def add_experience(self, experience): self.experiences.append(experience) def simulate(self): quantum_instance = Aer.get_backend('qasm_simulator') optimizer = COBYLA(maxiter=100) vqe = VQE(ansatz=RealAmplites(self.num_qubits, reps=2), optimizer=optimizer, quantum_instance=quantum_instance) result = vqe.compute_minimum_eigenvalue() return result.eigenvalue 

def add_symbolic_sequence(self, sequence): self.symbolic_sequences.append(sequence) def enhanced_introspection(self): return sum(len(seq) for seq in self.symbolic_sequences) 

toolbox = base.Toolbox() toolbox.register("attr_float", np.random.rand) toolbox.register("individual", tools.initRepeat, creator.Individual, toolbox.attr_float, n=10) toolbox.register("population", tools.initRepeat, list, toolbox.individual) toolbox.register("evaluate", lambda ind: (sum(ind),)) toolbox.register("mate", tools.cxTwoPoint) toolbox.register("mutate", tools.mutGaussian, mu=0, sigma=1, indpb=0.2) toolbox.register("select", tools.selTournament, tournsize=3) population = toolbox.population(n=100) algorithms.eaSimple(population, toolbox, cxpb=0.5, mutpb=0.2, ngen=10, verbose=False) return population 

First Previous Wiki
Penny gazed at the quartet of Elders. They were all wearing the merchandise she remembered from the last Judgment, which was exceedingly awkward. Mainly because they were wearing shirts with her face on them. But it was also oddly endearing, in a way. Until now, she hadn't seen too many Elders that were on her side.
Elders that weren't just Kashaunta or the familiar faces she already knew, like Spentha or Rho and Sai, actually showing appreciation of her, felt odd. Even if these ones went a little too far in it.
"You're even more beautiful in person, Liberator," one said.
"Uh, thanks. I appreciate that. I'm glad that you all like me. Rho and Sai told me that you all are interested in something I can give you?"
"Yeah. Maybe a short interview? We won't be like that airhead reporter. We'll ask the good questions."
"Yep, we will."
"Right then," Penny said. "Well, I'm glad to meet you."
"Thank you. Now that we're here, we'd like to know how you plan on taking care of the gang leaders."
"Well, presumably by imprisoning them. I don't think they deserve to die, even if others do. I'll leave that decision up to Justicar and his various judges in the criminal system."
Penny didn't like having to lie blatantly. She wanted to kill the slavers quite brutally, but doing that was a bad idea right now. Saying it also was a bad idea, for a similar reason. And Justicar's system was worryingly preferential to Elders, from what she'd looked up after the meeting with Pundacrawla.
"Aren't you worried that the Judges won't give proper justice?"
"I trust Justicar to do everything that is necessary."
Another lie. Justicar would do whatever he could to maintain his image. Hopefully, that wouldn't be at the cost of the Alliance's very existence.
"Got it. By the way, what's it like being human? Walking on only two legs. It seems kind of unstable. Do you fall a lot?"
A genuine curiosity from them was another breath of fresh air. It was the kind of question a quadruped would definitely ask, which put her more at ease about the nature of what they were trying to do. Even more than their evident support of her, with all the merch they were wearing. Penny felt a smile crack at the corners of her lips, unbidden.
"Not really. We can use our arms to steady ourselves pretty well. Obviously it's not as easy to balance on our two legs as it is with your four, but it's still good enough. In fact, the sprinters in the Olympics use all four limbs, since running as fast as possible also requires pumping our arms. As for what it's like to be human, it's hard to describe. For many of us, it will feel colder or warmer than Sprilnav would feel in the same temperatures, due to thinner skin. Our eyesight is more frontal than yours, given our lack of snouts, so our blindspots are a lot bigger. Our feet require shoes for rough ground, and we heal slower than you by around 20%. We can't really clack our jaws to the scale that you can, though we can make them meet."
Penny bared her teeth, showing as she opened and closed her mouth. It was nice to be able to talk about things like this.
"The Olympics?" one of them asked.
"It's a competition about athletics," Penny said. "Running, jumping, throwing, diving, swimming, skiing, snowboarding, and a lot of sports. There's specific divisions, too. Like how there's a 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, 400 meter dash, and even an 800 meter dash for those with high levels of psychic energy. Though really, psychic energy and genetic editing have been messing with the events for a while now. And there's a Winter, Summer, and Space Olympics, each with different sorts of events. They move from city to city, though the Space Olympics are pretty much always on either Luna, Ceres, or Mercury. There's a lot more information out there on various events, but it's an old cultural practice revered by the entire species. Even more so since Phoebe's increased the prize pools for everyone."
"How does your species handle space in general? I know that you guys did things way differently before First Contact."
"We did. Mining companies kept tight control on all asteroid mining, while nations controlled planets like Earth and Mars and large planetary bodies like Luna. Supposedly, a few people planned for a cloud city on Venus, but we couldn't risk having such a vulnerable population because they'd have to rely on giant balloons to survive. That would probably be the least secure way to live, given the existence of rogue organizations and all that.
As for spaceships, most of them since we really colonized Luna come equipped with spacesuit bays, zero gravity water and food packs, oxygen tanks, emergency seats, specialized anti-micrometeorite hulls, and radiation shielding. A lot of the older military ships also were equipped with big radiators until World War Three, when it all became masses of drone warfare, with the big ships kept mainly for cargo and lanes where mass drone control was impossible.
Once the Vinarii came and we got shields, we started building big again. After all, it provided a huge number of jobs, and in the post-war economies, especially with VIs in place, a lot of people needed work. But we still go and do asteroid and moon mining, star lifting, and energy gathering. We built an orbital ring around Mercury, the closest planet to Sol, to help with all of that. It doubles as a production hub, too. Now, it's all in more systems and with a lot more friends."
"Speaking of aliens, what theory does your people have on why so many creatures resemble one another? Our jaws are adapted for hard shelled creatures, and we're told that many planets have oddly similar variations of those."
"Crabs."
She guessed what they were getting at.
It is odd, isn't it? Nilnacrawla observed.
Perhaps that is another one of the Source's whims, Penny thought.
Maybe.
A few of the Elders made exclamations of shock.
"You even have a word for them that directly translates!"
Penny chuckled. "Yeah, carcinization is a bit of a meme in the science community. But I've heard the most mainstream theories since the First Contact are that the Source itself is uncreative. It has a certain template of creatures which it largely doesn't alter, though it can take in inputs from beings close to it, perhaps even influencing them."
"Influencing them?"
"Yes. Modern depictions of wendigoes, folkloric creatures from North America, a continent on Earth, are shockingly similar to the Knowers in appearance. The internet depictions of them in particular like to emphasize canine qualities, and often show them with skulls visible directly, and with dark brown or black fur. Recent depictions, as in the past 300 years, differ from their original appearances quite significantly, with the canine characteristics in particular being enhanced.
We have sorted through all known images of these creatures and found roughly 80% similarity with the Knowers and tens of thousands of images that are literally exactly the same as Knowers. The ones we searched all came before World War Three, far before even the First Contact with the Vinarii, much less the Knowers who were entirely underground at the time due to the radiation of their home star. We believe that the Source managed to influence this facet of human culture with the actual existence of a real creature.
Other examples exist, like how the Trikkec look very similar to Komodo Dragons, Vinarii look very similar to insects known as a mantis, and the Acuarfar look exactly like insects known as wasps with the single exception of their furry snouts and green instead of yellow markings. The Sprilnav species itself shares high amounts of similarity with a fictional species known as Elites in early 2000s culture, particularly with your jaws, though you all have red skin instead of grey or brown.
The Junyli, Dreedeen, and the wanderers are the main species without high amounts of appearance in our cultures at some point. This correlates with the idea of the Source being the influencer, as their predecessors all were used to fight it. Many species of the galaxy look like parts of our culture or Earth's creatures. The proximity of these examples makes this far more suspicious than if they were across the galaxy.
But since they existed first, the only answer must be that the Source brought the influence to us first and planted the ideas in our heads. As for the ones which look like Earth creatures, all of them are old enough evolutionary branches that copying from them to Earth makes more sense. Though the references centering around the early 2000s is quite odd, it is also roughly when the internet came into wide existence, so it is also possible the Source gave the ideas a push so they would propagate, for an unknown reason. Like if it seeded the ideas that propagated across the early global network Humanity used."
"Hmm. Fascinating. We've seen evidence of the 'seeding' process among some historical nations near the galactic region of Earth before. So the Source re-uses and alters depictions of life and also life itself?"
"Maybe," Penny said. "Unless the Source is more directly tied to life than we think. There's a conceptual Death, but no conceptual Life. Isn't that odd?"
"Conceptual Life died in the Source war."
How did that really work, though? Penny asked Nilnacrawla.
Imagine a conceptual being. A few of the Progenitors, as well as Narvravarana, went up to try to harvest its power. It refused, and Narvravarana used its unique abilities to try and force the deal.
Why was your civilization like this?
Excess and greed, partly. But we couldn't really do much more expansion. Vertical expansion also had its limits if we wanted to remain relevant for the remaining lifespan of the universe. So Narvravarana, along with a few of the greatest rulers and leaders of Sprilnav society, started looking to other dimensional planes. They figured it was best not to let the problem get too much worse. Or at least, that is what they say. I believe it was to harvest more resources to use against our surrounding enemies.
You didn't have any allies? Penny asked.
At that time, all the powers of the universe were enemies. All the allies eventually merged through millions of years of normalization. We happened to get on the universal stage the earliest, so other civilizations we encountered had little choice but to surrender their independence. Some fought, others didn't, but the outcome was the same.
That seems terrible.
It was, though the other universal civilizations were no better. Some of them just exterminated all alien life they found that couldn't fight back. In that sense, the pre-war Sprilnav civilization was one of the greatest, and that's why I fought for them. Obviously, I'm biased in that regard, though.
Thanks for telling me, father.
No problem, Penny.
She refocused back on the conversation at hand.
"But a thing cannot be alive if it dies. The concept of life doesn't work that way. So maybe the Source just... took in the concept of life? Or absorbed it into whatever psychic energy really is, considering that it's responsible for all of our existence?"
"That's so crazy it might actually be true," one of the Elders said. "You're incredible, Penny."
"Uh, thanks. You're all pretty great too." Her eyes drifted to the images of herself on their clothing. She couldn't really help it.
"I have a question for you."
"Yes?"
"Do you know what I'm fighting for?"
"I assume since you're asking it here, you don't just want a one word answer," an Elder said. "I would say yes, and for the liberation of the Sprilnav from the stain of slavery. Though going deeper into your history, you have also fought for other species, either in wars or just generally moving around. It does look aimless, mostly, since the galaxy's so big. But I'm sure you've got a way through that."
"In some way. Part of why I'm here isn't just about my people. It was at first, I admit that. But as I have lived here, on Justicar, for days and weeks, I've seen you less as alien. It makes it easier for sympathy and easier to break out of simple mindsets. So far, there are many problems, but there are distinct pieces. The first is that many people want to uphold slavery. I'm not sure why, but they do. It isn't profitable, and it isn't moral. Robots are cheaper in every way, and don't need food or water.
That means it's illogical or emotional. So I could try and solve the problem with violence alone, but it won't be addressing the cause, only the symptoms. I need to get to the heart of the matter. And I think it has to do with Elders' memories and the gradual woes they have accumulated going through life. I don't want to tear that away or drug them into believing they're fine. I want to find a way to outlet that productively. The second part I have identified is scale. The galaxy is enormous, and your species is incredibly numerous. I could fight planet by planet for the rest of my life, and liberation would still be difficult.
That also means I'd need a better way of doing things. Maybe an economic or political incentive. Emotional reasons will not work permanently, nor will logic, since we are in this situation. I have found several ways to address this. Sadly, since the gangs are likely monitoring this feed, I can't just outright say my strategy. All I can ask you all to do is to believe. Believe that I have a solution, and that I and those who stand with me are working on it. Believe in me because I believe in you."
None of the Elders questioned or ridiculed her words. Most of it was because they were fans of her. But one of them, an Elder named Rahautiti, had a distinct glint in his eye. Their gazes met only momentarily, but Penny could tell he knew.
And so she appeared in the mindscape, even as they concluded the interview, which would be the first of many. It was a ploy to just talk about human culture and ideals a bit more, to get it out there. Because the hivemind's theory was correct.
In the universe, ideas had power. That power could be weaponized against those who previously stood to gain. The first part of it was the image: Nova as an unbeatable bastion. Lecalicus as the Beast, a monster capable of star-crushing rage. Twilight as... whatever she did. Penny wasn't really familiar with the Progenitor's image too much, and the various names, like the Silent Night or the Smiling Darkness, were just so unbelievably edgy she cringed every time she recalled them.
But Rahautiti understood so she moved her mindscape avatar to see him.
"Hello again, Penny. I am no threat."
"I know. I'm glad that your group is led by someone as capable as you, as well as the other groups you dabble within."
"Who discovered it?"
"Phoebe. You met with Ezeonwha, and the android wanted to ensure you weren't a way for Yasihaut to kill him."
"Yeah. We did get approached about that, actually. We're supposed to kill Ezeonwha when you walk into the Judgment hall. Of course, we won't do this, and she won't be able to retaliate against us easily while there."
"Thank you for your honesty, Elder," Penny said. "It seems I'm in your debt."
"Nonsense. 2,839. That is the number of children I have had. 2,626. That is the number of children of mine which were enslaved. The remaining 213 died in unrelated incidents, with nearly half of those involving slavers killing them. I remember all of their names, and all of their faces, Penny. I want all the slavers in this universe dead."
"I cannot achieve that."
"You cannot," Rahautiti agreed. "Not with my help or even that of Kashaunta and Lecalicus. And certainly not right now. I have not lived this long to be incapable of compromise or patchwork solutions. You show great promise. I understand your aversion to killing and the circumstantial reason why you are not doing so now. I will not grow upset if you do not resume killing when the Judgment ends. Nor do I harbor a grudge against you for the speeding space entity you left outside the room to avoid uncomfortable publicity. You are incredibly young.
A sliver of a life. But you are strong, and you are mature. That sliver of your lifespan already outshines all I could do with a trillion more years, Penny. You are right in that this isn't something you can punch your way through. Trauma is part of why slavery still exists, despite it being a wholly unjust reason for the Elders to make such a sport of it. I am sure you know the story of the war, with a great hero in your head and Kashaunta at your side. My line of work is what I started to help you. Every thought about you being the Liberator, every eye that glances on you freeing slaves, helps you to gather conceptual energy. My talent happens to be great enough to sense the Pact of Blades you have, as well. If you want, I can teach you how to hide the mark on your soul and your mind."
"I would like that, yes," Penny said. "And thank you for being so reasonable. I will ask Kashaunta to protect you from what consequences come for refusing the offer on Ezeonwha."
"There are going to be attacks on him, you know. Him and your ship."
Penny felt an odd feeling in her soul. Cardi's power flared around him, and she squinted at the sky. She just barely saw a sliver of a tentacle. Most would have mistaken it for a normal speeding space entity. But here? On Justicar, with Exile obviously not being the cause?
Only one being would cause that. Fate.
Given the subject of their conversation, it was obvious what was going on.
Penny tapped Rahautiti's jaw, adding a thin mark of conceptual power so she could easily find him again. She focused on the conceptual mark she'd left on Ezeonwha. A twinge of conceptual energy came from it. It was accompanied by various impressions, like fear, pain, and acceptance.
"I have to go," Penny said. "I will be back later. Displace."
She appeared next to the 102nd Visitor Welcome Office but not next to Ezeonwha. It was carnage everywhere she looked.
"Champion!" an unknown Elder yelled. "I am Elder Na-"
Her rising fury surged, and it took all she had not to dismember him. The distant thought of the Judgment stayed her hands, though only just.
Penny's fist collided with the Elder's jaw at twice the speed of sound. A piece of his jaws flew free. Bone fragments hit the ground behind him. Hundreds of soldiers fired on her, and she slammed them to the ground with pure will. Penny tore their guns away and sent them each to pummel the Elder in front of her with as much brutality as she could. His powerful armor wasn't as capable of defense against physical attacks as it was against her psychic energy, and so he fell.
"You... cannot save him," the Elder spat. Fields of psychic suppression fell upon her, reducing her power.
"Manipulation through Determination," Penny growled. "De-"
No! Nilnacrawla said. Do not kill him! Not yet!
"What goes up will go down."
Air hardened around the Elder and accelerated rapidly.
The Elder smashed into the shield five miles above with a speed just slow enough that he wouldn't die. He fell from it and then hit it again at a more modest speed. He'd bounce on that until the Guides came to get him.
But Penny had another target. One she had to save instead of attack.
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High Judge Tassidonia awoke to the sound of explosions. He grabbed his swords, his main gun, and the personal shield he reserved for only the most dire occasions. The sky was erupting in war all around him, and buildings were already falling nearby. The spires of skyscrapers rained down upon the entrances to the Underground, crushing thousands of fleeing Sprilnav under their wide impacts.
His implant identified members of the gangs nearby, making their way to his home.
"Retribution Cycle!" Tassidonia cried. A hidden door opened, and he boarded a small hovercraft that sported a high amount of defensive and offensive technology, a gift from Justicar for dealing with all that he had related to the Judgment. Only this time, he wouldn't be on the next one. But already, the destruction was spreading.
Micro-missiles rained upon friend and foe alike. Several detonated against the layered shields. The mounted turrets on the side of his hoverbike shot lasers into the enemies his implant identified.
"Elder Tassidonia!" an Elder cried nearby. "For the crime of defying the will of-"
Tassidonia called his fury to bear. He rammed his mind into the enemy Elder, disorienting her. She reeled, about to attack, when a thick laser smashed into her chest. It pushed her against the wall, and Tassidonia kept the pressure up until her body melted. He listened to her screams impassively, occasionally sending blasts from his gun at the gangs when their members started to stray too close.
The thick red beam did its work within twenty pulses. His swords began to float beside him, keeping pace as he sped away from his home. The entire apartment complex shuddered and began to lean, its foundation being destroyed by some effect below. Tassidonia abandoned it with only minor regret. He'd known this moment would come. Everything he needed was already with him.
He linked into the Guide network, directing squadrons to attack the breaches he'd identified. Orbital strikes fell upon them in quick succession. Thick beams of light pierced through the lower planetary shields from orbital platforms, their guns honing in on Justicar's enemies. Tassidonia's implant was linked to the grid as well. So when he eyed buildings occupied with too many gang members, orbital strikes fell on them a few pulses later.
Fire and plasma rained all around him. Explosions and smoke blossomed all around him. More missiles fell from his hovercraft. A fighter ship appeared beside him, its simple stealth revealing itself to his eyes. Tassidonia waited for the pilot chamber to open, and his craft stowed itself behind him when he got in. It was fully equipped, so soon, Tassidonia was in full control of a weapon of war.
His first order of business was detecting the gangs' most fortified areas. He peppered those bases in shield-weakening mines, followed by bunker-buster missiles. Several anti-air turrets hit him, but his shields prevented them from taking him down. He dropped three high-end Butcher Androids into the fray of the largest battles.
One of the adjacent fighter wings in the separate shield sector dropped a nuke. At that moment, Tassidonia made a decision.
Whatever insanity was going on right now wasn't worth staying here on his own. He turned his ship upward, narrowly avoiding nearly fifty missiles shot from another gang fortress, which was really just the lower floors of a supermarket. Thick slabs of concrete were being set up by androids and slaves from the Underground. All he could do was watch from above and attempt to mark those that might be a problem.
Justicar's Grand Fleet was moving in, though only the carriers and their escorts were doing anything of any scale. The armies were mobilizing, and it seemed that war had finally broken out. Justicar, while isolated due to the Judgment, would have to win a war that threatened to topple his rule entirely.
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Ezeonwha woke when the walls around him shuddered.
An earthquake?
Groggily, he activated the lights in the room. Phoebe's android was charging in the wall. Her limbs swayed with the motion. The walls shuddered again, and the lights went out. Thin, tiny cracks spread in the walls, increasing his worry factors massively. His implant notified him that this wasn't a dream. Distant screams reached his ears, and he went to the window.
Hordes of Sprilnav were running on the ground, tripping over each other to escape. He heard the thump of footsteps approaching from outside. The android activated, standing up.
"Move away from the doo-"
An explosion tossed him across the room. A Sprilnav carrying some sort of mouth weapon faded into view for a moment, smoke recalibrating the stealth field. And then he was gone. Phoebe smashed into the Sprilnav, her fists pummeling the assassin faster than Ezeonwha could comprehend.
Phoebe's arms turned into swords, and she stabbed the Sprilnav at least fifty times in a single pulse. She turned to grab him, but before she reached him, a second explosion sent him flying out of the now-shattered window.
The massive skyscraper loomed large, and he saw the ground beneath it ripple. Dull thumps sounded from below, and large, circular caverns opened beneath the 102nd Visitor Welcome Office. The whole building started to list forward, and Ezeonwha frantically activated his emergency personal shield as he started falling faster and faster. A bullet hit the shield. And then a second one. Gunshots echoed out in the distance, and he saw other Sprilnav falling from broken windows in the falling skyscraper. Gunfire erupted on the streets as Guides engaged a growing army of attackers bubbling up from basements of shops and businesses.
He saw spurts of blood exit the Sprilnav nearest him, bullets tearing holes through the woman's body. Piercing screams surrounded him, a terrible chorus that reminded him of the worst wars he'd fought in. But here, his training could do nothing. She was already dead, and he knew that he was the target of this whole attack. His eyes watered, and Ezeonwha felt so powerless. So useless.
A Corrector emerged from the side of the tilting skyscraper, eyes fixed on Ezeonwha. Then he looked down. Somehow, Ezeonwha knew when the orders had been sent. He knew that it was Astipra in the distance, a jetpack on his shoulders burning a thick flame beneath him.
Astipra looked back at the building and flew toward it. Ezeonwha felt the wind rushing past the shield as pressure. Astipra, far above, vaporized falling chunks of the skyscraper with blasts from his arm cannons. He pressed back against the skyscraper, the jetpack going into overdrive. The metal bent inward, and the groaning and twisting structure continued its fall. Blasts of light from Astipra again vaporized the set of falling chunks.
"Penny," he said. It was almost a prayer, really. His desperate mind was scrambling for whatever it could get. "Please, save me!"
He didn't know if she could hear him. Logically, it was impossible. And in a battle such as this, unlikely as well. Rippling explosions erupted across the facade of the falling skyscraper as rockets struck it. More explosions bloomed as lasers from distant police vehicles, Guides, and Astipra destroyed more of the fast-flying missiles and rockets. They pounded on the world around him, a horde of madness threatening to break his brain. He could feel the wind and gravity equalize as he reached terminal velocity.
And all he could see was the world descending into war around him. The 102nd Visitor Welcome Office continued to slump and lean against Astipra's best efforts. More bullets hit Ezeonwha's personal shield, and peppered the Guides moving over to save him. Air ambulances were shot from the sky. Even small fighter crafts were shot down by powerful ground lasers. EMPs thumped, disabling all the higher functions of his implant before he could think to use it.
A much larger explosion bloomed out, and Ezeonwha followed the rocket's trail to an Elder on the ground, standing in the wreckage surrounding a sudden tunnel opening. The Elder stared at him in glee, and he lined up another shot. Two Guides fell upon the Elder, who flew up using a jetpack to cut them in half with his sword. A hard light hologram lifted a large gun, pointing at Ezeonwha as he fell.
His eyes widened. Ezeonwha did everything he could. He angled his legs and arms. He pushed at the air. He even hefted the meager psychic energy he had, struggling with all his soul to escape the death he could feel was coming to him.
Guides swarmed beyond the shield appearing, while gang soldiers died by the hundreds to carpet bombing. Personal shields sprang up to block the explosions, and the Elder had survived. A thick red laser cut one of the fighters in half from the smoke. Above him, the collapsing facade of the skyscraper consumed Astipra entirely, though large gouts of plasma and thick explosions emerged from within. He could survive if it fell upon him, but Ezonwha could not.
Penny materialized far below, closer to the field of battle. A sweeping wave of gang members began disappearing. A bullet smashed into her head and her stomach, detonating in bright explosions. A personal shield flared and disappeared. Missiles and lasers slammed into Penny by the thousands as psychic energy gathered. A constant roll of words fell from her tongue, but without his implant, they were not translated.
Missiles crumbled into dust. Lasers impacted raw space in front of Penny before bending down and back to their origins, destroying automated turrets. Bullets still hit Penny and the Guides by the thousands, firing too quickly and densely for her to entirely block. But the large ordnance from the gangs continued to work against them.
Penny looked around, confusion evident on her face. But amidst the thousands of wounded and dead Sprilnav falling from the broken windows, Ezeonwha was hidden too well.
Shattering glass could be constantly heard, and he could feel the distant screams in his soul. A bullet smashed into his personal shield again, disabling it. A pulse later, he lost feeling in his legs.
He tried to reach out to her mind, but the war in the mindscape was equally intense. Too many Elders and Guides battling it out along with various suppression artifacts made it all impossible. He could sense Penny's influence, but couldn't directly reach her.
He let out a breath, knowing it to be the final one.
I'm sorry, Penny, Ezeonwha thought.
I wish you luck in the Judgment, and I am sorry I caused this to happen to you.
Penny finally appeared in front of him, eyes wide-
Blood erupted. A searing pain in his head told him his implant had just shorted out. And in the mindscape, he saw a mental attack heading for him, its brutal power evident. He closed his eyes.

I’m reposting this because for some reason the picture doesn’t work on my earlier post. The gas started leaking from my mower. I found that this tube had come partially out of the tank. That red piece seems to be degraded. What is that piece called and how do I replace it? How is it supposed to adhere to the tank? Is it glued on or pressure fit into the hole on the tank?

Everyone Keeps Asking So Here You Are:
Fallout4.esm
DLCRobot.esm
DLCworkshop01.esm
DLCCoast.esm
DLCworkshop02.esm
DLCworkshop03.esm
DLCNukaWorld.esm
DLCUltraHighResolution.esm
HUDFramework.esm
ArmorKeywords.esm
SBRsFramework.esm
HiPolyFacesCompanionPlugin.esl
FFO.esm
TrueStormsFO4.esm
ExtendedWeaponSystem.esm
Endless Warfare.esm
IllumBillboardsAIO.esl
CROSS_CoA.esl
TeslaHeavyGun.esl
7 More SPECIAL points.esl
Cyber Arms.esl
Skb-MinigunsRebirth.esl
GoodneighborExpanded.esp
ODT - Raider Armors Retextured.esl
CWRaiders.esl
TCDeyes.esp
Dogs can grab player.esl
DamnApocalypse_CORE.esm
KillTips_by_tooun.esl
Natural Roads.esl
Serene Skin.esp
FIS-Naming-Weap-Armo-EN.esp
Diello_ExtraIconsForFIS.esp
Armorsmith Extended.esp
[KB-47]-INSTITUTE.esp
DamnApocalypse_Loot.esp
FFO.esp
A Forest.esp
BetterCombatZone.esp
ENBLightsHDRPatch.esp
DamnApocalypse_PowerArmor.esp
HiPolyFaces.esp
CBBE.esp
RaiderOverhaul.esp
OutcastsAndRemnants.esp
CrimeTown.esp
Wasteland Illumination.esp
GoodneighborExpanded[Patch-Crimetown].esp
Depravity.esp
AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp
Stm_DiamondCityExpansion.esp
MikeMooresMCAM.esp
CheatTerminal.esp
[KB-47]SYNTHS.esp
Goodneighbor Apartment.esp
GoodneighborExpanded[Patch-GoodneighborApartment].esp
TWH_TheWayHome.esp
CruiseShipWreck.esp
Mercenary.esp
Forced Evolution.esp
ProjectValkyrie.esp
LimaOutpost.esp
MK3_Takedown_Rifle.esp
VD_SIGMCXVirtus.esp
MW1Akilo47.esp
PKMnv.esp
MW1Mike4.esp
SPR300.esp
[XHX] Metro Exodus Stallion.esp
BF1 Animations - Double Barrel Shotgun v2.3.esp
CROSS_MojaveManhunter.esp
MK18.esp
Remington700.esp
LString_Bow.esp
AER15.esp
AAC_HoneyBadger.esp
F4NVServiceRifleRedux.esp
RPD.esp
AKeVolk.esp
M2Agency.esp
WattzLaserGun.esp
HuntingRevolver.esp
ButtonsCompanion.esp
llamaCompanionHeatherv2.esp
LeeEnfieldNo4MkI.esp
EndlessWarfareDLCFixes.esp
STREETSWEEPER.esp
(SKI-NotDave) P-5 Power Armor.esp
Ranger.esp
NAC.esp
Burst Impact Blast FX.esp
Ryan.esp
FnScar.esp
CitySurvivor.esp
Vargo52.esp
MP7.esp
OP_Workbench.esp
HK_MP5.esp
X12Plasmacaster.esp
GIAT_FAMAS.esp
Mossberg500.esp
Glock19x.esp
TEC9.esp
AX50.esp
Modern Weapon Replacer - Glock 19x FX0x01 - 10mm Pistols.esp
SigSauerP320.esp
Modern Weapon Replacer - Sig Sauer P320 M17 - Deliverer.esp
SideAim.esp
Black Widow Suit.esp
ScreenArcherMenu.esp
SettleObjExpandPack.esp
SettleObjExpandPack-AllLightShadowEnabler.esp
PhotoMode.esp
Better_Notes.esp
SBRPatch-GIAT_FAMAS_SA.esp
SBRPatch-SeeThroughScopes_SideAim_Compatibility.esp
Insignificant Object Remover.esp
Realistic Movement Speed.esp
The Eyes Of Beauty.esp
KSHairdos.esp
ChildrenOfAtomFace.esp
Stalker Suit.esp
StalkerSuit - CoA.esp
Triggermen FC.esp
Famas_Addon.esp
Faster Terminal Displays (20x).esp
Complaint of the commonwealth.esp
LostWorld.esp
Modern Military Pack.esp
VD&AO_SIG_MCX_LT.esp
ESPExplorerFO4.esp
Faster Stations.esp
Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul.esp
TrueStormsFO4-FarHarbor.esp
TrueStormsFO4-NukaWorld-FH-Compat.esp
NAC-FH.esp
NAC-NW.esp
Nac-TrueStormsFHPatch.esp
TrueStormsFO4-GlowingSeaExtraRads.esp
TrueStormsFO4-FarHarborExtraRads.esp
Vault-Tec Armor Redux - Modular Expansion & Fixes.esp
MW2022_Ghost_Mexico_Urban.esp
Rusty Face Fix.esp
nino.esp
Linglongvita.esp
TeslaHeavyAuto_LLInjector.esp
MWM4 Ultimate Redux_Warfighter_No TR_LLI.esp
Factor.esp
Factor_LLInjector.esp
AX50_LLInjector.esp
AKeVolk_LLInjector.esp
AAlpha12.esp
AAlpha12_LLI.esp
Tactical Flashlights.esp
Tactical Flashlights - Settings.esp
USP .45_by_tooun.esp
F4NV_44_Magnum.esp
SV-98.esp
PIP-Pad.esp
AzarPonytailHairstyles.esp
VGDoubleBarrel.esp
VGDoubleBarrelReplacer.esp
VaultTecSecurityReplacement.esp
VaultTec Chest Armor.esp
HoneyBadger Expansion.esp
XP-GEM.esp
AlysrazaOverlays.esp
CombatArmor_Remodel_mr.esp
Alternative Satellite World Maps.esp
VividFallout - AiO - 2k.esp
Grasslands - Healthy.esp
KSHairdosExtra.esp
EndlessWarfare_MechBots.esp
Campsite.esp
Smoke-able Cigars.esp
LooksMenu.esp
3dscopes.esp
MwOtter.esp
RRRebelArmor.esp
Toxic Raider Armour.esp
CROSS_Cybernetics.esp
CROSS_Jetpack.esp
Project Elimination - PMC Combat Suit.esp
Ev_CPA10.esp
EV_CPA10_LL.esp
GammaGunRedux.esp
[BXX] Die Hardman's mask.esp
[KB-47]-ModernVehicles-V1.4.esp
Desert Punk Raiders.esp
[MW2022] Shadow Company.esp
LeatherHood.esp
MWR_Opfor.esp
CoD MW OpFor - Minutemen.esp
MinutemenEnforcer.esp
Modern Replacer - Tape.esp
Modern Replacer - Antiseptic.esp
Modern Replacer - Blowtorch.esp
Modern Replacer - Jerry Can.esp
Modern Replacer - Cement.esp
Modern Replacer - Gears.esp
Modern Replacer - Ashtray.esp
Modern Replacer - Concrete.esp
Modern Replacer - Oil Filter.esp
Modern Replacer - Fiber Optic.esp
[KB-47]ROBOTS.esp
Robots_CR .esp
[KB-47] DC Police.esp
AVBMusket.esp
MutantBear.esp
Energy Weapon Replacer - AER15 - Institute Guns.esp
M2_Flamethrower_2.2.esp
Energy Weapon Replacer - Wattz Laser Gun - Laser Guns.esp
Modern Weapon Replacer - MP7 - Submachine Guns.esp
Modern Weapon Replacer - AnotherOne TEC-9 - Pipe Guns.esp
Modern Weapon Replacer - Service Rifle Deadpool2099 - Assault Rifles.esp
Modern Weapon Replacer - FN SCAR-H - Combat Rifles.esp
Modern Weapon Replacer - Izhmash SV-98 - Lever Action Rifles.esp
Remington700_Addon.esp
X12-PlasmaReplacer.esp
GoodneighborExpanded[Patch-Previs].esp
FFHD.esp
Addiction Overhaul.esp
Dreaded Deathclaws 4k.esp
Gloomy Glass.esp
M8rDisableCreationClub.esp
SurvivalOptions.esp
MoreEnemies.esp
Infinite Armory.esp
Infinite Armory - Brotherhood of Steel BoS.esp
dynamicHelmet.esp
NemesisStandaloneHappo.esp
Q_RagdollPhysicsNoCollision.esp
TCD.esp
TCDOverlays.esp
TCDOverlaysSET.esp
TCDM.esp
Arbitration - Better Combat AI.esp
NPC Accuracy Revised.esp
[ARRETH] FGEP-DE.esp
VeryZenFGEP_4k.esp
Project Reality Footsteps FO4.esp
Project Reality Footsteps FO4 Expansion.esp
[ETH]FGEP-AmbienceReducer.esp
[ARRETH] FGEP-DE NoKnockDown.esp
Arbitration - Stealth Overhaul.esp
Arbitration - Sneak Detection Distance Increase (Half).esp
Arbitration - Reduced Grenade Spam.esp
Arbitration - Molotov.esp
Arbitration - Farther Grenade Detection.esp
Power Armor HUD Switcher.esp
CompanionStatus-Settings.esp
CompanionStatus.esp
WmkActiveEffects.esp
ConditionBoy.esp
ImmersiveAnimationFramework.esp
IAF - Far Harbor & Nuka World.esp
War Hammer and Greatsword sets.esp
RB_AehersinEyes.esp
SF Beards N Staches.esp
TBOS-AntoHairPack.esp
ValiusHDTextures4K.esp
M8rDisablePipboyEffects.esp
1FOM_FireAxe.esp
[KB-47] Riley Dogmeat Replacer.esp
Modern Replacer - Car Battery.esp
Modern Replacer - Alarm Clock.esp
Modern Replacer - Acid.esp
Modern Replacer - Laptop.esp
Modern Replacer - Butane.esp
Modern Replacer - Hotplate.esp
VtawWardrobe8.esp
SPECIAL_Raider_Outfit.esp
Friffy_Cait Outfit_Standalone.esp
NIRogueCourser.esp
VD_SIGMCXVirtus_SA.esp
StartMeUp.esp
MAIM Distributor.esp
Hot Diggity - Maim 2 Full Patch.esp
MAIM 2 - DA Loot Module.esp
Clarity.esp
EnhancedLightsandFX.esp
AlootHomePlate.esp
Pip-Boy Flashlight.esp
PIP-Pad_Pip-BoyFlashlight.esp
LooksMenu Customization Compendium.esp
aBitPrettierBOSFaces.esp
DiscreteFemaleSkeleton.esp
PIP-Pad_LMCC.esp
MAIM 2.esp
MAIM 2 - Dismemberment Patch.esp
MAIM 2 - EZ Keywords.esp

Karachi needs more green spaces. It is a concrete jungle and that's why we get recurring uncontrollable heat waves every year. City and provincial Governments are CORRUPT and INEPT. We need a coordinated Citizen Action to counter this stupidity. It is our city, we have to live here, PPP goons have apartments abroad and they can vacation in South of France, but we can't. So please, discuss, shoot ideas, on HOW WE CAN PLANT TREES IN KARACHI, MAKE GREEN SPACES, ACCESSIBLE TO ALL, TO IMPROVE THE HABITABILITY & ENVIRONMENT !
(I'm no urban dev specialist, so seeking input from someone, hopefully)

Help me! Okay, so brand new three month old new build-some contractor on a bobcat hit our foundation—cracked a piece of concrete off and now in the basement there is a crack directly beneath where they hit the house. I was home, there was a giant noise and the entire house shook….Builder is being coy & saying it is fine, no repairs needed. are they right or am I just overreacting? What do I do & how do I do it? I expressed my concern for structural issues because of this in the future and was ignored. Please any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated! It’s a small crack-can’t fit a quarter into it, in the basement foundation (poured foundation), but it basically goes diagonal/staircase down the entire wall. :-/

As the sun kisses the horizon and the River Sal whispers its timeless melodies, The St. Regis Goa Resort proudly unveils Riverside, an epicurean sanctuary nestled on the tranquil banks of the river. Riverside pays homage to the rich tapestry of Pan-Asian flavors while celebrating the essence of unhurried riverside dining.
Perched elegantly on the banks of the meandering River Sal, Riverside offers an enchanting rendezvous with Pan-Asian delicacies in an ambiance that exudes serenity. Guests can luxuriate in picturesque river views from the breezy patio or immerse themselves in the culinary spectacle indoors, where skilled chefs craft tantalizing Asian delights.
About the Menu
Riverside invites diners on a sensory journey through the bustling street markets of Southeast Asia, offering an array of delectable dishes. Among the menu highlights are the Spicy garlic edamame, where each pod bursts with flavour, the indulgent Butter garlic Sichuan tiger prawns that will transport you to the streets of Chengdu, the irresistible Pan-seared char siu pork bao that marries traditional flavours with a contemporary twist, Riverside signature chicken clay pot, a sumptuous masterpiece that reflects his passion and expertise, and to round off your meal, indulge in the refreshing Homemade wasabi yuzu sorbet, a palate-cleansing delight that leaves a lasting impression. Every dish tells a story of gourmet mastery and cultural richness, inviting guests on a sensory journey through the bustling street markets of Southeast Asia.
"Through Riverside, we aim to transport our guests on a gastronomic journey across Asia, showcasing the diverse flavours and traditions of the region. Each dish is crafted with meticulous attention to detail, ensuring an unparalleled dining experience." - Pawan Singh, Director of Food & Beverage.
Design element
The Riverside embodies the unhurried rhythm of the gently flowing River Sal, with an artistic ode to the rising sun symbolizing the dawn of a new dining experience. The restaurant boasts chic white interiors with a lofty louvered ceiling and an outdoor terrace, perfect for alfresco dining under the stars. The ambiance is relaxed yet refined, allowing patrons to savour the passing fishing trawlers while being attended to by warm and hospitable hosts.
"Riverside epitomizes the essence of leisurely dining amidst the serene beauty of the River Sal. It is a testament to our commitment to offering our guests unforgettable epicurean experiences that reflect the vibrant spirit of Goa." – Satish Kumar, General Manager.
Embark on a delicious voyage and discover the joys of unhurried dining amidst the tranquil beauty of Riverside at The St. Regis Goa Resort.
Timings: Operational Hours: Lunch: 12:00 PM to 3:30 PM
Dinner: 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM
(Closed on Mondays)
Contact: Restaurant Manager: Abhishek Deshpande
Email: [Abhishek.S.Deshpande@stregis.com](mailto:Abhishek.S.Deshpande@stregis.com), Phone: +91 829 693 4603
Address: Riverside, The St. Regis, Goa Resort, Mobor Beach, Cavelossim, Goa 403731
For reservations or inquiries: Call +91 91756 81087/ +91 832 662 1234 or mail [sr.goixr.reservations.goa@stregis.com](mailto:sr.goixr.reservations.goa@stregis.com)
To stay updated, guests may follow us on Instagram @stregisgoaresort
Please visit The St. Regis Goa Resort, for more information
Media Contact
Sandhya Sharma
Associate Director of Marketing
Contact: +91 901 912 4202 / [Sandhya.Sharma@stregis.com](mailto:Sandhya.Sharma@stregis.com)
About St. Regis Hotels & Resorts
Combining timeless glamour with a vanguard spirit, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts is committed to delivering exquisite experiences at more than 50 luxury hotels and resorts in the best addresses around the world. Beginning with the debut of The St. Regis hotel in New York by John Jacob Astor IV at the dawn of the twentieth century, the brand has remained committed to an uncompromising level of bespoke and anticipatory service for all of its guests, delivered flawlessly by the signature St. Regis Butler Service. For more information and new openings, visit stregis.com or follow Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. St. Regis is proud to participate in Marriott Bonvoy®, the global travel program from Marriott International. The program offers members an extraordinary portfolio of global brands, exclusive experiences on Marriott Bonvoy Moments and unparalleled benefits including complimentary nights and Elite status recognition. To enroll for free or for more information about the program, visit marriottbonvoy.com.
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) is based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and encompasses a portfolio of nearly 8,900 properties across more than 30 leading brands in 141 countries and territories. Marriott operates and franchises hotels and licenses vacation ownership resorts all around the world. The company offers Marriott Bonvoy®, its highly awarded travel program. For more information, please visit our website at www.marriott.com, and for the latest company news, visit www.marriottnewscenter.com. In addition, connect with us on Facebook and @MarriottIntl on X and Instagram.

About Marriott Bonvoy®
Marriott Bonvoy’s extraordinary portfolio offers renowned hospitality in the most memorable destinations in the world, with 31 brands that are tailored to every type of journey. From The Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis to W Hotels and more, Marriott Bonvoy has more luxury offerings than any other travel program. Members can earn points for stays at hotels and resorts, including all-inclusive resorts and premium home rentals, and through everyday purchases with co-branded credit cards. Members can redeem their points for experiences including future stays, Marriott Bonvoy Moments, or through partners for luxurious products from Marriott Bonvoy Boutiques. To enroll for free or for more information about Marriott Bonvoy, visit marriottbonvoy.com.

Quoting from the video How to kill a God

A Colour Revolution is just whatever revolution that exists in the world and in history, that Puttin & those who think like him believe is the fault of the CIA, as such the definition of what exactly is a Colour Revolution has to keep being changed so that the end goal proving it's all a CIA-OP remains intact. (...) You're not finding the common connection between everything and using that as the basis of the conclusion, you're starting with the conclusion you want, and admitting anything which disproves it, and also distracts from the fact that you've made the connection between flying & evil and refuse to explain. But that's the thing – that connection never needs to be made. The connection is taken on faith that it's there. If it can't be found it's not because it doesn't exist, it's because you fail to find it that connection can never be proven to not exist because Color Revolution Theory is not an academic or a scientific study – it's a conspiracy theory. It's a conspiracy theory that has been painted with the veneer of just enough clever sending scientific woowoo terminology to give it the air of legitimacy so that you go into it already believing that the foundation work that all things that fly are evil, has already been concluded by serious experts. So the end bit the CIA is responsible is the only bet you're allowed to question.

LazerPig described weak signals – or more accurately speaking, intelligence & counterintelligence weak signals. Weak signals are the core axiom pillars why the concept of secret police oand secret services exist in the first place – it's their raison d'être. If you're against that, guess who's the next suspect (maybe terrorist) on a hidden list of scrutiny, threatening national security™...
It's a circular reasoning:

• we don't know what our enemies/potential enemies/presumtive potential enemies are doing –>
• we must be doing something wrong –>
• we aren't paranoic enough to know –>¨
• we don't know what our enemies/potential enemies/presumtive potential enemies are doing –>
• repeat ad nauseam until the Sun explodes, or the heatwave of the universe, or Rapture, or whatever.

Isn't it nice the world we live in – and with whom we share it? Isn't it cute how there are healthy people who – by their own volition – concocted schemes & formulas to self-enforce upon themselves mental illnesses (that they don't have) to justify everything; including their monthly paychecks, fees, and the occasional hidden bribes?
But, it's paranoia. It is paranoia. It's paranoia dubbed in clever sending scientific woowoo terminology to give it the air of legitimacy(sic). It's how The System™ self-enforces itself to exist, disregarding what that system is, how it operates, what's its ideology (if it does have one in the first place), what are its interests. It's the self-licking ice cream cone. It's why dictators/authoritarians with their socio-political, economic, and enforcement (police, secret police, secret services, special services etc.) machineries are obsessed with destroying everything they see a threat & where they think know there's a threat. It's why they wake up in the morning deciding how to ruin lives. It's why their family & friends/community (awwww, there it is; there's that family values again) can afford all those fancy cars, villas, mansions, offshore accounts/properties, chic private university degrees etc. It's why (and how) their aforementioned machineries fill the hours for their monthly/quarterly performance reports, from being fired and/or thrown out the window, hoping to get a pension at the end of their tenure besides what they've stolen. It's the formula for how (and why) they justify their monstrous existence instead of shooting themselves in the head, since everyone else is chickenshit scared to do it.
There are several Wikipedia articles describing weak signals but, oddly, there isn't an English one. Closest are SWOT, risk management, and failure of imagination.
What French wikipedia says:

Signal faible – Weak signal
Weak signals are elements in the perception of the environment, whether opportunities or threats (SWOT matrix), which need to be listened to in anticipation, known as [information] monitoring (surveillance state?), with the aim of participating in the development of forward-looking choices with a view to establishing a strategy and reducing uncertainty. The use of the concept of ‘weak signal’ is expanding, although its relevance remains open to interpretation.
According to Igor Ansoff, the founder of this concept, the Strategic Early Warning System (SEWS) methodology uses weak signals to analyse partial and fragmentary information provided by the environment. This analysis sometimes complements an analysis of major trends. Weak signals are low-frequency signals, or even signals which are not apparent but which are deduced from a piece of information or a fact. SEWS is not confined to geopolitical and technological analysis, but increasingly to financial analysis.
The importance of weak signals lies not in their perception, which is rarely at first sight, but in the contrasting reactions they trigger, helping to imagine dynamic scenarios. Contrary to popular belief, weak signals are above all extrapolations of deductions, particularly in directions that are a priori impossible or even detestable. More concretely, capturing weak signals involves going beyond an initial level of appearances, information or reactions to look for ‘augmented’ data. The journalistic techniques of gathering and processing information used for this purpose make it possible to collect a great deal of data. This data must then be validated and re-interrogated before being used to build a development or management strategy.
The detection of weak signals is the subject of various corporate monitoring processes: technological, competitive, commercial and environmental, social, societal, etc. monitoring, as well as economic intelligence. Weak signals can also be detected outside any corporate logic, which means that monitoring can be supplemented by awareness-raising. Detecting weak signals is a necessary task for companies and organisations (police? secret services?): the main risk for them is not to take risks.

And to use a couple of poignant quotes:

“Trust, but verify.” “The fact that you are free is not your achievement, but rather a failure on our side.”
“If it were a fact, it wouldn't be called intelligence.”

Moving on...

The reason why God-Country-Family is such an effective way, of manipulating people, is because when the world becomes too overwhelming, the average person retreats back to what is important to them – which is their personal morals, the place they live, and their family – and so long as nothing is directly affecting those three things, then, they will rarely go out of their way to care about anything else outside of that scope. A lot of people couldn't give two shits about children dying in other countries, but when it's your family, who is under threat, that's when the knives come out. And that's what's actually happening in these revolutions and people who thought they were progressing towards a better life, suddenly, find out that they're not, and not only are they facing a lifetime of gradually declining living standards under some arsehole, but so are their children, the wall has come down and they have been exposed to the potential of a better life & a better way of doing things, and the idea that the hardship they suffer is required to protect them against the corruption of the West, no longer flies. They've seen the corruption of the West and they want to be part of it because it's better than being part of the corrupt East. (...) Every single Revolution currently described as a Colour Revolution was against a corrupt dictator in favor of actual democracy, not the feudalism disguised as democracy that they'd always lived under. That's not something that is unique to any of the Colour Revolutions, that's just what a revolution typically is they are largely throughout history about overthrowing tyrants.

This is where I have to underline an error in thinking to LazerPig, in relation to Colour Revolutions, and what I've written above.
From the perspective of the System™ as a whole, there are two fundamental fulcrum questions: 1) Who's more likely to die at a protest or revolution – parents or individuals? 2) Who's more likely to kill a policeman, riot policeman, secret police officers, and/or soldiers?
Obvious answer to the first question: individuals. Lone individuals, solo or in some ad-hoc group, are more willing to expose themselves to higher degrees of danger at a protest, or revolution upheaval. It's not definitive that they want to die, but they're one degree or two more than the average person afraid of ending up at the hospital of bruises or worse. Parents – whether under democracy or a dictatorship – will never expose themselves to danger. You might find a mother with her daughter, or a father, or a full family with some cardboard messages but... that's it. That's it. Once tear gasses are tossed and the riot police are starting to get pushy, it's full retreat for them.
... but what about the second question? I cannot recall a protest (let alone revolution) in my lifetime, where people in the crowd – individuals or family people with their kids or their kids waiting for them at their homes – suddenly decide to kill riot police, secret service officers (if they can find them), or soldiers armed with automatic rifles. I don't know how, just decide to lynch or stab them, or something. Or attack buildings associated with enforcement agencies, such as police departments, secret services HQs, military barracks, and kill whoever is in there. I can't recall, not even solo individuals, and they're the ones who supposedly have a higher degree of IDGAF of harm. People at protests, let alone revolutions, do not trust each other. Less so into killing people in uniforms, armour, and supported by tanks, helicopters, and special vehicles.
More than that, what if the protest or revolution fails? More often than not, they do – and the machineries immediately start crushing down, ruining lives in the process. No person, no matter how sane or insane, wants any consequences.
And that's the point that proves the argument; that these authoritarian/dictatorship countries know people are afraid of consequences, they know the System is ruthless, they know all the written & unwritten rules – therefore, it has to be CIA, because only lunatics (right?) have an obvious death wish against obvious self-defeating odds of success. Add the cherry on top that people, especially family types, don't even fantasize in their heads killing police, riot police, soldiers, and secret service officers – or kill whoever on shift at the ministries/departments of internal affairs, defense, barracks, police HQs etc.
In conclusion, no. Normal people & normal parents do not want to die and leave their kids alone, orphans, even to their relatives. Never rely on families for protests & revolutions, because they're the most obvious type of people who don't want to die, nor do they want to suffer any subsequent consequences (they're very exposed). The rhetoric is romanticized (parents wanting a better future for their kids) but the reality of the situation is that parents in authoritarian/dictatorship countries – paradoxically – don't love their kids, at least not at the core level. Sure, they may want in abstract a better life for them but, as it turns out, even former Communist countries favoured sending their people by the millions in wealtheir countries to drive taxis, scrub shit stains off toilets, and pick fruits & vegetables from industrial farms. Or prostitution. Or begging. Or criminality.
Or not wanting for them a universal healthcare service & preventing school shootings, right?
People averse from killing operatives & agents of their governments/states are the proof of evidence for any country that, whoever wants to coup d'etat the system, isn't organic. That's why everything is a CIA-OP to the kremlin orcs, and not something spontaneous – what peon (Приспособленчество & ничего) has a death wish for themselves and/or their families, if that's the case?
I've read the book that was cited but I want to remind a fragment from CGP Grey's video Rules for Rulers:

So potential key supporters must weigh the probability of surviving the cull and getting the rewards, versus the risk of being on the outside of a dictatorship they helped create. In a stable democracy, that's a terrible gamble. Maybe you'll be incredibly wealthy, but probably you'll be dead and have made and have made the lives of everyone you know worse. The math says no. Being on the right side of a coup in a dictatorship means having the resources to get you and your family what the peasants lack: health care, education, quality of life.

What I want to underline is that, this is also true for an authoritarian/dictatorship system, applied inversely:

So potential key supporters must weigh the probability of surviving the cull and keep the rewards, versus the risk of being on the outside of a democracy they helped create. In a dictatorship, that's a horrible gamble. Maybe you'll remain incredibly wealthy after what you've stolen during the previous regime & not be investigated by some democratic tribunal, but probably you'll be tortured to death, and have made the lives of everyone related to you – directly or by conjecture – worse. The math says no.

Hi All, I am currently budgeting out my cottage build and wanted to know if there is anything I have missed based upon experince!
Clearing, Driveway, Septic, Well & pump, Electric hook up, The build itself - using a panel system and labor, Concrete slab, Relevant permits and drawings,
I am pricing interior separately

Several of you have been mighty helpful in providing ideas for sights to see on the NorthWest Passage I want to make with my wife in August this year. Thank you! Below is what I've put together...but nothing is in concrete yet. If there are other venues on this expedition I need to consider, please let me know. BTW- we're in SW Georgia USA. It'll be our first visit to the northwest. TIA!
Day 1- Fly into Seattle, hopefully arrive early afternoon. Visit Pike Place Market, have dinner there, view Seattle waterfront
Day 2- some things we'd like to see in Seattle but would also like suggestions: SpaceNeedle, Museum of Pop Culture, Cruise on Elliot Bay. Please let us know of other ideas.
Day 3- We'll be leaving for Vancouver today but it happens to be the 3rd Saturday in the month which means the Amazon Sphere offices are open for viewing (they're only open to the public on the 1st & 3rd Saturday each month). I'd like to visit it before we head north. I'll arrange for the tickets (they are free, I hear, but only available two weeks before the day)
Day 3- Getting to Vancouver. I'm really trying to budget a sea plane ride to Vancouver from Seattle, if just for the time it'll save, but it does seem expensive when you include the heavy carry-on bags we'll have. Any ideas? In the meanwhile, tho, it looks like we'll be taking the ferry.
Day 3- late afternoon in Vancouver- probably just go to Gastown for touring and dinner.
Day 4- would like to get a rental car in the morning. We'll keep it till we get to Calgary. With the car this day, we'll drive the Sea-to-Sky Highway all the way up to Whistler where we'll ride the gondola and do some touring around. Probably have lunch there before heading back to Vancouver
Day 5- leave Vancouver no later than mid-morning, head up to Clearwater, BC. Probably want to stop in Kamloops (4 hrs) for lunch and to break up the trip. Try to be in Clearwater (another 1.5 hrs) hotel by 6-7pm.
Day 6- Explore Clearwater. Probably do some trail hiking and waterfall gazing. Looking for suggestions. Should just be a beautiful vista viewing day. (altho might need to do some laundry somewhere)
Day 7- Head to Jasper (198 miles). I've got a list already generated of places to stop along the route for sightseeing so I'm sure the trip will take a while. Hope to be there by early afternoon to check in for a two night stay somewhere.
Day 8- I'm overwhelmed by all the places to see around Jasper. Give me your suggestions, please.
Day 9- begin the beautiful Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Banff (I mean, EVERYBODY online goes bonkers about this drive). We are not gonna rush it. I'm getting mixed signals on where to stay, tho: Banff Townsite or Lake Louise.
Day 10- continue to explore Banff area
Day 11- head to Calgary, find airport, drop off car. Sleep for a week.

I keep going to others camps to try to buy what they have for sale & I’m either shot at or the person despawns their camp… am I doing something wrong? I thought you couldn’t steal people’s stuff I’m just trying to buy ammo and look for stuff like concrete at first everyone was super friendly but everyone all of a sudden is being defensive I’m new to Fallout & this game in general I’m even going in places that look like big stores am I doing something wrong?

Session 0: https://www.reddit.com/DeltaGreenRPG/comments/1d0l92x/impossible_landscapes_session_0/
(Okay, these will be long. Five players, lmao. Hadn't quite accounted for that)
Operation ALICE, New York, 1995
The Roster (Player/Character)
Lea (she/her): Jules Gradkowska - Agent MIRANDA. Journalist - research and human intelligence.
Iain (he/him): Ralph Bevis - Agent MILHOUSE. Academic - history and occult specialist.
Quinn (he/him): Richard Delapore - Agent MAVERICK. FBI Special Agent - criminal and forensic expert and the official 'face' of the investigation.
Phil (he/him): Jean Duvall - Agent MAIN. US Navy Master Chief Petty Officer - operational security specialist.
Duncan (he/him): Jake Little - Agent MALATESTA. Civilian contractor - computer and electronic specialist with a side line in hacking.
Rob_sothoth (he/him) - Handler. The arbiter of the world: the good, the bad and that which cannot and should not be named.
Background: The Agents of M-Cell are tasked with investigating the apartment of Abigail Wright. Missing since June, Delta Green has reason to suspect para-natural involvement. Their orders are simple: catalogue the apartment and remove anything deemed suspect for destruction.
Despite heavy changes made, full spoiler warning for Impossible Landscapes.

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Session 1 "The Apartment" (May 24th, 2024)
New York: Tuesday, August 8th, 1995
1:45pm - 3:32pm, EST
Entering the lobby of the Macallistar building in Kips Bay, NYC, the Agents first make a sweep of Abigail's mailbox. Agent MARCUS (M-Cell Case Officer) provided them with a complete set of keys, not to be copied. The mailbox is stuffed full with bills, junk mail, catalogues and offers; mail still being delivered by people who have no idea Abigail is missing. MAVERICK gathers it in a bag and they make their way to Abigail's apartment (Ground floor).
The Macallistar echoes an earlier age. Faded purple carpeting and design from the turn of the century. Opposite Abigail's front door is an old-fashioned telephone nook, complete with bench and curtain for comfort and privacy when phone-lines in individual apartment was an expense few could afford.
M-Cell enters the apartment, finding it somewhere between a hoarder's dream and crime-scene technician's nightmare. The small hallway leads to a living-room (the apartment's largest space), an adjoining bedroom and a kitchen and bathroom opposite each other. Aside from the hallway, on first inspection the only other uncluttered space is the kitchen, which doesn't really look as if it's been used much. MAVERICK ear-marks that as something he wants to check himself as the team begin taking stock.
The NYPD has left a box with copies of their files, including a list of tenants they interviewed, many, many evidence collection bags and a box of latex gloves.
The apartment is filled with various items, with almost no floor visible beneath the collection. CDs and CD cases are stuck or glued to the wall, along with mannequin parts, sketches and assorted pieces that might be ceramic or plastic arranged in odd patterns without reason or rhyme. Stacks of phone books, stretches of dyed fabrics stitched together, an antique claw-footed lamp. Bags, bundles of pictures (drawings and photographs) of seeming nonsense. No furniture is immediately visible in the chaotic mess.
MAIN finds the same result in the bedroom as the first Search rolls are called for. Something catches his eye in the anarchy of the bedroom.
MALATESTA begins sorting through the pile of mail. MILHOUSE at first begins helping, but seeing the scale of the cataloguing, volunteers to make a coffee and food run. MIRANDA begins photographing, while MAVERICK gloves up and asks for things to be passed to him such as brushes, anything with a handle really or something more likely to have fingerprints on it. He wants to see if he can grab a set of Abigail's prints, if that's possible.
It doesn't take MALATESTA long to work out Abigail stopped paying her rent and bills in or around March before disappearing in June. Money was coming in up to a certain point, apparently from a showing Abigail had at the Mercury Gallery in Greenwich Village in November the previous year. There's even a letter from the gallery owner asking about another possible showing; from the way it's written, it might not have been the first time he spoke to Abigail before she vanished. Then, the only money coming in appears to be from her father, though she doesn't appear to have used it to cover the rent. He also gets the building management company, Art Life and their address.
As the Agents work, with MAIN carefully picking his way through the bedroom towards whatever caught his eye and MAVERICK uncovers a battery-powered hi-fi under all the trash, MILHOUSE returns from his coffee run and bumps into someone else entering the Macallistar at the same time he is. After an awkward hesitation on the threshold, MILHOUSE spends a little chatting to Lewis Post, one of Abigail's neighbours. MILHOUSE passes a HUMINT roll and I ruled that having spent most of his time in academics and his fellow PhDs, he can spot signs of some kind of social anxiety. I felt that was a fair get for a good success.
Lewis is hesitant but forthcoming as MILHOUSE works that high charisma score, knowing what to say to diffuse any potential tension. As far as Lewis knows, he is FBI of some kind after all.
MILHOUSE: "Did she ever mention a boyfriend? Girlfriend?"
Lewis: "Our relationship wasn't really like that. We had coffee sometimes. Talked about art. The process." He thinks. "She might have mentioned someone, but not a name, only what they did. A salesman, but I couldn't tell you what they sold."
MILHOUSE: "Talk about anything else?"
Lewis begins heading upstairs "She mentioned moving, but not before she was ready."
Back in the apartment, MAIN voices what others were thinking. "Where was she staying?" No bed, no signs of habitation except for the assorted hoard of crap. MAIN finds a hand grenade nestled in some papers and art supplies near the bedroom's walk-in closet.
In the living room, MAVERICK finds a single cassette tape in the uncovered hi-fi and flips it on, finding the batteries still live. Everyone hears MAVERICK's conversation with his significant other, Natalie from the previous evening. MAVERICK realises it's cut up and out of order, rewinds it and then flips it over. He thinks the entire conversation has been split between A & B sides of the tape.
MALATESTA and MAVERICK both consider phone-tapping, but MAIN, grenade temporarily forgotten, asks how it ended up here?
SAN check for MAVERICK. Pocketing the cassette tape, MAVERICK closes down a bit and prepares to go over the kitchen with a fine tooth comb; perhaps this is how he copes?
Before MAIN can mention the grenade he's worried about, MIRANDA, MALATESTA, MILHOUSE & MAVERICK notice something on the wall behind where the hi-fi was previously buried under junk. Fixed to the wall, maybe with some kind of glue is a piece of brown packing-paper with some kind of symbol drawn on it. Everyone focuses on it.

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3:41pm to 5:22pm, EST
MALATESTA: "That certainly looks like what we're supposed to be worried about."
MIRANDA snaps a polaroid. MILHOUSE tries to examine it, but his Occult check can only give him the vague thought it's connected to demonology, but little else beyond that. MAVERICK is cautious, but more concerned about getting to work on the unusually spotless kitchen.
Carefully, MIRANDA removes it and a blaring sounds like something between a horn blast and explosion almost deafens the Agents. It seems to come from everywhere and nowhere, from right next to them and outside at the same time.
Everyone passes a CONx5 check and the subsequent SAN check. Through the living room's window, MIRANDA, MILHOUSE and MAIN see a yellow-cab in the street outside. The cabbie appears to have leaned on the horn as someone crosses the street. They appear heavily dressed for summer, possibly homeless.
Is that a snake draped across their shoulders?
MIRANDA takes a polaroid while MILHOUSE and MAIN head outside to investigate. The picture reveals in sharp clarity, the cabbie staring down the barrel as she snapped the shot directly at her. MAVERICK gets to work in the kitchen and MALATESTA picks over things in the living room and bedroom respectively.
Search rolls for those in the apartment.
Outside, the cab has turned the corner and the pedestrian has carried on, though MAIN and MILHOUSE are able to work out where they went. MILHOUSE heads to cut off the other side of the alley, while MAIN approaches from behind, getting the pedestrian's attention. It's the height of summer in NYC, the air reeks of gasoline, rotting garbage and baking, soiled concrete and asphalt.
MAIN finds a nondescript, seemingly homeless man by the state of his clothes, but with a python draped over his shoulders. MAIN strikes up conversation, lighting a Gitane cigarette and pointing to the snake. From the other end of the alley, MILHOUSE makes his way towards the pair.
MAIN fails an alertness check.
Is this guy sweating? It's hot and he's bundled up like it's winter. Is he sweating? Why isn't he sweating?
Back in the apartment, MAVERICK tests the kitchen for blood and body fluids, breaking out the spray bottle and UV light. There's no cutlery, glassware or dishware anywhere in the room, but as he's lifting what could be a print, finds a mechanical diagram drawn on a napkin taped above the inside of an otherwise empty drawer. MALATESTA & MIRANDA continue their search of the living and bedroom, with MALATESTA finding a card printed with the following:
"For a good time Call D - 999-202-9989"
On the reverse are a series of what appear to be street corner addresses in Brooklyn. Could be a sex-line, could be a way to see Red Band underground film screenings, could be something online related. MALATESTA drifts between a few circles and he pockets it out of curiosity. When MIRANDA locates the grenade in the bedroom, she is careful to give it a wide berth and locates what MAIN missed: a backpack radio in the bedroom's walk-in closet. She calls MALATESTA over.
Back in the alleyway, MILHOUSE rolls under 10% and passes his disguise check. Dressed casually and a college athlete to boot, he fits the general chad look in his New York Knicks shirt despite his academic leanings. Being loud and obnoxious like he's drunk, he barrels into the homeless guy with the snake who stonewalled MAIN.
Instead he hits MAIN as the man with the snake is there and gone in the space between blinks. One moment MAIN is looking at him and then MILHOUSE knocks him flat on his ass. Like a film edit. Just gone. MAIN crit fails his SAN check and takes 4 SAN loss without projecting. Instead, as he scrambles up begins kicking over trash cans and searching the alley while MILHOUSE tries to calm him down and get a handle on things.
As MILHOUSE is talking MAIN out of tearing the alley apart, MIRANDA and MALATESTA check out the radio. As it comes to life, they listen and hear the following:
"Exeter. India. One. Thirteen. Sierra. Twenty. Twenty. Forty-nine."
MAVERICK meanwhile, finding the kitchen bare oddly finds the refrigerator stocked. There isn't much inside, some milk unopened and a pack of cheese and deli meat. Expiration is months ago, but through the plastic and glass of the bottle it looks fresh. Curious, he opens the milk and finds it smells as fresh as the day it was bought. Months ago.
Passes his SAN check. Given what he heard on the tape, it's not the strangest thing today.
MAIN and MILHOUSE detour to grab some more coffees, more to calm MAIN down and give him a (successful CHAx5 check) to flirt with the coffeeshop waitress. On their return, MAIN heads into the bedroom, pulls the pin on the grenade and activates the firing lever.
Nothing happens. His "hunch" was correct. Despite failing to properly identify it, something about the shape of it didn't match modern ordnance. Like the radio, it's vintage and either deactivated or else rendered inert by time and age.
I gave MAIN a SAN point back, because why not?
As things begin winding down, MILHOUSE and MAVERICK puzzle over the weird fridge, with MILHOUSE sacrificing his green tea and MAVERICK a donut to see how "fresh" they are come morning between the fridge and not.

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After 6pm, EST
Between them, M-Cell take the rest of the evening to take care of home-scenes or any unfinished business they can get done with their resources at hand. They also divide the Operational evidence from the Case evidence, with MIRANDA taking the symbol, MALATESTA the backpack radio & phone number, MAVERICK the cassette tape (for obvious reasons) and MAIN the mechanical sketch on the napkin.
MIRANDA and MILHOUSE, using the former's academic credentials both stay on the case, with MIRANDA leaving her photos from the park to develop in her bathroom. While she fails her roll, she does help MILHOUSE identify the demon the symbol refers to and book-related lead. She hits up a criminal contact named Hugo to put out feelers for weird items she may be interested in. He agrees for a fee, which she negotiates in her favour.
Returning to her apartment, MIRANDA finds her photos of the dancing clown and watching crowd have developed. In every photograph, the clown is turned away from her, but the faces in the crowd are looking at her. That's not how she remembers it. Fails a SAN check. Projects on to her editor, knowing she's going to be taking a "personal day" tomorrow, and this after she agreed to go to the grill.
This will have consequences.
MAIN, unnerved by the day's events, not the least of which was being knocked on his ass by a fitter, younger man, heads out. He returns to the coffeeshop he and MILHOUSE visited and takes the waitress he hit on out on a date. After a romantic interlude, MAIN has a new bond. Her name's Marsha, she's 27 and very nice.
Breaking Operational Security, MAVERICK asks MALATESTA to come back to his apartment and check for possible surveillance. Despite suffering comparatively little SAN loss overall, MAVERICK is letting the day's events impact his behaviour.
It's trivially easy for MALATESTA to confirm there are no bugs in place, which really does narrow the options for how the conversation could have been recorded. Thankful, he asks MALATESTA to keep this to himself for now, to which the grunge-kid agrees. MAVERICK drops MALATESTA near his home and leaves, putting the tape in the player of his car as he pulls away.
MALATESTA lives near the Village and diverts to check out the Mercury Gallery. Though closed, it seems legit and he makes a note of it for later. Back at home, he breaks open the backpack radio and examines it. The battery is not connected to the radio itself, the wires having been stripped out, yet he and MIRANDA both heard a voice on the end of its phone-mic. He passes his SAN check and finds in place of one of the transistors a small, black stone which does not feel like stone at all and feels like it's body temperature. MALATESTA leaves it on his desk, covered in a cloth.
Alone in his apartment, MAVERICK watches his phone. The time comes and he does not call Natalie. A moment later, his phone rings.
Alone in the apartment, MAVERICK does not answer.

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Post-Mortem
We ended up playing for a touch longer than I intended, but I knew that would happen by the time the cab sounded its horn. Despite some tiredness and some drinking, we ended up with a really strong session in retrospect, which has set the overall tone of the campaign for me as GM going forward. Between the five players, two have been through one Delta Green campaign, one has experience with Pulp Cthulhu and two have varying levels of exposure. They all roleplayed the f##k out of their characters and while I was worried about just how weird I wanted things to get out the gate, it feels like the balance is correct and I've given enough avenues for further investigation they may want to pursue.
I got a far better sense, as did the players, as to what drives and motivates their characters and how they cope or don't cope with Delta Green work.
MILHOUSE is definitely setting himself up as the curious academic, Iain playing his interest as forever drawn towards what's there "to discover," he said in character. Perhaps a fool and his sanity are easily parted?
MAVERICK is the "all-American", Agent Cooper adjacent FBI Agent who butts up against the para-natural and is seemingly rocked by it, revealing a complicated and perhaps conflicted depth. In his previous operation with MIRANDA, MAVERICK killed one person, but something about this has gotten under his skin. I wonder what Natalie thinks about their missed call?
A hacker by trade, MALATESTA likes a puzzle as much as he does not like the "weird shit." He talks a good talk when it's about something he knows, but is much too shy to chat up his co-worker. He and MAVERICK had some friction in Session 0 when MAVERICK wanted to call him Mal, to which the younger man pushed back against. Yet, he now knows where MAVERICK lives. Maybe he can learn more? What will he do with that? Does he even want to?
As much as MILHOUSE, MIRANDA is likewise driven by curiosity and a need to know, but first and foremost to keep herself safe. She and him are not the same. There's a scar above her hip from a knife, and it still twinges from time to time. She's also the first to directly or indirectly involve a Bond in the investigation. I wonder what Hugo will or won't find? I wonder what those photos mean. MIRANDA wondered aloud whether the crowd or the clown was the "entity." What does that mean?
Despite being built like Jack Reacher (albeit in a sailor suit), MAIN projects a tough air but is clearly a man at the crossroads. He turns 40 before 1995 ends; middle age. When hit with a problem or something he can't otherwise work out, his behaviour swings from one extreme to the other. To date, he's coped with the case by: lashing out at trash cans in an alley. Chatting up a waitress and forming a romantic bond with her. Pulling the pin on a grenade he "thought" could be fake. It's day one. I'm here for it.
Our next session is scheduled for June 7th, 2024.
Until then, be seeing you.

Cabinet:
Vice President: Andrew Johnson (1865 - 1869)
Secretary of State: William Seward (1865 - 1869)
Secretary of Treasury: Hugh McCulloch (1865 - 1869)
Secretary of War: Edwin Stanton (1865 - 1868), John Covode (1868 - 1869)
Attorney General: James Speed (1865 - 1869)
Postmaster General: William Dennison Jr. (1865 - 1867), Cassius M. Clay (1867 - 1868), Carl Schurz (1868 - 1869)
Secretary of Navy: Gideon Welles (1865 - 1869)
Secretary of Interior: James Harlan (1865 - 1869)
Domestic Policy:

• Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural would become famous across the globe for the line “with malice towards none, with charity for all.” Lincoln’s supporters would use the slogan in defense of his Reconstruction policy.
• Actor John Booth Wilkes’ arrest for drunkenness would lead to the uncovering of a half-cocked plot to assassinate the President with a half-dozen other accomplices interrogated and some arrested.
• General William Sherman attempted to reach a settlement with Confederate General Joseph Johnston that would preserve Confederate State Governments, which Lincoln and War Secretary Edwin Stanton refused (with Johnston signing a surrender similar to the one agreed to by General Lee.)
• Lincoln would use nearly all of 1865 to enact the “Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction,” better known as the 10% Plan.
• Lincoln would pardon every Confederate who had not had leadership positions in the military or civilian Government nor committed war crimes, allow the admission of every former Confederate state in time for the Midterm Election with new constitutional conventions on lenient terms (with only the abolition of slavery and the requirement of a public education system, for both freedmen and whites required.)
• The New South would quickly continue the plantation economy, but, with wage labor to the consternation of radicals like Thaddeus Stevens. Vagrancy laws would be enforced due to fears of “idle freedmen,” but, Radicals would point out these laws were often used liberally to target freedmen and enforce a stratified social system.
• Radicals would also create the “Joint Committee on Reconstruction” in Congress to investigate atrocities committed against freedmen without punishment and would showcase the segregated nature of Southern education with Lincoln defending the latter on the grounds that Southern states were fulfilling their terms to provide basic education for freedmen.
• Black codes would nearly be passed in three Southern states, but, Northern outrage as well as Presidential disapproval would force their abandonment. Nonetheless, Radicals would make the Black Codes a major issue in the 1866 Midterms.
• Lincoln would use Presidential authority to divert the Freedman’s Bureau's attention from land reform in the South towards education and provision of humanitarian assistance, to the annoyance of Radicals once more. Lincoln’s Republican allies would again argue that progress was achieved due to the reformation of regressive taxes.
• The Midterms of 1866 would see a clean sweep for the GOP, with President Lincoln’s popularity in the Southern United States lending itself to the election of Republican Governors, legislatures, and Congressmen while Radicals would continue having clear influence in Northern districts and races. Congress would remain heavily Republican, but, would remain heavily divided along factional lines with many forecasting Lincoln relying on Democratic votes for certain Reconstruction programs. The Radicals would fire an opening salvo with an inevitably doomed attempt to deny seats to Southern Congressmen, largely Republicans (but ex-Confederates.)
• But Lincoln would surprisingly work with the Radical Republicans to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1867 which would give freedmen citizenship and the rights entailed by citizenship, most notably equal protection under the law. However, Lincoln and his supporters would work to remove any mention of total equality, suffrage, or the right to sit on juries (with Senator Trumbull explicitly calling the right to sit on juries a “political right”). Lincoln would also create the Department of Justice designed to prosecute cases of violence against freed blacks if it was deemed to violate the Civil Rights Act.
• Many white Southerners and Northern Democrats would accuse Lincoln of despotism for using the DOJ to enforce the Civil Rights Act, but, most Southern Governments would prosecute the Ku Klux Klan as desired by Lincoln and the DOJ would often defer to the requests and judgments of state authorities, to the annoyance of many Radicals such as Horace Greeley (who deemed it an impeachable offense.) Greeley pointed to the Klan’s continued presence in South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, but, impeachment was not taken seriously by the Radical leaders in Congress.
• Lincoln would reassure many of his more conservative and Southern supporters by opposing further Radical attempts at passing black voting rights nationally, codifying the Civil Rights Act into Amendment, expanding black civil rights, mandating equal education, Congressional control over the Freedman’s Bureau, or going any further in changing “the whole fabric of Southern society,” as described by dying Congressman Thaddeus Stevens.
• With elections in 1865 and 1866 inaugurating pro-Lincoln Governors in every Southern State, nearly all of them except for Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia would pass provisions for black suffrage provided they were either Civil War veterans or were literate and were worth 250 dollars, with Vice President Andrew Johnson sending an official message to the North Carolina Government congratulating them for passing such a law.
• The Freedmen’s Bureau would continue to be renewed, albeit without funding increases to work with Southern states to expand education access across races. The Bureau would run into controversy for working within the parameters of segregation throughout the South with Lincoln directly defending Bureau Director Edward Canby’s work.
• Lincoln’s pardon of nearly all Confederates left only high-ranking Confederates, led by Jefferson Davis left. In the end, Lincoln continued expanding pardons for high-ranking Confederates who accepted the new Republican Governments in the South such as General James Longstreet and even former Vice President Alexander Stephens. Davis himself, along with others who refused to accept the New South, would not be prosecuted but would remain in exile (with Davis being bailed out by a variety of citizens who believed his arrest unjust.)
• The practice of convict leasing, leasing out prisoners to plantations or corporations in the railroad industry would begin in Georgia, led by Republican Senator Joseph E. Brown. Reformers in both parties and many Republicans in the South would object to the practice, while Radicals have pointed out that it disproportionately affected black prisoners. The White House would remain silent on the matter while any congressional action against the practice was muted.
• At the behest of Treasury Secretary McCulloch, Lincoln attempted to quickly expedite the return to the gold standard and convert all greenbacks to Gold or Silver. However, the opposition of Senator John Sherman forced Lincoln to agree to a compromise where greenbacks would be converted to gold over 3 years.
• In conjunction with ex-War Department functionary Thomas A. Scott, Lincoln would pass legislation to fund private projects to build railways throughout the South, similar to the Transcontinental Railroad with the Texas & Pacific Railway beginning at the end of Lincoln’s 2nd term.
• A much-ballyhooed Southern Homestead Act has fallen flat due to fraud and desire for railroad development leading to much of the homestead grants only being able to be bought by the railroad industries.
• Lincoln signed legislation requiring an eight-hour day for federal mechanics and sent Vice President Andrew Johnson to the 1866 National Labor Convention as a show of support, but, no concrete action beyond would occur for labor rights and wages would be cut by 20% for the Government employees.
• Lincoln has been criticized for not abolishing the income tax, although it has been lowered. However, his continued support of the Morrill Tariff is more popular.
• Secretary of State William Seward has earned a reputation for being the President’s top advisor and patronage dispenser, along with his longtime ally Thurlow Weed, for his ability to reward the President’s friends in the South. However, Radicals, who once backed Seward for President, have turned on him as have Carpetbaggers in the South for his role in supporting native-born Southern Republicans (dubbed Scalawags.)
• Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act, eliminating the 10th Supreme Court seat, currently vacant after the death of Justice John Catron. However, Lincoln would appoint railroad lawyer Stanley Matthews to the Supreme Court seat of Justice James Wayne.
• Nebraska and Colorado would join the Union as states as the 37th and 38th states.

Foreign Policy:

• The French Invasion of Mexico would end quickly after the end of the Civil War, with Mexican Emperor Maximillian I being executed and Benito Juarez resuming control over the country.
• With Russia losing interest in the Alaskan colony, Secretary Seward would orchestrate the purchase of the territory with the even normally obstinate Stevens congratulating Seward.
• Seward would also attain the annexation of the Danish Virgin Islands by treaty along with proposals for expansion into Greenland, Iceland, and Samara Bay with Seward echoing the Jacksonian expansionism he once condemned.
• Lincoln has narrowly passed the Adams-Clarendon Convention which required Britain to pay limited compensation for the damages to American ships in the Civil War by Confederate ships that used British ports among other grievances. Despite the furious opposition of Charles Sumner, who pointed out the treaty had no apology and demanded the annexation of Canada, Lincoln’s strong Senate majority would leave him with enough votes to pass.
• Lincoln’s Civil War policies, the Adams-Clarendon Convention, and Lincoln’s opposition to the Fenian Raids have led to Irish Americans staunchly opposing his Administration with both Democrats and Radical Republicans capitalizing.