CMM.World & CMMTheology.org
The Great Harvest is here. Christ's Mandate for Missions and CMMTheology build strong, organic relationships globally as we worship, grow and equip together. Like Joshua and Caleb and the Apostle Paul, we see with faith what He sees in each person (to help each reach fullness), group (many streams and backgrounds in unity) and nations (sheep vs. goat nations). Our passion is to love, connect, equip and send with the simplicity, fullness, and power of the Gospel.
The Uncompromising Blissful Extravagance of His Presence! Inbox
By CMM.World CMMTheology.org - November 10, 2022
Dear Mighty One,
I see the Lord's eye upon us we discover by revelation the 'new thing' He is doing in our lives and of those of us who, beyond the present darkness, gaze into His eyes. The 'tuning fork' of Yahweh is orchestrating the sons and daughters of our living God in growing holy remnant unity to withstand as we stand with Him fearlessly in the boldness of the faith of God in this hour. Egypt is behind us, and the covenantal promises and prophetic words we have received (1 Tim. 1:18) empower us by His Holy Spirit to advance in warfare, humbly growing in the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Yesterday as I encouraged some friends, I said, 'stay in the blissful extravagance of His presence.' Today I saw in Psalm 34 His eyes are upon us in vs. 8 & 9 and v:15 about the 'uncompromisingly righteous.' We are to be holy as He is holy. That leaves no room for any more compromise or seeking to please man or the traditions of men, being free of the fear of man, the religious spirit, and any demonic activity. We are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Lord, help us understand by revelation to walk in all the authority we have been given by Jesus Christ.
Psalm 34:8-9 'O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him. O fear the Lord, you His saints [revere and worship Him]! For there is no want to those who truly revere and worship Him with godly fear.'
v. 15 'The eyes of the Lord are toward the [uncompromisingly] righteous and His ears are open to their cry.'
Chuck Pierce shared this amazing word from Penny Jackson that is right on for this season: https://christsmandate.blogspot.com/2022/11/chuck-pierce-shares-powerful-word-from.html
May YOUR November be full of Thanksgiving and Praise for you and yours as YOU enjoy The Uncompromising Blissful Extravagance of His Presence!
Thank you for praying for CMM and all your fellow CMM Global Family worldwide. Pray for all the missionaries, schools, and students in CMM College of Theology in the US, Ecuador, Canada, Cuba, Myanmar, Nigeria, and Thailand.
Pray for the new wells and the living water and safe water recently drilled or soon to be drilled in Tanzania, India, Malawi, and Pakistan.
Pray for our upcoming Christmas gift campaigns to bless children and youth in many nations. Many of them are precious, beautiful children (orphans). As the Lord leads, pray about giving any amount to bless dear CMM children this Christmas. https://cmmworld.kindful.com/
Pray for each other, dear friends. We all know we each need prayers going up to Heaven for all those on the front lines. We each are on the front lines!
Please pray for me as I speak tomorrow online to a crusade with 8,000 expected to attend in Pakistan. In December, I will speak at conferences in Liberia and Kenya with fellow CMM Ordained ministers Robert Bimba (Liberia), Tom Omukhobero, and Daniel and Christine Oyoko (Kenya).
We are working on plans and trips for 2023. If you would like to have some of our awesome CMM family speakers for a conference in your area or would like to join or lead a missions trip, we would love to hook you up with dear friends in many nations.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Louis Blom of Judea Harvest as Associate Director of Missions at CMM. This strategic alliance multiplies the efforts and impact in building the Kingdom of our God, for His glory. https://youtu.be/HXfP8tCySRc

Many blessings and shalom from us all here at the home office and around the world.
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Honoring and Celebrating the Class of 2022's 196 Graduates of CMM College of Theology Global Schools
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Highlights Of Our Amazing Trip To The Holy Land With Chris Reed And Bart Peacher Prov. 16:9 ' A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.' We are continually blessed and in awe of how the Lord breathes and moves in our lives. As we press into the high calling of Jesus Christ and we grow in intimacy and trust by faith, His love, grace, and mercy unfold in surprising ways. I had not been to Israel since 2017. So much has changed in the world since then as we see the tremendous acceleration of the times and seasons. Chaos, control, and corruption are increasing at an alarming rate. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Divine Encounters Abound As We Are Led By Holy Spirit And Make Ourselves Available Many churches are led by their pursuit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of the knowledge of the Tree of Life. As we surrender fully to the Holy Spirit, we learn to walk in deep humility and attenti
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CMM is strategically positioned with proven, trusted, indigenous friends in many nations activating, equipping, connecting and releasing the saints to reach their people and nation with the love of Father God.
CMM is cross-denominational. We are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus and the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross assures us of victory, through trials, as we are trained to rule and reign with the Father's heart and love of justice and mercy and walk humbly before Him.
CMM is a 501c3 founded in 1978. We also handle donor relations for approximately 500 missionaries globally, ordained ministers, as we enjoy the Lord in fellowship, offering Christian accredited degrees globally, church planting, healing, counseling, orphanages, and prayer centers, creative arts, prophetic, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, medical, stopping human trafficking, leadership training and creative incubators for entrepreneurs, disaster relief, and connecting destinies.
Call 704-225-3927 or email office@cmm.world to learn more or to have one of our many CMM amointed, itinerant ministers speak at your church or group, in person or online.

I'm a 23yo working full-time living at home with my mother (40s) and 3 younger siblings (19, 17, 17 ; all with high-functioning autism) and it feels like everyone in this house is so goddamn incompetent. Because of how everyone else is, it feels like I constantly need to be the one to "swoop in" and "save" them from whatever it is. It's hard to elaborate the extent of just how BURNT OUT I am living here because it's been years of things bothering me, and I'm very close to reaching my breaking point. (TLDR at bottom)
My main stressor is my mother. My mother is financially incompetent and owes me THOUSANDS of dollars to help her pay for rent because she literally does not know how to budget her money properly. It's nearly impossible for her. I've even went out of my way to help her create a budget NUMEROUS times, and she's never stuck to them. She hasn't asked me to help her with rent in months now, but occasionally will ask me to pay for our groceries (cool, alright) or the whole family's phone plans (uh). Both nowhere near as much as rent of course, but it's concerning me that I'm like a backup plan for my mother, because what is she going to do by the time I move out? I'm not helping her with her finances by that point. I've had friends tell me to just say no to giving her money for rent/food/phone, but my thought process is "then where is she going to get the money from? we'll lose our home. we'll starve. we won't have phone service," etc. It feels like I HAVE TO or we'll struggle. And if I can't help, it'll be my fault if things go downhill. -- Side note, she relies on me so much that she expects me to memorize her own log-ins for HER stuff. I come home from work one day and she's asking me how to log into her fucking Verizon account??? How TF would I know your password holy shit bro. Extra side note but my mom has even asked me to get a mortgage under my name and have her pay for it so she doesn't have to pay for expensive rent anymore?????? Like it's hard to really summarize what I've dealt with with her within just the past year man. lol
My 19yo sister is finished school, but unemployed. My mom has asked me many times to help her find an online job, which first of all, why the hell am I finding HER a job, and second of all, how the hell am I suppose to find her an online job that's legit and doesn't require either some form of hybrid work or degrees? She has no skills and no specific career path she's interested in that's guaranteed to make good money. And the reason why my mom is particular on her having specifically an online job is because we don't trust her to take public transit or walking on her own to her job because she doesn't pay attention at all to her surroundings. She doesn't familiarize herself with where she's going when we do go out. Besides all of this, it's stressing me out that it feels like I need to constantly baby her at her age telling her to clean her own room and do her chores, when she literally does NOTHING else in this house but play games and sit on her ass all day on her phone. She does nothing productive but will have the audacity to tell me that a few dishes and a couple large pots and pans is "too much" to do at once when cleaning dishes. Or will tell me to "hold on" while she's in the middle of a game because I'm telling her to do chores she should have already done.
My brothers who are both 17 are still in school but struggle with their classes. I'm not really frustrated with them as I am with my mother and sister, but it's an additional stress seeing them struggle in school and get upset and self-deprecate because they're failing, even though when I have told them many times over the years they can always ask me to help them out. But they never do. They struggle but ask for no help. There's only so many times I can lend a hand, but as the old saying goes "you can lead a horse to water but you can't force them to drink." I don't want to just give up on them and I want to see them succeed but like... what else can I do in this situation? Mom's too busy to help them (or honestly even check up on how they're doing in school lol) and sister's definitely not gonna help because she was in a similar situation when she was in school, even struggling to the point where she'd cry and beg to drop out, which I definitely did not allow and won't for my brothers either.
I want to leave so fucking badly but I don't have enough savings at the moment to move out with a roommate securely. I also worry alot that when I do leave, everything will crumble. My mother's barely taught my siblings how to actually be adults and they're probably just going to all end up being unemployed because my mom has no trust that they can have normal jobs and commute normally by bus/train. I worry for a situation where my mom is gone and my siblings are left scrambling unsure of what to do. I feel like it's partially my fault, but at the same time I recognize that I am not their parent and I deserve to live a life away from my household and worry about myself and my future. It doesn't feel fair man. I've been so patient with everyone. I've offered my siblings money incentives if they do their chores regularly and just do their work in school (I don't even care if they get all C's and D's, a pass is a pass. They did their best.) I've tried helping them out with school, giving them life advice, and just being a figure they can go to if they can't talk to my mom. All I can do for now is just go to work, make my money, come home, and try to avoid the things that will trigger my frustration.
Not sure what advice could be given, but any is appreciated. (and I can try to answer any potential questions)
TLDR: Mom sucks with her money and owes me money because of it. Adult sister can't act like an adult for the life of her. Teen brothers struggle in school but ask for no help from anyone despite offers. I feel like I need to save everyone but it feels like a lot on my shoulders.

I’ve posted here many times to varying degrees of success but I am here once again to try my luck in finding a partner. My expectations are low, but I would love to meet and get to know someone over the course of a few months online to see if we’re compatible or not. I’m not looking for something low effort or short term, but something that is genuine and meaningful.
With that being said I guess I should say some things about myself to get the ball rolling.
If I had to boil down my entire existence into just a few words, I would say that I’m a shy introvert who also happens to be really passionate nerd about the things I enjoy. I also think it’s accurate to say that I’m understanding, kind, sweet, sensitive, passionate, considerate, empathetic, and maybe even funny depending on your sense of humor. Basically, I’m just an awkward nerdy guy but honestly who isn’t online.
Despite being very awkward generally I happen to think that I’m an excellent conversationalist, whether it’s through texting, voice calls, or in person. I usually put in a lot of effort when talking to folks and I’m hoping for the same in return if you decide to message me.
While I wouldn’t say that it’s a strict requirement, I would strongly prefer talking to someone who has similar interests. It’s not an automatic dealbreaker but I just find it much easier to build a connection with someone online when there are some shared interests. Personally, I adore video games, anime, comic books, horror, Star Wars, collecting, baseball, history, pro-wrestling, cats and a wide variety of music, movies, and tv shows. If I had to pick just one I would say that gaming is my biggest passion.
As for what I’m doing with my life; I recently graduated from college with a double major in political science and communication studies. I also have an associates degree in history and plan on getting a master’s degree one day. However, as of right now I still have no idea what career I want and I’m currently in the process of looking for a job. My lifestyle isn’t too crazy but I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. I’m also not into the idea of partying or casual sex. Politically I am very left-leaning/progressive and I don’t follow any religions but I’d say my beliefs fall under agnostic or atheist.
Possible dealbreakers
• I am a massive cat person so please be ok with cats.
• I don’t think I’m ugly but I am fat just so you’re aware. Absolutely willing to exchange pics ASAP.
• I have some history of diagnosed depression and anxiety but I’ve gotten much better in recent years.
About You
• I have a strong preference towards gamers but it’s not a requirement. I just think it makes the whole online dating thing easier if you can play video games
• Please be at least 21 or 22 years old. I’m fine with talking to older folks.
• Similar values and beliefs as me.
• Somewhat mentally and emotionally stable.
• Willing to hang out often online
• Be from the USA or Canada.
• Actually puts in the effort to get to know me.
• Any race or body type is fine. I am not super picky when it comes to looks but attraction is still important for me.
• Trans folks are welcome to message me.
That’s all for now folks. Feel free to send me a message introducing yourself! Take care!

I’ve posted here many times to varying degrees of success but I am here once again to try my luck in finding a partner. My expectations are low, but I would love to meet and get to know someone over the course of a few months online to see if we’re compatible or not. I’m not looking for something low effort or short term, but something that is genuine and meaningful.
With that being said I guess I should say some things about myself to get the ball rolling.
If I had to boil down my entire existence into just a few words, I would say that I’m a shy introvert who also happens to be really passionate nerd about the things I enjoy. I also think it’s accurate to say that I’m understanding, kind, sweet, sensitive, passionate, considerate, empathetic, and maybe even funny depending on your sense of humor. Basically, I’m just an awkward nerdy guy but honestly who isn’t online.
Despite being very awkward generally I happen to think that I’m an excellent conversationalist, whether it’s through texting, voice calls, or in person. I usually put in a lot of effort when talking to folks and I’m hoping for the same in return if you decide to message me.
While I wouldn’t say that it’s a strict requirement, I would strongly prefer talking to someone who has similar interests. It’s not an automatic dealbreaker but I just find it much easier to build a connection with someone online when there are some shared interests. Personally, I adore video games, anime, comic books, horror, Star Wars, collecting, baseball, history, pro-wrestling, cats and a wide variety of music, movies, and tv shows. If I had to pick just one I would say that gaming is my biggest passion.
As for what I’m doing with my life; I recently graduated from college with a double major in political science and communication studies. I also have an associates degree in history and plan on getting a master’s degree one day. However, as of right now I still have no idea what career I want and I’m currently in the process of looking for a job. My lifestyle isn’t too crazy but I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs. I’m also not into the idea of partying or casual sex. Politically I am very left-leaning/progressive and I don’t follow any religions but I’d say my beliefs fall under agnostic or atheist.
Possible dealbreakers
• I am a massive cat person so please be ok with cats.
• I don’t think I’m ugly but I am fat just so you’re aware. Absolutely willing to exchange pics ASAP.
• I have some history of diagnosed depression and anxiety but I’ve gotten much better in recent years.
About You
• I have a strong preference towards gamers but it’s not a requirement. I just think it makes the whole online dating thing easier if you can play video games
• Please be at least 21 or 22 years old. I’m fine with talking to older folks.
• Similar values and beliefs as me.
• Somewhat mentally and emotionally stable.
• Willing to hang out often online
• Be from the USA or Canada.
• Actually puts in the effort to get to know me.
• Any race or body type is fine. I am not super picky when it comes to looks but attraction is still important for me.
• Trans folks are welcome to message me.
That’s all for now folks. Feel free to send me a message introducing yourself! Take care!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3KTY0ybbqI
It's good to smack down the snakes, but we also need to reward people for not being snakes. Lily is a real OG and has shown integrity over the years so go support her while Tiny does bath salts to unwind.
Don't mention DGG or any drama in her chat. Just watch a cozy stream with a cool cat. Some of yall need to unplug from the hyper online shit for a bit anyways :D

The format and resulting engagement of Reddit can create some of the best forums on the internet. When I come into a subreddit for a hobby I very much enjoy, and users say your treatment of them dissuades them from engaging, that actually makes me angry. The years you have spent engaging with other Reddit users, disguising as a benign hobbyist before devolving into fallacious discussion, is over. When I say you, Djdefenda, I’m also including a litany of other accounts that model their behavior from your example or are alternate accounts you operate.
I started with two simple criticisms of your product. Claims you simply could have blissfully obfuscated your way out of, as you had done for years. But you chose your second favorite option, ignore the argument and direct insults and accusations of bullying.
You need “sandponics” to be discrete and differentiated from aquaponics to sell a book and course for which you were, and continue to be, wholly unqualified to author. You do this by wildly extrapolating limited and outdated research, misconstruing trial data, then constantly bombarding threads with tangential explanations, fallacies, and gaslighting.
This complete dissociation from reality motivated by money is an ethical failing, but I don’t consider it your worst offense.
When you compare simple critiques of your demonstrably false claims to acts of online bullying and relate that to acts of suicide, you demonstrate a level of morality I find disgusting. That is disgusting. Then to compile a list of usernames and post that to a url that reads “how to kill robots” makes you a little fucking ghoul. Again, so you can protect a product which we are all free to criticize and which has never reached any level of harassment. Hence why I am still here, and you are banned.
My advice, take your “team”, while they still waste any time with you, and use them to promote your version of sandponics (iAVS) on a platform that doesn’t garner the same style of feedback as Reddit. With enough YT shorts or tik toks, maybe you attract the eye of society’s gaze for a short time. Do a thumbnail where you have a surprised face and point to a headline that reads something like, “Agriculture is obsolete!” If you’re lucky, enough of those clicks will land on your website and maybe you’ll sell a few books. If you’re really lucky, maybe you’ll make in a quarter what I make in a year before the spotlight moves on. Next, pay your minions, spend a few years investing the rest into your sandponics and make the first commercial-scaled long-term system and prove us all wrong. Of the hundreds, if not thousands, of papers documenting aquaponics, “sandponics” has like ten, and none from this century. Good luck.
The users of aquaponics decided they were done with your shit and would rather get back to the community they enjoy. A place where we share our creations and experiences without fear of your vitriol and judgement.

We purchased a home in 2022 and at that time an inspection showed no issues. There are 2 full bathrooms upstairs, 1 half bath downstairs. There was some minor 0 degree grade in some areas but other than some buildup in the line from grease it looked to be running fine from the home to the sewer.
Come 2-3 months of living in this house our nightmare began. Its only my wife and I living here. The upstairs toilets stopped flushing and would get backed up. After a while they would drain down, but we would get a plumber out and they would snake it and all fine for another week or so until bam another backup. Finally brought in a camera and saw a clog of enormous length (20 ft) and ended up hydrojetting it out.
This process has continued on throughout the past year. 4 companies, 2 gave up completely, 1 started to get crazy with their charges, the latest is stumped and said let us replace the line. That didn't work. This weekend sewage sept up from a floor drain from an ice maker. The cause? a clog in the same damn line.
With changes made under the house and in various ways to see what can be done:

• Changed toilet paper (from charmin) and adjusted usage - was told we were using too much so cut back. Never even used any flushable wipes nor flushed anything other than TP and toilet bowl cleaner.
• Replaced upstairs toilets with American Standard Cadets
• Replaced one of the cadets with a kohler power assist
• Removed a 90 degree bend for 2 45 degree bends
• Stopped using downstairs toilet all together
• Removed a T-junction where there looked to possibly be a belly from upstairs to downstairs
• Had a roofer inspect our sewer vents and no noticeable blockages (no plumber was willing to go on roof - extra sttep and shake tile - so no camera down there although they did go in attic and didn't notice any issues there)
• Added Autovents to downstairs toilet and sink
• Regraded line where slope was at 0 degrees
• Replaced line from downstairs toilet to main (about 80ft total in pipe) and regraded everything to be 1/4" drop
• And this weekend - capped the floor drain so nothing could come up it - it had a backwater prevention valve that failed? Wondering if this may have been an issue all along - was this drain potentially acting as a vent but since it was lower than toilets it would cause pressure to decrease? There is a p trap in it but it may have evaporated due to non use...

Unfortunately I don't have much video/pictures of much help as there have been so many changes that anything I do have is out of date. Here are some images showing the crawlspace and the best diagram I've been able to get so far: https://imgur.com/a/K5BNH3s

Got a 690, nice.
Prior to this, my only real experience with Linux had been making a Raspberry Pi tablet that nobody really uses, and installing Kali Linux on a potato laptop. I'm a Mac user and I have used Terminal a bit, and I used DOS a lot in the 90s, so some of the material (particularly hardware, basic CLI) was familiar to me. I started studying about two and a half weeks ago.
In case this is helpful to anybody, this is what I did and here are my thoughts:

• I went through the Cisco NetAcademy course. I did some of the labs. I read all the content and outlined it. It was extremely boring.
  • I completed all the unit tests on the Cisco course (In one case, and chapter 9 I am looking at you, up to 11 times...) and looked up answers and reread material until I was consistently scoring 80% or, ideally, 90-100% on each unit, the midterm, the final, and the cumulative final. Last night I finally hit 80% on all except Chapter 18 (Special Directories and Files), which is sorta funny since I got 100% on the "Security and File Permissions" component of the exam.
• I made Anki flashcards for everything I got wrong or that confused or even mildly interested me. Basically, I "Ankified" everything that was not a transition sentence, lol.
• I also had a big document where I took notes from every single section. This was, honestly, mostly to keep myself from just skimming through and skipping over stuff because it was really really dull. It might not be efficient, but throughout my education (and this ain't my first school rodeo), I've found it useful to see how information is organized, so I generally make top-down outlines of what I read. I used to do this in MS Word but lately I've been using Notion since the formatting is nicer Maybe it's a total waste of time, because it took fivever. But I did it and now I have a huge Notion document of Linux notes....so I've got that going for me.
• I went through the big blue Linux book. It was also EXTREMELY boring. It was actually sort of impressive, just how incredibly dull they managed to make that book. After a certain point, it felt almost like meditation or a fever dream. I had a friend who did a silent meditation retreat and I think I started to feel like she described feeling towards the end of that. I did as many of the exercises and "explorational" activities as possible (some required permissions that weren't possible with the VMs I had at the moment).
• For a few days, I was using the online tests / flashcards that went with the LPI Linux Essentials Study Guide: Exam 010 v1.6 book, but apparently the site those were on was "retired" on April 30th, and it was annoying enough to get access the first time, so I didn't bother to try & figure out whatever it changed to. I found that book to be the least helpful of the materials anyway. The practice tests were the best thing about that one.
• I completed the Codecademy Bash scripting course one afternoon, since I like Codecademy's approach to scaffolding material and wanted to practice actually doing Bash scripting (but without, like, installing a VM).
• I took all the Dion exams multiple times.
• I followed the same process as with the Cisco exams, making cards / looking up anything and everything I got wrong.
• I made Anki flashcards for all of the above, and used GIFs or made graphics or used ChatGPT / Midjourney to generate ridiculous / weird images or songs to help me remember commands. Please, let me regale you with my and ChatGPT's interpretation of Johnny Cash, called "A Command Named Su." (And, actually, su came up ZERO times on the actual exam for some reason).
• I played this "Command Line Murder Mystery" game and really wished there was more to it, because while it's a great intro to the CLI that I'd recommend to anybody new to it, it also replicated a lot of the stuff I was more familiar with. I would have loved it if there had been something like that for every corresponding unit of the Cisco course or chapter of the book.
• I spent about a week and a half going through the flashcards during any and all downtime: During my kid's bath, on a flight, at a stoplight, at a family wedding, hair appointment, meals, whatever.
• I had started out by downloading a public Anki deck that was supposed to be for Linux Essentials, but ultimately I didn't think those cards helped nearly as much as the ones I made myself. The process of making the cards is important, and the deck I found was all "basic" format (instead of Cloze or Image like I was using). The deck I found had very open-ended questions that lacked context, and I regret wasting time on it instead of just making my own cards from the get-go. In the end, my deck was 835 cards, though that included the rando one I had downloaded. I don't think I use Anki in the most efficient way, so that was probably too many.
• I was able to attend one of the Cohorts and do the online game yesterday, and it was both fun and helpful. So I'd definitely recommend doing that.

Exam:

• I was mildly surprised that there were a few more "pick X of these options" questions than I'd expected. I had thought there'd be 7; by my count, I had 9.
• In case you aren't aware, there are about 3 fill-in-the-blank questions on the exam. They only ask for one word, though. The practice exams do not have these types of questions. However, since I had no idea until yesterday that this was even a question type, I wanted to put that out there, since some people might get thrown off by a question type they're not expecting.
• I did my exam at a testing center and it felt like a damn vacation. I managed to show up precisely on time for the first and probably only time in my entire life. It was, just extremely nice people, free parking, free locker for my stuff, a nice sunny window in the testing room, everything was very clean and bright. I wish I could take all the OAs that way!
• I've taken the Dion and Cisco and Study Guide practice tests so many times they run together, so it's hard to say exactly which questions came from where, but I was surprised that a lot of the questions on the exam were verbatim from the pool of practice tests I'd been using.
• In general, I think Dion's exams were a little bit easier than the actual exam and Cisco's were a little bit harder. Dion tends to have some goofy or humorous "distracter" wrong answer options (which, frankly, I appreciate because this was generally extremely boring material to me, sorry), but the other practice exams I took were all srsbiz. Also, since Cisco's unit tests are specialized to each topic, I think they go into greater depth than the actual exam might.
• In the end, I think I did substantially better on the exam than I had on the Cisco material, so I'd say that Cisco over-prepares you a tiny bit and that's probably what you want, right?
• I was so psyched about the "Command Named Su" and never even got to use it. :(

Recommendations:

• I am sure the best actual approach is to have and use Linux daily via the command line, or perhaps to be bo(u)rn(e) to a family fluent in C and grow up speaking Bash or C as your native language... but failing that, I'd start with the Cisco course (Link). It's fantastic that it's FREE. Note that about once a week they take it down for an annoyingly long maintenance window, but still. Each unit test is only 10 questions, and it doesn't actually tell you what the "right" answers are if you get them wrong, so it's extremely hard to get through a unit without having a good understanding of the material.
• If you're not familiar with the CLI, definitely try the game I linked above. It's really cool. Actually, try it even if you are, it's just a fun way to practice.
• If you can figure out where the practice tests went for the LPI Linux Essentials Study Guide: Exam 010 v.16 (by Bresnahan and Blum), they are fairly useful, but they are also very, very similar to the Cisco course.
• It took me some time to figure out that the Dion course on Udemy is really two courses. One has videos and 2 practice exams, one is just 6 practice exams. Between the two courses, there are 8 practice exams. I took all of them multiple times and thought they were really good practice. I tried feeding the exams to Chat GPT and asking it to generate new questions, but it didn't work very well (they were too easy / just reworded, etc).
• I love Anki, though I guess it might not work for everybody, and don't take a shortcut; make your own flashcards.
• A lot of the material that seems to be floating around about this exam is redundant to the big boring book and the Cisco course. So I think it probably matters to just find a format you enjoy, or at least that you can stand (e.g., video, course, whatever) and stick with it all the way through.
• The thing that helped the most for me, in terms of both trying to stay sane and memorizing the material, was trying to turn it into something fun and interesting. I actually began to enjoy the process of studying once I started making stupid / weird / traumatizing AI art images. I am sure a smarter person than myself (which is most of you) would've probably figured that out a lot faster.
• The real kernel is the soul-crushing boredom we found along the way. Right?

OK, onward and upward. Hope this helps somebody out.

I feel the majority of players have alt accounts. Or at least, the totality of streamers/pro gamers/YouTubers do. I like playing at my best, but I also like jumping on a team game with friends, trying absurd strategies, weird stuff, and even nonsense, especially with a few beers in my body. I clearly lose many more games than in my main account, and my elo is naturally lower.
Follow me for one second, I'm about to come to the point.
I've encountered countless smurfs who resign 80% of their games, then play absolutely serious all-ins in feudal. 2 great examples are these 2 accounts called Ghoti and Voyager3
https://aoe4world.com/players/1419817-Ghoti
https://aoe4world.com/players/474877-Voyager3
These 2 are literal psychopaths, you might've encountered them as well cause they're constantly online, any time of the day. They resign 80% of their games, but I'm unfortunately bad enough so they always decide to play me and my friend. It doesn't matter what strategy we do, even if we know exactly what they're going to all-in us in feudal with English longbows and JD, we lose every game with them. They're simply stronger, my guess is easily Conqueror 1/2+. I have no idea how you could have playing like this, but not all of us play for the fun.
Yesterday I was playing with this stupid strategy: winning by fighting only with villagers and monks curing them. Opponents get extra mad for whatever reason, calling us smurfs. So I checked both of their accounts: one is literally 3 days old, and the other one had 1 game 8 days ago, and all the others also within 3 days.
https://aoe4world.com/players/19695669-Baby-Nut
https://aoe4world.com/players/19696817-dlulu
Regardless of what you might think, this is clearly absurd: a clear smurf mad at me for being a smurf, while I'm here, playing completely dumb stuff and usually just lose.
I personally find sad people using smurf accounts to stomp on noobs playing serious builds just for easy wins, so I don't like when people accuse me of doing so while making only villagers and monks, quite drunk.
Let me know what you think, and if you disagree please give an argument!

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StarCross Industries is an age 21+ org looking for both experienced and new players to help us grow into an effective Logistics unit as well as a great place to get to meet new friends and have a good time. SCI is a gray org, dedicated to making money, no questions asked. We DO NOT engage in piracy, but we will take contracts on their behalf to ship and acquire goods. While combat is not our main focus, we can and will defend our people.
ORG GOALS:
To have a good time as a group, participating together in Star Citizen. Simply put, we are here to have fun.
To focus on logistic and civilian operations.
Learn the game and how to play it skillfully. StarCross Industries will provide training for new players for all aspects of game play.
Although not listed as a role play org, role play does not eliminate eligibility from this org and we allow players to role play at the level they prefer.
Make new online friends. Learn to work together as teammates, and learn to trust each other.
To be successful individually, and as a group in the game.
To find a proper location and establish a base from which to operate.
Secure reliable friends and make advantageous alliances with like minded organizations.
Secure profitable contracts in Mining, Salvage, Security, Freelancing, Transport, Medical and Rescue, as well as Data running. Additional jobs will be added as new systems come online in future patches and as our Org grows. We will take any job, military or civilian that we are equipped to perform.
To send out one or more Exploration ships to expand man's knowledge base of the universe, as well as to look for new territories and resources that can be exploited. Use our exploration as a source of revenue.
WHAT WE OFFER:

• Individual and group training
• Regular org events twice a week
• Weekly payouts as well as bonuses relevant to participation in events
• Solid organization with clear goals and the determination to consistently move forward despite the roadblocks that Star Citizen may (will) throw at us.

POSITIONS AVAILABLE:
Logistics Team Member
Security Team Member
Medical and Rescue Team Member
Exploration Team Member
If you are interested;
Please join us on our Discord server (link below!) and ask to speak to one of our Founders to get started and find the best place for you!
We hope to hear from you soon.
RSI page: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/SCILTD
Discord: https://discord.gg/AF9gUS3ccB

“I attended middle school with her, although we did not attend high school together (she instead attended a high school that was supposed to help students gain college credits. She earned two liberal arts degrees while there in Social and Behavioral Sciences and Natural Sciences. She now attends an HCBU, and has on her LinkedIn profile that she is presently working toward graduating from her college with a degree in Health Sciences, Pre Med, and a minor in Military Science. She is apart of her school’s Army ROTC.)
I remember that a lot of people in middle school did not like her (although that was also the case for me,) and I understood why. She seemed noticeably introverted, yet also didn’t seem like the kind of person, at least from my perspective, who would try to appease you in the way I imagine a lot of people feel the stereotypical woman might. She had a strong glare (I remember mentioning this to my then best friend’s mom, who agreed with the suggestion) and stood out to me as being weird (it wasn’t necessarily anything she said or did - not her personality, exactly - it’s just the strong glare I mentioned, like she didn’t tend to look sincerely happy nor would she pretend to be unless she was around friends of hers. I remember that she didn’t tend to look happy, in my opinion. It’s possible that she was depressed, or she may have just tended to look irritable, I don’t know. She didn’t strike me as being the kind of person who would make an effort to be polite, struck me as being tomboyish and unladylike, the kind of person who wouldn’t try to change the way she was for you - I wasn’t used to it. Seemed competitive, too. I had truly never interacted with a girl who was like that before. She also struck me as being smart, although she was in the normal math class whereas I was in the advanced one (I was known for being smarter, but thought it should have been her. However, I did notice after looking at her LinkedIn profile that there were more grammatical errors than I expected.)
I remember that she and her friend (who I later on ended up being on good terms with) decided early on that they disliked me, although I hadn’t done anything to them, which bothered me. They also once used me for food in sixth grade, which had also bothered/upset me.
I remember that my former best friend had issues with her ranging back to elementary school, and that in sixth grade in particular they were competing for the attention of an ISFP they’d both been friends with since elementary school. This girl is the one who won the ISFP’s attention/was officially her best friend by the time they were in seventh grade. However, around seventh or eighth grade (it’s been so long that I no longer quite remember,) she “ditched” (in the words of my former best friend) the ISFP and the other friend I’d mentioned in favor of a new crowd. I actually remember my former best friend suggested that the people in her new crowd didn’t like her, either (although she hung out with them throughout eighth grade, and briefly went to high school in person with one of them as a junior whilst presumably taking courses at the other high school online, so I assume that she never knew this/didn’t read them well enough to know or understand this.) I notice that she unfollowed the ISFP at some point as a senior, though the ISFP never unfollowed her (she strikes me as being the kind of person who likely took note of the fact that the ISFP’s life doesn’t seem to be heading in a good direction - the ISFP was abused a few years ago, and has had substance use issues since, in addition to having had to repeat a year of high school. She also unfollowed my former best friend, and my former best friend recently unfollowed her back.)
She figured out that I was the one who owned the middle school gossip account (although most of our peers already suspected, and technically, this girl couldn’t prove it either.) She figured this out because she remembered that I was standing nearby when she told my former best friend who she had a crush on (I was being mean and told our peers who she was crushing on.) However, she never directly confronted me about the matter, even though she told my former best friend that she suspected it to be me. She later on changed her mind when I was kind to her friend who lost the role for graduation speaker to me toward the end of eighth grade (but she was right the first time.)
I noticed around junior year that she has actually turned out to be quite nice looking, even though I had once meanly suggested that she was fat in middle school (she was a tad bit chubby, though as an adult I’m inclined to suggest that this was likely simply baby fat/that with us being so young there wasn’t really anything wrong with this.) She does seem to wear makeup, but also has nice style (she is light skinned, and has a looser hair texture, which are likely factors in me thinking she’s attractive, if I’m being honest - she’s mixed race, with a black mother and white father.) I can’t possibly know, but she gives off the impression to me of being someone who knows that she’s attractive (just something about her energy/facial expressions in photos. She has her Instagram account public now.)”
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This is party 2 of a discussion regarding how poly could have been handled a little better in BG3. I recommend you read through the first part here: https://new.reddit.com/BaldursGate3/comments/1crb2s7/how_the_polyamory_could_have_been_handled/ so you can get context and I sound like less of a rambling weirdo.
​
Astarion:
Out of all the discussions, people were the most confused by this choice. Not only does making him poly at the last minute feel contrary to a lot of statements he himself makes throughout his romance arc, but it also runs counter to what other characters say about him and his backstory as a whole. He is one of the most insecure characters in the game, he was trained for two hundred years to lie in order to avoid punishment, and he has far more trauma and healing to do than the other characters. Astarion is the most likely to lie about the Halsin relationship in order to avoid appearing weak or demanding. Out of the poly players who expressed disappointment, Astarion was the one that bothered them the most, since many felt he wasn’t fully consenting.
Most of my reasons for why he’s not a good poly option (from a development standpoint) have already been stated in earlier sections, so most of this will be spent diving into the “Is he fine with poly or not?” debate, which had me intrigued. (This will be the longest section and won’t be as connected to the overall topic, so if you want to skip to the Halsin part, feel free.)
I’ll start with the main arguments I see defending him being poly.
Argument 1: He says he’s fine with Halsin and the twins, so we should take him at his word.
While this can definitely be argued, and it’s not good to treat an adult man like a baby, his constant lying as a defense mechanism and current issues with sex/relationships do need to be taken into account (if not by the players then at least by the developers). There were plenty of people (some of them victims of SA) who talked about their own experience of tolerating poly because they were scared of their partner leaving or finding them too demanding/narrow minded. This led to their self-esteem and views on relationships growing worse rather than better. For someone like Astarion, who outright admits he has never had a healthy relationship and doesn’t want to lose this one, it’s understandable that people view his response as a coping mechanism rather than his own genuine feelings. There were also two different mental health professionals who reminded players that although a few victims of abuse do enter poly relationships, statistically most do not and it is far more common for them to agree to poly relationships out of pressure (which often make the person’s mental issues even worse in the long run).
Argument 2: He claims to be fine with open relationships during Act 1.
This is countered by the fact that everything he says about himself in Act 1 is a lie (unless he’s specifically talking about Cazador). He lies about wanting to sleep with you, he lies about his identity until he bites you, he claims to only care about sex (then later admits it makes him feel disgust and loathing), and he brags about his former conquests (which you later find out he regrets and feels guilt over). His statements that he’s fine with open relationships are made when choosing between him and another Origin character in Act 1 or 2, but this is also said at a time when his act is still up and he isn’t in love with the player. If you choose between him and another Origin character AFTER he confesses and let’s his guard down, he insists that he is NOT fine with sharing. “You’ve decided to replace me?” If the player says they care about both him and the other person, he’ll say, “Don’t give me that. I can see what this is.” Then he promptly breaks up with them. This second reaction is not only said using his genuine voice (whereas before he was still using his fake one), but a few poly people mentioned that this isn’t a normal reaction from someone who is fine with poly.
This isn’t to shame people who want to think Astarion is fine with it, or to judge players who went through with the poly relationship. Instead, this is once again asking the developers why they chose this option, rather than someone who wouldn’t spark so much debate or remind abuse victims of their past without giving them a dialogue option to address it. (This is a similar issue with Astarion’s brothel scene. They should have either removed it by having him say he’s not comfortable again, or at the very least, let players talk to him about it after.)
I think it’s pretty clear that after reading the discussions and evidence both sides provided, I myself lean heavily to one side. However, the main defense I personally have for the opposite side is that the writers were sometimes vague about Astarion’s true preferences and wishes. I especially felt this during the origin playthrough, where his narrator would constantly flip between him liking hedonism and despising it. It gave the impression that two opposing authors were wrestling while writing him, unable to decide where he truly stood on things. It felt similar to how the devs tried to write a respectful story of overcoming abuse and the fear of being sexualized, only to turn around and repeatedly sexualize the character in both the game and promotional material. I really wish the writers and developers had picked a lane and stuck with it.
Now I’ll get into the evidence for the counter theory: That he’s not actually open to sharing, but says he’s fine with it to avoid appearing weak or losing his partner. I personally prefer this theory because it makes the writing seem more intentional, adds more nuance to an already complex character, and feels more realistic. However, even if this is what the writer or actor were trying to convey, it’s still a far worse alternative to simply keeping him out of the poly options in the first place.

1. His hedonistic playboy persona is stated to be a façade. Anything he says in act one about being poly and wanting open relationships is stated when he is both wearing his mask and before he trusts the player. Every statement about relationships here has to be taken with a grain of salt because his mask is centered around attracting victims for Cazador. Since he hated bringing “sweet innocents” to his master, it makes sense that he would initially try to attract the opposite (“criminals and brothel goers”) by sleeping around and making a show of wanting casual relationships.
   
2. Once he gets comfortable in the relationship, he makes it clear he is looking for someone who will make him feel safe and value him for his personality over his body (“I don’t want you to think of me in terms of sex. I don’t think I want anyone to.” “How do you want me to see you?” “As a person. Is that so much to ask?”). If the player chooses to sexualize him, he will go through with it, then regret it later and break up. He makes it very clear in Act two that he’s not actually looking for casual hookups because they make him feel “ashamed and alone”. So it is odd that he’s fine with Halsin (who seems to care more about the sex and the body than the emotional bonding) and the brothel (which is solely about sex). One can argue that he’s fine with the poly relationship because he’s not taking part, but Halsin DOES wish for him to take part ‘eventually’.
   
3. Jumping off of that, Astarion’s dialogue makes it clear he wants a partner who cares about more than just sex, but if you tell him you want to date Halsin solely for the sex (and because Astarion’s not doing it with you), he will say that’s fine and he doesn’t mind the player seeking sex from others. This seems to counter his previous statements and arc. It’s especially strange that even if you reinforce his greatest insecurity (that his refusal to have sex has made his partner immediately seek out other people), he will still claim to be fine with it.
   
4. In terms of dialogue, the actor for Astarion seems to be very intentional when using the fake theatrical masking voice vs. the more genuine softspoken voice he uses when he’s comfortable and being honest. The fake voice is blatantly obvious throughout the Act 1 romance, in Act 2 if you force him to obey the blood merchant (his voice goes from genuinely scared to flirtatious and over the top within seconds), and in Cazador’s mansion where he’ll speak genuinely to you, then be over the top when addressing Cazador’s servants. He’ll often use jokes and loud laughter to conceal his true feelings and insecurities. Meanwhile his laughter in the confession scene, graveyard scene, and Spawn epilogue is quiet and subdued because he’s being genuine. It feels like a strange coincidence that when addressing both the Halsin situation and the brothel situation, his voice becomes very loud and high pitched again, he immediately starts making jokes, and his laughter is over the top. This hints at him not wanting to go along with either situation, but he’s putting himself through it because this is what his partner wants and since he’s tolerated sexual stuff he hated before, he can do it again. Plus, after killing Cazador, he wants to ensure no one views him as weak. He has to prove to himself and his lover (at least in his mind) that refusing to take the Ascendant powers was good and he’s strong enough to not need it. I can understand players not picking up on the voice changes (because not everyone is going to replay the game or even care) but those who did notice it believe it’s done intentionally (either by the actor or the writer or both). If it’s not intentional, then it’s a strange decision to make from a developer’s standpoint.
   
5. Throughout the threads I read, most poly people made it clear that poly relationships require complete trust, clear communication, and general confidence. Astarion himself admits to lacking all of those traits to some degree. If you don’t romance him, he will literally not trust any of the characters right up to the epilogue (he’ll hold a knife behind his back while talking to the Dark Urge). Even though he does seem to genuinely trust his lover by Act 2, he will still lie to them several times. He lies about being fine with the drow twins (he states he’ll leave if he hates if but never does despite disassociating), feigns confidence when the player says they’ll become a mind flayer (he says he only cares about them becoming ugly but expresses his true fears only after the fight, that he’s worried they are no longer the person he fell in love with by losing their soul), he manipulates his lover when confronting Cazador despite being conflicted about it himself and wanting reassurance, and (on a more minor note) he continuously claims he’s doesn’t care about Yenna or the Gur children despite getting upset when they’re in danger. This is a character who, even after he kills his tormentor, struggles to be honest with his partner. That isn’t a good combination when addressing poly. (Again, it could be worked through in real life, but is better avoided in video games where there isn’t time to address it).
   
6. There are also plenty of situations where he agrees to do things he outright hates. In Act 1, we know he is (at least somewhat) disgusted by having sex with the player or Laezel, but he’ll do it. In Act 2, he tries to be genuine about not wanting to touch the player until he no longer feels disgust, but if the player pressures him, he will cave and obey. He does break up with the player afterwards, but it is only after he has gone through with the act. In Act 3, he will state three times that he doesn’t want to take the tadpole, but if the player pressures him by bringing up his darkest fear, he will give in. Worse, he will give in and STILL stay with the player romantically despite them clearly manipulating him to do something they know he fears. He does thankfully break up if you fail the checks, but if you succeed, he goes through with it. If he’s willing to cave to something as huge as altering his entire body, it makes sense that he would cave to something he views as more minor (like tolerating unwanted sexual acts in a brothel or sharing his partner).
   
7. I didn’t know this until I saw others mention it but there are points where he will flirt with NPCs if he is single (the girl in the sewers), but he uses neutral dialogue if he is dating the player. This reinforces the theory that he doesn’t actually plan to sleep around or be with others as he claims (though there are some dialogues that I think slipped through the cracks where he still flirts with others despite being in a committed relationship).
   
8. If Halsin propositions you after Cazador has been killed, Astarion no longer asks if you’re doing this because he hasn’t been fulfilling your sexual needs. However, he does give another response that feels out of place: “I’ve realized it doesn’t matter if anything (in our relationship) changes.” Parallel this with what he said at the graveyard, that “no matter what happens, I don’t want to lose this (relationship).” It’s very odd to have him say he doesn’t want to lose the relationship, but then the next day he is totally okay with losing it. Granted, it is nice to know that even if the characters break up, he’ll be fine, but it does feel contradictory for his character, especially with how devastated he acts if they DO end the relationship. If the Halsin statement is just an act and he’s overcompensating, however, then it feels more intentional on the writer’s part.
   
9. I’ve seen lots of people say that Ascended Astarion also shouldn’t be fine with poly, and I agree, though it’s for different reasons than Spawn Astarion. Unlike SA, I think Ascended would absolutely do the brothel scene because 1. He’s actively suppressing his trauma and playing a new character and 2. He feels in control in the brothel and is the focus. However, with Halsin, he doesn’t have any control. For someone obsessed with possessing his lover and ensuring they can never leave him, letting them sleep with Halsin doesn’t fit his writing. He isn’t participating. He doesn’t know what they’re doing behind his back. For all he knows, Halsin and the player might be discussing how to kill Astarion or escape him. In some deleted party banter, Halsin literally tells Ascended Astarion he doesn’t approve of the abusive spawn/master relationship they’ve formed. With that knowledge, not only should Halsin not be willing to join a poly relationship that he thinks is unhealthy, but he has a motivation to help the player get away from AA (and AA would know this). I could see Spawn Astarion hesitantly agreeing to the Halsin thing despite not wanting to share, but AA just wouldn’t. It feels contrary to both his and Halsin’s writing.
   
10. This is the second most convincing piece of evidence for me: The Drow twins. If you ask Astarion to join a ‘group activity’, he’ll use his fake voice and flighty laugh and agree to go through it, saying he’ll run away if he doesn’t like it and comparing the act to burning in the sun (a little concerning that he’s already comparing the two). Then during the act, he will immediately ask the player what they want “us” to do. Not only is he lumping himself in with the prostitutes, but he is also doing something that an Origin playthrough reveals is a trigger for him (he tells the drow twins that being ‘told what to do’ reminds him of his time as a slave). If the player tries to check up on him, he ignores them and says he wishes he was drunk. Then he disassociates and never brings it up again. This has been viewed two ways: either he doesn’t want to have casual sex anymore and wants to be in a one-on-one relationship, or he does want to do stuff like this but just needs to heal more before he can. I lean toward the first assumption because he is acting flighty and fake BEFORE the sexual act even begins. If he really wanted to do it but changed his mind after, it makes more sense for him to sound genuine at first, then fake halfway through.
    

But the main thing that sticks out to me is his reaction to you asking for only ONE drow twin. If you do, he will accuse you of having a thing for prostitutes and call it embarrassing, then glare at you for the rest of the conversation. This is especially sad because not only have the player’s actions made him feel like a prostitute again, but now he seems to be wondering if you started dating him BECAUSE he was a prostitute, not for who he really is.
Compare this to the Halsin situation and the drow ‘group activity’. For Halsin, he says he was expecting this for months. He’s had several months to plan his reaction and decide what he’s willing to tolerate. Hence, he has a very rehearsed reaction. With the twins, he had less time to anticipate this but probably also worried about it (especially if the player asked about them earlier and he said no. Now he expects the player to try again and has planned accordingly). Again, this response feels rehearsed and fake. The only response where he uses his real voice is when you ask for one of the twins alone. This is something he likely wouldn’t plan for, so we get to see his gut reaction for the first time: he doesn’t want you to do it.
Now some people argue that he’s fine with Halsin and not the other Origin characters because Halsin is just a fling and won’t try to take his spot. If that’s the case, he should be fine with the twins too. If anything, they are even less of a threat. Yet he doesn’t want you to do it and responds accordingly. If he truly was poly, he would respond like Karlach did and tell you to have fun, or like Shadowheart telling you to give him a heads up first. But we don’t see that.
One other thing about the twins that I felt I could point out: if you or the twins ask to do a group activity before Cazador is killed, Astarion says he’s not comfortable with this yet. The “yet” part has been pointed out to show that he’s fine with it after Cazador has been killed (even though he still disassociates later). However, another explanation of the “yet” part is that he’s trying to soften the blow because he’s scared of using a blunt NO. We see this with Araj, the blood merchant. Even though he is absolutely disgusted with her treatment of him and how she’s “defiling” him with her fantasies, his rejections of her are very soft and nervous. Even when reinforced by his friend/lover, he says “It’s still a no, I’m afraid” with a smile. Turning down sexual encounters is tough for him, even when he has people backing him up, so I can see him using words like “yet” or “I’m afraid” to soften the blow. I know several people in real life who do this, despite later admitting there was no “yet”.
There’s another part of this dialogue with the early twins that I want to point out (really overanalyzing here but if we want to believe the writers do things intentionally/with a lot of forethought, I think it’s okay to read into the words they use). When Astarion says he’s not comfortable with the twins, the player’s response is “I wouldn’t ask such a thing of you”. This will raise his approval and make him respond positively. The promise you give him is not “I’ll ask them later, after we’ve killed Cazador” or “I would have liked to but okay” (that one doesn’t trigger his positive response). He only approves of you saying you won’t ask him to do things like this (stated in a tense that implies you will NEVER ask him to do such a thing, regardless of Cazador’s stabbed or unstabbed state). This could have been the writer hinting that if you bring him back after, you’re going back on your promise and thus have to see the disassociating scene. That…or the writer wasn’t thinking too hard and we are simply thinking too much.

1. With all that out of the way, we’ll get to the final point that solidifies this theory for me personally. It’s the statements of Shadowheart and Minthara if you ask to do a three-way relationship with one of them and Astarion. Shadowheart’s response is: “I think you’re overestimating his willingness to share. He may seem like a carefree hedonist, but there’s something fragile beneath the façade.” Minthara says something nearly identical, that sharing would wound his pride and he is far too fragile to handle it. You could even add Astarion’s line from the other end, where if you ask Astarion to share with you and Karlach, he will say they shouldn’t because Karlach loves the player and relationships are fragile (implying that he either thinks open relationships don’t work if there’s love involved, or perhaps he himself can only do open relationships if he doesn’t love the other person).

The main argument I’ve seen disproving these statements by Shadowheart and Minthara is that they’re just plain wrong about him. If so, it’s a strange writing choice to not only have both of them be wrong about the exact same thing, but they’re both high wisdom characters who are proven to understand Astarion in a lot of ways other characters don’t. (All three of them have been enslaved and manipulated, Minthara comprehends the depths of his relationship with Cazador within minutes of being in the camp, and Shadowheart is one of the closest to Astarion in terms of friendship and liking him.)
If Astarion actually is fine with poly, then it means both Shadowheart and Minthara are wrong. That means the writers either made a mistake or made a very weird writing choice.
However, if Astarion is actually pretending to be fine with sharing as they say, not only is the writing consistent but these dialogues become very clever foreshadowing. I want to give the writers the benefit of the doubt and believe they did a good job with Astarion, so I prefer to lean into the theory that he’s pretending because it makes more sense for him overall.
That was quite a long tangent and somewhat unnecessary, but he’s a character whose mannerisms and statements are meant to be heavily analyzed, so it’s fun to go more in depth. Let’s move on.

1. ISSUES WITH HOW HALSIN WAS PRESENTED

We’re finally at the last point, and in a way the direct cause of this entire thread: Halsin. Now, I have no issue with Halsin being poly (again, he’s listed as one of my four ideal options for it) but I do have several issues with how he was written and presented. The Shadowheart part I will skip over because I already got into it, but there are many other problems to address and most of them could have been fixed very easily.

1. He is not presented as poly until Act 3. I was reading through a thread full of people who loved him and several of them were early access players who had requested he become a romance option. However, the reason they requested him was very important. In EA, all three of the male options seemed immature (Wyll), condescending (Gale), or straight up evil (Astarion). Meanwhile Halsin was, in their words, a mature man who seems like the type to settle down with them in a cottage and help raise their kids. This is the impression he gives and what drew many people to him. As a result, many of these players were extremely disappointed to reach Act 3 once the game was out and discover that not only was he the complete opposite of their initial impression, but he won’t even stay with the player after the game ends (in most cases). Honestly, if I was a developer and saw that they liked him for those earlier reasons, I wouldn’t make him strictly poly because that wasn’t what the players wanted. They wanted him because he was muscular and a good, stable man. It was a very odd choice to turn around and give the players the opposite of what they asked for. But if the devs were truly determined to go the poly route, they should have at least gone back to Act 1 and 2 and slipped in some hints that he was poly. I saw some newer players who recently played the game for the first time and wanted to romance him for the aforementioned reasons (stable, mature, kind, huge). They ignored all other romances until Act 3, then got hit with the “I’m only poly” discussion. Had they known he wasn’t monogamous, they wouldn’t have blown off all the other options.
   
2. But let’s ignore that. We’re focusing on the world where he IS completely poly (though some were arguing that it should at least be an option to ask if he’ll try being monogamous with the player.) The way he is presented still has a lot of issues according to poly players. For one, the way he tries to butt in on the relationship is done in a really sketchy manner (especially considering what some of the Origin characters have gone through/are currently going through). It would have been far better to do what they did with Minsc and give the PLAYER the option to hit on Halsin, rather than the other way around. Have them offer poly to him, and then he can discuss it from there. Having the proposition come from Halsin himself puts him in a negative light, and it’s pretty clear the writers didn’t actually want to portray him as a bad person so they messed up here.
   
3. The flagging for Halsin’s dialogues is awful and despite seeing people report it for eight months, that hasn’t changed. Even if you pick the most neutral option, he will still hit on you by saying “I think you feel the same way”. Not a good idea. “I HOPE you feel the same way” would have been infinitely better. Women often have to deal with people assuming their friendly, professional conversation is something more when it isn’t. It’s not a great idea to bring that into fantasy games too. It hit too close to home for some.
   
4. Even if you use the most neutral option at the Act 1 party (“Go have fun and mingle”), your main dialogue option the next day is “Sorry for coming on so strong last night”. It’s a strange thing to say. Again, I’m not sure how developers missed this and why it was never patched out. I saw people reporting it since the release.
   
5. He will also ask for a relationship at neutral approval. In most of my playthroughs, I stopped talking to him beyond the Thaniel quest and avoided asking about his personal life. He still led his proposition with “I think you feel the same way”. How does he know when we only spoke to him three times? They should have at least required you to go through all his extra dialogues before triggering this.
   
6. When Halsin says he loves you, you have two options: reject him straight away, or ask about his opinions a little more. Oddly enough, if you ask a bit more and THEN reject him, he’ll have a proper response. “That’s fine. I understand. I won’t ask again.” However, if you reject him as soon as he starts talking to you, his response is very off putting. He’ll protest and say, “but you asked me about my former lovers” or, if you didn’t even do that, he’ll claim “you looked after me with the care of a lover, not a host.” These pushy assumptions turned a lot of people off. This is entirely on the writer, in my opinion. He should have realized how weird these sounded.
   
7. Halsin is the only person you can’t dismiss from your camp at any point through dialogue. All of the origins have to be pursued and recruited intentionally. Halsin is the only exception. This makes some sense because you need him to cure the Shadowlands, but for Act 3, he literally has nothing to do. They should have given players an option after the Ketheric fight to dismiss him and tell him to take care of the Shadowlands. It makes a lot more sense narratively and would help avoid a lot of the more awkward parts later.
   
8. Halsin’s initial dialogue about monogamy vs. polyamory is mostly fine, with him comparing it to gardens and wolves vs. bears. But (and don’t quote me on this because I can’t recall the specifics), if you ask your partner to do poly and they say no, Halsin will be a little more judgmental about your partner, saying he was hoping they would be more “open minded”. Statistically, the majority of BG3’s players are going to be monogamous, so it’s strange to see nearly every character (monogamous or poly) criticize monogamy in some way. It is called selfish, narrow minded, and old fashioned by at least 3 characters to my knowledge (Halsin, Act 1 Astarion, and even Gale (who is monogamous himself)). If the developers truly wanted to be inclusive, criticizing one’s lifestyle and having no characters openly defend it in the game (even those who practice it) is a disappointing choice. In this case, it might be an unintentional mistake (maybe they feared that by defending monogamy, they were somehow demonizing polygamy or polyamory), but it would have been better to just leave the criticisms out of it entirely if that was the case.
   

And that’s it. I think that’s all the points from myself and others that I wanted to compile. I don’t think any of this will be changed in BG3 but I hope all of these points and opinions will at least improve any future games. It’s great that BG3 was able to make nuanced characters with their own opinions and preferences—I much prefer it to “everyone is poly and no one gets mad if you cheat” games where characters feel more like statues than living beings—but I do wish they thought the poly options through more carefully (trying to make poly people comfortable while leaving room for monogamous players to enjoy the romances too).
The only feasible fix the developers could make at this point to avoid all the issues mentioned is keeping Halsin poly but removing his connections to other Origin romances (or at least Karlach and Astarion). At this point, that’s the only thing that could realistically be done. I also wish they made characters break up with you if you cheat on them in the brothel, since that’s what many people including myself would do.
Again, these opinions are my own (and those that aren’t come from a variety of comments across Youtube, Reddit, and Larian’s forums). I enjoyed getting to see so many different viewpoints and appreciated how civil (most of) the people on both sides were. It’s an interesting topic and here’s hoping game studios handle it better in the future.
If anyone reads this far and wants links to the threads, forums, and youtube comment sections, let me know.

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So, back on the 14th of March, I was bouldering with my kiddos at the local gym and climbed up on a little slab, probably a V3, and had my right foot on a small hold about 2-3 feet above the mat. As soon as my body weight centered over my foot, I slipped off the hold and came down. Unfortunately, the bottom of my foot gained purchase on the wall as it flattened out and my body weight against the friction of the shoe on the wall turned my foot 90 degrees and dislocated my ankle.
When I say it hurt, well, I am not sure I have ever felt pain this bad. Plus, because it was "stuck" in the dislocated position, the pain just didn't go away. I also had both my kids with me, which has been a fear of mine since we started. I, of course, knew injury was always a possibility, that is just how it is with this sport, but I never really knew how my kids would react. If I could say anything though, I would say I am a proud daddy. They didn't panic, they did exactly what I asked them to do, they stayed calm, gathered all our stuff and even though I have not been climbing, they have continued to go back while I recover.
Anywho, I don't really post this as a warning, it was a freak thing, and we all know injury is a possibility, especially as we advance in this sport and push ourselves, but I wanted to share my gnarly injury and my pride in my kiddos.
Also, (hopefully this is allowed) shout out to the staff at Austin Bouldering Project. They were amazing. They got me everything I needed, and one guy even sat outside with us as we waited for my SO to come pick us up to go to the ER. He talked to my kids about Minecraft and helped keep them calm and thinking about other stuff. They were true professionals!
The injury:https://imgur.com/a/jEyWsqv

April 2, 2024
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 6:15 PM
I have a few contacts now via twitter.
[6:16 PM]
I just love people who are all about saying fuck the establishment. To a degree.
[6:16 PM]
Wow!
[6:17 PM]
I got one that is banned permanently. Then a throw away one. And then my main one im vocal on
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 6:23 PM
Oh YOU ARE BLUE BALLS SECURITY?!?!
[6:23 PM]
Lmaooooo
[6:24 PM]
​
[6:25 PM]
Damn there alll out early today. Now Jess is live
[6:26 PM]
Absolutely!
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 6:34 PM
Awee shucks, well its been a nice distraction
[6:34 PM]
Who do you think is your favorite streamer of the Squirrels to watch?
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 6:45 PM
It was. A long but fun day
[6:47 PM]
But my stupid ex made me go out the night before and up till like 3AM. I was pissed.
[6:48 PM]
So I just rolled out of bed at like 1230-1 and uber down
[6:48 PM]
No make up or anything and threw comfys on and dipped
[6:48 PM]
Well thank you. I was a hot mess express
[6:49 PM]
5'7
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 6:52 PM
​
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 7:05 PM
Big plans for tonight?
[7:12 PM]
Watching the streamers! I just made it on Jess' poster! Shes putting all our names on her poster
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 7:28 PM
STOPPPP
[7:29 PM]
Where was that???
[7:29 PM]
Aweee shucks stopppp
[7:32 PM]
Danks
[7:34 PM]
Did DOA say he was coming back?
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 7:36 PM
Ahhh okay. Ill just stick on Jess' live for now
[7:40 PM]
Why??
[7:42 PM]
I try and not to be a rude person. I like engaging in conversations with people
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 7:44 PM
Your boy just went live
[7:48 PM]
Ill head over cause jess is just writing names on her poster lol
[7:48 PM]
Shoot streets is live
[7:48 PM]
And yellin at the 5-0
[7:48 PM]
Gotta watch that
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 7:59 PM
Wow
[7:59 PM]
UNDER CONTROL
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 8:15 PM
Nah.
[8:15 PM]
I dont have much of an appetite
[8:16 PM]
But Chris' chipotle does look good but Im always disappointed when I get it. Plus Im saving every nickel and dime I have right now. So deff not ordering out or anything for a while.
[8:19 PM]
What do you know how to make besides pizza?!?!
[8:19 PM]
Lol
[8:21 PM]
Meatloaf
[8:21 PM]
Spaghetti good
[8:21 PM]
Chicken long as its well done lol
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 8:22 PM
Hahaha im picky and get weird food adversions. I like everything fully cooked and well done
​
katocean. — 04/02/2024 8:47 PM
Ruhhh rooh!
[8:49 PM]
Its just starting to sleet / snow over here
[8:49 PM]
And my dog wont stop bothering me to go out. Im like ANNA PUP HUSH YOU DONT NEED TO POTTY EVERY HR
​
1
April 3, 2024
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katocean. — 04/03/2024 7:38 AM
Sorry I fell asleep so early last night
[7:40 AM]
Thank you! Just woke up, its deff snowing but not much yet
[7:41 AM]
Yay for April! And snow! You never know what youre gonna get in the midwest
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 7:47 AM
No I applied for an apartment yesterday so hoping to hear back today... applying for another one today. Thats about it. Im temp staying in Wisconsin at my moms. Trying to return to work next week
[7:47 AM]
How about you??
[7:52 AM]
We both live such exciting lives right now
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 7:55 AM
How? My life is so messed up right now. I cant wait to get back to normalcy soon. Back in my own place, working, my daily routine etc
[7:57 AM]
​
[7:57 AM]
​
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 8:12 AM
Whose that?
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 8:24 AM
Ewww
[8:24 AM]
Omg
[8:24 AM]
Lord
[8:24 AM]
Stop
[8:24 AM]
Wtf
[8:24 AM]
I look like a night crawler
[8:31 AM]
Gah idk what you're definition of beautiful is but that is NOT it
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 8:33 AM
Wtfff lmao. That girl was NOT PLAYIN WITH YA
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 8:53 AM
Boy you and your pizza I like plain cheese but a GOOD and mean has to be good, bacon, chicken, bbq hits every once in a while
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 9:15 AM
Ewww
[9:15 AM]
No
[9:15 AM]
I dont even like hot dogs.
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 9:24 AM
Apple duh
[9:24 AM]
You're probably an android weirdo
[9:24 AM]
K bye
[9:30 AM]
​
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 9:58 AM
I dont really drink pop but If I do it has to be coke. I used to like pepsi then I went to Europe and they only had coke... so then bam I made the switch ever since
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 11:07 AM
Mmm I guess horror. I prefer documentaries, war movies especially about WW2, Drama, biographical movies, etc
[11:08 AM]
I'm more of a serious person with a purpose
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 2:22 PM
Im just annoyed AF
[2:23 PM]
The application process for these two places are driving me up the fucking wall
[2:23 PM]
Its easier to buy a fucking gun then it is to apply for an apartment
[2:23 PM]
And im just beyond livid right now
[2:23 PM]
All I want to do is cry
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 3:05 PM
Do you have a million dollars you can send me? That would be helpful, okay Ill take 100k... i wont be greedy
[3:05 PM]
Thank you
[3:06 PM]
I want to go home so badly. I want nothing to do with my ex. I dont even want to see him but I want to be back in my "home" until I have somewhere of my own again
[3:06 PM]
I hate that all my stuff is still there, that im at my moms
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 3:31 PM
You have a better mind set then me
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 3:38 PM
Karma works too slow for me
[3:38 PM]
And never seems to happen
[3:40 PM]
Damn lol
[3:40 PM]
Or did YOU break it?!?! Lmao
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 3:50 PM
Oh lord I dont want to get into politics. But I am NOT a Trumper. I will say that. I'm a pretty liberal activists and wouldnt be a social worker if I wasnt. But I will say, from a fiscal standpoint I am more conservative as I got older & on my own. And I do recognize that we do better as an economy usually when a republican is president. But thats all Im gonna say about that
[3:52 PM]
Oh god I know. I wish we didnt have to go through these two bafoons again. I want new fresh faces, younger faces with progressive ideas. But I pretty much hate both sides at this moment in time and govt in general
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 3:57 PM
Agree
[3:58 PM]
Im about to be in therapy for the next hr so my lack of responses will be why
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 6:04 PM
I know I just sped through his stream and caught up. Im worried they are keeping his phones and computer and fur coat. Cause the officer is like "for further investigation"
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 6:26 PM
Just relaxing. Contemplating if Im going to eat dinner or not.
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 6:44 PM
No way sir
[6:44 PM]
Im in a depression funk
[6:46 PM]
I can give you my instagram if you want
[6:46 PM]
But deff no selfies right now
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 6:52 PM
You can find it idk how to link it
[6:52 PM]
Still have all my pictures with my ex tho
[6:52 PM]
Just havent felt like deleting yet
[6:53 PM]
Also please if you see him tagged dont message him or anything. Even if you think thats being helpful.
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 7:06 PM
No bueno
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 7:20 PM
No bueno = No good
​
katocean. — 04/03/2024 8:38 PM
Thank you
April 4, 2024
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katocean. — 04/04/2024 9:12 AM
Morning, thank you. You as well
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 11:54 AM
Go to St. Louis Scientology Squirrel right now
[11:54 AM]
Shes in the St louis org
[11:54 AM]
Under cover live
[11:54 AM]
Recording
[11:54 AM]
But keep it on the DL. We dont want to many people knowing
[11:55 AM]
On YY
[11:55 AM]
Yt**
[11:55 AM]
​
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 12:06 PM
No but it was great. Cant wait for the full replay to be posted
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 12:14 PM
My mom informed me she had the book back in the 70s and her & her first husband read it. And thought it was "interesting"... I'm like omg... I could have became a sciento! Thank god it was just a dabble into the book and nothing more
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 12:22 PM
Oh god
[12:22 PM]
Probably one I hate
[12:22 PM]
Oh and to answer your question earlier... yes, I want to move to the PNW badly. Thats my dream
[12:22 PM]
​
[12:25 PM]
Pshhh i know why its your favorite picture... creepy old men lol
[12:25 PM]
But I did post it as a thirst trap sorta bahahaha
[12:25 PM]
I've lost nearly 80lbs this last year
[12:26 PM]
I always was skinny but the last 5-6 years I put sooo much weight on. I got up to 210 and now down to like 130
[12:27 PM]
Which is great. But id love for other parts of my life to fall in place so i can just be happy overall
[12:27 PM]
Do you try and work out? Or anything?
[12:27 PM]
Maybe LESS pizza XXXXX! Lol
[12:27 PM]
Jk
[12:28 PM]
Have you talked with your doctor on getting on like Wegovy or Ozempic? Do you have insurance?
[12:28 PM]
It was a life saver for me
[12:28 PM]
Yeah fool. I found ur fb too. XXXXX XXXXX
[12:28 PM]
​
[12:29 PM]
I gotta know who im randomly talking to
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 12:29 PM
But you have nothing besides memes and rando pictures that i can see and emoji bits or whatever lmao
[12:30 PM]
Get yourself on like Tinder or Bumble or Ok Cupid or somethin!
[12:30 PM]
But you deff have to have pictures
[12:31 PM]
I dont know. Im not in any place to give dating advice. I cant even fathom doing that at all right now. Im just ready to be single and build myself back up.
[12:31 PM]
Sheesh
[12:31 PM]
Im sorry
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 12:37 PM
What do you think the issue is? Like not placing blame on you or anything... but when you do a deep dive into yourself what issues or things do you think makes it hard for a women to want to pursue anything further with you?
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 12:53 PM
The snap chat thing is a little creepy IMO
[12:53 PM]
So Im not surprised you arent getting much traction from that
[12:53 PM]
Yeah not having a car is a huge hinderance
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 1:11 PM
No. My mom does alll the time. Shes actually watching it right now lmao. I find them cheesy AF. Ha. One of my ex's & cousin are extras in those show allll the time
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 1:22 PM
Only medical show I can watch is Greys Anatomy. And its because Ive been watching it since I was 16... and just cant give it up. 19 almost 20 years now.
[1:22 PM]
And I was and like "oh god this would never happen IRL" lmao
[1:23 PM]
Its the story lines for me of the characters. Not necessarily the medical aspects and patients.
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 1:31 PM
I dont watch the Good doctor. I watched like 2 episodes when it first came out and I couldnt get past his insane autistic melt downs
[1:31 PM]
Lmao Im an asshole
[1:32 PM]
Cute what?
[1:34 PM]
Lets see how fast Sciento dad blocks me
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 1:41 PM
Oh fuck me
[1:42 PM]
Probably Kathy hopefully
[1:42 PM]
And not Kathleen lol
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 2:07 PM
No
[2:07 PM]
Lol
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 2:31 PM
Lol!
[2:31 PM]
Me and Scientology twitter back at it right now
[2:31 PM]
​
​
[2:31 PM]
I love the attempting gaslighting
[2:33 PM]
Hahaha i love toying with these little fuckers
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 2:48 PM
​
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 3:18 PM
No thank you
[3:18 PM]
Maybe 5-10 years ago
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 7:19 PM
Hey I took a really long afternoon nap just woke up
[7:20 PM]
Lol
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 7:28 PM
Probably like a deep purple
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 7:38 PM
Yeah pretty close
​
katocean. — 04/04/2024 9:30 PM
No
[9:30 PM]
Lol
[9:30 PM]
Sorry
April 5, 2024
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 8:31 AM
Sleeping, Ive been going to sleep early these days by like 9-10 ish or so
[8:32 AM]
Honestly, right now, I wake up wait for the day to go by just so I can go to sleep
[8:32 AM]
Im contemplating on returning to work next Tuesday
[8:37 AM]
I wish
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 8:52 AM
Basically between 1,300-1,400 fml
[8:52 AM]
All 1 bedroom, 1 bath
[8:52 AM]
Sucks
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 10:19 AM
Oh wow
[10:19 AM]
What kind of jobs do you do?
[10:19 AM]
What does your daughter do for work? Did you finish college with a degree or nah?
[10:24 AM]
How do you bring in any income, if you don't mind me asking? Are you on like disability?
[10:25 AM]
Like surveys?
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 10:27 AM
Ahhh okay just curious
[10:27 AM]
You gotta get on that and get that money
[10:33 AM]
My favorite up and coming person right now is HonestAv
[10:33 AM]
https://open.spotify.com/album/11ZfrqRpeCnGBAbJ8e50kH?si=E9lWAq4mTTibq7p9Yo25EA
​
[10:33 AM]
I relate to his songs so much
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 10:34 AM
Nah but his songs and lyrics are so relatable
[10:40 AM]
Ha. Im conservative. No more thirst traps.
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 11:01 AM
Aweee thats nice of her for something so simple
[11:01 AM]
My ex is my age
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 4:32 PM
Awee sorry to hear about your gmas cat, hope its ok!!
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 7:08 PM
Ha
[7:09 PM]
I put in a few more inquiries. I do have a back up plan for May though.
​
katocean. — 04/05/2024 7:20 PM
HOT
[7:20 PM]
hahahahah
April 6, 2024
​
ThaBiGGDoGG — 04/06/2024 3:34 PM
Not sure what I did that made you upset. I wish you lots of luck with what you are dealing with. I'm always here if you wanna talk.

9-minute read.

France welcomes the latest round of negotiations between foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Kazakhstan

FM Mirzoyan said the negotiations in Kazakhstan were held in a constructive environment and referred to the statement made after the meeting.
PARIS: France stresses the importance of both sides confirming their commitment to the Almaty Protocol of 1991 and to mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity as the core of this process, following the quadripartite meeting in Prague on 7 October 2022.
France calls to continue the delimitation of the border on the basis of the principles agreed in the declaration of April 19, 2024, and as an extension of the first demarcation work carried out on the ground. At the same time, it calls for continuing discussions with a view to signing a peace treaty between the two countries.
France welcomes the initiative of the Kazakh authorities to facilitate the holding of these talks.
France continues to work together with its partners to establish just and solid peace in the South Caucasus in accordance with international law. //
source, source, source, source,

OSCE: Reaching stable and comprehensive peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority for us

OSCE Chair-in-Office Ian Borg visited Armenia on Monday.
BORG: The only way to ensure comprehensive and stable peace is through diplomacy. The steps made towards border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan are the actions needed to reach peace. //
Pashinyan and Borg discussed the AM-OSCE cooperation and the peace talks.
BORG: The OSCE is committed to supporting stable peace, solving all conflicts in the OSCE area, and applying the organization’s mandate to ensure regional peace and stability. //
source, source,

opposition activists detained and released after briefly shutting down several streets in Yerevan

Last week the protest organizers, led by Archbishop Bagrat and MPs representing pro-Russian parties, called for strikes and road closures on Monday. They demand PM Pashinyan's resignation. The opposition parties have not yet disclosed when they plan to launch the impeachment process in the parliament. They likely have the minimum number of MPs to launch the impeachment but they'd still need dozens of ruling party MPs to join them for the motion to succeed, which is unlikely.
On Monday over 170 people were detained and released after blocking roads, including with the use of trash cans and hay. A red beret pushed a journalist out of his way while running up the stairs, sending him to the ground. Another journalist fainted during a clash between police and protesters. In the morning, Yandex Maps showed the traffic congestion in Yerevan at Level 5 on a scale of 1-10, a "usual workday".
In one instance, an angry driver got out of his car and pushed the trash can out of the street, while other cars proceeded to drive through the sparse group of protesters. Video.
ARF MP Garnik Danielyan, a co-organizer of the protest, engaged in a dispute with a driver. The angry driver told the MP to go "siktir", while the MP called him "chatlax". Video.
One protester suggested catching and "putting down" police officers one by one while they are alone, "because they feel good in large numbers." Video.
A psychotic incident was recorded between a protester and a bystandedriver who was presumably trying to open the road. The protester hit the man and called him "Nikol's trash". The police intervened to push the protesters out of the road.
During an encounter between a protester and one resident, the protester asked the latter if he was a Christian:
PROTESTER: Քրիստոնյա՞ ես
RESIDENT: Հա
PROTESTER: Հա ու համփ արա [suck my dick]
The resident pushes the protester, and the protester spits on him. Several people got off the buses and urged the protesters to leave or to "go protect the borders" instead. The red berets arrived within minutes and removed the trash cans and the small number of protesters from the road. video, video, video,
While the ARF has long been viewed as the voice of diaspora, other movements have emerged to challenge its dominance. The Armenian Movement of France has organized a change.org petition that calls to encourage Armenia's independence and Euro-Atlantic integration, to keep the church and state separate, and not take any destabilizing actions.
KHURSHUDYAN: They [ARF and protest organizers] are attempting to convince the diaspora to join them by influencing various organizations like the Lemkin Institute. It is strange that the Lemkin Institute released a statement accusing PM Pashinyan's Genocide statement of containing "victim blaming" only now, during these protests, several weeks after Pashinyan made that statement. It took a lot of effort for these forces to lobby and create the impression that the diaspora as a whole is on their side. //
The BEVER (Sasna Tsrer) party leaders said they are cooperating with the pro-Russian former regime parties but only on the issues of removing Pashinyan and stopping the border delimitation process.
BEVER (Ara Papyan): If Pashinyan resigns now and pro-Russian forces win the elections democratically, it will be the population's fault, not ours. // video
As you know from Sunday news digest, the pro-Russian forces and a group of ex-diplomats led by Kocharyan's Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, are against using the 1991 Almaty declaration as the basis for delimitation. Foreign Minister Mirzoyan was asked to comment on Monday.
MIRZOYAN: The Deputy PMs of Armenia and Azerbaijan, who are in charge of border commissions, have come to an agreement to launch the delimitation process taking into account the 1991 Almaty Declaration. This was welcomed by numerous states and international organizations. The foreign diplomats you mentioned are deserters who fled their duties while Armenia was under physical attack in 2021. I can no longer treat them seriously. That is the most civil language I can use toward them. In reality, by torpedoing the Almaty Declaration and the peace process based on Almaty, these ex-diplomats continue to torpedo the sovereignty, statehood, and territorial integrity of Armenia. In the best-case scenario, they do this without understanding, and in the worst-case scenario, they are following the orders of a foreign state. I don't have further comments. //
Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan said they will not hold daily meetings at Republic Square anymore, and that smaller gatherings will be held near the St. Anna church every evening to wrap up the day and discuss future plans. Yesterday Arman Babajanyan revealed a meeting between church officials. On Monday, Archbishop Galstanyan confirmed that he indeed met Catholicos on Sunday. Galstanyan was asked whether he plans to "transfer" the "leadership" of the movement to political parties. He said he is open to that idea: "Թող գան, վերցնեն, ով ցանկանում է:"
source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source,

Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Economic Affairs, the EU Trade Commissioner, will visit Armenia this week

Valdis Dombrovskis will meet Armenian and EBRD officials and take part in an annual meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors.
source, source,

PM Pashinyan is in Denmark for the "Copenhagen Democracy Summit"

Nikol Pashinyan will take part in the discussion on “From the frontline: Armenia’s defense of democracy.”
source,

Armenia will bring its consumer protection legislation in line with European standards

The head of Armenia's Competition Protection Commission visited Poland to participate in ICPEN (International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network).
They spoke about unfair business practices and how to combat them, online taxi service regulations, online casinos, discounting policies used by businesses, etc.
GEVORGYAN: Armenia is going through an important phase in terms of protecting the interests of consumers. Discussions are underway to align Armenia's consumer protection legislation with EU standards. It is necessary to use digital technologies and train skilled experts in this field.
source,

Russia begins withdrawing border agents near the border village Nerkin Hand: residents

The villagers noticed that the Russian soldiers were no longer observing the traffic from the observation post and that they were packing some of their stuff.
source, source,

anti-corruption: Patrol Police officer is charged with accepting a bribe from a driver

INTERIOR MINISTRY: In early March, two officers pulled over an Indian driver on Kievyan St. One of the officers demanded a ֏20,000 bribe to ignore the fact that the vehicle didn't pass a tech inspection. They negotiated it down to ֏7,000. The officer was charged with felony bribery. He confessed. The case is in court. //
source,

Yerevan Mayor Avinyan had a lightbulb moment

The city has purchased 6,000 LED lights producing 4000K white light. Mayor Avinyan instructed the department to install them only on roads and to purchase weaker 3000K bulbs for condo backyards in order not to disrupt sleep.
Last month the city replaced 8.6 kilometers of cables. The Mother Armenia statue and the Opera building will have new գեղարվեստական lighting.
source, source, video,

Yerevan implements GIS (geographic information system) to collect data from various sources and make targeted decisions based on visualized data: VIDEO

MAYOR AVINYAN: The Municipality and all the district offices are switching to a new management style with the introduction of GIS. Every department will join it, phase by phase. We are talking about digital maps which we must learn to use. This is going to significantly simplify some of the work done by departments.
OFFICIAL: This is part of the digitization strategy. This unified GIS platform will collect information from the cadastre, transport, Active Citizen app, utility services, construction, etc., and make them accessible in one place. The visual data allow us to carry out analysis and make fact-based decisions.
For example, we created a cadastre GIS by using a satellite image as the base layer, then integrated it with the cadastre database. This map shows in detail the boundaries of properties, the purpose and status of each land plot, etc.
Another example is a map of air pollution, prior records, and analytical tools.
The GIS map for the Active Citizen app allows us to see the submissions and the completed work, their locations on the map, and how well the city responds to issues reported by citizens. You can filter the issues by category. For example, you can show only the reports about illegal dumping, click on the report and see the image shared by the citizen, then click to see the status and the outcome of city's response. The tools allow you to analyze the data and the performance rate.
Another map shows the 3D image of the city with its buildings and green areas. Here we can calculate the capacity of bus stops, etc. Drones can be used to create a very detailed digital 3D copy of specific buildings.
You can click on a land plot and it'll pull up the ownership information, the permit records, etc.
Connecting two dots shows you the altitude differences and other data that you can use, for example, during the installation of irrigation pipes.
This is less than 1% of its potential. We plan to train employees next week.
MAYOR AVINYAN: We should make some of this data public, like the air quality map or certain maps that did not require financial resources to create [քձիբ խոզ]. This is a revolutionary change in the municipality. We need to speed up the work with the use of digital tools.
video,

Yerevan begins planting hundreds of adult "high-value" trees and thousands of bushes near the new promenade/park around the Yerevanyan Lake: VIDEO

video,

Central Bank chief was invited to Parliament to discuss economy and expenditures

MP: Regarding CB's report on the efficiency of service vehicles used by state agencies. The state buildings scheduled to receive solar panels should also be equipped with EV chargers so the service vehicles can use the energy generated by the panels. I requested information from Yerevan Municipality about the service vehicle expenditures and it shows that EVs are not only cheaper because of electricity, but also because they are overall more affordable to maintain. We are talking about large savings.
CB CHIEF: Our estimates show that EVs are 2x-3x more affordable compared to combustion engine vehicles, even if we factor in all the adjacent expenses. In Yerevan, we have [state] buildings with solar panels on roofs but [connecting them to EV chargers in the parking lot] will be very difficult because these are old and sometimes "historical" buildings. They also have problems with air conditioning, plumbing, etc. At the same time, we are trying to implement this solar panel project in the newer buildings, for example, in Dilijan, where we have EV chargers for service vehicles in the parking lots.
video,

Central Bank chief spoke about the deflation in Q1

RULING MP: It is great for our residents' pockets that the prices have fallen but what is its effect on the economy and exports? What is the best inflation rate to maintain a "balance"?
CB CHIEF: During the discussions with our colleagues from IMF, regarding regional and global events, we agreed that countries develop when the inflation is low and manageable. It encourages investments. In this regard, the overall microeconomic stability and the fiscal policy of Armenia create a very good environment for this predictability. This is one of our "cards" in our relations with foreign entities.
During each CB session, we discuss several market and inflation scenarios. Under one scenario there is a risk of inflation becoming too high, while under other scenarios it could remain low. We are trying to find the most balanced option and thank God we have been able to continuously lower the [refinancing] rates, which helps the state. //
Ըստ զեկուցողիդրամավարկային քաղաքականության ծրագրում ներկայացվող սցենարների համաձայն 2024 թվականի կարճաժամկետ հորիզոնում գնաճը կպահպանվի նպատակային ցուցանիշից ցածր մակարդակում` տարեվերջին այն կկազմի 1,3%-1,5%:
video, source,

Central Bank chief spoke about the refinancing rate, the rate at which the state borrows from banks, copper prices, etc.

video,

how did the family of Ilham Aliyev's security chief obtain so many properties in the United Kingdom?

Offshore companies owned by Eyyubov’s wife and daughter spent $114 million on real estate in the United Kingdom. The family, including Eyyubov himself, also own over $46 million in properties in Dubai.

OCCRP report,

growing concerns in Abkhazia that Putin might have secretly "sold" them to Georgia as a confederation in exchange for Georgia's neutrality between West and Russia

video,

(FOR WIKI VERSION CLICK HERE: https://whig.miraheze.org/wiki/Property_%26_Land)
Views on property by whigs varied, but one strain of thought put forth something like the follow. First, we should respect other people's (some might say creatures') autonomy and equal status as ends onto themselves, and we should try to not lessen or hurt each other. Second, if someone adds to themself without lessening another, they probably have not wronged anyone. Third, because of the first and second points, it follows that we can mix our labor with natural resources and have a property claim to the result, so long as we have not lessened, hurt, or restricted another in the process, by, for example, taking more than a fair share of land and thereby depriving others of a home or means to feed themselves.
Contrary to this thinking, there is a common thread running a thousand years through history. It starts with the Norman Invasion which imposed feudalism on the English people in the 11th century, it then runs to 12th century complaints about Normans hogging up land, it then runs to the Peasants' Revolt of the 14th century, then to the enclosure of the commons and depopulation of some villages to make way for wool production in the 16th century, then to English republicans denouncing this theft of the people's land in the 17th century, then to land reform efforts by whigs in the 18th and 19th centuries (including during the Anti-Rent War of New York), then to the housing crisis of the 21st century.
This is the common thread: the general public has suffered an unnecessary and unjust burden ever since a small class of people declared that the earth belonged to them alone, and imposed themselves on the villages, towns, and cities of England (later on the settlements in the colonies), by supposed right of the king, by supposed right of heaven. This insane system has largely survived until today by disguising itself as part of republicanism, but it is a remnant of feudalism. It is presented as the ideology of private land rights, when it is only the feudal theory of private land rights, and is in opposition to the classical republican theory which holds that land is a natural thing like the air, not the creation of humans, and that we all have an equal right to the land, to shelter ourselves in homes, to feed ourselves with produce, and to come together in a republican manner to decide the particulars of this equitable arrangement, like by imposing land value tax on those granted the privilege of holding more or better land than average.
QUOTES

"The same law of nature, that does by this means give us property, does also bound that property too. . . As much as any one can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, so much he may by his labour fix a property in: whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to others. . . But the chief matter of property being now not the fruits of the earth, and the beasts that subsist on it, but the earth itself; as that which takes in and carries with it all the rest; I think it is plain, that property in that too is acquired as the former. As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property. . . Nor was this appropriation of any parcel of land, by improving it, any prejudice to any other man, since there was still enough, and as good left; and more than the yet unprovided could use. So that, in effect, there was never the less left for others because of his enclosure for himself: for he that leaves as much as another can make use of, does as good as take nothing at all. No body could think himself injured by the drinking of another man, though he took a good draught, who had a whole river of the same water left him to quench his thirst: and the case of land and water, where there is enough of both, is perfectly the same."

—John Locke (Two Treatises of Government, book 2 chapter 5)

". . . a right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that no one has a right to obstruct another, exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature. . ."

—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 1816)

"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, & to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour & live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed. It is too soon yet in our country to say that every man who can not find employment but who can find uncultivated land, shall be at liberty to cultivate it, paying a moderate rent. But it is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state."

—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to James Madison, 1785)

"It has been pretended by some (and in England especially) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions; & not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. but while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural, and even an hereditary right to inventions. it is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. by an universal law indeed, whatever, whether fixed or moveable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property, for the moment, of him who occupies it; but when he relinquishes the occupation the property goes with it. stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. it would be curious then if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. if nature has made any one thing less susceptible, than all others, of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an Idea; which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the reciever cannot dispossess himself of it. it’s peculiar character too is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. he who recieves an idea from me, recieves instruction himself, without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, recieves light without darkening me. that ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benvolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point; and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement, or exclusive appropriation. inventions then cannot in nature be a subject of property. society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility. but this may, or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from any body."

—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to Isaac McPherson, 1813)

"Establish the principle also in the new law to be passed for protecting copyrights & new inventions, by securing the exclusive right for 19 [years]."

—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to James Madison, 1789)

"Consequently there is as yet no such thing as a street except adjacent to the lots actually sold or divided; the erection of a house in any part of the ground cannot as yet be a nuisance in law. Mr. Carrol is tenant in common of the soil, with the public, and the erection of a house by a tenant in common on the common property is no nuisance. Mr. Carrol has acted imprudently, intemperately, foolishly; but he has not acted illegally. There must be an establishment of the streets before his house can become a nuisance in the eye of the law. Therefore till that establishment neither Majr. Lenfant, nor the Commissioners would have had a right to demolish his house without his consent."

—Thomas Jefferson (Enclosure: Observations on L'Enfant's Letter, 1791)

"It is a position not to be controverted that the earth, in its natural, uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the common property of the human race. In that state every man would have been born to property. He would have been a joint life proprietor with rest in the property of the soil, and in all its natural productions, vegetable and animal. But the earth in its natural state, as before said, is capable of supporting but a small number of inhabitants compared with what it is capable of doing in a cultivated state. And as it is impossible to separate the improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which that improvement is made, the idea of landed property arose from that parable connection; but it is nevertheless true, that it is the value of the improvement, only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated lands, owes to the community a ground-rent (for I know of no better term to express the idea) for the land which he holds. . . There could be no such thing as landed property originally. Man did not make the earth, and, though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part of it; neither did the Creator of the earth open a land-office, from whence the first title-deeds should issue. Whence then, arose the idea of landed property? I answer as before, that when cultivation began the idea of landed property began with it, from the impossibility of separating the improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which that improvement was made. The value of the improvement so far exceeded the value of the natural earth, at that time, as to absorb it; till, in the end, the common right of all became confounded into the cultivated right of the individual. But there are, nevertheless, distinct species of rights, and will continue to be, so long as the earth endures. It is only by tracing things to their origin that we can gain rightful ideas of them, and it is by gaining such ideas that we, discover the boundary that divides right from wrong, and teaches every man to know his own. . . While, therefore, I advocate the right, and interest myself in the hard case of all those who have been thrown out of their natural inheritance by the introduction of the system of landed property, I equally defend the right of the possessor to the part which is his. Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever made by human invention. It has given to created earth a tenfold value. But the landed monopoly that began with it has produced the greatest evil. It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for them, as ought to have been done, an indemnification for that loss, and has thereby created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist before. . . It is not charity but a right, not bounty but justice, that I am pleading for. The present state of civilization is as odious as it is unjust. It is absolutely the opposite of what it should be, and it is necessary that a revolution should be made in it. . . It is the practice of what has unjustly obtained the name of civilization. . . to make some provision for persons becoming poor and wretched only at the time they become so. Would it not, even as a matter of economy, be far better to adopt means to prevent their becoming poor?. . ."

—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)

"I care not how affluent some may be, provided that none be miserable in consequence of it."

—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)

"Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came."

—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)

"The law which prohibited people's having two inheritances was extremely well adapted for a democracy. It derived its origin from the equal distribution of lands and portions made to each citizen. The law would not permit a single man to possess more than a single portion. . . It is not sufficient in a well regulated democracy that the divisions of land be equal; they ought also to be small, as was customary among the Romans. 'God forbid, said Curius to his soldiers, that a citizen should look upon that as a small piece of land, which is sufficient to support a man.'"

—Charles Montesquieu (The Spirit of Laws, book 5)

"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, part 2)

"In general, to establish the right of the first occupier over a plot of ground, the following conditions are necessary: first, the land must not yet be inhabited; secondly, a man must occupy only the amount he needs for his subsistence; and, in the third place, possession must be taken, not by an empty ceremony, but by labour and cultivation, the only sign of proprietorship that should be respected by others, in default of a legal title."

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract, book 1 section 9)

"In granting the right of first occupancy to necessity and labour, are we not really stretching it as far as it can go? Is it possible to leave such a right unlimited? Is it to be enough to set foot on a plot of common ground, in order to be able to call yourself at once the master of it? Is it to be enough that a man has the strength to expel others for a moment, in order to establish his right to prevent them from ever returning? How can a man or a people seize an immense territory and keep it from the rest of the world except by a punishable usurpation, since all others are being robbed, by such an act, of the place of habitation and the means of subsistence which nature gave them in common? When Nunez Balboa, standing on the sea-shore, took possession of the South Seas and the whole of South America in the name of the crown of Castile, was that enough to dispossess all their actual inhabitants, and to shut out from them all the princes of the world? On such a showing, these ceremonies are idly multiplied, and the Catholic King need only take possession all at once, from his apartment, of the whole universe, merely making a subsequent reservation about what was already in the possession of other princes."

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract, book 1 section 9)

"The like may be said in relation to my house, land, or estate; I may do what I please with them, if I bring no damage upon others. But I must not set fire to my house, by which my neighbour’s house may be burnt. I may not erect forts upon my own lands, or deliver them to a foreign enemy, who may by that means infest my country. I may not cut the banks of the sea, or those of a river, lest my neighbour’s ground be overflown, because the society into which I am incorporated, would by such means receive prejudice. My land is not simply my own, but upon condition that I shall not thereby bring damage upon the publick, by which I am protected in the peaceable enjoyment and innocent use of what I possess."

—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 3 section 41)

"The like continued amongst Jacob’s sons; no jurisdiction was given to one above the rest: an equal division of land was made amongst them: Their judges and magistrates were of several tribes and families, without any other preference of one before another, than what did arise from the advantages God had given to any particular person. This I take to be a proof of the utmost extent and certainty, that the equality amongst mankind was then perfect. . ."

—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 1 section 12)

"Men can hardly at once foresee all that may happen in many ages, and the changes that accompany them ought to be provided for. Rome in its foundation was subject to these defects, and the inconveniences arising from them were by degrees discover’d and remedi’d. They did not think of regulating usury, till they saw the mischiefs proceeding from the cruelty of usurers; or setting limits to the proportion of land that one man might enjoy, till the avarice of a few had so far succeeded, that their riches were grown formidable, and many by the poverty to which they were reduced became useless to the city."

—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 2 section 13)

"That the too long continued shame of this Nation, viz. permission of any to suffer such poverty as to beg their bread, may be forthwith effectually remedied; and to that purpose, that the poor be enabled to chuse their Trustees to discover all Stocks, Houses, Lands, &c. which of right belong to them and their use, that they may speedily receive the benefit thereof, and that some good improvement may be made of waste Grounds for their use. . ."

—John Lilburne (An Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver Cromwel)

"As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce."

—Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, book 1 chapter 6)

"The thirteenth ORDER. . . every man who is at present possest, or shall hereafter be possest of an estate in land exceeding the revenue of two thousand pounds a year, and having more than one son, shall leave his lands either equally divided among them, in case the lands amount to above 2000 l. a year to each; or so near equally in case they com under, that the greater part or portion of the same remaining to the eldest, excede not the value of two thousand pounds revenue. And no man, not in present possession of lands above the value of two thousand pounds by the year, shall receive, enjoy (except by lawful inheritance) acquire, or purchase to himself lands within the said territorys, amounting, with those already in his possession, above the said revenue."

—James Harrington (Oceana)

"All Property indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents & all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity & the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man for the Conservation of the Individual & the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who by their Laws have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire & live among Savages.— He can have no right to the Benefits of Society who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it."

—Benjamin Franklin (a letter to Robert Morris, 1783)

"I think it could never be, that the best of the Proprietaries located uncultivated Lands should be taxed no higher than the worst of those of the People; that being so manifestly unjust. Nor that a Medium Rate should be fix’d on for all that kind of Lands, as this would be too high for some, and too low for others. Nor that the common Rate should be taken from the worst kind; for this would lay the Burthen chiefly on that kind, which is unjust and oppressive to the poorer People."

—Benjamin Franklin (a letter to Richard Jackson, 1764)

"It gives me Pain my Lord! to observe that the prevailing monopoly of Lands in this Colony has become a Grievance to the lower Class of People in it; and confines the Bounty of our gracious Sovereign to mercenary Land-Jobbers, and Gentlemen who have already shared very largely in the royal Munificence."

—John Jay (a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, 1773)

"That the right of the Poor, in their Commons, may be preserved, and freed from the Usurpations, Enclosures, and Encroachments of all manner of Projectors, Undertakers, &c. and that all servile Tenures of Lands, as by Copy-holds, or the like, be abolished and holden for naught."

—Leveller tract (The Fundamental Lawes and Liberties of England claimed, asserted, and agreed unto, by severall Peaceable Persons of the City of London, Westminster, Southwark, Hamblets, and Places adjacent; commonly called Levellers.)

"The right to property being inviolable and sacred, no one ought to be deprived of it, except in cases of evident public necessity, legally ascertained, and on condition of a previous just indemnity."

—National Assembly of France (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens)

BARPOD relevance: WPATH files/surgical intervention, strange internet communities; gender identity, Body-modification (Helen Lewis’ former BMEzine interest in episode 210!), potential new kinks for Katie to tease Jesse about;
Initial warning: NSFW discussion of surgery (in medical context and self-performed)
A couple of “interesting” unrelated stories in the last week that "maybe" have some interlinking ideas (feel free to challenge my logic on this!).
Obviously starting with the "main event", in the UK a ringleader of a pay-per-view website where users could watch men “consensually” having their genitalia amongst other body parts removed (the full case reports are harrowing and not for the faint of heart) largely as a fetish practice* has been jailed for a minimum of 22 years (actually an extremely long sentence here; by contrast a high-profile acid attacker received a 6 years minimum and served just 9 but that’s another story!). Now live-streamed castrations aren't exactly my cup of tea for casual supper-time viewing (Dr Pimple Popper on YT is more my thing), but I suppose the saying “one man's meat is another man's poison” is rather apt! The ringleader himself had also had the “surgery” (done with a popular brand of kitchen knife I happen to own as the BBC had to share - mine's used strictly for culinary use) to become a eunuch or a “nullo”. The case has called to mind a few prominent legal precedents such as R v Brown 1993 (confirming once and for all that hammering nails into certain sensitive body parts for pleasure is a crime - we Brits are such prudes!) or R v Peacock 2012 (aka the “fisting trial”) and where the murky question on the legal thresholds of consent were discussed.
'Eunuch-maker' mutilator jailed for 22 years - BBC News (worryingly BBC's reporting is tamer than others!)
I found the above an interesting contrast with similarly timed news on other bodily amendment: the article on the complex case of the man with Body Integrity Disorder legally having fingers removed (shared by a fellow BARPOD member, linked below), and an article (it's Daily Mail, but is 100% legitimate) on a wave of novel reassignment surgeries for nonbinary individuals (or "bigenital" or "salmacian" genders) available in the States. I had heard of “nullo” surgery (i.e. the Ken/Barbie doll surgery) as part of the WPATH “Standards of Care 8 (Section 88 referencing Eunuch surgery), but this newer surgery offers the option of a hybrid to ultimately have both a penis and a vagina. What does shock me is how unlike with classic transgender surgeries where there is a much longer history of research into both Gender Identify Disorder and physical/psychological impact of surgery dating back to the early 20^th century (albeit much we are finding now to be low quality), with nonbinary surgery there really is…. pretty much nothing. There is barely any scientific or even social consensus on how this identity is defined (no clinical thresholds like with traditional GID), only a handful of sociology surveys – this truly is “experimental” treatment, much akin to the advent of puberty blocker use.

Looking into one of the leading surgeons in this space performing this surgery (I won't name here to avoid any pile-on and as I think this discussion is bigger than one surgeon alone) it doesn’t give much reassurance for me – obviously they have all the appropriate medical qualifications for surgery, but also a degree minor in Gender Studies. I’ll admit perhaps an unfair mental stretch on my part but it did make me wonder the extent the known capture on campuses/medical academia in general PLUS in this case the more radical/laissez faire ideas coming from Queer Theory in these sorts of "grievance studies" courses, could influence upon into the boundaries a surgeon feels comfortable pushing (is it a case of “anything to satisfy the patients whims”). My biggest hang-up here is how these surgeons have now accepted that an individual could "naturally" and "healthily" desire something that they themselves have had to invent on the operating table (not found in nature beyond maybe some intersex deformities) - it feels very far-removed from wanting the bodily appearance of a healthy member of the opposite sex (e.g. a transman wanting pecs as per a biological man).

In terms of the crossover, whilst taking place in different states (UK, Canada, USA), I can’t help but wonder how different the first-mentioned legal case would have looked had the individuals involved essentially performing somewhat similar bodily modifications to find their “true selves” had actively identified as “non-binary”, BID, or “nullo” in the trial (even if superficially as a sneaky legal defence). Would they have received lesser sentences for being higher up on the “progressive pyramid”? (I'd place good money saying yes and the guy should look sternly at his lawyers for not suggesting this tactic!) - if he did would Trans Rights Activists and the non-binary community protest fiercely on the streets for them to be pardoned? - would left-wing publications like Pink News describe the case with more sympathy (e.g. how they were "let down" by the medical system for failing to provide accessible surgeries)?
*BIG caveat with all the above: obviously for the "Eunuch-maker" this was very clearly a kink/fetish practice (whereas non-binary surgery would not necessarily have any sexual motive, and is coming from a place of compassion, even if arguably misplaced), but given the extremeness and permanence involved and seeming "contentedness" at the results for him, this for me does almost cross the line into a Body Integrity Disorder space as afterall that too can involve a paraphilia. I do think it poses questions about whether kinksters could fall into using these new legitimate medical channels, and exactly how far we should allow voluntary body modification. I'm a lefty-liberal so my gut always leans to "you have one life, do what you want with your body", however my fear with the nonbinary surgery is this could go the way of puberty blockers and trans reassignment surgery whereby it is no longer a last-resort but advocated as the first and most appropriate treatment.
Inside the bizarre rise of the 'phalgina': Cosmetic clinics are offering 'grotesque' £10,000 surgery to craft non-binary people a penis AND vagina Daily Mail Online (obviously coming from a particular bias and not the most compassionately written, but does summarise the surgeries accurately)
Also mentioned:
Quebec man has two healthy fingers amputated to relieve 'body integrity dysphoria' : BlockedAndReported (reddit.com) (Eartern_Camera_2222's post)
R v Brown - Wikipedia
R v Peacock - Wikipedia (worth it for the cheeky photo alone)
Fantastic (and bizarre) long read on the Peacock case and others and this area: One lawyer’s crusade to defend extreme pornography Law The Guardian
WPATH World Professional Association for Transgender Health