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luthienliveblogslately-blog · 6 years

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Milestone write-up!

Since the story seems to be closing one story-arc and moving on to another, I feel this is a good place to take stock, summarize what we know and make some more or less educated guesses at what might happen in future. It got a bit away from me (”a bit” lol), so here’s a read more for your convenience.

Players on the board

Last we left off, shit had decidedly hit the fan. We got painful confirmation that the elves successfully assassinated King Harrow, but they in turn had a painful price to pay. From what we can tell, Runaan is the only survivor, and he has been captured by Soren and Claudia. Claudia thinks he might come in “useful”, whatever that may mean. Might be they’ll interrogate him for information about Xadia, might be that Claudia has some more nefarious, magical things planned. She might ask him about Rayla and the egg, but it’s not like he can tell her anything that she doesn’t already know, aka Rayla and the boys have the egg and they plan to return it and use it to restore peace. Maybe, if they keep talking for long enough, he might actually get her to see that the egg really is just a yet to hatch baby dragon and therefore a sentient being in need of protection, and not just a powerful magical weapon to be used by whoever sees fit. If Runaan manages to escape or communicate with other elves, our heroes will have some real problems. He clearly sees Rayla as a traitor and seeks to punish her for the perceived crimes she committed, and there’s still that pesky magical bounty on Ezrans’s head…

It’s hard to say what Claudia and Soren will do next. I think it depends very much on if Viren is sticking around the castle or not, and what his plans are. As to what his plans might be… god knows. Just how much does he want the egg back? Is he willing to go after it himself, or will he maybe send Soren? How much does Soren know about all this anyway? Five bucks says he had no idea about anything tbh. You know what still hasn’t been opened yet btw? The fucking letter. It’s still in Viren’s study. If it really has a contingency plan like “Callum becomes prince regent until Ezran is old enough to rule” I get the feeling Viren might pull some GoT-style shenanigans and try to put himself on the throne. At this point there isn’t really anything I wouldn’t put past him. In any case though the kingdom might be thrown into serious chaos for a while. After all: the King is Dead, long live the…. wait, who now? The crown prince is missing? The step-prince is missing, too? Well, guess it’s time for some good old-fashioned power grabbing!

And then there’s our three four protagonists. We don’t know where the kingdom of Katolis is exactly, but in any case they have a long journey ahead. They will have to stick to the woods for most of it and avoid towns I think. Rayla can’t be seen by humans, the egg can’t be seen either, and Viren might try and put a bounty on all of them anyway, so the boys might not be save either. I trust Rayla will be able to get the foods from the woods though, so that should be alright. And then eventually they’ll reach the Breach and have to make their away across it and around however many standing armies manning the border from both sides. Yikes. Though we have no idea how far they’ll go in three remaining episodes. There are after all at least 5 more potential seasons in store for us, so there’s a good chance they won’t even remotely come close to the Breach in this one. What I’m really worried about is Rayla keeping the truth about Harrow from the boys. While it breaks my heart just thinking about them having to mourn their dad, I’m worried about Callum lashing out at Rayla in his grief. We already had a scene when he found out about the assassination plot and subsequently flipped out at Ez out of fear, and Ez hadn’t even really done anything. How much worse will that reaction be if she’s been lying to them for several days, even if it was just to spare them the pain? It might damage his trust in her, Callum might even try and make them split up and continue without her. Sounds like a really bad idea, but people do stupid things when they’re angry and sad.

Other unresolved plot points

WHAT DOES THE FUCKING LETTER SAY

What’s up with the Mirror? For that matter, why is the mirror fishy enough to be covered up but not fishy enough to be hidden in the Lair of Dead Things?

What’s with the picture Harrow looked at last time we saw him alive? It’s gotta be something, right? Why would they make the camera zoom in on it lying face down on the bed otherwise? Just have Harrow put it away and then forget it exists, don’t give it an extra shot!

Pip! Is he still alive? D:

Callum still has the Storm Stone, but he might have to get his hands on a book or find himself a teacher to learn some new spells probably?

WHAT DO THE BLACK EYES DO? DO THEY EVEN DO ANYTHING OR ARE THEY JUST FOR CREEPY EFFECT?

Viren’s staff! Just cool historical artifact or actually relevant to the plot?

Shameless Tin-hatting aka Foreshadowing Fucking Everywhere aka Miscellaneous Shit I Noticed While re-watching ep 1-3

Callum’s drawing of a Dragon roasting a Marshmallow Monster -> this show’s version of the Cookie Cat jingle? Possibly depicting Viren’s inevitable demise?

Not foreshadowing, but I realized when the Narrator says “on the eve of last Winter’s Turn” in the opening what is meant with “last” is just most recent, as in “last month” or “last Christmas”. So it probably was some solstice type date after all. Makes sense with it now being spring.

People keep pointing out how shit Bait is at hiding. I’m afraid at some point they’ll have to hide from something REALLY BAD and Bait will get them found. :/ Really, Bait being called Bait just seems super unfortunate in general.

You know how Rayla says “My Heart for Xadia” during the ritual? Yeah, I’m getting the feeling Rayla will be instrumental in getting Ezran out of the magical contract, possibly in a super heroic way by just doing what her heart tells her to and saving the day, or possibly just… by dying in his stead. Oh god I feel like I jinxed her. :(

You know how Callum was like “You’re so lucky, you get to learn magic!” and Claudia was like “You get to learn sword fighting!” and then Callum was like “I’d switch places in a second!”? Well, he’s doing magic now, so…. the little disaster bi that is myself is praying for Claudia in armor with a big-ass sword being a BAMF. ´

Anybody else who really wants to know what is under that OTHER, BIGGER tarp in the Lair of Dead Things? Because I really wanna know. I bet Ezran knows already.

Harrow said about the letter that “[Callum will] understand in time.” What makes me think there’s more in there than just his last will, possibly it’s also his last confession. What terrible shit has he done over the years of his reign, how much of it did Viren have his fingers in and how much of it can Viren use against him post-mortem? And how will the boys react when they get confronted with their dad’s uglier side, possibly via what the elves or even some direct victims have to say about him?

I’d really like to have a look at that book Callum is carrying everywhere. I figure it’s his sketch book and not relevant to anything, but it might still be fun to get to see some pages anyway.

Stuff that I got spoilered on because there’s too many tags to block :(

I saw some pics of the Dragon Prince after hatching! D: I’m sorry, it feels like I robbed myself of an awesome surprise and you of a genuine reaction. :( I didn’t look very closely, I just saw that he was adorable and had roughly the same color scheme as his dad. Which leads me to some more tin hatting: What with Thunder being called that and also breathing lightning, I’d like to propose that the Storm Stone still has a big role to play after all, other than just providing Callum with a magical source he can carry around.

I saw General Amaya of the Standing Battalion being name dropped in a text post. I scrolled too fast to see any context, but considering who she is I guess we’ll get her as an upcoming character in some capacity.

I know that the elf making the MAGIC TREES amulets gets another ending slide at some point, and that people are theorizing he and Runaan are a Thing. I’m not a super big fan of Runaan at this moment in time so I couldn’t give less of a shit about his love life tbh, and as much as I like to ship things I usually need a bit more than literally two pictures to get me going, so. I dunno, don’t expect much from me on that front until more material comes out in later seasons I guess. Like… if there isn’t enough for people to make emotional gif sets out of, can you even really call it a ship?

Netflix tried to push Chapter 4 on me when I went to re-watch the others. I got it shut down quickly enough, but I still saw the title. I think it was… Bloodthirsty? Bloodlust? Either way I think either Runaan is gonna have a REALLY bad time very soonish or our protagonists will have to run REALLY fast from people trying to catch them. Maybe both.

#the dragon prince #tdp liveblog #drapri liveblog #rambling review

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kacydeneen · 5 years

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PR Gov. Won't Resign Despite Protests: What Happens Now?

Many Leads, Little Progress 2 Months After CT Mom Vanished

Hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans shut down a major highway in San Juan, Puerto Rico, this week in the largest of nearly two weeks of consecutive protests calling for embattled Gov. Ricardo Rosselló to step down. The historic demonstrations follow the release of a private chat on the Telegram app that showed Rosselló and his closest allies denigrating everyone from Hurricane Maria victims to Ricky Martin to political opponents, journalists and members of their party. The "Rickyleaks" backlash has also come amid a political corruption scandal involving allegations of financial fraud by former members of Rosselló's government. All this as Puerto Rico still struggles to recover from the devasation of Hurricane Maria.

In the face of such unrest and calls for his resignation, the governor has apologized several times but vowed he's “more committed than ever to work for Puerto Rico.”

Florida Lawmaker: Look Into Epstein Work Release From Jail

So far, Rosselló’s only concession has been to resign as president of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party (PNP, in Spanish) and drop his re-election bid for 2020. In an announcement Sunday, he said he’s willing to undergo an impeachment trial by the legislative branch, where his party has the majority.

On Tuesday morning, some of the 11 participants in the leaked chat were ordered to surrender their phones after Puerto Rico’s Justice Department issued a search warrant as part of an investigation. That has raised the possibility of future indictments.

Worker Guilty of Raping, Impregnating 2 Disabled Clients

Here’s a recap on how Puerto Rico got here and possible scenarios on what to expect in the future.

What’s the scandal? Developments have been fast-moving since the arrests of several former members of Rosselló's administration earlier this month, especially after Puerto Rico’s Center for Investigative Journalism (CPI, in Spanish) published the 889-page chat that drew attention from news outlets in the United States and worldwide.

On July 10, Puerto Rico’s former education secretary Julia Keleher, former Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration head Ángela Ávila-Marrero and four other people were arrested by the FBI on charges of steering federal funds to politically connected contractors.

The six people arrested in the alleged $15.5 million fraud are facing 32 counts of money laundering and other charges, according to Puerto Rico's U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodríguez.

Federal officials said $13 million was spent inappropriately by the Department of Education and the other $2.5 million by the Health Insurance Administration between 2017 and 2019.

One day later, on July 11, a handful of pages from the private group chat were leaked with rumors that there were many more to come. In these pages, Gov. Rosselló called former New York City Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito, also Puerto Rican, the Spanish word for “whore.” The insult stemmed from Rosselló being upset that Mark-Viverito had criticized DNC chairman Tom Pérez’s support for Puerto Rico’s statehood. Referring to the oversight board that manages the island's finances, Rosselló also wrote, "go f--- yourself."

Weeks before that leak, the son of Puerto Rico’s former treasury secretary, Raúl Maldonado, Jr., had written on Facebook about the existence of a chat where Rosselló behaved as a “corrupt person.” Future disclosures would provide evidence for his case.

Rosselló, who was on a family vacation in France when the first stories broke over the leaks, returned to the island to face the backlash in a news conference at the executive mansion.

“I’m also human and I err,” Rosselló said in his first public appearance asking for forgiveness.

That night, the governor was asked by a CPI journalist if he believed the remainder of the chats rumored to exist should be published. The governor said the messages had been deleted but didn’t remember when and by whom.

Two days later, on July 13, CPI published 889 pages of the chat, “War Room Fortaleza,” that revealed more sexist, homophobic, machista, racist and violent slurs.

The conversations that took place from late November 2018 to January 2019 displayed several efforts from Rosselló and his allies to discredit, harm reputations and remove from their jobs political figures like opposition House Rep. Manuel Natal, opposition Sen. Juan Dalmau’s wife, former head of the statistics institute Mario Marazzi and the federal monitor of the police Arnaldo Claudio.

Sen. Juan Dalmau, from the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP, in Spanish), told NBC “Rosselló’s tenure is over,” and argued the chats show three "very serious" potential crimes.

“There’s evidence of some public official’s interest to get rid of police monitor Arnaldo Claudio who, by the way, was appointed by the federal government. They see him as an inconvenience for their agendas,” Sen. Dalmau said.

He said there was also an exchange about his wife, in which Rosselló and his allies suggest she be replaced by someone in their party. In the discussion, a payroll document of Dalmau’s wife from the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions, where she works, is shared and questioned by the governor and his peers. “We should give this position to a member of the PNP,” Rosselló’s former media consultant Carlos Bermúdez said.

Finally, Dalmau said, Rosselló and his colleagues "shared privileged information with private sector officials in the chat for them to benefit from it.”

Dalmau highlighted the three conversations as potential crimes from a list of 18 that was introduced in the House by Rep. Dennis Márquez, from his party, as a first step to begin Rosselló's impeachment. “For me, those three may constitute crimes,” Dalmau said.

In his last news conference to date, Rosselló said, "I have not committed any illegal acts, I only committed improper acts."

Dalmau is convinced that “Rosselló has to go, impeached or not” and that the governor’s party “needs to act firmly because Rosselló lost legitimacy.”

In the infamous group chat, Elías Sánchez-Sifonte, Rosselló’s former campaign manager and right hand, two media consultants and a publicist participated in discussions, made suggestions and gave instructions on how to handle government affairs.

Sánchez-Sifonte, in fact, is the subject of a story published by CPI last Friday that alleges a multi-million dollar corruption network behind the chat conversations.

If the governor doesn't resign, can he be impeached? Yes. Puerto Rico’s constitution establishes not only that a governor can resign, but they can also be impeached.

According to the constitution’s Section 21, Article III, the House has the sole power of initiating an impeachment if two-thirds of its members vote to indict the governor. The Senate would then hold a trial, presided over by Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court chief justice, where the sentence’s only outcome would be the removal of the governor.

The vacant position would then be assumed by the secretary of state which, like 16 other positions in the executive branch, is also vacant right now. Next in line would be the head of the island's justice department.

The House hasn’t started the process, but its speaker Carlos “Johnny” Méndez said three lawyers are analyzing the situation and the documents to see whether an impeachment process should be started. The decision might come as soon as this Wednesday, according to Méndez.

An impeachment “is not a legal procedure, it’s a political procedure, meaning that the same guarantees and procedures from a legal case don’t apply,” Efrén Rivera-Ramos from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law told NBC.

“If there’s evidence to prosecute the public official, that’d be done in a separate legal and ordinary procedure in our courts” since “the sentence (in the impeachment trial) wouldn’t entail anything but only removing the official from their post. It’s not a criminal trial,” Rivera-Ramos said.

For the same reason, in an impeachment trial there’s no need for evidence of a crime per se, Rivera-Ramos explained. “The House can start the process whenever they want.”

In Puerto Rico, no governor has ever stepped down or faced an impeachment trial.

Who is still supporting Ricardo Rosselló? If a massive display of hundreds of thousands of people marching and protesting for the governor’s resignation is not enough, members of Rosselló's party, former governors, internationally-known stars such as singer Ricky Martin, rapper Bad Bunny, rapper Residente, actor and composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, members of Congress, Democratic presidential candidates and more have asked him to step down.

The governor, in a rare appearance on Fox News, spoke to Shepard Smith and failed to name someone who supports him. Rosselló mentioned the mayor of San Sebastián, Javier Jiménez, who later told a newspaper he didn’t support the governor. However, there are a few people still supporting him, at least publicly.

House Deputy Speaker Rep. Lourdes Ramos is a fervent advocate of Rosselló. “I trust the governor,” she told NBC last week.

“I know him since he was a kid. I know his family. I know his upbringing. And when he said he regretted everything, I believed him, and no one can tell me what to think. I have that right,” Ramos said.

The lawmaker from Rosselló’s party said last week that “we’re giving the governor the time and space he asked us to evaluate the situation.”

She also believes the chat shows no evidence of criminal activity, so she doesn’t agree with an impeachment process. “I’m not a lawyer, but the caucus consensus is that there are no crimes,” she said back then.

On Sunday, after Rosselló’s announcement to step down as president of the party and drop his re-election bid for 2020, Ramos’ press office sent a written statement.

“The lawmaker, who doesn’t endorse an impeachment process, pointed that several lawyers have commented the inexistence of crimes that link the governor with corruption acts, serious felony or moral deprivation, as the Constitution requires (to impeach a governor),” the statement reads.

However, Ramos, like Speaker Méndez, is waiting for the three lawyers to provide their analysis on whether to pursue an impeachment process.

Would there be votes to impeach Rosselló? House Rep. José “Quiquito” Meléndez, a lawyer and member of the governor’s party, believes “the legislative branch has the votes to impeach the governor.”

Puerto Rico’s House has 51 seats, which means 34 votes are needed to reach the two-thirds required to file a political indictment and start the trial in the Senate.

From the 51 seats, 34 are controlled by the PNP, 15 by the Popular Democratic Party (PPD, in Spanish), one by the PIP and one by an independent candidate.

“There’ll always be three or four people who’ll support the governor,” Meléndez told NBC, referring to some of his peers in the party, like Rep. Ramos.

“The people’s demands are far much bigger and the governor’s announcement on Sunday only fueled the fire even more,” Mélendez said.

Meléndez believes the governor should step down, but if that doesn’t happen, he’s confident the House will proceed to begin the impeachment.

As for the Senate, Dalmau won’t say if they have the votes in favor of impeaching Rosselló because, "I can't speak for my colleagues." But he’s not pleased with how the legislative branch has handled the situation.

“This hasn’t been addressed promptly, as it should have,” Dalmau said.

Out of 30 seats in the Senate, 21 belong to the PNP, seven to the PPD, one to the PIP and one to an independent senator. For a sentence of impeachment to pass, three-quarters or 23 members of the Senate have to vote for it.

Why is all this such a big deal for Puerto Rico? Puerto Rico has been stuck in an economic recession since 2006. In September 2017, the island was obliterated by Hurricane Maria, after also taking a hit from Hurricane Irma. Its government estimated $139 billion would be needed to recover from the disaster.

President Donald Trump has claimed his administration handed Puerto Rico’s government $92 billion for relief, which they have “squandered away or wasted.” The figure the president repeatedly mentions is incorrect. Puerto Rico has received $13 billion so far from $42.5 billion assigned for relief efforts.

The federal government has estimated that $92 billion is the amount the island could be allotted over the next 20 years.

Trump signed a bill last month allocating $19 billion for Puerto Rico and other states battered by natural disasters after a long feud in Congress.

But after the president’s repeated remarks on corruption in the island’s government, the scandal jeopardizes that much needed aid, Dalmau and Meléndez believe.

“Congress has had an anemic attitude to provide relief funds to Puerto Rico and the governor’s actions showed he and his allies tried to profit from that [...] and, naturally, that affects Puerto Rico,” he said.

On top of that, the senator says that because of this situation, “Puerto Rico is being portrayed to the world as an unstable and place of unrest” and it’s causing losses in tourism, which the island desperately needs.

Last week, several cruise ships didn’t anchor in Puerto Rico, resulting in a drop of 15,000 tourists in Old San Juan and an economic hit of around $2.5 million.

Photo Credit: Carlos Giusti/AP PR Gov. Won't Resign Despite Protests: What Happens Now? published first on Miami News

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gyrlversion · 5 years

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JAN MOIR: Superintendent Ted Hastings is an unlikely heart-throb

Never mind the Eastfield Depot robbery, the dead bent copper, the brothel raid, the harvested DNA, the bloody shoot-out and the diversionary car crash caused by smearing oil on the road. (Was it virgin? Only on the ridiculous.)

By far the most sensational event in Sunday night’s Line Of Duty (BBC1) was that it ended with Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) taking police legal counsel Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker) back to his hotel. Old Testament Ted with a woman in his bed? Holy pillars of salt!

Poor Ted now lives in reduced circumstances, in a Travelodge room with a broken toilet and a photograph of his beloved wife on the bedside table. His hot date overlooked the lack of romance and the drabness.

Superintendent Ted Hastings, played by Adrian Dunbar, is an unlikely modern hero – and an even more unlikely sex symbol – but there is no doubting his appeal

‘I’m just going to use your bathroom,’ purred Gill, inching her Jessica Rabbit curves past the trouser press and into the en suite to take advantage of the free toiletries and complimentary mints included in the room rate.

Yet, before she could return, violent happenings elsewhere suggested a swift end to any hanky panky that our darling Ted would assuredly live to regret. Heaven knows what is going to happen next.

While Line of Duty is quickly becoming the hit drama of the year so far, there is no doubt about who is the shining, true blue star of the show.

DI Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) and DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) are admirable sidekicks who carry out their duties to the letter of the law. However, it is their boss, Hastings, whom millions of fans love the most.

In an unlikely twist, Ted Hasting’s took legal counsel Gill Biggeloe (Polly Walker) back to his hotel – but violent happenings elsewhere suggested a swift end to any hanky panky

SuperTed is an unlikely modern hero — and an even more unlikely sex symbol — but there is no doubting his appeal. When he threatened to handcuff a suspect to a chair in the finale of the last series, huge numbers of women took to social media to exclaim that if darling Ted was determined to go around handcuffing people to bits of furniture, then he could most certainly count on them to be willing accomplices.

Ladies, please!

What do they see in the middle-aged, no-nonsense copper whose granite personality, craggy profile and humourless charm come wrapped up in a police blouson and a dinosaur dose of old-fashioned sexism?

He’s certainly proof that substance and a commanding air can be so much sexier than mere good looks. And while Hastings may have just promoted Fleming, he still sees her in fond but reactionary terms.

‘She’s a great wee girl doing a bang-up job,’ is how he puts her career trajectory to date. Feminists, look away now.

Yet women — and men — still adore him. Perhaps it is because in these uncertain times he represents the trustworthy good guy and the kind of urgent authority that seems so absent from blundering public life?

Adrian Dunbar, who plays Ted Hastings, is proof that substance and a commanding air can be so much sexier than mere good looks

Certainly for over 20 episodes in four previous tv series, Hastings has always been the true north on the Line Of Duty moral compass. A man of principle and honour, outstanding at being an upstanding officer, someone you could trust to do the right thing. OR COULD YOU?

As the senior investigating officer of the anti-corruption unit AC-12, he is charged with seeking out wrongdoing among the police rank and file.

Over the years, he has become a folk hero for his blunt speech, his Northern Irish aphorisms (‘now we’re sucking diesel’) and his unassailable probity. Not, we are being asked to believe, that he might be the criminal mastermind behind, well, everything.

I’m not sure how much more I can take. It would be like finding out that Santa Claus didn’t exist.

Dunbar was at the BBC screening launch of the new series a few weeks ago, and when fans asked him if we could still trust Ted, he was adamant. ‘Yes, you can!’ he cried, looking dapper in a black T-shirt and fashionable specs, while blowing kisses into the audience. But did he mean it? I mean, really mean it?

For this 60-year-old actor, playing Hastings has been a ‘game-changer’, bringing him the big break — at last! — that every actor longs for.

Joiner’s son Adrian was born in Enniskillen, later moving to Portadown, where his dad sought work. He moved to London in his 20s to seek work as an actor and everyone knew he would be a success.

One of his teachers at Drumcree College said: ‘He was always destined for the stage. It comes as no surprise that he made it big. He was a brilliant lad.’

Over the years, he has starred in various TV shows such as Cracker, Inspector Morse, Ashes To Ashes and A Touch Of Frost, and appeared in hit films including The Crying Game and My Left Foot.

He also co-wrote and starred in the 1991 movie, Hear My Song, based on the Irish tenor Josef Locke.

Ted Hastings’ killer lines on duty

Give me strength.

Now we’re sucking diesel.

That wee girl/wee witch.

Police lawyer or no, you will address me as Sir.

What are you waiting for? The No 19 bus?

If we go down, we go down fighting.

I am calm! I am totally bloody calm!

Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

She’s a great wee girl doing a bang-up job.

This department’s been watertight for years, fella, and now it’s leaking like a colander!

I didn’t float up the Lagan on a bubble.

Holy Mother of God!

I can guarantee you 110 per cent none of my people would plant evidence. They know I would throw the book at them — followed by the bookshelves.

Right, back to the coalface, unless you’ve got more egg-sucking tips for your granny.

This is beginning to feel like a life’s work.

However, this is his longest-running role and he sees Hastings as someone who is ‘highly moral and loyal’.

Taking inspiration for Hastings from football managers Bill Shankly and Sir Alex Ferguson, Dunbar describes him as someone who is ‘like all of us, struggling to be good’.

It is that dark struggle that concerns us here.

For somewhere across town his estranged wife Roisin (Andrea Irvine) was being taken hostage by the increasingly unhinged John Corbett (Stephen Graham).

As the episode came to a close, we left Ted on the bed with his hands on his head. His seed perhaps unsown by the ringtone of a phone. Another blow to leave us low on this head-spinning show.

For are we really to believe that not only is Ted Hastings the bent copper behind the organised crime gang who have committed every murder and robbery since series one, but also this God-fearing Ulsterman is now about to commit adultery, too?

Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Have we forgotten that he takes nuptial vows seriously?

‘I am a married man,’ he told Biggeloe when she tried to seduce him in a wine bar back in series three. ‘We took vows,’ he wheedled, when his wife told him last week that she wanted a divorce.

Give me strength, fella. Ted was always a full beam of goodness, now he is low and vulnerable; skulking around, destroying his laptop and acting suspiciously.

Line Of Duty has always been about moral ambiguity, who can or cannot be trusted, in or out of uniform.

However, if Ted turns out to be the black pip in the barrel of bad apples? We’ll never get over it.

The post JAN MOIR: Superintendent Ted Hastings is an unlikely heart-throb appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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gaiatheorist · 6 years

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DWP- Dealing With Paranoia.

I have different coping strategies to a lot of people. When I engaged with the outside world more, there was an air of bravado to me, a carefully nurtured appearance of being carefree. There was nothing I couldn’t deal with, I ‘thought on my feet’, and saw through whatever chaos or calamity was happening, to pinpoint a logical, or at least acceptable pathway. In some ways it was innate, just how my mind functions, to triage a situation or potential future situation, map-out possible outcomes and risks, and razor-sharp, whittle down to the preferred outcome with minimal risks attached.

It was a useful skill to have in my previous employment, the ability to brush the dirt from the knees of my trousers after attending a first-aid incident, then distract or divert a student who was behaving inappropriately, before meeting with yet another parent who wanted to shout at someone about some policy or other being “Paffetic!” Some days we’d have a fire alarm, or a dead pigeon to deal with, or the brilliance of a “Dog in the playground!” I miss “Dog in the playground!” incidents.

It’s also a useful skill to have in terms of working around my brain injuries, the constant background rattle of risk assessment for every task, however mundane, keeps me mostly-safe. (You don’t have to fall off the toilet many times before you figure out a strategy to reduce the risk of it happening again, nobody wants to have to phone an ambulance with their trousers around their ankles.)

The flip-side is the anxiety over all of the ‘What if?’ outcomes. Mostly it’s just background noise, “What if I fall over?” “I won’t fall over if I use the furniture as hand-rails when the vertigo-thing is bad.” “What if the fatigue hits early, and I forget to do something important?” “Do the important things early in the day, the less-important things can be rolled over to tomorrow if needed.” Most of my functional deficits are manageable, with some adaptations, I manage day-to-day because I over-think everything, and have contingency plans for everything within my control.

It’s the things beyond my control that are the most difficult to deal with, the ‘unknowns’ that are entirely dependent on other people or agencies. Right now, I’m dealing with more unknowns than I’m comfortable with, DWP, Student Finance, and the NHS are my current ‘sea of troubles’, and I have Thalassophobia. It’s not the NHS’s fault that they’re stretched beyond capacity, but they are in part responsible for the precarious state I’m in now. If there had been more capacity for appropriate guidance when I was discharged from hospital following the brain haemorrhage, I probably wouldn’t be where I am now. There wasn’t, and I am. I had my monitoring brain scan last week, and I ‘should’ have the results within 2 weeks. I won’t, I’ll have to chase it, at the same time as trying to rescue my son’s Student Finance, and feeling like DWP have me on an electronic tag for the ‘crime’ of needing state support while I try to sort out my health.

Universal Credit, “Rolling six benefits into one!”, except it isn’t really. Despite numerous objections to the scheme, the government are carrying on regardless with the roll-out. The flagship has no lifeboats at all, but the band is playing on, the captain charging ahead, while the crew focus only on their discreet tasks. “That’s not my department, sorry.” The current phase of roll-out is transferring current claimants onto ‘Full Service’, the new, all-electronic system. How thoroughly modern, to cut out the pointless ‘time-sheet’ my work coach used to insist I present to her, to evidence what I was doing to actively seek employment. (That’s just my personal niggle, everything I was doing was hand-written in my note-pad, and then typed up into the ‘homework sheet’ for the coach to initial. If this system kills me, the note-pad will be on my desk. The evidence was already online, every task logged on the ‘Universal Jobmatch’ website, I was effectively not just duplicating, but triplicating the data, as back-up. ‘Just in case’, like the time my printer wouldn’t work, and my coach had to look up her password to log onto the system, rather than allow my handwritten notes.)

If I wanted to be kind, I’d say there are ‘teething problems’ with the roll-out of the new system. The guidance for work coaches on transfer-claims is 19 pages long, all very linear-flow-charts, it’s not the lines that are bothering me, it’s what’s between them. My work coach gave me a sheet of paper in June, “Universal Jobmatch is being phased out, but you already have a CV, don’t you? You don’t need to do anything yet.” Then, at my last appointment, last month, she advised that the ‘live’ service was being replaced by the ‘full service’, but she hadn’t been on the training for it, she had to call over a colleague to ask what would happen next. “You’ll get a message when you need to come in for an appointment with your ID.” (The same ID as I presented a year and a half ago, that they already have on their systems, but I suppose it’s a fraud-prevention strategy.)

I didn’t get ‘a message’, on September 26th, two brown envelopes landed on my doormat, I skimmed them very briefly, and put them on my ‘do that tomorrow’ pile, because my anxiety was already ramped up high about the horrible brain scan I had booked on the 29th. Without going into too much technical terminology, one letter isn’t dated, and says ‘get ready to switch’, and that ‘we will write to you and tell you when you need to switch and how.’ That’s the UC491. In the same post came the UC492, the ‘call to action’, which stated “If you don’t complete all the activities to switch to the online claim by 3/10/2018, your payments may stop and your claim may be closed.” Info-sheet, with no actual information on it, and ‘first warning’, in the same post. (The UC492 is dated September 19th, second-class post, I didn’t receive it until the 26th, or read it properly until the 27th. Six days to register, input all the details they already have, book, and attend an appointment. I’m female, but I’m not Doctor Who, and two of the six days were already tied up with the brain scan. The scans always knock me sideways the following day, the sensory issues from my brain injuries are not conducive to being trapped in a noisy metal tube, and then getting home on public transport with a whopper of a headache, and exacerbated sensory over-stimulus.)

I panicked. Initially that I’d be called for my appointment on the same day as my scan, and incur a sanction for refusing to cancel the scan to attend the appointment. Working around that, one of the ‘commitments’ I’m currently obliged to fulfil is ‘seek and follow medical advice’, the particular scanner they use for my brain is a very expensive MRA machine, cancelling that scan would inconvenience the NHS, and there would be an additional wait for a new appointment.

I typed in the link from the letter. Which didn’t work the first time I tried it, I’d probably made a typo, cold hands, and eyes that sometimes go a bit ‘off’, I frequently hit the key to the right of the one I’m aiming for. (They have my email address, and mobile number, they could have sent the link electronically.) I eventually got ‘in’ to the site, and, after a bit of searching around, found the right link-out from there. Then my laptop crashed, full black-screen meltdown, so I had to restart it. It took me four hours to complete the forms, part of that is my disability, but I’d already side-researched, and the system times-out after an unspecified period of inactivity. Taking my fatigued eyes away from the screen for six minutes in every hour wasn’t an option. (Yes, there’s a ‘save’ feature, but I was panicking. The inference that if I failed to complete the activities, my benefit ‘may’ be stopped was enough to tip me into major anxiety.) I thought I’d finished it all, when I was presented with another layer, ‘VERIFY’, where I entered my contact details, bank details, and had to take a photograph of the front and back of my provisional driving licence, along with a photograph of my actual face. (Which probably doesn’t look like the photo on my driving licence, it’s 8 years old, and I’ve had a stroke since then.) That all seems as dodgy as hell to me, I wouldn’t hand over my bank details and photographs of my driving licence to a real person, but the system said I needed to do it to complete the online application, so I did it.

The ‘VERIFY’ thing couldn’t be completed, it’ll either be my stroke-y face, or my inability to hold my phone completely still for photographs. All of the faffing about with ‘VERIFY’ meant that the transfer-application had timed-out, and bounced me back to the start-screen. Four hours, gone, and I didn’t have another four hours of functionality in me to do it all again. I had to ‘phone the helpline’, as per the on-screen guidance. I hate telephone conversations, I can’t read the non-verbal cues, and I never trust the person on the other end of the line to record what I’ve said accurately, if I say it accurately in the first place. I have verbal aphasia, sometimes I can’t find the ‘right’ word, so substitute one quickly, and hope it’s not too far out of context. There’s a very slim probability of me using the ‘wrong’ word, and triggering fraud procedures, because my brain doesn’t work properly all of the time. ‘Kenneth’ was able to confirm that my transfer details had saved, and I didn’t have the capacity to go off on a rant about the details already being in the system. Between 10.57, and 11.21, he repeatedly assured me that I shouldn’t worry, and that the deadline on the letter, of 3/10/18 was ‘more of an incentive, really.’ Kenneth didn’t have access to the parts of the system that hold the records on my ‘limited capacity for work’, and the UC branch of DWP don’t communicate with the PIP branch, who have all of the medical evidence and details of the functional impairments my disabilities cause. Kenneth booked me a ‘Personal Security Number and evidence’ appointment, and, when he asked the standard question about ‘any accessibility needs’, I explained that an appointment earlier in the day, rather than later would reduce the risk of my cognitive fatigue having an impact.

“Right, Kenneth, I have brain injuries, so I’m going to read back everything you’ve asked me to do, to make sure I have it all right?”

(Attend this place, at this time on this date, and provide these pieces of evidence of identity, is that everything?)

“Ah, no, not this Friday, next Friday.”

“That’s why I read it back to you. Next Friday is outside the timescale stated on the letter.”

“Ah, don’t worry about that, you’ve made the appointment, and it’s in the system, you just have to attend it now.”

I did worry. The letter had stated that the online transfer had to be completed, and the appointment booked AND attended, with appropriate evidence, by 3/10/18, and Kenneth had booked me an appointment on 5/10/18. Kenneth had also told me to take my bank card, driving licence and tenancy agreement, and to get a mini-statement from an ATM as evidence that I had access to that bank account. “Is that everything?” “Yes, that’s everything.” That wasn’t everything. I could be kind, and say that the system is new, and staff are navigating their way around it, but Kenneth didn’t tell me I’d need to provide ‘two months of rent statements or bank statements.’ (Like anyone has a physical ‘rent book’ anymore?)

On the Monday, as I’d spoken to Kenneth on the Thursday, my email pinged, confirming the appointment. I skimmed it on my phone, and didn’t notice that the time had changed, from 10.50, to 15.30, I was still fuzzy from the brain scan. On the Tuesday, my email pinged again, “You need to read a message in your Universal Credit online journal. Sign into your account today.” ‘Today’ is going to present an issue for me if they send messages later in the day, I’m not fully functional in the afternoon and evening, there’s a much higher probability of cognitive slips. It wasn’t a ‘message’, it was another list of tasks to complete, including ‘preparing for work activities.’, and some equal opportunities monitoring stuff. (Interesting that they wanted a definition of my gender and sexual orientation, but there was no field for disability.)

I noticed the change of time for the appointment, and entered a query online, requesting confirmation as to whether the appointment was 10.50, 15.30, or both. It took over 24 hours for an agent to respond, and he still wasn’t answering my question. I pressed for clarification, stating that the anxiety about potential ‘failed to attend’ processes was impacting on me. He confirmed that it was just the 15.30 appointment. As much as my son ‘hates’ the world-swerve to having to fact-check everything, I hate the way these systems are making me paranoid, I’m developing obsessive over-checking behaviours, because if I’m marked as ‘failed to attend’, DWP can stop my payments.

Yesterday, fatigued after the sensory overload of going for my ‘flu jab, I checked my email. (Conscientious to the end, I’ve never had the ‘flu immunisation before, but, single-and-disabled, if I catch the ‘flu, I won’t be able to feed myself, or manage my medication, I’m a potential cost to the NHS or social care.) There had been an email from DWP while I was walking back from the immunisation, and I must have been in an area with no signal, because it hadn’t ‘pinged.’ An operative at the local job centre had sent a message asking if I could attend an appointment at 12.00. Instead? As well? I still don’t know, because I’ve replied in the ‘online journal’, and had no response as yet. I even went so far as trying to telephone the job centre to query it, mindful that I might not notice an electronic response late in the day. I tried, I Google-searched for the Job Centre telephone number, which is now on 0345 number, not a standard one. That defaults you to an automated message, advising that all Universal Credit queries must now be handled online. I tried the Universal Credit full service transfer telephone number, same message, everything is online once your application is in.

Some DWP departments only ‘allow’ you to change an appointment twice, there’s the ‘without good reason’ qualifier, and I’m very, VERY good at reasons. Technically, that appointment has now been set for three different times, so I could be on a ‘second warning’, after the first ‘call to action’. I haven’t requested any of the changes, and I haven’t been obstructive, only stating in one message that I had requested an earlier appointment rather than a late one in my original communication, as my ‘reasonable adjustment.’

I need to reserve enough functional cognitive capacity to work around systems that aren’t working, and, in spite of my disabilities and circumstances, I’m one of the ‘lucky’ ones. I know how to use a computer, and I have a relatively stable broadband connection. Some people aren’t as adept with tech. Some people won’t open the initial letters, because brown envelopes are never good news. Some people won’t have the functional literacy skills to understand the letters. (The ‘call to action’ tasks are in a margin-block, away from the main body of the letter, and the potential consequences are on a second page, the formatting of the letter does look as if the first page contains all the information, it doesn’t.) After the ‘charitable’ gesture of making the helpline a free-phone number last year, this government has proven that to be an Indian gift. Acknowledging that some claimants would be in such abject hardship that they couldn’t afford phone-credit, or to keep their land-line connected, and then making the next phase of the roll-out completely electronic. “Just pop into the Job Centre, you can use our computers!”, if it took me four hours, I dread to think how long it’s going to take hunt-and-peck typists.

I have a paranoia-loop about my ‘claim’, there’s a streak of righteous indignation that DWP already have all of my information, and I didn’t ask for a new system to complicate matters, but I need to be very careful how I word that to DWP staff, lest I’m seen to be obstructive. If DWP don’t like the look of my ‘evidence’ of rent, they’ll delay the claim, they did the first time, it was 9 weeks between my initial claim and them finalising the ‘housing element’ that doesn’t actually cover my rent. The point they had issue with at the time was clarified, and I know how to work around it again, but I shouldn’t have to, they already have it on record once. If they decide to play hard-ball on the ‘housing element’, I can technically cover my rent, by topping-up with my PIP disability benefit. I shouldn’t have to, that payment is intended to cover the additional costs to me of living with complex disabilities, it’s not for DWP to use as a non-refundable overdraft facility, while my documents sit in a drawer somewhere, until I chase progress.

I have a little money in the bank, some people won’t. I have additional funds coming in from my PIP, some people don’t have that safety net. I am paranoid that DWP are going to ‘sanction’ my payments on technicalities that I have no control over, technicalities that are deliberately worked into the fabric of their systems, a safety-net that’s more holes than substance. October should have been the start of me addressing my on-going, complex and permanent health issues, with my son back at uni, the PIP awarded, and the ‘limited capacity for work’ notice applied to my UC commitment. Instead of allowing me to focus on my health, as the initial step to being able to work in the future, DWP are exacerbating the mental health issues, and compounding the cognitive components of my brain injuries.

I’ll have a clearer idea of where I stand after Friday. I’ll attend the 12.00 appointment, ‘acting on last instruction given’, and clarify then whether the 15.30 still stands or not. (Good luck to DWP if they try to suggest that attending two appointments means I’m fully capable of any/all employment, none of my ‘points’ on the PIP award were for mobility or planning, I over-plan.) What I need to NOT do is sit in this chair any longer, ‘just in case’ I miss an email from DWP, that’s a maladaptive coping mechanism. I need to eat, and sort out some mundane housekeeping, AND I think I’m a bit foggy after my ‘flu jab, which isn’t helping. The Marionette PM has stated that she wants a society ‘for everyone’, but not all ‘everyones’ are equal. Some people will fall through the gaps in the systems, collective collateral, who will likely be dismissed as ‘scroungers’ by elements of the press. I won’t fall through, because I’m paranoid, and then the NHS will be left to address the paranoia that the DWP has created and compounded.

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