Kern county crime rate

Mexican lawyer filed a complaint against Korean webtoons fansubs / scans groups, label them as "organize crime" for distribution of "ilegal translations" and scans.
I'm thinking this is just a cash grab from an amateur lawyer.... like yeah, Mexican copyright law is strict but not enforced. This will take a couple of months before becomes a lawsuit at best while hourly rate and "filing fee" keeps running.
Do these Korean authors know Mexico had state sponsor Dragon ball streaming events?

Income Taxes
-no changes for individuals making equal to or less than the standard deduction
-a 2% tax cut for income earned within the 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, and 35% tax brackets above the standard deduction: adjusted brackets with 8%, 10%, 20%, 22%, 30%, and 33% and respectively
-a 2% increase for income earned above the 37% tax bracket threshold ($539,901 for a single filer status for the 2023 tax year) : adjusted bracket with 39% tax rate
-creation of an 8th tax bracket 45% for regular income above $3,000,000
Capital Gains Taxes
-no changes in short term and long term capital gains taxation for individuals with total income including regular income and capital gains below $3,000,000
-an increase to 45% tax rate for long term capitals gains for individuals earning above $3,000,000 per year
Federal Debt
-stabilization and reduction of the federal debt
Education
-discontinuation of future federal student loans for students attending all private institutions, public institutions with greater than $1billion in endowment, or public institutions with any institutional employee making greater than $1 million per year
-an increase in department of education funding including grants to state school systems meeting certain criteria, such as no employees including superintendents making over $200,000 per year while working for the public school system
Military and Defense
-a reduction in military and defense spending
-a cap on military contracts with organizations in which executives receive equal to or greater than $3,000,000 in regular and/or stock based compensation per year while the business does at least 50% of its revenue in government related contracts
Minimum Wage
-pegged to inflation, including retroactively for inflation since the last increase of the federal minimum wage in 2009
Worker's Rights
-federal legislation supporting at least 4 weeks paid vacation for employees of companies with profit margins greater than 10% and/or executives with salaries greater than $3,000,000 in regular and stock based compensation
Congressional Term Limits
-senate limit of 2 consecutive 6-year terms (12 years). no total term limit. after 1 term (6 year) absence senators may rerun for another term (s) not to exceed to 2 consecutive terms
-house of representatives limit of 6 consecutive 2-year terms (12 years). no total term limit. after 3 term (6 year) absence former representatives may rerun for another term (s) not to exceed 6 consecutive term limits
Government Accountability
-increased government accountability and financial reporting requirements
-a ban on stock based trading for members of the executive branch, Senate, House of Representatives, Supreme Court, and Federal Reserve and their immediate families while in office
-speaking fees and book royalties due to members of the executive branch, Senate, House of Representatives, Supreme Court, and Federal Reserve for services performed while holding public office will be forfeited 100% to the United States Government
Campaign Funding
-federal legislation banning individuals or organizations from contributing greater than 1% of a candidate's overall funding if funding exceeds $1,000,000 total at any point during the candidate's campaign for office
Immigration
-strengthened border control
-expedited naturalization for immigrants without criminal histories
Criminal Justice
-continued legality of the death penalty at the federal level with individualization deferred to the states
-closure and elimination of for profit penitentiaries
Gun Control
-universal background checks at both private and public sales
-no assault rifle ban
-increased liability at the federal level for the seller of arms if the arms sold are identified as the weapon used in a future crime involving murder or bodily harm to another individual
Energy
-energy independence derived from the United States' own energy production and its energy trade with North American partners Canada and Mexico
-continued push toward renewable energy
Foreign Aid and Policy
-a reduction in foreign financial aid
-peace brokering between Ukraine and Russia
Nuclear Arms
-continued advocacy of nuclear arms nonproliferation
Healthcare
-executive salary caps at nonprofit health institutions receiving special tax status
-federal legislation to decrease health insurance costs and healthcare costs
-an increased excise tax administered on tobacco products
Abortion
-legality and legislation delegated to the individual states
-federal legislation prohibiting discrimination or criminal punishment of women in states where abortion is illegal who seek and have abortions performed in states where abortion is legal
Marijuana
-legalization of recreational marijuana at the federal level with establishment of legal blood level limits while using public property such as roads and buildings
-a federal excised tax administered on marijuana products sold

Curious what will be discussed at this Fridays Status Conference in Juniors case. Obviously the status of his guilty plea filed recently in the motion put before the court by his new attorneys. Also his sentencing I suspect. I wonder what else?
I had a thought and wanted to share. Junior is pleading guilty to 25 counts of CSAM and obstructing Justice. Serious stuff. He’s pleading guilty to all of it with no promises. Nothing. He’s literally throwing himself at the mercy of the judge, whom I assume will be deciding his sentence.
There’s always been talk of whether Junior made this, or that, deal with respect to Abby and Libby’s murders. I think he gave law enforcement a statement regarding his involvement in the murders, and what he knows happened that day in Delphi. As incredible as that sounds, I think it’s nothing new to this guy. Look at what he did that day they raided the house he shared with his dad. He immediately started talking to the FBI agent that interviewed him that day. He told her he knew he had a problem. He acts like he didn’t know he was breaking any laws, but we all know he knows he was breaking laws by exploiting the underaged girls for photos and videos. But here he was talking to the FBI agent and admitting he knew it was a problem— essentially saying I’m guilty. I’m sure he was given his right to an attorney and he agreed to keep talking. I’m also sure they have it all on tape, including his disastrous polygraph examination he agreed to take. I suspect he honestly had no clue the kinds of questions they would ask him. He failed twice when asked if he knew who killed Abby and Libby. They knew right then and there he knew— he knew the killer.
So here he was on February 25, 2017 admitting to the the CSAM they were finding on those devices seized from inside that house. No worries about where each device was found inside that house. Whether it was an old iPhone 4 found in his dads bedroom (I’m speculating), with his dads DNA and greasy fingerprints all over it, or they found it in his bedroom. He’s not waiting for the investigation— he’s telling the FBI agent yeah those are my old devices I’m guilty- I promise to stop. Incredible stuff.
Now fast forward to August 2022. The 2 year anniversary for Juniors arrest is fast approaching. Junior is all comfortable living on Cheetos, Twinkie’s and county jail food. Most guys would be screaming to get out— not Junior, he’s now this quasi celebrity criminal with everybody in the county pedo pad fawning over him— filling him with his favorite orange puffed treats. Making me think of that Zach Bryan song Something in the Orange roll around in my head..
It'll be fine by dusk light I'm telling you, baby
These things eat at your bones and drive your young mind crazy
But when you place your head between my collar and jaw
I don't know much but there's no weight at all
(I love Zach’s lyrics)
Investigators needed a statement from Junior. He readily admitted to all the CSAM—no attorney necessary. There was never going to be a trial— he’s on tape admitting his crimes that he knows he committed He’s a unique criminal— he pled guilty with no promises back on February 25, 2017. Now all they had to do was get him to talk about Delphi. He hadn’t been as forthcoming to investigators with what he knew about that day. They knew he knew something. They also knew his biggest fear was taking the full blame for the murders of Abby and Libby. Just read his post arrest interrogation transcript from August 19, 2020 and you will know what I’m taking about.
Last August 2022 investigators lit a fire under Juniors ass (sorry for that visual). They stoked the proverbial fire— they lit that match. The investigators decided Junior needed some shaking up— he was too damn comfortable living in a county jail. Who knew that would happen. He could easily wait out three-four years, and by the time they get to a trial— he’s already done his sentence. He walks out of jail and they lose their leverage. He’s back where it’s harder to get him to talk— which has been the plan of arresting him and getting him alone for all that disgusting CSAM found in the house shared by both Junior and his daddy. Keep him away from his daddy’s bad influence. That was the plan.
They created the ruse about someone having looked up that Marathon gas station. Not only that— but the FBI lost all the security video from that day. No way to prove he was never there that day— that thought had to rattle through Juniors head. He’s going to take all the blame for the murders— it was his biggest fear. investigators played him like a cheap fiddle and he never knew it. Create fake story— tip the MS couple— shake Junior and get him to talk. There had to have been a undercover man in that county jail stoking that fire- and giving Junior lots of Twinkies.
It worked and just like he did with the CSAM— he made a statement with no guarantees from anyone. Sound incredible? It happens all the time across this country. Junior is throwing himself on the mercy of a judge— who I suspect will soon sentence him for the CSAM. And possibly someday for his involvement in the murders of Abby and Libby. No 12 of his peers from a local pool of jurists— just the judge deciding his fate. It’s possible his chances are much better with an impartial judge— than risk judgement by a group of moms and dads, sisters and brothers and of course grandparents who aren’t going to be very forgiving.
10 days and we get a new look at Allen. My money says he’s still all mopey and depressed..

Phillip Schofield’s awful crime? Being exactly what he told us he was
By Jeremy Clarkson (Sunday Times, June 4)
When Phillip Schofield (stop yawning at the back) went on television and announced that he had homosexual tendencies, some people raised an eyebrow about how his poor wife must feel. But everyone else was extremely supportive. Many even called him brave.
However, when it emerged that he’d actually done homosexuality, everyone went berserk. He maintains that his lover was over the age of consent when their relationship became physical, but that hasn’t silenced the howls of disgust. And I find that weird. We casually roll our eyes when we hear that Leonardo DiCaprio’s new girlfriend is three and we even nod appreciatively when we learn that the age gap between Al Pacino and his pregnant girlfriend is 54 years. Which means that when he was starring as an old man in Scent of a Woman, she wasn’t even an embryo.
But Phil and his toy boy? Noooo. That’s totally unacceptable. He must be hounded from his job and his “luxury penthouse flat”. All the charities he’s supported must turn their backs. His wine business must be wound up and, from now on, wewon’tbebuyinganycar.com.
Phil is no longer the genial host of some morning-time televisual cappuccino froth. According to the people’s court of social media, he’s like his brother, a nonce. Actually, he’s worse than that: he’s a queue-jumping nonce. And we don’t want to see his disgusting face ever again.
And that’s just the start of it. Everyone who’s ever walked past him in the street must be sacked as well. And those who paid his wages or sat next to him in the studio must be hauled into televised committees so that bramble bushes can be inserted into their bottoms. I’ve never seen a witch-hunt like it, and what baffles me most of all is that, as things stand, no crime has been committed. I don’t know him at all well and have no skin in the game, but it seems to me he is only guilty of being what he said he was: gay.
Unfortunately, because it seems I’m the only person who thinks this way, we are going to be subjected in the coming weeks and months to endless conversations about “duty of care” and how people on whatever that Schofield morning show was called were routinely ignored when they made impassioned cries for help.
There’s a sense at the moment that those embarking on a career in television are forced to live like Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. Their footlockers are examined daily and if there’s a doughnut in there, they are made to clean the latrine floors with their toothbrushes.
Meanwhile, ratings-obsessed bosses sit in their oak-panelled boardrooms, cackling with glee at the rumour that the host of Britain’s Heaviest Paving Stone — the latest Saturday night smash hit — has carnal knowledge of his dog.
It’s not like that at all, though, because for several years now, the entire television industry has been providing junior staff with safe spaces and urinals to suit their mood. Praise must be publicly and privately heaped on those who deserve it, and those who don’t, in equal measure. Nothing anyone does, ever, is a mistake or a nuisance. And if you want to work from home, or the gym, or a beach in Mallorca, that’s fine.
I actually don’t mind any of this. It was lively, for sure, back in the Seventies when an office echoed to the sound of constant abuse, and everyone was berated for everything, and juniors were routinely told to go to the warehouse and ask for a “long weight”. But I don’t think it was terribly productive. Now, because everyone’s happy and clappy and a vegetarian option is always available, more gets done.
But the bosses are still evil, right? Nope. People have been suggesting that Carolyn McCall, the ITV chief executive, was fully aware that Phillip Schofield and his young man-friend were making the two-headed beast, but I seriously doubt that. She’s got the share price to worry about, and the launch of the new ITVX service, and she’s also engaged in an apparent one-woman quest to rid the screen of all middle-aged men: Morgan, Kyle, etc. So there’s no way she has the time to work out who’s doing what to whom in the stationery cupboards.
Then you’ve got the director of television. He’s got to choose what shows to show and how he’s going to replace Ant and Lard, which means he’s so busy these days we rarely have the chance to enjoy one of our agreeable lunches. Funnily enough, the last time we met, we had a long chat about how the world was now so woke that people like us were bound to get cancelled sooner or later. Let’s hope that doesn’t turn out to be true.
Maybe, further down the food chain, there was a boss of whatever that morning show was called who was aware of the Phillippy rumours, but he was living in the modern age, working for a company that’s currently being run by a Guardian lifer. So if two men wished to engage in a bout of legal lovemaking, why should he get involved?
I am, however, dreading what’s coming in the wake of this whole storm in an eggcup. Someone’s going to use the expression “root and branch” and then someone else will mention “institutionalised bullying” and then all the wrong heads will roll for all the wrong reasons, and we will emerge on the other side into a world that’s still broken.
Let me put it to you this way. Last week, a man from a “eunuch-making” website appeared in court charged with freezing a man’s leg so it could be amputated. It then transpired that back in April, two other men admitted to removing the man’s penis and a nipple.
There are websites that not only encourage this kind of behaviour but practise it. And no one is calling for a public inquiry about that.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
And here's the Sun column: "Barack Obama met Michelle at work, so did Brad and Angelina — why are office romances now banned?"
Clarkson's columns are regularly collected as books. You can buy them from his boss or your local bookshop.

Bad US cities such as Gary, East St Louis, or Camden. Assuming that either living in these cities your whole, or living an average lifestyle in a developing country your whole life, which one would appeal to you more? Would the aforementioned cities still be preferable even with their crime rates and other issues?

I live in Forest City, PA, and a year ago Councilwoman Amy Bean was charged for defrauding SNAP and medical assistance of $63,000. The town council has refused to address the issue in any way because they don’t want to be sued and she’s an elected official, despite the fact she’s been in a position to apply for and solicit funding while in her job.
Tonight at the council meeting, I attempted to deliver the following statement:
My name is Jennifer [last name redacted], and just for the record Joann [on the council] is my mom. I’m just saying that for clarity’s sake, I am not speaking on her behalf. I’m speaking on mine, and I imagine on behalf of a few other people in this town.
See, I had this speech written for tonight. I wrote it yesterday. Then my mom sent me the agenda for today’s meeting. At the bottom is a speech by Councilwoman Bean entitled “Exposure.” I wasn’t really sure what that meant. I asked my mom, and she wasn’t quite sure what that meant either. That doesn’t say anything good about the current state of affairs on the town Council, but I digress.
So I’ll be blunt. Show of hands. Who here in this room knew before today that Councilwoman Bean was charged a year ago by this state with allegedly defrauding SNAP and medical assistance of $63,000?
Now, if “exposure“ means exposing the fact that not only is Councilwoman Bean facing these charges, but that she is going on trial next month for those charges, then she may not have to do the speech. My mom tells me that at no time has the Forest City News published anything in regards to Councilwoman Bean’s legal troubles in the past year and a half. I wouldn't know. I don't read the Forest City News.
I once told my mom I didn't have to read the local newspaper because I had her. Which I guess is my point tonight. I didn't know this was a thing, but apparently you can served on the council for a small town and still not know about the small town grapevine. Welcome to small-town life, where anything approaching juicy gossip gets around town in about five minutes. It doesn't matter if the local newspaper prints it or not.
It also doesn't matter if the local newspaper prints it or not if the Scranton Times Tribune publishes an article about it as they did about Councilwoman Bean’s criminal charges on April 22, 2022, or if WNEP does the same on February 9th, 2022. It doesn't matter if the local newspaper doesn't put anything about it if the docket for the case is freely available through the Pennsylvania judiciary system’s website. And it also doesn't matter if knowing about it and seeing the town Council seemingly do nothing about it for an entire year makes a lot of people really, really angry.
Of course, Councilwoman Bean is innocent until proven guilty. Aren't we all? Or does "exposure" mean that Councilwoman Bean plans to expose one of us for doing something wrong? Maybe she plans to expose me for doing something wrong, since she might have known I was speaking. I doubt Councilwoman Bean has ever seen the movie "8 Mile" or the final battle, so just in case that's what "exposure" meant: I’ve written a gay erotic romance novel, I take weed gummies for my anxiety, I’ve got $58,000 in student debt I’ll never pay off at the rate I’m going, and I've used the men's restroom in bars on Parade Day in Scranton because the line for the women's room was too long.
If her speech is to be about someone coming up here and exposing her tonight, she doesn't have to worry about that. We know. A lot of us have known for a while. If her speech is meant to complain that people might want to discuss the issue at all, she doesn't understand that you can't take a political position and not have people know about something as serious as being charged with allegedly defrauding government funds. If her speech is meant to expose someone else to distract from her own problems, it doesn't change the fact that she has those legal issues. It doesn't change the fact that it's entirely possible that within a month or so we could have a town council member who has not only been found guilty of an astounding amount of fraud, but has been so after a year and a half of people in positions of authority in this town who’ve done or said seemingly nothing about it.
As I said, Councilwoman Bean is innocent until proven guilty. But that is no excuse to ignore or arguably cover-up the criminal charges against her. Especially given the lack of trust many of us have developed in the town council given their approach to those charges over the past year.
If that is what Councilwoman Bean’s speech is about, no one is exposing you. We all know. When there's nothing to do in this town, you've got to talk about something. And a vocally anti-crime politician being criminally charged with defrauding tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money is one hell of a conversation topic.
*
The council stopped me about three paragraphs in.
I feel like this information needs to be shared because the councilwoman in question will be going on trial next month and if she is found guilty her actions on the council since she has been charged will be in question. Funding she may have handled may need to be audited. There’s also the ethical questions raised by a council so afraid not to be sued they’re protecting someone who may have defrauded the state.
I wanted to share this because there is nothing wrong with sharing it. The councilwoman is innocent until proven guilty. But as a member of the town council, it needs to be addressed, and not only if she is found guilty.

First Previous Wiki
President Blistanna left her kids with the Matron, an Acuarfar whose job was mainly taking care of the young. She walked through the hallways of her residence, quickly being surrounded by guards and shields. It was how things were now.
She gave her advisor a nod as he waited for the guards to confirm his identification. He walked through one of the recent mind scanners installed in the hallway, which covered the entire length and most of the height of it. There was no sudden alarm, and her guards didn't fill him with new entrances to his stomach, so she assumed he was fine.
"President Blistanna, I have good news regarding the new procedures. In the event of a hypothetical attack, the shields should be able to seal up, preventing anything from getting through."
"Good. And how successful were they at delaying the practice Sprilnav from reaching me?"
"They increased the time from five minutes to thirteen. Of course, that doesn't count the guards, who I'm sure would kill them before they got close," the advisor said. That earned him a few chuckles from around her back.
"There is a point of concern, though. The ceilings are being fortified with increased weaponry, such as lasers, but that doesn't account for the fact that they have a pretty good path to you from above. Assuming they break through eight floors of heavily reinforced kintum and concrete, they still could reach you faster, perhaps decreasing the time to two minutes, if they can quickly break through the barriers without stopping.
"How could they feasibly do that?"
"Kinetic weaponry, bombs, anything that can make the stuff move, really. Maybe an Elder would be able to dig their way through, like that pair of Dreedeen that ate through that section of spaceship hull in that contest."
"What?"
"You don't watch 'The Crystal Mouth'?"
"No?" Blistanna asked.
"Ah well. Nevermind. What I mean to say is that we should more heavily fortify the capitol. Recently it was discovered that the doors could be held up by a crowd of people trying to breach the place, and that the current Senate doesn't have enough personnel to prevent an all-out assault in that fashion."
She almost commented on the impossibility of such an action before remembering the mind control. They'd already been rooting out as many areas where it was spreading as possible, but it seemed to be far more than they could handle. Brey was also involved, which was why they were catching the people at all."
"And there has still been no evidence of this in the humans?"
"No. The hivemind is likely either directly protecting them, or the Sprilnav doing it fear the hivemind will detect it and are not doing it from the risk. Either way, the whole species seems safe."
"Could a Sprilnav clone a human?"
"Yes, and then implant the mind control. But the second a human connected to the hivemind saw them, the ruse would be up, as the hivemind would know it was a human that was unconnected."
"But that's not grounds for arrest, in and of itself."
"These days, it's still a mind scan at least. If this were some other public health crisis, like a pandemic, it would make the counterarguments have a bit more weight. But mind control, where people are literally converted into slaves, can't be tolerated. At least, that's what the other humans I've contacted for sources say."
"Even the journalists?"
"Yes. I am somewhat certain that the hivemind itself has communicated the danger of this to each and every human under its control."
"But there would be outliers. Deviants, thrill seekers."
"Not really. Mind control isn't something that many humans like, morally. And if it is, usually it's them who would hold the power, not the other way around."
"Well, I suppose you are more qualified to discuss this than I am," Blistanna said. "Just curious, that's all."
"President Blistanna, there's nothing wrong with your questions. Healthy skepticism helps to keep us from believing everything we hear."
"I heard you mention a pandemic earlier. How's the situation in the Inukjuak region?"
"The inoculations have been created, and are being administered. There's a significant amount of infected people still, but the worst of it seems to be over. We identified it coming from an alien animal that had been illegally imported to the Queen Elizabeth Islands."
"That's a long way."
"Yes. It's amphibious, with various odd features. But its thick fur hosts a virus that is infectious. Several of them were captured in a petting zoo that has since been closed down."
"And this virus itself, it does not have any long term impacts?"
"Not that we know of. It seemed to mostly affect the skin, and could be contracted by close contact and sometimes blood transfers. The problem with identifying it initially is why it was able to spread so far, since there are many Guulin getting blood transfusions that likely had it in their system."
"So this was a healthcare oversight?"
"No. It's closer to the equipment being calibrated for certain ranges, and the virus itself was remarkably similar to some other bacteria in the Guulin body that helps it run. So it was technically barely on the edge of the range, but the equipment wouldn't have detected it unless it was calibrated differently. And with other medical checks, the virus was also almost identical to Guulin immune system cells."
"Is there any evidence of intelligent design?"
"Still no. If this was the Sprilnav, they'd likely make it far more lethal. Our virologists speculated, when asked, that they would first make a virus that is as lethal as possible, then as easy to spread as possible, likely with a significant asymptomatic window involved to further the spread. And while it seems difficult, three speculated that they could make a virus that could spread between species even that have fundamentally different genetic code."
"That seems impossible," Blistanna said.
"Yes. But with tissue samples and cloning systems, they could trial it until they got results. And things have been quite recently, so it's possible they might try this as a vector of attack. There's precedent, with what Kashaunta did with biting the hivemind."
"But we wouldn't be able to prepare for that, until it happened, would we?"
"We do have significant numbers of masks available for Guulin. The initial doctors that we had available were raising hell with how cramped the cities are, at least in terms of population density."
"People seem to have enough space, though."
"Yes, because the skyscrapers are vertical. But what they meant is so many people able to interact. Some of the most deadly human pandemics hit populated areas harder, like Nigeria and India. Not to mention the climate diaspora into Eastern Russia and of course Canada and America. They cited these as examples to watch. And there aren't good numbers for how the slave camps were, but there was quite a lot of disease there, if I remember correctly."
He did, most likely. Blistanna sighed. "Has the number of attempted assassinations decreased?"
"No. It's actually been increasing for Izkrala, and for Dilandekar. The hivemind's with them at all times, now. And of course, we have our invisible friend joining us also. As for you, President, there have been no increased numbers at all."
"I don't like this. Things are too quiet. What about the Cawlarians and Vinarii? Any oddities such as pandemics, increased unrest, or assassination attempts?"
"Well, Kawtyahtnakal's guards killed a Sprilnav trying to kill him about eight weeks ago. Nothing since then. Unrest, yes, pandemics no. The unrest is likely Sprilnav mind control attempts to disrupt them."
"Keep watch on that, too. I don't think a massive virus is as likely as a mind-control attack, considering the evidence we have."
"I shall inform your people of your wishes."
The advisor turned to leave.
"Wait," Blistanna replied. "The virologists and doctors. How often are they getting scanned for mind control?"
"I don't know. Shall I make getting them all scanned my priority?"
"Yes, do so. Politicians who haven't gotten the scan yet as well. Military officials, news casters, journalists. Everyone that has a major influence on a core tenet of society."
"Only the journalists are part of those who seem to be resisting the most heavily. Most of the others are compliant. Though I do think this may increase the fears of some who accuse you of being authoritarian."
"I understand. Inform them of the risk, politely, if you can. I'll have my media advisors do their best to convince the public of the concern. We're going to be increasing the blood test standards for donating blood, too. Tell the NHS officials that we may have a serious situation here. Granted, I may be overreacting, but the possibility of this likely hasn't only come to us."
"President, I wish you the best." The advisor turned and left, this time without her stopping him. She looked at her guards.
"How likely do you think an attack is?"
"That depends. I think the Sprilnav are going to send ships to hit us, soon. But if they don't then the mind-control is the best measure after that. Gaia and the hivemind would be able to stop a pandemic if it started to kill people off."
That made sense to her. There was enough money for the increased caution right now, anyway. The Guulin Congressional Republic was currently militarizing, so covering all the other bases would be a good option too. It was up to the Guulin to help crew the massive military of the Alliance for when Aphid sent another attack. With both the Cawlarians and the Alliance pressuring him, he'd either leave or fold. Either way, the problem of Aphid would eventually solve itself. But the Sprilnav were an active threat. It might be good for the Alliance to go through every species' list of war crimes, so they could prepare for the Sprilnav to try them.
Calling the hotline with Kashaunta wasn't necessary until they'd confirmed a threat, at least. The fewer chances she got to manipulate them, the better. And even if she was an enemy, she also had a window into Sprilnav society that no one else had currently. No one who was accessible, at least.Because something was going to come eventually, and they needed to be ready.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"I think this is putting too much strain on your body," the hivemind said, frowning at Izkrala after her latest visit to the hospital. "I don't know what you're actually doing to yourself, but I can guess that the side effects aren't good."
"You can, can you?" Izkrala replied, scowling at the bed underneath her, which seemed perfectly positioned to keep her arms and legs from being able to move her body. She was large, but that didn't mean that this was any less accidental. Someone had done this on purpose. When she got to them, she'd...
"Yes. I'm not trying to be rude. I just care about you. You've been doing whatever this is for weeks now. It's clearly affecting your psyche."
"Perhaps what's affecting my psyche is the fact that a quarter of my military somehow vanished after launching a coup against me."
Izkrala had been tracking them with sensors for a while until they really had just disappeared. The only way it would have likely happened at this point was that several of the Acuarfar watching them were mind-controlled. Initially, they hadn't been blamed, as it really had looked like a sensor malfunction. Then they'd vanished too.
Whether they were dead didn't matter to her, but she did want to get her revenge on whoever was responsible. She had her doubts that Kashaunta and this 'Zelisloa' actually had a rivalry that was real. Otherwise, she would have pointed them at him earlier. And it did seem quite convenient that none of the recent actions from the Sprilnav against the Alliance were attributed to her.
If Izkrala had to guess, they were being misled. Zelisloa was probably working under Kashaunta and was being used to take the fall if he was caught. Then he'd die quickly, leaving her with a somewhat better relationship with the Alliance than before. Or at least, that was likely her plan. After biting the hivemind like some animal and trying to kill everyone several times, Kashaunta was on the 'kill if seen' list for the rest of her life. And it would stay that way.
"That's fair," the hivemind said. "I don't think I would be as stable if I was undergoing this procedure."
"Lying to make me feel better only works if I don't know it's a lie, Humanity," Izkrala replied. "What I need is a painkiller that will actually work."
Her cybernetic eye fixed itself upon it, and she did her best to move again. Project Paragon might have been enhancing her psychic energy, or at least making it so she could control it, but it was clearly not feasible widescale. And it was only possible due to the experiments the Acuarfar had done at her behest before she'd joined the Alliance. The hivemind might know that her psychic energy control was increasing. But it would never find out the truth of the project.
"Well, I do have good news. I managed to come up with a composite that will allow you to fly again."
"What is it?"
"Your wing, sort of. I requested some of your genetic material from the Emperors, and they gave it to me when I told them what I planned."
"And you didn't consult me?"
"I assumed that you would refuse. I wanted to help you, and they are also considered as part of those who could disclose your health information. If you are unhappy with this, I will simply destroy what I have made."
She sighed. "No, don't. I'd like a real wing again. Can it mend with my own?"
"That's the hard part. The cells that I designed for it should work. But that's not satisfactory."
"What would you say the chance is of successful mending without additional side effects?"
"98%."
"I'll take it. But what are those side effects?"
"The cells becoming uncontrollable, in which case they will likely form a mending structure that is not smooth enough, which will make flying with that wing either harder or more painful for a while."
"More pain. Of course."
"So that's a no?"
"It's a yes, hivemind. Do it. And... thank you for this," Izkrala said honestly. "You don't have to go out of your way to help me. There's many more that need it."
"True. But you're a person too."
"I'm not really more important than anyone else. Sure, I like to say I am, but I'm not. Unless you're focused on getting me to do some favor for you. Because if so, that's pretty mean. You wouldn't do that, right?"
"I don't think so."
"Good. You know, in another life, we might have been mates."
"What?"
"What? Wait, did I just say that? I'm still drugged, aren't I?"
"Your bloodstream has broken down the main compounds, it seems. But... yes, I think you are. That said, I'm flattered that you think so highly of me," the hivemind replied. "But in the here and now, you have your Emperors. And I think that's plenty."
"Oh yes. I'm not sure how the males manage it, really."
"Manage it?"
"The multiple mates. It's fairly traditional for males to take at least two mates, due to the increased birth rate of females to males. It's not like how those human 'artists' like to portray it, either. For us Acuarfar, carrying eggs is like... having a suitcase attached to you, which is almost too heavy to lift, and barely movable. Did you know that according to the history books, Acuarfar invented the wheel to make platforms that help females whose eggs are gestating?"
"I suppose I had the knowledge somewhere in here," the hivemind said, tapping its head. "It is an interesting fact. That said, I'll wait until you're stable to ask you about my current questions."
Curiosity immediately overwhelmed Izkrala, and she tried to get out of bed again. She was glad that the hivemind wasn't smiling at her as she did so. This felt incredibly demeaning.
"Can you at least tell me what you've been doing? One thing. Please?"
"You might forget soon."
"Forgetting isn't one of the side effects of the painkillers I'm on. Even if they're more like pain punchers at this point. Not doing very much killing, I'm afraid," Izkrala said. The hivemind smiled slightly.
"Come on! That was funny!"
"Somewhat."
"Maybe being a billion people all at once makes you unable to grasp my genius."
"Well, 16 billion actually. But perhaps it does."
"Well, stop stalling. Hivemind, tell me what you've been up to."
"As you wish, Empress Izkrala. I've been working with the wanderers mostly. Stopping crime among humans by talking them out of it, and getting them the resources they need. I've been discussing negotiations that Phoebe's been having with the Cawlarians, and we've started negotiating with the Vinarii again.
It seems that a few people on one of the colonies have some sort of new sickness. We've been studying the proteins of that one, and it seems that they opened an ancient vault about five days before. Oh, and making bigger guns, bigger ships, better factories, and the like. Trying to put together some sort of structure to how exactly the Sprilnav, Source, and these conceptual beings work, in addition to the various lesser powerful psychic entities like Exii'darii and Gaia."
"Tell me about the wanderers, then."
"Well, most of the diaspora has concentrated into communities again. The ones that left their ships have developed a desire to breed as many children as they can. I think it's a core value of theirs. Their children are rarely seen in public, though, both on the ships and in their planetary communities."
The hivemind conjured up a chair and sat down, still in view of Izkrala's cybernetic eye, without her having to strain herself.
"And also, on the ships themselves, there's been some developments. I've been spreading the news of the Alliance's amenities and rights, which seems to be working. More wanderers are leaving, and taking their families with them. But what worries me in particular is the ones who are asking us to give them guns and ammunition. Most of those are the older ones, especially those with the tumors already growing. As for those, I can't even heal them, not even with psychic energy. I was planning on asking you to provide mediators for a future conflict, like impassive forces that don't take a side but help refugees and civilian victims. Medics, caretakers, staffing for food distribution, the works."
"So the wanderers are about to have a civil war?"
"Some are. The ships are each different. On some, the suspected revolutionaries far outnumber the police and soldiers stationed there. On others, they're very rare and almost nonexistent. A few of them have simply disappeared, only to be found beheaded later on."
"So they're killing dissidents. That seems like a valid excuse to intervene."
"Yes. But sadly, it isn't. The Alliance agreements are still weak. If we were to do that to the wanderers, it would set a precedent. If your future descendants do the same, then the same problem could happen to them. Basically a big civil war. So it's either doing nothing and watching people die in a war that hasn't fully started yet, or doing something and setting a precedent that could get a lot of people killed. Civil wars are messy. The wanderers' situation is likely the easiest to safely enter, actually. All the other species have massive populations or are on a planet, leaving room for countless pockets of dissidents and asymmetric warfare."
"So how many wanderers are going to be beheaded before you do something? You're not technically a part of the Alliance. You do not answer to any military authority, same with Brey, Phoebe, Gaia, and such."
"Yes, I do."
"You do because you want to," Izkrala said. "You could decide to wage a genocide on the wanderers, and we couldn't do a thing to stop you. The only way to even kill you is to kill 16 billion humans first. You're the problem the Alliance will have to solve. Not leaders like me who want power. But entities like you, who everyone knows has it. The Alliance right now is only capable of surviving as an opposition entity to the other big nations of the galaxy. And if that doesn't become enough, everyone in it fractures, and we each die alone."
"I'm not so sure about that."
"Alone and in pain, unless the Sprilnav happen to bomb you while you're sitting near someone else."
"They haven't yet."
"You've disarmed tens of thousands of nuclear bombs on hundreds of planets, Humanity. Let's be real here. Without Gaia providing detection, Brey providing portals, you providing power, and Phoebe providing locating services, we'd all be long dead by now."
"Well, we aren't. And I don't think pessimism is helpful here."
"Pessimism is how empires are built and run, hivemind. That's what makes politics churn. It's why we're going to kill Yasihaut and Kashaunta, instead of trying to somehow fix them. Because even if it's possible, it would require several lobotomy records being broken. Being pessimistic is putting yourself in the mind of your enemy, asking yourself the worst they could to, making it worse, and preparing for it. Pessimism is realizing that Humanity is the core of the Alliance, and without your species, we would all be lost. It's realizing that I can't have eggs anymore without doing it some fake way. It's reality, Humanity. Time to start living it."
"The drugs are still in your system."
"Oh please. You know I'm right. Plus, I've been far higher than this and still coherent. Have you ever gotten to the point where you could smell colors with your hands, or taste the sun with your stomach? Have you ever tried to jump with your eyes, bite an animal that doesn't exist, or hear the voices of dead people?"
"There's a few humans who have gotten to that extent."
"But you haven't. It's their experiences, not your own."
"Not really. Being a hivemind means that their experiences are mine, because I am them and they are me. That's how it works."
"Unless you only think that's how it works, and you don't know. For all you know, Kashaunta's just been a projection this whole time by Yasihaut as a way to get us to go after the wrong Sprilnav. For all you know, Kawtyahtnakal died back then, and you raised something else from the dead. For all you know, the Sprilnav made a star send a gamma-ray burst to hit us in a few seconds. Pessimism, hivemind. Optimism is what gets you betrayed by your own generals."
"Optimism whispers hope into your ears and hides the dagger about to be shoved through your back. I'm a broken and ruined Empress, trying to cling to the beauty and splendor that is my birthright. I'm a useless carapace hiding a girl whose dreams of a unified and happy have died on the altar of reality. Don't you dare think you know what this is like. Humans don't have Empresses anymore. You can blame a parliament, or a congress, or a senate. When the Acuarfar look up, and the skies are burning, their eggs are smashed, and the strength of my Empires crashes down, they can blame me, and me alone. Because I failed."
"You did not-"
"Silence, hivemind," Izkrala replied. "I was not done. I am nothing anymore. You can go ahead and install your stupid new government into my Empires when I die. It won't make a difference in the end."
"You shouldn't lose hope. You can still lead."
"I can't even get myself out of this stupid bed. How can I ever lead my species? How can anyone? My own people don't even trust me. I tried to save the Lurave Empire, Humanity. I tried. I gave them housing, order, food, clean water, and heating. I gave them jobs, gave them freedom, and gave them what strength I could. Could I have gone in and killed all their leaders one by one until they kneeled on the blood-soaked floor of the palace? Yes.
But I didn't. Because I had that hope. And they threw it away. They spat in my face, leaving me like this. 92 billion Acuarfar. They're going to die. They're going to starve, dying in the ruined worlds I could have saved them from, while spitting on my legacy. I don't even have words for how I feel about them. Drugs or not. Cybernetic or not. Their stupidity has transcended all bounds. Maybe stupidity's a concept too, and decided to pay us a visit."
"I can help."
"How? Unless you're planning on mind-controlling them, good luck. And even if you are, you'd have to dig out the Sprilnav versions first. Then you'd have to convince them that they actually want a good life."
"We could still uplift them, and help them. It just may not be unified with your two Empires."
"You don't have confidence in my leadership either. That's why you're saying this. Guess what happens when you try that? They become a big nation. Then they wage war on us, and your civil war policy doesn't let you intervene. You march in there and let them riddle you with insults and bullets until you get bored. See how it feels to be helpless then!"
"Empress," the hivemind said. Its hands moved closer as it stood up. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for being wrong? Sorry for not understanding how the world works?"
"Yes. And I'm sorry if I've hurt you."
Its fingers brushed gently against the side of her snout. Her anger and grief receded, and she let herself lay back against the bed. The hivemind didn't do anything else and just stayed with her. Its eyes were sympathetic, and the sensation of her fur in its fingers was somewhat calming.
"Look," she said. "I'm sorry I yelled at you."
"It was deserved."
"It wasn't. I guess I'm really not ready to be out in public again for a while."
"You don't have to be. I'm sorry I didn't notice this sooner."
"I'm going to sleep now."
"Have a good rest, Empress."
"You too." she sighed. "I'm going to remember that, too. I meant thank you."
"You're welcome."

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/05/us/los-angeles-rv-dwellers/index.html
Los Angeles CNN —
Early one recent Friday morning, sanitation workers, homeless-outreach workers and LAPD officers arrived on a little street in the west of Los Angeles. Jasmine Avenue is lined with low-rise apartment blocks, an imposing Catholic Church, a school and a handful of dilapidated recreational vehicles.
That morning on Jasmine Avenue, RV residents were offered $500 gift cards and a motel room. The city also offered to tow and destroy their RVs. One RV managed to leave, under its own steam, with what smelled like sewage leaking along the road as it left. This clearance is one small part of what has been a piecemeal approach by officials trying to tackle a burgeoning phenomenon of people living permanently in RVs on these streets.
“I’ll take a motel room,” one RV owner told me as he packed up his belongings after about six months on Jasmine Avenue. “See what happens.” But he did not let the city tow and destroy his RV. He towed it elsewhere himself, using a chain and a beaten-up SUV. He wants to keep it.
“The idea sometimes our clients have is, ‘What if this doesn’t work? If this doesn’t work, then I’m back on the streets. I’m back to square one,’” said LaTonya Smith, interim CEO at the St. Joseph Center, a nonprofit that helps the city find accommodation for the unhoused. “People who are living in RVs consider themselves to be housed, and in order for them to leave that RV, sometimes we have to incentivize.”
There are, by the latest count, more than 11,000 people living in RVs across Los Angeles County. And that number has been rising. The Covid-19 pandemic forced more people into poverty. Some of the RV dwellers have jobs but either don’t want to pay apartment rent, or can’t afford to pay it, in a city where the average one-bedroom apartment costs around $2,500 a month.
Some RV dwellers own the vehicles, but others rent them to the monthly tune of a few hundred dollars to more than $1,000, city Councilwoman Traci Park told CNN.
In Los Angeles, you are allowed to sleep in a vehicle on some streets. There are, of course, parking restrictions on many streets. But as the number of RVs has grown, enforcing those restrictions has become harder. Large, immobile RVs require large tow trucks. And, according to the city, destroying a dilapidated RV that might contain harmful chemicals can cost up to $9,000 per vehicle.
Outreach workers from St. Joseph Center interact regularly with RV dwellers. A spokesperson told CNN: “Staff encounter a large percentage, probably safe to say as much as 80-85%, of individuals who are ‘leasing’ RVs or may have purchased an RV that is not suitable for habitation or a ‘legal’ sale.”
Park and others argue that these RVs endanger their residents and blight neighborhoods, acting as magnets for crime and damaging the environment. Some advocates for the unhoused agree the impact on city neighborhoods is an issue.
“There might be trash everywhere,” said Smith from the St. Joseph Center. “People come outside their neighborhoods and homes, that’s not something that they really want to see.”
In the five years since Los Angeles County commissioned one of many reports into the RV problem and potential solutions, the number of RVs on county streets has risen by more than 50% – from more than 4,500 in 2018 to more than 7,100 at last count. Reports are regularly requested and written by various city and county departments.
“I’m tired of studies and reports,” Park told CNN recently at her freshly painted City Hall office. She was elected last year on a platform dripping with intent to handle the various homelessness issues plaguing Los Angeles. Among her first targets: people she calls “vanlords,” some of whom, she says, rent out rotting, unsafe RVs. “There is a thriving trade in RVs being rented out as dwelling units on the internet,” Park said.
Park proposed a motion that would explicitly add RVs to part of the city code that, “Prohibits a person or entity from reserving any street, parking space, or other public space without written authorization from the City while conducting business pertaining to new and used vehicles.” The motion would also force RV owners to comply with a state law, “which requires that any RV offered for sale, sold, rented or leased within California meet the design safety standards of the American National Standards Institute and Fire Protection Association.”
Right now, she said, “Apparently anybody in the city of Los Angeles can buy a junker RV off of a salvage lot and without any oversight or regulation, rent that unsafe inoperable vehicle out to a vulnerable person as a dwelling unit.”
“The point here is not to criminalize homelessness. The point is to regulate what is currently an unregulated marketplace that is causing serious public safety and environmental impacts all over the city,” Park said.
“Too often, RVs that are used as dwellings on LA’s streets are in grave disrepair,” Park’s proposed motion reads, in part. “Meaning that people living in them face unsanitary and sometimes dangerous conditions.”
She has opposition.
“It’s actually good, to provide housing for people” even if it’s an RV, said Dmitry Korikov, a filmmaker who says he volunteers helping people – mainly refugees from Russia and Ukraine – navigate van life on the streets of Los Angeles. “I lived myself in a motor home for two years. So I know how things (work), how the system works.”
He tells RV dwellers which streets they can park on, and connects them with private companies that service the vehicles for a fee: filling up the freshwater tanks, emptying the sewage tanks and sweeping the sidewalks.
“Everyone should have a right to use public streets,” Korikov told CNN. “If you cannot give them an apartment or give them a job to be able to afford an apartment and you tell them that you need to be in tents on the street, but not renting someone’s motor home, that’s evil.”
CNN put Korikov’s points to Park.
“I understand the dilemma,” she said. “On the other hand, I have seen too many of these explosions and these fires and we have got to deal with the collateral impacts that these vehicles are causing in our neighborhoods.” A small number of people have died in RV fires on the streets over the past few years, according to local reports.
Park says she is concerned that the unhoused are being exploited by the vanlords. And she is concerned about the impact the vans are having on the neighborhoods in her district, which includes Venice and much of western Los Angeles, where homeless populations tend to be higher.
One Venice resident told me he returned home from work recently to discover that the sewage tank in an RV had been emptied into the road. He had to walk through human waste to get to his front door.
“We have not resolved the RV issue yet,” Mayor Karen Bass told The Los Angeles Times in March. “But we absolutely will because it’s a very serious issue.”
One of her first moves when she took office as mayor late last year was to declare a state of emergency on homelessness. Her first target was not the RVs on the streets, but the tents on the sidewalks. Her administration has swept over a dozen tent encampments and moved more than 1,200 people into temporary accommodation in motels, the city administrative officer has said. The operation is dubbed Inside Safe.
The idea is to eventually move all those people into permanent housing, in line with an increasingly popular doctrine among housing researchers known as “housing first.” The theory is that the most impactful move in saving someone from homelessness is to provide them housing, with other services such as mental health or substance abuse treatment to follow.
Bass’ office, the city administrator’s office and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority cannot say how many of those people moved off those streets as part of Inside Safe are now in permanent housing. The mayor will hold a roundtable with the press in the coming weeks to discuss the data, her office said. The St. Joseph Center said is has found permanent housing for 32 people. A spokesperson told CNN the center expects those numbers to increase in June.
“I’m not going to leave people on the street while we’re building,” Bass told CNN this spring. “People die on these streets!”
When it comes to the RVs, a pilot program in one city council district has, over about 15 months, seen 41 RVs moved off the street and seven people moved into permanent housing. “That is why our program will be used as a model throughout the city, represented in the 2023-2024 budget adopted in May 2023,” Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez told CNN. That city budget includes $1.3 billion for the fight against homelessness.
City officials have approved a plan to deal with the RVs that includes concerted outreach to those living in them, incentivizing them to move into motel rooms, creating safe parking areas that can accommodate RVs, and finding permanent housing for those living in RVs. Now that plan needs to be implemented.
That final and fundamental piece of this puzzle is arguably the most challenging.
“We need more housing. We need more affordable safe housing,” Smith said. But housing is expensive and takes time to build. And for now, for thousands of people, an RV’s roof over their heads is all they can afford in Los Angeles.

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