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btssavedmylifeblr · 3 years

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I forgot to send on my voting story. Ok so my brother and I both got mail in ballots, and let me tell you how we both forgot to mail it in so we just thought to bring them to our voting location. The lady there kinda yelled at us? She was confused and didn't know how to go about it. And honestly I just took it because we were the idiots who didn't mail in our ballots. We had to rip them up and they just us new ones to fill out in person and submit. Not exciting, but a story for void snippet. 👀

Anonymous said: Hi!! I'm so excited for void! I voted today around 30 minutes before the polls closed in my neighborhood because I had to wait for my dad and brother to get home from work since they wanted to go all together hehe. It was a pretty fast process! We just pressed buttons on screens (compared to last election where we had to bubble in everything by hand) plus, I got to keep the stylus that they gave us and it works on phones too! 🥰🥰 Thank you! I love your writing so much 💜💜💜

Anonymous said: I did mine through mail me and my husband did and we went to the post office a little while back and then he took us on a nice little date afterward and we got ice cream! Also I love void💖 keep up the good work

Anonymous said: VOTES FOR VOID??? I love democracy and I love VOID! So since May I've (temporarily) moved back home from New York to Indiana RE: covid; I've voted absentee for the both the primaries and presidential election (I'm still in IN rn...blah). I voted early and mailed in my ballot for the presidential election (about 3 weeks ago). Made sure my family was voting (brother mailed it in, mom dropped off a ballot, and dad did early voting) and encourage them to put up a Biden sign in our yard <3

Anonymous said: HI BEE! I ALSO VOTED TODAY! IM 21 SO THIS IS MY FIRST TIME VOTING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (my 18th bday didnt make the cutoff since im a december bday) im so happy to have done my part! I made sure to study up on the judges and policies and everything! Luckily the polling place didn't have a line so i was able to get in, get my ballot, and fill it in right away! I even dragged my mom and cousin to come with me. I made a joke on snapchat to encourage my friends to vote too. It was a pic of my "i voted" sticker with a caption saying "omg youre so sexy when you vote aHaha" -🦙

Anonymous said: this is my first time doing this so, so i hope i’m sending this correctly! i voted early in late september by mail! i live in a swing state, so it’s really important for me to vote and not waste time!! bc of my age, this is my first time voting so i’m really nervous 😅

Anonymous said: I voted by email! I'm overseas so I wasn't sure if my ballot would actually make it through in time, so I decided to go electronically. Had to sign a waiver saying I understand that my vote won't be anonymous but I haven't been given a reason to suspect voter suppression/fraud in my state, so I'm happy I think...!

Anonymous said: hi, i voted early on oct 24th. my absentee ballot didn't come in, so i had to travel back home to vote (~3 hour drive). when we got there, there was a ton of people outside the polling place, but no lines, so i was in and out pretty quick. it was my first time voting, so i had all the candidates i was voting for written down on a tiny receipt so i wouldn't forget 😅. my mom was with me, so she voted too. took a pic with my sticker (mask on for extra covid-ness) and went home. drove back the next afternoon!

whippedforkook said: Hi Bee. 💕 I voted in early October - nearly a month ago! 😱 It’s been really weird with all the lead up to the election because it felt like it should have been done once I cast my ballot! A lot of my friends have volunteered to get out the vote: writing postcards to voters, texting, phone banking, working the polls, curing ballots. I didn’t volunteer at all this year, but I hope that all of my friends’ hard work and everyone else’s is enough. I’m also hoping and praying that I will be in a better place mentally for 2022 so that I too can volunteer. Our work starts with 2020 not ends. 💕 Wishing you well. 💕

begineuphoria said: I went and voted last Friday as it was our last early voting day. No way was I going to wait until today with the crowds of people in my area that still act as if masks are somehow infringing on their rights. 🙄 It was a rather normal experience for the most part. Other than having to use a coffee stir stick to press the buttons on the machine to vote. In and out within five minutes.

Anonymous said: I voted down the street at this pretty park this morning. I got up at 5:30 and it was freezing. Luckily I wore like 30 layers and stood outside for 2 hours. Some nasty orange man supporters were rude but everyone else was pretty nice. A really cute older couple was playing soccer with pine cones and kicked it towards me to play too. Not the worst time tbh.

Anonymous said: Did mail-in voting in California! Extremely exhausting and took forever to research all the propositions - they are notoriously tricky in hiding their flaws and one side tends to outrageously outspend the other. But in the end I felt really good about my research and decisions! No need for you to post a snippet for this story - would like to save that to read sometime in the future ;) Thank you so much for doing this!

joonsgotthejuice said: Votes for void??? I am here! I went last Thursday and it was chaotic bc I kept going past the poll place but the line was soooo long so my mom called me and woke me up like "its pouring rain and the line is super short get up I'm gonna pick you up" so thats the story of how I got dressed in 5 minutes and dragged my ass to vote in the rain <3

Anonymous said: i voted early on thursday it was cold and rainy but i went in the late afternoon and thankfully the only waiting i did was a few minutes for an elevator i got very lucky and while waiting for the results is awful the relief that came from voting in general was just great

Anonymous said: Wheeew the polls just closed and I finally got to cast my ballot yayyy ( I was the one working the polls from earlier) it’s been a really really long day and we actually had surprisingly good turnout. I saw a woman try to vote for someone else who claimed to be “helping” and I saw a woman who I’m pretty sure was on some typa something 👀 Overall though I really I’m really thankful for people like you who encouraged people to get out and vote. I hope the odds are in our favor❤️🤞🏼

chelsea-chee said: Hello Bee! Today surprisingly my elderly father wanted to vote so I brought him out with me. He only cared about voting for Biden, which meant I got to help decide who he should vote for with the rest of the candidates and amendments! Say hello to baby bee for me as well! 💖

Anonymous said: Okay I gonna got a chance to vote today and the process wasn’t that bad actually. I went in just now and it wasn’t that busy( thankfully) so no lines. I’m from Texas and it’s gonna be almost impossible to turn this state blue, but every vote counts! I love that you are getting people to vote and also sharing your experiences as well!

owl-orgy said: Dropped off my mail in ballot at a polling location! I originally wanted to vote early in person because I was worried my signature wouldn’t match closely enough but ended up just turning it in and double checked today to make it said “ballot accepted and counted”!

Anonymous said: I voted in person this afternoon, better late than never I guess. I was gonna go last week but then I got cramps from hell. There was no one in line in front of me, I think my county early voted because it was packed everyday the last few weeks

Anonymous said: I voted early a couple weeks ago. Exciting thing though that did happen was I got both my parents to vote for their first time ever.

Anonymous said: I had a mail in vote. So, I filled it out and dropped it in at the ballot box at my library. (I also checked out books for the first time in years, so I had fun!)

bubblyjiminnie said: I literally just finished voting. Lucky for me, the line and wait wasn’t very long, and it was a nice enough day that the short amount of time I had to spend in line outside of the building wasn’t too bad. My social anxiety when it comes to stuff like this tends to be high but that’s what I get for waiting until Election Day instead of going the mail in route. This was only my second time voting, but I’m glad that I did 😊

Anonymous said: I turned my ballot in last week :) I’m not a big fan of crowds and I hate make spur of the moment choices but despite that the first time I was able to vote back in 08 my Mom pressured me into voting in person because “you’d have to experience it at least once in our life”. And ever since then I comfortably vote by mail. I take my time, do all of my research, listen to music, and best of all don’t have to deal with people.

Anonymous said: here in Washington state it’s super easy to vote. I dropped my ballot off in mid-October and it’s already been accounted for! Mail in voting and drop box voting is fantastic and provides equal opportunity and access. Sad to see some people in red states misinforming Americans about it! We also have a referendum for implementing mandatory sex ed, including teaching respect, empathy and consent as part of the curriculum so I was happy to vote yes on that too!

unionrox006 said: I voted about 2 weeks ago by doing a mail in ballot. The other eligible to vote members of my household did the same. We chose to vote by absentee ballot because both my mom and I have an autoimmune disorder, so we have to be careful going out in the pandemic. Tbh, the ballot layout was a bit confusing at first as was all the paperwork and required IDs and documents. But my dad explained it to me and we got them filled out and mailed off. Kinda mad I didn't get a sticker for it though

bluetostone said: Love this and so excited for the next chp of void! I early voted a few weeks ago and because I live in a pretty rural county I was in and out of my polling place in a few minutes. No sticker though 😢. I live in a swing state so it could go either way in terms of delegates. Just praying everyone is safe tonight as the results roll in...though, won't we not know for sure for a couple of days or weeks?

Anonymous said: My mom, sister, and I received our early voting ballots a while ago and I took the longest to fill mine out because it was making me anxious :,( but I did return it before it was due. I checked our ballot statuses and mine and my moms were accepted but my sister’s said they hadn’t received hers back. Then she got another ballot so she filled that one out too and I took it yesterday 👍👍 I think she got two because she changed her address late so they sent two?

vixsynsblog said: Non-interesting voter story: I'm paranoid and live in a highly divided area, so I filed mail-in ASAP, mailed it a few days after cause neighbors are nosy and don't understand boundaries. Was able to track my ballot through my credit company, which was nice. Only thing I was missing was my sticker. Never got one✊😔. So I had to improvise and write it in pen on my disposable mask. I'm working all this week so if riots break out from either side, I'll be at work. Prayers for the safety of others🙏

______

Waaah!!! Thank you all for voting!! You are all my heroes. I am so grateful and proud of you. I’m sorry I ran out of time to respond to you individually. I’m going to drop two big scenes from Chapter 7 in gratitude (one of which will be familiar to my patrons and one won’t). I’m hopeful I will have the whole next chapter out very soon. Love you all!

Void spoilers below the cut.

When you wake up in the morning, there are still no signed HR forms in your messages. Had you been a fool to think they were interested? How much time does it take to decide such a thing? Perhaps just by putting the idea out there explicitly, it had lost all of its taboo appeal.

There is a calendar reminder waiting for you: Today is chili pepper pollinating day. At least this gives you an excuse to talk to Hoseok.

You find the science officer in the lab as always, sitting with his knee up against his chest. Hoseok doesn’t look well. He’s got dark circles under his eyes.

“Hey, um…” You shuffle your feet. Want to fuck me? No wait…“You don’t look good. Were you here all night?” you ask.

He blinks at you, bleary-eyed. “Um, was I? Yeah.. I suppose. Lost track of time.” He rubs his eyes, before looking you up and down, then casting his gaze back to the floor.

All you want to do is ask about the forms. Or the meeting. Or what he thinks of you now. But you don’t. “I need to pollinate the chili peppers today.” Usually Hoseok is the person who assists with that. “But I can get one of the other guys to do it if you need the sleep.”

“No!” Hoseok lurches forward, standing up a bit to rapidly and needing to put his hand back on the bench to steady himself. “I mean, I’m fine.”

You should disgaree with him. He is exhausted. But you’d like more time to talk to him.

Pollinating the chili peppers is both time-sensitive and time-consuming, hence why it took two of you to get the job done. There were no insects on your ship to do the job for you and if they didn’t get pollinated, they wouldn’t bear any fruit. Your chili peppers were your favorite crop. Not only a vital source of Vitamin C, but all your food benefitted from having a bit of spice added to it.

You and Hoseok head for the greenhouse together. The intital set-up gives you something to talk about in the beginning. Hoseok gathers the pollen from one flower onto a paintbrush, then hands it over to you to paint onto the stigmas of each little flower on the next plant in the line.

Slowly the conversation dries up as you fall into a silent rhythm. Other than just enjoying the chili peppers, you must admit that this was one of your favorite tasks on the ship because of the high likelihood that the two of you would brush hands peridically. Always gave you butterflies. But today he seems extra intent on keeping his distance from you. Was he disgusted by you now? His hands are trembling.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

His hand twitches so hard that a little rain of yellow pollen cascades onto the floor. He curses in frustration before turning to face you. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Um, yes, I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“This, um, plan of yours…” he gestures to the vague tension in the air. “It doesn’t feel like you.”

“I’m trying to save the mission. That has always been my top priority.”

“Yeah, I’m still not clear on how this benefits the mission.”

“Yoongi said…” you start to say, but are cut off my Hoseok’s derisive snort.

“Look, if you’re in love with Yoongi, just go date him, okay? Don’t feel obligated to include the rest of us out of pity.”

You frown. “I’m not… I’m not in love with him. It’s just sex. Just biology.”

“This isn’t you!” Hoseok argues back. “You hated the idea of anyone of us ever treating you that way. And now you just want all of us to… to… use you like that?” He splutters out the end of the sentence.

“No one is using me! This is my plan! I’m in charge!”

He sighs. “Well, I can’t be a part of it. Excuse me.”

______

Taehyung finds you in the gym. It’s good to see him up and about, even if his arm is still in a sling.

“Hey, so I need to talk to you about this, um, ape sex thing.” He fishes awkwardly into his pockets and pulls out his tablet. Maybe Jimin was right. Is Taehyung going to be the first to take you up on your offer?

You pause your jog on the elliptical machine. You wish you weren’t so sweaty and gross for this conversation. Taehyung is such an intimidatingly attractive man with those strong eyebrows and that perfect skin.

Taehyung opens up the tablet and flips to the form. It’s happening. He’s going to sign the form. Shit. Then what will you do? It’s one thing to say you want to have sex with your whole crew, but what if he’s hoping to go right now? You need a shower.

Taehyung has really nice hands. Long strong fingers delicately navigating the touch screen. It seems totally improbable that a man this attractive would be into you, even if you were the only woman in the universe. It just adds to your suspicions that hormones are driving everyone crazy. Perhaps if you slept with him once, he’d lose all interest.

He finds the form and then turns his gaze up to you, staring you down with those eyes. It’s a good thing that Taehyung rarely turns his full gaze on you, because it is almost too much to bear. Shit, is he just going to sign it? Is he waiting for you to give him some sort of signal?

“You can’t do this to Jimin,” he says.

“What?” Not what you were expecting. “Do what to Jimin?”

“This.” He gestures over the HR form. “Signing these forms with everyone. Having sex with everyone. You’re going to destroy Jimin.”

“Jimin’s the one who suggested this whole thing in the first place.” It’s a lie. You know its a lie. Or at least a gross exaggeration. But Jimin was the one who first brought up the idea of sharing. All for the benefit of the man in front of you now.

“No way.” Taehyung scoffs, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “No way was it Jimin’s idea that you sleep with the whole crew.”

“Well…” You can’t bear his gaze anymore and look down at the floor. “He wanted me to sleep with you.”

That surprises Taehyung. He puts down the tablet. “What? Why would he want that?”

This is awkward. “He, um, thinks you’re in love with me.”

“What?” There is only surprise on Taehyung’s face. It’s actually a relief to see that Taehyung is just as shocked by that idea as you were. “Why does he think that?”

“I don’t know…” You feel kind of dumb now. Of course, Taehyung doesn’t feel that way about you. Look at him. “Cause you told him you were jealous. Cause you can’t stand to be in the same room as us…”

Taehyung bites his lip. “Oh, um, shit, sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

If Taehyung isn’t jealous of Jimin...

“Taehyung…” He looks up, biting his lip. “What did you mean? Who are you jealous of?”

Taehyung’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he reaches for his microphone and mutes it. Out of respect, you mute yours as well. He glances toward the camera in the corner of the room, then stands up and begins unzipping his jumpsuit.

“Um…” You are distracted by the golden arms that peak from either side of the tank top as the zipper reaches his groin. “What are you doing?”

“Need something to block the camera.”

“We have towels,” you mutter. But he’s already stripping out of his shirt. The musculature of his back ripples. He hangs the shirt off of the camera to block the rest of the room from view.

“Yeah, but this way anyone watching will think we’re having sex.” His chest is just as attractive as his back and you flush at the sight of it. Mercifully, he zips back into his jumpsuit as he returns to his position in front of the exercise machine.

“You want them to think we’re having sex?”

“Don’t you? It plays right into your whole save the mission with bonobo sex plan.”

“I suppose.” Though the plan was also supposed to be that there would be no more secrets between the crew. “What plan of yours does it play into?”

“The one where Jimin doesn’t realize I’m in love with him.”

“You’ve never tried to tell him?”

Taehyung laughs wryly and shakes his head. “How would that conversation go? Hey man, I know we’ve known each other for years and I’ve already seen you naked and that you just think of me as a friend, but I’m in love with you. I know that’s awkward but now you have to spend the next twelve years with me, knowing that I’m attracted to you when you don’t feel the same way.” Taehyung sighs. “Doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. If he doesn’t feel the same way, I’ve just ruined the friendship for nothing and then I don’t even have that.”

“Yeah… I get that.” There’s something touching about realizing that Taehyung has been fighting the same battle as you for the last two years.

“I couldn’t tell anyone before launch because what if they wouldn’t let me go then? You know?”

“Yeah, the director wasn’t big on sending anyone who might ‘complicate’ the mission.” The two of you share a sad knowing smile.

“Yeah… And I thought it would be fine, you know? I like women too. I’d just date women until launch and no one would know. I wasn’t planning on falling in love with my roommate.”

“I don’t think any of us really knew what this would be like.”

“I knew it was going to be a problem. I should have pulled out…”

Your mind flashes back to that moment of doubt when Hoseok talked you into still coming on the mission.

“But I couldn’t just let him go off into space without me. Even if he’d never feel the same way, at least he’d still be in my life.”

The emotion in Taehyung’s words makes your eyes begin to mist. “You really do love him.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung sighs again. “But he’s in love with you.”

“Well, he thinks he is.”

“What does that mean?”

“He only feels like that about me cause he thinks I’m the only option.” You wonder if maybe he would feel differently if he knew about Taehyung’s feelings.

Taehyung frowns and shakes his head. “You don’t give him enough credit.”

“Oh come on, you know him. How many women did he date while we were in training?”

“A few…”

“And how many of them was he in love with before he found the next one?”

Taehyung bites his lip. He can’t really argue with that. “So why are you with him then, if you don’t think it’s real?”

You shrug, rubbing your arm. “He wants me. It’s nice to feel wanted, I guess.”

“You know you could have that with any man on this ship right?”

You scoff. “They’re all suffering the same delusion. It’s only-available-vagina syndrome. I just want us all to fuck and get it out in the open. Maybe if we could get it out of our system, they would see I’m nothing special. And then we can get back to the mission.”

Taehyung eyes you up and down. “You don’t give yourself enough credit either.”

You shrug. “You wait and see. Jimin will get bored of me. They all will.”

The two of you both slump backwards in your seats, mulling over your shared woes. Taehyung bends down and picks up the tablet again. “So what should I do with this?”

“Obivously, you don’t have to sign it. I should have realized that not everyone would be interested.”

“Jimin thinks I’m in love with you?”

“Yeah…”

“Is it okay if we let him think that for now? At least until I figure out how to tell him the truth?”

“Okay.”

Taehyung smiles and signs the bottom of the form, then sends it to you. Your phone lights up with a message. “Thank you,” he murmurs before he leaves.

#I'm not going to answer asks about the spoilers right now #because I want people to be able to avoid them until the chapter drops #but that should be sometime in the next week or so #votes for void

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luxwing · 4 years

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I hope everyone who goes to vote remembers to wear a fucking mask and not to wear one with a campaign, party slogan or candidate name on it since any sort of political propaganda is illegal within so many yards of a polling station.

And also wear gloves if it's electronic voting and bring your own pen if you have to sign in. Just because we're catering to a defunct system one day a year doesn't mean we can't also prevent the dispersal of germs while we're at it. Find out when early voting is for your county and get there as early as possible if youre able so you're around the fewest people and spend the least amount of time in line. The more people who turn out for early voting the less people will be crammed in there on election day.

Also, turn your phone's off or put them on silent and don't take them out while you're in the building. Some places might turn anyone away if they suspect you're photographing your ballots. Also having your phone go off in a polling place is kinda fuckin rude ngl. Theater rules - emergency use only and don't be a dick.

This isn't a post telling you who or what to vote for just saying act courteous and be smart. Do what you can to make the process as easy and quick as possible for everyone involved: have your IDs and any registration required in hand and ready at the door, keep your mask OVER YOUR NOSE, keep your phone off and keep your hands clean. Vote early if you're able to and don't put it off just because you can.

Anyway here's a picture of my cat Genie who is actually old enough to vote but won't be because she's a fucking cat

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feelingbluepolitics · 5 years

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"Georgia [has] become the first state to rely entirely on electronic ballot marking devices. While this may seem like a simple government procurement issue, the passage of the voting machine reform bill provides a sweetheart deal to voting machine vendors while setting aside election security and integrity.

..."The bill should be considered within the context of the long history of voter disenfranchisement, suppression, and intimidation in the state—including under former Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is now the governor. As secretary of state, Kemp oversaw a wide web of activity targeted at disenfranchising and restricting marginalized communities’ access to the ballot box.

..."Election integrity advocates, members of the public, and cybersecurity experts have been unwavering in their insistence that the safest and best demonstration of voter intent is a hand-marked paper ballot. After Kemp established the Secure, Accessible & Fair Elections (SAFE) Commission 'to study options for Georgia’s next voting system' last spring, experts advocated for hand-marked paper ballots to be made the primary means of voting in the state. Twenty-four cybersecurity experts sent a detailed letter to the commission in January over concerns about the vulnerability of touchscreen electronic voting machines and encouraging the adoption of hand-marked paper ballots.

..."The taint of corruption undermines any possible confidence voters can have in their elected officials. A recent poll conducted by the Public Policy Polling found that 74 percent of Georgians were 'concerned about one of Governor Brian Kemp’s top staffers being a former lobbyist for a voting machine company.'

..."The rush to purchase these machines raises real concerns about what interest is being served.

..."In a state with rapidly changing demographics, ignoring calls for verifiable voting systems that improve access and security help the majority hold on to its crumbling power. With a state government and legislature actively denying access to a free and fair system of elections, for many, federal intervention is the only remedy."

See also:

["thoughts as to solutions are discussed in a separate piece linked here: https://link.medium.com/53xrp8U2IZ."]

"Just two vendors — Election Systems & Software, LLC (ES&S) and Dominion Voting — account for eighty percent of US election equipment. Thus, corrupt insiders or foreign hackers could wreak havoc on elections throughout the United States by infiltrating either of these vendors.

"ES&S and Dominion are both owned by private equity, which means we don’t know who funds and controls them. And what little we do know is concerning.

"ES&S, which by itself accounts for 44 percent of US election equipment, received its initial financing from the families of Nelson Bunker Hunt and Howard Ahmanson, Jr., right-wing billionaires.

..."Hunt and Ahmanson were also prominent early members of the Council for National Policy, a networking group for the Religious Right and billionaires whose recent members have included Kelly Anne Conway, Steve Bannon, Mike Pence, Richard DeVos, Wayne LaPierre of the NRA, Robert and Rebekka Mercer, and Bob Dallas, a convicted embezzler whose nonprofits have been closely linked to massive voter data leaks.

..."The control cards that transfer the vote totals from the precincts to the central tabulators are another potential target for bad actors. From 2000 through at least 2017, ES&S got its control cards from a company called Vikant whose owner refused to tell an investigative reporter where the cards were made.

"Meanwhile, as reported in Bloomberg and Salon, ES&S (Diebold) voting machines in both Tennessee and Georgia seem to be 'losing' large numbers of votes from predominantly black neighborhoods. It was concerned citizens, rather than election officials or campaigns, who discovered these problems by reviewing precinct totals (as shown on precinct poll tapes). The missing black votes in Georgia are now the subject of a citizen-funded lawsuit filed by the nonprofit Coalition for Good Governance. The House has opened an investigation as well.

"Voting machine vendors have an alarming history of deception. In July 2018, cybersecurity journalist Kim Zetter reported that, despite ES&S’s prior denials, ES&S’s election-management system (EMS) computers were sold with remote access software between 2000 and 2006. ES&S won’t say where it installed the remote access software that it lied about, but insists it’s been removed.

"ES&S’s installation of remote access software in EMS computers is a big deal because these are centralized county or state computers used to program all voting machines in the county or state. According to Zetter’s reporting, some of these computers also include the central tabulators that aggregate all precinct totals.

"But the lies don’t end there. On August 8, 2019, Zetter further reported that these ES&S EMS computers connect to the internet, something else that ES&S had said was not the case but that leading election-security experts had long suspected.

..."Meanwhile, ES&S installed wireless modems in ballot scanners in Florida, Wisconsin, and Illinois starting in about 2015. Although some election officials claimed that these modems do not connect to the internet, this too was a lie.

..."In terms of solutions, experts say that the only way to know for sure if electronic vote totals have been altered is to compare a hand tally of the paper ballots to the electronic totals.

"But over the past several years vendors, have changed the meaning of 'paper ballot' to include not only unhackable hand marked paper ballots, but also hackable machine-marked summary cards with barcodes from expensive new electronic ballot marking devices (BMDs). The barcode, which voters can’t read, is the only part of the printout counted as your vote.

..."Despite objections from leading election-security experts and advocates, jurisdictions throughout the United States are flocking to these new barcode BMDs and purchasing them for use by all voters. It appears that corruption is enabling and fueling many of these decisions. Here are some indicators of this corruption:

- "ES&S has donated $30,000 to the Republican State Leadership Committee — which houses the Republican Secretary of State’s Association — since 2013.

- "Both ES&S and Dominion have made donations to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign. He, in turn, is blocking all federal election-security legislation, including the SAFE Act, which would ban barcode BMDs altogether."

- And, many additional indicators as itemized in the article.

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dunnystuff · 3 years

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Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2021 11:23 AM

Subject: Rich's Blog

Hi to all -

Texas

State representative James Talarico (D) , who has a Masters in Education from Harvard, claims that 'modern science' shows that there are at least six genders, not the two we have known since the beginning of time. As it turns out, he was referring to a study that explained several very rare medical conditions, which produced physical abnormalities. Of course, he would like you to believe that these were the result of personal choice, not accidents of nature.

Houston

The DA there has decided to 'pardon' George Floyd for some of his previous crimes. That means we can now elevate him to sainthood. Please stop burning our cities and shooting people.

Investigate Covid

This gets better and better. One of the largest investors in the vaccines for this is Bill Gates. So, he has set up a committee to investigate this ailment and the treatments for it. Gosh, I wonder what they will discover?

Harry Truman

On March 12, 1947, Truman spoke to congress. Growing up in the shadow of FDR, Truman adopted some of the same ideas about the imperial presidency, and the use of Executive Orders to bypass congress and the courts. As he prepared for another of his agenda items, he told congress that "The American way of life is under assault by foreign powers that used terror and oppression, a controlled press, and radio. Fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedom."

Does that sound familiar? Things never change much, do they?

Personal Identifying Information

We are concerned about Big Tech, and how totally intrusive they are into our personal lives and business. So is Europe. Only, they did something about it. Tech companies like Google and Facebook are not allowed to collect any information that can identify an individual, or target them for advertising, or sell their data. They get billion-dollar fines when caught.

Think of this like an analogy - it is okay to count the number of cars passing a certain point. That is information that can be used to plan roads and fix problems. But it is not okay to collect tag numbers of those cars, or take photos of the car and driver. You cannot target that driver for ads specific to his car or dress, or any other thing.

We could do that here, if congress was not on the take.

Arizona

The ballot recount is back! Democrats do not want this. The team will examine all ballots for all sorts of things. Are they on correct ballot paper? Are mail in ballots marked with folds? Are marks made by hand, or printed by machine? Are envelopes date stamped by the post office? And many other things. Democrats fear this, as it could reverse the election, which was won by a very slim margin. So, they filed a suit to block this review. The judge ruled that they could challenge the legality of a recount, but if they lost that challenge, then the party would be liable for all legal and court costs, plus a million dollar fine. They withdrew the challenge. But they just cannot let this happen! Other states are also considering a recount, like Georgia. Georgia had far more fraud than Arizona (best estimates are that 600,000 phony votes were cast - and Biden won the state by only 10,000.) So, democrats are 'judge shopping' to find one who will rule in their favor, as they did on the first round of challenges. Amazing how those Obama appointed judges all could not see any evidence of fraud, etc. Guess who is at the top of their wish list? A relative of Bill Gates.

Notice that Biden came right out and announced his mask mandates for everyone, forever. And, his plans to spend, spend, spend trillions of dollars we do not have. Got to get in all those agenda items before this election is overturned and he is gone, along with his handlers and lackeys.

Kamala Harris

The CARE packages given to illegal children include books - and one written by Kamala. Some wonder if she is profiting from this mess. Kamala says NO. And, the people who provide these kits also say that the books were 'donated', and no taxpayer money was spent on them, and Kamala did not make a profit. Well, at least not directly, and in a straightforward way. There are lots of ways to 'encourage' someone to purchase books, and then donate them via a third party.

Tennessee

Governor Bill Lee has announced an end to mask mandates and all the rest. He says that the pandemic is past, and this is now a manageable health condition. Fauci turned purple on hearing that news.

Alexandria, VA

Marlo Gonzeles, 26, died after being held down on the ground by police officers. This happened about the same time as the verdict in the Derek Chauvin case. Marlo was drunk and disorderly, very combative, and creating trouble all around. When pinned down by police, he expired.

Rudy Giuliani

Feds raided his NY apartment, seized his computers and electronics, etc. They are still seeking some evidence that Trump did something they did not like, and that Rudy helped him. I wonder if the officers wore black, and had the double lightning bolt symbol on their collars?

Summer Travel

Lots of people are thinking of taking to the road this summer, after this long year. But there may be a problem with gas shortages. Well, not the gas itself, there is plenty on hand. But there is a real shortage of drivers for the tanker trucks that fill your local stations. About 10% of fuel trucks are parked, for lack of drivers. Plan ahead, and avoid delays waiting for fuel.

Seal those Records!

The latest proposal from the looney left is to seal all previous criminal records, so that they are not used to impact, say, job applications, credit reports and employment opportunities for all those convicted of low-level non-violent crimes. I don't know, those are things I would want to know about a potential employee. A thief is just as deadly to business as an angry person who attacks others.

Sam Johnson

Sam was CEO of an on-line medical service called Visu Wells. He went to the prom to take photos, and came across a male wearing a floor length red dress, slit up the sides to show a little leg. Sam was not impressed, and said 'slanderous' things like 'you are a male, not a female. This is not manly.' The snowflake was so upset, he cried, and complained. Sam was fired from his job, for his 'insensitive' comments.

Delmar, Delaware

Here in Biden's back yard, a police officer was called because a man was threatening, and attacking his elderly neighbors. Due to 'defund the police', only one officer was sent. The perp, Randon Wilkerson, 30, was covered in gang tattoos, and trying to find a gun in the home of his elderly neighbors, so he could steal it. He had a rap sheet with 38 arrests for things like assault, burglary, and other crimes. The officer was sneak attacked, blindsided when he arrived, and severely beaten. Most of the neighbors, who had been watching all this, cowered in their homes. When the officer did not respond to calls, other officers came, and found a badly injured officer. They also easily found and arrested Randon. What sort of 'justice' will Biden give either party?

Rich

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stone-man-warrior · 4 years

Text

June 17, 2020: 3:24 pm:

Neighborhood Assessment: It’s quiet outside. The Sun is out today, it’s a beautiful day, a slight breeze brings cool air. There are peacocks at Sunflower terror cell making the required announcement to the neighboring terror cells that I stepped outside, and was within view of the people who control the peacocks. Think of the peacocks, and the sound they make, as bullhorn being used to make sure everyone can hear what has been said. That is how the peacocks are used at the Sunflower terror cell on Russell Road. There were some strange bird calls today, and last night. Today the strange bird calls were like the ones a crow makes, but not exactly. The new bird call today came from behind the 520 address in the woods. That other new bird call was shrill sort of repeating sound, fast chirping, and that came from the direction of the Strong terror cell and from behind the Monroe terror cell, yesterday. Yesterday at dusk, the neighborhood began to show signs of aggressive behavior. The sound of trucks, motorcycles, quads, and other sounds of revving engines, all coming from a direction that included the part of Jackpine that includes where my house is on the street, and towards Freeberg’s, and Dietricks terror cells. It was a reminder of the way things have been in the past, roaring engines of all kinds used as terror tools, for communication, and noise cover. I am still very sore from the arrest on Monday. I can still feel the place on my back where the officers knee struck me repeatedly, and on my neck where I was hit, and pressure applied there at my left side of my neck and shoulder. I am concerned about my knee, it took many years for that to heal from old wounds, and other people keep targeting that knee, over and over, and over again, such that the wound is never going to heal. Terror bastards like to use hyper extension when they want to hurt someone, and that is what is going on with that injury. Repetitive hyper-extensions over course of many years has been applied to my knees.

There are no doctors available in Oregon anymore. The medical services are all terror controlled, only serve the needs of the terror army, and SAG members. They get the best medical treatment available, while the US Citizens are Victimized, tortured, farmed of assets, killed, and then replaced with impostor look-a-likes who assume the identities of the murdered US Citizen Victims. The impostors vote the way they are instructed to vote, on both sides of the voting ballot, for SAG shill candidates who are cast onto the ballots, by SAG leadership. I am going to be sore for a while, a doctor cannot change that anyway. A doctor could make me feel more comfortable, but not completely pain free. SAG likes it when US Citizens are sent to a doctor, especially when the patient is insured with Medicare, and has Part-D. That kind of patient, helps to keep SAG members very comfortable, all of the time. Think of Ironside, meets Marcus Wellby, MD, to understand, then switch to McGiver, for ingenuity. Get yourself a shoe-horn, and think some more. ==============================

I’ll explain about how what to expect at the Jo-Co jail if you happen to be sent there. It was not as bad of an experience, as it could have been. It could have been much worse, there might be a message in that idea, so, I’ll just say what it looks like in there, and how the booking procedure is done. When you arrive in the sheriff car, there is a gate, the officer says what is going on, and why he or she is there. ��Co-Operative Male in Custody”, the answer was a repeat of what was said, and then acknowledgement. The car is driven into a garage, and the garage door closes behind the car. There is doors there, that lead into the booking area. Once inside, a search is done there, the officers ask some health questions, so they don’t get AIDS or a virus. Any jewelry, and other accessories, are bagged right there at the search area. Then, into another room where there is a toilet, and a shower, a bench, sink, and coat-rack on the wall. The shower does not work. Maybe the deputy has to turn that on at a master control. The room is about 12 by eight feet. There, you remove your clothing, and are given some jail clothes to wear. The intake officer has a visual search through a window opening in the wall, a property receipt is signed there at the window, detailed, items listed. Some more health questions are asked, this time it’s more about medical history. The door opens, and it’s off to the booking area, a bigger area. From the time the car pulled into the garage, to the time the jail clothes are put on, is about thirty to forty-five minutes. It was done expeditiously, did not take all day. Then, into “Holding” area. There are a number of small cells, I was put into room number one, about a 16 by 20 feet room. Everything is super heavy duty and indestructible in there. The whole jail, is super heavy duty, nothing is ever going to need repair inside of the jail. Steel, concrete, block, and stainless steel, is what the place is made of. In Holding Room One, there were Two other unfortunate men. The room is suitable for three men, to lay down, if one uses the floor. Others could also fit, and lay down on concrete, while waiting for the remainder of the booking process to happen. I was asked if I wanted some food, and/or a blanket. I took the food, not knowing how long I might be there. I declined the blanket, but one was handed to me through a hole in the door that is made for passing blankets and food through. I was asked to fill out four different forms of information, everything there is to know about ID, body markings, some more health questions, and very detailed financial information was asked on the forms. Marital Status questions were repeated on each form, and some family and emergency contact information was asked for on the forms. I was asked to come out of the Holding room three times. Once to sign the forms and swear to the accuracy. Once to have a photo taken, and I asked that the intake officer also take a photo of some scarring that I have, in anticipation of further arrests in the future, and making sure that the ones who make the arrest are knowledgeable of areas vulnerability. And one more time I was asked to leave the room for fingerprinting, which is done electronically, with a computer scanning machine, at the initial intake area, where the jewelry was taken, and initial search was done after coming out of the sheriff car in the garage. At about 4:30 pm, I was inside my house reading and writing, at 9:00 pm, I was having my fingerprints taken at the Sheriff’s office, County Jail. I asked for a phone call three times. My question was heard, and I was told there would be a time for a call. That last time I asked, was during the fingerprinting, it was just after 9:00 pm. The printing officer told me what my bail was, and explained that the banks are all closed, and the phones close at 9:00 pm anyway, so, maybe tomorrow a phone call can happen, but I was also told that I was going to be going to court the next day, so, phone call won’t help. I explained that I have animals to care for, and no one knows that I was there, that I wanted to at least tell someone where I am. I was told that I cannot tell someone where I am on a jail phone call, you can only talk about bail, on a jail phone call. My pinky finger on my left hand, refused to scan for a print. Many scans were made, but it just would not scan. There was a manual override on the software to make the machine accept the scan as it was taken. Back into holding cell one, I went.

(The sound of big trucks outside tells me that Centurylink internet service has decided that what I am writing about right now, requires that Pacific Power send Dietrick are to make a lot of scary truck sounds around my home. It’s a staple of terror, to use what they have available, to do the terror, and they have a lot of big noisy trucks to teach the citizens with, over time. Big noisy trucks are driven by young strong construction crews and road builders are on board also. That is what the message is.) I think I will stop for writing for now. end terror report: 4:52 pm.

====================================

(I am doing something I never do, I used the edit feature here on Tumblr to continue saying about the booking process at Jo-Co County Jail. Begin again: 5:34 pm.)

The intake finger print officer took me back to holding cell one, a different way than the way we had gone to the finger print machine. We went through a hallway, and into a large, dark, and cold place, another room that was very similar to the booking area, which consists of a centralized service desk, with counter tops all around on three sides. So this other room, was a duplicate of that centered service counter booking area, darker, and noticeably cold. We went out of there, down another hallway, and into holding room one. My guess is there is the holding area for newly arriving people who have been arrested, and, this other cold, dark place, also with some holding rooms, that serves the actual main jail inmates in some way.

So, I was in holding room one with those two other men, no one spoke to one another. The two other men, looked like they were dead for the first half hour I was in there filling out the forms, I had to check to see if they were breathing. Finally, they both moved a bit. Each one was laying and completely covered with the blanket that is offered in there. Each of them was called out of holding room one, twice while I was there, and then returned. After a short time after finger printing, I was called to be “housed”. A body scan is taken at that time, electronically, with a large machine. It has a conveyor belt on it and some hand rails. You stand there, and the machine moves you through there, on the conveyor belt. Instructions are given to stand a particular way. At that point, it would be very easy to do the wrong thing. I felt that it was very important that I do exactly as instructed, listen carefully, and not be distracted by actions of others nearby, at any time while in the jail. Words are more important then visual movements, while in jail. The body scanner machine is big, made of stainless steel, with a conveyor, it has a computer attached to it on the service counter side where the officers are at. I suppose it’s like the machines at airports for looking at luggage, but that one, looks inside of people. I was asked if I had a implant of some kind in my right kidney area. Another officer was asked to look at the scan, and she could see no implant, while the other officer said he had seen something in my kidney area. We got past that part, I was frisked against a US American Flag poster, made of paper. I was given a cup, something in a tube, may have been toothpast, but was clear, like shampoo. I did not look at it closely. There was spoon, a pen, some bar soap, and paper with my booking number on it and some other information, that paper somehow is not in the things I came home with, it was either lost, taken from where I put it while Housed in jail, or, was taken at the time of release by an officer. There was a small ticket sort of paper in the cup, has information necessary to “Create a Turnkey Account” at the jail. And, a roll of toilet paper was given to me. A giant size Sheriff deputy, not a jailer, passed by me at that time, and asked “How are you doing?”. I was given a bed roll. Off we went, down a hall with a lot of doors along the hallway. My guess, is those are holding rooms for one person from the main jail if they cause problems. We passed by those, then, I was given a mat to sleep on. It was more stuff than I could carry, but I managed, and we got to the jail main housing, the jailer said “Places”, then the door opened, I went in, and the door closed behind me. I had been given a bunk number. There were men seated at some tables watching a television. In unison, there was a lot of “Que pasa?”, “Howzit going”, “Hellooooo”.... I replied, “Greetings all, I’ve been better, thanks for asking”. I went to my bunk. Three others helped me find it, and they also showed me how the sheet is supposed to fit onto the mattress pad. It was like trying to cram ten pounds of stuff, into a five pound bag, it didn’t work very well, and took three jailed men, and a new guy, to get the mattress, into the sheet. It’s like a sock, fits on the mattress pad like a sock. All was good. The people were not mean, not too nice, it was ok.

A guard came through the jail a number of times during the night. I spent my time quietly. The mattress pads are not very thick, and the bunks are made with heavy steel. There was no sleeping for me, it was very uncomfortable, and I was too sore to sleep on that. There is an upper, and a lower bunk, I saw only one person sleeping on an upper bunk. There was at least one lower bunk with no one on it, and the place was pretty much filled up with people sleeping on the lower bunks. There was only one person that I could see sleeping on the upper part of the jail housing area. I estimate there were 33 men in jail while I was there. No one else came into the jail while I was there. Next day, I had a look around. There is an upper sleeping area, and a lower one. The lower one has thirty-two bunks. I don’t know how any are upstairs. There is a shower area, has curtains, somewhat private. There is a restroom area. All is made heavy duty and unbreakable.

There are some phones on the wall that require an account with that “Turnkey” account number I was given. There is a computer on the wall that works like “Jail eMail”, messages can be sent and received there. I was told you can request medical services with it, and talk to a jailer with it, see your court scheduling and some other similar kinds of basic communication can be done on the Jail Email. There is another electronic gizmo on the wall also, no one touched that one, but the message machine was something that I saw being used. I did not see anyone using the phones. There are some books on a book cart, not many. Seven large stainless steel picnic tables are solidly bolted to the ground. There are no windows in jail. There are some skylights, with bars over them, the ceiling is about thirty feet high. The jail is about one-hundred by seventy-five feet inside the main jail where the people are kept. There are some acoustic panels on the walls to help with the echo, reverberation, quality of the sound that can be heard in the room. Even with the acoustic panels, when information is spoken over the intercom, such as a call for a particular person to come to the front door service area, the sound quality of the room itself prevents what can be heard. The people in there, have become very attentive to announcements made by intercom. The jailers do not repeat what they say, it is said only one time. It turns out that all of those items that were given to me, the cup, spoon, toilet paper and such, are very important while in jail. Breakfast came in the morning, cereal cornflakes and some corn bread, watery milk, and some honey.

The breakfast treys are made very thick, and are hollow. They are more than one inch in thickness. It looks like a whole stack of treys, but is only one, hollow, trey. The jail was clean. It’s well built, never going to fall down, ever. There is a lot that could be said about the people in the jail. This is not the place to say any of that. At no time, did I feel threatened by anyone in the jail main housing area. No one touched me while I was in jail. I spoke to others for a total of about two minutes while I was in jail. The people in the jail were of mixed race, Latino, and white. There were no people of other heritage that I could see. My recommendation for being at jail, is to do as you are told to do, listen carefully, follow instructions. Don’t make eye contact, don’t make hand or other signaling, only speak if someone else speaks to you first, and then, be courteous, without being overly friendly, or overly rude. End terror report: 6:55 pm.

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reading-writing-revolution · 4 years

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Heather Cox Richardson:

July 31, 2020 (Friday)

Everything now coming from the White House is about Trump’s reelection. While all presidential candidates want to win, they are usually able to accept the idea of a loss. Trump, though, has gone so far as to suggest delaying the election, an unprecedented step which would buy him some time in the hope a coronavirus vaccine would help the U.S. crawl out of the hole it’s in and turn his popularity around.

In his quest for reelection, he is attacking the idea of mail-in voting, although he himself has used it often—his distinction between mail-in voting and absentee voting is imaginary. While the Republican Party has traditionally applauded mail-in voting, which enables seniors who tend to vote Republican to cast a ballot more easily, this year it runs the risk of permitting Democrats, who are afraid of catching Covid-19 at a polling place, to vote. Low voter turnout favors Republicans. So Trump is pushing the idea that “Mail-In Ballots will lead to MASSIVE electoral fraud and a RIGGED 2020 Election.” There is no evidence that this is true.

When his tweet yesterday about delaying the election backfired, he turned to another angle of attack on mail-in voting, insisting that the election must be decided on Election Day itself, November 3. He tweeted: “Must know Election results on the night of the Election, not days, months, or even years later!”

In fact, there is no law that says election results must come the same day as the election. Historically, they used to take days. Votes need to be counted carefully. Some states permit any ballots that are postmarked by Election Day, and they take time to arrive. Provisional ballots need to be examined. Modern media channels like to see results quickly because it makes for good television, but that opens up the problem of vote tallies changing after an election result is called. This year, since significant numbers of ballots might come in after Election Day, it is reasonable to expect a final tally might come days after November 3.

What appears to be going on in Trump’s tweets is an attempt to rig the mechanics of the election to enable him to win by manipulating the ballots and counting. This, in turn, is leading to an attack on the United States Postal Service in order to delay or prevent the delivery of ballots.

Here’s the story:

On May 6, the board of governors of the United States Postal Service appointed Louis DeJoy to the position of Postmaster General. The board of governors consists entirely of Trump appointees, since the Senate stopped confirming appointees to it during President Barack Obama’s term, and began to confirm them again in 2018. DeJoy was a top donor to President Trump and the Republican National Committee, giving more than $2 million since 2016. For two decades the Postmaster General has risen from within the ranks of the agency, but DeJoy has no experience with the USPS. He was appointed after the vice chair of the board of governors, Democrat David Williams, resigned, citing the attempts of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to politicize the traditionally non-political USPS.

The pandemic is crippling the revenue of the agency since most mail is sent by businesses, which suddenly shut down in March. The USPS is projecting a $13 billion revenue shortfall by the end of September. In an early coronavirus relief bill, Congress allowed the agency to borrow $10 billion from the Treasury Department to help stem the bleeding. But Mnuchin refused to loan the money without terms that would turn over much of the operation of the USPS to the Treasury Department. Williams and the other Democrat on the board refused, but the three Republicans on the board were open to at least some of Mnuchin’s terms.

On July 14, DeJoy put major changes in place. These, he said, were intended to cut costs in order to keep the USPS afloat, but this explanation is suspicious since as soon as Trump was sworn in, his Office of Management and Budget produced a report that called for privatizing the USPS.

The emphasis on DeJoy's changes is significantly less time spent managing the mail. For example, letter carriers must now leave mail behind at distribution centers if it would delay the completion of their routes according to new, tight, schedules. Traditionally, letter carriers make multiple delivery trips to ensure letters and packages are delivered on time; now the materials will wait for the next day. There will no longer be any overtime, and postal hours are being cut. Already, post offices are seeing a growing backlog of mail.

Trump has long criticized the USPS, apparently both because he blames it for the financial success of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, which is highly critical of Trump, and because he would like to privatize the agency’s highly valuable assets.

The USPS is self-funding; it does not receive support from tax dollars, and it is required to serve the entire country. It employs more than 630,000 workers, including a large proportion of people of color, women, and more than 100,000 military veterans. It has a valuable fleet of vans and real estate, but more than that, it has proprietary information highly sought after by private mail carriers. It does not, in fact, undercharge Amazon or any other large customer; by law it cannot do so.

On Wednesday, the USPS took a step toward Trump's demands when it agreed to give Mnuchin the agency’s proprietary information on its ten largest service contracts, including that of Amazon, FedEx, and UPS, in exchange for getting the $10 billion loan it needs to survive.

Trump’s war on the agency has been helped by a longstanding crisis in the USPS, stemming from a provision in the 2006 overhaul of the agency that required it to prepay the health benefits of its retirees, beginning with ten years of payments of about $5 billion a year. This requirement was pushed hard by Republicans, and it is unusual for any company.

Under it, the agency immediately began to lose money, especially as the recession hit, and then as Americans increasingly began to use electronic communications. Since 2012, the USPS has not been able to meet its prefunding requirement, but without it, the agency would have made a modest operating profit every year since 2013. The huge prefunding burden has also meant the USPS has not been able to invest in modernizing and upgrading its facilities.

In February, the House of Representatives voted to eliminate the prefunding requirement, but a companion Senate bill was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, where Chair Ron Johnson (R-WI) is focused not on the USPS, but on his investigation of Hunter Biden.

The USPS is popular. Ninety percent of Americans have a favorable view of it. If Congress allows the USPS to collapse and private companies take over the mail business, we can expect what we have seen with private internet providers: thorough service in urban areas that will turn a healthy profit, either none or very expensive service in rural areas.

Knowing how their constituents will react to the end of the mail system that was established in our Constitution, congress members have, in the past, been reluctant to destroy it. But now, the 2020 election might well hinge on mail-in ballots.

It is interesting to note that, for all the Republican Senators who spoke up to reject Trump’s call for a delayed election, not one of them is speaking up at this crucial moment for protecting the United States Postal Service, the agency on which many of us will depend to deliver our vote to election officials in November.

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is6621 · 5 years

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My Two Cents on Voting Technology - Jordan Laugeni

Don’t worry this is not a political argument. However, I think we can all agree that as of now, suffrage is one of the fundamental pieces to our democracy. The last time I was surprised around a voting fact was when I heard that African Americans were not given the right to vote until 1870 and women not until 1920! To me this was extreme given that both groups were considered U.S. citizen’s long before those years. In recent elections, there has been so much talk about vote recounts, accusation of miscounting, and/or investigations into hacking voting systems. My question was, what system do we use for voting that this is even possible. It turns out that since states regulate their voting, the amount of investment into vote collection and counting technology varies state to state! The fact that the system is not federally funded and standardized is crazy to me. We live in the Big Data economy. Why is our system stuck in the past!?

So to catch you up to speed on my research here’s what we have for voting machines in the U.S. on the menu...

Optical Scan Paper Ballot Systems: Voters mark their votes by filling in an oval, box, or similar shape on a paper ballot. Later, the paper ballots are scanned either at the polling place or at a central location.

Well, I guess this makes sense if it works for the SATs why not use it for the voting system. OMR technology which reads the light being emitted through the sheets of paper started being used for testing around the 1930s. Some drawbacks, you have to use a # 2 pencil to get a good read. Also, it requires someone to handle the data on the sheets. That may be a person to collect it, count it, so on and so forth. This is often fixed by having the person insert the scantron sheet into the OMR in the voter booth themselves. Upside is, it is accurate technology, very cheap, and would need direct contact to be hacked since it is not connected elsewhere.

Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) Systems: DRE systems employ computers that record votes directly into the computers' memory. These interfaces may incorporate touchscreens, dials, or mechanical buttons. The voter's choices are stored by the computer on a cartridge or hard drive. Some DRE systems are also equipped with a printer, which the voter may use to confirm his or her choices before committing them to the computer's memory. The paper records can be preserved to be tabulated in case of an audit or recount.

This is a newer technology that didn’t really start picking up adoption in the U.S. until 2004. I like this one because it blends new technology, old technology, and is offline. The biggest pro is that it speeds up voter counting by a long shot However, it is super complicated so if it does malfunction its hard to track where it went wrong. If they were to designate this as the modern system I believe there would need to be a lot of updating. For instance, some of these systems have a paper trail and some don’t. However, with a lot of investment I think this method could be valid.

Ballot Marking Devices and Systems: These systems are designed to help disabled voters who might be unable to vote using other methods. Most devices utilize a touchscreen along with audio or other accessibility features. Rather than recording the vote into the computer's memory, the ballot is instead marked on paper and later tabulated manually.

I’m sure this works functionality wise, but they still are not standardized here. There should be one system that works for everyone not different systems for people with disabilities.

Punch Card Voting Systems: These devices employ a paper card and a small clipboard device. A voter punches holes in the card to mark his or her vote. The pattern of holes in the card indicates the votes cast. The ballot may then be placed in a box to be tabulated manually or scanned by a computer later.

This is just an out of date scantron.

My two cents!

So we need to pick one. For me, I think the only valid one to be the standardized system would be the DRE with a paper trail, but it would be too expensive. So now what’s the solution?

While studying abroad in Florence, Italy I studied the history of Italian Renaissance. We spent a lot of time on the Florentine Commune, similar to Congress in the U.S. The system they used for voting, was each member of the Commune used a stone and placed it into a jar to cast a vote for Yes or No. I know that’s primitive, but it got me thinking.

What if we used pennies and live feeds for our voter system! The system would entail you go through the same process to make sure that you are a citizen. Then you would take a penny and you would insert it into a slot for whichever person you were voting for. That process would have a physical counter, and camera footage so that people could compare the insert with the output. The output would be the penny falling into a large dump truck sitting on a truck scale. Each dump truck would represent a different candidate. The weight in pennies would declare the winner in each area and could be donated to a cause!

So why pennies?

They all way the same amount and are not valuable anymore. The U.S. mint declared that April 1, 2020 they will stop producing pennies. So out with the old use case and in with the new?

Just a thought. Even if you think my ideas dumb, I hope we can agree that we need to find at least one system that works!

https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_methods_and_equipment_by_state

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-birth-of-scantrons-the-bane-of-standardized-testin-5908833

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRE_voting_machine

http://cultureandcommunication.org/deadmedia/index.php/Hollerith_Punch_Card

https://cashmoneylife.com/us-mint-cease-penny-production/

#is5521

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goldenwestborn · 5 years

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Brothels in Nevada

**CONTENT WARNING FOR THIS POST**

There’s a lawsuit that is seeking to outlaw brothels in Nevada, and so for those that are unaware here’s some information on Nevada’s brothels:

As of February 28, 2018 there are now 21 legal brothels in Nevada.

Here’s some of the things experienced in brothels:

“A grotesque exercise in the dehumanization of women is carried out routinely at Sheri’s Ranch, a legal brothel about an hour’s ride outside of Vegas. There the women have to respond like Pavlov’s dog to an electronic bell that might ring at any hour of the day or night. At the sound of the bell, the prostitutes have five minutes to get to an assembly area where they line up, virtually naked, and submit to a humiliating inspection by any prospective customer who has happened to drop by.”

"I saw a grated iron door in one brothel," says Farley. "The women's food was shoved through the door's steel bars between the kitchen and the brothel area. One pimp starved a woman he considered too fat. She made a friend outside the brothel who would throw food over the fence for her."

“Sheriffs in some counties of Nevada also enforce practices that are illegal. In one city, for example, prostitutes are not allowed to leave the brothel after 5pm, are not permitted in bars, and, if entering a restaurant, must use a back door and be accompanied by a man.”

Illegal activities in brothels/by brothel owners:

I was unable to find any recent reports in regards to underage girls, however in 1998, two pimps place at least four underage girls from Oregon in Nevada’s brothels. Detective Greg Harvey of the Lane Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team in Eugene, Oregon had the following to say: "Never buy the line that nobody under 18 works in (Nevada brothels)," he said. "It's happening."

A former brothel owner sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on child pornography charges.

An audit conducted by the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office on four brothels found several license and immigration violations.

Statistics:

81% of women working in Nevada’s brothels want to leave the industry.

An increase in demand for commercial sex leads to more sex trafficking, and Nevada drives this point home: At least 5,016 individuals are sold for sex in an average month in Nevada. Nevada’s number of prostituted persons per capita is 63% larger than the next largest state of New York, and more than twice as many as in California.

Drawing on information from postings on the website Backpage.com, researchers determined that only 28 percent of sex providers in Nevada "appear to be adults working independently with no risk of trafficking."

Additional Information:

One researcher found that at Mustang Ranch all the women were addicted to drugs, with “quite a few” embarking on their substance abuse once at the ranch.

Julie Bindel wrote the following on her first visit to Nevada’s brothels in 2011: “When I arrived, Hof exclaimed, “Any publicity is good to sell pussy!” During my visit, I saw Hof treat the women as merchandise, and witnessed first-hand his employees’ misery. Hof referred to the women as “hoes,” and, as several attested to me, he would often grab their breasts and crotches when they walked past. The women who worked in his brothels were required to line up whenever a john appeared, and were told they were not to smile or move; instead, they should stand very still, staring straight ahead. I also witnessed Hof demand sex from any of the women who took his fancy.”

Age can play a part in how much women make, there is a preference for younger looking women.

Resources:

Politics and Misogyny

It's like you sign a contract to be raped

Panel: Brothels aid sex trafficking

Pimps force underage girls to work in Nevada brothels, Oregon police say

What We Know About Sex Trafficking, Prostitution, and Sexual Exploitation in the U.S.

A Ballot on the Brothels of Nevada

LCSO Internal Audit Report Brothels

Prostitution and Trafficking in 9 Countries: Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Let Hof’s death ring in a prostitution-free era

New study: Nevada has biggest commercial sex market of any U.S. state

Nevada’s Commercial Sex Trade

Lamar Odom, Nevada Brothels, and Human Trafficking

Podcast: Are Legal Brothels in Nevada Safe and Here to Stay?

Books:

Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections - Melissa Farley

Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women - Alexa Albert

#anti prostitution #anti sex industry #sex trafficking #sex industry #radical feminsm #radfem #resources: nevada brothels

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solacekames · 5 years

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SNELLVILLE, GEORGIA – Hundreds of voters in Gwinnett County, Georgia, a Democratic stronghold of predominantly minority voters, waited more than four hours to vote Tuesday because of malfunctioning electronic voting machines.

At Annistown Elementary School, a precinct serving a heavily African-American community in the town of Snellville, Jadana Donely said she arrived around 7:30 a.m., shortly after polls opened, but didn’t cast a ballot until close to noon. Donely said there was a lot of confusion when she got to the polling location about the reason for the long line.

“As soon as we walked through the door, it was just information that the machines were down,” the 45-year-old black voter said. “They didn’t go into specifics. And then maybe about 20 minutes in, then they said ‘Oh, the machine is not working’ … Then another 20 minutes after that, it was, ‘The cards are not working.’ And then it was, ‘OK, they have machines on the way.’ And then the machine that got here wasn’t working.”

The problems were resolved by around 11:30 a.m., but long lines lingered well after.

While Donely waited more than four hours to vote, her husband had to leave the line to go to work. He plans to return at the end of the day, but voting advocates expressed concerns that voters who left would not return later Tuesday.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), a Democratic lawmaker who represents the district that includes Snellville, told ThinkProgress he blames Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp for the issues.

“This was definitely foreseeable,” he said. “It’s part of the last gasp attempts by Republicans to maintain their positions of privilege.”

Johnson said it’s not surprising that Kemp and his allies would make it more difficult for voters in Gwinnett County, a majority minority county, to cast ballots.

“This election is crucial,” he added. “We need every vote.”

Johnson and other local Democratic leaders held a press conference outside the polling location Tuesday afternoon, urging voters to do whatever it takes to cast their ballots.

When Jaime Winfree, a white resident of Snellville, heard about wait times of more than four hours, she brought her husband and two young daughters to the polling place to distribute cookies and water to people waiting in line.

“This is not an accident,” she told ThinkProgress. “I know of at least four majority-black polling places in Snellville that had machines that didn’t work for hours, and people left.”

Johnson said he also heard of similar issues at no fewer than four polling locations in Snellville. The same ballot machine issue that plagued Annistown Elementary also occurred at Anderson-Livsey Elementary School and Suwanee Library, both in Gwinnett County, county spokesperson Joe Sorenson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“Across the fourth district we see … many voting precincts are having problems enabling the citizens to vote,” Johnson said. “We knew for the last three weeks that turnout was going to be heavy. And so, it’s important that the citizens not let these glitches defeat them.”

Georgia voters warn midterm election security is in danger

Kemp has repeatedly refused to add a back-up trail to Georgia’s voting system. Georgia is one of just five states that is not using paper ballots in the midterm elections. Voting advocates filed suit against his office, but a judge ruled in September that there was not enough time to change the process before the November vote.

In her ruling, however, the judge said the security concerns are legitimate and warned that “further delay is not tolerable” in “confronting and tackling the challenges before the state’s election balloting system.”

Johnson said he faults Kemp for the issues in Snellville, because of his refusal to “address the archaic nature” of Georgia’s voting system.

“The operation of these voting machines and the technology that supports it is his bailiwick,” he said.

“He has had adequate time to address the archaic nature of this process, and he’s failed to do so. He certainly doesn’t need to be the next governor.”

#brian kemp #hank johnson #snellville #atlanta #georgia

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seymour-butz-stuff · 5 years

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The machines Kemp and Republicans want to purchase are produced by Election Security & Software, which is the country's largest voting machine vendor. However, a recent New Yorker exposé revealed Kemp's deep ties to ES&S run deep and present a conflict of interest. For starters, Kemp's deputy chief of staff is a former lobbyist for ES&S. In addition, his executive counsel was on the company's board of advisers while Kemp was looking at replacement voting machines in 2017, a process that was supposed to be open to competition from other firms yet in reality appears to have been anything but.

Election security advocates have also condemned the plan because the use of electronic machines would cost at least three times what it would take to implement paper ballots that voters fill out themselves, and it's also far less secure. The ES&S machines don't even provide a paper trail for voters to review their choices, since they only create a barcode for officials to scan, something voters obviously wouldn't be able to read.

Election security was a major problem in Georgia's elections last year, when Kemp successfully fought off a lawsuit seeking to force the state to use paper ballots for that election. After the votes were tallied, election experts noticed that there were an unusually high number of undervotes in the lieutenant governor's race, but only among votes cast by electronic machine—at a rate four times higher than among votes who cast by absentee mail ballot.

Once Kemp stole the election, did anyone ever expect the corrupt politicians in Georgia to do anything other than ensure they can keep stealing elections?

Its funny. The systematic oppression of minorities led to huge civil unrest and even open armed rebellion in much of the country. And here we are, roughly 50 years later, and the idiotic assclowns are at it again, only this time trying to suppress anyone who disagrees with them.

How long until the GOP faithful realize they’ve been lied to? That they can’t blame everything on a stupid wall? How much worse do their lives have to get before they finally wake up?

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oselatra · 5 years

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Arkansas becomes casino country

The state rolls the dice with the passage of Issue 4.

On Nov. 6, for the second election cycle in a row, Arkansas voted for vice. Issue 4, a constitutional amendment authorizing four casinos in the state, was approved by 54 percent of voters on Election Day 2018 — an echo of the vote on the medical marijuana amendment that Arkansans approved by a similar margin in 2016.

Note that the state also overwhelmingly supported Republicans both years. Maybe it's the influence of Donald Trump or maybe it's some larger cultural slouch toward Gomorrah, but social conservatism just isn't what it used to be. Many GOP voters in Arkansas seem increasingly comfortable with sinful behavior, at least when it has the potential to be entertaining.

The passage of Issue 4 was no foregone conclusion. Arkansans rejected ballot initiatives that would have amended the state Constitution to allow casino gambling in 1984, 1996 and 2000. That didn't discourage gaming interests from continuing to try: In 2012 and 2016, proposed amendments were placed on the ballot, only to be disqualified by the Arkansas Supreme Court because of problems with the wording of the ballot title.

Issue 4 faced two legal challenges of its own, but in October the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in favor of Driving Arkansas Forward, the committee behind the measure. Little Rock attorney Alex Gray, counsel for Driving Arkansas Forward, said the Supreme Court ruling was half the reason this amendment succeeded when so many other attempts had failed.

"First off, it was actually on the ballot. The ballot title was drafted properly, people could understand it and ... we got good signatures. It was not susceptible to the challenges that we saw with other initiatives," he said.

The campaign for Issue 4 won voters over by framing its arguments in terms of economics. "The second reason is that people are tired of losing our dollars to surrounding states and their casinos," Gray said. "This was not an effort to somehow make Arkansas a 'casino state.' It was not an effort to do this huge expansion of gambling in the state. It was just an attempt to boost our economy, create thousands of jobs and keep our tax dollars here."

Nonetheless, Issue 4 will significantly expand gambling in Arkansas. The measure directs the Arkansas State Racing Commission to issue four new licenses for casinos to be located in Garland, Crittenden, Jefferson and Pope counties. The Garland County license must be awarded to Oaklawn Jockey Club in Hot Springs and the Crittenden County license must be awarded to Southland Racing Corp., which operates the greyhound track in West Memphis. The racing commission will award the other two licenses following a merit-based application process that has yet to be established. No entity may hold more than one license.

Sanctioned gaming activities include anything found in casinos from Tunica to Vegas. The amendment authorizes "any game played with cards, dice, equipment, or any mechanical, electromechanical, or electronic device or machine for money, property, checks, credit, or any representative value, as well as accepting wagers on sporting events." A federal law prohibiting sports betting was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, and Issue 4 overrides an Arkansas statute that otherwise still bans the practice in the state

Good legal verbiage and PR aside, there are other reasons why Issue 4 beat the odds and became law. One is the fact that Arkansas's existing gambling industry seems to have been cut in on the deal from the beginning.

Oaklawn and Southland have fiercely guarded their turf from outside competition by fighting previous attempts to establish casinos in Arkansas. Their opposition helped bring down the 2016 proposal, which was pushed by a group of Missouri investors and the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

The racetracks in Hot Springs and West Memphis have long operated casinos in all but name. Technically, Arkansas law prohibited any casinos until last week, but Oaklawn and Southland convinced the legislature in 2005 to enact a statute allowing patrons to wager on so-called "electronic games of skill." Issue 4 ends the need for this farcical workaround and allows the two "racinos" to begin offering real slots and table games instead of video simulations of such. It also gives them a tax cut and a sizable head start on their two potential competitors, which still must secure licenses, build facilities and gain the blessing of local officials. (In Pope County, at least, that could prove to be a significant roadblock.)

With the racetracks and their attorneys co-opted, groups opposing Issue 4 were left underfunded and outgunned. In 2016, the Family Council, a conservative political advocacy group that opposes gambling in all forms, found itself effectively aligned with Oaklawn and Southland in fighting out-of-state gaming interests. But in 2018, Southland threw its support behind Issue 4 while Oaklawn stayed neutral. Two committees formed to fight Issue 4 together raised only about $30,000 through Oct. 27, the most recent campaign finance reporting date. A third opposition gropu called "Vote No on Issue 4" was only formed in late October. It raised $150,000 from Caesars Entertainment of Las Vegas, but it's not clear how much of that money was actually spent.

In contrast, records show Driving Arkansas Forward raised $7.05 million in contributions through Oct. 27; another committee created to back Issue 4 raised a separate $1.91 million during that period. Through the end of October, supporters of the amendment appear to have outraised opponents by a factor of more than 50 to 1.

Family Council President Jerry Cox said the amendment will adversely affect Arkansas. He said the casinos will have a harmful effect on the communities in which they're located, as those who live nearby will be more susceptible to gambling addiction. Cox also said the casinos will have a negative impact on local economies, as some will choose to spend money on gambling instead of more essential purchases, like groceries and house payments. (It's not just conservatives, of course; plenty of moderate and liberal voters also feel casinos will bring more harm than good to their communities and hurt the poor.)

The passage of Issue 4 is indicative of Arkansas voters becoming less socially conservative, according to Cox. But he said this was in part due to voters being susceptible to expensive, deceptive advertising for Issue 4. "Advertising is very powerful, and voters need to be more astute in discerning what's true and what's not true," Cox told the Arkansas Times.

Much of that money — over $3 million — came from Delaware North, the parent company of Southland. The biggest single contributor, though, was the Downstream Development Authority of the Quapaw Tribe, which contributed at least $3.65 million to promote Issue 4. Cherokee Nation Businesses added another $2.28 million. The Quapaw are the favorites to win the permit in Jefferson County. The Cherokee were eyeing Pope County, but local opposition may derail their plans.

Much is yet to be determined as Arkansas gears up for casinos. Here's what we know so far, and what we don't:

What will change at Oaklawn and Southland, and when?

At this point, the racetracks are holding their cards close to the vest. Both sent terse nonstatements to the Times when asked for comment.

Oaklawn said it's preparing for the 2019 horse racing season, which begins in January, and will "move forward as legislation and regulation permits." Southland didn't offer much more: "We plan to increase our investment, provide more jobs and continue to offer a great experience for our guests. We're still determining our expansion timeline and will have more to say about our specific plans in the coming months, but we will work with the state to add live table games at Southland as soon as is feasible," a spokesman wrote by email.

On Nov. 4, a Talk Business & Politics article quoted an executive at Delaware North as saying the Buffalo, N.Y., company planned to build a $200 million hotel and convention center in West Memphis should Issue 4 pass. Jack McNeill, a senior vice president of governmental affairs, said the investment would be "a priority." Note, however, that that statement came immediately before the election.

The amendment suggests the racetracks could go full casino as soon as mid-March. The Issue 4 ballot title says "Southland and Oaklawn do not have to apply for a license and will automatically receive a casino license upon the [racing] Commission adopting rules and regulations to govern casino gaming." It also says the commission must have rules and regs promulgated within 120 days of the amendment's passage, which is March 14.

If the Hot Springs and West Memphis casinos are as successful as everyone seems to assume they'll be, that raises the question of the future of their tracks themselves. Horse racing at Oaklawn isn't going anywhere anytime soon, presumably. But the world of dog racing is rapidly disappearing. On Election Day, Florida voters approved a measure ending greyhound racing in that state, which is home to 11 of the 17 remaining dog tracks in the U.S. In his interview with Talk Business, McNeill claimed Delaware North hasn't discussed the possibility of discontinuing greyhound racing, but it's hard to believe the multi-billion-dollar food service and hospitality company isn't taking a hard look at the profitability of the track as it prepares to expand.

How will the other two licenses be awarded?

The state Racing Commission is tasked with awarding the Jefferson and Pope county permits. There are seven commissioners, each appointed by the governor, and the positions are unpaid except for a per diem for meetings and travel. The state Department of Finance and Administration provides staff for the commission.

Gray said the application process will be merit-based: "They will pass rules and regs governing the application and licensing process, similar to what was done with medical marijuana. There will be an open application period, and qualified groups will submit applications, and the racing commission will score those applications and award permits."

If there should be more than one applicant for a site, it's not yet clear how they'll be graded. Those criteria will be part of the rules now being promulgated by the commission. The amendment does specify a few things: An applicant must have casino gaming experience and a letter of local support and cannot have a felony conviction.

Might the licenses get tied up in litigation if there are multiple applicants? After all, that's what's happened with medical cannabis. In February 2018, the medical marijuana commission scored dozens of applicants vying for just five cultivation licenses, a flawed process that led to multiple lawsuits, months of delays and accusations that the commissioners' merit-based grading system was riddled with inconsistencies and conflicts of interest.

That seems less likely to happen with the casino licenses. First, there probably won't be large numbers of competitors jostling for the Jefferson or Pope county sites. Second, the medical marijuana commission was created from scratch in 2016, and its five members had no professional knowledge of medical cannabis and very little experience with regulation.

"The racing commission has been around a long time. They are experienced, extremely qualified, and this is not their first rodeo in terms of acting responsibly," Gray said.

How soon can the Jefferson County casino get up and running?

Though the amendment allows any would-be casino operator to seek a permit from the state, the Oklahoma-based Quapaw Tribe has been working with Pine Bluff officials for five years to gain approval of their bid. Quapaw Chair John Berrey said he hopes the tribe's work with the city will help his group prevail in the permitting process.

Berrey told the Times he hopes to file the tribe's application by the end of April, to be "digging dirt" by June and to open a casino in Pine Bluff early in 2020. He said the group has an option on land on the southwest side of the city, but he wasn't ready to reveal the precise location yet. Some land lies outside the city and would be voluntarily annexed. He said the tribe wants an orderly planning process and envisions developing some 180 to 220 acres initially.

Berrey said it took 10 months to build a casino the tribe operates in Joplin, Mo., a development he said has been worth several billion dollars in associated economic activity to that city. If that construction timeline holds, his 2020 target for a Pine Bluff casino and restaurant could be close. It might take longer to complete the hotel portion of the project, Berrey said.

The Quapaw-run casino would offer all gambling options, including a sports book, but Berrey said sports wagering is not a major focus of casino operation because it has a low profit margin.

The Quapaw Tribe is a government, not a shareholder-owned corporation, Berrey emphasized. He said it would devote more to community development than a casino corporation driven strictly by the bottom line. "We're about building communities," he said. "Our goal is to make it a better place for people to live."

Pine Bluff was briefly home to the Quapaw during the 19th century. The tribe occupied eastern Arkansas during prehistoric and historic times.

Will Pope County hold the line?

The situation in Pope County is complicated by the fact that the voters there don't want a casino. Sixty percent of those casting ballots in the county voted against Issue 4 in the election. And, 70 percent of Pope County voters approved an initiative that would bar the county judge or the quorum court from issuing a letter of support absent a local election that gives them the authority to do so. Issue 4 requires any applicant to obtain such a letter.

But would a local option election be permissible, given that Issue 4 is now enshrined in the Arkansas Constitution?

"Obviously, civics 101 says state law trumps local," County Judge-elect Ben Cross told the Times. The issue is moot, however, because Cross said he will not issue a letter of support "until the people of Pope County decide otherwise." The quorum court has already expressed its opposition. As things stand now, then, it doesn't appear that a casino will be built near Russellville anytime in the near future.

Christopher Burks, the lawyer for Citizens for a Local Choice, a Pope County group that sought to throw Issue 4 off the ballot, noted that the amendment could be read as having contradictory language. It says licenses "shall be" issued for Jefferson and Pope counties, but that to be successful, an applicant must have a letter of support either from the county judge or the quorum court — and, if the casino is to be operated in a city, from the mayor of that city.

Representatives of the Cherokee Nation met last summer with Cross. According to people familiar with the casino campaign, that wasn't early enough to convince county leadership of the benefits of a casino. The Quapaw worked for five years gathering support in Jefferson County.

The Cherokee interest in Pope County could be intended to stymie competition from the Choctaw Tribe, which operates a casino 15 minutes southwest of Fort Smith. The Cherokees operate a casino in West Siloam Springs, on the Benton County border.

What does the passage of Issue 4 mean for Indian gaming in other parts of Arkansas?

Federal law says that lands held in trust for recognized tribes can be used for any type of gambling otherwise permitted elsewhere in the state. The Quapaw Tribe owns undeveloped land near the Little Rock Port. Should the tribe convince the federal government to designate that land as tribal trust land, it's possible the Quapaw could build a casino there. City and county officials took a number of steps to prevent the Quapaws from doing that after they acquired the land.

But Berrey said that putting land into trust "has become more and more difficult and political." It requires approval of members of Congress, a governor and other local officials. "I just don't see it happening," he said.

What will be the impact on state revenue and jobs?

Don't expect public coffers to see a big windfall in the near term, unless you live in Garland or Crittenden counties. The state Department of Finance and Administration has projected general revenue will take a $36 million hit in the upcoming fiscal year as a result of Issue 4. Driving Arkansas Forward believes that number will rebound and then some within several years.

Currently, Oaklawn and Southland are taxed at 20 percent on their net wagering revenues on "electronic games of skill." The state takes 18 percent and city and county government take 2 percent. On top of that, an additional 15 percent is set aside for purse money (meaning prizes distributed to live racing winners) and support for the racing commission.

After the racetracks obtain the new licenses under Issue 4, the 15 percent dedicated to purses and the racing commission will remain in place. But the total 20 percent rate paid to state and local government will decline to just 13 percent on the first $150 million of net wagering revenues. Of that 13 percent, a little over half will go to state general revenue and a little over a quarter will go to local governments. The rest will further fund racing purses. The tax rate rises to 20 percent again on any wagering revenues above $150 million.

In short, that means more money for city and county government, more money for purse support (which bolsters the status of Arkansas as a racing destination), more money staying in the pockets of Oaklawn and Southland and less money for state general revenue.

Right now, state general revenue receives about $64 million from the two racetracks. That will decrease to about $28 million in the next fiscal year, according to the DFA analysis. Garland and Crittenden counties, together with the cities of Hot Springs and West Memphis, will see a projected gain of about $7 million in that time.

Gray said his group didn't dispute that state general revenue will see a "temporary gap" before the new casinos come online. The big question is what happens after that. The first year all four casinos are operational, Driving Arkansas Forward said it anticipated a total of $120 million in total tax revenue, yielding $66 million for state general revenue, $33 million for local government and the rest for purse support.

The DFA analysis didn't take such a rosy view. Even once all the casinos are up and running, it projected state revenue would only stand at about $50 million, or $14 million less than the current take.

Gray said Driving Arkansas Forward projects general revenue to increase thereafter. Five years after all the casinos are online, he said, general revenue should reach $80 to $85 million. "But those projections were before Southland announced it was going to make a $200 million investment on its property, so I would assume that Southland will potentially exceed what was projected," he added. Gray also noted state and local governments will also receive more sales, property and income taxes as a result of the casinos.

As for jobs, Gray said a study commissioned by Driving Arkansas Forward estimated Issue 4 would generate about 8,000 construction jobs over the next 18 months. After construction is complete, he said, the casinos should sustain about 6,000 new positions statewide.

Will new laws need to be passed?

The passage of a new constitutional amendment often necessitates new legislation to flesh out the details. But Gray said he didn't foresee the need for enabling legislation in the 2019 session, which begins in January.

"I don't really anticipate any legislation that would affect the amendment. The amendment was very detailed and very thorough in terms of who does what, and the racing commission has the authority to regulate casino gaming," he said.

In 2017, after Arkansas voted yes on medical marijuana, legislators put forward a host of bills tinkering around the edges of the amendment. Some were meant to slow down or derail the rollout of cannabis, but others were much needed clarifications to law. Gray said the situation is different with Issue 4.

"I think the difference between medical marijuana and casinos is that marijuana was and still is a Schedule 1 drug, so there are some federal issues," he said. Also, while medical marijuana laws are still fairly new, casinos have been operating in many states for decades. "So, I really don't think you'll see the same sort of reaction," he said.

State Rep. Doug House (R-North Little Rock), who sponsored a number of 2017 bills aimed at fixing issues with the marijuana amendment, said he's heard "loose talk" among some members about passing oversight legislation related to Issue 4.

"It's just discussion at this point. There's no clear formulation of issues," House said. The main concern for the legislature and the governor, he added, is addressing the $36 million state budget shortfall expected to result from the tax break given to Oaklawn and Southland.

Max Brantley, Rebekah Hall and Leslie Newell Peacock contributed to this story.

Arkansas becomes casino country

#Arkansas becomes casino country

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communist-automaton · 5 years

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Another “please vote” blog.

“Voting is a gimmick to keep you trapped in the two-party system!” they say.

Well, okay, but you know what works even less well than voting in this two-party shell game? “Raising awareness” and complaining real loud on the Internet but never actually doing anything.

You can be as woke as you want about the Democrats’ ineffectiveness, the GOP’s fascism, the corruption of both parties, and the backroom deals that keep oligarchs in power and us in the poorhouse. And that’s good! Those are things we can’t afford to lose sight of. But mere “awareness” changes nothing. Telling other people to “wake up” changes nothing. Sharing memes and blogs changes nothing.

Don’t misunderstand. Voting for Democrats also changes nothing, at least not by itself. But here are some tangible things Democrats do offer no matter how many times people insist they are “exactly the same” as Republicans:

Increased rather than restricted voter enfranchisement.

Parliamentary friction that halts, or at least slows, the most overtly and violently Fascist legislative tendencies of the modern GOP.

The power -- even corrupted power -- of Congressional inquiry, subpoena, and investigation.

And, of course, pissed off hillbillies, which is always a nice bonus.

Republicans work very hard all the time to disenfranchise voters. The question of whether or not voting matters is a moot one for more people every year because there are still politicians who fear their votes. Republicans wouldn’t go to the trouble of rigging electronic voting machines to swap Beto for Cruz if it didn’t matter. They wouldn’t pay lawyers to convince the 8th Circuit to lock Native Americans out of polls in North Dakota if it was all the same either way.

Democrats are not the ultimate good. But if you believe they won’t make the slightest difference, then you’ve been fooled. That doesn’t mean you are or have to be a fool. Who benefits from your slacktivism? Poor people? Refugees? Unarmed people being murdered by cops? When you skip an election because you can’t be bothered to “play their game”, who are you helping, aside from your own ego?

This is not a “grow the fuck up and swallow your pride and vote for [corporatist stooge]” message, as much as it might sound like one. I’m not telling you to actually support the Democrats or their useless pearl clutching agenda. Voting is not an expression of your belief. We are way past the idea that “representatives” represent anyone but themselves and whoever pays them to be there. Your vote isn’t a piece of free speech, and you’re not beholden to a party just because you voted for their candidate.

Voting is a strategic act, not an expressive one. Right now, the board is crawling with actual Nazis, not just the figurative exaggerated ones they’ve been talking about for 30 years. Our job isn’t to wait for some election where we can finally vote in a messiah to fix everything, because we’ll all be dead before that happens. Our job is to counter the GOP’s agenda. And we don’t do that by throwing up our hands in disgust and walking away. We are playing defense, not offense.

It comes down to the fact that the Right is organized and consolidating its power and its support, while the Left is disorganized, scattered, divided, and confused. Whether you’re on the side of the GOP and actively expanding openly Fascist policies, or you’ve disenfranchised yourself out of despair and decided to sit it out, the net result of your actions is the same: a net increase in power for anyone seeking a repressive rightwing state.

If you’re not ready to start throwing Molotov cocktails around, then do the bare minimum and stand in at least part of the Right’s way. Vote. You don’t need to believe it matters. You don’t even have to consider the idea that maybe you’re wrong about the futility of it all. Just cast the ballot someone else would have cast if their registration hadn’t been “lost” by “accident”. Vote to piss off that asshole in the super-lifted F-250. Vote to get a sticker. Vote to waste time. Whatever. Just chip in this bare minimum of effort.

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dr-shiva · 2 years

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How the Interferon System Boosts Immunity

The Interferon System – the Missing Link Between Innate and Adaptive Immunity – Boosts the Immune System in Four Powerful Ways

The original research in this video is made possible by generous contributions from supporters of the Dr.SHIVA Truth Freedom Health® movement. Please contribute so we may continue to bring you such original research, valuable education, and innovative solutions.

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Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, MIT PhD – Inventor of Email, scientist, engineer, educator – shares a presentation on Modern Science of the Immune System and how the Interferon (IFN) System is the missing link for building immunity.

Outdated Immune System science is based on a 2 box subsystem model of the Innate & Adaptive which is around 100 yrs old (60 yrs at best) and the Modern Science of the Immune System shows it’s more complex, including the IFN, the Microbiome, & the Nervous System.

Some of the latest research shows when we are exposed to a virus, over 1,000 genes are upregulated to create various IFNs including Type 1 Interferons such as IFN-α and IFN-β.

Type 1 IFNs connect the Innate & Adaptive Immune Systems, provide an early immune response, and enhance the activities of macrophages, dendritic cells & NK cells which empower the Innate Immune System and modulate immunity.

The response from the IFN System consists of four phases: 1) Viral Infection; 2) Receptor Signaling; 3) Amplification; and, 4) SOCS1 Regulation.

EDITED TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO

Background

Today we’re going to talk about the Interferon System. The reason we’re going to talk about the Interferon System is my goal is to arm you, weaponize you, with education. So, you can start making better decisions for yourselves, you can also start to appreciate that there is complexity, but you can actually discern truth from complexity, with science, Engineering Science to be specific. And that will help you, in this case, we’re going to look at immunity. So, there’s all this stuff, Vax/Anti-Vax and we want to go beyond Vax & Anti-Vax, which has always been my position on this from day one. It’s not about vaccines, or anti-vaccines, which is what the establishment wants you to get involved in and they choose the players so we all start fighting and you give money to one side or the other side. The real issue here is to take a Systems Approach to really start understanding what are the components? What are the systems? Remember, for those of you who get involved and take the foundations of systems course, which I encourage everyone to do, you’ll start understanding a Systems Approach and really start looking at the connections between the parts. And when you start understanding the connections, you can start getting to Truth. But if you don’t look at the connections, and you don’t look at the parts of a system, which are always being found as science evolves, in new discoveries, you’re never going to really get to the heart of it, you’re going to be caught in this theater of Left vs Right. Pro-Vax / Anti- Vax, you know, Republican/Democrat. At the fundamental level, what we’re going to realize is the goal, when you take a Systems Approach, is to boost our immunity. What can we do to strengthen immunity? At least in this case, when it comes to election voting systems, what we realize is that it’s a computer algorithm that’s the real issue when you take a Systems Approach. It’s not mail-in ballots, which the “Right” talks about or, or the voter suppression which the “Left” talks about, it’s really the fact in 2021, we have the use of electronic systems, which can literally flip and switch votes. So, we need to get rid of Electronic Voting Systems.

Join the Movement for Truth Freedom® Health

So, we talked about masks, right? We talked about masks and the real issue is not Pro or Anti-Masks. These are the cards all of you guys can download, and I’ll talk about it. The real issue is that the masks, when you take a scientific approach, actually have effects on your oral health. That’s what it’s really about. And as I’m putting here, I encourage all of you to go to vashiva.com/join and become a part of the movement for Truth, Freedom, and Health. Learn how, you can join free as a member on-site, some people want to contribute and they say “Shiva, I want to contribute, what can I do?” Well, you can contribute, you can become a supporter of this site. You get access to the System and Revolution Book, you get access to Your Body, Your System. And those of you who want to make a commitment to become a Truth Freedom Health Warrior. Our goal is to have 50,000 people, over the next year, all over the world, the United States, everywhere. Because we need to take a Systems Approach. So, before I start the Interferon talk, I always like to play the video, which lets you know what the mission is, and why I do this, and why it’s important to build a movement for Truth, Freedom, and Health. So, let’s take a couple of minutes and watch.

Okay, everyone, so I hope that gives you an idea of where we’re coming from. But the bottom line is please go to vashiva.com, it’s explosively growing, the number of people. So, when you join the site, it’s not just a site for education, we have the educational tools, lots and lots of videos. It’s in our own data center. It’s in our own infrastructure, which your contributions are supporting to build. Our own hardware, our own infrastructure, our own software. In addition to that infrastructure, we’re also giving you communication tools. So as people join, so you don’t get thrown off, we’re building a community there, it’s the equivalent of Facebook, we’re offering things like forums so you can communicate and connect with like-minded people who want to be on the ground because the only way we’re going to win is to build a bottoms-up movement by being educated. And then we offer you other tools, where you can get activated on the ground. So, for example, there are cards like this, that you can print, Masks and Oral Health. One of the women who’s going to come on, a Truth Freedom and Health Warrior in Anchorage, Alaska is going to talk about how she used these cards. She educated people. Anchorage apparently wanted to pass a mask law, and she got involved. She used our education, educated people as they were waiting outside in the cold. And she was very instrumental in defeating that law in Anchorage with science, with the elements of Truth, Freedom, and Health, that that’s what we can do. It’s about us going local.

So today, let’s jump right in, we’re going to talk about the Interferon System. The Interferon System is really important to understand because it’s going to give you the education so you can understand, first of all, what’s good for your health. But you can expand your knowledge. And this content, you’re not going to get anywhere. You’re not going to get it from Fauci, you’re not going to get it from the CDC, you probably have to spend a lot of time going through it, you’d have to go get a Ph.D. at M.I.T. to get it. So, the good news is I’ve organized that in such a way that all of you can learn that. Okay? So that’s the goal, we want to get educated or we are going to be enslaved. Education is, my great grandfather said, is the ultimate way to freedom is the ultimate way to better our lives. And as I mentioned, Buddha, the great enlightened Buddha said that suffering always comes from ignorance.So, we’ve got to get out of this left/right, pro-vax/anti-vax, Republican/Democrat… that’s what they want us to be. So, let’s go talk about interferon. So, let me go to the share screen. And those of you on Instagram, I hope this is okay, we’re actually sharing with you. Let me just zoom in for you guys so it’s a little bit nicer for you. There we go. I hope that’s better.

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Virus Pathogenesis Process

Okay, so let’s talk about the Interferon System. So, what is the Interferon System? I’m going to share with you today, it’s really the missing link for building immunity. And as I mentioned, we need to take a systems approach. A systems approach is really the path to truth, freedom, and health, let’s start. So again, very quickly, for some of you who are new, I just want to review with you. This is what happens when you get not only COVID-19, pathogenesis. Pathogenesis means a process that something occurs. So, these little red circles here with the blue circles around them with these little spikes, and with a little green in there, that’s a virus particle, okay? In this case, we’re looking at COVID-19. The surface of that virus particle has spike proteins. And what happens is when this virus particle lands on one of your cells, what it’s trying to do, is it’s trying to get into your cell and use its blueprint for replicating itself, which is that little green stuff, it’s called the RNA. And then it replicates itself, reassembles itself and it makes more of itself. So, one comes in, you know, more go out, okay? That’s what it’s trying to do it’s trying to heist your cellular machinery to make itself. That’s what’s going on.

So just to walk you through this for review, the virus comes in, and on the surface of your cell are receptors. In this case, it’s the ACE-2 Receptor specifically for COVID-19. The spike proteins intersect with the ACE-2 receptor, it does a process called glycosylation. And voila, it gets in, okay? So, once it gets in, what does it do? Well, it opens up, it’s envelope here, in some sense, and it releases its RNA. This RNA is a blueprint for it to replicate itself. So, it uses the ribosomes, which are part of your own machinery. They’re like your Xerox machines or your ability where you can take the blueprint and it starts generating proteins, which actually help to reconstruct this entire thing. So, that’s the next step that occurs. So, it’s actually reconstructing itself, and it repackages itself. Quite amazing what nature is doing here! And then it gets out, right? So, it came in with a few and a lot goes out. So that’s the process, a virus comes in, as I just reviewed, stuff happens here, the RNA replication takes place, and that’s the pathogenesis. It reassembles itself and it escapes, okay? So that’s what’s goes on. So now let’s talk about, given that, what is the purpose of a vaccine, okay? And where does the science of that come from?

History of Inoculation

Okay, so what goes on when we actually have a vaccine, right? So, let’s just review that before we get into the Interferon System. So, you understand the pathogenesis, a virus tries to get in and heist your own cellular machinery to replicate itself. So now let’s go in and discuss a little bit of what happens when you take a vaccine. And where does the origin of vaccines really come from, okay? So, if you study this, a little bit carefully, what you find out, something fascinating, is that the whole basis of vaccines, I mean, you can go back to traditional cultures. This is a process in Chinese culture, where they would literally take the pus, the entire, let’s say, the sputum. Let’s say someone had some viral infection, they would grab their mucus or their sputum, it sounds a little bit disgusting, they would save it, dry it, and they would shoot it up to someone’s nose. And we’ll realize why, because the nose area is where the innate immune system exists. And the goal was, you were inoculating someone. Again, you weren’t giving the vaccine, but you were giving the whole virus and all the stuff that comes with it.

In Africa, there was a methodology called Variolation for smallpox, in East Africa. And what they did here was, they would literally make an incision in your arm, and then they would put in the entire smallpox, virus particles, etc., right? And it was a way that you were inoculating people. This was another way that was done in the ancient world. In fact, an African slave was the one who was to bring this concept to the United States, and he actually helped Washington. This concept was used by Washington to inoculate, not vaccinate, because they knew there could be smallpox coming. So, people had this concept of giving people the disease.

So, let me repeat that. People had this concept of giving people the disease. So, this concept meant that you weren’t afraid of the disease, you recognize that the immune system needed to access the disease early. So, it’s called stress inoculation in system science, and you’re stressing the system, and it gets resilient and builds stronger. Now, obviously, if someone had a weak immune system, some people died, but it wasn’t everyone who died. Most of the people in this example actually got inoculated, and one could argue it was important to winning the Revolutionary War. And this technique, Variolation, was brought to the United States by an African slave. Edward Jenner used the same concept when we had the beginning of quote-unquote, “vaccines”, but you made an incision, you gave people the cowpox.

So how does this all work? Well, I’m going to share with you, as I’ve shared with you before, let me go back here, so how does this work? Let me go back here, I think I missed a couple of slides for people outside. So, what I was sharing here was this technique, this is a Chinese method. This was the African method, they would make an incision and give you the whole virus, virus particles, everything. This was the slave who brought the Variolation Technique to the United States. And that was what was used in the Revolutionary War to inoculate soldiers. And that really led to the work of Edward Jenner, which is really sort of the beginning of quote-unquote “vaccination”.

Basic/Old Immune System Model

Okay, when we discuss vaccination, what we’ve got to understand is that there’s an interesting phenomenon going here in vaccination. That’s the following… vaccination is based on a model of the immune system. How does science work? We do lots and lots of experiments, and we try to figure out how nature is actually working. So, the model of vaccination comes from the basis of a 1915, so over 100 years old, understanding of the immune system. Maybe on a good day, 60 years old. But fundamentally, it’s a concept that your immune system has two subsystems. So, it’s only based on a two-subsystem model of the immune system. So, let’s look at what I mean by that. So, if you look at that two-subsystem model, that subsystem model says that you have the innate immune system and you have the adaptive immune system.

So, the innate immune system is that part of your immune system, which is nonspecific, which means it doesn’t try to just take out a particular pathogen, it tries to take out everything. It’s your first line of defense, it’s in your throat, it’s in your eyes, it’s in your gut, it’s the thing that your body gets exposed to first. And that’s why if you see the guy shooting the stuff up the guy’s nose, you’re hitting the innate immune system. The adaptive immune system is a specific part of your immune system, where it releases specific antibodies and it develops memory.

So, the innate immune system has no memory, and the adaptive system has memory. And a way to look at it is, here’s a pathogen, this is a too-box model, you have the innate immune system, a pathogen comes in, hits the innate immune system, and it innervates the adaptive immune system to produce antibodies. This process I went over yesterday, I think some of you like me doing the chalk talk, I’ll do that on paper. But essentially, the innate immune system tries to gobble it up. So, here’s a virus that it tries to gobble up using, let’s say, macrophages, and it’s basically like when a soldier fires a bomb, and the parts of the virus go everywhere. The surface proteins, for example, become what are known as the antigens. And then the adaptive immune system says, “oh, that antigen, I have to create an antibody for it”, and through a process using B cells, it creates an antibody, and then that antibody, the next time it sees that virus, because it has cellular memory, will go stop it, okay?

So, when you look at this system here, this is based on a two-box model understanding of the immune system. You have the innate and the adaptive. And the innate immune system, you know, it’s in your skin, it’s in your cough reflex, it’s in your monocytes. These are the different subsystems; it’s in your mucosal layer, stomach acids. And these are the different cells that make it up; monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, NK cells, dendritic cells. But these are the stuff that’s in your nonspecific. And your adaptive immune system includes T-cells and B-cells, and there are different types of T-cells. But fundamentally, if you look at the innate and the adaptive, and you look at this chart here, what you’ll find out is the innate immune system is sort of the immediate; adaptive lasts longer. And we’ll see where the Interferon System fits in here. Its features are it’s primitive and broad, it tries to go after everything; the adaptive is highly specific. The regulation is either on or off; here it can increase its regulation. The potency, it’s lower; the adaptive is higher. The kinetics, which means how fast, this occurs very fast. And the Interferon System sits between these two, as we’ll see. The amplification, there is an amplification; the Interferon System does help amplify. The duration is short; here, it’s long. There is no memory; there is memory. It’s always present; this is normally silent. It’s unspecific; it’s highly specific.

So again, the nature of a vaccine is, the reason vaccines come into play, the idea is, I’m going to avoid the innate immune system, and I’m going to put a needle into your body, and that needle is going to deliver something, and the goal is to upregulate antibodies. Okay, so let me just be clear on that. The tactic of vaccination is, we don’t want people to be sneezing on each other, right? If you look at the Variolation Technique, they made an abrasion to your skin, got access to it; or in the case of the Chinese method, where they’re shooting up something, you’re actually sharing the entire live virus, okay? Very different! It’s inoculation, it’s exposure versus taking a much more targeted approach where you’re just going to avoid the innate system, and you’re going to go right into someone’s bloodstream, and you’re going to send stuff there. But the goal of that, to be clear, is to upregulate antibodies, okay? So, we have to think if the pathogen came in here, there’s a whole bunch of stuff that occurs here, we’re only doing this and this is correct. Is this correct? And that’s why I keep saying this is what’s called a reductionist approach. And I’ll share with you more.

Modern Science of Immune System

Now, in the discoveries that I’ve done in my personal research and in my scientific work, which I presented at the National Science Foundation, where I was invited to give a lecture, I shared a modern science of the immune system, and that modern science reveals something a little more profound. That it’s not as simple as this two-box model. What we actually have is, we have the innate, the adaptive, but we also have the Interferon System. Beyond that, we also have the microbiome and virome and I’m going to do a whole talk on the microbiome and this microbiome literally talks to your brain. This is in your gut; this is in your brain, and it goes through the Interferon System. All of these systems are interconnected, by the way, and we’ll give a whole talk this week on the microbiome. One of my friends who’s a nurse said, “Can you do a talk on the microbiome?” But what you see is this is much more complicated. So, we’re going to focus on this today, the Interferon System, and you’re going to really leave with a deep understanding of the Interferon System.

Interferons

We are going to understand what the Interferon System is. The Interferon System is something that I want to educate you on so you can maybe train other doctors, you can train other scientists, okay? Because it’s not something that’s broadly discussed in the media. Because the punchline here is, you’re gonna understand that the Interferon System, generates things called interferons, and the interferons are different kinds of molecules, they are certain types of cytokines, which are messaging molecules. And these interferons are critical to boosting immunity. They’re critical to modulating immunity.

Okay, so let’s jump right into understanding interferons. And by the way, my research work, my PhD work at MIT, and I still do a lot of work on this, I did a lot of work on interferon. So, let’s jump right into understanding interferons. What are they? Okay, so let’s jump right in. So, the IFN system is responsible, and it established what’s called transcription memory. What does that mean? The Interferon System means that when you get hit with a virus, remember we talked about transcription, which is where your body, when it recognizes something, that your DNA transcribes different proteins. So, the interferon response system is critical, that it actually, when your body sees a virus, it’ll actually transcribe, at the DNA level, proteins. And we’re gonna see that, okay? So just bear with me. And in fact, over 1,000 genes can be up-regulated, after initial stimulation. So, think about that, that you get hit with a virus, and your genetic system actually turns on, this is some of the latest research, and over 1,000 genes get turned on, and your body actually starts creating proteins that you need. So that single virus enables your body to create other proteins, and it really prepares the immune system for future attacks.

So, simply put, the Interferon System, we’re not talking about DNA, we’re not talking about the adaptive, but when a virus comes into you, your body actually in some ways, wakes up, and it turns on a bunch of genes. This is what we call epigenetics, right? So, as you get exposed, separate from the innate and the adaptive, your body turns on all these things called interferons. It turns on a bunch of genes, all right? And I’m gonna walk you through two of them today. Actually, interferon-alpha and beta.

So, what is the IFN system? Okay, there’s Type 1 Interferons; there are various kinds of interferons, just various kinds of molecules. Simply put, there’s this thing called Type 1 Interferons, and Type 1 Interferons include INF-α and INF-β. And now you will find out, I’ll do a talk maybe tomorrow, but there are certain nutrients, certain very powerful nutrients, that make sure that your body up-regulates interferons properly. What the virus is trying to do, the clever virus tries to knock down, so your body doesn’t create interferons. In fact, in the latest research that just came out a couple of months ago, they found that lots of Coronavirus patients were creating antibodies to interferons. Okay, they were actually destroying interferons, which means there’s something wrong either at the genetic level or the epigenetic level. So, interferons are very, very critical, but Type 1 Interferons, they’re the ones that sit between the innate and the adaptive. They provide an early immune response against viruses, and they enhance the activities of, you know, macrophages, dendritic cells, and NK cells. So, they really empower the innate system. That’s one thing that Type 1s do.

And the Type 2s stimulate an anti-inflammatory response, right? So, Interferon Type 2 is Interferon-γ. That’s what this little weird symbol is, it means gamma in Greek. So, it stimulates an anti-inflammatory response. And Interferon- λ (lambda), that’s what this symbol means, orchestrate the innate and the adaptive mucosal immune responses. So, you have Type 1, Type 2, Type 3. So, what you’re seeing here, oops, forgot to share this. So, what you see here is that the Type 1, Type 2, Type 3 Interferons work together. Type 1 supports your innate, Type 2 stimulates anti-inflammatory, and Type 3 orchestrates innate and adaptive mucosal immune response, right? Which is the stuff in the microbiome, etc. So, it’s quite amazing! The interferon is really the missing link, Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. Today we’re going to focus on Type 1 Interferons.

Now, this is one of the most critical diagrams, I want everyone to understand. Alright, so I know you guys like me drawing it. But I’m going to walk you through this very carefully. So, I’m going to do it through words first, and then we’re gonna walk through this diagram. This was the basis again, of my PhD work, very few people really understand the Interferon System. So, after you’re done with this, you’re going to get a really deep understanding at the molecular level.

So, let’s look at it this way. You have a cell, here’s a cell, say you have two cells, Cell One and Cell Two. Okay? So, let’s say Cell One gets infected. Cell One, when it gets infected may want to signal Cell Two to tell it “Hey, I got infected over here, get ready”. Okay, so when Cell One, remember cytokines are molecules that communicate between cells. Hormones are molecules that communicate across organ systems. But cytokines are signaling molecules that are the telecommunication system between cells. So, you have Cell One here, which has gotten infected. And what it does is, what nature has done is make sure that it communicates to another cell. This is where interferons come in. So, we’re going to walk through it first. Cell One, remember, this cell gets infected, a virus lands on it, and it sticks its RNA into it. And what happens at that point is in the Interferon System, there’s a series of processes we’re going to walk through; that the Interferon System is turned on, and the Interferon System, the first thing it does is it recognizes that viruses infected it. And then it’s going to go through a series of chemical reactions. It’s going to inspire or incite the DNA to upregulate a protein. Which means, remember, transcription occurs at the DNA level, transcription occurs, and the body actually generates Interferon- β, okay? So, the first step is, the virus comes in, and I’ll walk you through this, and the body is going to create Interferon- β, okay? So, Interferon- β, can signal the cell itself, we call that an autocrine response, which means it’s telling itself, or a paracrine response, it tells a neighboring cell, it says, “Hey, buddy, I’ve been infected”. Okay, so the Interferon- β, in Step Two, lands on a receptor of the cell, either its own or another and that excites the cell to make a protein called IRF-7 (Interferon Regulatory Factor), okay? It’s a different protein. Again, it turns on genes and your protein makes IRF-7. Why is that important? Step Two, well, when the virus comes again, to infect this sell or another cell, IRF-7 is used to excite the cells machinery to create not only IFN-β, more of that, but IFN-α. IFN-β and IFN-α are like powerhouse machinery that go and take out the virus, okay? And then remember, you can’t keep this going on too long or you get the cytokine storm, too many interferons, so you have to shut it off. And the fourth part of it is a mechanism to turn it off, the control system, okay? Got it? So, you have the first part which creates Interferon-β, which is a signaling molecule, which tells all the other cells “I’ve been invaded”. Interferon-β goes and lands on the cells and it says, “Hey, a virus is going to be coming, create IRF-7”. So, when a virus does infect the other cells, not the first one, those cells not only create IFN-β, but they create IFN-α which destroys the virus, okay? So, interferon is critical. So, let’s walk through the diagram.

The Interferon System

A Graphical Representation

So, I explained it in words, let me see if everyone’s cool with this. How are you guys doing on Instagram? Is everyone okay? Good! “We are the new information warriors”. Exactly! That’s what you are! Okay. So, let’s go right here. Let’s look at this diagram now. I’m gonna walk you through this really carefully. And by the way, this diagram I’m going to walk you through, one of the leading toxicologists in the world, John Essigmann, taught me this, and you’re going to learn it now, okay? So, you don’t have to spend a year in an immunology course. And you’re going to learn it here because I’ve been able to distill it in a quick way. So, what are you seeing here? Let’s take it slowly. I want you to focus on this outer circle here, let’s take it step-by-step, is the wall of the cell, okay? I think I gotta share this, okay? So, this outer circle here, what you’re seeing here, this line is the outer circle of the cell. The inner circle here is a nuclear wall, where the DNA is. So, here’s the outer circle; here’s the inner circle, okay? So again, let me keep it simple. The outer circle is the wall of the cell, that’s where the virus is going to come in. The inner circle is where all the DNA material is, that can tell yourself to make proteins. Remember, what DNA does, is under the right inspiration, it’ll open up, a piece of messenger RNA will come out, that’s called transcription, and it’ll make a new protein, right? So, you have the outer cell wall and the inner cell wall, okay? So, here’s the outer cell wall, right here, and the inner cell wall. So, let’s look at this, a virus lands on the cell, okay? And what happens here, there are particles in your body, in the cytoplasm, right? This area here between the outer cell wall and the inner cell wall is known as the cytoplasm. And what happens right here, is that when the virus lands, these little green particles are known as IRF-3, a protein. Interferon Regulatory Factor, okay? So, let me share this again, sorry about that. So, these are known as interferon regulatory factors, okay? So, a virus comes in, these green things are IRF-3, and they and the virus interact right here. So, this is very important, we’ll get more into detail tomorrow, but when the virus comes in, he tries to knock out this process. But if everything goes well, and you have like, let’s say, the right chemicals, the right nutrition, the right circumstances, your body will interact, the virus will interact with IRF-3, it’s a process called phosphorylation, and this complex traverses the nuclear membrane. So, the phosphorylated, which means, just keep it simple, the green is IRF-3, it connects with this phosphate group, and it’s inspired by this virus, and it goes into the nucleus. So here now we’re in the nucleus. So, this IRF-3 complex, this little green guy, right here, you guys can see it? I can zoom in here for people on Instagram. This piece right here forces the process where the Interferon-β gene, right here, that’s what IFN-β gene is, it is a gene, right there, to upregulate Interferon-β. Interferon-β is a protein, okay? So, what happens is, the virus comes in, your body says, “shoot, we got a virus, I’m going to phosphorylate protein,” which is just hanging around. So, you need IRF-3s, and this travels into the nucleus, and it tells your DNA, that’s what’s this little red arrow is “make Interferon-β gene, give me the Interferon-β gene”, and your body, through transcription, makes Interferon-β.

So that’s the first process, virus comes in, it’s called the early phase and your body makes Interferon-β. That’s what you need. If you don’t have Interferon-β coming out, which is right up here, you’re screwed, okay? So, the first step here is the virus lands and the Interferon System goes through its process, and the body sends a signal to your DNA. And the DNA says, “I need to make some Interferon-β, Okay? Now that occurs within about 20 to 30 minutes. So, it’s fascinating! You get a cold; someone sneezes on you, you go to the gym, you worked out, you didn’t clean your hands, and you feel a little, you know, in 20 to 30 minutes, you feel something coming on. That’s that Interferon-β kicking in, okay? That’s when the Interferon-β is happening. This is why it’s very important, as I’ll talk about tomorrow, that right when you feel something coming on, if you get intuitive with your body, you take certain nutrients like garlic, like NAC. These nutrients support the Interferon System, because what the virus is trying to do, as you’ll learn, I’ll go into it more tomorrow, the virus is attempting to knock down the creation of interferon. And that’s what we found out, that people who have weakened immune systems, the virus is able to do that, okay? But the first step is a virus creates Interferon-β. Is everyone cool? Good!

Interferon System – Receptor Signaling

All right. So, the virus creates Interferon-β. Let’s go back to our diagram, okay? So, the virus, I’m going to make it bigger for people at home and bigger here. So, the virus creates Interferon-β. Now, look what happens. So, Interferon-β’s created, and that goes outside of the cell. So, remember, you could have two cells here, you could have Cell One, which got infected, Cell One is just putting out Interferon-β if it’s healthy. So, if you’ve got a healthy immune system, your body’s putting out Interferon-β warning all the other cells, “Hey, I’ve been infected! I’ve been infected, get ready! Get ready because I’ve been infected!” So, the first phase Interferon-β is going out lots of Interferon-β, that Interferon-β may land on the same cell, but it may land on a neighboring cell.

Okay, so what happens then, let’s follow that. Alright, let’s go to Step Two. Step Two here, interferon goes and lands on this thing called IFNAR (Interferon-Alpha/beta Receptor). IFNAR is that catcher’s mitt. So, imagine this is the baseball glove, this goes and lands on a receptor on this cell or another cell, because the purpose of Interferon-β is to warn other cells, and says, “Hey, you’re being infected.” So, what happens here, this IFNAR, when it lands on here, through a series of chemical reactions, that’s what this little purple here is, for people on Instagram I’ll make it easy for you guys to follow here. So, it lands over here, and ISGF3 is a molecule, okay? Right here, this purple, orange, and yellow intersect, and there’s a whole bunch of chemical reactions. I’m not going to go through the details of that. But this traverses the nucleus, and, here’s the nucleus, and guess what it does, it tells your DNA “Make me some IRF-7,” that’s right here, the IRF gene gets turned on, right here, if everyone can see it, right here. And so IRF-7 is created. And that’s what these little bluish-purple things are, and that leaves the cytoplasm, okay? So, you have a bunch of IRF-7, interferon regulatory factor 7, that gets created.

So why is that important? Why is that important? So, in Phase 2, if you have a healthy immune system, your body’s putting out these Interferon-βs, and those Interferon-β is are going to all your other cells with haven’t been infected, when Interferon-β lands on that cell, or even on the cell that got infected, that cell starts making IRF-7. Remember, the second cell which never got infected, doesn’t have the virus, but it starts creating IRF-7. So, the first cell gets infected, all the other neighboring cells, if they get Interferon-β properly, they start making IRF-7, okay? Very important! So again, if your immune system is working, right, your body makes, Cell One got infected, poor cell, all the other millions of other cells in your body, they’re getting hit with Interferon-β, not the virus yet, right? The virus is just starting its replication process. So, Interferon-β hits all these other cells, and your body starts making this interferon regulatory factor called IRF-7. Quite amazing! Okay? That’s the second process.

So why is this important? This is important because the reason you get sick is the population of viruses gets more and more and more. The goal is, right when you get infected, you want to knock it down. If you’ve got a strong immune system, it knocks it down. You take Vitamin D3, it knocks it down. You have other nutrients; your body knocks it down. okay? But if your body doesn’t produce that Interferon-β, you don’t signal your other cells, it’s like a thief, you don’t have an alarm system. So, the Interferon-β is like your alarm system. Interferon-β is putting out sirens to all the other cells, “Oh my god, we’re being infected,” they start making IRF-7, interferon regulatory factor 7. So now, in the healthy case, all your other cells are now juiced up. They’re waiting. They brought the military in, they said “Nick, my first neighbor here got infected in the neighborhood. We already have our machine guns; we have our weapons. We’re ready for that virus.” So, what happens there?

Interferon System – Amplification

Okay, let’s look carefully, at this point, what happens here is that so now you’re looking at the cell, you have a cell that has got a lot of IRF-7, these are the ones that are ready, they’ve been inoculated, okay? In some sense, right? This is your own internal vaccine system. Think about what I’m saying here. Think about what I’m sharing with you here. The Interferon System, vaccinates all these other cells, so they’re primed, okay? So, think about what happens if you have a strong Interferon System, your body starts quote-unquote “vaccinating the other cells.” You won’t get this from Fauci, by the way, okay? So right here IRF-7 is everywhere in the cytoplasm. So now we’re looking at another cell, and now the virus lands on this new cell. And guess what? This cell’s got machine guns, it’s got the military, it’s got Navy Seals. It’s got everyone ready, right? virus lands. And guess what happens? The IRF-7 phosphorylates, just trust me, this is a chemical reaction, and this phosphorylated version is able to traverse the nucleus, and guess what happens? Look what happens now, not only are you creating Interferon-β again, right here, it goes here, creates β, but it also creates more α. So, these β go exponentially and go tell more cells, “Hey, I’m being infected.” So, 1,000 cells had IRF-7, the virus is here, they go tell 1,000 more cells, so more sirens go off, more military is called, okay? That’s what β does. And α is used to go knock out that virus, okay?

Interferon System – SOCS1 Regulation

Now, the other piece I want to show you very quickly, it’s a little bit hard to see that there’s another gene here called SOCS, okay? SOCS1, which is used to stop this process because you don’t want more and more of this being created, otherwise you’re gonna have a cytokine storm. So, there is another protein right here in the fourth step that stops the production of Interferon-α and β, right? So, what I’m sharing with you here are two processes. So, you have the other cells which are ready with the military IRF-7, thanks to Interferon-β, when the virus lands on those cells, unlike the first cell that wasn’t ready, these other cells are ready. And because of that, it generates more Interferon-β to warn more and more cells. So, you have an exponential warning effect, and it generates Interferon-α, which goes and knocks out that virus, but you can’t have this go on too long, right? You can’t have an inflammatory process because these are cytokines, so you got to knock it off.

So that’s why you have the SOCS1, which is another protein which says, “Okay, we have enough, we’ve knocked out the virus. Let me turn this off. Let me turn the spigot off.” If we don’t turn the spigot off. Guess what? You have an inflammatory response, you have inflammation, which is what the cytokine storm is. Alright, let me see how everyone’s doing. Everyone get that? Everyone cool? All right. Someone said, “If only Kary Mullis is still alive, I bet he and Dr. Shiva may change the course of history. People nowadays are misunderstood about the using of PCR Test.” Yes, Carrie, was an amazing human being. Just like me, he was exposing Fauci. So, what I’ve shared with you here is an amazing process. The Interferon System wakes up when a virus comes to one cell, but it warns all the other cells it inoculates the other cells through Interferon-β, so they get IRF-7, and when that cell gets hit, you smash the virus out, okay?

CytoSolve Interferon Modeling

Now, what I did for my PhD work is I actually studied this system and using the technology CytoSolve, which is the technology I created, which we’re using, by the way, to identify all different kinds of nutraceutical products. We have, by the way, after 15 years, we’ve discovered a new nutraceutical product, where it’s two ingredients when we combine them. And we’ve run billions of calculations, without killing animals, that has an amazing profound effect on lowering pain and inflammation. It’s gonna be the first product that we’ve developed bottoms-up, so keep an eye out for it. But it comes from CytoSolve, without any animal testing. But anyway, CytoSolve is what I used to look at all these processes, all the chemical reactions. And guess what I did, I actually mathematically modeled it, and I’m going to share that with you, so you can see the results. Remember, Interferon-β comes within 20 to 30 minutes, right when you get hit with a virus. Interferon-α comes hours later, but there is this period within the first 24 hours, when your Interferon Systems on, that if you support it, with the right nutrients, which we’ll talk about, beyond vaccines, right? That your body will support this very powerful missing link.

So, let’s go back to the charts here. So, what I did here was, with CytoSolve, there’s the interferon receptor signaling, as you can see here. Let me go back here so you guys can follow it here. So, we have the virus infection over here, which is the first piece, you have the interferon receptor signaling, you have the next part, the amplification cycle, which is α and β, and you have the regulation. So, I took all these processes, and, from my PhD work, I literally found every molecular reaction, which is the virus infection where the virus lands, this is the receptor signaling, this is the amplification cycle and the regulation. And I literally mathematically modeled it, okay? So, what you see here is, the purple line, right here, is how much Interferon-β is first produced. After Interferon-β comes, this is the timeline in seconds, then you get, in the blue line, you get Interferon-α. So, let’s look at it closely.

So, you notice right here, which is within about 30,000 seconds, which is 8.3 hours, just right here, that’s when Interferon-α is created, but before this, within 30 to 40 minutes, you have the creation of Interferon-β right here, right. So, first Interferon-β kicks in, and then you have Interferon-α. So, I’ve actually mathematically modeled this with CytoSolve, so we put all those 1,000s of chemical equations together. And for the first time, this was my PhD work, we actually showed how Interferon-β comes within 30 to 40 minutes, which has been shown clinically. And then we showed how after that, about 8.3 hours later Interferon-α comes. So, β comes first, and then α comes. And you can see that here, it’s quite cool. It’s very cool! So, you see here, Interferon-β comes and then α comes, okay? And, by the way, it takes about 8.3 hours, right?

Right here, you can see it takes about 14 hours, which is right about here, for it to hit a steady-state value, which means it comes to a stable value, right? But right here, if you zoom in here, right over here, this curve here shows, that right? This is right about, you know, 30 to 40 minutes, Interferon-β comes in about 8.3 hours later, right here is when α kicks in. So, it takes about eight hours for α to kick in, α is the one that starts taking out the viruses, okay? This way, you may get an initial sniffle, some headache, right? You’re working through this process. That’s what’s occurring through this process when you first feel something coming on. What I did was, to prove my model was right, I literally went and got clinical data. So, this is clinical data from Takauji and Cooley. And what you see is, this is what’s predicted, literally, in about 14 to 24 hours, you start hitting steady-state. And that’s what my model predicts right here. So, we showed that my mathematical model matches clinical data, okay?

Systems Immunology

So, the question that comes up in vaccines and the IFN system, do vaccines bypass and short circuit the Interferon System? That’s one of the questions that you want to ask your doctor. Are vaccines short-circuiting the Interferon System? Does up-regulation, of these kinds of proteins by vaccine cause autoimmune disorders? And do we know the risk of bypassing the Interferon System? And is there a RISK MATRIX for vaccines? What we find out is that immunology affects all these sub-systems. So, when you start looking at the immune system, it’s not just only the immune system, it’s all these different systems. And this came out in a recent work, in 2018, published in Nature Immunology, one of the leading journals in the world. And what this guy says is, “A case in point, is that the main immunological metrics used widely in medicine are white blood cells and the complete blood cell count; the former was developed in 1915, and the latter was developed in 1959, it’s time for an ‘upgrade’!”

So, if you look in the worst case, we’re over 100 years old, just the old model of the immune system. And the concept of using the complete blood cell count was in 1959, which is about 60-70 years ago. The point is that we are at a point in the evolution of science, that the entire model of the immune system is just made on a very reductionist model. I’m going to go stick this vaccine in, and if you get antibodies, you’re great. That’s what the mRNA vaccine is about. But what I just shared with you is, the innate system is turned on, the Interferon System gets turned on, all these other processes take place, and no one talks about the Interferon System. So, when you get the mRNA vaccine, you just bypassed the Interferon System, haven’t you? And this is one of the important areas of research. Because if we don’t turn on the Interferon System, all these other wonderful orchestra processes are not being turned on.

So, in summary, what I wanted to convey to you today is that when you take a systems approach, which is what we just did today, you find that out it’s not just the innate, it’s not just the adaptive, it’s the interconnection, and the Interferon System is a missing link between both. A virus comes in, your body turns on within 30 to 40 minutes, Interferon-β, which is like a siren, it warns all the other cells, and then the Interferon-β landing on them. It’s like Paul Revere. Interferon-β is literally like Paul Revere going out and telling all the other cells to get ready. Those cells start organizing their local military, okay? That’s IRF-7. So, when the virus comes to that cell, it not only hits him with Interferon-β, but it hits them with Interferon-β and α, and then if you have the right regulatory factors, it knows to shut it off. So, you don’t have the cytokine storm.

So, tomorrow what I’m going to talk about is: What are the nutrients you can take to boost up your Interferon System? If the Interferon System, like I mentioned, sits right between all of these sub-systems does it not make sense to build immunity which will support the Interferon System? So, that’s why we need to take a Systems Approach. And that’s why when you take this interconnected approach, you’re going to start really appreciating, not only the body as a system, but all things as a system. This is not left or right. This is not about turn on the adaptive and forget the innate. This is about understanding the interconnections.

Truth Freedom Health®

That’s why you must become educated, if you’re serious, you don’t have to. What I want to do is, the formula and the goal here is we need to educate people on a systems approach, be it this or understanding digital rights, or how we’re going to get back science, and how we’re gonna fight for our rights locally. So, the only way out of this is you must get a systems education. You don’t have to do how many years I did at MIT. In three hours, every Monday night, tomorrow evening, we’re taking in new students, so please go to vashiva.com/join. Let me share this with you. I know we have a lot of our warriors online. So, all of you guys who are listening, please, you know, comment for people, let them know to go to vashiva.com/join as I’m doing this because it’s just me here doing this. If everyone goes to vashiva.com/join, please take the time right now. What you’ll see is we’re very transparent here.

We are building the infrastructure. And when I say infrastructure, I mean the digital infrastructure, the hardware infrastructure, the educational infrastructure, for you, for us to win. And remember for every $1 we invest in infrastructure, whether for our highways or we invest in ourselves, we get a 10x return. That’s what science shows, you give free stuff away, you lose 40 cents, but if you invest in infrastructure, you get a 10x return. So, what we’re showing here is, I want you guys, to contribute to our infrastructure if you want. You can contribute through telling others, you can contribute through money. And when you contribute, I want to give you back something. So, if you contribute, you can become a warrior. Those people are contributing about 100 bucks, which is nothing relative to that knowledge I’m going to share. I give you back knowledge because I don’t feel right ever taking something for nothing. Those of you who give 20 bucks, you can get the book, the textbook, and you get access to Your Body, Your System, I’ll walk you through that. Or you can just join as a member for free, and get access to what I’m going to share with you shortly, okay?

Those of you who want to become a warrior, you can also go to vashiva.com/warrior and you’ll see what you get as a warrior. I always like to give more than less and make people say, “You give way too much, in terms of knowledge.” But here it is for you. You get, first of all, access to the entire course, tomorrow evening, from seven to 10. It’s a live interaction with me. But then you also get online, you get access to a portal where you can take all the five courses, but then you get also access to another portal, where you can understand how the forces of systems thinking transport, conversion, storage, you can use that to understand your own body as a system.

I give you a tool that it took me 20 years to build where you ask a set of questions to yourself, and you figure out what kind of system you are. And then you figure out where your situation is today. That’s what the black dot is. So, the red is, in this triangle, who you are. Everyone is different. And the black dot tells you, you know, have you not gotten enough sleep? Are you compromised in some way? And then you can figure out, the system will calculate for you, not for me, but for you, based on your needs, the foods, the supplements, what’s right for you, it’s an educational tool for you to see these concepts. Okay, so you must check this out because this will help you understand. And then, by the way, you get the textbook, eBook SYSTEM AND REVOLUTION, I think about 100,000 people have read this now, I guess it would be considered a bestseller. You get YOUR BODY YOUR SYSTEM, you get YOUR SYSTEM YOUR LIFE, you get access to the theoretical science paper, and then you get access to two more very powerful science papers here, okay? On turmeric and ginger in CytoSolve. So that’s what you get here.

What I’m going to do now is that once you log in to the system, once you’ve signed up, whether as a member as a supporter, or warrior, you actually get access to a dashboard. And what is that dashboard for? Well, first of all, you can get all the educational content, educate! Then you get to build community with others, communicate! Which means this is in our data center. This is in our world. We’re not going to get kicked off by you know, Twitter, not by Facebook, not by these guys, it’s our community. So, you can communicate with a Truth Freedom Health Warrior in Nebraska, or someone in California, or someone in France, okay? You find that you’re not alone, that other people also want to get politically conscious, educationally conscious. So, we have those tools.

So, if you log in, now I’m logged in at the highest level, as a leader. But if you log in as a member, you get access to these featured videos. Well, the featured videos are videos that we know that YouTube cannot take down. So, for example, there’s a whole video series on Vitamin C. This video got taken down from YouTube, it’s about Vitamin D, how big pharma loves to depress your immune system. So, you can go look at that content that’s sitting there for you. Okay, you can then go back to the dashboard. And then you can get also, for those of you who sign up at the supporter level, you get access to a whole set of premium videos. And I think you’ll like this because these premium videos are videos, where we’ve run different ingredients through CytoSolve. So, there’s a whole set of videos on how black cumin has antiviral, anti-inflammatory properties, or the many faces of ginger or cinnamon to boost immunity. And there’s more and more videos here on garlic, okay, and we’ll talk about this more relative to the Interferons System tomorrow. So again, that’s another thing that you can take advantage of is to really get access to the premium videos.

Separate from that. That’s the educational piece. And by the way, the educational piece doesn’t end there. Beyond these basic videos, you also get access to the actual tool, YOUR BODY, YOUR SYSTEM, once you sign in, you have to sign in first. And this is a tool that you can use to answer a set of questions. You know, who am I? You answer a set of questions and it figures out, you know who you are, and lets you figure out your red dot, then it figures out what am I where am I today? That’s this black dot, you answer another set of questions. And then it gives you your personalized program and what’s right for you; what you should have in the morning, afternoon, what supplements are good, in fact, it’ll make your shopping list for you. Okay. So, you should have fun with that, all right? I think, let me make sure everyone can see this, I think what I want to do is stop the screen, I’m going to just share, the screen I want to share. I’m going to share the whole screen because otherwise, you’re not seeing all of this, okay? So, let me go here. So, in YOUR BODY, YOUR SYSTEM, you get access to the tool, which really helps you understand how your body is a system. So, take advantage of that, okay?

The next thing, you get access to all the courses online. So, when you go online, you can, independent of listening to me on Monday evenings, which I recommend you do, you can get access to the portal. You get literally to go into your course, in this case, you purchased THE FOUNDATIONS OF SYSTEMS course. And you literally can watch the videos, you can enter, and by the way, there’s an exam, I want you guys, if you’re serious about getting to the leadership program, you take this and you actually take an exam, and you get two times to pass the exam, then you actually get a certificate, okay? You actually get a Systems Health certificate.

Those of you who log in as a warrior can also get the videos right here, which is one version of the videos that I do on Monday evening. So, you get Foundations of Systems, you learn What IS a System?, Truth Freedom Health, Bottoms Up Movement, and the Not-So-Obvious Establishment, okay? So, we do that.

And then finally, the other piece I want to share with you is that we have these amazing communication tools because without communication, you’ll feel like you’re alone, sitting wherever you are. So, we’ve created these communities. By the way, there are four different eBooks, as I mentioned, there’s a scientific paper. But the communication tools are the forum, we have a number of Truth Freedom Health Warriors who are helping us now start to manage that. But you can see, for example, this is a forum on Health. And you can also access these with your iPhone or your Android, whatever phone you have. But the Health Forum, you can see there’s more and more people joining us, it’s a pretty lively conversation. There are about 80 people here on school shutdowns and mental health. So, you can join that conversation. Again, you can meet a lot of really great people here. These are people all over the world, all over the country. Okay, so you won’t feel alone.

In the dashboard is, also for warriors, we’ve created our own version of Facebook, okay? where you can join in, I always use John’s account, so you can go in, there are different groups here; we have the Warrior group and the Leader group. So, you can join one of these groups. And you can become a member in one of these groups, the Warrior group, it’s just been launched. So, you can go set up your own account, okay? It’s a lot like Facebook, but you won’t get shut down, okay?

So, I wanted to share that with you because we’re building a movement. We don’t care about politicians, because we know elections are selections, okay? We have to go local. And part of this is, the other piece I forgot to mention, is we also have the fact that you can activate yourself, right? We don’t want you to just sit around and just think you should be on this tool all day. But what you can do here, there are actually three more cards going up today. But you can literally take this card and you can print it out at your local Staples or your local printer. For example, this is on masks. So how do you convince others that what Dr. Shiva is saying is valuable? Well, this is like your cheat sheet. The front of it is about building awareness of masks. And the back of it, if you go here is what you can share with people; how masks affect the oral microbiome. You can give this to a local Starbucks person or local store. If everyone’s wearing masks, you say hey, look, you know these masks are going to affect your dental health, and your oral health, and here are the public health implications. Now, why am I giving you this?

What the goal is here is you can now be an activist on the ground, you can take the science, you can go on the ground, print these cards out on your own, and share this with people. So, we don’t need to fight the 60% of people who are ready to be convinced, you can say “Look, why don’t you read this card here from Dr. Shiva, who’s an MIT PhD, you’ll understand if you wear that mask all day, you’re increasing the temperature in this area, you’re lowering your pH, you’re going to destroy some very critical bacteria and you’re going to increase non-beneficial bacteria. And that’s going to cause periodontal disease that’s going to cause tooth decay. And that’s why doctors are noticing this increase. And maybe you, Starbucks worker, maybe you want to go to your employer and say “Hey, I need more dental health care.” Because if you’re going to make me wear these masks, that’s what I need. So, what we’re doing is we’re going to working people and saying, “Look, don’t blindly wear these masks, you can, but know that what your employer is doing can affect you.”

Okay, you can also give this to parents, you know, kids are being forced to wear these masks. These masks are particularly harmful when kids’ microbiome, their mouth bacteria is developing. Why is this important? You’ve got 700 key micro-bacteria that we’ve worked on in our research over the last three years to identify. Those bacteria are important to balancing your immune system, your innate immune system, which affects not only your oral health, it affects, your cardiovascular health, your mental health, your bone health, the mouth is a gateway. So, simple card. We don’t need to fight with people, we educate, we educate and we ignite them. That’s what we do.

So, go to vashiva.com/join support as a member, you know, it’s nothing. You support, you start contributing, we give you more and more education because it shows that you’re committed to advancing yourself. So again, our team, we’re very grateful to all of you. Our team is working very hard to boost up our infrastructure; hardware, software, we’re building this, it’s all being done by us, us! Meeting together to win Truth, Freedom, and Health. We need to educate, we need to communicate, and we need to activate ourselves. Bottoms up movement, interconnection between Truth, Freedom and Health. And we have to be aware of the not-so-obvious-establishment because they’re our real enemies; the people who actually make it pro versus anti, left versus right, Republican versus Democrat. Please, if you want to play in that sandbox, it’s sort of being a kindergartener, we need to educate people up at the PhD level politically, and that’s what this is about. It may not be for everyone, but for those of you who really want us to change the world and stop whining, you know, yeah, all these conspiracies are going on. Who cares? Let’s build our bottoms-up movement. That’s how we win.

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