Intrepid Programmer

I finally completed Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions, so it’s time for a review.

Superstar Saga proper

This is not going to be a traditional review, given that this part is a remake of the 2003 game, which has already been extensively reviewed. So it is the same as the classic? I am not going to answer that question, as it is fraught with peril; rather, depending on your situation I am going to give you the elements in order for you to decide whether to play it.

If you played the original and enjoyed it: then get and play this remake, it has everything you liked from the original while doing away with some annoyances; you never know, you might notice things you missed the first time round.

That’s nice and all, buster, but these days I don’t have the same kind of time I used to have 15 years ago: that is a legitimate concern: the game will take on the order of 20 hours to complete, so is it worth it? Compared to the original, there are some additions, the main three of which is that you will get to execute advanced bros. actions (there were advanced bros. actions in the original, but they were very hard to execute properly, nigh impossible to discover, and absolutely impossible to train for at your leisure), the music box, with both the original and the remade versions Of Yoko Shimomura’s excellent themes, and Bowser’s Minions, whose review will follow shortly; note that you can start playing Bowser’s Minions early in Mario and Luigi’s quest, but you must complete the main game before you can get to the final battle of Bowser’s Minions. It’s up to you to decide whether this is something you want to spend money and hours for.

If you played the original but had trouble with it: you should play or at least try out this remake, which has done away with a number of annoyances in the original, so you may find it enjoyable this time. Notably, controls are much easier to understand, there are now heart blocks that will restore all life and flower points for free all over the overworld, there is a minimap so it is much harder to get lost now, the occasional solo fights are no longer absurdly hard, you can flee any time for free anyway, bros. moves are easier to execute and you can train for them in a special mode, you can keep the hammer held high for as long as you need in a fight, etc.

If you never played the original: you should read a review of the original (which are still easily available thanks to the Internet), keeping in mind if necessary some of the changes I mentioned, to help you decide whether to play it; as far as I am concerned, it is a classic that everyone should play.

While I cannot claim completeness, I have listed the changes I noticed from the original under the cut.

Bowser’s Minions

Bowser’s minions is a completely different game of… let’s just say squad combat; the closest reference I have for this is Heroes of Might and Magic, complete with a hero and its spells (here called a captain and its actions, respectively) and strategic triangle: flying beats melee which beats ranged which beats flying. Except here the strategic triangle is backwards from HoMM, which takes some getting used to (don’t worry about this if you’ve never played HoMM).

Another specificity is that not only the battle is real-time, but it will happen without needing your input in any way: you’re almost reduced to a spectator… almost, because you can intervene by helping your minions accomplish their special abilities (a special attack innate to your minion) to maximum effectiveness, and by having the captain perform one of his actions (i.e. spells). The latter actions use captain points (i.e. mana), and that is where you have the most strategic input, as you often have to fight multiple squads in sequence, and while your troops are entirely healed between two enemy squads, your captain will only recover a limited number of captain points, so use them wisely and to maximum effect.

Beyond that, since the minions will fight even without your input, the other main strategic input is in the composition of your squad, or rather squads, as you may need a different makeup depending of what you will fight (remember the strategic triangle). You can recruit minions of a given type by going back to a fight where they are in play (opposite you, obviously), then you can train them by having them, guess what, fight, until they are ready for the fight you prepared them for. There are interesting interactions, documented in the description for the minions in question, beyond even the strategic triangle: for instance, shy guys will obliterate lakitus; however, not all such interactions turn out to be worth taking advantage of. You have numerous other possibilities for preparing your squad prior to a battle, such as feeding your minions bonuses (either experience or to a specific skill), or selecting the captain actions he will have available, or trying to take advantage of a squad bonus.

I really wish there was more possibility for control, especially when minions get matched to go head to head with one another. You can influence this by reordering the minions in your squad, but only in a minor way, as melee will always get matched first, followed by flying (ranged don’t get matched except if a flying or melee in front of them is still unmatched), so you can only influence matching by reordering within these groups. And even then, you’d better predict well as you can’t really know the makeup in front of you before you’re already engaged in battle… not to mention you can’t change the ordering in-between two enemy squads in the same sequence, so efforts to influence matching by reordering minions are usually pointless. I also wish there were more captain actions available: some of the actions you can only get at random from the random bonus action would be very useful to invoke consistently (e.g. damaging all of the enemy’s melee troops).

Still, I appreciate the fact they are taking a bold stance with an interaction paradigm where it’s the choices you make in preparation that matter most: you can’t save your way by micromanagement like some sort of overbearing boss. The input you do have in combat is just enough to keep you an attentive spectator instead of growing bored watching a fight go on autopilot. And even with the limited interaction it does have good strategic depth, both with squad composition and with captain points management.

The story is nothing to write home about, in particular it does not fit especially well with the main story (even though it is supposed to). I will admit, however, that the creators have not lost any of the wit Superstar Saga is famous for.

My tips:

When fighting mixed squads that do not feature a given group (e.g. no flying), then go all in with a squad only composed of units weak against the missing type.

However, when fighting squads featuring all groups, then you will have to field a balanced squad. My advice: don’t hesitate to put 3 or even 4 ranged minions for best firepower, but make sure they have good defense so that, when they get matched with a melee troop, they can resist a bit until another minion can come to their rescue.

Spend captain points wisely. For instance, don’t bother blocking enemy special attacks when it is clear the enemy is in a losing position (and typically you’ve already lost at least one guy so it is no longer possible to aim for the +10% experience bonus). Remember, you don’t recharge captain points fully between successive squads.

Special attacks pretty much ignore the strategic triangle (e.g. flying minions will often dodge melee attacks, but they can’t dodge special attacks from the same melee minions), so the best moment to use captain points is for boosting the morale when facing a squad your minions are somewhat weak against (e.g. an all melee squad when you have more ranged than flying in yours).

However, in case you are completely weak (e.g. you face an all-ranged squad with your all-flying squad), then only the captain duel action, exclusive to captain Goomba, can possibly save your butt… better hope you’re not facing a flying captain.

The beam special attack of giant boos is very dangerous, especially to the opposite captain: you can easily lose from them only, with your captain having otherwise never been hit. When you are facing one, or worse, multiple giant boos, save your captain points exclusively to blocking the special attacks from these giant boos and no other enemy.

I did previously rave on Princeless, the series Raven was spun off of, and Raven carries similar themes, but is different in some ways. It has pretty much everything I love from Princeless: a story of emancipation from both prisons and clichés, deliberate pacing that makes the eventual outcomes more meaningful, careful world building that keeps me curious about what else there is to discover in this world while avoiding overload, etc.

But while Adrienne from Princeless only has Bedelia and their dragon Sparky to travel with, Raven has adventures with, first, a full officier roster: Ximena, the navigator, Jayla, the explosives expert, Katie, the first mate, and Sunshine, the… well, I am not sure of her exact crew position, but she sure can climb the ropes. And second, a crew roster full of interesting characters, all of which have names, distinctive characteristics, specific aspirations, etc.

And all these women (because they are all women) interact a lot (romantically… or not), and that is what makes this setting most different from Adrienne’s quest: while Adrienne explores new places and meets new people, on the other hand as Raven’s ship travels the seas we get to explore this crew in hardships and in successes, we share their ups and downs. The spotlight switches seamlessly from character to character, remaining enough each time to allow us to know them while leaving none of them in the shadows.

And of course, as with any proper pirate story, there are boardings, sword fights, rescues at sea, storms, etc.

The singular “they”. That is, using “they” to designate a single person that may not be accurately designed by either “he” or “she”. That may be because the speaker does not know enough about the person to know which would be the “right” one, but also in some cases because the person does not feel adequately described by either, and asked to be designated that way.

Not everyone is on board with “they” being used that way; it is something I can understand because at first, when trying to do so, it felt awkward and weird. It still does, in a way, but less so if you’ve practiced already by applying it to, say, Apple. As in, Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone, the Mac (remember that?), the iPad, etc.

I don’t know exactly why, when I started writing about Apple and the tech industry, I adopted the convention of using they (or them or their) whenever I needed a pronoun for Apple the company.

(That is not exclusive to Apple, by the way, you could say the same of Microsoft or Google, but for most other companies you can pin down their decisions and others to a particular individual who holds responsibility for that division… or to the person in the byline of their announcement. On the other hand, there is hardly a byline on Apple, say, blog posts, and the company is not organized around divisions; we often have no choice but to attribute responsibility to… Apple as a whole.)

It may have been by osmosis from the other Apple beat writers and bloggers out there, but whatever the reason, using “they” felt the least awkward solution. Using “it”? No way, it would have been too dehumanizing to the many people who constitute Apple. Repeating “Apple” each time? Heck no, way too inelegant. Rotating substitutes such as “the Cupertino-based company”, “the maker of the iPhone”? That quickly grows tiresome to read. Using “he”? Too singular for the multitudes who make up Apple, in particular that pronoun could have been taken to refer to a particular person mentioned elsewhere instead, because it is just too much of a stretch to see Apple as a “he” (or “she” for that matter).

I think that was the key point: Apple is fundamentally plural, and should be designated as such. But even plural, when designating the company as “Apple” you can’t help but conjugate the verbs in their singular form: “Apple have released iOS 11” just does not work. So you end up having to conjugate your verbs differently depending on how you refer to Apple, because “Apple has done it again, they have released iOS 11” is undoubtably correct… Awkward, yes, to have your verbs vary in form for the same subject, but still less awkward than the alternatives.

(and that even includes the editing pass, when you end up having to modify the verbs whenever you replace “Apple” with “they”. Awkward, I say.)

I’ve been replaying the original in preparation, and couldn’t help but notice a few shortcomings that I hope they have fixed for this edition:

I hope there is a possibility to retrain for bros. moves (as in e.g. Bowser’s Inside Story): they are hard to come back to if for some reason you stop playing for a month or two.

Speaking of which, how about making the “advanced” versions more discoverable? What I though was that the conversation between the bros simply made the existing sequence hit harder; it is only when I had to resume the game after a pause, and so had to revert the difficulty “1”, that I discovered the prompts for the alternative sequences, which I never suspected before! And I completed the game once without suspecting anything!

The part at the beginning where you have to survive in autonomy without any mushroom store (much less any sort of inn), relying only on mushrooms earned in combat, is a bit too long (up to the arrival to the Beanbean castle!); either it should own up to it by having it be part of the plot so that the player can take it into account, or it should add inns or other kind of life recharges before that point.

A little before getting to Beanbag castle town, it is possible to go to the East too early, and face rations and paratroopas of a suddenly much higher level and thus very dangerous. It may or may not be necessary to close the way, but at least to warn more or less explicitly the zone is switching to much higher danger level.

The French translation was sometimes not up to par. For instance, “Puissance perdue” is not an acceptable translation of “power lost”.

The same way “Danger” is not an acceptable way to convey “super effective”.

The bug where the sound effect of the hand techniques from the brother in the back kept playing after the technique was done will obviously have been corrected, right?

Look, I know Joke’s End is supposed to be a challenge. I get that it is the point to see how well you can manage when the party is split. But to make it so much of a challenge that, if you are unlucky enough to encounter a monter, that leads you to the “Game Over” screen unless you have managed by some miracle to have already memorized the sequences to avoid the various enemy attacks? Sorry, but that feels unfair. Rebalance that.

So a few years ago I was reading Nodwick, specifically the part that was published as comic book floppies. I got to the point where we meet Rowen again, and at this point we don’t know too much about her, except from the earlier encounter that she used to work with Yeagar and he still has a thing for her (foreshadowed here). And as the story went on I kept having reservations: so, first she’s crashing on them (literally!) with an expensive-to-maintain dragon in tow… then it later turns out she has not even been straightforward with them (with flimsy post-hoc rationalization), resulting in the cops coming for them, and I started thinking « what kind of egotist “friend” is that? And she’s getting away with it using Yeagar’s affection for her?! I’m not sure I can buy her being one of the good guys… ».

But there is one thing you have to know about me, is that I am self-analytic, perhaps excessively so: I can’t help but second-guess not only my actions, but also my own thoughts. And so I recognized these strong feelings just as I was having them, and as a result immediately turned to see whether they were justified… which resulted in me recognizing that “And she’s getting away with it…” was quite sexist at the very least so was not justified.

OK, but that still left her dishonesty, theft, and assorted antisocial behaviors… so let us have some perspective; is it that bad in context? How can we know, what are the references here, can we find a comparable situation… and then it hit me.

Yeagar.

From his character page (which appears to be gone at the moment): “It was Yeagar who pioneered many of the techniques in henchman use that adventuring parties use today. Far from relying on hirelings as mere human shields, he demonstrated their employ as projectiles, bait, door-jammers, and flotation devices.” Yeagar who besides that cheats, steals, lies, etc… Look, I’m not going to give you specific references, because the whole of Nodwick from start to finish is a reference for that.

Which meant I was giving Rowen a hard time for behavior I had been tolerating from Yeagar this whole time.

But there was worse.

Because when I thought about it, I could find no source, no source at all that could have led me to this arbitrary difference in treatment. Except for one. That she is female, and Yeagar is not.

I took it as a slap in the face, realizing like many others that it was possible for me to apply sexist double standards without me realizing. I’ve been mindful of it ever since, trying to recognize it everywhere I look, and realizing it in a few more places and reading with interest the story of others who discovered this (e.g. the story of one novel project where the heroine looked unbearable to the editors, until the author changed the first name to be male and suddenly the hero was found to be assertive, etc, and not unbearable at all); but I will never forget how Rowen (and, OK, Aaron Williams) taught me that lesson first.

For U.S. webcomics, their inspiration is clear: most of the initial wave of webcomics found success by using the form and the techniques from newspaper comics. And that was no coincidence, as these techniques are well suited to catching the interest of a passing reader, all the while managing to build a story over the long run. Furthermore, there was important pent-up offer from cartoonists who wanted to be syndicated but just couldn't get one of the coveted spots for strips in newspapers.

But no such direct inspiration is similarly responsible for the form of the majority of French-speaking webcomics. Rather, they seem to have drawn from a number of inspirations to create their own tradition, and while I can't claim to have found the whole picture, I believe one important piece of inspiration were the works of recently departed Marcel Gotlib, and particularly his Rubrique à Brac.

The Rubrique à Brac was published form 1965 to 1970 in the Pilote comics weekly, and later collected in albums; it succeeded the earlier Dingodossiers, for which Gotlib only had drawing responsibilities, and which Goscinny had to stop writing because a certain little Gaul was taking more and more of his time. It was unlike every other BD of the time, and still unlike every other BD since then: rather than have a protagonist, it was a standalone item of two pages every week about whatever the author felt like: it could be about the rabbit, about herding of snails told as a western, about the Apollo 9 mission as recounted by his wife, about common movie clichés, about how he receives young upstarts who want feedback on their comics work, about parodies of fairy tales (Hop-o'-My-Thumb in particular), etc.

Of course, there were a few recurring characters, such as Professor Burp the animal expert, or Bougret the commissioner, and many running gags, in particular that of Isaac Newton coming up with the universal attraction theory regardless of what would fall on his head. And of note is the fact Gotlib would regularly insert himself, sometimes in order to tell an autobio story, but most often as a protagonist in a completely fictional setup.

It was also quite experimental in form as well; while he was constrained by the canvas of the double page, he played as much as he could within that frame, sometimes using the two pages as a single unit (of which I earlier presented a few examples). But most often, it would be simple humour stories that could fit in two pages.

Why, yes, I am a grown man, why do you ask? Since apparently you did not believe me the first time, let me repeat: yes, you should be watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (Netflix link). I must admit I have a complicated relationship with this series (I watch it mostly to waste time while on my elliptical trainer): even accounting for the fact I am far from the target audience and trying to see it with a child’s eye, some episodes are just bafflingly inane. And of course you regularly get the feeling they are belaboring the point because they try to be accessible to four-year-olds in episodes that are great nevertheless.

And then you have these episodes that are sheer brilliance. This is the case for S2:E15: The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. As the story unfolded, I started being worried that it would turn into some dumbly Luddite lesson, but I was interested in seeing where they would go with it. And I was rewarded. Without giving too much away, they managed in this episode to evoke the challenge of scaling in production (you can’t get a more engineering-y problem than that), as well as a related conundrum in engineering ethics… all shown in a way a four-year-old can comprehend. Bravo. Plus, the conclusion that some technologists don’t actually care about the markets they claim to be rescuing, and when they fail just go to the next town over to try and repeat their “operation”, is very current, and one that more than one Silicon Valley tech bro should feel targeted by…

Then S2:E14: The Last Roundup is a great episode, this time not only for the tale being told but also for the great references, whether it is references to western in general, or to this legendary scene. Such references in general can make watching the episodes as a grown-up more palatable, such as the excellent reference to Pepe Le Pew at the beginning of S1:E05: Griffon the Brush Off, or to Hanna & Barbera’s The Wacky Races everywhere in S1:E13: Fall Weather Friends, or to both Rocky-style training montages and to old 50’s training films in S2:E22: Hurricane Fluttershy…

Besides those, S1:E14: Suited For Success contains an excellent lesson on the difficulty to manage customer expectations, especially when the result is revealed (and this whether your trade is haute couture or software development), with the consequence that such a reveal has to be managed. And, as in S2:E03: Lesson Zero (which was also great in that it defocused the series from being centered around Twilight Sparkle only), who among us has not wanted to provoke something when faced with the prospect of writing that the week’s events were: nothing? And I still can’t believe the scathing satire of the fashion world they managed to fit in S1:E20: Green Isn't Your Color, when Twilight Sparkle (helped with Fluttershy) inadvertently comes up with punk fashion modeling.

As I quipped on Twitter, I checked out issue 1 on a whim because Jeremy Whitley couldn’t shut up about it, and while it is quite different from his work on Princeless, I quite appreciated it. In particular, I was pleased not only by its upbeat attitude, but also by how it was made upbeat: this is an upbeat that was previously deconstructed and now is being properly reconstructed, because you can be upbeat nevertheless; and this is nicely echoed by Nadia’s backstory of being an escapee from an assassination school. The same deconstruction/reconstruction can be found when Nadia wants to reconsider the list of smartest characters in the Marvel universe (a simplification in the grand tradition of comics if there ever is one), not just by saying “it’s more complicated”, but by trying to replace it with a list where women who were previously overlooked are included.

I was hooked, and added it to my pull list.

Then, in issue 4, you see an other side of Nadia where she dispatches adversaries in a way that is both efficient, and at the same time you can’t help but feel that there could have been a better way.

But what I admire most with Jeremy Whitley is how fearless he is in the way he goes for the story he wants to tell even in the face of imminent interruption (potential… or not). Other writers would try and go for maximum satisfaction and most problems dealt with in the least amount of issues because they don’t know if they will be able to develop it, so they play it safe and don’t. But Jeremy Whitley deliberately chooses his pace. In fact, even in the last issue with so many loose ends to tie, he manages to find time to address her father’s violence issues.

As for Nadia herself, she (and how she manages to finally prove her parentage — I won’t spoil it) was a bit forcefully inserted into an existing backstory, but this was done with enough care both for what we know of the characters, and for her as a character, that I was ready to go with it: rather than a character for which we are left to wonder, her journey including her state of mind is exposed to us such that we have no trouble considering her a fully fledged character, and not an assemblage of characteristics just meant to take on the helm of the original Wasp in some Avengers team. And Elsa Charretier and the other artists get full credit for helping give life to this character.

I could keep going with the team she assembled, Jarvis, Janet, Matt Murdock, etc., the profiles of real women scientists and engineers included in place of letters, but we’d still be here tomorrow.

I became very interested in the concept after seeing an ad for it in the Paris underground. Back then I would consider anathema to have food delivered to me when I could perform the same service myself, and so I always picked it up myself at the takeout counter. But that ad made me think that it was not always practical, especially after I recently started exercising at home every other day from 6PM to 7PM, so before supper. I worked around it by either reheating day-old pizza, or picking up sushis on the way from work at 5:30 (since those are cold anyway), but that was starting to get monotonous. Having fresh takeout food delivered to me right as I am ready to eat, without carbon emissions, what’s not to like?

I took a look at the site (it was an ad for Take Eat Easy, RIP), and was disappointed to see they did not deliver to my area, at least not yet. I thought I’d try them for next time.

This was fortunate, because before I got to try them, I stumbled on an article (shared on Twitter, if I recall correctly) explaining how these delivery companies (Take It Easy, Deliveroo, Foodora, etc.) employed their delivery people, which is to say they didn’t: to deliver, you had to set yourself up as your own one-body company, then Deliveroo, etc. would contract your “company” for each delivery. That meant, of course, no sick leave, no paid leave, no severance, no guarantee of anything when the delivery company goes under, no retirement plan, etc, etc.

I considered this was completely unsustainable and refused to take part in this system, in practice by never using these services.

Part of a series. previous - next

Today, we will look at the role of the President (officially, the title is that of Président de la République Française) in the French political system.

Among western democracies, France has adopted a semi-presidential system: as in a parliamentary system, the parliament can dismiss the cabinet, but the president has enough power that it is not a straight parliamentary system. If we compare with the United Kingdom:

the first difference is that instead of an hereditary monarch for life, our “republican monarch” is elected for a five-year term, renewable once.

Second, the President does represent France to the outside world, and has a number of prerogatives in foreign affairs, as well as being the commander in chief.

Lastly, even in internal affairs he has a few powers, mostly the ability to dissolve the national assembly and cause a snap election, and to assume “exceptional powers” under article 16 of the Constitution, which pretty much give him both executive and legislative powers (they were only used once, by Charles De Gaulle following a coup attempt by French generals during the Algeria war).

Other than that, the French system works in a way similar to the English one: the executive power belongs to the prime minister, the President does not have veto powers, and in particular the parliament can dismiss the cabinet.

At least, in theory.

If the President and the parliament are of opposite political sides, then it actually performs as theoretically conceived: the president names the leader of the majority parliamentary bloc as the prime minister, and he stays in the background except for foreign affairs while the prime minister actually leads the country: this is called a “cohabitation”. Such a situation has not occurred since 2002, when we decided to sync the presidential and general elections as a way to decrease the odds of such a situation occurring, but it could occur again.

But if the President and the parliament belong to the same political side (as has been the case for the last 15 years), then the way of working is very different in practice, because then the president pretty much acts as the leader of the country.

How so? To begin with, the democratic legitimacy from his election means the President has an important influence on the parliament (as in the U.S. political system). While the majority can be unruly, it is very hard for significant parts of the majority to be seen as going against the President’s will, especially given the threat of a dissolution.

Another manifestation is that the President has powers not written in any statute, with the best illustration being this: in theory only the parliament can dismiss the cabinet; however, whenever the President is elected or reelected, or the parliament is renewed, or the President expresses some displeasure as to how the prime minister is doing his job, the cabinet resigns solely in order to provide the President the opportunity to nominate a different prime minister if he so desires (in fact, he often nominates the same prime minister). In short, the President can change prime ministers at any opportunity. This means prime ministers can be quite volatile: for instance François Mitterrand went through three of them in five years (during his second term), changes unprompted by any parliament majority change (he went through a fourth one for the last two years of his term, after a change of majority); in fact, Nicolas Sarkozy is the only president to have had a single prime minister (François Fillon). Also, no prime minister has ever actually remained in place after a new president was elected.

Judges don’t need me to tell them how to do their job, and lawyers at the ACLU and other organizations that defend civil liberties don’t need any prompting to go and challenge these executive orders.

But for everyone else in the U.S., here is the test you’ve been preparing for your whole life, for which even the generations before you have prepared for on your behalf, as well. If you are a civil servant, resist. Literally: if you get orders to defy a court order, disobey them and observe the court order. It is everyone’s duty to exercise judgment on whether what we are asked to do could be blatantly unconstitutional; “I was just following orders” is not an effective defense. As Learned Hand is often quoted for saying: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it…”.

For people of Washington, D.C.: be ready to take to the streets on short notice if necessary. Remember: the gaslighter-in-chief may have pockets of hardline supporters, but he sits at historically unpopular levels, has mistreated most if not all government agencies, and is not part of the G.O.P. (or Democrat) establishment. The U.S. Constitution is the only reason he can remain in office. If he flouts it, he has forfeited any legitimacy, and needs to be taken away from power sooner rather than later, either through the 25th amendment if possible, or an impeachment procedure. And if that doesn’t happen, remember the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. It may ultimately fall upon you to perform this duty.

That goes, to a lesser extent, for everyone who lives anywhere near a federal court. The gaslighter-in-chief has repeatedly attacked the judiciary: he may now attempt to paint unfavorable decisions as evidence of a conspiracy, and generally discredit the institution. Stand ready to defend them, whichever way they decide, because the moment to moment situation is less important than supporting the continued existence of an independent institution that can be trusted to settle disputes according to the rule of law. Liberty won’t defend itself.

Kudos, in particular, for the inclusiveness of the marches. It must not have been an easy balance, especially for some aspects such as making veiled women feel welcome (e.g. among the official imagery was a veiled woman) given how uneasy some feminisms are with the matter of the veil. And it was not perfect, with a lot of messages centered around uterus and pussies which are a bit cis-normative (though on the other hand, women’s body integrity and reproductive rights were and are targeted by the new president, so it would have been hard not to mention these body parts, either); and if I’m being honest, I have to mention a series of tweets (which I can’t locate at the moment… maybe they’re gone) where a native american protester related her experience, where she did not really feel her cause, of native american rights, was really welcome. But in general, this march was remarkably intersectional (well, as far as this straight cis white man could tell, of course), and you know I’m down with that.

And the turnout, of course, is remarkable, and how in D.C. in particular so many people turned up that the march had to be turned into a rally (pretty much the same thing happened in the January 11th, 2015 Paris demonstration after the terror attacks in France, where so many people turned up that many ended up being stuck without being able to reach the starting point of the march, and remained there for hours before having to go back, myself included).