"Plankton's Epiphany" Script

**Title Card: "Plankton's Epiphany"**
**Act 1: Introduction**
**Scene 1: Krusty Krab**
*SpongeBob is happily cooking Krabby Patties, and Mr. Krabs is counting money.*
**SpongeBob**: (singing) ♪ Flippin' patties, making dreams come true! ♪
**Mr. Krabs**: (laughing) Ah, another day of profits!
*Plankton peeks in from a window.*
**Plankton**: (determined) Today, I get that formula!
**Scene 2: Plankton’s Latest Attempt**
*Plankton uses a small robot to sneak into the Krusty Krab. It gets caught in a mousetrap.*
**Plankton**: (angry) Why does nothing ever work?!
**Scene 3: Plankton's Chum Bucket Laboratory**
*Plankton is at his desk, surrounded by failed plans to steal the Krabby Patty formula.*
**Plankton**: (frustrated) Another day, another failed attempt. How can I ever compete with that greedy crab?
*Karen the Computer appears on a screen.*
**Karen**: Plankton, you have a letter. It’s from Dr. Karen.
**Plankton**: Dr. Karen? My old college friend? (opens letter)
**Letter Voiceover**: "Dear Plankton, we're having a college reunion. Everyone has moved on and found their own path. I hope you can join us and share your successes. Best, Dr. Karen."
*Plankton's face shows a mix of nostalgia and sadness.*
**Plankton**: (sighs) Success... (crumples letter) What success?
**Act 2: Conflict and Realization**
**Scene 4: Plankton's Decision**
*Back at the Chum Bucket, Plankton is sitting alone.*
**Plankton**: (reflective) Maybe...maybe it's time to stop trying to steal the formula. Maybe I should create something of my own.
*Plankton starts sketching new recipe ideas.*
**Scene 5: Plankton’s Struggle**
*Plankton is in the kitchen, experimenting with different ingredients. Every attempt ends in disaster.*
**Plankton**: (frustrated) This is impossible! Why can’t I get it right?
*SpongeBob enters, holding a Krabby Patty.*
**SpongeBob**: Hi, Plankton! Need some help?
**Plankton**: (sighs) Sure, SpongeBob. I need all the help I can get.
**Scene 6: SpongeBob Helps**
*SpongeBob and Plankton work together in the kitchen. Plankton starts to enjoy the process.*
**SpongeBob**: (smiling) Cooking is all about love and creativity, Plankton. You can do it!
**Plankton**: (determined) You're right, SpongeBob. Let's try one more time.
**Act 3: Resolution**
**Scene 7: Plankton’s Success**
*Plankton creates a new, delicious recipe. SpongeBob takes a bite and smiles.*
**SpongeBob**: Plankton, this is amazing! You did it!
**Plankton**: (proudly) I did, didn't I? This is my own creation!
**Scene 8: Mr. Krabs’ Appreciation**
*Mr. Krabs enters the Chum Bucket.*
**Mr. Krabs**: (surprised) I heard you made somethin' special, Plankton. Let me try.
*Mr. Krabs tastes the new dish and nods appreciatively.*
**Mr. Krabs**: Well, I’ll be. This is pretty good. Good job, Plankton.
**Plankton**: (smiling) Thanks, Krabs. Maybe I don't need your formula after all.
**Closing**
**Scene 9: Plankton Reflects**
*Plankton stands outside the Chum Bucket, looking at the sunset.*
**Plankton**: (to himself) I’ve spent so long chasing someone else’s dream. It's time to build my own.
*SpongeBob joins him.*
**SpongeBob**: What are you thinking about, Plankton?
**Plankton**: Just that...maybe there's more to life than stealing that formula. Maybe I can make something great on my own.
*They both smile, looking forward to new beginnings.*
**End Title Card: "The End"**
**Lesson**: True success comes from originality and persistence, not from taking shortcuts.

Edit: If you are going to comment on the length of this post, please don't. This is not a simple snark but rather an actual critical think piece about feminism and Taylor Swift.

Introduction

Pertaining to Taylor Swift, "Female Rage" has deviated from its intended meaning after Swift debuted a new performance of The Tortured Poets Department during the Eras Tour. Now, according to Swift's use of the phrase, female rage is interpreted as public backlash against Swift's dating choices rather than as a response to the broader injustices against women and women's rights. This post examines Taylor Swift's flawed feminism, philanthropy, branding, and the controversial trademark petition for the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical". Swift's background as an entertainer, indeterminate politics, and alignment with capitalism over feminism pervades her legacy, again threatening her public tolerance as not just an individual but as a brand.

Once Upon a Female Rage...

If you were cognizant in the early 2010's, you've heard countless jabs at Taylor Swift in the media. Magazines, radio, or online. Music critics did not take her seriously as a songwriter; parents put a woman on an unrealistic pedestal as the ideal role model for their children; she dated too much and used men as lyrical fodder. No matter the story, it inevitably spread, conjoined with everyone's respective opinions, and you'd be left to wonder, "Why does everyone hate this girl so much?"
Taylor's target demographic has always been young or adolescent girls, more so when Swift herself was one. She made music that spoke to the awkward misfit, cultivating a para-social relationship with fans on MySpace, then later twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where Taylor posted relatable vlogs showcasing the life of a homegrown American girl. Taylor had a delayed public "growing up" and, compared to her female pop contemporaries, Swift never "gratuitously sexualized her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy" (and, apparently, never even had a sip of alcohol until she turned 21). She was more than happy to spin this narrative to allude to an inherent moral superiority above other women in the industry (Better Than Revenge, heard of it?), engaging in the very slut-shaming that she herself endured (the Madonna and Whore archetypes). The victim complex arose with the need to prove Taylor as a different type of pop girl. Based upon her holy and clean image, Swift had been dubbed "a feminist's nightmare", and that "[To Swift] other girls are obstacles; undeserving enemies who steal Taylor’s soulmates with their bewitching good looks and sexual availability." Feminism and Tennessee-Christian country values don't exactly mix, it seems.
Years later, Swift befriended Lena Dunham and thus experienced white feminism osmosis, where Dunham taught Swift that real feminists defend rapists, makes insensitive jokes about rape and abortion, and prioritize all-white casts. Swift then declared herself a feminist in 2014, saying,

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."

I suppose the male-centric songwriting subject that permeates Swift's discography contained covert feminism and that we just didn't see that. Perhaps, the "Bad Blood" song and music video were written only in jest and not about poor Katy Perry, for Swift, as a feminist, would "never make it a girl fight" or tear other women down (though all Katy did was date your terrible ex-boyfriend and allegedly steal three backup dancers from your tour). In 2013, Swift said, in response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's joke towards her serial dating, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There was that time in 2015 Taylor said that Nicki Minaj was "invited to any stage [she is] on" (as if Taylor expects to have access to every stage, award, and platform that Nicki might not otherwise have as a black female artist...yikes!) in response to Nicki's criticism of the white + thin VMA nominations. Later, Nicki responded with confusion, as Swift continued, "It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..". Of course, this 'beef' was 'squashed' when Nicki performed with Taylor at the VMAs, with Nicki quite literally only having 38 seconds of stage time without Taylor. Maybe all that parading around with a legion of famous white women - similar to the way Taylor might've done with her numerous 1989-era handbags - was in fact a stance against gender inequality, and that this display of "girl power" should be enough to constitute Swift as a feminist icon.
Even while Swift says that Dunham informed her feminist outlook, she dances around the exact contents of those beliefs: "what she believes, what she says, what she stands for" is not exactly insightful towards what beliefs Swift might have inherited. Taylor never broaches women's rights topics such femicide, FGM, forced pregnancy & marriage, sex trafficking, women in slavery, women's financial and political oppression, women's educational rights, women's health, or women's autonomy, so we can assume she only gives a fuck about "girls supporting girls" (whatever that fucking means).
Despite some questionable (and sometimes vindictive) behavior, Taylor as a young woman did not deserve every media lashing that she received. We cannot deny that most headlines and criticisms perpetuated a misogynistic rhetoric which has plagued Swift for a majority of her career. Acknowledging events such as the development of her ED, her sexual assault trial, "Famous" lyric and MV depiction of Taylor, and the explicit Twitter deepfakes, for example, as both disgusting and unfortunate things that happened to a young woman in Hollywood does not negate the fact that Taylor is mostly a performative feminist.

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

In 2013, Taylor Swift cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The donation amount - $4 million - was the largest individual artist gift ever donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is, of course, mentioned on Swift's website. The two-story facility features three classrooms, an instrument room, and an interactive children's exhibit gallery. Swift also performed at "All for the Hall" charity shows and has donated numerous artifacts from her career (such as notable guitars, tour costumes, etc) to the museum.
This was over 11 years ago, and it is still the only notable philanthropic contribution Taylor Swift has made.
For a woman of her net worth and stature, and a woman who recognizes the difficulties for women in film and music, you would think that Taylor Swift might establish a scholarship program for women to study the arts or something. Perhaps Swift might even consider becoming a member of organizations that support female artists, or one that supports LGBTQ+ causes (since she is now proudly an ally), yet she remains superficial with her graces. Broader philanthropy, such as donating relief aid to Palestinian women or women impacted by violence and discrimination will probably never receive any financial support from Miss Swift because then she'd be using her money towards philanthropies involving anyone but white entertainers.
She even says herself in Miss Americana, "My entire moral code as a kid and now is a need to be thought of as 'good'." Well, she's certainly thought of as good, though her actions say otherwise. She's more than happy to do a vaguely altruistic song and dance for a clip-worthy interview quote and mass appeasement, then fuck off to one of her mansions on a 20 minute private jet flight, rather than actually contribute to anything pertaining to the causes she has endorsed. Yet, far too many people continue to give a woman such as her their money, time, and energy, and she hoards these resources to herself.

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

Swift continued with her self-proclaimed feminist campaign, positioning herself as a political activist and LGBTQ+ ally in the Miss Americana documentary. The primary focus of the documentary consists of the sexual assault trial, Andrea Swift's cancer diagnosis, Taylor's ED and body dysmorphia, media scrutiny, and, largely, finally speaking up about her politics publicly, mostly her opposition to the 2018 Tennessee Republican senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn's beliefs. Swift says, following a scene discussing her experience during the trial,

"I just couldn't really stop thinking about it. And I just thought to myself, next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say."

We must ask ourselves, though: when has Swift ever spoken up to change anything? Okay, pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify because they didn't pay their artists enough and similarly pulling her catalogue from Apple Music are changes that she leveraged due to her revenue potential and power, but they are not pertinent to the average woman's rights. Moreover, these are issues that directly impacted Taylor's income, which was enough reason for her to protest in the first place. Swift has sold the most units for a female artist in first week sales, is the first female artist with 100k monthly Spotify listeners, is the first female artist to win the Album of the Year Grammy 4 times, and is the first female artist to do X, Y, and Z, all while being inoffensive and family-friendly to boot. The actual Taylor Swift seems unwilling to compromise the brand of Taylor Swift by contributing in meaningful ways to feminist causes, especially if it is for women outside of America and Hollywood.
The reason political anthems such as "The Man" and "Only the Young" of the Lover era feel disingenuous and corporate is because, well, it is. Taylor has taken every opportunity to advance her career or public image at the expense of other women. What is truly genuine to Taylor's outlook on other women is vying for male attention, taking down female competition, and vocalizing feminist injustices only if they directly impact her and her money. Some will argue that it's satisfactory for a woman with such a huge platform to even TALK about feminism, but that just isn't enough. It's even less impressive when you candidly look at the scope of her feminist lens: "If I was the man, then I'd be THE MAN", or "I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do", and, of course, "We all got crowns". Feminism, but only when it happens to me. It gets worse when you look at Taylor's track record of copying other famous women and removing other female artists as potential threats to her pop prowess.
It's good for PR to align yourself with certain blanket feminist and political beliefs, therefore good for branding, therefore good for ticketing and merchandise sales, therefore good for business. And Taylor Swift is a business.
She's not a feminist. Taylor Swift is a capitalist.

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

Recently, Taylor's team filed to trademark the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical" after Taylor said during Paris N1 of the Eras Tour,

"So you were the first ones to see The Tortured Poets at the Eras Tour...or as I like to call it, 'Female Rage: The Musical'."

This trademark petition was filed last week on Saturday, and news comes about just as numerous unofficial fan-made merch designs have cropped up with this phrase plastered on Fruit of the Loom basics. I'm of the opinion Swift's team motioned for a trademark so that they can send out cease & desists to all those that make knockoff merch, which disrupts potential sales for Bravado, UMG's choice merchandising company; however, since it was filed earlier, perhaps Swift has bigger plans with the bizarre use of the gendered phrase. One Swiftie referred to the phrase "female rage" as "a funny Eras Tour joke". Could it be a possible fourth version of the Eras Tour Movie? Whatever the reason, the motion to capitalize off of such a concept is disgusting, but not unsurprising, for a woman that profits on her vain feminism.
Swift, through her company, TAS Rights Managements, has also trademarked over 200 phrases, including "1989", where she owns the property rights to this calendar year on keychains, phone cases, sunglasses, stationary, bags, beverage ware, clothing, entertainment services, your subconscious, and, of course, Christmas ornaments.
The vapid consumerism in Swiftie culture is, frankly, disgusting. Bravado's sustainability statement is non-existent, the quality control is abysmal, and the materials they use are horrible. The materials, such as acrylic and polyester, are made from petrochemicals. This means they are non-renewable, shed microplastics, and are quite toxic in production. The manufacturing process to make all of those lazy-rushed Eras Tour logo graphic tees is a huge blow to environmental well-being. Apparently, though, Swifties don't give a fuck. They sell out products in seconds and either have to face the manufactured scarcity or buy from a scalper that resells for 200% of the already ridiculous retail price. This doesn't include the environmental impact of vinyl records, CD, and cassette production, of which Taylor produces many variants that sell unsustainable amounts.
If we're talking about women's rights violations, why is no one acknowledging the women that work in the inhumane sweatshop conditions that have to pump out fugly t-shirts and hats? The millions of plastic microfiber dander they are inhaling, or the toxic dyes that touch their bare skin? Are they being compensated fairly for their skilled labour and are they in safe working environments? Do these women have minimal bargaining power, and do they have authority over their worker's rights? Is Taylor Swift female raging at their injustices? Does Taylor Swift ever feels bad that her wealth was built on the backs of women of color, disadvantaged by the demands of the global economy and garment industry? Do you think she ever says a little white feminist prayer for them before she goes to sleep at night?
What's even crazier is not that Taylor herself doesn't care, it's that Swifties don't care. There CANNOT BE ethical billionaires. You only make a billion dollars if you are exploiting other human beings for capital gain. Based on public perception of the possible "Female Rage: The Musical" trademark, it seems like Swifties are already asking for merch with this phrase. "If Taylor made it, I'd buy it." Oh, cool. So not only do you champion Miss Swift's avarice and billionaire status, but you also are unashamed to admit to your blind consumption of her music and merchandise, no matter where they might originate in production or sincerity. Just as Swift takes and takes and takes, Swifties' consumerism of Taylor Swift cannot be quelled.
The tortured artist's most vulnerable and sincere poetry...available now in 21 different versions!

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Look - even if Taylor's intention is to characterize TTPD as more "tortured" and "angry", the main thread of the album is "I was ghosted by my decade-long situationship with a controversial indie boy and my fucking stupid fans wrote a 'Speak Up Now' open letter prompting me to drop him" anger, which is adequately expressed in the lyrics and performances. The extent of Taylor's "female rage" on TTPD is on tracks such as "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", which contends with relentless media scrutiny; "But Daddy I Love Him", where Swift firmly states she'll date whoever she likes no matter how "Sarahs and Hannahs" may react; and "The Albatross", a track mythologizing her reputation and the consequences of dating her. Of course, these coincide with deep psychological wounds that formed during Swift's early years in the media, and so, from her feminist perspective, these subjects tackle the misogyny and double standards that she faced.
Yet Taylor Swift still has no grounds to be claiming that TTPD best exemplifies female rage and therefore she, in the context of this album, is female rage incarnate. As the daughter of a stock broker and mutual fund marketing executive, Taylor was born into wealth and allowed privileges like trips and subsequent relocation to Nashville all so that she might get a record deal. Her father even invested at least $120,000 into the then-fledgling label, Big Machine Records, which ensured Taylor's place with Borchetta after leaving her dead-end development deal with Sony. The fact that her parents were able to buy her a fucking brand new guitar for Christmas and pay for music lessons says so much about the financial security and safety of her childhood.
Money is privilege and protection, and despite Swift's experiences with misogyny and loser boyfriends, she does not know what female rage is.
Her rage is derived from her frustrations with her obsessive fans pulling the moral superiority card on Taylor in response to her rebound with Matty Healy. That's literally it. She's just pissed that the monster she created is no longer obediant, it's become a feral, sovereign entity that depletes the world of its natural resources and thinks it is more intelligent than it actually is because it's mommy has started to talk to it with big words. Apparently, 'illicit', 'elegy', 'nonchalant', and 'precocious' are considerably big words for the oafish monster, and I find it strange that this level of literacy is present in a group of fans that allegedly have GPAs of 3.5 or higher, but I digress.
Taylor Swift has never been one paycheck away from destitution. Taylor Swift has never experienced racial discrimination. She may have instances of gender discrimination, but she possesses the ideal white, blonde American beauty standard and therefore reaps the benefits of being a conventionally attractive woman. Taylor Swift has sufficient social capital. Taylor Swift is a billionaire woman prolonging her victimhood though she, as a woman, has mostly had control over her image and music (unlike her contemporaries). Taylor Swift is NOT entitled to be championed for her "female rage", nor should she be. Taylor Swift has never even been the struggling artist, for fuck's sake. I don't give a fuck if she's trying to fill the empty lunch tables of her past. Taylor Swift purporting herself, her unpolished album, and her lukewarm feminism as a musical bleeding with female rage is asinine.

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Out there in the world right now is a 23-year-old woman, a recent college grad, who works as a barista. She has to wake up and get ready to go into a minimum wage job because she cannot get a job in her field. She doesn't have healthcare benefits or sick time, so she has to go into work no matter how she's feeling. All day long she is berated by vicious customers and creepy men, and, exhausted from being on her feet, she knows she has to go home to her shitty roommate that never does the dishes and her roommate's shitty dog. To comfort herself, she considers getting a treat, but thinks against it when she remembers that matcha lattes cost $15 and they taste like milky dirt. She knows that she needs to buy groceries this week, and so the woman resolves to go home, but notices that her gas tank is low. She goes to put gas in the car, but the pump stops at $27.86 because that's all that she has in her checking account. The woman, bereft and reeling, sinks into the driver's seat. "Well," she thinks, her head in her hands, "at least I don't have Taylor Swift's job. I just couldn't imagine."
Fame is somewhat of a choice. If at any moment Taylor feels that she is misunderstood, misconstrued, or overwhelmed by public opinion, she can LEAVE the public eye - Lord knows she has the retirement fund and residuals to do so. In "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", the TTPD song about meeting the demands of your career-zenith mega-tour while in the relationship trenches, Taylor ends the song by rambling,

"You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart...you know you're good...and I'm good, cause I'm miserable, and no one even knows!...try and come for my job."

Yeah, obviously we wouldn't know, you recently passed the billionaire threshold and are the most famous and in-demand performer in the world right now. Taylor Swift makes an estimated $10 to $13 million dollars A NIGHT on the Eras Tour. Furthermore, the Eras Tour movie grossed $261.6 million globally, (which, as the producer, Taylor takes home 57% of the ticket sales) not counting the streaming revenue from Amazon Prime Video and the estimated $75 million deal that Disney paid to have it on Disney+. We're not even considering the income from cheap plastic popcorn buckets and drink cups plastered with colored squares in her Era-specific likeness.
It's funny. Taylor Swift often said that being famous wasn't hard, that she "isn't complaining". I'm sure it is difficult to always have to present in a good mood, else you'll end up misrepresented in the media, and I'm sure it's invasive to virtually have no privacy or semblance of anonymity. Still, Taylor Swift shows up each night of tour and performs. For a majority of her career, she has penned her sad songs while on the road. Most of "Red", her breakup album, was written in the thick of the Speak Now World tour. Now, some Swifties say they almost "feel bad" for attending the Eras Tour with Swift's revelations in this song, that they have had a 'dimmed experience' upon hearing Taylor's misery whilst performing. Despite the fact that Taylor said that "this was the happiest she's ever been" at Gilette Stadium in May, the lyrics "boohoo, woe is me, smile for the cameras and make the fans happy!!!" are jarring for Eras attendees.
While Taylor Swift was making double-digit millions a night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and feeling miserable, Ana Clara Benevides Machado passed away due to heat exposure. The concert promoters, Time For Fun, are now the subject of a criminal investigation due to their lack of adequate hydration and safety. Taylor Swift cancelled the Sunday show that was to follow and offered VIP tent tickets to Benevides Marchado's family, which was a kind gesture, but perhaps incongruous to the incident of which they were offered as consolation. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I'm not sure attending the very show at the very same venue that my daughter or sister passed away in two days prior, where the singer CONTINUED the show despite her death, would be healthy for closure.
There was no female rage at the show as Swift never saw Benevides Machado pass out. There was no female rage towards the disregard for fans as humans while Swift elected to proceed with her Brazil tour dates despite the country being in historic heatwaves (at risk of overheatting herself). If Taylor Swift was so shaken by touring with a broken heart or a fan's passing, she wouldn't have added an additional North American leg of Eras just two months after the Matty breakup. She's brokenhearted but willing to mend the cracks with your money and move onward with her worldwide female rage induced pillaging.
No matter what happens, even if you die at a Taylor Swift concert, Taylor collects a big fat check and flies away. She doesn't know you as anything other than a conversion rate or earning potential despite what her nearly 20-year long parasocial relationship with fans might otherwise indicate. She knows that, while some Swifties are without disposable income, they feel obligated to spend on a "48 Hours Only!" exclusive vinyl variant instead of necessities because they are so entrenched in Taylor Swift's intoxicating celebrity, they'll prioritize materialistic fandom before their needs. This is good enough for her because this means she can expand her real estate portfolio and finance her cat's lavish lifestyles. They're worth an estimated $100 million dollars. Her three cats could pool their net worth and solve world hunger.
While you and I might be denied bereavement leave and barely surviving the current political and economic climate, Taylor Swift has to, instead of gets to, perform for stadiums at full attendance for three nights in a row across the globe. You and I might be replaced by AI at our longtime jobs, but Taylor Swift is threatened with losing more and more money each time you listen to a "Stolen Version" of her songs. If we don't buy every variant of all of her albums, then who is going to pay for the fucking cats?
It is tone deaf to spend as she spends and lives as she lives in this economy, but this is her reality. She was able to donate $100,000 to all of her tour truck drivers, and that's wonderful, but it leads me to wonder about the ethos of the 2020s where one woman can hoard such life-changing amounts of money. Remember in 2014 when she gave a fan $90 ($120 in today's money) to get Chipotle because she had no fucking clue how much it cost? This is a 34-year-old woman who is increasingly out of touch with the reality for working class people and women in general. Normal everyday adults must wake up and go to their thankless jobs, and yet Taylor Swift, despite all her riches, incessantly references the lows of her life and career as a public figure and entertainer to farm sympathy and drive sales. And still, the corporate women have latched onto "I cry a lot, but I am so productive! It's an art!" as their cubicle battle cry.
Do you think that, from up in her private jet, Taylor Swift gazes at the world through her poetic, tortured eyes, and thinks, "All the little people, in their cars, walking, going about their lives...all those girls that don't support girls...do they know that I've made an album about female rage?"

Conclusion/TLDR

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your critical insights towards this entire ordeal: TTPD, the trademark, the implications of it all.
TLDR: Taylor Swift is a bad feminist and is delusional to think that the TTPD eras set exemplifies female rage at women's injustice.

I filed chapter 13 in 2012 in New York. Due to loss of employment, my agreement was dismissed on 9/3/15. Part of my 13 agreement was shedding my second mortgage and the last payment I made on it was in 2008. The loan has since been sold a couple of times and although it is no longer on my credit report, my property currently shows as a lien by the current debt holder on my property which I am trying to get an equity loan on. My question is, this loan is old and is beyond collection based on the accelerated statute of limitations being well beyond 6 years. I don't want to call the debt holder to ask questions and ignite their collection process. Up until now, I've only gotten a couple of bills for the full amount and no calls. I spoke to my BK attorney and another attorney he recommended who dealt with a similar case. I found out I need to confirm that the loan was accelerated so I started with the original lender who at some point, sold the loan off. They're part of another bank now (of course) and they have to do some digging for info on my loan. I figured starting with them would be relatively harmless from a collection standpoint since they no longer own the debt but can hopefully be useful with the last statements that will hopefully show that the the loan was accelerated. If they don't have any info given how old the loan is and since the bank I got it from was absorbed they'll hopefully at least have info for the next company who bought it (as I believe there was at least one other besides the current holder of the loan). From speaking to a couple of lawyers it sounds like lenders don't have to accelerate the loan but I am positive I received a letter demanding full payment by at least one of the loan servicers which implies it was accelerated and it was definitely well beyond 6 years ago that I received the letter but unfortunately, can't find it. I'm wondering if anyone has any insight that could help. Thanks.

Synopsis:
Carlos was an ordinary software engineer on Earth, up until he died and found himself in a fantasy world of dungeons, magic, and adventure. This new world offers many fascinating possibilities, but it's unfortunate that the skills he spent much of his life developing will be useless because they don't have computers.
Wait, why does this spell incantation read like a computer program's source code? Magic is programming?
___
Here we go with book 2!
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Carlos lounged comfortably on one of the mayor's fancy sofas. At 23 years old with a healthy body he really didn't need cushioned upholstery, but he liked how it felt. Honestly, he was probably more comfortable with high quality furniture than someone of his relatively low-income background should be in this world. Spoiled by the mass production factories of modern Earth, I suppose. All of this stuff here is probably handmade. Er, make that definitely handmade. Unless they have magic factories I haven't heard about, or something. He mentally shrugged. There was no point trying to change his attitudes toward furniture now. While this world might have higher prices for a lot of things than he was used to, he was also a lot richer than he was used to thanks to having become a noble lord. People would expect him to treat fine furniture as cheap because of his station.
I might have the physical habits of a couch potato, but at least I don't look like one. Too skinny. Not as skinny as Amber, though. He smiled as he watched the young woman next to him on the sofa continue animatedly expounding on their recent adventures together. She was lanky, with few curves to speak of and spindly limbs, far from any conventional picture of feminine beauty. Her hair, a slightly lighter shade of brown than his own, was cropped short. He thought she was 18 or 19 years old, but wasn't sure. Have I really never asked her age before? ... Would that be a rude question here? Regardless of her age, she had grown her confidence a lot since their first meeting a few weeks ago. She'd found her footing in a new life that she'd seized with utter determination, and he saw no sign of the shyness that she'd first greeted him with. The way her potential was finally blooming was beautiful to watch.
Carlos turned his gaze to the sofa across from them and carefully held back from laughing at the expressions Trinlen was making as Amber wrapped up explaining the events and developments they'd gone through since their introduction to him at the Royal Mage Academy. Carlos had contributed a fair amount to the explanation at first, but Amber had taken to it with enthusiasm when she arrived, and he could tell she was enjoying it. The young man in front of them, newly graduated from said academy, was on the edge of his seat and leaning forward, hanging attentively on every word. His casual attire, plain and made of cheap materials, looked thoroughly out of place on the finely embroidered velvet of the sofa, but he'd shown no sign of even noticing the finery around him. Excitement warred for control of his face with surprise, disbelief, envy, and dismay.
Amber finished her impromptu monologue, and Trinlen slowly schooled his face into a neutral expression. His voice was tense and tightly controlled. "So... In short, you're telling me that in the mere two weeks since you met me, you discovered a mana-poaching conspiracy of nobles, were abducted right under the noses of two royal guards without them even noticing, absorbed mana so fast that you gained 6 levels in a day and a half - so unfair, by the way - somehow learned an obscure portal spell from just its name and description, found evidence of a conspiracy against the Crown, and personally met a princess." He paused, then threw his hands up as he wailed in frustration and disappointment. "And I missed it!?"
Carlos threw back his head and burst out laughing. He couldn't help it. Trinlen just sounded so much like a little kid who'd barely missed out on a candy store giving away its entire stock for free. It was such an incredible light-hearted contrast with how everyone else viewed these same events that the sheer ridiculousness of it was overwhelming. Amber joined the laughter a moment later, shaking her head in amused disbelief, and after a few more seconds Trinlen started chuckling too.
Carlos's laughter eventually trailed off, and he took a deep breath to settle down. "Thanks, Trinlen. It's been a very stressful two weeks, and laughing like that helped release a lot of it. Feels good. Anyway, what have you been up to? I thought you would take a whole month to graduate?"
"Technically I only said 'next month', not that it would be at the same point in the month. But yes, this is earlier than I expected. The normal graduation ceremony is still a week and a half away." Trinlen shrugged. "They didn't explain the reasons, but after what you said I'm guessing your meeting with the princess prompted her to do something. The vice headmaster called me to his office yesterday morning, a few teachers grilled me on my classwork, and they declared I'd passed my exams. Then they told me to pack because I'd be teleported to my new employers the next day, and here I am." He sighed. "Hmph. Now I won't get to humiliate Norla in front of the whole academy when she gives her speech." Then he perked up and grinned widely. "But it sounds like you two are going to be so much fun that I'll get over it in no time!"
"I'm not sure if I agree with your idea of fun, Trinlen, but if it motivates you to help us more then that's good enough for me." Carlos chuckled again. "Anyway, do you need some time to get settled in? You might need to think about lesson plans for us too. We don't need just catalogues of incantations to learn anymore, at least not for simple ones, but I believe you learned other things in the academy too. You mentioned creating your own spells, as I recall."
Trinlen nodded. "I did mention that, yes. I'm guessing your lack of need for a catalogue is because of your newfound ability to somehow pull entire incantations from thin air? You'll have to at least tell me about the limitations of that so I'll know what I still need to teach you, but yeah, there are other things. For one thing, there's your sloppy terminology! Why does no one outside of the academy care about properly distinguishing between the states of mana? Is it really that hard to understand that calling aether, mana, and essence all by the same term obscures your meaning and often causes confusion? Or are people so stupid that they can't even understand the difference?"
Carlos blinked and exchanged a look with Amber. His comprehension aid informed him about the distinction the instant Trinlen spoke the terms. That would have been nice to know earlier. The comprehension aid is a house secret, so we should let him explain. "At least for us, it's just ignorance. I don't think I've even heard the other two terms you mentioned, and certainly no one ever explained them. So, what is the difference?"
Trinlen paused, cocked his head for a moment, and slowly deflated after his impassioned rant. "Yeah, okay, that's fair. I don't think I ever heard about it before going to the academy either." He sat up straight. "Aether is what you've been calling ambient mana. It's thin like air, and it's everywhere. Its only use is converting it to mana or essence. Mana, using the term with proper precision, is thicker but still fluid like water. It exists primarily in people or creatures and is used as fuel to supply power for spells and magical effects. Essence is hard and solid. It is the material that soul structures are made of, as well as the forms of active spells and enchantments. Am I clear so far?"
Amber answered first. "Yes, I'm familiar with each of the forms you described. I have questions about more details - so many questions - but you should get properly settled in, and maybe eat lunch, before we really get down to it. Have you spoken with Mayor Stelras yet? Do you have lodging sorted out?"
"I went by his office first. He's having someone take my luggage to an inn. The Adventurer's Haven, I think? He said something about a 'low-value target' and having an empty suite already booked." Trinlen's eyes widened. "Waaait a minute. Is he putting me in the room you two were abducted from?"
Carlos shrugged. "Sounds like it."
"Nice! Think there'll be any evidence left of how it was done?"
"Haha! Probably not by this point, but you're welcome to look. Now go get unpacked, eat a meal, and start planning your lessons for us. I'm glad you're here, but we have some other things to do too."
Trinlen nodded and stood up. "Sure. I'll be back before you miss me."
Carlos waved as Trinlen sauntered out the door. He and Amber sat in companionable silence for a while as he felt the mana - or essence? - of Trinlen's soul moving off into the distance. "Well. That was interesting. It's good to have him, but I was expecting a bit more time to think and plan before he'd get here."
"Yeah." Amber stretched and then leaned back into the sofa's cushions, luxuriating in their soft firmness. "So, how much are we going to tell him? How useful will his knowledge even be for us, now that we have, what did you call it, the reference documentation? That bit about the states of mana is good to know, but is it really relevant and important, and how much more can there be that's not in the documentation?"
"Be careful talking about that out loud, remember?" Carlos relaxed and draped his arms across the sofa's back as he focused his mind on their mental bond through Purple, their friendly dungeon core. [On Earth, we made many languages similar to the language of incantations, and we had the reference documentation for all of them. We even published that documentation free for everyone to have. Teachers for those languages were still useful, and even critically important for many people. Having access to knowledge doesn't mean you automatically understand how to properly apply it. There may be related knowledge we have no idea even exists. There could be techniques and patterns for how to use the language that are simply outside the scope of the documentation. Perhaps most importantly, a teacher can use their experience to notice a student's mistakes and correct them before they become problems.]
[Hmm.] Amber bit her lip, thinking. [Like how I knew about making soul structures and synergies between them, but had no idea about the importance of being able to examine and fix them, I suppose.]
Carlos nodded. [Yeah. And that's a really simple example. I know some that are a lot more complex, though I'm not sure how many of them are even applicable for incantations. Inversion of control, dependency injection, factory patterns...] He shook his head. [Just the context knowledge needed to be able to fully understand those could take days or weeks to teach well enough for you to use them. I could maybe explain the basic ideas faster with some simplified analogies, but that would lose so many details that I doubt it would still be useful.]
Amber paused. [... Even my comprehension aid is baffled by the terms you just said. It translated the individual words that you said, but all I got for the phrases is a confusing jumble.] She chuckled. [Anyway, I concede the point. Trinlen will still be able to teach us important and useful things. We still need to decide what secrets to share with him.]
[A lot depends on how good he is at keeping secrets. We don't actually know him all that well yet. He's certainly fun, and he seems clever, but for assessing his integrity we're leaning pretty hard on just a janitor vouching for him.] Carlos frowned in thought. [In order for him to do his job, he needs to know that we can only "pull an entire incantation from thin air" if it's a simple one. He does not need to know the full details of help, however, and most certainly does not need to learn to use it himself. That secret is a very sensitive one, where even just letting too much knowledge of it spread would lose us a major advantage.]
[Definitely. No casting help where he can hear it, and don't say anything about it that's not directly relevant for his teaching, either. Not until he's earned our full trust.] Amber lapsed into silent consideration. [We should introduce him to Purple. We'll kind of have to at some point anyway, and the really valuable thing there is Purple himself, not just the knowledge of his existence.]
Carlos nodded. [True. I think that probably is the least sensitive of our house secrets, and being able to call him through a bond with Purple would be useful.] He chuckled. [And maybe his cleverness will end up producing some good ideas for Purple to use. See if he can find a more productive outlet than pranks for his creativity. And then... If he keeps that secret well enough for long enough, we can consider trusting him with more secrets.]
Amber sent back wordless agreement.
Carlos started sitting up, lifting himself out of the comfortable cushions. "Well, we should get some food ourselves, too. And maybe introduce Trinlen to everyone else along with Purple." He stood up and spotted a letter he'd set aside when Trinlen arrived. "Oh yeah, and what do you think we should do about Kindar?"
"Wait, what's this about Kindar?"
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I'm buying an apartment that is mortgaged, and the process seems to have been halted over the past month because the seller's bank (one of the largest, starting with 'E') has not yet issued a clearance letter to finalize the transfer, which normally takes a couple of weeks as I was told. Has anybody faced a similar problem recently?

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temporary, ten, tend, tendency, tennis, tension, tent, term, terms, terrible, territory, terror, terrorist, test, testimony, testing, text, than, thank, thanks, that, the, theater, their, them, theme, themselves, then, theory, therapy, there, therefore, these, they, thick, thin, thing, think, thinking, third, thirty, this, those, though, thought, thousand, threat, threaten, three, throat, through, throughout, throw, thus, ticket, tie, tight, time, tiny, tip, tire, tissue, title, to, tobacco, today, toe, together, toilet, token, tolerate, tomato, tomorrow, tone, tongue, tonight, too, tool, tooth, top, topic, toss, total, totally, touch, tough, tour, tourist, tournament, toward, towards, tower, town, toy, trace, track, trade, tradition, traditional, traffic, tragedy, trail, train, training, transfer, transform, transformation, transition, translate, translation, transmission, transmit, transport, transportation, travel, treat, treatment, treaty, tree, tremendous, trend, trial, tribe, 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weather, web, website, wedding, week, weekend, weekly, weigh, weight, welcome, welfare, well, west, western, wet, what, whatever, wheel, when, whenever, where, whereas, whether, which, while, whisper, white, who, whole, whom, whose, why, wide, widely, widespread, wife, wild, wildlife, will, willing, win, wind, window, wine, wing, winner, winter, wipe, wire, wisdom, wise, wish, with, withdraw, within, without, witness, woman, wonder, wonderful, wood, wooden, word, work, worker, working, workout, workplace, works, workshop, world, worried, worry, worth, would, wound, wrap, write, writer, writing, wrong, yard, yeah, year, yell, yellow, yes, yesterday, yet, yield, you, young, your, yours, yourself, youth, zone.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send me a private message. I am willing to provide a detailed self-introduction letter, along with my high school transcript, TOEFL scores, and the list of U.S. universities I applied to last year. My goal is to apply for and receive full scholarships from top private universities, with a focus on liberal arts colleges ranked in the top 10-50. I plan to apply to Ivy League schools, Dartmouth College, Amherst College, and Bowdoin College.
To achieve this dream, I am fully committed. I will diligently prepare for the SAT, enhance my extracurricular activities, meticulously write my essays, and thoroughly research my target schools with my dedication and your guidance, I can realize my dream and embark on a bright new future.
I sincerely look forward to your help and support.

Hey, everyone. Just joined this page because I need serious help.
My husband has about $30,000 in debt on three credit cards. We are currently paying the interest only (about $560 per month) just to keep our heads above water. Our game plan right now is to sell this fixer upper he bought a couple years ago so we don’t bleed from paying the mortgage (his parents allowed us to move into their cabin for a year to save money), so we’re hoping we can put enough lipstick on this pig just to get it sold.
I heard that you can stop payment on credit cards, (which I understand will wreck your credit) and eventually, after a year or two and after receiving letters from the credit card companies asking to settle for a smaller amount, you can actually make a deal with them. I also heard, that in doing so, you can request that your bad credit be eliminated in the process. Can anyone confirm this? Or does anyone have a better way to get out of this? I’ve personally never had debt (besides a car loan payment and maybe $1000 I owed this dumb situation) so this is so scary for me. We just had a son and I’m having a hard time emotionally dealing with this.
Thanks in advance!!!

Hey folks, I've spent months learning how to read and write Arabic while getting past basic introductions but I want to learn how to make sentences but can't seem to find a good source on discovering new verbs. I found a good source, "Learn Arabic with Asmae", on YouTube but other than her, I can't make new sentences as other people give your generic teaching formats and they don't give you the calligraphy sometimes and just some Latinized letters but I already know how to read! I want to learn how to use verbs in the present tense and I prefer using colloquial verbs from Egypt or Levantine dialects, place help!

Hello! This maybe a very random question, but here it goes.
I applied for a PGWP from outside Canada and I was issued a visa and Letter of Introduction for 12 months. I am however eligible for a 3 years PGWP. I wanted to ask if I can address this with the CBSA officers when I land in Canada? Are they authorised to issue work permits that differ from the duration of Letter of Introduction and visa? If anyone has gone through this, it will be very helpful to hear your experience. Thank you!

Good evening y'all (it's 11 pm EST)
I'm currently a college student pursuing an IT degree and I was speaking with my father in law about an idea for a writing skills development program. The basis of the program/website is to teach students from Elementary school to the highschool and collegiate level on how to write essays. He posits that his students he has worked with do not have a good grasp on how to format their essays and papers, which then falls short in their future academic courses and he wants to make a program that will help them step by step.
My general layout right now is that it will be split into different levels of writing. From Levels 1 through 5: Elementary, Middle School, High School, College Prep, and Collegiate level writing skills. Within each level, I'll have writing tips and exercises to help the students learn the proper way to write their essays, with the Five Paragraph Essay as the format they will be learning.
Level 1: Sentence Structure, Formatting, and Composition. This includes things like spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc.
Level 2: Adding in proper grammar, sentence continuation, paragraph structure, readability and comprehension, editing skills (rereading to make sure it is grammatically correct, has proper punctuation, sounds academically thought out, etc). We'll introduce how to write and connect multiple paragraphs as well as intro, body, and conclusion.
Level 3: Here we'll reinforce sentence structure for Intro, body, and conclusion paragraphs as well as citation and source material research. We'll start on how to properly write a Five paragraph essay with the hourglass/pyramid format (Broad introduction that gets more specific when it gets to the thesis sentence, body paragraphs with point evidence and example sentences, and then specific reintroduction of main points to a broad conclusion of the thesis). [I may have this in the Middle school Level 2 section as this is something I learned in middle school] We will also introduce different types of essays such as Argumentative, Systhesis, Compare and Contrast, Narrative, Persuasive, etc.
Level 4: In this level we will introduce the importance of rough draft, revise and polish, editing and formatting, and college entrance essays and college application questions. This section will mostly be open to Junior (11th) and Senior (12th) grade students who are preparing for their academic life outside of Highschool. We will also be introducing how to write cover letters, resumes, and exploring the other side of life outside of High school.
Level 5: Collegiate level writing will focus on precision writing, using the fewest words necessary to accurately convey an idea. Objectivity, using accurate, clear and relevant information. Logical Structure, using precise word choice and structure. Researching, Formatting, time management, and consistence and conciseness. We will also go back to resume and cover letter writing for those who are looking for a career after a degree. We will be adding a section to help students with term paper writing as well as advancement (Masters and Doctorate level) writing.
I wanted to reach out to former, current, and aspiring English Teachers to ask for feedback on this idea. Is this something that you would use in your class as a teaching tool for your students? What can be done for this to be implemented in your classes if this website/program gets published? What things should be added, removed, improved, or changed in the current idea to make it go alongside the current English course curriculum in your school district? What else should be included to facilitate user interaction with this website?
Please give me as much feedback as you can think of, whether that is directly on this post or in a direct message. My hope and goal is to be able to develop the future generation and to move away from using AI as a writing tool because it takes away the practical skills that is severely lacking in some, if not most, of the students today.

Good evening y'all (it's 9:45 pm EST)
As the title says, I'm currently a college student pursuing an IT degree and I was speaking with my father in law about an idea for a writing skills development program. The basis of the program/website is to teach students from Elementary school to the highschool and collegiate level on how to write essays. He postured that his students he has worked with do not have a good grasp on how to format their essays and papers, which then falls short in their future academic courses and he wants to make a program that will help them step by step.
My general layout right now is that it will be split into different levels of writing. From Levels 1 through 5: Elementary, Middle School, High School, College Prep, and Collegiate level writing skills. Within each level, I'll have writing tips and exercises to help the students learn the proper way to write their essays, with the Five Paragraph Essay as the format they will be learning.
Level 1: Sentence Structure, Formatting, and Composition. This includes things like spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc.
Level 2: Adding in proper grammar, sentence continuation, paragraph structure, readability and comprehension, editing skills (rereading to make sure it is grammatically correct, has proper punctuation, sounds academically thought out, etc). We'll introduce how to write and connect multiple paragraphs as well as intro, body, and conclusion.
Level 3: Here we'll reinforce sentence structure for Intro, body, and conclusion paragraphs as well as citation and source material research. We'll start on how to properly write a Five paragraph essay with the hourglass/pyramid format (Broad introduction that gets more specific when it gets to the thesis sentence, body paragraphs with point evidence and example sentences, and then specific reintroduction of main points to a broad conclusion of the thesis). [I may have this in the Middle school Level 2 section as this is something I learned in middle school] We will also introduce different types of essays such as Argumentative, Systhesis, Compare and Contrast, Narrative, Persuasive, etc.
Level 4: In this level we will introduce the importance of rough draft, revise and polish, editing and formatting, and college entrance essays and college application questions. This section will mostly be open to Junior (11th) and Senior (12th) grade students who are preparing for their academic life outside of Highschool. We will also be introducing how to write cover letters, resumes, and exploring the other side of life outside of High school.
Level 5: Collegiate level writing will focus on precision writing, using the fewest words necessary to accurately convey an idea. Objectivity, using accurate, clear and relevant information. Logical Structure, using precise word choice and structure. Researching, Formatting, time management, and consistence and conciseness. We will also go back to resume and cover letter writing for those who are looking for a career after a degree. We will be adding a section to help students with term paper writing as well as advancement (Masters and Doctorate level) writing.
As of right now, I have a basic site structure and idea of how to create the website but I'm needing advice on the execution. Questions I have are: How do I market this as a good program to use in the academic field and the benefits of this program to a local or state board of education? How would I make it profitable? I understand that I can make it a subscription for a business to use but I do not know the scope of the upkeep and maintenance it requires to keep a program like this from crashing and burning. Those who are in business, what can I do or what can I expect from starting this venture? This is my first business idea ever and I'm struggling to find the right resources to help me get it going besides winging it, please DM me any materials or resources that I can use or read up on to help me out with this venture. Right now, I don't have much money or resources to fully publish this idea, it's not even 5% created yet on the website standpoint, so there is a lot of room for rework and innovation before the final product can be marketed and used.
If this post is not acceptable please let me know. I want to be able to make my Father in Law's idea a reality because he is a man I deeply respect and admire.

Previously I had been paying these taxes through my bank, lumped in with my mortgage payments. They stopped doing that for some reason, so this is my first year paying them on my own.
I just got my first statement. I owe a couple grand, damn, but oh look, there's a Tax Instalment Payment Plan!...
Except the TIPP started in January, before anyone has even received their tax statement for the year. And if you want to join part way through the year you have to pay a 2% fee.
Oh and they have to receive a paper document (can't submit online) by the 15th (in 2 days) in order to start the TIPP for the next month, which is when the taxes are due.
So I have to either drain my chequing account to pay the lump sum, or hope by some miracle a letter gets to the city and processed in 2 days to start my TIPP by next month.
Sure seems like this system is designed to funnel people towards lump sum payments and/or additional fees. I for one am not a fan.

I am possibly being made redundant and hoping to better understand the NZ employment law with respect to paid annual leave owed and paid sick leave.
Background: Specifically, I have shy of 4 weeks (156.11 hours) annual leave and 4 weeks paid sick leave (169.50 hours). And 2 month notice period. I understand if I work out my notice period, I accrue additional annual leave holiday leave on both the notice period and the annual leave.
Complication: I am having surgery today and will be issued a letter from the surgeon recommending bed rest for up to 6 weeks. I had only put in 2 days at the time of notifying my direct report (who is also up for redundancy). At the time I verbally mentioned the hospital suggestion for recovery of up to 6 weeks - and that I would apply as necessary nearer the time.
My questions are: 1.0) Does my planned (scheduled/unscheduled) sick leave accrue annual leave? 1.1) If so, am I best to apply for this now before receiving my termination notice (overdue, yesterday) or does this not matter? 2.0) Does my annual leave or sick leave impact my notice period at all?
The outcome I am seeking is to maximise the money I can leave with from this employment. The pay needs to serve as a safety barrier that enables me adequate time to find suitable employment. There's so much uncertainty in the market and I have a large mortgage and two young children under five to provide for.
Any and all advice also welcome and appreciated - even if not specifically answering those questions. I am unsure about anything more than enforcing standard legal rights due to the small place the NZ job job market is - everyone talks.

I and my partner signed a Letter of Direction with the mortgage agency asking the solicitor to pay 1% as fee from the closing proceeds.
Couple of things to note - this agent who we were working was not upfront with the fees and notified us about the fees just before he came to get the document signed.
Also, when we told him that it is not usual for an agent to charge the fees, he told that our mortgage application is complicated and he promised to lower the fees.
After a week, when I went to the banks myself, we got much better terms and conditions along with some cashbacks. And more than that, the approval that took this agent 2 weeks, was given in 3 days by the bank.
I don’t want to deal with this guy ever and know for a fact that he has been misleading us the whole time and tricked us into signing the Letter of Direction.
Are we liable to pay the brokerage (based on the letter of Direction) if we go with the Bank directly ??
Pls advice. Recent Canadian and first time home buyer.

(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)

Platform(s): web browser, it had its own website, It may have also been on additional sites but I know I played it on its own site.
Genre: Casual, it was a really light game, there was no specific plot as far as I'm aware, it may have been a creation style game like making characters or scenery, however I'm not certain it's been a long time so my memory is very foggy
Estimated year of release: I don't know exactly but it would've been before 2012 and I don't believe it would've been before early 2000s
Graphics/art style: 2d very cartoony a more light and cute aesthetic based game, It was very bubbly, soft and round kind of style, and the background was blue I'm fairly certain it was underwater but it may have been a sky, or it could have swapped between the two. I know that it was a light blue background and the game name was mid-upper screen in a large white bubble letter font very similar to the Poptropica font with the blue shadows and outlines but rounder.
Notable characters: all the characters were animals I don't remember there being any humans they were all just little cartoon animals, and I don't remember if you really played as a character or not
Notable gameplay mechanics: unfortunately I can't solidly remember anything about the gameplay itself, I only remember the overall style of the game and the introduction
Other details: it was a game I would play in school so there is a small chance it may have been educational however I don't think it was I'm pretty sure it was just one of the few approved non educational games, there's a chance it's an obscure Canadian game but I haven't been able to find anything about it, so it could also have been taken down, I just remember playing it between sometime between 2012ish to 2015. I remember when you go into the website the loading screen background is completely blue (a bit of a darker blue) with the white bubble font, but part of me wants to say the words were kind of cloud shaped if that makes sense. Then when It loaded it still had the name of the game in the upper part of the screen and the lighter blue background with little cartoon animals under it. Possibly relevant I want to say that the name may have been related to the words bubbles/clouds/creatures/animals/pets but that may be just words my brain is thinking are relevant just because of the style of the game.
If anyone happens to have any idea what It might be I'd appreciate it, I apologize if none of what I said makes sense I can attempt to clarify if needed, it's just a game that I occasionally remember and it's nostalgic, it just bothers me that I can't remember it.

Our mortgage recently got bought out by Mr. Cooper. We have no say in this matter obviously. Well we just received a letter in the mail stating out insurance policy has been dropped due to late payment. We payed our mortgage on time (in fact it's on auto pay) but the mortgage company failed to pay the insurance on time. They payed a week late and the insurance company policy is to drop us after a week if no premium was received.
This happen to anyone else??? What was the outcome. Freeking out a bit.

Date: 05/13/2024

Reading time: 4 minutes, 894 words

🏛️ Politics & Government

DRI: Police Actions Illegal and Disproportionate

Democracy Research Institute, a local watchdog, said the facts of physical retaliation by the police against the peaceful rally participants cannot be considered “legal police measures” The watchdog observes that despite the peaceful nature of the protest, the police still used force, clearing the area around Zhvania street near the Parliament.

CivilGe, Riot police leave the streets

Georgian PM says foreign official’s arrival at protests against foreign influence bill “manifestation of crude attitude” towards country’s sovereignty

Georgian PM Irakli Kobakhidze criticizes Lithuanian Parliament member's visit to Tbilisi. He said the visit was a “manifestation of crude attitude” towards the sovereignty of the country.

AgendaGe, The action against the "transparency of foreign influence" bill at the parliament continues, The Legal Affairs Committee supported the draft law "On transparency of foreign influence" in the third reading., Riot police leave the streets, After one-minute review, Legal Issues Committee supports the draft law “On transparency of foreign influence”, Georgian Dream debates “Russian” law in the 3rd reading as protest continues, Georgian Dream debates “Russian” law in the 3rd reading as protest continues, Students protest re-introduction of “Russian Law,” refuse to attend lectures

PM: Ivanishvili “Refused to Meet” with Assistant Secretary O’Brien, Cites Blackmail and Threats

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jim O'Brien requested a meeting with the honorary chairman of the Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili, but that request was rejected. No legal or financial sanctions have been imposed on Ivanishviili by the U., the European Union or the U.'S. According to the Prime Minister, the issue of "sanctions" is at the heart of the problem.

CivilGe, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairs of EU Member States Visit Georgia, RFE/RL: EU Top Diplomats Ask for Commission’s Oral Update on Foreign Agents Law Effects, MEPs Ask HVP Borrell for Targeted Sanctions Against MPs if Agents’ Law Adopted

EU “Strongly Condemns” Assaults against Protesters, Politicians, CSOs, Media

EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Spokesperson Peter Stano condemned ‘acts of intimidation, threats and physical assaults” against anti-Foreign Agents Bill protesters, media, politicians and CSOs. Stano called on the government to ensure the people’s right to protest, and urged the authorities to investigate possible misconduct and violations.

CivilGe

Public Defender calls on MIA not to use excessive force or retaliatory measures against protesters

The Public Defender of Georgia has called on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to act within the framework of legislation. The use of force must be necessary and proportionate, must be aimed at carrying out a specific legal measure, and in no case should it turn into targeted violence/retaliation against citizens.

GeorgiaToday

After all-night protester vigil, special police surround Rustaveli Avenue en masse

Thousands of special force police encamped by thousands of protesters to allow MPs to debate foreign agents law. Crowds are at the gates of Parliament shouting ‘Pigs! Pigs!” at gates shouting “Pigs!'” Police in masks brutally attacked a number of peaceful protesters.

GeorgiaToday

The Minister of Defense of Russia, Sergei Shoigu, will be replaced by Andrei Belousov

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will be replaced by Andrei Belusov, who was the first deputy prime minister in the government of Mikhail Mishustin. He will take the position of Secretary of the National Security Council of Russia. He has been the Minister of Defense since 2012.

EuroNewsGeorgia

💵 Economy

Georgia’s Foreign Trade Down 2.7% in January-April 2024

Georgia's external merchandise trade decreased by 2.7% in January-April 2024 compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, amounting USD 6,563.7 million. The trade deficit amounted to USD 3,036 million, representing 46.3% of the overall trade turnover.

CivilGe

Date: 05/12/2024

Reading time: 0 minutes, 170 words

🏛️ Politics & Government

Interior Minister says “appropriate, proportional” measures will be taken against “violent, unlawful assembly”

Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri said the right to peaceful assembly in Georgia was ensured at “a high standard” in Georgia. He said in case of “violent and unlawful” assembly the state was empowered to take “appropriate, proportional measures”

AgendaGe, PM Vows to Adopt Foreign Agents Law, Pledges to Punish Violent Protesters

President Warns Law Enforcement Officials Against Resorting to Violence and Repression

President of Georgia tells protesters not to resort to violence against them. Calls on the government to withdraw the law and not to use it against the protesters.

CivilGe, PM Vows to Adopt Foreign Agents Law, Pledges to Punish Violent Protesters

Georgia’s “Europe March” of thousands sends a definitive message to the government

An estimated 20,000 Georgians and Georgia-supporters filled the streets of the capital city to protest the ruling party’s plans to bring in a foreign agents’ transparency law, commonly known as the “Russian Law.”

GeorgiaToday

Date: 05/11/2024

Reading time: 1 minutes, 349 words

🏛️ Politics & Government

Man Severely Beaten in Car in Another Case of Police Brutality

A video went viral on May 10, showing a citizen being severely beaten in his car by a group of police in the presence of his wife. The incident occurred as the man was driving up a street in central Tbilisi and encountered a police bus moving in the opposite direction on the one-way street. The Special Investigative Service said on May 11 that it had opened an investigation under Article 333 (3b) of the Criminal Code, which deals with exceeding official authority by using force or a weapon.

CivilGe

29 U.S. House Members Threaten Sanctions If Agents Law is Not Dropped

29 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a strongly worded joint letter to Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on May 10. The Representatives stress that the Georgian authorities face a choice between hearing the voices of the Georgian people, and continuing to move on the “dark rode” towards “Russian-style authoritarianism” The letter comes as the ruling Georgian Dream readies to pass the bill.

CivilGe, US congressmen wrote a letter to Irakli Kobakhidze

According to the US President's adviser, Georgian parliamentarians are facing a critical choice

Jake Sullivan, adviser to US president on national security issues, on social network. Sullivan: "We are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in Georgia"

EuroNewsGeorgia

MP Maka Botchorishvili on the “Foreign Agents” Bill and Georgia’s Chances at EU Integration under Georgian Dream Leadership

Georgian Dream MP Maka Botchorishvili discusses the widely contested “Foreign Agents” law (Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence) and what it means to her party and for Georgia’s future. The interview has been redacted for clarity.

GeorgiaToday

International Reactions to Intimidation, Violence Campaign Against Civil Activists, Opposition Politicians over Foreign Agents Law

Diplomatic missions in Georgia urge the government to take preventive measures and thoroughly investigate these incidents. British Embassy in Georgia called on government to prevent unlawful intimidation of protesters and to investigate all rights abuses. German Ambassador to Georgia, Peter Fischer, stressed that “The rule of law must prevail. Democracy requires non-violence”

CivilGe

🎭 Culture

TSU Students Announce Academic Boycott over Foreign Agents’ Law

A part of the students of Tbilisi State University announced the boycott of the academic process. They will refuse to enter the lecture halls from Monday, May 13. The students say they will stand at Rustaveli Avenue instead at 9 o’clock in the morning.

CivilGe

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