Moved to liliumlux. Adieu! ✨

Washington, D.C., United States of America

February 13, 2017

President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held their first official meeting today in Washington, D.C. and affirmed their longstanding commitment to close cooperation in addressing both the challenges facing our two countries and problems around the world.

No two countries share deeper or broader relations than Canada and the United States. We are bound together by our history, our values, our economy, our environment, and our resolve to improve the lives of our citizens. Our close relationship and ongoing collaboration allow us to successfully meet any challenges we may face over the coming years, and to build a prosperous future for the people of both countries.

Neighbours in Growing our Economies

We recognize our profound shared economic interests, and will work tirelessly to provide growth and jobs for both countries. Canada is the most important foreign market for thirty-five U.S. States, and more than $2 billion in two-way trade flows across our shared border every day. Millions of American and Canadian middle-class jobs, including in the manufacturing sector, depend on our partnership. We affirm the importance of building on this existing strong foundation for trade and investment and further deepening our relationship, with the common goal of strengthening the middle class.

The United States and Canada also recognize the importance of cooperation to promote economic growth, provide benefits to our consumers and businesses, and advance free and fair trade. We will continue our dialogue on regulatory issues and pursue shared regulatory outcomes that are business-friendly, reduce costs, and increase economic efficiency without compromising health, safety, and environmental standards. We will work together regarding labour mobility in various economic sectors.

Given our shared focus on infrastructure investments, we will encourage opportunities for companies in both countries to create jobs through those investments. In particular, we look forward to the expeditious completion of the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which will serve as a vital economic link between our two countries.

Energy Security and Environment

U.S.-Canada energy and environmental cooperation are inextricably linked, and we commit to further improving our ties in those areas. We have built the world’s largest energy trading relationship. We share the goals of energy security, a robust and secure energy grid, and a strong and resilient energy infrastructure that contributes to energy efficiency in both countries. We collaborate closely on energy innovation, particularly in the clean energy sphere. As the process continues for the Keystone XL pipeline, we remain committed to moving forward on energy infrastructure projects that will create jobs while respecting the environment.

We also look forward to building on our many areas of environmental cooperation, particularly along our border and at the Great Lakes, and we will continue to work together to enhance the quality of our air and water.

Partners in Keeping our Border Secure

We recognize the security of our borders as a top priority. Together, we address security at our shared border and throughout our two countries, while expediting legitimate and vital cross-border trade and travel. We demonstrate daily that security and efficiency go hand-in-hand, and we are building a 21st century border through initiatives such as pre-clearance of people and integrated cross-border law enforcement operations. In addition, our two countries are committed to a coordinated entry-exit information system so that records of land and air entries into one country establish exit records for the other.

Recognizing the success of pre-clearance operations for travellers, we commit to establishing pre-clearance operations for cargo. We intend to accelerate the completion of pre-clearance for additional cities and continue to expand this program. Not only will these efforts enhance efficiency at our shared border, they will also strengthen our shared security. In the spirit of a more efficient and secure border, we will also examine ways to further integrate our border operations, including analysis of the feasibility of co-locating border officials in common processing facilities.

Because we share a strong concern about the increase in opioid-related deaths, our countries will work together on common solutions to protect our people from opioid trafficking.

Given the integrated nature of the infrastructure that supports our intertwined economies, cyber threats to either country can affect the other. We therefore commit to further cooperation to enhance critical infrastructure security, cyber incident management, public awareness, private sector engagement, and capacity building initiatives.

Allies in the World

We are indispensable allies in the defence of North America and other parts of the world, through NATO and other multilateral efforts. Our troops have time and again fought together and sacrificed their lives for our shared values. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) illustrates the strength of our mutual commitment. United States and Canadian forces jointly conduct aerospace warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning in defence of North America. We will work to modernize and broaden our NORAD partnership in these key domains, as well as in cyber and space.

The United States welcomes Canada’s recently announced decision to launch an open and transparent competition to replace its legacy fleet of CF-18 fighter aircraft. The United States also welcomes Canada’s decision to explore the immediate acquisition of 18 new Super Hornet aircraft as an interim capability to supplement the CF-18s until the permanent replacement is ready. Canada appreciates the cooperation of the United States to facilitate these processes.

The United States values Canada’s military contributions, including in the Global Coalition Against Daesh, and in Latvia. Together, we are harnessing all elements of national power to achieve the goal of degrading and destroying Daesh through our military operations to deny it safe havens and to build the capacity of local partners, stop the flow of foreign terrorist fighters into the Middle East region, cut off access to financing and funding, counter the Daesh narrative, and support the stabilization of communities liberated from Daesh.

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders

It is a priority of both countries to ensure equal opportunities for women in the workforce. We are committed to removing barriers to women’s participation in the business community and supporting women as they advance through it. As part of this effort, we are creating a Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders. We expect this initiative to promote the growth of women-owned enterprises and to further contribute to our overall economic growth and competitiveness, as well as the enhanced integration of our economies.

The Way Forward

In the last month, I’ve seen:

People back up so hard from supporting Hillary that they’ve actually ended up defending Trump

People back up so hard from protesters that they support vehicular homicide of protests that inconvenience them

People back up so hard from radical feminism that they give the women’s march crap for littering (???)

This idea that Delphini is just a bad fanfiction (Enoby Dark’ness, har har har) and doesn’t make any sense I really think needs to die. People automatically think of Voldemort having a child as terrible, because they cannot grasp his reasons for having one, and because it has, of course, been a long used fanfiction idea that usually comes out shitty and Mary-Sueish. Well, I think it will do some good to look further than just bringing up peoples awful old fanfictions of how it went down and look further into it.

Let me break this down:

1. Voldemort is still human: Voldemort had become less human in the case that he had become evil enough, that he would split his soul into seven pieces. A Horcrux is the darkest of magic on its own, and it’s already a terrible thing to split a soul once, much less seven times. What makes him so inhuman, is his total disregard for human life and compassion. Voldemort is not literally inhuman, and I think people need to realize this. He’s not a walking snake figure, this is the terrible fanfiction idea that needs to die. J.K has described Voldemort as being “dehumanised.”

Dehumanised: deprived of positive human qualities.

This does not mean he is inhuman in and out of itself. But simply that everything good about humanity, does not exist in Voldemort. This is what makes him so “inhuman” to others. That’s why the most powerful weapon was love, and why in the prophecy, Harry’s great power that Voldemort did not have, was love, one of thestrongest forms of humanity.

It wasn’t that Voldemort wasn’t human and Harry was. They are both human. But Voldemort either lost, or never possessed, any kind of positive moral compass. He never cared about others, he never regarded anyone but himself and was obsessed on how to gain power to rule over people.

“His knowledge remained woefully incomplete, Harry! That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and children’s tales, of love, loyalty and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth that he has never grasped.“

-Albus Dumbledore.

Rowling has constantly hit us over the head with facts like these. Voldemort, as a person, is an evil human being, inside and out. That being said, having sex is neutral in nature. It’s neither positive nor negative. Having a child is also a neutral thing. Plenty regard it as positive, but others as negative. This is because a child being born to someone can either bring happiness or despair. Depending how who birthed them. If you need more evidence of this, look no further than Merope Gaunt.

Rowling once said that had Merope stuck it out and raised him, things could have very well turned out differently. This is what I mean by a child being a neutral card. Voldemort was, for all intents and purposes, a blank slate. Merope lost her will to live after Tom left her, and she ended up dying and leaving her child to an orphanage, rather than raising him herself.

The fact that it could have gone another way, that he was not destined to become Voldemort, but a humans choices led to that path, is enough to tell me that a child’s birth is neutral in terms of humanity. That being said, Voldemort was a product of rape, with one parent having raped and then left him on a doorstep when her dreams didn’t come true, and the other just left him. Harry was born of love with two parents who adored him and died for him. Which again goes to show that sex and a baby is neutral.

But people ignore the fact that in the end, both Dumbledore and Harry refer to Voldemort as “Tom.” Because at the end of it all, that evil man is still human. No matter how fucked up of a human he may be. So this idea, that because he’s “not human”, he wouldn’t have a child, needs to die. Which leads me to my next point.

2. Delphini’s birth is about control and power: Voldemort having a child could just as easily be another means of control. In case anyone didn’t know this, some people try having children as a means to an end. In some cases, to gain control over others. Many women try and get pregnant to bind a man they want, to them. Again, take Merope Gaunt, who likely thought by having Voldemort, even if she took Tom Sr. off the love potion, if it turned out he did not love her after all,  she’d bind him to her via responsibility for their child. Which of course did not happen.

”I believe that Merope, who was deeply in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him bymagical means. I believe that she made the choice to stop giving him the potion. Perhaps, besotted as she was, she had convinced herself that he would by now have fallen in love with her in return. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby’s sake. If so, she was wrong on both counts. He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what become of his son.”

-Albus Dumbledore

Some men try to get a woman pregnant to do the same. Has anyone ever considered that rather than simply just wanting an heir at random which he does not need, Voldemort rewarded Bellatrix with something she would undoubtedly feel blessed by, and continue to ensure she’d stick by his side faithfully? Or even a way to create another powerful follower, which the two would undoubtedly have? After all, he is always looking for an angle that favors him.

Bellatrix having his child would be a ‘godsend’ to her. She’d already been obsessed with the man, desiring closeness to him, speaking to him as if he were a lover, and growing emotional with happiness when she believed him to be praising her.  She’d already proclaimed that any child she had, she’d gladly give them to Voldemort (HBP), so Delphini would have been raised from the beginning to serve Voldemort. Him giving her his child seems plausible for this means to and end to me. If you ask me, it’s incredibly inhuman to use a baby as a weapon to wield, a means to an end and nothing more.

3. Bellatrix’s Reward: This point is actually a follow up to point 2. Some people might be asking why Voldemort would reward Bellatrix. Well, if you read back toward the graveyard scene in Goblet of Fire, you’ll see that Voldemort stated he would reward Bellatrix beyond her wildest dreams for her loyalty. (And Rodolphus, but I digress). Bellatrix has a well known romantic obsession with Voldemort. Rowling had even wrote that Bellatrix was leaning so closely toward Voldemort, because mere words could not describe her desire for closeness. (DH) Bellatrix speaks to him as if he were a lover. (DH) Voldemort may be deprived of positive human qualities, but he’s still got eyes. I’m sure he easily saw how much she adored him, and even though he doesn’t feel it back, this doesn’t mean he wouldn’t use this loyalty as a vital chess piece in his game of control. Perhaps Bellatrix even requested this as her reward, and Voldemort complied.

4. Horcrux vs Intercourse: Voldemort trusted Bellatrix with Hufflepuffs Cup. Something that valuable to him, he was willing to hand over to her. Even if she didn’t know what it was exactly, the fact that he even gave it to her to begin with, speaks volumes. She’d guard it possessively, he knew this. This point I wrote down, because to me, Voldemort for all intents and purposes, trusted her with a piece of his soul. Yet apparently he would be  too ‘inhuman’ to bed her upon request even once. Even though sex isn’t about humanity. Even animals can have sex. It’s a means of procreation, and in some case, to become closer to others. And to others still, a tool to control or exert power over people.

5. Delphini is a tool: Voldemort is an intelligent man. I’m sure he knows that sex can be used as a means of control. He doesn’t have to enjoy it, or even love the other person, in order to engage. I know most people are squicked by the idea that he and Bellatrix actually bumped uglies, but let’s move past that for the moment, because the squick is honestly irrelevant. Bellatrix being able to feel as close as possible to him, in that way is a perfect way to keep her under his thumb. Even if he never had doubts of this ever happening, this could easily ensure it never does. Voldemort actually screamed when Bellatrix died. Obviously, it wasn’t out of love. I think it was because one of his most loyal and powerful weapons had been destroyed. He’d personally trained and built Bellatrix to what she was when she joined him. I believe It’s a reasonable argument that he used her obsession with him as a means to an end, to keep her faithfully by his side, and to gain a powerful tool out of it, and thus Delphini was born.

6. Delphini turning Resistant: Delphini would undoubtedly be raised by Bellatrix and constantly be around other Death Eaters who support and serve Voldemort. She’d be 100% loyal toward Voldemort, having been raised from birth to serve him I’m sure would have become her purpose. But even if she did one day decide to revolt, Voldemort is a megalomanic, he didn’t believe anyone could take him down, and he had seven horcruxes. I’m sure he’d have had no issue killing his child. And Bellatrix, being so fanatically loyal to Voldemort, would likely not bat an eye, because Delphini would be considered a traitor. That’s what makes Delphini’s birth more tragic than anything. She’d have likely been raised a tool, and died one if she ever resisted.