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ausetkmt · 9 months

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Symonette has been a regular at Trump rallies all over Florida and as far away as Arizona. Just last month, he popped up at the U.S. border to appear in a video with disgraced sheriff-turned-pardoned-Senate-candidate Joe Arpaio.

Since Blacks for Trump isn't a registered political organization with the Florida Division of Elections or the Federal Election Commission, there are no public records of any donations funding the group's operations.

It seems unlikely Symonette is fronting the cash for his travel himself because he filed for bankruptcy this past May. In federal court records, he reports that he's unemployed, generates no income, and has $0 in the bank. He also says four banks have staked claims on $2.9 million worth of property around Dade County.

So how is he getting to Arizona and Tampa to stand behind Trump on national TV? Reached on his cell phone, Symonette declined to discuss his group's financing. "You guys are horrible racists," he said. "You are lawbreakers and you're mean... God is going to punish you horribly."

Throughout the '80s, Symonette — then known as Maurice Woodside — was a devoted follower of Yahweh ben Yahweh, a charismatic preacher who wore white robes and called himself the Messiah.

Federal prosecutors later accused Yahweh, whose real name was Hulon Mitchell Jr., of ordering his followers to murder at least 14 people, including random white vagrants who were massacred as an initiation rite.

Symonette was charged in federal court along with Mitchell and 15 other followers in 1990; while the cult's leader was later convicted of 14 charges of murder conspiracy and served nearly two decades in prison, Symonette and six other cult members were acquitted.

In the decades since, Symonette has been charged with crimes including grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane, and threatening a police officer, but has never been convicted. (He does have a pending case on a municipal ordinance charge in Hollywood after police showed up to a really loud party he threw.)

They advertise his website, which is full of conspiracy theories about Cherokees running the U.S. banking system. (Really.)

Symonette was even featured at a Miami Trump rally that prosecutors later alleged had been funded by Russian nationals looking to disrupt the election.

Symonette filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on May 16, listing Washington Mutual, Homecomings Financial, HSBC Bank, and Indymac Bank as his creditors; each institution laid claim to one of four houses. Three are in North Miami-Dade County, and one is near Kendall.

In court docs, his only listed assets are clothing, watches, various household items, and a pool table. He does say that his live-in girlfriend, whom he doesn't identify by name, provides him with $2,000 per month.

Could that money from his significant other cover Blacks for Trump's various trips around the country to support the president on TV? Symonette wouldn't discuss that with a New Times reporter.

Instead, he spoke at length about his belief that the banking system is corrupt. He added that "Trump being the president is the greatest blessing we have ever had."

In his bankruptcy case, he's repeated those allegations about the banking system being crooked to Judge Laurel M. Isicoff. He's also repeatedly sought to change hearings that overlapped with Trump events. Symonette suggested the scheduling conflicts are a sinister plot to keep him away from the spotlight at Trump rallies.

"Creditors know that I have a rally in Arizona on July 25 and deliberately set the hearing on that date to cause me and my musical band to miss the performance and the rally with the bus we rented," he wrote in a motion filed the same morning as the Phoenix rally. "The creditors overheard that at the house we are disputing... and set that hearing on the same date just to harm me."

That motion was denied, as was another he filed on July 30, just before Trump's Tampa rally. "As founder of Blacks for Trump, (I) have rented vans to go to Trump's rally. We need to make the country aware how the banks (FOREIGNERS FROM THE EAST) are illegally taking WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE'S houses away."

Maurice Symonette's story is baffling, to put it mildly. Symonette, who also goes by the name Michael the Black Man, somehow went from being part of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult to getting acquitted of murder charges himself to being a staple at Donald Trump's presidential rallies all over the country. Even among the rogue's gallery of rodeo clowns and Bond villains who make up Trump's core cadre of supporters, Symonette might legitimately be the weirdest person hovering around Trumpworld

After Michael the Black Man turned up at a Tampa-area Trump rally last week and led anti-press chants, it's worth taking note of all the bizarre places he's materialized since becoming a prominent Trump supporter:

1. At the original October 2016 Trump rally where he first popped up on TV:

Conservative Twitter is abuzz this afternoon with a trending hashtag: #BlacksForTrump. The spark is clear: Thousands have retweeted photos from Trump's rally in Lakeland, Florida, this afternoon showing a small group standing directly behind the Donald while enthusiastically waving "Blacks for Trump" signs. "Blacks are for Trump and the left can't stand it," writes @LawlessPirate, with another pic of the sign-waving man wearing a shirt reading "Trump & Republicans Are Not Racist." So who is this new face of Trump's elusive black support? He's none other than Michael the Black Man, also known as Maurice Woodside or Michael Symonette, who has made waves in Miami in recent years with protests against the Democratic Party and rallies for the GOP. He's also a former member of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, which was led by the charismatic preacher Hulon Mitchell Jr., who was charged by the feds in 1990 with conspiracy in killings that included a gruesome beheading in the Everglades. Michael, along with 15 other Yahweh followers, was charged for allegedly conspiring in two murders; his brother, who was also in the cult, told jurors that Michael had helped beat one man who was later killed and stuck a sharpened stick into another man's eyeball. But jurors found Michael (and six other Yahweh followers) innocent. They sent Mitchell away for 20 years in the federal pen. In the years that followed, Michael changed his last name to Symonette, made a career as a musician, started a radio station in Miami, and then reinvented himself as Michael the Black Man, an anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events. He's planned events with Rick Santorum and gotten cable news play for bashing Obama. Since 1997, he's been charged with grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane and threatening a police officer, but never convicted in any of those cases.

2. At a Trump rally in Bayfront Park in Miami just before the election: 3. At a rally allegedly organized with the help of Russian agents:

A federal grand jury filed charges against 13 Russian nationals [in February 2018] for allegedly stealing identities, wiring money overseas, and staging a small series of flash mobs to help tip the 2016 election in Donald Trump's favor. It's unclear whether the social media campaign had any actual impact on voting, but the FBI alleges Russian money indeed affected one small group of Miamians who unknowingly used Russian cash to pay for supplies for an unnamed rally the September before the presidential election. There still seem to be online traces of that Moscow-funded rally. Only one publicized, pro-Trump rally appears to have taken place in the Miami area — #LatinosConTrump in Doral at 1 p.m. September 11, 2016. The event was pitched as an "anti-media" protest outside the town's Univision offices. The national group Latinos With Trump created flyers for the rally and noted that virtually all of Miami's most prominent pro-Trump groups — Cubans 4 Trump, Hispanas for Trump, Latinas for Trump, and the official Miami Trump Volunteers — would attend.

4. At a 2017 Trump rally in Phoenix, per the Washington Post:

And so it was Tuesday night before a crowd of Trump supporters in Phoenix who had come to watch another show. There was the president, whipping up the wildly cheering crowd, and then there was Michael the Black Man, chanting just beyond Trump’s right shoulder in that trademark T-shirt. The presence of Michael — variously known as Michael Symonette, Maurice Woodside and Mikael Israel — has inspired not only trending Twitter hashtags but a great deal of curiosity and Google searches. Internet sleuths find the man’s bizarre URL, an easily accessible gateway to his strange and checkered past. The radical fringe activist from Miami once belonged to a violent black supremacist religious cult, and he runs a handful of amateur, unintelligible conspiracy websites. He has called Barack Obama “The Beast” and Hillary Clinton a Ku Klux Klan member. Oprah Winfrey, he says, is the devil. Most curiously, in the 1990s, he was charged, then acquitted, with conspiracy to commit two murders.

5. With noted racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the U.S.-Mexico border just last week:

Via our sister paper Phoenix New Times:

Former sheriff Joe Arpaio filmed a video at the U.S.-Mexico border with a former Florida cult member who goes by the name Michael the Black Man. In the video posted on Thursday, Michael has his arm around Arpaio as the ousted former sheriff promotes his improbable race for Arizona's open Senate seat during a visit to the border fence in Naco, Arizona. Michael was a follower of the Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, a black-supremacist religious sect in Florida. In 1990, the feds charged Michael and over a dozen fellow cult members with conspiracy related to brutal murders in Florida. Alongside Arpaio and Michael in the video is an independent Senate candidate in Massachusetts, Shiva Ayyadurai, who shared the live video on Twitter. Born in India, Ayyadurai is a scientist and MIT graduate who claims that he invented email. He began his Senate campaign as a Republican before switching to run as an independent. Ayyadurai’s campaign uses the slogan, “Defeat #FakeIndian Elizabeth Warren,” as a derogatory jab at his Democratic opponent. “First of all, I’m from Massachusetts, so of course I’m supporting this great guy,” Arpaio says of Ayyadurai in the video. “He’s gonna win.” Michael says, “We’re at the border right here, between Arizona and Mexico.” He turns to Arpaio to ask if he has anything to say to the camera. The aging former sheriff brings up his law enforcement background. “It’s great to see the border again; I haven’t seen it in a while,” Arpaio says.

If you've got any info on who's paying Symonette's travel bills to Trump rallies, email [email protected] or [email protected]

For a second, Donald Trump seemed to be backing off his vitriolic attacks on the free press. After five journalists were massacred at the Annapolis Capital Gazette, Trump briefly toned down his slurs. He even invited New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzburger to the White House to clear the air. But it didn't last.

Trump quickly returned to his Stalinist, enemies-of-the-people label for journalists and then lied about his meeting with Sulzburger to insist that truthful reporting is "fake news." Those insults have a real effect, and that fact was never frighteningly clearer than at Trump's rally last night in Tampa, where an unhinged-looking mob screamed insults and waved middle fingers at journalists, particularly CNN's chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

The scene left many political watchers deeply shaken, including Acosta:

Just a sample of the sad scene we faced at the Trump rally in Tampa. I’m very worried that the hostility whipped up by Trump and some in conservative media will result in somebody getting hurt. We should not treat our fellow Americans this way. The press is not the enemy. pic.twitter.com/IhSRw5Ui3R— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) August 1, 2018

But most national press watchers didn't notice who was right at the center of that mob hurling invective at Acosta and his colleagues: Yep, it was Michael the Black Man, AKA Maurice Symonette, a former member of Miami's murderous Yahweh ben Yawheh cult who once faced charges of conspiring in the group's murders.

That's him with his instantly recognizable "Blacks for Trump" sign:

.@Acosta is trying to do a stand-up at #trumptampa and the crowd is booing and chanting “CNN sucks” behind him. pic.twitter.com/XiULajB1Li— Emily L. Mahoney (@mahoneysthename) July 31, 2018

Symonette has been a mainstay at Florida Trump rallies and over the past year has popped up at other Trump-linked events around the nation. Just last week, he flew to Arizona to film a video at the border with disgraced former sheriff Joe Arpaio. Trump's staff regularly gives Symonette front-and-center seats where he waves his black-and-white sign on national television.

Here's some background on Symonette from New Times' earlier reporting on him:

He's also a former member of the murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, which was led by the charismatic preacher Hulon Mitchell Jr., who was charged by the feds in 1990 with conspiracy in killings that included a gruesome beheading in the Everglades. Michael, along with 15 other Yahweh followers, was charged for allegedly conspiring in two murders; his brother, who was also in the cult, told jurors that Michael had helped beat one man who was later killed and stuck a sharpened stick into another man's eyeball. But jurors found Michael (and six other Yahweh followers) innocent. They sent Mitchell away for 20 years in the federal pen. In the years that followed, he changed his last name to Symonette, made a career as a musician, started a radio station in Miami and then re-invented himself as Michael the Black Man, an anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events. He's planned events with Rick Santorum and gotten cable news play for bashing Obama. Since 1997, he's been charged with grand theft auto, carrying a weapon onto an airplane and threatening a police officer, but never convicted in any of those cases.

In other words, he's exactly the kind of guy you might not want to drive into a blind rage at journalists who are just trying to do their jobs. Yet there he was in Tampa, right in the middle of the crowd screaming at Acosta — who, incidentally, took time to talk to the crowds who were so angry with him:

After each live shot, @Acosta would walk down and politely talk to the people who just heckled him. He talked to one group for at least 15 minutes. pic.twitter.com/J26nlxfD6k— Christopher Heath (@CHeathWFTV) August 1, 2018

There are two safe bets on this topic going forward: Trump won't stop throwing insults at the media, and wherever the president is whipping up that anger, Michael the Black Man will probably be there with his signs, happily taking the bait.

#Ex-Cult Member Behind “Blacks for Trump” Is Bankrupt #So Who's Paying for His Trump Rally Trips?#blacks for trump cult #blacks for trump #lies #Black Lies Matter too #Black Lives Matter

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phoenixyfriend · 1 month

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Okay! Today brought some some more varied and nuanced analyses of the recent big Schumer speech, which I have previously posted about, and touched on the Trump response.

There are two that stood out with me:

One was really critical in a "this is not enough, it's just pretty words that functionally mean nothing" sense. This came from Democracy Now. Caveat: they focused way more on the UN resolution.

The other was, in my opinion, much more nuanced, and came from NYT's "The Daily" podcast, which featured an interview with Schumer himself. Caveat: the NYT has come under fire for being too biased towards Israel, though the podcast team is separate from the papers' team, and were previously responsible for getting a major story to undergo heavy revisions due to anti-Palestinian biases.

Going into this, I want to be clear that I am going to be viewing these through a lens of how much they may or may not help Palestine, and how much I think a given argument or form of rhetoric may have impacted the actions that Schumer and those around him have taken.

Democracy Now (March 22, 2024 episode)

Available in video/audio form, and as a transcript here. This section of the episode is titled "U.S. Said It Was Calling for a Gaza Ceasefire, But Its U.N. Resolution Didn’t Say That: Phyllis Bennis."

One of the things I just want to point out in the last moments, this issue of Chuck Schumer coming out against Netanyahu, there’s a move to isolate Prime Minister Netanyahu right now. And it’s certainly appropriate. Part of the reason he’s still in power is to stay out of jail. It’s a very personal crusade on his part. But we have to be very clear that the people who are likely to replace him, if he were to either resign or be recalled in an election, they all support this war. So we should not have the illusion, that I’m afraid people like Chuck Schumer and others might have, that anybody who’s not Netanyahu should be and would be welcomed with open arms in Washington with more weapons, more hundreds of smaller weapons shipments that wouldn’t necessarily have to be approved by Congress. This is a very dangerous reality. We have to be very clear that this is a systemic decision by the Israeli leadership. This is not a one-man show in this horrific genocidal war that is being waged in Gaza. And we have to be careful not to fall into that trap of putting it all on one person and thinking that if one person is replaced, somehow that’s an answer.

The Daily, from The New York Times

You can listen to it on Spotify or Youtube. Transcripts are not yet available for this one; the site says they're usually available by the next day. That said, I went through the YouTube auto-generated transcript because I thought some of it was important enough for that effort.

However, I think it's worth it to listen through to the whole thing if you've got the time. Things it touches on includes:

The relationship that Schumer and other older Jews have with the idea of Israel, as it developed during his childhood in the fifties and sixties, due to the very recent memory of the Holocaust.

Schumer's statement that he believes that Israel is seeding more problems for itself with the current conflict, due to how it is destabilizing the region and provoking escalations with Iran and its proxies, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The connection of Netanyahu's radicalization in general and his growing unpopularity with the American left with his friendship with Trump.

Schumer couches an incredible amount of his argument in what he believes will convince American Jews and people with conflicted feelings on Israel, and an insistence that he believes in what Israel stands for.

An implied threat of aid withdrawal from Israel if Netanyahu remains in power.

A recurring cynicism and criticism of Schumer by the podcast hosts. They explicitly ask "what is your red line" in regards to the number of dead civilians in Palestine.

This podcast included more of the actual speech, and the logic that underpins it, than any other coverage I've read or listened to yet.

Schumer is very careful to not threaten to withdraw aid, so it's only implied. He is very careful to not explicitly dictate who leads Israel.

What he does say is that, should Netanyahu remain in power...

The United States' bond with Israel is unbreakable, but if extremists continue to unduly influence Israeli policy, then the administration should use the tools at its disposal to make sure our support for Israel is aligned with our broader goal of achieving long-term peace and stability in the region.

and

BB, I agree with you, [that] the greatest short-term threat to Israel is the rockets Iran gives Hezbollah, and they put them in Lebanon, and shoot them at Israel, but the greatest middle and long-term danger is you lose America, particularly the half of America that's more Progressive and/or the half of America that's young, and by your embracing Trump, you are making that happen.

I agree with the hosts' interpretation that 'tools' refers to the US financial backing of Israel, particularly the military funding. Schumer denies a lot of the interpretations, but generally he denies it with 'that is not what I said,' rather than 'that is not what I meant.'

Italics indicate something was said during the interview; the podcast switches between the interview and commentary a few times.

Interviewer: You don't want a ceasefire, but, like, what is--there like 30,000 more Palestinians dead-- Schumer: Well I wouldn't, I-- I'd say look Isra-- Interviewer, commentary: I said, you know, what's your red line, what is the civilian death toll that would have to be reached for you to say 'we're pulling this funding.' Interviewer: You said in your speech, if something doesn't change then there's the threat of American rich-- Schumer: I didn't--I didn't say conditions and I didn't say, um, leverage, I just said 'America's going to look at it as a thing that's' and-- Interviewer: You didn't say exactly what-- Schumer: No because I didn't want to Interviewer: You didn't want to, but what would the scenario be where that would-- Schumer: Well, I--you'd have to see it, I don't, I couldn't speculate on the future. Interviewer, commentary: ...and he didn't want to say. Second host: Well then why even give the speech? If Schumer is not willing to talk about the real consequences for Israel if there are no elections, and if Israelis don't end up removing Netanyahu from office, if he can't explain that, why give this speech?

I think that overall, this podcast and the interview it contains is... encouraging. Much of what drove Schumer's rhetoric is something I spoke about a month ago, namely the ways that Israeli propaganda rests on real fears based in history, and the ways that convincing people who believe that propaganda is to stress how the current situation is increasing danger to Israel in the middle and long term.

It's a little gratifying, at least, to know that my own understanding of the political science of it all is relatively accurate, and that at least a few of the arguments I presented in my How To Call Your Reps post are things that have worked their way into higher levels of political discourse.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents' house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post.

#chuck schumer #benjamin netanyahu #israel #united states #gaza #call your reps #palestine #death mention #politics #death tw #senator schumer #current events #phoenix politics #the daily #new york times #democracy now

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itsmythang · 7 months

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Did you know that he and Malcolm X were best friends and worked together as dishwashers at the same restaurant in Harlem in the 1940s. The staff called Foxx “Chicago Red” and Malcolm “Detroit Red”.

—Remembering Redd Foxx (Dec 9, 1922 – Oct 11, 1991)—

He portrayed Fred G. Sanford on the television show Sanford and Son and starred in The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family. His film projects included All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Norman... Is That You? (1976) and Harlem Nights (1989).

Red Foxx was birth named John Elroy Sanford in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Chicago's South Side.

His father, Fred Sanford, an electrician and auto mechanic from Hickman, Kentucky, left the family when Foxx was four years old. He was raised by his half-Seminole mother, Mary Hughes, from Ellisville, Mississippi, his grandmother and his minister.

Foxx attended DuSable High School in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington. Foxx had an older brother, Fred Jr., who provided the name for his character on Sanford and Son.

In the 1940s, he met Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X. In Malcolm's autobiography, Foxx is referred to as "Chicago Red, the funniest dishwasher on this earth." He earned the nickname because of his reddish hair and complexion.

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loweyzverse · 23 days

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Explaining my no capes dc dr!!

Overview :

The ‘Justice League’ is a global aid organization bankrolled by donations and sponsorships from everyday citizens, big name corporations, and important public figures alike.

Much like the American Red Cross, the Justice League strives to provide humanitarian aid in times of crisis as its main priority.

The Justice League’s other purposes include fostering world peace, making scientific and medical advancements, exploration of the ocean and space, and more.

Based on it’s predecessor, ‘The Justice Society of America’, or the ‘JSA’ : The Justice League was founded to globalize the scope of the JSA’s original mission, focused on providing aid and criminal justice.

The Justice League, while primarily American based, is politically independent from any nation. Though the ‘JL’ does occasionally engage in political discussions and activities.

Important Members :

Bruce Wayne

A multi billionaire who is one of the primary sponsors of the JL. Using the revenue he generates from his company Wayne Enterprises and his platform as a beloved public figure, Bruce Wayne is a very important member of the JL.

Most people can only speculate the extent of his involvement in the JL, as all sponsors gain auto membership, however other members know that Wayne is a very active participant in JL activities. Preferring to do most of his humanitarian work with the JL under an alias in attempts to separate it from his less serious public persona.

Clark Kent

Clark Kent is a fairly well known American journalist. If you are in journalism circles or care a lot for the news, then you would most definitely know the names of both him and his wife, Lois Lane. Kent uses his journalistic writing to create think pieces and the occasional expose.

However where Kent really shines is with hope. In the midst of darkness, Clark Kent provides people with a positive outlook on any situation, along with actually resources they can utilize in bad situations. Kent is also very prominent during hands-on humanitarian missions, always being the first to volunteer to go into the field and make a difference.

Diana Prince

Diana Prince is a peace ambassador from the previously closed nation of the Amazons, more specifically the island of Themyscira. One of the few remaining Princesses in modern society, Prince takes a very active role in advocating for world peace.

Prince is also a big advocate when it comes to women’s rights and the intersectionality of feminism. From this Prince has become a beacon of hope for women around the world, and several help centers and shelters for women and children have been opened in her name.

Other

There are many other important and active members of the JL, each with their own areas of focus and skill set, all coming together to make the world a better place.

Additional Notes:

Because there are not superhero’s, heroism is shown through activism here

The political and like overall state of the world is much more lax so while they are activists and provide aid, there isn’t much bad stuff to provide aid about (yay!)

Most of the people in the JL are like rich and or influential people who utilize their platform

The JL is a volunteer organization, so it’s not most members day to day job

The JL has a headquarters in Washington, D.c. that used to be the headquarters for the JSA

JL members aren’t expected to come into the headquarters everyday or anything like that so they live sort of scattered

The Wayne family has a TV show

‘Villains’ are just generally people who operate extralegally, but people don’t really have superpowers or gimmicks

Even crime though is much less extreme and harmful (yay!)

Almost all the ‘sidekicks’ are massive nepo babies lol

Most of the ‘sidekicks’ just started engaging in activism when they were younger, teenage activists is not an unknown concept or anything

Due to the education mission of the JL, they opened up a school (I haven’t decided if it should be highschool or college/university) which is where most of the groups like ‘teen titans’ or ‘young justice’ could meet and operate together as like a group

^(if it’s highschool then it is likely some sort of alternative school)

Anyway that’s all for now!! thank you for readinggg <3

#me yapping #reality shifting #shiftblr #desired reality #shifting #scripting #dc dr #shifting realities #desired reality shifting #shifting community #shifting script #shifting blog #shifters #This is a mess rn but i've been really excited about this one so I wanted to share #:)#Idk i'm maybe thinking of incorporating this into my better cr #cause i really like these people lol #collecting all the dc shifters i can find #anyway yeah

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alexfromjersey · 8 months

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CHAPTER II: the day after

warnings: mature language

a/n: 2.1K words

IT WAS THE NEXT DAY AFTER HURRICANE AGATHA hit Kildare Island. Agatha did a decent amount of damage to the island. Trees were knocked down, roads were flooded, power was out, and cell phone towers were out. Seven and Susan were up at the crack of dawn to assess the damage done to their home. Thankfully, the only damage is a couple of broken windows from branches smacking into the glass and a few leaks but nothing that they couldn't fix. After making sure Seven was good, Susan went into work for her long shift at the Sheriffs department.

Now she was bored, she fixed everything that needed fixing. There was no power so she couldn't even occupy herself by catching up on her movies and shows. She also didn't have her car. It was taken away and sold after she went to juvie. But she did still have her BMX bike. She went to garage to search for it and she found it in the deepest corner collecting dust. She pulled it out only to find out that both tires were beyond flat and the chain was snapped.

"Seriously?" Seven groaned.

Unfortunately, Seven would of taken the bike to Gaz's Auto Shop but couldn't due to her mandatory check in with her probation officer Michael Rhodes in twenty minutes. For the next six months Seven has to check in with Rhodes or she gets shipped back to the mainland but this time in adult jail for a long time. Seven didn't want to go to adult prison so she made a promise to her mother that she won't miss a check in or take a risk by violating the rules. So Seven grabbed her bookbag filled with extra clothes and snacks and walked to probation office.

It took fifteen minutes but she made it with a couple of minutes to spare. She walked into the office and it wasn't that busy, thank god, only three people in there.

"I'm here for my check in with Michael Rhodes" Seven stated to the receptionist.

"Okay, he's on a call right now but I'll grab you once he's finished" The receptionist answered. Seven nodded and took a seat by the door. She sat there looking around at the dumb motivational quotes on the walls. No one pays attention to them and it felt like she was sitting in a dentist office.

"Peterkin, your probation officer is ready for you" The receptionist called out.

Seven got up from the very uncomfortable waiting chair and walked to office in the back of the building. She took a seat in a chair in front a dark skinned male that looked stressed.

(Played by John David Washington)

"Seven Peterkin, daughter of Susan Peterkin and Bishop Westcott. Did ten months in a Juvenile Detention Center on the mainland for criminal trespass and second-degree assault. You got a pretty big reputation on this island kid, everywhere I turn somebody has something to say about Seven Peterkin, the Sheriff's daughter" Rhodes stated.

"I really don't care about what people say about me" Seven shrugged and sat back in the chair she was sitting in.

"Yeah I could tell by the way you look. You don't have a care in the world. I've met a lot of kids like you, putting on a facade to either please others or themselves. That tough girl act ain't gonna work with me" Rhodes spoke.

Seven let out a chuckle, "You just assumed that I'm putting on a tough girl act by the way I look? That's hilarious."

"Oh so you like to laugh huh? Okay, since you think everything is hilarious to you, here are my rules. You are prohibited from drinking and smoking, your curfew is at 10:00 not a minute later, you are to comply to any search and seizures I deem necessary, maintain good behavior and good grades once school reopens, participate in anger management counseling, and serve 520 hours of community service. Failure to adhere to these rules will result in a probation revoke and being shipped back to a much more stricter juvenile detention center." Rhodes informed the girl.

"Anger management? Are you serious? I don't need no anger management counseling" Seven scoffed.

"Mandatory anger management counseling starting tomorrow morning at 8am" Rhodes emphasized.

Seven let out another scoff but no more words were said from the teenager.

"Glad we're on the same page. Now take this cup, pee in it, and leave it on the outside table" Rhodes ordered and handed Seven a piss cup. She rolled her eyes before taking the cup. But before she left her eyes caught something on the man's file cabinet. It was a picture, a picture of Rhodes and Ezekiel smiling hard. It looked at least a few years old because Rhodes didn't have a full grown beard in the picture.

"Is there a problem Peterkin?" Rhodes questioned.

Seven turned toward him, "Nah, no problem at all."

She left the office and did her business in the bathroom and left the man's office. The teenager quickly left the building and walked towards the docks. She sat at the end of the dock feeling upset. No matter what, she could not escape her evil stepfather. Everywhere she turned someone knew him or was extremely loyal to him. It was frustrating because all she wanted was to at least go a day without seeing his face.

"Seven!"

She looked up at the yell of her name to see her friends pulling up in the HMS Pogue. She jumped into the boat as John B was pulling up and then he sped off down the ravine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The group of five were enjoying their time, laughing and giggling at each other. Pope was now driving the boat and Kiara, JJ, and John B were drinking beers. Seven was drinking orange juice from a crushed water bottle, the events from earlier long forgotten in her mind. She was having a good time with her friends so she focused on that.

"Let me show you a party trick" JJ said and walked to the front of the boat. "Hey Pope, can you go a little faster please?"

"Oh no" Seven muttered. The brown skinned girl sat on the front of the boat next to Kie.

"Oh god, here we go, I'm moving. It doesn't work, we've tried this like 6,000 times" John B groaned and moved the back of the boat.

"I got this, it's gonna work!" JJ yelled in reassurance. Seven watched JJ tilt his head back and hold his beer up to let the wind guide the beer into his mouth. He tried it all the time and he never succeeded but JJ was determined to succeed one day.

"Oh my god, you're getting beer in my hair" Kiara exclaimed. Seven put her hand up to shield her from the many droplets of the beer.

"All right! All right" Pope yelled and also shielded his eyes from the beer. All of his friends were yelling at JJ to stop with the beer but Seven stood up and grabbed JJ from behind. The two started to wrestle but suddenly the boat jerked violently and sent the two teens flying into the water.

"Jesus Pope" Kiara exclaimed.

After a moment, JJ and Seven resurfaced groaning, "Dude, you kneed me in my face" Seven groaned.

"I didn't mean too." JJ countered and floated on the surface. Seven can taste something metallic in her mouth.

"You guys okay?" Pope asked his friends in the water.

"I think my heels touched the back of my head" JJ moaned painfully. Seven just gave Pope a thumbs up in response.

"What the hell happened Pope?" Seven questioned and started swimming to the side of the boat.

"Sandbar. The channel changed" Pope answered the girl.

"No shit" JJ mocked the boy and swam to the boat. Seven pulled herself onto the boat. Once she's on the boat she pulled off of her soaking wet tank top, leaving her in a black sports bra and soaked gray shorts. Thankfully, she took her shoes off a while ago.

John B glanced around the marsh, "This is probably gonna mess this whole place up" He commented.

"Hey, I saved the beer though."

"Congrats JJ" John B said unenthusiastically.

Seven still tasted metal in her mouth. So she put her finger on her lip and felt a thick substance on it. She realized that JJ kneeing her in the face made her bite the inside of her lip hard. She grabbed a napkin and placed it on her lip.

"Guys...I think there's a boat down there" Seven heard Pope say. She looked up from her napkin to see Pope at the front of the boat looking over the edge.

"Shut up" John B dismissed.

"No way" Kiara waved the Heyward boy off.

Seven walked to the front of the boat where Pope is. Her eyes widen a bit when she saw a sunken boat. "Holy shit, there is a boat down there" Seven said. John B and Kiara joined the two at the tip of the boat and saw what Pope and Seven were seeing.

Seven tossed the napkin to the side before diving back into the water. John B and Kiara jumped in after her.

"Think there's a dead body down there?" Pope questioned as he struggled to take his shirt off. Eventually, he jumped in the water. The five friends all swam down to the boat but only got to look at it for half a second before they had to swim back to the surface for air.

"You guys saw that right?" JJ questioned the group.

"Hell yeah we did" Seven responded. The rest of the friends agreeing with the Peterkin girl. "It looked like a Grady-White" Seven said and swam to the boat.

"It is a grady-white, a new one of those is like 500 Gs, easy" JJ informed the group. The five teenagers all pulled themselves up onto the boat soaking wet, "That's a primo rig."

"Yeah, that's the boat I saw when I surfed the surge. Maybe it hit the jetty or something" John B questioned.

"You surfed the surge without me? The betrayal" Seven commented.

"I called you like four times" John B answered.

"You did? Whoops" Seven shrugged. The girl sat at the back of boat and shook her to get rid of the excess water in her hair.

"You surfed the surge?" Kiara questioned.

"That's my boy. Pogue style" JJ complimented and dapped John B.

"Wait, wait. Do we know whose boat that is?" Pope asked.

"No, but we're about to find out" John B replied.

"Dude, it's too deep" JJ commented.

"Oh, for the weak and feeable, JJ" John B remarked as he pulled out the anchor from the boat.

"Well, I'm not resuscitating you. I'm just making that clear up front" JJ added.

"I'm not either so don't ask" Seven commented.

"Betrayal Sev" John B joked. Seven just shrugged and put on a tank top. The Routledge boy made his way to the front of the boat with the anchor in his hands getting ready to dive down.

"John B..." Kie sighed.

John B just chuckled, "What?"

Seven glanced at the Carrera girl who had a look of disapproval on her face. It was pretty known that this group of friends love to do dangerous stuff, it was in their blood, especially the three Mustard-teers (JJ, John B, and Seven). Always finding or putting themselves in dangerous situations.

"Diver down, fool" Pope saluted.

"Diver down" John B saluted back.

Seven then pushed the tall boy into the water with a laugh. The four friends waited overlooking the side of the boat for their friend. It felt like eternity when suddenly John B popped up to the surface.

"Oh my god, that took forever" Kiara sighed.

"Any dead bodies?"

"Looting potential?"

Pope and JJ spit questions at John B which to replied no too. But he held up an familiar hotel key.

"I found an motel key though" John B stated. Pope and Seven helped him get back on the boat while JJ pulled the anchor up.

"I know where this is. I've been there before" Seven informed the group. The curly haired girl then got behind the wheel of the boat to drive to their destination.

"You've been to a motel before?" Pope questioned.

Seven smirked, "Yeah, it was either a motel or the back of a Kia Soul...Kia Soul's are very tight can't really do too much in there."

A disgusted expression appeared on Kiara's face while JJ and John B agreed with the girl. Pope didn't know how to respond to that so he decided to sit down.

"Guys, we should report the wreck to the coast guard, maybe we'll get a finder's fee" Kiara suggested.

"Yeah, and not work all summer. Thanks, Agatha, ya batch" JJ added.

#g!p reader #outer banks x reader #outer banks fic #outer banks x oc #outer banks #outer banks x original character

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websterstylemag · 3 months

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Honda/Accura at the 2024 Washington DC Auto Show

A walkthrough of the Honda/Accura booth during the 2024 Washington DC Auto Show. Ways To SupportBasil and Sage, visit them at https://basilandsage.com/. Use code WEBSTERSTYLE10GoTieLess: Use the code WEBSTERSTYLE to get 10% off your purchase. https://gotieless.com/?ref=websterstyleBecome a Producer on Patreon for just $1 per month. https://www.patreon.com/websterstylePete and Pedro: Use the link…

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#2024 washington dc auto show #accura #accure #car show #Washington auto show #washington dc #washington dc auto show #Youtube

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robpegoraro · 3 months

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Weekly output: pig butchering, NextGen TV, EV charging, Mark Vena podcast

I filed my last copy for this week at 10 p.m. Friday, and then it was a delight to have Saturday be my first legit work-free day since… um, Jan. 1. 1/16/2024: Don’t Engage: ‘Pig Butchering’ Scams Start With a Text, End in Financial Ruin, PCMag One reason I couldn’t unplug from work last Sunday: I had to watch my friend Sean Gallagher’s very good walkthrough of pig-butchering scams at the ShmooCon…

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#ATSC 3.0 #battery-electric vehicle #broadcast TV #ces #consumer electronics show #electric car charging #EV charging #Mark Vena #NextGen TV #over-the-air TV #pig butchering #Shmoocon #Washington Auto Show

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kolajmag · 4 months

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FROM THE ARTIST DIRECTORY

Reverent Three-Dimensional Art

Seattle, Washington, USA. Benjamin Malay assembles discarded materials and found objects to make reverent three-dimensional art. Inspired by wooden sewing machine drawers, fishing tackle, vintage glass, old first-aid kits, auto repair manuals and maps, his work includes a tribute to his grandfather, an appliance repairman and tropical fish enthusiast. Peering through the blue-green slide projector lens to the fishing lure beneath, Malay pictures him tending tanks in his backyard greenhouse Saturday afternoons. Read More

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Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

SUBSCRIBE | CURRENT ISSUE | GET A COPY

#collage #collage art #art #artist #collage artist #art project #art show #art education #book art #artistic #contemporary art #artwork #modern art #fine art #artist residency #artist books #contemporary artist

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batboyblog · 3 months

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United Auto Workers endorses Biden's reelection bid

The United Auto Workers announced its endorsement of President Biden on Wednesday, a key, if expected, show of support as the president hones in on the general election.

The endorsement of the 400,000-member union is critical for Mr. Biden as he seeks to bolster his support among working class Americans. Mr. Biden became the first president in modern history to join a picket line when he visited striking workers near Detroit in September, a move UAW President Shawn Fain touted as he made the case to members that Mr. Biden, not former President Donald Trump, is their champion.

"Joe Biden bet on the American worker while Donald Trump blamed the American worker," Fain said in his announcement during the UAW's political convention in Washington, D.C. "We need to know who's gonna sit in the most powerful seat in the world and help us win as a united working class. So if our endorsements must be earned, Joe Biden has earned it ... UAW is endorsing Joe Biden for president of the United States!"

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"Donald Trump is a scab," Fain said, to cheers from his audience. "Donald Trump is a billionaire and that's who he represents. If Donald Trump ever worked in an auto plant, he wouldn't be a UAW member, he'd be a company man trying to squeeze the American worker."

#joe biden #UAW #uaw strike #elections #election 2024 #unions #union strong #politics #american politics

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 6 months

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Matt Wuerker, Politico

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 30, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

OCT 31, 2023

After three weeks without a speaker, the House today tackled one of the key items on its agenda: providing additional funding for Israel and Ukraine. Immediately, the majority under Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) made it clear that they have every intention of pushing their extremist agenda. Despite pressure from Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), they have split funding for Israel away from the funding for Ukraine and funding for humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza that President Biden has requested.

They have gone further, though, to push the far right’s agenda. The House Republicans’ $14.3 billion aid package for Israel claims that it will “offset” that spending by taking $14.3 billion from funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) passed by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act. But this “offset” is nothing of the sort: funding the IRS brings in significantly more than it costs. For each dollar spent auditing the top 1% of U.S. earners, the IRS brought in $3.18; for each dollar spent auditing the top 0.1%, it brought in $6.29.

In September the IRS noted that it recovered $38 million in delinquent taxes from 175 high-income taxpayers within a few months and would be increasing that effort. A 2021 study showed that people whose income is in the top 1% of earners fail to report more than 20% of their earnings to the IRS.

The House measure, providing aid for Israel only if Democrats agree to set aside Ukraine and Gaza and permit rich people to cheat on their taxes, will set up a fight with the Senate.

Tonight, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement saying the Republicans’ politicization of our national security interests is a “nonstarter. Demanding offsets for meeting core national security needs of the United States—like supporting Israel and defending Ukraine from atrocities and Russian imperialism—would be a break with the normal, bipartisan process and could have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead.”

She noted that there is strong bipartisan agreement that it is in our national security interest to stop the suffering of innocent people in Gaza, “help Ukraine defend its sovereignty against appalling crimes being committed by Russian forces against thousands of innocent civilians,” and invest more in border security.

“Threatening to undermine American national security unless House Republicans can help the wealthy and big corporations cheat on their taxes—which would increase the deficit—is the definition of backwards,” she said.

The chaos among the Republicans and the emergence of a Christian nationalist as their choice to lead the House seem to have drawn increased attention to the successes of the president.

Today, for example, the United Auto Workers announced a tentative deal with General Motors, marking the third such agreement in the union’s six-week strike against GM, Ford, and Stellantis. The agreements include a 25% raise in base wages over 4.5 years, after years in which workers’ pay did not keep up with inflation. The agreements will also protect workers against the conversion to electric vehicles, helping unionized workers to make the transition to a green economy, and reopen certain closed plants.

As Jeanne Whalen noted in the Washington Post, this agreement comes after United Parcel Service (UPS) workers this summer won their strongest contract in decades and 75,000 striking Kaiser healthcare workers won strong wage increases.

Biden was the first president to join a picket line when he stood with the UAW. Today, he said: “Today's historic agreement is yet another piece of good economic news showing something I have always believed: Worker power…is critical to building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up…. We’re finally beginning to build an economy that works for working people, for the middle class, for the entire…country, including the companies.

“Because when we do that, the poor have a ladder up, the middle class does well, and the wealthy still do very well. We all do well.”

As Michael Tomasky put it in The New Republic, “We have a president who takes seriously the fundamental economic fact of American life of the last 40 years, which is that trillions of dollars of wealth have been transferred from the lower and middle classes to the top 1 percent, and even to the top 0.1 percent. Moreover, it’s rivetingly clear that he thinks that it’s long past time to get that river flowing in the other direction.”

In The Bulwark, Jill Lawrence wrote that Biden has a “surprising focus on the future” as he “moves to meet U.S. challenges that former President Donald Trump largely ignored, failed at, or made worse.” She noted Biden’s achievement of infrastructure legislation after Trump failed, and contrasted Biden’s successful CHIPS and Science Act with the trade war of the Trump years, which cost as many as 245,000 jobs and so badly hurt midwestern farmers that 90% of the proceeds from Trump’s tariffs went to bail them out.

Biden also has looked forward by pushing and securing the Inflation Reduction Act, which invests in a transition to a green economy.

But Lawrence’s focus was primarily on today’s sweeping executive order on artificial intelligence, an order Politico called “the most significant single effort to impose national order on a technology that has shocked many people with its rapid growth.” The administration has been working to establish responsible AI practices, recognizing the need to address discriminatory algorithms, data privacy violations, and deep fakes.

Today, Biden signed an executive order requiring companies to share safety information about their systems before allowing them to be used, in order to make sure they don’t pose a safety or a national security risk. It orders the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to secure critical infrastructure. It will require AI-generated content to bear a watermark that clearly labels it. It will protect personal data, and Biden promised he would ask Congress for legislation to pass bipartisan legislation to stop technology companies from collecting the personal data of children and teenagers, to ban advertising directed at children, and to limit companies’ collection of personal data in general.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology think tank, applauded the order, saying its guidelines set “a clear course for the United States…. With this EO, the United States is demonstrating it takes AI oversight seriously.”

Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the two-day AI Safety Summit meeting in the United Kingdom on November 1–2 as the European Union closes in on laws about artificial intelligence that would enable the E.U. to shut down services that harm society. The E.U. has been ahead of the U.S. in its regulation of the internet: in August 2023 its Digital Services Act went into effect, requiring users to agree to the use of their personal data for targeted advertising and requiring digital platforms to police the disinformation on their platforms. Most of the companies it regulates are based in the United States.

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Clown Car Republicans #MAGA #crazy #Matt Wuerker #Letters from An American #Heather Cox Richardson #Biden Administration #Clown Congress #Bad Fatih Republicans #National Security

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inkandguns · 1 year

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Just got done with the local gun show. Two of my buddies bought their first guns. One guy bought a cheap semi auto Turkish shotgun (yes I warned him), the other a CZ 75D. Third guy couldn’t decide so I’ve invited them all to the range to shoot and see what he likes. He’s recently 21 so he’s got the handgun fever.

My favorite part was seeing the lesbians and the blue haired kids interact with the old Fudds. Just a bunch of eastern Washington folks bonding over their love of guns. The vendors are doing amazingly well - everyone’s afraid of the ban passing so the gun buying is really ramped up. But seeing the blue haired dudes talking to the old guys with NRA hats about custom completion pistols was definitely the highlight, and the most PNW thing I have seen this year.

#guns #gear

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ausetkmt · 11 months

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Ex-Cult Member Behind "Blacks for Trump" Is Bankrupt, So Who's Paying for His Trump Rally Trips?

At President Trump's rally in Tampa last week, a familiar face made it back in the national news. Maurice Symonette, also known as Michael the Black Man, was front and center in a crowd hurling invective at CNN reporter Jim Acosta, waving a "Blacks for Trump" sign. Symonette has been a regular at Trump rallies all over Florida and as far away as Arizona. Just last month, he popped up at the U.S. border to appear in a video with disgraced sheriff-turned-pardoned-Senate-candidate Joe Arpaio.

All that national exposure raises an obvious question: Who is paying the bills for Symonette, a former member of Miami's murderous Yahweh ben Yahweh cult, to represent "Blacks for Trump" at Trump rallies? Since Blacks for Trump isn't a registered political organization with the Florida Division of Elections or the Federal Election Commission, there are no public records of any donations funding the group's operations.

Throughout the '80s, Symonette — then known as Maurice Woodside — was a devoted follower of Yahweh ben Yahweh, a charismatic preacher who wore white robes and called himself the Messiah. Federal prosecutors later accused Yahweh, whose real name was Hulon Mitchell Jr., of ordering his followers to murder at least 14 people, including random white vagrants who were massacred as an initiation rite.

Since Trump's election, Symonette has carved out an unlikely new niche as one of President Trump's most visible African-American supporters. He has a knack for getting prime placement directly behind Trump and has handed out hundreds of his "Blacks for Trump" signs. They advertise his website, which is full of conspiracy theories about Cherokees running the U.S. banking system. (Really.)

Symonette was even featured at a Miami Trump rally that prosecutors later alleged had been funded by Russian nationals looking to disrupt the election.

Could that money from his significant other cover Blacks for Trump's various trips around the country to support the president on TV? Symonette wouldn't discuss that with a New Times reporter.

Instead, he spoke at length about his belief that the banking system is corrupt. He added that "Trump being the president is the greatest blessing we have ever had."

The scene left many political watchers deeply shaken, including Acosta:

That's him with his instantly recognizable "Blacks for Trump" sign:

.@Acosta is trying to do a stand-up at #trumptampa and the crowd is booing and chanting “CNN sucks” behind him. pic.twitter.com/XiULajB1Li— Emily L. Mahoney (@mahoneysthename) July 31, 2018

Here's some background on Symonette from New Times' earlier reporting on him:

#Ex-Cult Member Behind “Blacks for Trump” Is Bankrupt #So Who's Paying for His Trump Rally Trips?#Black for trump #white lies #Maurice Symonette

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