I have been trying to sober up since January and lost my job as a result of my initial withdrawals (detoxed at home, like an idiot, and was bedridden for 5 days). My employer didn’t appreciate me calling out for no reason for a full week and fired me.
Admittedly, due to mental health and the seemingly endless number of relapses I’ve had, I have been dogshit at job searching. Mediocre at best and that’s being generous. I haven’t been taking it as seriously as I should and I know that. My girlfriend bailed me out last month but I still haven’t paid March rent, and my landlord finally came knocking today.
My sponsor knows someone that works at Mod Pizza near me and is trying to connect me with a job there as a temporary fix. I need help getting over my ego. Since I was 15, I have only ever worked at law firms. I was a litigation paralegal making over $100k a year before I was fired this year. I have never had a service industry job and quite frankly, for selfish and shallow reasons, I am terrified.
I mean no disrespect by this as I have friends and loved ones that work retail, food service, etc. It’s just my ego that’s getting in the way. Fear of an ex coming in for food and having to serve them and deal with their judgment. Fear of hating myself for getting to this point. Fear of never being able to break back into the legal industry.
Seeking advice and words of support about getting a “sober job”. I know it is temporary but I am angry, sad, and frustrated. I hate alcohol.

Hail Andromailus, law bringer!
Serpent charmer
Hero to cat unbaggers
Blind justice stands firm
even within the pit!

Kye Giscombe is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in top-level management roles, which he has made good use of as the Director of Operations for Estate Law Center USA. Prior to his current position, Giscombe was the founder and president of Contact Sports, Inc., a sports apparel company, and Cosmo Horizon, a general construction company. After graduating from the City University of New York’s John Jay College in 1993, Kye Giscombe went on to found Contact Sports Inc. in New York in 1998. After serving in senior management at a company called Metropolis for 8 years, Giscombe founded Cosmo Horizon in 2013. He eventually joined Estate Law Center USA in 2017, working alongside founding attorney and top-rated lawyer Holly Geerdes to establish an estate planning law firm that specializes in aiding clients with wills, trusts, business succession and other topics related to estate planning. Kye Giscombe’s experiences have given him the ideal skill set for success in business management and entrepreneurship. He currently resides in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Check out his website at kyegiscombe.com, Wordpess blog at https://kyegiscombe.wordpress.com/ and Medium page at https://medium.com/@kyegiscombe1

Hi all,
Seems like Reddit has given me a lot of good advice about how to handle debt collection. A year ago I was looking for office space and found an ad from Regus. I signed a 6 months lease but read terrible reviews. Some of which were about how Regus makes it really hard to get out of the lease. As a result, I backed out. Here I am a year later and I know it doesn't sound very adult-like but it sucks that I didn't even pick up the keys yet I have to pay with my hard-earned money.
​
A year later a law firm representing Regus is threatening that either I pay up the 10K or they will send it to collections. Seems like the best advice on Reddit is to slow things down with snail mail and eventually do a settlement.
​
Is there a more simple path?
Should I seek a lawyer for advice?

It’s been a hard 3 months. I work full time at a law firm as a paralegal and support myself. Every night I came home with goals to grind down my logic games skills and reasoning skills but always fell short. Fell asleep, fell weary and often gave up. Now I have 3 weeks until the test and after 5 PT’s not a single one over 150. Do I cancel? Do I take it and just do my best? I figured I’d have to take it again but the money is gone, and I’ve already put off the test 2 years in a row. Anyone have any advice? Any working people with high stress jobs gone through similar trials? Would love to hear your stories/advice.
Thanks.

Saturday 25th March, 10.30am, Albert Square, Auckland & Sunday 26th March 1.30pm, Civic Square, Wellington there are defences for Trans rights against a 'Penny Patero' a British Right Wing Neo Nazi Grifter. Our Labour MP's have capitulated to hate that incites murder, by letting this vile bitch in, hoping to catch a fantasy middle ground vote and use Patero to drive votes to their allied Parties in Parliament - when what we all wanted was the guts Jacinda had and no more playing games with murderous, scumbag altwhite supremacist, incel, neonazi, right wing vermin. Kia ora Jacinda for not grasping for power and potentially turning in to a Helen Clarke who fucked all Maori over with the Foreshore Pakeha theft for her dead British Queen & her race & reinvaded Tuhoe under an American War of Terror environment hoping to win racist coloniser votes. Fuck National, ACT, TPU, the colonial church cults, altwhite scum and any cunt who supports them. Lets hope decent journos dont platform them like they did those colonial canadian scum. We all know the dying talkback radio scum will. Labour needs to grow some guts and deal to these right wing terrorist networks who forced theirs & our best leader out, the right wingers already fought dirty and scored violent hits. You have the power, grow some guts. Maori Party & Greens are standing strong but we all shouldn't have to waste our time fighting the obvious. Get organised to vote & advocate for better & throw these bigots in the bin. These shitty trolls dont care about women, else they'd be in America fighting for womens rights or elsewhere, they're part of a global right wing hate movement clawing away at power through media & digital means, which needs more than local performative gestures and offloading on to others. Ian Mucks, Peter File, Fuckerberg are all getting the data and power without a fight, given a chance for a clean break everyone flocked back for attention just like they wanted and Peter File is about to fuck the NHS good. It's the plan they have for all of us. Jacinda ought to be a beginning to a more confident and articulate step up past the drama of shit throwing right wing noise and on to a wider aim.

Matangireia S2 Episode 2: Georgina Beyer RNZ

https://youtu.be/eTzsWp_n7gs
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/matangireia/story/2018791325/series-2-episode-2-georgina-beyer-matangireia

Georgina Beyer knows all about breaking barriers – becoming the first transgender MP in the world. But what is her biggest regret as a Māori MP in Parliament?
“A disaster, an absolute nightmare… it was one of the largest proposed confiscations from Māori, in modern times”.
The former Labour Party MP describes the fallout over the Foreshore and Seabed legislation to Matangireia presenter Scott Campbell.
Beyer never shies away from the painful path she took to becoming one of New Zealand’s most trailblazing politicians.
Beyer’s list of achievements are extensive – a drag queen, a sex worker, an actor, an activist, a Mayor, and a MP.
In fact, when elected in 1999, she was the world’s first transgender Member of Parliament, becoming known for her bold and colourful exterior.
But her story is one of pain, adversity, and fear – and it’s also one of courage and bravery.
Beyer was born George. Her biological father was a policeman who was sent to jail, leaving her mother to fend for herself and two young children.
Raised by her grandparents, until her mother remarried, she describes life in the Beyer household as “mildly well-off”. Her stepfather Colin was a barrister and solicitor.
From around four years old, Beyer started to secretly express her feminine side through theatre, dressing up and acting.
“If I was caught or discovered, or anything like that, it would be dealt with physical punishment, corporal punishment – beatings, hidings, things like that, to beat it out of me.”
At 16 years old, George became Georgina, but the abuse followed her from home to the streets.
As a sex worker, she was confronted daily with physical and verbal abuse from members of the public.
“It drove me to suicide… to attempt suicide on three times, in my young life,” Beyer said, “I had been pack-raped in Sydney in 1979, which was a terrifying, horrifying experience, and the law didn’t defend me.”
📷
Georgina Beyer as a child Photo: Supplied / Georgina Beyer
After working in a gay night club in Auckland, she moved from the glitzy lights of Karangahape Road to conservative back blocks of the Wairarapa.
It was in Carterton Beyer’s career in politics began.
Working as a part-time radio announcer (alongside Paul Henry, who she later beat in the 1999 General Election), she decided to run for council.
She missed out, but she tried again, and again. Eventually becoming a councillor and, in 1995, the Mayor of Carterton.
“I’m the Mayor, okay, where’s the handbook on this job?” she said, “There isn’t any, but I now was in this position and I thrived in it, absolutely thrived in it.”
Being eloquent and not afraid to speak her mind, Parliament beckoned next.
Standing for the Labour Party in 1999, Beyer won the safe blue seat of Wairarapa with a majority of 3,033 votes. She was the first transgender woman elected to office.
However, in 2004, she faced one of the toughest challenges of her life. To choose her party, or her people.
“Oh, a disaster, an absolute nightmare”.
The Government, under Helen Clark, had just announced the Foreshore and Seabed legislation, effectively removing Māori claims to ownership over beaches and waterways.
The news came as a shock to the Labour Party’s Māori caucus.
“We were all quite taken aback that an announcement had been made, with no consultation with anyone in the Māori caucus.
“At the end of day, it was one of the largest proposed confiscations from Māori in modern times”.
One by one, the Māori caucus “fell into line”. The last three to do so were Beyer, Nanaia Mahuta, and Tariana Turia.
Beyer didn’t hold a Māori constituency and felt she had no mandate from Māori to speak up strongly on their behalf like the rest of her Māori colleagues.
“I was just so torn, but actually I didn’t have to be steeped in tikanga Māori to understand that this was wrong, wrong, wrong.
“I vowed and declared from that time on that I would never be torn between who and what I am as far as my heritage is concerned, and political expediency”.
So, what did she think of the former Prime Minister Helen Clark?
“I was never very close to Helen, at all, really,” Beyer said.
"I was not within her inner, outer, or extra-outer circle, really. I was just a cannon fodder backbench MP”.
She became further isolated when she asked to abstain from the vote.
“I can almost pinpoint my beginning of the end of my political career in Parliament on that Foreshore and Seabed thing. I felt defeated and I felt impotent.”
But that wasn’t the end.
She stayed for another two years traveling to Parliaments across the world to talk on gender issues.
Reflecting on her story today, she’s proud of the road she’s taken.
“You can’t live in your victim-hood all the time, you can’t wallow in it, you gotta learn from it. Move on and change it and change what created that."
“And I hope I’ve been able to do a bit of that”.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/06-03-2023/georgina-beyer-still-has-a-fire-in-her-belly

In 2018, Alex Casey spoke to Georgina Beyer, the world’s first transgender mayor and MP, about her extraordinary life.
This interview contains references to sexual assault and suicide, please take care.
Sex work and politics are pretty much the same trade, according to Georgina Beyer at least. During her time as an MP, she would strut through the halls of parliament, calling her comrades to arms by asking them if they were all ready to “get out on the streets and sell their butts”. They didn’t seem to fancy that comparison very much. “Look, honey, you’re soliciting yourself either way,” she told me over the phone, chuckling. “One’s just for votes, the other for money. One advertises on billboards, the other advertises in the back pages of The Dominion Post.”
If there was anyone who could speak to the overlap of these very specific sets of skills, it’s Beyer. The world’s first transgender mayor who went on to be the world’s first elected transgender member of parliament, as well as a former sex worker, screen actress, and kidney transplant survivor, she’s lived a thousand lives to get to where she is today – right now, she is in the Wellington suburb of Kilbirnie, on the phone to me, an ex-Wairarapa kid who grew up under her groundbreaking reign back in the late 90s.
I asked her how things have changed for the LGBTQIA+ community in her lifetime. “When I started transitioning, I quickly realised that it was a cruel world for people like us. I had to go down avenues I would never have considered.” Unable to get a ‘real’ job, or any benefits outside of claiming a “psychosexual disorder” for the sickness benefit, she felt like she had no choice but to join the sex industry. “It was a brutal time, but there was a strange camaraderie in that nobody else would support us, not even our government institutions.”
One night in Sydney in 1979, Beyer was sexually assaulted by a group of men. “People asked me why I didn’t report it to the police. As if the law was going to protect me? A Māori tranny prostitute? Yeah, right.” Following the traumatic attack, Georgina found herself depressed and near suicide for months. “Once I got out the other end, it gave me a real fire in my belly. That shouldn’t have happened to me. That shouldn’t happen to anyone without being taken seriously.” She swore that she would try and change attitudes by example, which meant living a proud, public life as a trans woman.
It was the goal of visibility that drove Georgina to pursue a pre-politics acting career, including the 1985 film Jewel’s Darl, where she played a trans prostitute. “For the time, that was quite unusual, to look at people like us not as caricatures, but real people with real lives.” Although she burned all of her old belongings the night she transitioned, Georgina didn’t completely erase what she calls “the other parts of me”. “Men tend to forget that I can still access the same psyche as them. If they want to come down hard with the firm, staunch, brow-beating thing, well, I can play that game too, baby.”
Decades after her time working in the sex industry, Georgina found herself campaigning for prostitution reform in parliament. Given her own experience, she was shocked at some of the misconceptions held by the public around sex work. “They thought it was all deviants and not their husbands, their brothers, their uncles – it’s ordinary people.” As, unsurprisingly, the only former sex worker in the house, her speech to the chamber changed the minds of three MPs, passing the legislation that would decriminalise sex work. “It was the thinnest bloody margin you could have, but we got there in the end.”
So how in the flaming hell did a conservative, white, scarecrow-festival-hosting, mid-90s Wairarapa vote to become one of the wokest places in the world? “I think I was just a breath of fresh air. What people responded to was honesty, being straight up, being approachable – I would go to everything from a bloody party in a woolshed to judging sheep races out at Castle Point.” Carterton became known for something more than daffodils, and the more traditional locals slowly learned to “look beyond the end of their noses.”
When she made the decision to run for Labour in the Wairarapa in 1999, Beyer didn’t actually think she had a chance in hell of winning. She wasn’t being humble – nobody else did either. Although she had been the mayor of Carterton for five years, the Wairarapa was a National Party stronghold, and her opposing candidate was a plucky, popular radio host by the name of Paul Henry. He questioned her ability to be “serious person” because she was trans. “I thought I’d just have some fun and kick a few butts” Georgina recalled. “Bugger me! Look what happened!”
Georgina won with a 3000+ vote majority, making Paul Henry officially kicked in the butt and making her, officially, a “serious” public figure. Local attitudes had evolved, best summarised by the elderly farmer who had previously voted National all his life. “This year I’m voting for Georgina Beyer,” he was quoted in her documentary Georgie Girl, “because she’s a damn good chap.” Did she mind the misgendering? “If that was the only way a conservative 80 year-old farmer was be able to absorb and accept me, then I’m happy with that. That’s still progress.”
Although she has regrets from her eight years in parliament – her stance on foreshore and seabed was a “mistake” that marked “the beginning of the end” of her political career – Beyer stands by her contribution to the Civil Union bill and prostitution reform. “You have to remember: law is easy to change, attitudes throughout a country are not. It takes generations and role models to show the nation that we’re not the horrible, demented, crazy people they might think we are.” The work is far from done yet, with Beyer’s latest focus on applying to the Waitangi Tribunal to get Takatāpui included in the Human Rights Act.
I asked Beyer if she still encountered prejudice in her life, or the hangover of trans-exclusionary attitudes from fellow women. “People still regard the gender thing as being relatively recent in our modern history, but we’ve been around for millennia. Fa’afafine. Takatāpui. When you have words in languages to include us, that should send a message that this didn’t happen last week.” What about the TERF mindset that still lingers in some modern day feminists, that reckons trans women aren’t real women? “It’s an old, lazy argument. Don’t worry about us encroaching on your world. We’re just trying to improve our lot in this life, just like the women’s movement did for you.”
To anyone, young or old, who might currently be questioning their own gender identity, her expert advice is to access professional information as soon as possible, and to seek out like-minded groups of people in the community. “You are going to need people to give you moral support, who think the same as you and know what you are going through. Don’t be afraid, there are far too many young trans people who are dying through suicide because they feel like this world isn’t built for them anymore.” Georgina paused for a moment as her voice cracked.
“It is, baby. It is.”
Although she has now retired from the political sphere, Beyer remains inspired by young LGBTQIA+ activists continuing the fight for access to healthcare, work and education. She admits that she never thought trans and gender issues would ever be taken seriously in her lifetime, and quickly slipped back into that same, rousing cadence that made her speeches so famous in the chamber. “I have spent the better part of my life trying to make things better for this generation. My faith now lies with this younger generation to stand on my shoulders, just as I stood on the shoulders of those who went before me. I’ve done my bit to move the needle, now it’s your turn.”
As for everyone else? “They need to just shut up and let us get on with being who we are.”
Where to find support
OutLine NZ – Freephone 0800 OUTLINE (0800 688 5463)
Rainbow Youth – Phone (09)3764155
InsideOUT – Phone 027 331 4507
Gender Minorities Aotearoa

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/485407/world-s-first-openly-transgender-mayor-and-mp-georgina-beyer-has-died

1) AUBREY ZULEGER (ズレガー オーブリー) ♀ - Age: 17. Height: 5'. Hair: Black. Eyes: Dark Hazel. Pilot of the RX-2000-A Valkyrie Yulong: the Pink Gundam of Spectrum. Born out of a high school fling as the middle of three sisters, Aubrey has gone through life with few if any people to turn to. Due to incidents and demonstrations of her Newtype abilities coming out when she is placed in situations of stress, her own birth father sees her as a curse. Used as the scapegoat for her mother, sisters and step-father; Aubrey made few friends going through public secondary high school. Abused much of her life, Aubrey sees in the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force a ticket to either a better life or a glorious death that will end her pain. When she is caught in the Imperium attack on her moon of Titan, Aubrey escapes in a Gundam which takes her on an adventure of self-discovery and building a better family.
2) ERICA AZRAEL (アズラーイール エリカ) ♀ - Age: 28. Height: 6'4". Hair: Dark Ginger. Eyes: Green. Pilot of the RX-2000-X Helios: the Orange Gundam of Space. Erica is a Newtype who has served in the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force with distinction from when she enlisted at the age of 18 and received her officers' commission at 23. Appointed as one of the Co-Wing Leaders of Solar Wing alongside Sierra Chay, Erica may seem rowdy and loud in fighting the CDEF battles - even being a hard-partying and drinking lady eager to score with the male and female species alike. But underneath that exterior is a warm and caring woman who sees fellow Newtypes as the family she must protect and will lay down the law if anyone goes too far or has a problem with someone else. Upon seeing what should be one of her own Gundams piloted by Aubrey, she seeks to draft the latter and get her the help she truly needs.
3) GABRIELA TULPER (トゥルパー ガブリエラ) ♀ - Age: 18. Height: 5'8". Hair: Brown. Eyes: Blue. Pilot of the RX-2000-1 Mercury: the Blue Gundam of Water. Gabriela is a rich noble of the Mercury colony of Narada that saw her home destroyed when the Imperium launched an attack on Narada. She joined the Solar Wing of CDEF in their liberation of Narada to help free her home world from the Imperium. She admires Erica and quickly develops a muted dislike of Aubrey due to their like minds and Aubrey's self-destructive outlook. Her dislike eventually turns to full-blown jealousy as she challenges Aubrey to a duel. Eventually, she realizes that Aubrey could be her best comrade but she'll will make constant attempts to win both Erica and Sierra's favor every so often. Gabriela often makes great efforts to appear smarter whilst closing herself off from others out of fear of rejection, but wishes she could be a good doctor.
4) MIO NGUYEN (グエン 澪) ♂ - Age: 13. Height: 4'8". Hair: Black. Eyes: Brown. Pilot of the RX-2000-B D'Artagnan Wukong: the Ruby Gundam of Anima. Like the young Sun Wukong as seen in Journey to the West; the Newtype known as Mio is headstrong/impulsive, agile to an insane degree, and has a penchant for not respecting authority figures who have not earned a right to wield such authority in his eyes. And like D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers; Mio is also very romantic, not very smart in terms of the literary-minded, and eagerly jumps into all manner of danger to help those truly in need. At first unable to comprehend how a talented and capable woman like Aubrey could ever need help, Mio soon sees himself being drawn into Aubrey's world fighting against Callisto forces. Hailing from the wrecked Neo Gascony colony on Ceres, he is the first boy Aubrey takes under her wing to gain her first apprentice.
5) IRIS MOREAU (モロー アイリス) ♀ - Age: 27. Height: 5'8". Hair: Blonde. Eyes: Blue. Pilot of the RX-2000-2 Venus: the Yellow Gundam of Light. Back in her civilian life, she tries to do the best she can to help friends in need, but sometimes a disaster gear kicks in way too early. Iris is also infamous for using mixed-up proverbs and officially refers to herself as "Goddess of Love," a title which she uses to try to solve others' love woes. However; she is loyal and caring to a fault for as a fellow Newtype, she wears her heart on her sleeve and sees Aubrey for what she is and can be - a true friend. She's the joker of Solar Wing out of and sometimes in combat. She may take her duties seriously, but for the rest of the time, Iris prefers to spend her time goofing off, cracking jokes, pulling pranks, seeking thrills and just living life up. But if the chips are down, Iris is ruthless when protecting Aubrey from all bullies and the Imperium.
6) KAI PARRISH (パリッシュ 海) ♀ - Age: 19. Height: 5'8". Hair: Brown. Eyes: Brown. Pilot of the RX-2000-3 Terra: the Brown Gundam of Earth. Honest and truthful in showing potential as a leader, Kai was brought up in Midwestern America on the Cherokee reservations by her parents who were equally as doting and permissive as they were firm and involved when they needed to be, so Kai can be powerful in battle and is ever courageous. Many might take her her not being a completely idealized feminine heroine as denial of someone's wish fulfillment and invite scorn, but Kai is out to show them wrong with skill in piloting the Terra Gundam as third-in-command of Solar Wing. Kai is the individualist Newtype and freedom-loving - one who cares about getting time over to do the things she wants to do. But she still gets along very well with all of Solar Wing, and she will always play her part well when it really matters.
7) SIERRA CHAY (シェイ シエラ) ♀ - Age: 28. Height: 6'4". Hair: Violet. Eyes: Green. Pilot of the RX-2000-XI Luna: the White Gundam of Electricity. Sierra is also a top Newtype in the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force all with distinction from when she enlisted at the tender age of 18 and received her officers' commission at 23. Appointed as one of the Co-Wing Leaders of the Solar Wing alongside Erica Azrael, Sierra may seem dispassionate and or quiet in her preferred duties - even being more comfortable with home front activities and the day-to-day administration. But underneath her icy exterior is a fierce and driven woman who sees fellow Newtypes as the family she must protect and will lay down the law if anyone goes too far or has a problem with someone else. Unlike Erica who sees a great potential for Aubrey in flying a Gundam, Sierra sees Aubrey's self-destructive nature as the liability it is.
8) FLASH VAN WARREN (ヴァンウォーレン フラッシュ) ♂ - Age: 14. Height: 4'9.5". Hair: Blonde. Eyes: Blue. Pilot of the RX-2000-E Athos Tripitaka: the Amber Gundam of Soul. Like the young Tripitaka as seen in the Journey to the West; the Newtype known as Flash is rather reserved and devoted to not sullying himself with physical relationships, more of their long-range tactician, and has a knack for getting himself into trouble which the others have to bail him out of. And like Athos in The Three Musketeers; Flash is also protective of children, not very emotive and taciturn in handling his fellow pilgrims, and more melancholy than others in trying to come to terms with the loss of his family and some friends to the Imperium. At first unable to comprehend how a talented and driven woman like Aubrey could ever need help, Flash soon sees himself being drawn into Aubrey's world in fleeing Vestia's Neo Perth.
9) MIYOSHI KUGA (久我 三好) ♀ - Age: 26. Height: 5'8". Hair: Black. Eyes: Violet. Pilot of the RX-2000-4 Mars: the Red Gundam of Fire. Miyoshi has a bit of a bad temper, but she is a true friend to all on the inside once you get to know her better. Before joining CDEF, she had her job as a shrine maiden at the local Shinto Temple in Neo Osaka around Mars where she lived and may sometime go back to visit, and that is where she learned to channel herself and her Newtype abilities into the psychic world and the psychic into her fire. For all of their fights every so often as friends do, Miyoshi would actually prefer her friends and potential suitors to be more vulnerable as well as open about their emotions - as such, Kai and Aubrey are the golden standard by which she measures any potential new acquaintances. As a top member of Solar Wing and finding her connection to the Mars Gundam, Miyoshi is out to find her way.
10) NADIRA MULLER (ミュラー ナディラ) ♀ - Age: 20. Height: 5'8". Hair: Black. Eyes: Green. Pilot of the RX-2000-5 Jupiter: the Green Gundam of Forest. Being the resident tough girl of Solar Wing who hails from the Neo Zanzibar colony on Ganymede, many people feared her, but Nadira doesn't feel alone, as her squadron mates are always there, even when she is in a bad mood. She also practices judo and karate to keep up her fitness levels as well as serve as therapist for the others. Despite her tomboyish exterior, Nadira is a sweet person who enjoys cooking, gardening, flower arranging and handicrafts; and she dreams of getting married and owning a combined floral bakery shop. Her green thumb and Newtype abilities of hers make her perfect to pilot the Jupiter Gundam. Whenever Aubrey is getting involved with the Solar Wing, Nadira's motherly side comes out as the two become rather protective of each other.
11) SAMARA FORESTER (フォレスター サマラ) ♀ - Age: 25. Height: 5'8". Hair: Blonde. Eyes: Green. Pilot of the RX-2000-6 Saturn: the Purple Gundam of Shadow. Showing attitude and a thirst for battle, there are signs not all is right with her and she might be developing some form of Newtype PTSD. She has been consumed by battle ever since her brothers and sisters were seriously injured in the attacks on the Neo Burlington colony of Enceladus, constantly pushing things well beyond her physical limits and has a tendency to lose self-control when the battle goes against Solar Wing. The Saturn Gundam must have reached out to her via her vast Newtype abilities to give her an outlet to express herself. But when Aubrey is involved in the affairs of Solar Wing, Samara gets the mirror reflection of herself and she sees that what Aubrey and she have in common could get them both killed - and fear it boiling over into war.
12) VINCE COLEMAN (コールマン ヴィンス) ♂ - Age: 16. Height: 5'1.5". Hair: Black. Eyes: Green. Pilot of the RX-2000-C Porthos Wujing: the Emerald Gundam of Gravity. Like the tall Sha Wujing as seen in the Journey to the West; the Newtype known as Vince is powerful and yet loyal to all his friends while even having a penchant for light humor to make situations bearable, a friend to all children, and is more of a father to everyone around them than their own dads. And just as with Porthos in The Three Musketeers; Vince is also the ever rollicking, romantic life of the party. Even as a strong African-American young man, he is the rare manic pixie dream guy of being a Newtype who is a "gentle guy" to Aubrey's "broken babe". Some are resigned to or refuse the call to adventure, but the hometown boy of Neo Harlem, Pallas is one who actively sought out the call in hopes of finding friends who share in his passions.
13) TANYA KRIKALEV (クリカレフ ターニャ) ♀ - Age: 24. Height: 5'8". Hair: Gainsboro. Eyes: Green. Pilot of the RX-2000-7 Uranus: the Black Gundam of Sky. When the Imperium struck against Neo Leningrad on Oberon, Tanya was separated from both her parents but maintains hope that they are still alive on Oberon and someday they'll be reunited. Because of her lack of contact with the rest of the Wing, she is only really close to Erica and Sierra although her compassionate and submissive personality means she's kind and accepting of everybody in or affiliated with Solar Wing. Her dreams of the sky and ability to read the cosmic winds makes her the prime candidate for the Newtype pilot of the Uranus Gundam. Whenever Tanya finds Aubrey getting involved with Solar Wing and bringing Pilgrim Squadron with her, she finds a crush for her in Flash as well as the chance to be the big sister Aubrey never had growing up.
14) LILLIAN ROBLEDO (ロブレド リリアン) ♀ - Age: 21. Height: 5'8". Hair: Brown. Eyes: Red. Pilot of the RX-2000-8 Neptune: the Silver Gundam of Ocean. Hailing from the Earth colony of Neo Santiago on Triton, Lillian's family are miners who make a living converting the frozen icy surface of the moon into water and ammonia. Curious as to where the water is supposed to go, Lillian finds herself drawn to the seas and able to manipulate water around her with a set of Newtype abilities she is discovering for herself. This makes her the prime candidate for piloting the Neptune Gundam for Solar Wing. Unlike Tanya who is shyer and conventionally more feminine than her; the more tomboyish Lillian can be full of energy, jumps around a lot, and speaks in a sing-songy voice. Eager to show off and enjoy the finer things life has to offer, Lillian sees her own sister in Aubrey and strives to thaw a frozen heart with some patience.
15) REEMA AL-YASIN (ヤッセン リマ) ♀ - Age: 22. Height: 5'8". Hair: Black. Eyes: Blue. Pilot of the RX-2000-9 Pluto: the Gold Gundam of Time. The Neo Riyadh colony on Charon is one of the first targets of the Imperium of Callisto's operations - especially for raw materials to be used in building their war machine to secure supremacy in the Solar System. Reema is now an orphan due to the Imperium crashing the Kerberos VII colony into Charon, and barely escaped with her life due to manifesting Newtype abilities of shifting herself and others both forward and backward in time. Found and chosen by the Pluto Gundam, Reema has a grudge against the primarily Aryan (tall, slender, fair-skinned, blue-eyed, blonde) members of all the Imperium - especially Maxx Zaldivar. Being rehabilitated alongside Aubrey into Solar Wing is no small feat, but Reema finds a support network in them as she discovers her own person.
16) ULF SOLBERG (ソルベルグ ウルフ) ♂ - Age: 15. Height: 4'11.5". Hair: Brown. Eyes: Blue. Pilot of the RX-2000-D Arimos Bajie: the Sapphire Gundam of Illusion. Like the younger Zhu Bajie as seen in Journey to the West; the Newtype known as Ulf is smart and something of a warrior poet while even having a penchant for rather vulgar humor to make their situations bearable, and tries to be a hit with the ladies while treating them with respect. And as with Arimos in The Three Musketeers; Ulf is also the dependable one for common sense as well as coming up with inventions alongside his crush Gabriela. Even as the intelligent Scandinavian young man he is, Ulf at first is reluctant to be paired with Pilgrim Squadron. But after a strike by the Imperium forces against his colony Neo Stockholm on Juno, he has little elsewhere to go for support. Freed from obligations, Ulf commits to being the best brother for Aubrey.
MECHA/ARSENAL
1) RX-2000 VALKYRIE GUNDAM-TYPE MOBILE SUIT - Height: 21.7 meters. Fighting Weight: 32.2 metric tons. Power Plant: Minovsky-Ionesco Ultracompact Fusion Reactor. Raw Power Output: 3500 kilowatts. Sensor Range: 22K Meters. Weapon(s): 2x Beam Sabers, 1x Shield, 1x Hyper Bazooka and 1x Beam Rifle. Designed and built by Yatate Enterprises especially for the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force, the Valkyrie Gundams are made to last while also serving as the expression of Newtypes in CDEF. Each colored Gundam represents a very specific element or power that a space body is emblematic of. En route to a CDEF dedication ceremony on Titan, their CDEF carrier is attacked and the pink Valkyrie Yulong Gundam falls into the possession of Aubrey Zuleger. She fights off an Imperium attack and escapes in the Gundam looking for sanctuary. All sixteen of the Gundams are the heroes of this Solar War.
2) CVABB-79 OLYMPUS - Height: 200 meters. Length: 600 meters. Beam: 400 meters. Total Wingspan: 200 meters. Fighting Weight: 47000 metric tons. Power Plant: Minovsky-Ionesco Fusion Reactor. Top Speed: 25000 kilometers an hour. Propulsion: 13x Thermonuclear Rocket Jet Engines. Class: Pantheon-class Assault Carrier Battleship. Weapon(s): 5x 3-barrel Primary Shock Cannons, 2x twin Mega Particle Cannons, 8x 4-tube Fore Missile Launchers, 1x 4-tube Aft Missile Launcher, 22x twin Anti-Aircraft Guns. Designed and built by Tomino Aeronautics Engineering for the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force, the United Solar Vessel (USV) Olympus serves as home for both Solar Wing and Pilgrim Squadron in all their tours of duty across the Solar System. Able to house multiple Core Fighters and Mobile Weapons, the Olympus is always a welcome sight and a defender of all that our heroes are fighting to save.
3) RX-1991 CORSAIR GUNCANNON-TYPE MOBILE SUIT - Height: 18.75 meters. Fighting Weight: 60.5 metric tons. Power Plant: Minovsky-Ionesco Ultracompact Fusion Reactor. Raw Power Output: 1400 kilowatts. Sensor Range: 20K Meters. Weapon(s): 2x 240mm Cannons, 1x Hyper Bazooka and 1x Beam Rifle. Designed and built by Yatate Enterprises especially for the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force, the Corsair Guncannons are meant to be a middle-range support mobile suit to complement both the RX-2000 Valkyrie Gundams and the RX-1961 Taurus Guntanks in their ground operations. Serving mainly as CDEF's primary artillery unit, the Corsair's design prioritizes durability over mobility and precludes the use of melee weapons. While it is less agile and mobile than a Gundam, a Guncannon is still useful with its pair of shell-firing cannons that can penetrate heavy armor of any Imperium forces.
4) SF-XV CORE BLOCK FIGHTER - Height: 3.38 Meters. Length: 8.75 Meters. Wingspan: 7.25 Meters. Weight: 9 metric tons. Power Plant: Nuclear Fusion Generator. Speed: 6K kilometers per hour (in space)/4K kilometers per hour (in planetary atmospheres). Weapon(s): 4x 25mm Vulcan Guns and 2x 4-shot Anti-Ship Missile Launchers. Designed and mass-produced by one United Solar Alliance specifically for the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force, the Core Block Fighter makes up the spear of CDEF's aerospace superiority forces. Originally seen in development as a cockpit capsule that also served as an escape mechanism, United Solar Alliance sought to capitalize on the further development of Yatate Enterprises' mobile suits by creating a Core Block System that turns the fighter into an augmented core and cockpit for mobile weapons such as the RGM-1976 Spartan, RX-1982 Taurus and RX-1991 Corsair.
5) RGM-1976 SPARTAN GM-TYPE MOBILE SUIT - Height: 18.5 Meters. Fighting Weight: 50.5 metric tons. Power Plant: Minovsky-Ionesco Ultracompact Fusion Reactor. Power Output: 1300 kilowatts. Sensor Range: 6K Meters. Weapon(s): 60mm Vulcan Gun, 2x Beam Sabers, 1x Shield, 1x Hyper Bazooka and 1x Beam Rifle. Designed and soon mass-produced by Yatate Enterprises specifically for the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force, the Spartan GM is the most common form of mobile suit used by CDEF rank and file. Its standard frame is readily adaptable to every manner of modification into mission-specific Spartan models, and holds a fairly high level of mobility, for the time, both on Earth and in space. Many Spartans are used as trainer crafts for Mobile Suit pilots, which make it easier for non-Newtype CDEF officers to join the fray. But their lighter titanium armor is less durable than the Gundams.
6) RX-1961 TAURUS GUNTANK-TYPE MOBILE SUIT - Height: 15.3 Meters. Fighting Weight: 68 metric tons. Power Plant: Minovsky-Ionesco Ultracompact Fusion Reactor. Power Output: 900 kilowatts. Sensor Range: 6K Meters. Weapon(s): 2x 120mm Low-Recoil Cannons and 2x 4-tube 40mm Arm Missile Launchers. Designed and built by Yatate Enterprises especially for the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force, the Taurus Guntanks possess the torso and arms of a mobile suit, but use caterpillar treads for their legs. Serving as CDEF's ground superiority units, the Taurus' design prioritizes durability over mobility and precludes the use of melee weapons. While it is less agile and mobile than other mobile suits, a Guntank is still useful with its array of shell-firing cannons that can penetrate heavy armor of any Imperium forces. Many are designed around a crew complement of a primary drivepilot and gunner.
7) CMS-07 SOMU-TYPE MOBILE SUIT - Height: 18.45 Meters. Fighting Weight: 67.5 metric tons. Power Plant: Minovsky-Ionesco Ultracompact Fusion Reactor. Raw Power Output: 1100 kilowatts. Sensor Range: 4K Meters. Weapon(s): 1x Shield, 1x 105mm Callisto Machine Gun, 1x Callisto Hyper Bazooka and 1x Heat Sword. The mainstay of the Imperium of Callisto; the Somu-type Mobile Suit is faster, more durable and versatile than a great many of its forbears in CDEF in spite of their vast numbers contributing to their disposable nature. Many high-ranking commanders in Callisto forces use custom-painted and custom-armed variants as an expression of storied victories over many adversaries like Maxx Zaldivar's Crimson Serpent. Curiously, Aubrey's secret Newtype benefactor pilots his own modified Somu with its Beam Sword in a striking color scheme that allows for infiltration of Callisto ranks and sabotage.
PRIMARY ANTAGONISTS - IMPERIUM OF CALLISTO (カリストの帝国)
1) IMPERATOR PIETRO VON VIDMAR (皇帝 ピエトロ フォン ヴィドマー) ♂ - Age: 35. Total Height: 6'3.5". Hair: Silver. Eyes: Blue. In short and at most charitable, Pietro is best described as ambitious, underhanded, overconfident, and a feared motivator. As the essential leader of Callisto, Pietro belittles the dwindling power of his siblings and continuously schemes to turn the Solar War into a total war. He and his siblings Elise and Tobias are constantly at odds with each other as the three possess similar political goals but different methods with some of the rank and file pushing to fall behind Maxx Zaldivar. Over the course of the War as both Solar Wing and Pilgrim Squadron inflict devastating losses on Callisto forces, Pietro expects he will be betrayed and schemes to find the Newtype Gundam pilot Aubrey Zuleger so his forces break her. Even so, he'll have to get past Zaldivar's own obsession with the CDEF's rising star.
2) MAXX ZALDIVAR (ザルディバー マックス) ♂ - Age: 21. Height: 5'10". Hair: Blonde. Eyes: Blue. Pilot of the Custom CMS-07 Somu-type Mobile Suit "Crimson Serpent". Maxx is always seen dressed in his red Callisto uniform and mostly wears a Callisto commander helmet with goggles to conceal his real identity. Maxx's personality is a mix of passion, charisma, pride, vengefulness and charm. Perhaps his most dominant characteristic is charisma, which makes him a genuine leader. Maxx’s skill as a pilot combined with his charisma cause many people to respect and willingly follow his command, while instilling fear in his opponents. A rival for dominant characteristic is Maxx's tendency to hold deep grudges - such as towards Callisto's Imperator Von Vidmar for the slaughter of his family and friends, as well as both Tobias and Aubrey Zuleger for their defeats of him in Mobile Suit combat throughout the ongoing War.
3) ELISE VON VIDMAR (エリーゼ フォン ヴィドマー) ♀ - Age: 25. Height: 5'8". Hair: Red. Eyes: Green. Pilot of the Custom CMS-07 Somu-type Mobile Suit "Verde Eagle". Elise is seen dressed in a green Callisto uniform and also wears a Callisto commander helmet with goggles to show her identification with some of Maxx Zaldivar's ideals. Elise had both political and military ambitions at a young age and will try to establish military and political channels both on her own and with her brother Tobias in order to compete with their elder brother Pietro over who should have the right to rule the Solar System if Callisto is victorious. Using Mobile Suits and Newtypes to her advantage as Maxx suggests, Elise is playing her elder brother into a trap for him to fail and her to become the new Imperator. That is not to say she lacks traits that aren't admirable. She's been known to be heartfelt and honest with troops she will lead.
4) ILHAN ILSUNG (イルハン イルソン) ♂ - Age: 35. Height: 6'2". Hair: Brown. Eyes: Brown. Commanding Officer of the Callisto Imperium's Flagship Mobile Suit Carrier Babylon, Pilot of the Custom CMS-07 Somu-type Mobile Suit "Silver Bullet". Ilhan is sometimes seen dressed in a yellow Callisto uniform and wears a Callisto commander helmet with goggles to show his identification with some of Maxx Zaldivar's ideals. Having seen the Von Vidmar patriarchy's cruelty firsthand in the assassination of Callisto Zaldivar, Ilhan and his wife Xenia Sutherland smuggled young Maxx to freedom and trained him in piloting Mobile Suits while giving him a good education so he could avenge his family against Imperator Pietro. An experienced agent and officer, Ilhan never has a foul mood towards any of the men serving under him so long as a code of ethics he instills is followed. He only fights so Callisto colonies can live in freedom.
5) TOBIAS VON VIDMAR (トビアス フォン ヴィドマー) ♂ - Age: 21. Hair: Brown. Eyes: Blue. Pilot of the Custom CMS-07 Somu-type Mobile Suit "Azure Ghost". Tobias is sometimes seen outfitted in his blue Callisto uniform and wears a Callisto commander helmet with goggles to show his identification with some of Maxx Zaldivar's ideals. Among one of the more moral and nobler members of the Callisto Imperium, Tobias is shrewd enough to ally with his sister Elise and Maxx Zaldivar against their brother Pietro. On the other hand, he is young and very beautiful in a feminine way which makes him both the envy and goal of every female officer in the Callisto Imperial Military. He is one of the few who shows equal respect to each of his officers be they normal or Newtype. Very few in the Imperium know that Tobias is in fact the mysterious benefactor who has been watching out for Aubrey since they were little kids.
SERIES EPISODE PROPOSAL

• Initial Series Order - 129 Half-Hour Episodes, 1 Quintuple-Length Movie
• $5 Million/¥6 Million per Half-Hour = $670 Million/¥81.5 Billion for Total Series

SEASON 1

1. Episode 1 - Callisto Imperium Invades Titan
2. Episode 2 - Aubrey Escapes Her Family
3. Episode 3 - Aubrey Discovers Valkyrie Yulong
4. Episode 4 - Aubrey Fights Off Callisto
5. Episode 5 - New Aoteroa Colony Evacuated
6. Episode 6 - Launch of the Olympus
7. Episode 7 - Welcome to Solar Wing
8. Episode 8 - The Pilgrim Quest Begins
9. Episode 9 - Neo Gascony Colony Attacked
10. Episode 10 - Mio Rescues D'Artagnan Wukong
11. Episode 11 - Hypotheses on the Newtypes
12. Episode 12 - Neo Harlem Colony Falls
13. Episode 13 - Callisto Officially Declares War
14. Episode 14 - Tension Among Vidmar Patriarchy
15. Episode 15 - Vince Finds Porthos Wujing
16. Episode 16 - Aubrey's Troubling Tragic Past
17. Episode 17 - Neo Stockholm Colony Battle
18. Episode 18 - Arimos Bajie Chooses Ulf
19. Episode 19 - Solar Wing Training Day
20. Episode 20 - Neo Perth Colony Siege
21. Episode 21 - Flash Joins Athos Tripitaka
22. Episode 22 - Pilgrim Squadron United
23. Episode 23 - Voyaging Onward to Mars
24. Episode 24 - Aubrey's Secret Benefactor Mystery
25. Episode 25 - Neo Osaka Colony Arrival
26. Episode 26 - Enter Ace Maxx Zaldivar

SEASON 2

1. Episode 1 - The Battle of Mars
2. Episode 2 - Sanctuary at Kuga Shrine
3. Episode 3 - Departure for the Earth
4. Episode 4 - Fire Aboard the Olympus
5. Episode 5 - Trial by Reentry Fire
6. Episode 6 - Heroes' CDEF Headquarters Arrival
7. Episode 7 - Counseling for Aubrey and Samara
8. Episode 8 - Beach Vacation for the Newtypes
9. Episode 9 - Kai's Tribal Home Reservation
10. Episode 10 - Plot to Crash Neo Boston
11. Episode 11 - Battle in Neo Boston Orbit
12. Episode 12 - Newtypes Securing the Earth
13. Episode 13 - Journeying Onward to Venus
14. Episode 14 - CDEF Neo Cannes Arrival
15. Episode 15 - Venus Fuel Mine Unionization
16. Episode 16 - The Callisto Union Infiltration
17. Episode 17 - Spirited Defense of Venus
18. Episode 18 - Day in the Life aboard Olympus
19. Episode 19 - Imperator Pietro's Training
20. Episode 20 - Leaving for Mercury Outpost
21. Episode 21 - Aubrey and Gabriela's Gundam Duel
22. Episode 22 - Ruins of Narada Colony
23. Episode 23 - Gabriela's Family Reunion
24. Episode 24 - Aubrey and Zaldivar's First Duel
25. Episode 25 - The Inner Planets Secured
26. Episode 26 - The Outer Campaign Commences

SEASON 3

1. Episode 1 - CDEF's New Arsenal Preview
2. Episode 2 - Olympus' Lunar Orbit Parking
3. Episode 3 - The Tranquility Colony Mall
4. Episode 4 - Investigating the Zulegers' Past
5. Episode 5 - Tobias Undercover at the Orphanage
6. Episode 6 - Olympus Departing Lunar Orbit
7. Episode 7 - Mobile Suit Upgrade Testing
8. Episode 8 - Erica and Sierra's Night Out
9. Episode 9 - Health of the Newtypes
10. Episode 10 - Theme Park Colony Outing
11. Episode 11 - Amazing Asteroids Park Attacked
12. Episode 12 - Pilgrims Prisoners of Callisto
13. Episode 13 - Callisto Army Group Therapy
14. Episode 14 - Great Escape from Callisto
15. Episode 15 - Trauma of the Pilgrims
16. Episode 16 - Nadira's Secret Therapy Garden
17. Episode 17 - Vince and Nadira Wedding Disguise
18. Episode 18 - The Battle of Europa
19. Episode 19 - CDEF Traitor for Glory
20. Episode 20 - Callisto Traitor for Love
21. Episode 21 - The Zulegers' Cruelty Exposed
22. Episode 22 - Ilhan Ilsung's Final Battle
23. Episode 23 - Funeral for Ilhan Ilsung
24. Episode 24 - The Callisto Triumvirate Unites
25. Episode 25 - Olympus Launching to Saturn
26. Episode 26 - Aubrey in Depression Coma

SEASON 4

1. Episode 1 - Pilgrims Launch Without Aubrey
2. Episode 2 - Callisto Ambush at Saturn
3. Episode 3 - Zaldivar a Prisoner of War
4. Episode 4 - Escape of Maxx Zaldivar
5. Episode 5 - Aubrey Pursues Callisto to Titan
6. Episode 6 - Neo Aoteroa School Reunion
7. Episode 7 - Zuleger and Forester Estates' Ruins
8. Episode 8 - Aubrey Meets Mysterious Benefactor
9. Episode 9 - Tobias Von Vidmar's History
10. Episode 10 - Voyage Onward to Uranus
11. Episode 11 - Krikalev Family Album Musing
12. Episode 12 - The Temple of Oberon
13. Episode 13 - Guntank Patrol in Neo Leningrad
14. Episode 14 - A Deserter from Callisto
15. Episode 15 - The Newtype Concentration Camp
16. Episode 16 - Taking Off for Neptune
17. Episode 17 - Swimming in Zero Gravity
18. Episode 18 - Discovery in the Collector
19. Episode 19 - Imperator Pietro's Ultimate Betrayal
20. Episode 20 - An Alliance of Necessity
21. Episode 21 - Olympus Runs Silent Lurking
22. Episode 22 - Sinking the Imperator's Flagship
23. Episode 23 - Imperium Civil War Begins
24. Episode 24 - The Quest for Pluto
25. Episode 25 - Reema's Toxic Grudge
26. Episode 26 - A Night in Solitary

SEASON 5

1. Episode 1 - Callisto Base on Pluto
2. Episode 2 - Mio and Lillian's Date
3. Episode 3 - Treating Prisoners of Callisto
4. Episode 4 - Gabriela and Ulf Romance
5. Episode 5 - The Outer Campaign Endgame
6. Episode 6 - Survivors of New Riyadh
7. Episode 7 - Renegade CDEF Admiral's Rampage
8. Episode 8 - Séance of the Newtypes
9. Episode 9 - Flash and Iris' Movie Night
10. Episode 10 - Gundam Pilots Training Unite
11. Episode 11 - Mass Produced Automated Somus
12. Episode 12 - Sweeping the Floating Mines
13. Episode 13 - The Siege of Kerberos
14. Episode 14 - Callisto Outer Base Falls
15. Episode 15 - Imperator Pietro Begins Escape
16. Episode 16 - Olympus' Pursuit to Earth
17. Episode 17 - Detecting the Remaining Blockade
18. Episode 18 - Callisto Asteroid Fleet Strikes
19. Episode 19 - Evacuation of the Olympus
20. Episode 20 - Destruction of the Olympus
21. Episode 21 - Long Road to Earth
22. Episode 22 - Pietro Marches Upon CDEF
23. Episode 23 - Battle Aboard Galileo VII
24. Episode 24 - Death of Zaldivar and Pietro
25. Episode 25 - CDEF Newtypes' Final Victory

FINALE MOVIE (Sixteen Strode Into Glory)
Little do Pilgrim Squadron, Solar Wing or the Commonwealth Defense and Exploration Force know that Pietro Von Vidmar survived the assassination attempt against him. Pietro finds his mighty Imperium of Callisto falling due to Newtypes and ordinary humans finally combining into an alliance to destroy his pure Universe. Pilgrim Squadron and Solar Wing fly into battle one more time alongside Tobias and Elise to stop Pietro from crashing the new Neo Shinjuku colony into Earth. This main story is both book-ended and interrupted by a future plot which involves Solar Wing and Pilgrim Squadron's members and their families catching back up on the old days with an older Aubrey, her children and grandchildren. The older Aubrey is lucky to be by her friends' sides again ever since Tobias died in the last battle. Now, Aubrey too has to set her final affairs in order having risen above her abusive childhood to gain a happier life.
MERCHANDISING AND PROMOTION

1. Bandai snap-build model kits of mecha and space warships as depicted in series
2. Hasbro-licensed series-accurate Mobile Suit Gundam: Castaway Souls toys, action figures of main characters and mecha to fit figure
3. Collector’s figures of each character (anatomically correct) with interchangeable outfits, hand items and posable joints
4. Licensed video game adaptation for all major consoles and personal computers with Bandai Namco and Koei Tecmo
5. Licensed cosplay costumes of characters and mecha tailor-made and fitted by Cosplay House
6. Collector’s Coffee Mugs/Tea Cups, Stationery, Apparel, Posters, Lobby Cards and Black & White/Color Photo Sheets
7. In conjunction with Japanese and English dubs on TV, streaming Crunchyroll and Netflix, DVD and Blu-Ray, members of the Gundam fan club can enter for chances to win a retro-style VHS videocassette box set of the entire series of Mobile Suit Gundam: Castaway Souls.
8. A marketing campaign will proceed with trailers and spots for cinema, internet, radio, and television.

August 2032
In Metz, Reichskommissar Friedrich Ziegler gave an important address on the future of North France. "I am certain of one thing," said the Reichskommissar. "That our government is now firmly established as the sovereign government of the French people in Northern France." He turned to look at the crowd from a platform in the city square. "I have receive my orders from the Kaiser, and that is that the Reichskommissariat must immediately work to build an independent state, in alliance and cooperation with the German Empire. This country should be strong and proud. That, gentlemen, is my aim. We want to establish a strong nation in this land that will be a worthy friend of Germany and the Kaiser. A country that will live its life without fear of war. A Fatherland without poverty, a Fatherland without anarchy, a Fatherland with faith, law, and order. The time has come for the people to forget the past, and look to the future."
He paused and looked over the crowd that filled the streets, the square and the surrounding parks. "A new name for this country is needed. A name that will look to the future while also looking to the past. We have discussed this with poets, historians, and all manners of society. What was decided was the name Lotharingia. The old homeland of the Franks, the past of Metz, Nancy, and Verdun, and the unifier of the French, Dutch, and German peoples. In short, the past, present, and future of this land."
Many voices could be heard calling out objections, and many more shouted their approval. Some called out that it sounded too much like Lorraine, which would cause confusion. But the Reichskommissar raised his voice to drown these voices. "It is the wish of the greatest mind's of this country. A name that looks to the future while remembering the past. That is the aim of the people and the purpose of our government. And so it shall be." He turned again to face his audience, raising his voice, "From this day forward, Lotharingia is an independent and sovereign state. It will not be under the control of Germany. We pledge ourselves to a brighter future of peace and prosperity among the nations. May God bless the people of Lotharingia," ended Friedrich Ziegler, Reichskommissar of Nordfrankreich.
On orders from the Kaiser, the Reichskommissariat Nordfrankreich has been abolished and the Kingdom of Lotharingia declared in its place. The Diet has adopted a new flag. The 8. Panzer-Division, 7. Infanterie-Division, 3. Fallschirmjäger-Division, and 29. Panzergrenadier-Division that were stationed in the Reichskommissariat have been released of their oaths of fealty to the Kaiser and transferred directly to Lotharingian control, now swearing fealty to the future King of Lotharingia. Similarly, many of the new German immigrants in Lotharingia have chosen to adopt Lotharingian citizenship or dual citizenship between Lotharingia and Germany.
Former Reichskommissar Friedrich Ziegler has been given the position of Regent, acting as Head of State until the legislature can choose a monarch and write a constitution. Until that time, Regent Friedrich Ziegler has the power to rule with decree. The various political parties have adopted quickly to the new state, with Aubijoux's Union de collaboration France-Allemagne adopting the new name of Lotharingian People’s Party.
[Freedom of Movement: Restricted -> Unrestricted]

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AMERICAN CONSERVATISM AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The relationship between the modern conservative movement and the Catholic Church in America is just now beginning to be understood. Despite evidence of a close relationship between Catholicism and conservatism, the Church is most often considered a liberal institution, while the Catholic Church in its official capacity denies that it has an inherent connection to any political party or ideology. Nevertheless, the connection between American conservatism and Catholicism is much closer than is usually realized, so much so that the Church is better understood as a conservative than as a liberal institution.
Catholic Origins of American Conservatism
One of the overlooked facts about the modern conservative movement is the irreplaceable part played by Catholics.1 Indeed, it is almost possible to believe that the conservative movement in America was largely a Catholic thing, but this would be to overestimate the influence of Catholics. The conservative movement was not an explicit attempt of lay Catholics or the Church itself to manufacture a movement or arm to gain political influence for the Catholic Church. (This is in contrast to the Moral Majority, which was an explicit attempt to gain evangelical Protestantism a secular arm and direct political influence.) The Catholic Church in America, in contrast to the Church in Europe, has not allied itself officially with any political party or ideological movement, respecting the American separation of church and state. Further, Catholic influence tends to be more diffuse, representing the wide variety of political opinions held by its members.
The two outstanding representatives of Catholicism in the conservative movement, well-known to readers of this journal, are William F. Buckley and Russell Kirk, the founders of National Review and Modern Age, respectively. Buckley was a cradle Catholic who attended an English Catholic boarding school. He held a strongly traditional view of the Church and was an opponent of the vernacular Mass that resulted from the Second Vatican Council. National Review often dealt directly with Catholic issues, most famously in attacking the encyclicals of Pope John XXIII but also in its criticisms of the neo-Marxist Catholic liberation theology emanating from Latin America. Russell Kirk, whose book The Conservative Mind went through multiple printings, greatly encouraged a traditionalist form of conservative thought. He was a Catholic convert but had already established his conservative philosophy at the time he entered the Church. While Buckley represents the influence of cradle Catholics whose religious beliefs made them sharply critical of political and social developments in America following World War II, Kirk represents the conservative Catholics who joined the Church for personal reasons of faith, certainly, but also because their conservatism was explicitly and strongly represented in the Catholic Church. The presence of a large number of cradle Catholics in the conservative movement and the tendency of conservatives to become Catholic converts raises the question: what is the nexus between Catholicism and conservatism?
There is a large overlap between Catholicism and conservatism, and five areas can be distinguished. First, there is the conservative respect for tradition, that is, the Burkean assumption that any social institution in place for a great length of time and serving many people well has a claim on us. The Catholic Church has contributed an essential and distinctive element to Western civilization in art, literature, music, theology, and philosophy, and— not least—in its spreading of the Christian gospel, which had a civilizing effect on the many peoples of Europe, including those originally thought of as “barbarians.”
Second, there is a moral realism intrinsic to the Church’s doctrines and practices that presupposes good and evil’s actual reality and actual distinction. As the European world order collapsed during the twentieth century under the weight of total wars and totalitarian movements, good and evil were forsworn as ancient notions easily disposed of in the face of the onslaught of naked political power. The Catholic Church’s continued assertion that there exists an objective moral order thus seems salutary and providential.
Third, there was the policy of anti-Communism, which was especially noteworthy after World War II, when the Church supported centrist or mildly leftist political parties in Italy and France in opposition to Communist political parties that had many adherents. In America in the 1950s, figures such as Bishop Sheen and Cardinal Spellman vigorously opposed Communism; a disconcerting result of Vatican II was the Church’s change from a policy of anti-Communism effectively to one of antianti-Communism.
Fourth, the Catholic Church provides a primary example of an institution that survives in history not because it remains static, but because it changes slowly over time, accommodating itself to new circumstances while retaining its essential identity. Thus the confusing effects of the Second Vatican Council have amounted to a seemingly radical change in the Church and sorely tested the faith of many Catholic conservatives. Alterations in the order of the Mass and the reversal of the anti-Communist policy have caused especially severe discord.
Finally, especially appealing to intellectual conservatives is the Church’s espousal of the doctrine of natural law, which is conformable to the doctrine of natural rights found in the practice of American law and written in the Declaration of Independence, which refers to “nature’s God” as the source of rights and an implied moral order by which the actions of political agents can be fairly and rationally judged.
These considerations do not mean that Catholicism and American conservatism are altogether compatible. The conservative tradition in America is diverse, tending especially toward the principle of personal freedom from state controls. The Catholic tradition is communitarian and familyoriented, seeing the individual as embedded in a network of social connections and responsibilities ultimately of divine origin. This communitarianism sharply contradicts the individualism that is an inherent part of American culture, especially as expressed in the libertarian strain of contemporary conservatism. Previously, Catholic teaching had criticized the doctrine of individual rights; this, however, is changing. Since Vatican II official Church documents have stressed the individual’s right of conscience in order to defend freedom of religion in places where the Church is actively suppressed, as in China, or where Christian worship is severely curtailed, as in Muslim nations.
Another point of likely disagreement is free-market capitalism. Continental Catholic theologians have long had an animus toward the “Anglo-Saxon” social arrangement of England and America with its emphasis on political freedom and monetary advancement. This may be only a cultural prejudice, but in fact Catholic social teaching cannot be comfortable with an unrestrained form of capitalism in which there is no Reagan-style safety net (at least) for those who do not benefit directly from the free market. Catholic doctrine leans toward promoting communal solidarity with some kind of guarantees for housing and income for all, and from a Catholic perspective, the philosophy of unrestrained capitalism elevates the free market as a false idol. Here again, however, Catholic attitudes are changing toward a more conservative position; Pope John Paul II’s last social encyclical approved the free market as an efficient way of setting prices and allocating goods, and prominent lay Catholics such as William Simon and Michael Novak have favored the free market as compatible with Catholic thought.
The Liberal Church
While there is nothing in the documents of the Second Vatican Council that explicitly commits Catholicism to a liberal social philosophy, liberals and progressives have seized upon the Council to promote their programs and philosophies within the Church. Vatican II urged lay participation in the world, so that the Christian message would be spread through all aspects of society. Without careful delineation by the bishops who attended the Council and under whose supervision its documents were written, it was somehow automatically assumed that the Council reforms meant social activism of the sort carried out by promoting left-wing schemes and agendas. The bishops, including the popes who initiated the Council, John XXIII and Paul VI, were unaware of how suddenly changes would overtake the Church under pressure from various cadres of the Left, including feminists, pacifists, liturgical experts, anarchic radicals, and advocates of welfare expansion. Church authorities were overtaken by events until it became necessary for them to push back and re-establish lines of authority, as happened under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
One of the reforms of Vatican II was to give national councils of Catholic bishops a greater degree of authority and independence, without having to wait for direction from the Vatican.10 In the United States the bishops made policy in their annual meetings and relied on the bureaucracy of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to promulgate those policies and bring them into effect. Since both the bishop’s annual meetings and the USCCB are based in Washington, D.C., this amounted to the Church’s becoming a Dupont Circle-type lobbying group promoting a liberal line in virtually all areas of public policy and domestic and foreign affairs. USCCB policies, which are intended to “share Catholic social teaching,” have nonetheless attracted opposition from conservative Catholics and other critics who not only have a different ideological take on the issues but often have more expertise about the issues addressed than the USCCB staff that writes the policies and lobbies for them. The one exception to the liberal line taken by the USCCB is in the area of sex and reproduction, including abortion, gay marriage, cloning, and stemcell research.
The presumption that the Church had become politically liberal and progressive was encouraged by the writings of the two popes who oversaw Vatican II. John XXIII promulgated two major encyclicals and, as mentioned above, Mater et Magistra, in particular, was criticized by NationalReview. In fact, however, that encyclical was a sensible essay on Catholic social doctrine as it had developed to that time, and it appeared that conservative criticism of it was about its utopian tone or presumed intent rather than its specific provisions. Paul VI, on the other hand, in his document (not an encyclical) Populorum Progressio expressed a deep concern for justice for the Third World and condemned the economic policies of the First World. Not merely progressive, but radical, dimensions of Catholic social doctrine were rapidly developed by the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM), which explicitly deployed Marxist themes and language to denounce American capitalism. A major contribution of CELAM was to promote the doctrine of the preferential option for the poor, which quickly became the usual standard by which social and economic policies were judged and promoted by the American bishops and the USCCB.
The bishops promulgated a pastoral letter entitled Economic Justice for All in the 1980s that was meant to be a guide for Catholic social action emerging from public hearings on economic issues, a new approach to writing such documents. Despite the open manner in which opinions were sought and the importance of the topic, the letter was a failure, since it was basically a committee document with a general tendency toward progressive social and economic reform but whose recommendations did not consistently make sense. Unlike a previous pastoral letter by the bishops on nuclear war, the letter on the economy made no splash on the national scene.
The left-wing social policies advocated by Catholic liberals after the Second Vatican Council were as much influenced by contemporary liberal thought as by the Gospels. The preferential option for the poor reflects the argument of the liberal political philosopher John Rawls that economic and social inequalities can only be justified by their positive effect on the poorest in society. It is noteworthy that the preferential option marks a significant departure from the Church’s previous concern refl ected in the social encyclicals of earlier popes. The point of these earlier encyclicals was to provide a moral argument on behalf of workingmen and their families, who were seen as far less powerful than the owners of factories and commercial enterprises employing them. In the process of rapid industrialization, the Church was anxious to protect those people who had left farms in large numbers to become factory workers in large cities. The preferential option for the poor, however, has displaced the Church’s concern for productive workers to those who are at the bottom rung of society and do not or cannot contribute to it. In this manner, the Church has, in effect, turned its back on middle-class workers and taxpayers, who no longer appear to need its advocacy. It now seems as if in promoting the prefer ential option in an age of global expansion of an industrial, capitalist economy, the Church seeks to draw attention to those who cannot be participants in its expansion. Catholic advocates of progressive social doctrine in America are inclined to equate the preferential option for the poor directly with the expansion of welfare state benefits and must have found it disconcerting when Pope John Paul II in his last social encyclical declared that the “social assistance state,” that is, the welfare state, was not a refl ection of gospel concern for the poor and that the free market was valuable as a means of distribution.
The downside of the liberal influence in the Catholic Church can be seen in its effects. First, the promotion of engagement in the world as the preferred Christian vocation following Vatican II resulted in many priests and nuns’ leaving their vocations and a precipitous decline in new entrants to these vocations on which the Church depends for its existence. Social activism trumps sacramental dedication in the liberal church. Second, liberal churchmen and -women doubt the legitimacy of the Church’s claim to be a divinely founded institution and argue that the Church should cultivate a dramatically humbler idea of itself. Liberals argue on principle against the Church’s putative triumphalism and think that the only sufficient act of reparation for Catholic anti-Semitism is a degree of self-abnegation tantamount to institutional suicide. There is in the liberal church, a general spirit of anti-authoritarianism reaching beyond resentment of the imperious attitude of priests and prelates in the immigrant church. Rather, it is an attitude that denies or seeks to downplay the relevance of historical norms and institutional structures present in the Church. The absolutism of moral rules, the male priesthood, the existence of hell, and the authority of the pope are attacked as if no impediment to radical reform of the Church or restriction of any kind on an individual’s personal belief or behavior is acceptable. The existence of the Catholic Church in its historical form is seen by liberals as an impediment to the attainment of true freedom and earthly perfection.
The Conservative Church
It was not long before a backlash began against the liberals who had dominated and set the terms of the reforms, first by tradition-minded priests and lay Catholics, but subsequently at the level of the papacy.19 The accession of John Paul II to the papacy seems providential in this regard. Liberal critics see him as a figure of reaction, yet John Paul II and his successor Benedict XVI were not setting the Church’s clock back to where it was prior to the beginning of Vatican II. Instead these two popes were bringing forth the intended aims of the Council, for it seemed to them that the effects of the Council had gone too far. John Paul and Benedict are not reactionaries in full, but representatives of an ecclesiastical Thermidorean reaction fighting against the excesses of post-conciliar reforms and attempting to return the Church to the true form originally envisioned by the Council fathers. It was never intended by the bishops of the Council that ancient Catholic traditions be abolished, so among these reforms is a greater willingness to have the old Tridentine Rite (the Extraordinary Form) of the Mass made available to those who want it, and lately, to put brief sections of Latin into the vernacular Mass (the Ordinary Form or Novus Ordo); Catholics in favor of liturgical reform portray this as a complete aboutface rather than an accommodation. However, John Paul II did forcefully squelch the movement for female priests even as he rode triumphantly in parades throughout major cities in all parts of the world.
During his long papacy John Paul II wrote and sent out to the world a large number of writings addressing spiritual, but just as often cultural, political, and economic issues. There were important encyclicals opposing moral and epistemological relativism and another on the relation of faith to reason aimed at Catholic theologians but of direct interest to philosophers and intellectuals concerned with the topic. There were other writings as well, but it was by his very presence as a charismatic leader who often outshone the politicians with whom he appeared that John Paul II was influential, reviving confidence among many Catholics about their faith and, not incidentally, inspiring many young Catholic men to become priests. It was by his charismatic presence that he inspired the Solidarity movement in Poland, and his conspiratorial maneuvering with Zbigniew Brzezinski (also a nativeborn Pole), the American labor movement, and President Reagan was instrumental in bringing down the Communist regimes in Poland and Eastern Europe and eventually in Russia itself. The papacy of John Paul II was enormously influential, because it revived the sense of Catholic tradition and brought to fulfillment the Church’s anti-Communist policy in Europe.
There is a parallel conservative church consisting of educational institutions, publishing houses, and a television network existing alongside the liberal church. Among them are colleges including the University of Dallas, Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ave Maria College and Law School, and Thomas More College, mostly newly formed institutions, often founded by laymen, with a traditionalist or conservative bent (Thomas More and other traditionalist colleges often advertise in National Review). These colleges are more likely to produce priests and nuns from among their alumni, on a relative basis and possibly an absolute basis, than the older, more established Catholic colleges and universities. There are several conservative Catholic journals including Crisis (formerly Catholicism in Crisis), founded by Ralph McInerny and Michael Novak, while the National Catholic Register is the traditionalist weekly counterpart to the liberal National Catholic Reporter. Ignatius Press, founded by Joseph Fessio, S.J., is the largest provider of books, Bibles, DVDs, and audio recordings for the conservative church. The most unique and visible element of the conservative church is the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), founded by a charismatic nun, Mother Angelica and directly supported by its viewers. EWTN broadcasts 24/7 and produces most of its programming from Irondale, Alabama.
The Catholic Church in America shares certain religious and cultural tendencies with Protestantism in its multifarious forms. One such shared tendency is with evangelical and tradition-minded Protestants who have brought great attention to the need for the restoration of traditional values and of opposition to the recent secularization of American politics. Conservative Catholics and traditionally minded Protestants have combined forces on social issues including abortion and the sexualization of the media, and traditional Christians of all denominations enthusiastically received Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ.22 Protestantism and Catholicism, which historically have been at loggerheads, found themselves with a great deal in common in the face of secularization and moral relativism, a coming together that has provided significant support for the conservative movement in America.
The Catholic Church Divided
The dilemma of American Catholicism is that it is in a situation of profound internal conflict between those roughly characterized as left-wing, liberal, or progressive, on one side, and right-wing or conservative on the other. This internal split affects the manner in which doctrines are interpreted and understood, the way that individual Catholics practice their religion, and their opinions about politics, culture, and the role of the Church in the public arena. It is possible, and indeed likely, that a conservative Catholic will disagree with an official statement of the American Catholic bishops expressed through their official organization, the USCCB. On the other hand, it is often the case that a liberal Catholic will disagree with papal pronouncements and policies that contradict the “spirit” of Vatican II, which, albeit indefinite, seemed to promise a greater freedom of opinions and actions within the Church. It is possible for either a liberal or a conservative to be a “good Catholic,” that is, one who attends Mass regularly, is loyal to the Church, and tries to obey the Commandments. However, it is likely that liberals will eschew traditional Catholic practices such as Eucharistic adoration, the Rosary, or devotions to specific saints such as Therese of Lisieux, and will support the ordination of women to the priesthood. The liberal mindset tends to make the Catholic religion rest on its concern for the poor and on social activism while downplaying traditional Catholic expressions of the evils of sin and the need for reparation. In Catholic Masses today, it is usual that almost all the congregants receive Communion even as very few Catholics go to confession any more, an anomalous situation that is more likely the result of “feel good” apologetics within the Church than a decisive increase in the holiness of most Catholics. The conservative mindset remains alive to the existence of evil in the world and the necessity to combat it and is particularly energized by the presence of abortion, which it sees as a scandalous fault of contemporary American society. Conservative Catholics will participate in traditional devotions and may look favorably upon the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.
In the 1980s Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago proposed a “seamless garment” solution to the divisions between the liberal and conservative trends in the Church. Bernardin’s approach sought to combine the energy of the anti-abortion movement, which characterizes the conservative church, and apply it to the broader social concerns of the liberal church. Thus poverty, prejudice, the environment, and inequities in housing and education would be included as “life” issues with the hope that the same degree of spontaneous intensity that the Catholic faithful bring to the abortion issue would be applied to these social issues. The seamless garment appeal did not take hold, although the broader social issues are still sometimes referred to in the rhetoric of the institutional Church as “life issues.” The main reason for its failure seems to be not so much resistance to social justice among conservative Catholics but a result of their greater concern about abortion. The ferocious defense of abortion rights in secular culture reflects an overall sensibility that desacralizes human life and has been expanded to harvesting embryonic stem cells, cloning, euthanasia, and assisted suicide. Allied movements include the legalization of homosexual marriage and a sexualization of the popular culture so extensive that even secular critics are presently noticing and condemning it. The power of these aggressively secular and immoral movements within American society presents a clear and present danger according to Catholic morality, and shocks the conscience of Catholics (and many others) more than inequalities in housing and income. The accusation is often made that Catholics today are “cafeteria Catholics,” accepting those practices and doctrines of the Church of which they personally approve and neglecting or ignoring those they don’t. This claim might seem to be evenhandedly applied to both the liberal and conservative positions within the Church, the liberals ignoring the Church on abortion, sexual morality, and authority, the conservatives ignoring the Church on poverty, social justice, and capital punishment. However, the claim more clearly applies to the liberal positions, since the immorality of abortion is a matter of clear definition, as are homosexual acts and living together without benefit of sacramental marriage, while both doctrinally and historically, the Catholic Church defended the authority of bishops and the pope. On the other hand, the conservative position on poverty does not deny the central mission of Christians to help the poor but questions how it is to be done. Welfare-state solutions to poverty, health concerns, and social inequalities meet with sharp conservative opposition, which gives a false impression that conservatives are indifferent to suffering. Conservatives will depend on free-market solutions for systemic problems in the economy and emphasize the personal obligation to help the poor we meet and among whom we live, rather than supporting massive government programs whose inefficiency and wastefulness is notorious. (Dorothy Day, a heroine of liberal Catholicism, opposed the government welfare programs of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.) Regarding the death penalty, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, imposition of the penalty is allowable, although significant criteria must be met if the death penalty is to be licitly administered.
Through the USCCB and the allied Campaign for Human Development, the institutional Church promotes what amounts to a left-wing agenda and often exerts its considerable influence on behalf of liberal governmental programs. This approach makes an appeal to liberal elites who often tout their own sense of compassion for the poverty-stricken and alienated, but in America, as in developed nations worldwide, the liberal elites tend to be explicitly secular to the point of excluding religion from their purview.28 While secular liberals may accept the help of the Church in lobbying for the extension of food stamps or loosened immigration standards, those same elites promote gay marriage, abortion, and embryonic stem-cell research just as strongly, if not more. Thus any appeal to secular liberal elites has a downside since it legitimizes positions that the Church finds immoral, even as the liberal church refuses to appeal to the business, financial, or entrepreneurial communities for support.
Embracing the Church’s “Inner Conservatism”
The conflict between liberals and conservatives within the Church results in mixed messages going out from its bishops, so that the majority of Catholics in the last presidential election voted for Barack Obama even though he is a firm supporter of abortion rights. One of the causes of the Catholic majority vote for Obama was a document put out by the bishops called “Conscience and Your Vote,” which encouraged Catholic voters to consider candidates’ positions on topics other than abortion in coming to a decision on their vote. The document followed a common liberal argument within the Church that abortion need not be the decisive issue in voting for a political candidate. The dilemma for the bishops and Catholic liberals is that political candidates who are “pro-life” are almost always conservative on such issues as welfare, housing, immigration, the death penalty, and war, so that making abortion the decisive issue effectively results in the institutional Church’s supporting Republican candidates.
Another confl ict between the Church’s liberal and conservative impulses arises from the Campaign for Human Development, the Church’s official arm supporting Saul Alinsky-style direct action to offset social injustice. The annual appeal made at Sunday Masses nationwide to support the CHD met with more-than-usual resistance this year because of the revelation that CHD had been contributing monies to ACORN, which has recently been accused of engaging in systematic voter fraud. One local pastor distributed the self-exonerating statement put out by Bishop Morin regarding relations between the CHD and ACORN, but added to it his own statement that left it to the consciences of individual members of his congregation whether or not to contribute to the annual collection for the CHD.
The exception to the left-wing agenda of the USCCB are the issues involving sex and reproduction, but in the present context this is not merely a broad exception to the Church’s liberalism; it is a disqualifying exception. No matter how progressive it may be on issues such as poverty and immigration, the Church’s opposition to abortion, gay marriage, cloning, embryonic stem-cell research, in-vitro fertilization, and euthanasia, and its refusal to ordain women to the priesthood mean inevitably that in the context of secular American culture, the Catholic Church will not be seen as progressive. On the contrary, the Church continues to be seen as a retrograde force by progressively inclined people, including those within the Church.
Culturally, the Church continues to be seen as a bulwark of social conservatism, in its doctrines and practices the last institutional resistance to moral relativism and absolute personal freedom within American culture. This evokes tremendous opposition amounting to a new form of American anti-Catholicism. The original source of American anti-Catholicism was Protestant doctrine and anti-immigrant sentiment, most of which has been overcome as the general Catholic population has become integrated into American society. The new form of anti-Catholicism is based on the Church’s doctrines regarding sex and reproduction, as well as its explicit declaration that an objective moral code based on divine inspiration exists.31 The new anti-Catholicism is ideological and is based on the progressive belief in personal autonomy completely free from any social connectedness and opposition to any putative authority seeking to impose social control or promote a public moral standard. Catholic attempts to influence the culture with reference to an objective moral order have been seriously undercut by the recent pedophilia scandal. But the conflict remains, and the Church’s explicitly progressive policies promoted by USCCB lobbying and CHD agitation do not and almost certainly cannot overcome the implied conservatism of its actions on behalf of the truth of divinely inspired moral teaching. In effect the Catholic Church today in America is politically liberal but culturally conservative. But in the context of the increasing secularization of American culture, it is its cultural conservatism that will increasingly characterize the countercultural position of the Catholic Church in America.
Those currently called “conservative” within the Church often started out as defenders of the Church’s traditional practices and its doctrines whose motive was not to promulgate a conservative political philosophy within the Church. But like “neocons” in the political arena they often find themselves called “conservative” and relegated to an outer darkness by liberals within the Church, although their center of gravity lies in religious rather than political or economic concerns. (A well-known Franciscan preacher active in the pro-life movement has felt compelled to say, “We are not conservatives.”) Nonetheless, on the issues of abortion, church authority, and promotion of traditional devotions, the aims of these religious traditionalists coincide with the conservative mindset. But a crisis is coming and in fact has arrived, and as a result the Catholic Church in America will have to embrace her inner conservatism, even though this will strike many Catholics as unseemly. The Church will be better off, however, by dropping its attempt to appeal to liberals and extending a more benign attitude to those peculiarly American traditions of entrepreneurialism, personal independence, dislike of big government, and the middle-class values of hard work and toleration that have enabled Catholics in America to achieve an unparalleled degree of integration and success— and which provide the universal Catholic Church with a model of how best to meet the new conditions of postmodernity.
Source American Conservatism and the Catholic Church https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/american-conservatism-and-the-catholic-church/

I feel kind of dumb posting this because the answer may seem obvious, but it may make more sense as you read on.
*Here is my short story:\*
24/M and a recent USMC Officer candidate who spent all of last year trying to get in. I planned to do my 4, end my commission, and use the GI Bill to go back to school. I was selected to leave in May, but I had a minor health incursion a month prior. I was rescheduled to leave in September and in August and !WHAM! Two weeks before leaving again, I got a letter from the Navy requesting documents for that same medical event. I submitted more documents and it turned into a circular investigation. After my recruiter poorly represented the matter in a personal statement, and after their review, I was medically disqualified around September.
*Where I am now\*
I have begun the same process with the Army and have the option of doing the boards in June. That puts me leaving this summer or fall if selected. However, I am not as excited about the military as I was one was before. Sometimes I even get a level of anxiety or wake up in the middle of the night with negative thoughts regarding a commission. I think this has to do with my current career outcomes or some of the unknown.
I have unfortunately been unemployed in a small city in Missouri with a political science degree; I am in the interview process for working at a lobbyist group in the capitol. No guarantees of outcomes or employment.
*Pros and Cons of leaving for the Army*:
Pros

• I will have employment
• I will still be able to use the GI Bill for law school
• I will save a boatload of cash as I currently have no debt
• I will be able to collect more work experience, connections, and future LORs
• This experience may even help me get into a better school, internships, or initial employment when competing against peers with similar academic metrics.
• I will come into law school as a more mature and seasoned person

Cons

• I am not as enthusiastic as I used to be
• I may be in a branch (top 3 are MI, MP, and Armor) where I will rarely apply learned skills, besides leadership, management, intelligence collection, etc.
• I will graduate from law school when I am older at 31/32.
• Other random uncertainties or dangers

*Pros and Cons of applying to law school*:
Pros

• I will finish law school earlier
• I will still have the opportunity to serve in the military in some capacity as a JAG officer
• There will be other doors that open, as I have connections in the Missouri government and a regional firm.

Cons

• I will not have access to the GI Bill
• I may need to consider new strategies to afford a JD.
• I may not have the same educational experience or outcomes as compared to joining the military beforehand

*Overall\*
- I am certainly considering JAG, but I would not have the same opportunity to use the GI Bill.
- Student loan repayments are possible with JAG. If selected, up to 1/3 of $65K or whichever comes first.
- I have not taken the LSAT yet but I am studying to take it. My first diagnostic was around 145/150.
- I am considering the University of Missouri or at least schools that would allow me to practice in the region; I am interested in government relations, prosecution, and military law.

Q: Will players be able to buy maps, or buy things within maps using Vbucks?

We know it's not in the immediate future. It's not what's needed, and it's not what players want right now. The current system rewards maps on being good, not having something behind a paywall.

Q: What are your thoughts on memory limits in Creative?

The larger the download time is, the more likely people will give up on installing the map, or UEFN entirely. Your squad shouldn't feel like playing a map is an investment. We might move the limit a little bit until Creators think that we are the limit. And we can improve the tech. There are technical solutions

Q: I saw an interesting timeline on your Verse live stream, where you showed that Verse is looking to support larger battle royales and larger scale MMO-type games. Is this something you're still striving to achieve?

Yeah, absolutely. The whole point of this excersise is to go way beyond what Epic could do with normal Battle royale. To let creators make all the major genres, and invent new ones too. It's a lot of work building the programming interfaces to do. Every month there will be new genres of game that are possible to come out for the first time. We wish we could build it faster. We're trying to build good systems.
The important thing was to get out to open beta. Things will be coming out as they are available. Everything we do, like Metahumans, can come into Fortnite. That's my biggest passion right now. We are this close to Metahumans in Fortnite

Q: Could there be a world, where players who don't have Fortnite installed, can access an experience just like that by just installing the requirements for that specific experience.

We are in the process of slimming down the base game of Fortnite to the bare minimum, and making Battle Royale a download. That's how it has to work.

Q: Discovery will be the pushing algorithm for Fortnite users to find maps. Do you think there will ever be a discovery page that shows player counts to the public?

Yes, I firmly believe that we need to show more about each island. The first trials of that will happen in less then a week. What needs to happen to discover? What do you want to play. Not what Epic wants you to play. We want people to play what they want to play. The discover team is being seperated from everyone else, they will control the interface. We spent the last month trying to weed out the clickbait maps. We don't want a clickbaity place.
We need to give players more tools to let players find what they want. Tools that are not creepy. Common sense tools.

Q: Without discovery, you need to have a map code to play an experience, it needs something like a search, where you can look up a building team, or a map. Is that something you think is powerful in discovery

It's kind of sadness that we don't have a search. We're working on it. We're putting a lot of thought on how to restructure it. Another way people will discover Fortnite content is Tik Tok or Twitter or Youtube, clicking on a clickable link, if a player finds a map on their phone. It should be one click to pull it up on their console. Really make it incredibly easy to get into experiences.
Creator pages were meant to go live yesterday, we had a last minute issue. There will be a page both in browser, and in the game for a creator, that they can customize the background, the islands they want to show.

Q: I'm a huge fan of Fortnite BR, I dream of scenarios to create a BR experience that is on the same layer or higher than Fortnite. That is a big goal with UEFN, to push out live events to have features to play solos, duos, squads. Do you see a world where a BR spawns in the Fortnite universe that can stand out on its own

Yes, of course, the barriers to that are technical, right now there's this problem where BR is this massive pile of C++ code we wrote, it needs to be seperate, seperately download, to reduce the installation size of the experience, where you can stream content as your going around. There's a lot of features in the works, that aren't even set to come out in the next year. You're also going to see that if you want substancial differences, you need lots of new programming interfaces that we're just starting to build, big gameplay mechanics are not yet exposed to Verse.
As we fill this out more and more genres will begin to be possible. We see us in a 3 year process of rewriting all of the code in BR in verse using the interfaces we're building in Verse. We're transforming all of Fortnite to this project that Epic made to a whole ecosystem. This is just the beginning of that, there's a lot more coming. It's taking hundreds of folks at Epic. It ringed out to everyone at Epic. The sequencer team suddenly needed to care about Fortnite, it just cascaded out. That's what it takes. It's one hell of an undertaking. A big accomplishment is not taking down BR to implement 2.0

Q: What was your response to seeing that the Chapter 1 map being remade?

It's complicated, cause that's our map. We kinda feel personal about that. We've been thinking about that. The rule can't be that you rebuild content from Epic as your own and take the money from it. In general the rule is you can't use someone elses work, you can't rebuild Call of Duty maps. How can we support the community without making a president that collapses, that's a weird buisness model.
Can you make an Unreal Tournament map? The oppurtunity here is to make IP, for you and every other creator to make things you own. Rebuilding Zelda seems obvious, but that's Nintendo's property. We have to observe copyright laws, the success people see in Fortnite is when they create their own thing, not when they recreate our thing.

Q: Do you have an end goal with BR, or is that going on forever. Or do you not look that far in the future?

The BR team doesn't tell us this, we don't know. It's a magical world. We love what the team's done.
The BR team would laugh, why would this end? It's a sandbox that has infinite amount of toys.
That's why the creator economy makes sense, they should focus on themselves, and let the best island win.

Q: Do you envision a world where creators can have their own cosmetic upgrades, their own Vbuck purchases

Having a great experience is first. It might make sense in some scenarios, like concerts, wouldn't it be great if a music group could make their own concert, and make their own money.
We don't want the greediest and worst apps win, in mobile gaming right now, the top rated games are really greedy because Apple and Google built it that way. The winners are the worst, players are force fed games with bad commercial values.
We are really cognisant of not letting this happen. We don't want to make the Fortnite ecosystem P2W.

Q: Are you guys trying to get as many people into Fortnite through the mobile space. So many people play Roblox through mobile and tablet.

Both Apple and Google kicked us out, we are fighting them. It stinks how they're trying to maintain this buisness model. We need to return the industry to it's roots. Legislation is being discussed. It does suck, Apple and Google are trying to crush Fortnite. Three years and we haven't achieved success. The fact we are this big without mobile is incredible. We want mobile, we don't need it.

Q: Are there any features that aren't in UEFN, that you are excited about, that you're allowed to talk about?

We can talk about everything. Lots of things are missing, more work is needed to ensure security. Some of UE5 dates back to code I wrote in 1995 for UE1. You touch any wire, everything explodes. UEFN's job is to make that safe.
What are we working on? Theming of the UI, the creature module, that's making custom NPCs, control rig, to make NPCs or enemies. The AI module is very close, it won't be the deepest, but it'll be live.

Q: What is your favorite Fortnite skin?

Saxx: I use Moon Knight, because my son didn't get it.
Sweeney: I have an outfit that perfectly matches me. I'm a Jellie main. Does it make sense for me to be walking around the map as a military dude as the CEO of Epic?

SAXX (To Lachlan, Ali-A, and Sypher): What do you wish we said yesterday?

Where first person is on in the timeline, because there was this method of getting it, a method that existed.

SAXX: It turns out the camera needs to be refactored, it's something we have to redo, we're working on first person it this year. We're not ready for it it
Sweeney: Where do you see streaming, is it more specialized with 2.0?

I think so, more specialized communites, specialization will come, hopefully Creators who can't crack into BR can crack into a horror genre or something new.
Once we get percistence we can get that, with Youtube and Twitch streaming. New groups will come in.

​

Persistence is on the highest priority, and XP

Q (Ali A): Would you add us on Fortnite as a friend?

Yes, absolutely, I play a lot.
Six people know who I (Tim Sweeney) am.

As background, I’m working on my PhD at a very elite university with very competitive admission requirements. Unsurprisingly, there is a continuing problem that underrepresented minorities remain very underrepresented. For example, AFAIK, there are only 2 black people in the entire program, which has 250 students. To help expand the number of underrepresented minorities, the school set up some fellowships designed to attract more of these students. But, to me, it seems like almost most of these go to people they’re not intended to help.
Like, I know one person in my cohort who is on a diversity fellowship because he applied as an underrepresented minority because he’s 1/4th white hispanic. I mean, that could probably be fine with me if being 1/4 white hispanic affected his life, but he doesn’t culturally identify with it even a little bit, and both of his parents are partners at multibillion-dollar law firms, so it’s not like he was deprived of opportunity.
I know another student who applied for, received, and accepted a diversity fellowship at another highly prestigious/competitive school. Because I have no shame, I asked what it was for, and he said it was because he’s African American… and when I was initially clearly confused, he clarified that he’s 1/8th black. But again, wealthy background, isn’t racially profiled in daily life, grew up in a white community, went to private school…
However, when I mentioned this as insane behind closed doors with some friends (from another program, not driving wedges between people), I was more-or-less told it’s racist to not accept how people self-identify. But, how is it not racist to, IMO, steal resources that were intended to help disadvantaged people that you at-best minimally resemble? I mean, I’m 1/64th black and my family can trace our ancestry back to slaves in the south, yet I would never apply for a diversity scholarship… because I’m white…. and I’m privileged
What am I missing?

Law & Crime -
‘Absolutely hell no’: Lawyer for Alex Murdaugh’s financial victims vows to fight efforts to use ‘untainted’ money to fund murder appeal (msn.com)
A lawyer for victims of the wide-reaching financial crimes of Alex Murdaugh has vowed to oppose an effort by the disgraced attorney to use personal funds to cover the costs of appealing his murder conviction.
Murdaugh, once a scion of the South Carolina legal community, was convicted earlier this month of the double murder of his wife, Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh, and their youngest son, Paul Murdaugh.
But murder was not his only crime.
According to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office — which has issued 19 different indictments — Murdaugh stole at least $8.7 million from his clients over the years.
Justin Bamberg, a lawyer based in the city of Bamberg, South Carolina, represents the survivors of HaKeem Pinckney, who died after a being paralyzed in a horrific car wreck, and Blondell Gary, who was also killed in a vehicle accident. Murdaugh had previously represented their respective estates in wrongful death and negligence lawsuits, apparently garnering hundreds of thousands of dollars ostensibly on behalf of his clients.
Murdaugh, however, kept the money for himself.
- Related Coverage -
On Tuesday, attorneys for Murdaugh filed a motion in the wrongful death case brought by Renee Beach, whose 19-year-old daughter, Mallory Beach, was killed when a boat piloted by Paul Murdaugh slammed into a bridge piling at around 2:00 a.m. in February 2019. The parties settled earlier this year.
According to the “motion for payment of attorneys’ fees and cost from untainted funds,” Murdaugh is asking for $160,000 to be transferred from a dedicated “Receivers” account to Murdaugh’s lawyers. The Receivers account is funded by what remains of Murdaugh’s liquidated 401(k) retirement account: some $425,000 is left in the account after $600,000 was initially withdrawn to cover Murdaugh’s defense at his murder trial, according to the court filing.
The motion says that Murdaugh’s funds from the retirement account have been “exhausted,” and that he has a Sixth Amendment right to hire the lawyer he wants to represent him on appeal, and is asking that the money be released.
“A defendant’s right to counsel of his choice, whom the defendant can afford to hire with ‘innocent’ property, is a fundamental constitutional right,” the motion says, appearing to offer little more than the fact that the funds are from Murdaugh’s retirement account as proof that the property is “innocent.” Murdaugh’s lawyer also implies that additional legitimate funds have been put into the “Receivers” account, although the brief is thin on details.
“These funds are legitimate, untainted funds,” the motion says. “Furthermore, the undersigned is informed and believes that there are additional funds that have been deposited into the Receivers’ escrow account that do not represent the proceeds from illegal activities.”
The motion also argues that requiring Murdaugh to rely on a public defender for his appeal would further weigh down a system that is already overwhelmed with trying to assist “truly indigent” clients.
Bamberg doesn’t buy it.
“Alex Murdaugh should NOT be entitled to deprive his financial victims of the limited amount of funds available — not a single penny, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or anything else of value — so he can continue trying to get or keep himself out of prison,” Bamberg wrote in a note posted to Twitter on Wednesday.
According to Bamberg, Murdaugh’s money cannot be separated from his criminality.
“None of Alex’s money is ‘untainted’ in my opinion based on his admissions during his murder trial,” Bamberg wrote.
Bamberg says that there is no way Murdaugh’s retirement funds are “legitimate” because “an obvious contributing factor to his ability to even put that kind of money away over the course of his legal career was the simple fact he was actively stealing MILLIONS from clients and using that stolen money to pay for stuff he desired instead of relying solely on any legitimately earned income[.]”
Bamberg notes that Murdaugh had years to compile his ill-gotten gains, including from funds that were supposed to go to his clients.
“He was paid a six-figure salary by his former law firm, earned credit for legal fees the firm received on cases that he stole money on, got credit for those fees and in turn, he received an annual bonus on those fees despite his unconscionable lying, backstabbing, and cheating his clients out of money these people LITERALLY cried, bled, had surgery or suffered through a funeral to get,” Bamberg said. “Absolutely hell no. That’s not right.”
Bamberg said that Murdaugh should be required to “apply for a public defender just like ANYBODY ELSE WITH NO REAL MONEY FOR A LAWYER is forced to do EVERY SINGLE DAY in this world — including most of the people prosecuted by his own family when they were Solicitor over the last 100 years.”
Mark Tinsley, who represents Beach, told Law&Crime that the court will ultimately decide what happens with the money, but indicated that the transfer of funds is beyond what was originally agreed.
“When Alex’s lawyers asked us to agree to the liquidation of the 401k account, it was based on the offer of a certain sum coming back into the receiver account fund for the victims,” Tinsley said in an email. “They knew or should have known how much their costs were going to be. The fact that they were wrong or spent unwisely or whatever the case may be is not a material change in circumstances that would warrant the court undoing its prior order or that would warrant setting aside the agreement of the parties as it relates to allowing the funds from the 401k to be received by Alex’s counsel.”
Bamberg did not immediately respond to Law&Crime’s request as to when he expects to file his objection.
Following his conviction, Murdaugh was ordered to serve two consecutive life sentences by Judge Clifton Newman, who noted that the lawyer-turned-convicted-murderer now faces the same fate as those who he had previously prosecuted.
Murdaugh is appealing the conviction.