each other for a while, and that will be the end of it. A few boring, sexless weeks await, and you'll move past your differences. A moment passes. I sweep my gaze around, and Solomon steps in front of me. "Do you love Phoebe. Of course I do. That's a stupid question. And she loves you. Uh. Well, yes. I don't want to use a cheesy word like 'soulmate. but. Then you have no reason to worry. Solomon laughs while grinning like a Cheshire cat. "I've had a few million quarrels with women. For one thing, having infinite knowledge meant I was always correct, and they didn't want to admit their arguments were vastly inferior to mine. However, I often learned to say I was wrong to put an end to the quibbling. My life became much simpler as a result. I force myself not to roll my eyes. "At least you're humble about your intelligence. Indeed. The king snaps his fingers. "Can't you use your Wordsmithing to find Phoebe? The sooner you apologize and own up to your mistake, the sooner we can move on to more important matters. I stare into the distance, but I can't see Phoebe's truck anywhere. "I can use my Locate spell to track her, but after what happened with Hope, I'd rather not. I'll go home and pray she's there. It'll have to do. Mmm. The spying thing. Even though I barely know you, I can see your heart was in the right place. I'm sure your copycat will accept your apology. You're probably right. I dunno. The two of us walk and float through the warp-gate to Tarus II and down the steps out past the security perimeter. Once I arrive on the paved road, I stand off to the side and exhale. "Man, something's bothering me about what Hope said. I called us identical, and he immediately insisted we were different. I don't understand how that can be true. I cloned him from myself barely a week ago. I could understand a few minor differences, but he acted like he was born on a different planet. Wasn't he. Solomon rests his hands on his hips. "You made him here in the Labyrinth. You were born on Earth. That seems like a different planet to me. I mean, okay, sure, but that's nitpicking. My point is that Hope had all of my memories, my looks, my emotions, everything was identical right up to the moment of his creation. What the hell could change in a week. I don't know. Solomon replies. "Not about him specifically, anyway. A person's world can change in five minutes, though. What experiences do you and he share, and what have the two of you lived differently. I ponder Solomon's question. A minute passes. Two. Three. "Well, Hope fought Uriel while I stayed behind. I barely know how that went. I'm married to Phoebe. but he has nobody. Now that you mention it, there are a few other differences. I didn't think they were major at first, but maybe you're onto something. Of course I am, you simple-minded child! I'm the bloody Knowledge-Seeker. I'm always right. Solomon groans again and spins on his heel. "Why don't you try looking at things from his perspective? If he really was you until the moment you created him, but you're the one getting married while he isn't, how would you feel if you watched Phoebe get stripped away by another man? Even if that man was technically you. Well, I'd. I'd feel pretty terrible. Precisely. Awful, alone, confused. Hope has to reinvent his entire identity. Why, it would be like stepping from one epoch of humanity's timeline into another! A jarring and unwelcome change of scenery that would force one to adapt. Surely you know what I mean. I do. You're referring to the Cryopod. You told me you were frightened and scared when you first emerged. It's a natural sensation when one arrives at an unknown destination. For example, if a man comes home to his faithful wife and sees her in bed with another, his existence will shatter. In an instant, he will call into question every moment they shared, every secret, and deep inside his heart, he will shift into a different person entirely. For Hope, he shares all of your memories, so I imagine that right as he was growing comfortable in his new life, met a nice girl, became a Hero that saved everyone from demons and monsters. he was suddenly torn out of all of that and told he needed to rebuild again. That's two major blows to his psyche in one year, and you're both barely out of your adolescent phases. I stare ahead numbly, looking not at Solomon, but through him. "Wow. I never thought of that. I've been a terrible friend. Simply dreadful. I should have put myself in his shoes and talked to him more. Agreed. Solomon, your snark isn't helping. I don't care. The King chuckles to himself about something. "Heh, the first step to solving a problem is to recognize there is one in the first place. Even the wisest sometimes struggle with that. Including you. No. This time it's me who groans. "You're so humble. I'm going to make a vehicle. Gimme a sec. I take a minute to imagine the inner workings of my Ferrari. Its contours, the engine. Before I finish, Solomon speaks. "Hold on. What are you imagining. A car. I have a Ferrari I like to drive. Yes. I can see the image in your head. But a vehicle that drives on wheels will be significantly slower and more dangerous than a hovercraft or even a spaceship. Here, let me assist you. Solomon closes his eyes. A moment later, his mouth opens. SAEN DHA WUSNR UL DHA WERR I LAAN DU RAA DHA FAISCRA AED DHA ELDARUFA FIRD UID DHA FIL ELN SHAARA ELN RAD'R SERR AID E NEIRR. Solomon speaks a series of unintelligible, screechy sounds that nearly make me yank the Crown off my head. Whatever he's saying, they aren't words. Even the Crown can't translate them for me. He opens his eyes. "There. I've loaded up a basic template for a miniature spacecraft. With this, you can house a crew of up to four people comfortably. Solomon's design appears in my mind. The ship looks like something from a sci-fi movie, with a sleek silver hull, a pointed nose, an engine on each wing, and a hyperdrive in the back. However. Why the gold lining and baubles? Why did you design this ship with all these rubies and gems all over the hull? I don't understand Bedazzling the exterior of a spaceship. Solomon scoffs. "You're the bloody Hero! You need to travel in style! People respect and fawn over those who cover themselves in riches and jewelry. It's only natural for the almighty Hero to make people stop and stare when he flies past. I think you're going a little too far. Psh. I knew you'd complain. I resisted the urge to make the entire exterior solid-gold, but you still whine like a billy goat. I'm not whining. Solomon rolls his eyes. He flaps his hands at me and says in a mocking voice. I'm not whining. I sigh. "Solomon. I don't know if anyone has ever told you this before. but you're an asshole sometimes. Only sometimes? It's supposed to be constant. At least you don't deny it. I aim my mind at an empty area of the road and speak aloud. Ship. Within five seconds, the spacecraft materializes and gently plunks onto the asphalt. It's much bigger in person compared to my mind, standing twenty feet tall, thirty feet wide, and about eighty-feet long. Considering all of the internal mechanisms, it's probably significantly smaller inside. The entry platform lowers. I walk over to it and grumble to myself about the stupid rhinestones, rubies, and gems embedded all over the side of the craft. A Bedazzled spacecraft is the opposite of badass. Solomon follows me. Once inside, I gaze around and take in the sights. It's much roomier than I expected, with a single unbroken hallway leading all the way to the beds in the back, bathrooms in the middle, and an open dining area along the way. I expected something akin to a large RV, but it's more like a small house. I make my way to the cockpit and sit down. Thanks to the Crown, I know what every button, knob, and dial does, but it still feels very. alien. Solomon sits in the co-pilot seat. "We should give this beautiful lady a name. Like what. Oh, I don't know. Something extravagant and mysterious, exuding warmth and wealth. None of those adjectives belong in the same sentence. Bloody hell, not this again. Always with the complaining. Solomon trails off. "Ah, I've got it! How about Esther. You want me to name the ship. Esther. Sure! It's a beautiful name! Esther was one of only two women to have an entire book of the Holy Bible devoted to them. The other was my great-great-grandmother, Ruth. Solomon pauses for a moment before continuing. "Have you, perchance, ever read the Bible. A bit, but only if one of my foster families dragged me to church. I'm more into ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. The Bible didn't do it for me. Solomon purses his lips. "So that's how it is, eh. I read about you. That satisfies him. "Good. My appearance is the most important part of the entire Bible. Okay, now you've gone too far. You're not more important than Jesus. Sure, I am. Bullshit. It's true. Yeah, okay. If you say so. I turn away from him and activate the ship's thrusters. Several button presses later, it ascends into the sky. A sensation of disorientation hits me as we ascend. The gradual climb is so smooth that looking through the windows outside is more like watching a television screen. I don't feel the movement at all. Solomon reads my mind. "Inertia dampeners. Cool. By the time Esther has hovered a hundred feet up, my eyes raise to the stars above. Solomon leans back in his chair. "Let's take a detour, Jason. I've spent months using my new powers, and never once did I consider venturing into space. Now that I'm here, I can't believe myself. I was an idiot. Thousands, millions, perhaps billions of specks of light dot the sky. Far in the distance, Tarus II's sun, Vorus, burns radiantly. Its light would usually damage my eyes, but thanks to ultraviolet shielding on Esther's front window, it doesn't. Two small moons orbit Tarus II. Esther highlights several points of interest in the space around our planet, including a comet and an asteroid caught in orbit. Solomon rubs his hands together. "Breathtaking, isn't it? I remember my first time leaving Earth's atmosphere. I saw several videos of astronauts and the Moon Landing, but entering space is different compared to watching videos or looking at images. Yeah. It's something else. Takes my breath away. The Volgrim and the Demons own much, if not all of the galaxy by now. The stars we see are only those nearest us within a thousand light-years or so. I would be surprised if any of them were free of the reach of our enemies. I slump in my seat. "A hundred thousand years is a long time. but surely there must be some planets they haven't defiled yet? Is it even possible to colonize millions of planets in only tens of thousands of years. Perhaps not thousands. Solomon murmurs. "But the Volgrim are an ancient species, descending from ancestors millions of years older than humanity. They had plenty of time to colonize the galaxy long before they met our species. Solomon's eyes turn distant. "Humans believed they were alone in the universe for thousands of years. Despite our awareness of angels, beings who once lived among the stars, we arrogantly viewed ourselves as the lone seed of life drifting throughout the infinite void. We were wrong. Even I held incorrect assumptions, as I did not learn of the Volgrim's existence until the rest of my species did. The Milky Way is a single speck among billions of other specks. Our pretty little spiral houses tens of thousands of habitable worlds, and the Volgrim have long since laid claim to most, if not all of them. They watched humanity's rise from the primordial soup with the same dispassionate gaze as they did all the other planets teeming with life. It was only once we achieved a certain technological epoch that their worried gazes fell upon us. Thus began the Energy Wars. You mentioned the Energy Wars before. I say. "I know we ultimately lost, but did we stand any chance of winning at all. Solomon sighs. "No. We were about as threatening to the Volgrim as an ant to a boot. Even had I joined my intellect with King Arthur's might and Joan of Arc's courage, we would have inevitably lost the war, so powerful was the fist of our oppressors. I have Wordsmithing, though. I say. "Maybe you three couldn't have saved humanity, but I could. I should have been able to do something. Don't blame yourself, Jason. I suspect you entered the cryopod as part of the Creator's divine will. Had you fought on Earth, you might have perished along with the rest of humanity. Things are not always as they seem. "Maybe so, but I still feel guilty every day. I wish I had done something. I wish I could go back and fix everything. Regret is a crucial part of life's adventure. Solomon says, solemnly. "Everyone has regrets. Even me. A few moments pass. The ancient king sighs. "We've admired the view. Now, let us return home. I thought taking a short break from all your worries to see a purer form of the universe would do you some good. Sadly, duty calls. Instead of turning the ship back toward Tarus II, I stare at the moon orbiting Tarus II. "Hey, maybe this is a stupid question, but how hospitable would you say Kelkin is? Tarus II's moon, I mean. Solomon glances at the displays on Esther's scanners, detailing the readouts on the distant grey globe. "It resides in the brown-level Goldilocks zone. While technically colonizable, Kelkin isn't self-sustaining. Given its lack of atmosphere and methane-ice surface, it would take a tremendous amount of effort to terraform. Right. I mutter. "But I have Wordsmithing. The Volgrim and Demons don't. Solomon stares at me for a moment, then turns to gaze at Kelkin. "Oh. That's an interesting idea. You're smarter than I expected, Jason Hiro. Your compliments feel like insults. Haha, take my words however you like. A smile spreads across my face. "That's the trick, Solomon. We might not need to seek out colonizable planets. Maybe I can make my own and expand humanity's borders in a way that even the Volgrim can't. Solomon taps his chin. "Terraforming is a costly feat the Volgrim only use when a planet is already sufficiently within the Goldilocks zone. A moon like Kelkin would be terrible for their technological capabilities. They could transform it into a habitable world, but it would take centuries and require an enormous amount of resources. If your Wordsmithing is capable of turning barren, desolate worlds into functional Earths, you'll have a huge leg up on the Volgrim. Solomon leans forward. A huge smile spreads across his face. "So how about it? Try terraforming the moon. Immediately, I shake my head. "Sorry, Solomon, but no can do. I don't have a millionth the magical capacity I need to pull off world-scale Wordsmithing. Hell, just trying to create a couple of generic three-story buildings nearly killed me. If I want to terraform Kelkin, it will take me several years, working in tiny increments. The only solution that will speed up the process is a massive boost to my mana capacity. Solomon's smile disappears. I see. I don't yet understand all the intricacies of your life and powers. My apologies. Perhaps I'll spend tonight performing a deep-mind search to see if I can come up with a workaround. I raise an eyebrow. "What do you mean by 'deep-mind search' That sounds. invasive. You're wearing my crown, Jason. Solomon says, offering a kindly smile. "The moment you put it on, my artifact downloaded all of your memories and knowledge, just as it has with countless other people. Where do you think I obtained my knowledge of theoretical physics, quantum mechanics, and other such complex scientific branches? I combined the experience and memories of countless geniuses to advance my own knowledge of the universe. Slowly, I nod. "So. you can see all of my memories? All the embarrassing stuff that's happened to me? All of my, um. private thoughts. Solomon facepalms. "Yes, yes. Don't you worry, though, boy. That unflattering moment from when you were fourteen and Lindsey rejected you is a far cry from some of the things I saw in Einstein's memories. Your minor blunders are hardly worth my attention when I've seen things that would make former world leaders blush with shame. Solomon's words make me lower my eyes. didn't reject me. No, no, my dear boy. You rejected her. Of course. Hearing Solomon bring up one of my embarrassing moments from high school makes me want to crawl in a ditch and die. I tap Esther's controls, turn the ship around, and head back to Tarus II. 's call it a day. Haha. Yes, let's. The atmosphere of Tarus burns around the ship as we begin our rapid descent. I glance at Solomon. "So, uh. I have a question. Hmm. You're the first Hero I've met. In-person, I mean. Can you tell me more about yourself? Your magic. Solomon rubs his chin thoughtfully. "I never experimented with my magic. I was lucky to be born during a time of relative peace. I engaged in minor skirmishes against the demons here and there occasionally, but I never needed to exercise my heroic powers on the field of battle. Oh? What were your abilities. Both of us gaze out at the long reach of a massive ocean as we fly lower and lower into Tarus II's atmosphere. "I don't know. My attributes leaned heavily toward intellect, rather than strength and agility. I think I possessed some ability to conjure holy energy, but I never used it in my day to day life. I guess you didn't need to. You know, being a king and all. Solomon turns his head to look at me. "Say, Jason. something has been bothering me for a while. Regarding your status as a Hero, that is. Like what. We quickly fly past the ocean and over the mountaintops. Hero City, built on a plateau, grows visible in the distance. Several of Bahamut's pyramids rise in the distance, giving the oddly modern-looking city a hybrid feeling of past-meets-present. It proves quite jarring. "Heroes typically were men and women of great influence. The Heroic Aura sought out those most likely to use their abilities for the greater good. Commoners rarely gained such power. Therefore, this begs the question of why it would possess you. After all, you are a relatively normal youth. Were your parents wealthy or famous. I shake my head. "I don't remember them. I know my mother died before my second birthday. My father gave me up for adoption. He did? Strange. Solomon shakes his head. "Do you remember who he was. No. The little I know is because of a few official documents I used to travel with between foster homes. As far as I'm concerned, my parents both died when I was a child. My answer seems to satisfy Solomon, and he gazes at the specter of Hero City as we fly closer. While I bring the ship down to land in an empty field, the king nods slowly. "So you didn't know your parents, and you have the Heroic Spirit. Perhaps they knew of your importance. They might have been wealthy aristocrats or descendants of a royal bloodline. That would explain your abilities. I suppose that's possible. My father didn't leave me any money though, so I don't think he was wealthy. You might be grasping at straws. Didn't you imply the Heroic Aura sometimes possesses those not born from an important bloodline. I did, but a circumstance like that was scarce. Only a dozen or so cases that I know of. The ship touches down a hundred feet from the city's perimeter. Forty curious onlookers peep out from behind a building. They must have seen Esther's arrival, and now they're worried we might be enemies. Solomon chews on his thumb. "You know, Jason. the last time a Hero appeared was around the beginning of the 20th century. I always wondered what happened to his descendants. That does sound strange. I say, noncommittally. "I don't know anything about the past Heroes, though. Well, other than Joan and Arthur. Those are the ones everyone's heard of, along with me. Solomon says with a wink. "How unfortunate that so many have forgotten the names of Jepthath, Caesar, and Sir Lorent. Solomon and I both stand up and walk toward the exit hatch. The ramp extends down, and when the crowd of onlookers sees us, a collective sigh of relief fills the air. A few men, along with one Salamander, wander over. I recognize Ogie immediately. "Sweet 'n salty walnuts! You scared the stools out of us. the Salamander says. "What in Sam-heck is that flyin' bullet thing. It's a spaceship. I reply, not wanting to go into much detail. I notice several people looking at Solomon questioningly, so I decide to take him down a notch. "This guy is a ghost friend of mine named Solomon. He's nobody important. The king gawks. "I beg your pardon. Yeah, you heard me, grandpa. Wave at the townsfolk. Solomon grumbles something under his breath. I only make out a few choice curses. Several minutes later, he and I arrive at the front of Bahamut's old palace, now redesignated my official home. The king curls his lip up. "You're slumming it, then. What? This is the best place in the city! Huge rooms, full course meals, all that good stuff. The aesthetic is dreadful. It looks like an average-sized office building. Have you no Heroic pride. We went over this already. It's still shameful. I'm surprised Saul allowed my spiritual descendant to live in such a horrid environment. When I see him next, I'm going to gouge his useless eyes out. I cringe at his vivid description. "I don't think you need to go that far. Yes, but after all the training I gave him, he's making me look bad. Maybe I'll only flay an inch of skin from his body. Even I can be merciful. I decide not to comment. We enter my home, and every step becomes unbearable as Solomon comments on this drab ornament or that ugly trinket, or how the lighting isn't complimentary. Multiple times, he begs me to use my Wordsmithing to change the walls to gold and silver. I do my best to tune him out. We make our way upstairs, and eventually, arrive at my bedroom door. When I open it, I catch the tail end of Phoebe speaking. his fault. I think he misunderstood. That's all. Yes, but it was hurtful. After everything I've done to help the humans, I just. I thought people would treat me differently. They still act like I'm part of a demon conspiracy to kill- Samantha stops talking. She turns around to the doorway as Solomon and I enter. I wince at the tears on her face. "Uh. um. bad time? I can come back later. The succubus quickly looks away and wipes her face. "It's fine. I should return to my room anyway. Wait, hold on. I hold my hand up. "Samantha- I'm sorry. I came all the way here to say that. I overheard Hope saying something, and I jumped the gun. I shouldn't have accused you of anything. That was wrong of me. The succubus's tail flicks around nervously. Samantha continues to sit on the bed without making any effort to get up, and stares at her crossed legs. "An apology. I don't know why, but I didn't expect that. Phoebe stares at me. Her face shows anger, but everything else about her appears contemplative, as though she's spent the better part of twenty minutes playing devil's advocate on my behalf to try and explain my actions. She's too good for me. "I'm glad you came, Jason. We were talking about you the whole time. I, uh, figured as much. My wife's eyes look to the ghostly figure standing beside me. "You brought a friend. Before I can reply, Samantha turns around to look at me, but she registers Solomon as well. She starts to say something, but pauses a moment before speaking. "Do I know you. Solomon shakes his head and beams a grin at her. "I'm Solomon. One of the ancient kings, also known as the smartest being in existence. I doubt we've met, for I could never forget one as beautiful as yourself. His flattery doesn't affect her. "You're right. I'd remember someone as braggadocious as you. You do look familiar, but it's probably the whole royalty getup. I've known a few kings. Solomon slides over to the bed and sits down, though his body makes no impression on the covers. "I wish I'd been one of them. Smooth. Samantha rolls her eyes and turns back to me, forgetting Solomon exists within the span of two seconds. I should have told you I was a shapeshifter. I owe you an apology too. I didn't realize that humans would value appearances so much. If it makes you feel any better, this is my natural body. I don't enhance it in the slightest. I blink. "Wait. I think there's been a misunderstanding. I wasn't worried about you abusing your, um, sex appeal. It was more of an espionage issue. How so. A bead of sweat drips down my back. Come on, Jason! You just apologized, and now you're going to imply she's a shapeshifter who wants to infiltrate us for some nefarious purpose? Talk about ruining the goodwill you just built. I have to tell the truth. I have to tell Samantha what I saw. No more lying. I lean against the wall. "Here's the deal. I used 'Locate' and overheard Hope and Neil talking. They said that you. that you betrayed Uriel. You killed her or something. I don't know the details. On top of that, you can manipulate the emotions and feelings of those around you, and you can change your appearance. It was wrong of me to jump to conclusions, especially after you saved my life and Phoebe's in our battle against Amelia and Satan. However, surely you can see how combined with not wanting me to see the files about the Volgrim, I might assume you were. You saw the files. Samantha interrupts me. Her voice turns cold as ice. "After I warned you not to look. you examined them anyway. I did. Samantha lowers her head. "Jason. you crossed a line you shouldn't have. So what if I know about the aliens? What's the big problem. Samantha flicks her eyes to Phoebe uneasily. She wants to keep the information about the Volgrim as tight-lipped as possible. A moment later, she seems to realize I'll tell Phoebe later anyway, so there's no point being secretive. "The problem is that nobody but the Emperors and Dukes know of the Volgrim's existence. No other demons, no monsters, and certainly no humans. nobody. It's part of our treaty. Due to issues we've had with uprisings in the past, the Volgrim only agreed to a cease-fire under the condition that we keep our arrogant elements in check. The moment word gets out about them and reaches any loose-lipped fellow; their weapons will train on us. Alright. I suppose you have a point. I don't really understand, but if that's the case, why let anyone have access to files like we found. Samantha pulls on a loose string of hair. "You used that Crown, didn't you? Nobody should be able to decipher the computer files left behind except Ose. She's the one who devised all the systems that keep humans and demons in check. I don't know much about technology, nor do most demons, but she's a genius when it comes to it. Under normal circumstances, nobody I know could decipher those files. You're probably the only person who can. A slight tinge of pride burns in my heart. Yeah, damn straight! I'm a genius too! Solomon smirks at me. His thoughts transmit into my mind. Only by using my power. "Well, Samantha, it's too late now. I saw the files. Oh, and when I did, Ose appeared inside my mind. She tried to take over my body, but she awakened Solomon instead, and he saved me. A lightbulb pops up above Phoebe's head. She looks from me to my crown and then to Solomon. "Ahh! Solomon! His crown! He's the man who. oh my gosh. Solomon snaps his fingers. "Yes! Now you understand! Tis' I, the most incredible, brilliant, and good-looking man who ever lived! I'm surprised it took you this long to realize. Phoebe's surprise melts away instantly. You're that kind of person. What do you mean. Nothing. Never mind. Solomon might be the most knowledgeable man in existence, but even he doesn't know everything. The thought comforts me. Samantha shifts on the bed and turns her whole body toward me. Seeing the front of the voluptuous succubus instantly gets my hormones raging, but I immediately suppress them. "Jason, we both made mistakes. Let's call it even and move on, okay. I nod. "That's fair. In the back of my mind, a nagging concern buzzes like an angry blowfly. Despite my immediate agreement with her words, I pivot on a dime. "Well, one thing. I do have to ask. What happened with Uriel? Can you explain that to me. She shrugs. "It was a long time ago. Some people change in a day; some people need a few years. How much would you change if a hundred thousand years passed. A lot, I suppose. I still would like to know what happened, though. The succubus sighs. "I did what Satan ordered. Back then, we all did. Samantha grips her leg firmly. A look of unease appears on her face. "It was part of a day in history known as the War in Heaven. Ninety-nine percent of all demons died, as did the majority of all angels. It was a bloodbath unlike any other. My job was to infiltrate and eliminate the forward guard so our forces could enter Heaven. I followed my orders. We made it inside. There isn't much to say otherwise. But. you killed Uriel, right. Samantha's face turns ashen. "No! I would never do that! I wounded her badly, yes, but I hate killing. I'm a pacifist, Jason. I only fight if it's necessary. Sure, but you rushed back to the Labyrinth earlier to battle her as soon as that one Duke guy gave the word. He's a Baron, and his name is Orias. Samantha shakes her head in annoyance. "I have obligations to the demons, Jason. More importantly, Uriel is a threat not only to my people but yours as well. She's a dangerous, unhinged lunatic who kills for sport. By the time Hope and I arrived, she had slain nearly a hundred thousand of my people. Would you prefer I let her rampage around unchecked. I suppose not. Good. Samantha waves her hand at me, flippantly. "Perhaps you should ask Hope what the battle against her was like. He nearly died, after all. The succubus seethes for a moment. "I wonder why Hope would say bad things about me after we fought together. Perhaps I should speak to him. The two of you are very aggravating sometimes. Phoebe smiles and rubs Samantha's shoulder. "Yeah, that's men for you. But he's all mine. Tch. You can keep him. Samantha says. However, despite her words, a trace of a smile appears on her face. I breathe a sigh of relief. Samantha doesn't hate me after all. Thank god. Several minutes later, Samantha stands up and adjusts her clothing. "Well, um, sorry for weeping like a child. I'll be heading to my room now, Phoebe. Phoebe waggles her fingers in the air. "See you around, Sammy. Drop by anytime. Trust me; I will. Samantha walks past me as I sit on the bed. She stops a few feet away. "Jason, if you don't keep hold of Phoebe, I'll take her for myself. What. Ta-ta. She leaves the room and closes the door. Now only Phoebe, Solomon, and I remain. My wife glances at the ghostly man sitting beside me on the edge of the bed. how is this going to work. I don't know what you mean. Her cheeks burn red. "Is Solomon going to follow you everywhere? All the time. The king responds before I can think of an answer. "Oh, there won't be any problems. Just pretend I'm not here! I'll stand and watch silently as you two do whatever it is that young newlyweds do. Phoebe's expression flattens. "That's not going to happen. Why not. I don't like lecherous old men. That's why. Phoebe points at the Crown. "Make sure you take that off, tonight. I will. I say with a smile. "No way this voyeur's getting a peep show. Solomon's face turns crestfallen. "B-but Jason! I thought we were friends! Phoebe is far more beautiful than the fairest lily in the bluest pond! Please, don't take away the only thing this poor old man lives for. I lift the crown off my head. Solomon vanishes, leaving Phoebe and me alone. "Yeah, that sealed the deal. I set the crown on the dresser beside the bed, then turn to my wife and smile. "A lot of stuff happened today. Mhmmm. Phoebe flops onto her back and traces a circle on her collarbone. "I'm still mad at you for making Sammy cry. Aw, c'mon. I apologized. Yes, but you didn't apologize to me. I'm sorry. Phoebe closes her eyes. "Okay. That'll do. Grinning giddily, I reach for my belt buckle. "Great! Now that we're married, let's get out of these clothes. Somehow, I knew that would be the only thing on your mind. Inwardly, I wince. Images of two thousand demon heads exploding appear in my mind. "No. not the only thing. Next Part.

I've been fascinated by the MKUltra programs development (and more importantly, the "justifications" PR, and coverup. Why I find this program so interesting is a bit of a long story and is less about the "conspiracy" nature, but more about the tangible existence of such a program and how it successfully suppressed leaks. My favorite reading about such organization is the uncensored AskHistorians thread on it, where a mod-removed comment details how information-compartmentalization was key. is the anecdotal part. The government is VERY good at delegating duties and information on a “need-to-know” basis. So Im sure most of the institutions did not know the full extent of the experiments. Anyways back to this set of US foreign policy atrocities. I have a pretty decent knowledge in atrocities committed by communist groups/revolutions (the early USSR had a lot by creating artificial famines to slaughter peasants, and blaming kulaks for "hoarding grain" while also blaming nature for the famine) but I try to stay neutral in my judgements per the situation. Anyways the MKUltra program was created under the pretext of countering Soviet and Chinese brainwashing research. But was this alleged threat of Soviet and Chinese brainwashing research legitimate, or was it a false flag lie to justify Western programs? I found this curious because, in retrospect, we should be able to analyze whether the USSR even did that, and the fact we haven't means that it probably did not. So I assumed the MKUltra program was created in typical Western government style where the public is misled by false flag accusations. But I recently read that the PRE-MKUltra program traces it's origin traces back to the Korean war, and accusations of "brainwashing" first came up during this time to falsify American POW's giving chemical warfare confessions. abuse found further justification in 1952, when, in Korea, captured American pilots admitted on national radio that theyd sprayed the Korean countryside with illegal biological weapons. It was a confession so beyond the pale that the CIA blamed communists: The POWs must have been “brainwashed. ” The word, a literal translation of the Chinese “xi nao, ” didnt appear in English before 1950. It articulated a set of fears that had coalesced in postwar America: that a new class of chemicals could rewire and automate the human mind. So my focus shifted from alleged Soviet-Sino MKUltra-inspiring research to the accusations of Western foreign policy bio warfare. In this question I entertained two possibilties: One possibility was that parts of the military were NOT engaging in bio warfare, that actually happened as the POW confessions were pushed for propaganda purposes, that the captured POW's were indeed brainwashed (ie coerced confession under torture) by hostile (Chinese and Korean) investigators. Stuff like that happens all the time. The second possibility was that the confessions were true, that the US intelligence was in fact engaging in biological warfare, that the captured POW's were technically committing treason as per whatever contract they signed, but the intelligence agenceis wanted to avoid the American public reaction fallout. So falsifying the confessions would be more important than silencing those involved. For some background context: It's pretty much a known fact that the "Anglosphere" US/UK gov't-media collaborated with suppressing public accountability for various military acts in the 1940's. This included the (American-ruling-elite) deliberate push for a war with Japan against the knowledge of American civilians, as well as the deliberate (UK-ruling-elite) push for slaughtering Bengali peasants via artificial famine genocides. I'm not going to elaborate too far on that claim because I'm going to assume most people in this sub are already aware of most of that already, but yea. There were atrocities by everyone. Including both sides of the Chinese civil war, and by the Red army defeating Nazi Germany. But with that being said considering the relative media power of the English speaking powers, I was leaning towards skepticism of their claims. The post-WW2 Western setup extensively propagandized the acts of the quasi-annexed Japanese state relative to the Western powers, so such a coverup would make sense, because the Western "victory over Imperial Japan" would lose moral credibility. Back to the point in question on the accuracy of "brainwashing" accusations, it appears that there were at least attempts to engage in biological warfare during this time, though no decent evidence remains outside of confessions: Until the end of World War II, Japan operated a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit called Unit 731 in Harbin. The unit's activities, including human experimentation, were documented by the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials conducted by the Soviet Union in December 1949. However, at that time, the US government described the Khabarovsk trials as "vicious and unfounded propaganda. 1] It was later revealed that the accusations made against the Japanese military were correct. The US government had taken over the research at the end of the war and had then covered up the program. [2] Leaders of Unit 731 were exempted from war crimes prosecution by the United States and then placed on the payroll of the US. [3. February 1953, China and North Korea produced two captured U. S. Marine Corps pilots to support the allegations. Colonel Frank H. Schwable was reported to have stated that "The basic objective was at that time to get under field conditions various elements of bacteriological warfare and possibly expand field tests at a later date into an element of regular combat operations. 7] Schwable disclosed in his press statement that B-29s flew biological warfare missions to Korea from airfields in American-occupied Okinawa starting in November 1951. [12] Other captured Americans such as Colonel Walker Mahurin made similar statements. [7] Due to the specific nature of these American POW confessions I lean towards believing them. A coerced set of confessions would probably come with a variety of accusations, everything from weaponized bacteria, to wepaonized viral disease, to weaponized parasitic organisms. Yet all the confessions were pretty alligned on bacteria as the agent, with little deviation, and little in the baseless category. That doesn't make them true in itself, but it weighs in their favor. In retrospect especially with my own experience in ranting about the OPCW fraud falsely blaming Assad's Syria for using chemical weapons a year ago, despite leaks to the contrary, I am even even more disillusioned with the NGO created narratives that seem to allign with possible gov't abuses: When the International Red Cross and the World Health Organization ruled out biological warfare, the Chinese government denounced this as Western bias and arranged an investigation by the Soviet-affiliated World Peace Council. [13] The World Peace Council set up the International Scientific Commission for the Facts Concerning Bacterial Warfare in China and Korea (ISC. This commission included several distinguished scientists, including renowned British biochemist and sinologist Joseph Needham. The commission's findings also included eyewitnesses, and testimony from doctors as well as four American Korean War prisoners who confirmed the US use of biological warfare. [14] 13] Its final report, which made on 15 September 1952, was that the allegation was true, that the US was indeed experimenting with biological weapons. [14] 15] The full ISC report, including all appendices, was posted for the first time online in downloadable PDF format in February 2018 by Insurge Intelligence at [14] What's very cool is that the Eastern report is viewable today and in retrospect it seems compelling there was biological warfare being used at the time: Interestingly enough the Chinese/Korean archives from the time don't actually have any proven evidence yet still seemed to accurately attribute biological warfare accusations. Anyways, the original "Chinagate/Russiagate" disinformation accusation of "brainwashed" was itself used to describe POW's admitting to information the "Deep state" intelligence groups wanted concealed from public knowledge. They didn't simply want the sedition punished [they could have easily executed traitors] but rather needed to force them to renounce their leaks about these politically inconvenient facts. Those NATO/US Media/intelligence groups screaming about "brainwashing" were the ones engaging in the horrific experiments. A lot of this wasn't even known until declassified docs within the past couple years, like this from last year: On 30 June 1950, soon after the outbreak of the Korean War, the US Defense Secretary George Marshall received the Report of the Committee on Chemical, Biological and Radiological Warfare and Recommendations, which advocated urgent development of a biological weapons program. [4] The biological weapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland was expanded, and a new one in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was developed. [5] Anyways From a historical perspective I gotta give the Maoist-era Chinese leaders credit for pushing for investigations with this. It would have been easy to fall for the Western MSM gaslighting of "oh, these extinct diseases popped up out of nowhere, don't be a conspiracy theorist. Additionally I have to add that the information-compartmentalization propaganda is disturbing, considering there hasn't even been a full government retraction of the lies from that time. Hell, this cold-war-era "brainwashed" accusation still gets used today under a rebranded label of "disinformation" and. bots/trolls. I'm sure from an establishment POV that the OPCW leakers were also all brainwashed. leaks, probably designed to coincide with the start of the OPCW annual conference, were seized on by Russia to construct a claim that the OPCW is gradually being politicised by the west to put Assad on trial for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Last year, despite Russian objections, the OPCW for the first time was given powers not just to investigate whether an attack had occurred, but identify the parties responsible. Arias said details of the Douma incident had been passed to the new team set up to name the perpetrators.

 

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{Advocate} Here is the link On Advocate Advocate hindi… Watch Advocate Online Insing # AdvocateEnglishFullMovieOnlineFreeDownload. Let me get this out of the way: THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION TO DRINK RED BULL WHILE ROLLING Yes, Red Bull contains taurine, but it also contains caffeine. If you have any inclination toward harm reduction (and if you're bothering pre-loading, then you probably do) stimulants should always be avoided, as they potentiate the effects of MDMA induced hyperthermia [ 1. In plain English, part of the reason that MDMA is bad for your brain is that it increases your body temperature, and mixing it with stimulants makes that problem even worse. So, anyone reading this who is interested supplementing taurine with MDMA should invest in a powdered/encapsulated taurine supplement. NOT Red Bulls. Yes, you can't buy taurine at the nearest convenience store, but it's not an expensive supplement. NutriCost sells bottles of 400 1000-mg capsules for about 15 USD. With that disclaimer out of the way. tl;dr version. Taking 6 grams of taurine per day leading up to your roll, 4 grams an hour before you start, 4 grams three hours after you start, and another 4 grams before you go to sleep, may help reduce the neurotoxicity of MDMA. Longer version: Why Taurine? As many of you already know, u/sqqlut has been actively advocating for supplementing NAC after rolls, based on evidence that NAC could be used to treat methamphetamine induced neurotoxicity, and, knowing that Methamphetamine's neurotoxicity was similar than MDMA. So, I decided to look for research showing any other OTC supplements that might help attenuate the neurotoxic effects of methamphetamine, and found two papers from the National Chengdu Center for Safety Evaluation of Drugs showing that taurine may offer a protective effect. Here are the links to the unlocked, full-text of the papers on sci-hub if you want to read them for yourselves: Taurine protects methamphetamine-induced developmental angiogenesis defect through antioxidant mechanism Taurine attenuates methamphetamine-induced autophagy and apoptosis in PC12 cells through mTOR signaling pathway How does it work? The generation of free radicals plays a role in the neurotoxicity of both meth and MDMA. This is the reason why several of the supplements in a typical preload are antioxidants. Taurine is itself a free-radical scavenger, and it may also reduce the amount of free radicals that are produced by your own cells mitochondria by protecting the electron transport chain. As noted in the second of the two Chinese papers linked above. a number of studies have also showed that METH generates ROS [reactive oxygen species] and impairs mitochondrial function, eventually induces cell death by both apoptosis and autophagy. Therefore, reduction of mTOR activity might result from METH-induced ROS formation and energy imbalance due to mitochondrial function inhibition And we dont need to speculate that MDMA has similar effects. A paper titled, “ Mechanisms of MDMA (Ecstasy) Induced Oxidative Stress, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, and Organ Damage “ notes that: Mitochondria, which play a critical role in energy supply, fat oxidation, ammonia-urea detoxification, anti-oxidant defense, and apoptosis, is known to be a major site of ROS [reactive oxygen species] production while mitochondrial proteins are known to be major targets of increased oxidative/nitrosative stress upon exposure to toxic compounds and/or in pathophysiological conditions. It is possible that MDMA and/or its reactive metabolites (including N-methyl-α-methyldopamine, orthoquinone, and quinone thioesters) suppress the mitochondrial function by directly inhibiting the activities of mitochondrial complexes I, II, IV, and V or interacting with various proteins in the mitochondria. Interruption of the mitochondrial electron transport system would lead to increased leakage of ROS (including hydrogen peroxide) from the mitochondrial respiratory chain, as demonstrated in neurodegenerative diseases. The abstract of another paper. Mechanism underlying the antioxidant activity of taurine: prevention of mitochondrial oxidant production. concludes with. taurine serves as a regulator of mitochondrial protein synthesis, thereby enhancing electron transport chain activity and protecting the mitochondria against excessive superoxide generation. From “ Effects and Mechanisms of Taurine as a Therapeutic Agent ” It is widely accepted that mitochondrial oxidative stress damages macromolecules within the mitochondria, but more importantly it is capable of triggering the mitochondrial permeability transition (permeabilization of the inner mitochondrial membrane) and mitochondria-dependent apoptosis. This sequence of events can be disrupted by taurine treatment. In the mitochondrial disease, mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) the formation of the taurine conjugate is impaired. Taurine therapy provides a source of substrate for the taurine conjugation reaction, thereby restoring mitochondrial protein biosynthesis, improving mitochondrial function and reducing superoxide generation. In support of this theory, it has been shown that promoters of mitochondrial oxidative stress, including ozone, nitrogen dioxide, bleomycin, amiodarone, arsenic, iron, Adriamycin and catecholamines, to name a few, respond favorably to taurine therapy. Third, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated by the mitochondria can damage antioxidant enzymes that are capable of preventing oxidative stress. Because the activity of some of the antioxidant enzymes is sensitive to oxidative damage, taurine may limit oxidative stress by preventing damage to those sensitive enzymes. And, since cysteine is a metabolic precursor of taurine, supplementing taurine may be synergistic with N-acetyl Cysteine [NAC] since the body needs to consume less cysteine to synthesize its own taurine, increasing the availability of cysteine for glutathione synthesis [ 1. Glutathione is an antioxidant. How much taurine should I take, and when? Excess taurine is readily eliminated by the kidneys. In experiments on rats, the LD50 of taurine was found to be greater than 7, 000 mg/kg. Although we shouldnt really assume that scales linearly with humans, doing so anyway in the absence of any such human studies suggests it would take more than 475 1000-mg taurine capsules to have a 50% chance of killing a 150 pound (86 kg) human. A study by the European Food Safety Authority found no adverse effects for up to 1, 000 mg/kg/day [ 2. Another study found “no adverse effects attributable to taurine were reported in subjects (with normal kidney function) consuming up to 20 g taurine/day for up to 6 weeks, or up to approximately 9 g taurine/day for 7 weeks to 1 year. ” [ 3. Suffice it say, accidental taurine overdose isnt something most of us need to worry about. But whats the minimum amount you need to take to benefit from its protective effects? This is tricky to answer, since the two Chinese papers were basically looking at cells in petri dishes, and dont give a straightforward mg/kg needed to achieve a protective effect. If we look at research using taurine to treat other conditions, the doses (all taken orally) used were [ 4] Congestive heart failure: 2-6 grams of taurine per day, in two or three divided doses. Hepatitis: 4 grams of taurine 3 times daily (so, 12 grams daily) for 6 weeks. Nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy: 2 grams of taurine daily for 6 months. Muscle soreness after exercise: 2 grams of taurine three times daily (so, 6 grams per day) after meals before exercise and continued three days after exercise. (Reminder for those of you not use to the metric system that 1 gram = 1, 000 mg) A small study where eight healthy male volunteers were given 4 grams of taurine orally found that the blood plasma concentration of taurine peaked after at 1–2. 5 hours, and returned to normal after 6-8 hours. So, given the relative safety of taurine supplementation (for people with normal kidney function) its low cost, and what has previously been used as a therapeutic dose, Im erring on the side of taking more taurine rather than less, and suggest taking: 6 grams (thats 6 1000-mg capsules) per day, for at least 4 days leading up to your roll. 4 grams one hour before you drop 4 grams three hours after. 4 grams before sleep. This dosage and timing is admittedly somewhat arbitrary, but its still less than 20g per day, and so should be perfectly safe for those of you with normally functioning kidneys. Hopefully, some grad student out there will see this and do their thesis on giving MDMA and taurine to rats and test if this actually does anything, and work out the optimal mg/kg and timing.