#i don’t know how congress can look at themselves in the mirror and think they’re living their christ-like lives

[drysdaales]

.

#school shooting // #cw for the tags #jesus christ it’s hard to be optimistic when this shit keeps fucking happening #i’m so tired of this shitty government failing our children every single day and doing fuck all to protect them #and i’m so heartbroken for the people whose lives have been just tainted by this #all the kids and their families and the trauma they go through #i don’t know how congress can look at themselves in the mirror and think they’re living their christ-like lives #when they don’t give a shit about dying children it’s sick and depraved

[rowanthestrange]

Big Doctor Who Meta time.

It’s no wonder The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos was a weird episode - hard to follow, too much information for the story it was telling, bit all over the place. Because it wasn’t trying to tell just one story. It’s telling three. One past, one present, one future.

It contains meta for every plot point so far, and what look like considerable signposts for what’s to come next.

If you wondered why it seemed so shallow on the surface - to the point where it is titled for The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos, which we get almost no information on, and yet the people in the text are the ones who keep asking about that - then stick around.

The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos is the codebreaker for Thirteen’s era.

We’re going to go along at a fair clip, but hopefully because it involves so much of the episode, there’s enough context in to jog your memories of the episode if they were as ropey as mine were. I’m assuming knowledge/fair understanding of media analysis, and hopefully links to other relevant metas where they’d be too long to get into will cover the rest.

We meet Tzim-Sha determined to rise in the ranks, and stealing a person. Ends up in control of a planet and the remains of a limited-in-number race who do his work for him and see him as the Creator. (Tzim-Sha is a Rassilon mirror - this is important throughout)

Tzim-Sha using Sniperbots. Just robots. Boring. (The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI. Tecteun=Rassilon=Ashad meta. )

((When we first met him, he had his own independently acting data collector and conveyer, that he eventually initiated a data transfer with and caused it to put everything it had learned, into him. His plan involves taking people, who are left on the cusp between life and death, put in machines. (The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI))

Paltraki, separated from his three crewmates, memories gone. Doesn’t even remember his real name. He could’ve left any time, but didn’t. (Paltraki is a Doctor mirror).

“What did you take?” “Not take. Recover.” Paltraki doesn’t know/remember what’s in the special thing that he and others worked so hard to get. He knows he’s not supposed to let it fall into enemy hands...but his crew, his friends, are being threatened. (The Lone Cyberman and Cyberium AI plot)

The Planet gives off psychotropic waves to keep people away, but the element seems under-utilised in the story. (We’ll come back to that).

Everyone else passed by the cries for help. (The Timeless Child(ren))

The Doctor attaches two grenades to the cube. (Mirrors the Master and the TCE’d Lone Cyberman with the dark twist that someone did blow it up and effectively destroy the remains of a planet that time)

Tzim-Sha got blown up but survived after a fashion. (future Tectuen=Rassilon=Ashad meta - no-one thinks the Lone Cyberman is actually dead)

“The Ux? As in the duo-species, only ever two of you? Lifespans of millennia?” (The Timeless Children, plural) “Only found on three planets in the whole universe?” (Now isn’t that a weird and unnecessary addition. A lot of meta possibilities in that. Starting with: The Timeless Child and the boy on the cliff, Martin!Doctor and ??? The Doctor and the Master.)

One is following the will of the Creator. The other is being tortured. (The Timeless Child(ren))

“Wait. Is this yours, this building? Is it true about the Ux? Faith-driven dimensional engineers. Is that why the building feels alive?” (What Are TARDISes meta)

Yaz: Do you have a home [on your planet]? Paltraki: Beautiful home. Some land, and animals. Too many facts coming back. It's like a flood. I don't know what's important, or... We were the last fleet. When the others didn't come back, they sent for us. (Feels like how the Doctor will regain bits of memories)

Paltraki was sent by The Congress of the Nine Planets in response to the atrocities. (The Alliance)

The Doctor: Why do you call him the Creator? Andinio: Our faith is handed down. The Creator is the cornerstone. (The Legends of Rassilon)

“But I've got so many questions, Andinio. Because there's a battlefield outside where many people died, but you're no warrior. And your words are certain, but your eyes are full of doubt.” (The Timeless Child(ren))

There are literal codebreakers. (Like Steganography and The Ireland Metaphor, the text is telling you to meta this)

They only came to rescue two people, but there are dozens of bodies in the pods. Thirty. (The Timeless Child - more bodies than imagined)

It’s been three thousand four hundred and seven years since Tzim-Sha saw the Doctor  “banishing me across the universe to this desolate rock for the rest of my existence”. Later in the episode: “Even in exile, I shall lead.” (Meta 1: The last thing the Doctor linearly did with Rassilon was banish him. Meta 2: The Master or Matrix says Tecteun was adventuring but her story and other meta fits much better with someone trying to find a way to save her dwindling race - perhaps previous experiments got her banished, because the next lines are: )

The Doctor: “But you got more than you could possibly have wished for. The Ux.” Tzim-Sha: “The universe provides.” The Doctor: “You wanted to be a leader. Now you're worshipped as a false god. Why all the ships outside? What have you made them do?” (The Timeless Child(ren))

Tzim-Sha: “I carry the entire hive knowledge of the Stenza civilisation within me.” (The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI. Tecteun=Rassilon=Ashad)

The Doctor: “When you say revenge, revenge on who?” Tzim-Sha: “You, Doctor.” The Doctor: “Oh, no. Don't put this on me.” Tzim-Sha: “If you had not interfered, I would have become leader. First of the Stenza. And yet, I should thank you.” The Doctor: “Thank me? Why?” Tzim-Sha: “You have made me a god.” The Doctor: “You are nothing of the sort.”  (Tzim-Sha can do double duty as a Master meta in a lot of places too - three stories, past, present, and future.)

Tzim-Sha: “It has taken thousands of years. Every fragment of scientific understanding the Stenza ever possessed, allied to the impossible power of the Ux. You will see, Doctor. I must be a god. I have the powers of one.” (The Time Lords/Shobogans and the Timeless Children)

The Doctor: “Let me guess. They built you a weapon. That's what your sort like to do. Is that why all those ships came? You made a weapon, and they came to stop you.” (The Alliance. The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI. The Timeless Children)

((An inscription scored in the floor of a dead Stenza-controlled planet, where the only thing imitating life are robots and remnants: “We are scientists. Abducted, tortured and made to work, while our families are held hostage. We are forced to find new ways of destruction. Poisons, weapons, creatures. We gave them our minds and they made us the creators of death. This planet has been left scorched and barren from our work. The atmosphere and water are toxic. Killing machines and creatures inhabit every corner. We had no choice but to obey... The Stenza. We are trying to destroy all of our work before they use it against others. There's two words below that. They're coming.”  (The Timeless Children))

The building is weird - treated weirdly in the text. The Shrine. They refer to the building as pulling them in - not the people in it. This shrine is the weapon. The TARDIS directly referenced as Ghost Monument (What Are TARDISes) ((the planet itself is screaming))

Paltraki: “I remember what they did. Five objects. Five planets. One weapon. They stole five planets.” The Doctor: “That's not possible.” Paltraki: “It's what happened. Entire planets removed from their spatial orbit.” The Doctor: “It would've destroyed all life. Planetary genocide.” (The Lone Cyberman and the Cyberium AI: The Death Particle | Backups of species - currently two, Cybermen and Time Lords)

The Doctor: “All these planetary masses cannot exist in the same place at the same time. The technology isn't stable. You bring another through, it could destroy everything.” (Rassilon with Gallifrey in The End Of Time)

Graham - everyone’s Grandpa, and Ryan, trap Tzim-Sha - mirror of the Doctor’s abusive parental figure. (Era theme: The concept of family and chosen Fam)

The Doctor: “Can't disconnect them, it might kill them.” Yaz: “But if we don't, what happens to Earth? Their life versus seven billion others.” (A Crisis of Utilitarianism meta feat. The Astronaut, Percy Shelley, The Timeless Child)

The Doctor and Yaz make themselves vulnerable to the Planet being able to affect their mind. (No current meta besides it just feels TARDISy and Kasaaviny, and it goes nowhere in the actual story to the point where it feels certain this is meta for the future.)

“There's too many things to do! One thing at a time. It's fine. All good. Well, almost.” (The desperate cry of the Writer creating meta. I know it well.)

The Doctor and Yaz block the Ux’s powers. (The narrative likelihood that this set of Doctors are not actually immortal, or if they are they cannot keep it)

The Doctor: “Universe provide for me.” - the TARDIS arrives. Is referred to as a Ghost Monument. Tzim-Sha: “The Universe provides” - the Ux. As Rassilon mirror - the Timeless Child. (What are TARDISes?)

The Doctor: “Their knowledge, their abilities, Tim Shaw's tech, our blue box.” (What look like the best guesses for each of the plot points of the era in meta form. The Doctor and Master’s memories. The Timeless Child(ren)’s abilities. The Cyberium AI, TARDISes).

Tzim-Sha has an electric hand/power gauntlet thing. (In case you weren’t sure on the Rassilon mirror. + The Lone Cyberman)

The Doctor: “I know this will be painful. I wouldn't put you through this if I could think of any other way right now.” Delph: “It's okay.” The Doctor: “It's not, but thank you.” (The Timeless Child(ren) (and that distinct sensation that this is all going to be very direct mirroring in the future))

Graham: “You brought us all together. You ain't going to tear us apart. You ain't worth killing. But you can have a taste of your own medicine.” Ryan: “We're not weak, we're strong, and we sentence you to life.” Graham: “So, as you're contemplating eternity, keep one name on your mind.” Both together: “Grace.” (This feels like the slightly nicer sounding version of what personally I’m hoping the Master is going to say and do to Rassilon at the end of all this)

The Doctor decides on “Fam”. Yaz likes it. (Era theme: The concept of family and chosen Fam)

#doctor who #doctor who meta #the battle of ranskoor av kolos #the timeless child #the timeless children #rassilon #the assilon #the master was the second child #what are TARDISes #tzim sha #IF YOU’RE A META NERD #consider this #required re-viewing

[arlingtonpark]

2018 Midterm Election Primer

Ladies and gentlemen, Armageddon is upon us.

I am of course referring to the 2018 Midterms, the 116th such elections to be held under the current Constitution.

It’s been a long way since this election cycle started. Democrats were so assured of victory in 2016. Indeed, most Americans probably thought Clinton would win.  

Donald Trump’s rather flukey victory was attributable to a lot of factors. Hillary Clinton’s general unpopularity, which to some extent had a basis in sexism; the racialization of American politics, which Trump, to his credit, adeptly took advantage of; the refusal of Republican politicians to abandon Trump in the face of his many outrages; and the infamous Comey Letter.

And Clinton’s forsaking of Waukesha County.

Trump’s victory was a catalyzing moment for the American left, with women, and especially white, suburban women, traditionally a GOP leaning group, mobilizing in opposition to Trump’s presidency. The Women’s March, later joined by the #metoo movement, have marked an inflection point in female activism. There has been an unprecedented number of women running for public office this election cycle. Many of these women were compelled to run by the trauma of 2016 (never forget) and naturally, because the Democratic Party is the party in opposition to Trump, they overwhelmingly chose to run as Democrats.

Not counting incumbents, so in other words only looking at races where no candidate was favored to win the nomination, the Democratic Party has nominated women to be their standard bearer in half of all elections for the House of Representatives. In this small sliver of the political universe we have gender parity.

That has never happened before.

The 116th Congress, to be elected this November, will be the first one with a fourth of its membership being women. This will represent a huge increase from the current proportion, which is about one fifth.

However, this surge in female activism has been mostly limited to the Democratic Party. The Republicans have seen a much more limited increase in female candidacies.

It’s no secret to anyone paying attention that the Democrats are the party of women and minorities and the Republicans are the party of white men. In 2018 we saw an acceleration of this trend. As of this writing, 33% of Democratic members of the House are women. Only 9% of Republican House members are women. 37% of Democratic House members are nonwhite. 5% of Republican House members are nonwhite. These differences will only grow after 2018.

Joe Crowley and Mike Capuano, both white, male Democrats, were not renominated by the party and were replaced by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, both women of color, respectively. Kristi Noem and Marsha Blackburn, both female Republicans, opted to leave the House to run for higher office and Dusty Johnson and Mark Green, both men, were respectively nominated to replace them.

As Dave Wasserman put it, House Democrats are 41% white men and falling. House Republicans are 85% white men and rising.

The parties will only continue to grow further and further apart.

The House of Representatives.

The marquee race on Election night will be the drive to 218. Whichever party gets over that number will (at least nominally) control the House of Representatives.

As of now, the Democrats are favored five times out of six to win the majority of seats. That’s very good, but there is still a one in six chance Republicans remain in power. The forecast models being used to predict the outcome of the election are based, in part, on polling. Polls are not perfect; it is not uncommon for them to be off by 2-3 percentage points.

If the polls are underestimating Republicans by 2-3 percentage points, then the GOP has a solid chance of retaining the majority. This would happen on the backs of numerous races being won by less than a two percentage margin or so.

Conversely, if it turns out the polls are overestimating Republicans (and yes, a 15% chance of victory could actually be an overestimation) by 2-3 percentage points, then the GOP will get fucking slaughtered on 11/6. In this scenario the Democrats could win over 50 seats. They only need 23 to win.  

There’s an equal chance that either scenario happens.

Most gains by the Democrats will be concentrated among suburban areas, a sign of the GOP’s collapse among suburban voters.

The number of competitive seats has greatly expanded over time. Democrats are competitive in districts such as Virginia’s 5th, North Carolina’s 9th, and Michigan’s 8th. This was unthinkable a year ago.

If the Democrats retake the House it is unlikely they will move to impeach Trump immediately. When Republicans tried to impeach Bill Clinton there was a backlash amongst the people against them. People thought they were being too hasty. Democrats will try to avoid that.

But don’t worry. Democrats fully intend on riding Trump’s ass and in more ways than you can imagine. The duty of the House is to oversee the executive branch, a duty Republicans have shirked. If the Democrats take control you can bet there will be innumerable investigations into reports of impropriety in the Trump administration.

And Nancy Pelosi?

If Republicans keep control she’s dead. She’s deader than Tony Bennett. She’ll be ousted from power and replaced by someone else. Who that’ll be, I don’t know. Joe Crowley was the obvious replacement but he’s dead too, now. There’s really no clear replacement.

Even if the Democrats take control, Pelosi isn’t a lock for the Speakership. Many Democratic candidates are running on a promise of not supporting her. If there’s only a slim Democratic majority, there may not be enough Pelosi Democrats to get her the Speakership. Things could get messy next January.

 The Senate.

The Senate is a mirror image of the House. Republicans are favored five out of six times to have the majority after the election.

But the fact that it’s even this close is a miracle.

There are 24 Democrats running for reelection in 2018. Ten of them are trying to win in states that voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Five of them are running in states Trump won by over 15 percentage points.

If Clinton were President, Republicans could conceivably have picked up over 10 seats, a massive landslide victory for them. But now? They may not win any seats. That’s incredible.

Right now, Democrats may lose only one of their own: Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who’s been polling behind her Republican opponent.

This loss will likely be offset, though, in Arizona, where Democrat Kyrsten Sinema is favored to replace Republican Jeff Flake, who is retiring.

To win the majority, Heitkamp will need to hang on in North Dakota and Sinema will need to win alongside Jacky Rosen, the Democrat running against Republican Senator Dean Heller in Nevada. That would give then the 51 seats they need for a majority. Unfortunately, Rosen has also fallen behind in the polls.

If Heitkamp or Rosen or both can’t pull through, they’ll need to get to 51 seats some other way, most likely by winning Texas and Tennessee…and it’s at this point I hope it becomes clear just how measly their chances are of winning.

In Indiana, Democrat Joe Donnelley is running for reelection and his strategy is to basically try and trick voters into thinking he’s the Republican. Donnelley is an accidental Senator; he only won because his Republican opponent was a moron who threw away the election.

The same holds true for Claire McCaskill, Missouri’s Democratic senator. She should have lost reelection in 2012, but was saved when her Republican opponent epically screwed himself. If you were around back then you probably remember it, actually.

The final race of note is Florida. The Democrat is Bill Nelson, who is a former astronaut. The Republican is Governor Rick Scott, who was fined over $1 billion for defrauding the federal government.

Even if the Democrats don’t win the majority now, keeping the Republicans at 51 seats will set them up to take the Senate later on down the line. 2020 and 2022 will feature election maps far more favorable to the Democrats than 2018.

But looking out even further into the future the Democratic Party’s Senate prospects are not looking good. It is only through sheer luck that they aren’t going to get slaughtered here. The 2018 map will be up for election again in 2024 and it is then that they’ll get slaughtered.

 Governors

The gaggle of 36 governor’s races are a mirror image of the Senate map, which is a mirror image of the House. It’s mirrors all the way down in this cycle! Most of the seats are held by Republicans and a lot of them are in states where Democrats have a chance to win. But unlike the Senate, they don’t have a favorable map to buoy themselves, which means they’re on a sinking ship without a lifeboat.

Democrats are favored to take governorships from the Republicans in Michigan, Illinois, Maine, Iowa, New Mexico, and Florida.

Florida!

That’s just bewildering. Florida is a swing state, all elections there are close. Yet Democrat Andrew Gillum, a black guy running on universal healthcare, is practically running away with the governorship!

And you want even more proof things are going well for Democrats?

Georgia is a toss-up. Yeah, that’s right, Democrat Stacey Abrams, another black candidate, is competitive against Republican Brian Kemp.

Republican governor Scott Walker is slightly favored to get his ass kicked in Wisconsin, which is karmic justice as far as union leaders are concerned since he’s been a thorn in their side for a while now.

Another competitive Republican state that shouldn’t be: Kansas. The old Republican governor, Sam Brownback, is like the captain of the Titanic, except imagine if Captain Smith drove the ship into the iceberg on purpose. Brownback’s policies have ruined the state and now his disciple, Kris Kobach, is trying to succeed him. Kobach is such a clown that several prominent Kansas Republicans have endorsed the Democrat, Laura Kelly.

Things are a bit complicated in Alaska. Bill Walker, the current governor, is not affiliated with any party, except he used to be a Democrat, and the Democrats chose to endorse him instead of nominating someone in the last election. Things didn’t go so smoothly this time, though. Democrats nominated Mark Begich to be governor and Walker chose to run for reelection anyway. This split the anti-Republican vote and cleared the way for Republican Dunleavey to hike his way to victory.

Most politicians would be too egomaniacal to see they can’t win and drop out, but not Bill Walker. He dropped out of the race and endorsed Begich, ironically proving he was the one who deserved to win the most. Now Dunleavy…is still favored to win. But it’s closer now. Yeah.

The truth is that Walker is just very unpopular. However much Alaskans are stereotyped as rugged mountainpeople, never forget their state is the only one in the country that gives every man, women, and child. literally. free. money. That’s why Walker wasn’t so popular. Because he cut back on the amount of free money he was giving away.

Alaska is only one of two bright spots for Republicans here. The other is New England. They have three governorships there and all three are favored to be reelected. These governors are more moderate (pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-gay marriage, etc.) and they all work with Democrats to govern effectively. It is precisely because of this they will never be big with the national Republican Party.

I haven’t followed the Nevada race, but Nevada politico Jon Ralston describes Republican Adam Laxalt like he’s a douche who’s dating someone for their looks, so I hope he loses. He’s (barely) favored to win.

Ohio’s race is a toss-up between Mike DeWine and Richard Corduroy.

Winning all these governorships is important for Democrats because these governors will be around in 2021 when congressional districts are redrawn. Because those district maps have to be passed into law to take effect, the governors of most states have a veto over it. Republicans had a free hand in 2011 during the last redraw and they drew the maps to favor themselves. Having Democratic governors will be important to keeping the party from being drawn out.

 The Big Picture

The most important aspect of any given election is how it sets up the next election two years later. (The one constant in American politics is a torturously arduous struggle that never ends.) Which candidates win and which lose will be used to argue for one vision of the Democratic and Republican parties over the others. For example, if Andrew Gillum, a black man running on Bernie Sander’s platform, wins in Florida, then that will strengthen the case Sanders and his ilk are making for the path the Party needs to go down.

It’s possible a future President could be elected in 2018. Gillum and Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, have both been talked about as presidential candidates. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic candidate for Governor of California, has also had his name thrown around.

The best election night commentary is from the smart politicos on twitter. Seriously, these people know what they’re talking about and because it’s Twitter, there’ll be much snark. I’ll have a Twitter list ready by election night for anyone willing to follow it on Twitter.

Hope you all vote! :)

#politics #2018 elections #things you don't expect on tumblr

[surly01]

A Bloody Week In Doom March 17, 2019

Prayers for the victims in Christchurch attacks.

“The old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born. Now is the time of monsters.”

 ― Antonio Gramsci  

The latest monster came to call in Christchurch, New Zealand in a story that dwarfed all others this week. I had some other ideas for what might fill this space this week, then the news from Christchurch, New Zealand, followed by the one-two punch of a Twitler emission rendered all moot. Brenton Tarrant strapped on a helmet camera, loaded a car with weapons, drove to a mosque in Christchurch and began shooting at anyone who came across his line of vision. His helmet-cam helped broadcast the act of mass terror live for the world to watch on social media. As of Sunday, the death toll had reached 50.

Tarrant thus joined the roll call of monsters alongside Stephen Paddock (Las Vegas), Anders Breivik (Norway), Robert Gregory Bowers (Tree of Life Synagogue, Pittsburgh), Omar Mateen (Pulse, Orlando), Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook), Nikolas Cruz (Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school), Devin Patrick Kelley (Sutherland Springs church in Texas), James Holmes (Aurora), Dylann Roof (Charleston, SC), and, of course, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who kicked off the 21st century with the Columbine massacre.

In ancient Rome, an interregnum was a period between stable governments when anything might happen, and the "the blood-dimmed tide" might be loosed:  civil unrest, competition between warlords, power vacuums, wars of succession. In 1929, in such an interregnum found Italian Marxist philosopher and politician Antonio Gramsci languishing in a fascist prison, writing about the forces tearing Europe  apart. He anticipated civil unrest, war between nations and changing political fault lines.

Interestingly, it was Gramsci who gave us the term "hegemony" now in use. Hegemony is a three dollar word representing a simple idea: the coercion of smaller fish by bigger fish. When the powerful use their influence to convince the less powerful their best interest lies in doing what is actually in the best interest of the powerful, that's hegemony. When we consider the above list of overwhelmingly white terrorists with a nationalist/supremacist bent, we can see terror is one way the powerful preserve their hegemony when they feel their power begin to wane when frightened by demographic changes posed by immigration.

Trump has the sensibility of a spoiled child tearing the wings off of flies. When asked whether white nationalism has anything to do with the tragedy in Christchurch, he replied in the negative. Echoes of “good people on both sides,” a la Charlottesville. The prime minister of New Zealand indicated late Friday coming changes to New Zealand's gun laws. A striking contrast that makes one wonder how many will have to die, again and again and again, until our own politicians, beholden to the NRA and their sea of laundered rubles, are moved to similarly act.

You'll recall that when it was his time to serve in Vietnam, the self proclaimed White House tough guy came up missing like Dick Cheney and his five deferments. Chickenhawks like Cheney always find "other priorities" to service, but are eager to send the disposable sons and daughters of the poor into harm's way, because what else are they for but cannon-fodder? Real military men who have seen battle are loath to commit their fellow citizens to needless battle; but chickenhawks, untroubled by loss or nightmares, send their non-relatives readily into the Valley of Death. 

The mob-boss stylings of Citrus Caligula make a tough sound, especially when talking to the far right media like Breitbart.

Trump said: "I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad. But the left plays it cuter and tougher. Like with all the nonsense that they do in Congress … with all this investigations]—that’s all they want to do is –you know, they do things that are nasty. Republicans never played this.”

When you can't bully a majority of the people and the House of Representatives into accepting your will as fiat, that is apparently vicious tactics. Especially on the part of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who Trump refers to as "Nancy."

"So here’s the thing—it’s so terrible what’s happening,” Trump said before discussing his supporters. “You know, the left plays a tougher game, it’s very funny. I actually think that the people on the right are tougher, but they don’t play it tougher. Okay?"

Uh, not OK. This is Trump engaging in stochastic terrorism, or

the public demonization of a person or group resulting in the incitement of a violent act, which is statistically probable but whose specifics cannot be predicted.

Trump is actively encouraging people taking the law into their own hands, in the same way Putin has his Night Riders (see below), as Mussolini had his black shirts, and Hitler his brown shirts. The purpose is unmistakable: to be bullyboys who operate outside of the law and through violent intimidation. For the last two years we've had a president who fundamentally does not believe in democracy, and whose recent utterances show no loyalty to either the Constitution or the traditions of American governance. This IS a time of monsters. And now this: 

Trump’s Breitbart Biker Threat Came From the Putin Playbook—Then Tweet Deleted After Mosque Massacre

Trump told Breitbart there could be biker violence against leftists. It sounded even worse after Brenton Tarrant's mosque massacre manifesto called Trump "a symbol of renewed white identity." It does not get much clearer than that.

The Daily Beast Explains the Putinesque origins of Twitler's latest veiled threat: 

"They call themselves The Night Wolves, “a new kind of motorcycle club,” or, sometimes, “Putin’s Angels.” And just as much as the Orthodox Church or the military, the Wolves have become a symbol of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. But the idea that they might be used as his extra-legal enforcers in times of trouble is usually implicit—embedded in their flag-waving Putinized patriotism—never really spelled out....Trump is not so subtle, however, especially when he takes his cues from the Kremlin. Leave it to him to put the potential for violent defense of his interests by a motorcycle gang front and center in the public view."

On Friday morning, as news broke of the massacre, the murderer's manifesto called Trump “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose,” the Breitbart tough-guy tweet came down. Note a wider pattern of American racists and white supremacists looking to Russia for both moral and tactical support.

The New Zealand Massacre Was Made to Go Viral

Outside a mosque in Christchurch on Friday. Mark Baker/Associated Press

Charlie Warzel noted that the attack marks a grim new age of social media-fueled terrorism.

A 17-minute video of a portion of the attack, which leapt across the internet faster than social media censors could remove it, is one of the most disturbing, high-definition records of a mass casualty attack of the digital age — a grotesque first-person-shooter-like documentation of man’s capacity for inhumanity.

Videos of attacks are designed to amplify the terror, of course. But what makes this atrocity “an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence,” as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described it, is both the methodical nature in which the massacre was conducted and how it was apparently engineered for maximum virality.

Even though Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube scrambled to take down the recording, they were no match for the speed of their users or for their algorithms which make connections for people consuming such content. In minutes, the video was downloaded and mirrored onto additional platforms, and ricocheted around the globe.

Warzel notes,

Internet users dredged up the alleged shooter’s digital history, preserving and sharing images of weapons and body armor. The gunman’s apparent digital footprint — from the rantings of a White Nationalist manifesto to his 8chan message board postings before the murders — was unearthed and, for a time, distributed into far-flung corners of the web.

The killer wanted the world’s attention, and by committing an act of mass terror, he was able to get it.

It was not the first act of violence to be broadcast in real-time. Yet this one was different because ofd the perpetrator's apparent familiarity with the darkest corners of the internet. The recording contains numerous references to online and meme culture, including name-checking a prominent YouTube personality. Tarrant knew his audience.

Tarrent's digital trail depicts a white supremacist motivation for the attack. His 87-page manifesto, for instance, is filled with layers of  commentary apparently written to specifically enrage the communities that appear to have helped radicalize the gunman in the first place. It seems he understands both the platform dynamics that allow misinformation and divisive content to spread but also the way to sow discord.

I recently came across an article by Ezra Klein who identifies an ecosphere of YouTube prophets and avatars who populate the "intellectual dark web:" The rise of YouTube’s reactionary right: How demographic change and YouTube’s algorithms are building a new right. Many right wing publishers benefit from YouTube’s algorithms to build the new right. 

YouTube’s recommendation engine follows the digital footsteps we all make. And it sees connections, not context. It knows when audiences repeatedly come together, but does not grasp why. And it predicts what they’re likely to view next. Thus are the "mainstreams" of conservative thought brought into proximity to the far right fringe.

As Klein has it,

"Many of these YouTubers are less defined by any single ideology than they are by a “reactionary” position: a general opposition to feminism, social justice, or left-wing politics."

On YouTube, tomorrow’s politics are emerging today. Tarrant noted this and made the online community work in the gunman’s favor. Our brown shirts are now digital: not only has their conspiratorial hate spread from the internet to real life, it’s also weaponized to go viral. 

Proof That White Supremacy Is an International Terrorist Threat

It stretches from Christchurch to Pittsburgh and extends out in every direction.

The always-dependable Charlie Pierce noted that Anders Breivik, the murderous white-supremacist who killed 72 people in Norway in 2011, has become one of the most significant figures in international terrorism by providing a template for the modern white-supremacist mass murderer.

From Ted Kaczynski, he borrowed the idea of publishing a manifesto. From the Columbine killers, he borrowed the idea of using both bombs and guns. And from the international white-supremacist networks, he borrowed the murderous rage and bloodthirsty rhetoric necessary to carry out acts of mass murder, and to justify his crimes through an elaborate bullshit ideological exoskeleton that he wore like body armor. He put all of this together and created the modern mode of mass political murder, one that was carried out again Thursday in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Pierce notes that Tarrant's latest manifesto

reads like a vicious form of grandiose trolling. But there seems to be little doubt that the crimes themselves speak loudly of the basic truth that this was a right-wing act of war against a target population. And, because of that, we should take the following passage very seriously. The alleged shooter called the President* of the United States "a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose." 

When asked if the rise of white natonalism or white supremacy posed a rising threat around the world, Trump replied, 

“I don’t, really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess.  If you look at what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s the case. I don’t know enough about it yet. But it’s certainly a terrible thing.”

On Sunday, Mick Mulvaney and other staffers made the rounds and insisted that Trump was "Not a White Supremacist." Which speaks volumes.

White supremacy now poses an international terrorist threat stretching from Norway to Pittsburgh, from Christchurch to Las Vegas, sharing objectives with the Night Riders or the Bikers for Trump, but better armed and more purposeful. Brownshirts used to intimidate; the new generation attacks to sow terror in targeted groups. This poses an existential threat to the very notion of liberal democracy. Today the target is Muslims; Tomorrow's target will be...?

For our purposes this week, Charlie Pierce gets the last word:

From [white supremacist terrorism] runs on a parallel track with the rise of a xenophobic rightwing nationalist politics that is conspicuously successful in a number of putatively democratic nations. Liberal democracy is under attack and, like any revolution, this one has both a respectable political front and a violent auxiliary that operates on its own imperatives. That one of those auxiliaries cites both a Norwegian mass murderer and the President* of the United States as inspiration for killing 49 people is not only evidence of the width of the threat, but also the depth of its commitment to the cause. This is the everyday al Qaeda of the angry white soul, and it's growing.

Now is the time of monsters.

[propshophannah]

Sorry if I sound kinda uneducated but I just saw the post about gynecologists and I wanted to ask what exactly happens when you go to one(like what exactly is a Pap smear, etc.) Also is there a specific age to go to one? Thank you so much. Just know that you have taught me more than any sex Ed program I have been shown.

Hi! And thanks! I’m glad I can help. 

So at the beginning of this post, I mention the right age in which to see an ob-gyn (13-15), and I also go into detail of what actually happens when you go.

Keep in mind that the post is my perspective, and because I have a family history of cancer, and I wanted to get on birth control, and I was sexually active. So I got (and get) the full exam when I went/when I go. If you are not sexually active, have no family history of cancer/issues with female reproductive organs then your visit will likely be different. (Also, all the websites I link/get info from are legit and reputable. I’m not getting info from sites that aren’t run by legitimate organizations that cannot be verified, or are not ethically allowed to speak about women’s reproductive health.)

“An obstetrician–gynecologist (ob-gyn) is a doctor who specializes in the health care of women. Girls should have their first gynecologic visit between the ages of 13 years and 15 years.” (acog.org)

So if you’re in that age range, or older and you haven’t yet gone, you need to go. They’re just going to make sure you’re healthy. Your first visit may just be talking with the doctor.

They may also give you a breast exam, or a pelvic exam (to make sure your ovaries and uterus are in the right spots/not lumpy/healthy etc. and maybe a pap smear.

They will also ask you about your relationships. They’ll want to know your sexual orientation and if you need information or help on safe sex. They will absolutely ask about your periods. They’ll want to make sure they’re normal, and if you can manage them, or if you need help managing them. If you have a heavy flow, or a too light flow, or if your periods are very painful, or of they’re inconsistent, or if you spot bleed in between cycles, or if you skip cycles—all of that they need to know and they can help you with.

They’ll ask about your mental health. They want to know if you’re depressed, or anxious, or if you’re being abused. They want to know how you feel about yourself—do you have a positive or negative self image? Do you struggle with being overweight, underweight, or maybe you have acne and it makes you embarrassed or it’s just annoying and everywhere.

ALL OF THOSE THINGS, the ob-gyn (sometimes it’s a nurse practitioner too btw) will help you with. Birth control can with things like acne and various period symptoms. The ob-gyn can also prescribe other medications to help you in other ways, and look at the ones you’re already on and say, “this medication can increase your chances of depression or anxiety,” or “this medication will make intercourse more painful,” and they will help you and give you instructions on next steps for how to get your medications to work for you better. They are there to help you.

SIDE NOTE: I’m starting to realize, that you should ask about your hymen skin. Ask your ob-gyn what shape it is. I’ve recently been on the hunt for actual, peer-reviewed medical studies of common and uncommon hymen shapes. And while there seems to be a lack of information on that topic (I’m not surprised no one wants to fund research on vaginas. #UghThePatriarchy), I’ve also been reading through a lot of forums where women think they have “an extra flap of skin” in their vaginas. And many of them say that their ob-gyn has never mentioned it.

These women don’t realize that they likely have a septate hymen. It’s where there is a piece of skin running across the vaginal opening. That kind of hymen might be to common to ob-gyns, that they don’t think to mention it. So I think you should ask about your hymen skin. Because if you have one that is thicker or that is shaped in such a way that it is painful (some people can’t finger themselves or use tampons) or could become painful—you have options for how to stretch it out, or you can get a hymenectomy (see this post for more info on hymenectomy).

And also, if you can prevent painful intercourse, why would you not? I’m realizing, some hymen skin is a LOT thicker than others. We’re taught that it usually kinda stretches out on its own or even breaks and goes away by the teenage years. And we’re also taught that what’s left can make sex hurt. But I’m finding that if it’s thicker, or shaped in a way that makes it more covering that it will break painfully and can heal back. I think we should all be aware of the options we have to prevent painful sex and/or to improve our quality of life with our vagina.

The following is cut and paste verbatim from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (acog.org):

What should I expect at the first gynecologic visit?

The first visit may be just a talk between you and your doctor. You can find out what to expect at future visits and get information about how to stay healthy. You also may have certain exams.

Your doctor may ask a lot of questions about you and your family. Some of them may seem personal, such as questions about your menstrual period or sexual activities (including vaginal, oral, or anal sex). If you are concerned about confidentiality, you and your doctor should talk about it before you answer any questions. Much of the information you share can be kept confidential.

What exams are performed?

You may have certain exams at the first visit. If you choose, a nurse or family member may join you for any part of the exam. Most often, these exams are performed:

General physical exam

External genital exam

You usually do not need to have a pelvic exam at the first visit unless you are having problems, such as abnormal bleeding or pain. If you are sexually active, you may have tests for certain sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Most of the tests that teens need can be done by the doctor with a urine sample. You also may have certain vaccinations.

What happens during a general physical exam?

During the general exam, your height, weight, and blood pressure will be checked. You also will be examined for any health problems you may have.

What happens during an external genital exam?

In this exam, the doctor looks at the vulva. He or she may give you a mirror so that you can look at the vulva as well. This exam is a good way to learn about your body and the names for each part.

What are the pelvic exam and Pap test?

Even though you probably will not have a pelvic exam, you should know what one is. Another test that you will have later (at age 21 years) is a Pap test. This test checks for abnormal changes in the cervix that could lead to cancer.

The pelvic exam has three parts:

1. Looking at the vulva

2. Looking at the vagina and cervix with a speculum

3. Checking the internal organs with a gloved hand

(Click here to see the picture the ACOG provides with this info!)

The doctor will use a speculum to look at your vagina and cervix. When you have a Pap test, a sample of cells is taken from your cervix with a small brush.

To check your internal organs, the doctor will place one or two gloved, lubricated fingers into the vagina and up to the cervix. The other hand will press on the abdomen from the outside.

——

And that’s all I got! I hope this helps! Let me know. And check out the ACOG website or sexetc.org. They’re great resources.

#sexpectations #sex ed with propshophannah #first gyno visit #first ob-gyn visit #ob-gyn #pelvic exam #Pap smear #pap test #genital exam #ACOG #sexetc #mental health #At what age should I visit the gynecologist

[newsnigeria]

Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà

New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/americans-encouraged-hate/

The One People Americans Are Encouraged to Hate

by Yvonne Lorenzo for Ooduarere via The Saker Blog

How would you react if you read the following statements and found that they were spoken by government employees who are part of the American Deep State and have a great deal of power over the nation and you? Wouldn’t the prejudice appall and disgust you?

“I do always hate the Israelis,” Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer on the Israel probe, testified to Congress in July 2018. “It is my opinion that with respect to Western ideals and who it is and what it is we stand for as Americans, Israel poses the most dangerous threat to that way of life.” As he opened the FBI’s probe of the Trump campaign’s ties to Israel in July 2016, FBI agent Peter Strzok texted Page: “fuck the cheating motherfucking Israelis… Bastards. I hate them… I think they’re probably the worst. Fucking conniving cheating savages.” Speaking to NBC News in May 2017, former director of national intelligence James Clapper explained why US officials saw interactions between the Trump camp and Israeli nationals as a cause for alarm: “The Israelis,” Clapper said, “almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Israeli technique. So we were concerned.”

Of course, readers of Ooduarere know that the officials quoted never actually made those remarks about the Israelis; nor did they express their hatred of Germans, Saudi Arabians, Turks, French, Libyan, Congolese, Somalians, Germans, Italians, British, Canadians, Greeks, or even Chinese. No; the actual nation and people named were the Russians. Here is the link to the original excellent piece published in The Nation. Yet it seems perhaps not with a touch of irony the speakers were engaging in projection and discussing themselves, the so-called America elites.

Unfortunately, I don���t remember how I found ooduarere and The Saker, originally not on this official site of his but at Blogspot blog. Yet as an American slowly waking up to the terrible truths of the corruption and destructive actions engaged by the American government and its “Deep State” from reading LewRockwell.com (where I later became a contributor to Lew’s site via this link) and supporting Ron Paul, I was horrified to discover that American “fair play” was only an illusion. Nevertheless, I am astonished by the hatred that I quoted. In this time of extraordinary oppression against any individual who dares challenge certain dogmas, that is to say if anyone is White and a true follower of the Way of Jesus Christ especially, for example, as The Saker himself wrote recently on the whole homosexual brouhaha here, then the full force of the establishment, the powers that be, will be brought to bear—your employment, perhaps your life would be at risk. Not that Lisa Page or Peter Strozk would ever dare to criticize Israel, or look into the mirror and see themselves as they truly are, but if they did, they’d probably be taken to a CIA black site and waterboarded for their troubles.

A few years ago, I was truly haunted by a photograph posted on the Saker’s site of a beautiful young woman and her infant child; I can’t recall the link yet I believe the post was by a Saker contributor. The two were murdered by shelling from the Neo-Nazi Ukrainians. I wonder why Putin in his interview with Oliver Stone didn’t, in his usual calm yet convincing manner, discuss the terrible loss of life and the tens of thousands of refugees, the human suffering caused by the American Empire, for after all Victoria Nuland admitted that billions were poured into Ukraine in support of “regime change.” Nevertheless, what astonishes me is the complete lack of empathy, in fact the evident enjoyment in wreaking havoc and death around the world on the part of America’s political class especially.

Meanwhile, back in America, America itself is breaking apart at the seams. How can one maintain an empire when the empire itself is built on sand? As Boyd D. Cathey noted in his piece “Is It Time for America to Break Apart?”:

“There are then, palpably, two Americas. They still use the same language, but they are increasingly incapable of communicating with each other. Almost weekly words and terms are redefined beyond comprehension, and those ‘devil terms’ have become the modern equivalents of linguistic hydrogen bombs deployed by the progressivists. They illustrate what political theorist Paul Gottfried has called a ‘post-Marxist’ praxis that has actually moved beyond the assaults of cultural Marxism towards a new and imposed template.

“No dissent from this template is permitted in our society. If it demands you call black, white; then you must comply, or suffer the consequences. If your eyes tell you one thing, but the collective media and elites tell you something else, ‘who you gonna believe, them or your lying eyes’?”

I shared the Nation piece, since the news of the statements by the corrupt Page and Strozk were new to me, with The Saker and SmoothieX12, Andrei Martyanov who posted about it on his blog. I think this insight Martyanov offers is important but not the full picture.

He writes, “It is always funny to read about ‘values’ and ‘ideals’–if that ‘way of life’ continues, the end-result will be precisely [the] total elimination of everything of true value [the] combined West ever produced with the US Constitution being shredded to pieces. Ah, wait, I forgot–these are the thoughts of people who are directly involved in [a] criminal coup attempt, which by definition is anti-constitutional and violates this very same ‘way of life’ these people allegedly try to protect. One has to have, of course, [an] appreciation of their fever-pitch hatred of Russians and, what matters here, this is not private, [not] an exception that is, attitude. It is not a secret that [a] very large strata of US policy-makers is afflicted by Russophobia. A large part of this Russophobia, apart from being racial–you know, dirty Slavs and all that jazz–is very much a suppressed complex of inferiority. Throughout all 20th and 21st century not only Russia presented itself as an inconvenient impediment to America-the-savior-of-humanity narrative, but Russia remains the only nation which can remove the United States from the map and can conventionally defeat any combination of forces the United States can assemble. This simple fact makes many in US ‘elite’, which is largely ignorant on the issues of real war, very uncomfortable.”

In due time, I hope to have soon a conversation to be published with The Saker on the topic of Christianity in general and Orthodox Christianity in particular; while SmoothieX12’s secular commentary and observations are entirely correct, I truly believe something far more sinister is taking place. On display in these Russophobic statements is a malevolence, not just willful blindness, fear or arrogance. Is this an Adobe Photoshopped manipulated image or truly the real face and eyes of Peter Strozk taken during his Congressional testimony? What do believers see when they look at this?

Peter Strozk

Philip Giraldi wrote about Jeffrey Epstein and his connections to the rich and powerful “elites” and likely intelligence agencies here at Unz.com and also here on the Strategic Culture website. Aside from the intelligence angle, Vanity Fair discusses the people Epstein “collected” in this article:

“Epstein remained a fixture in elite circles even after he was a registered sex offender. A few years ago, for example, he was a guest at a dinner in Palo Alto hosted by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman for the MIT neuroscientist Ed Boyden. At the dinner, Elon Musk introduced Epstein to Mark Zuckerberg. (‘Mark met Epstein in passing one time at a dinner honoring scientists that was not organized by Epstein,’ Zuckerberg spokesman Ben LaBol told me. ‘Mark did not communicate with Epstein again following the dinner.’)…

“One source who’s done business with Epstein told me that Epstein’s 21,000-square-foot townhouse on East 71st Street welcomed a steady stream of the Davos crowd in the past decade. The source said Bill Gates, Larry Summers, and Steve Bannon visited the house, which has been called one of the largest private residences in Manhattan. ‘Jeffrey collected people. That’s what he did,’ the source said. Gates and Summers did not respond to requests for comment.”

The site Vigilant Citizen, run by anonymous individuals who investigate the occult hallmarks of the Western “elites,” discussed Epstein on this post via this link and noted his connections to the rich and powerful along with occult symbolism on structures on his island:

The fact that a “temple” was built on an island known for extreme depravity is disturbing. However, when one fully understands the mindset of the occult elite, it makes perfect sense. It is all about symbolism and ritual.

For instance, the “temple” has a striking resemblance with Hammam Yalbugha – a Mamluk-era public bath located in Syria.

Why did Epstein model his “temple” on this specific building? Because of the symbolism attached to it. Indeed, the hammam is a classic example of architecture from the Mamluk era. In Arabic, the word “mamluk” literally means “property” and is used to designate slaves.

During the Mamluk era, children were captured by the ruling class to become slaves. Boys were usually trained to become soldiers while girls were groomed to become the personal concubines of their masters. Considering the fact that Epstein island was used to import child sex slaves for the elite, the symbolism is perfectly fitting.

In order to give the “temple” an unmistakeable occult dimension, the building was adorned with golden statues representing gods (Neptune) and owl-like birds. The building is also surrounded by maze-like patterns, similar to those found in Islamic architecture.

To get a better feel of Epstein island, I suggest you view this drone footage which provides great shots of some truly bizarre elements.

Epstein Island Temple

Hammam Yalbugha Aleppo, Syria

In my opinion, something far worse is going on than fear and self-loathing within the souls of the rich and powerful who rule the Western world, not merely decadence. Global Western “elites” are malevolent sociopaths (although I suspect several of the individuals in the Russian “Fifth column” Saker writes about are as well); while America is disintegrating around them, these elites still can cause great mischief. Reader of my words who are Americans must do all they can to resist and challenge these monsters in power; for monsters they are. Yes, they are presumed innocent until proven guilty but the fact remains the armies they control have killed and maimed millions of innocents throughout the world, including children. That I as a believer I think there is something evil behind them and within them is not provable by the scientific method perhaps; but I trust that my concerns are valid. If the reader of my words is a believer, please pray.

Yvonne Lorenzo [send her mail] makes her home in New England in a house full to bursting with books, including works on classical Greece and by Mises, Murray Rothbard, Tom Woods, Joseph Sobran, and Lew Rockwell. Her interests include gardening, mythology, ancient history, The Electric Universe, and classical music, especially the compositions of Handel, Mozart, Bach, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and the Bel Canto repertoire. She is the author Son of Thunder and The Cloak of Freya.

#U.S.A

[braindamageforbeginners]

Week 2, Day 8

I spent the holidays with Mother Dearest in a nearby, well-known resort. I spent most of my time worrying about whether a few nasty self-inflicted cuts (just to clarify, these weren’t about self-harm or mutilation or anything, I just accidentally sliced myself while rootling through my bag) were just deeper than I originally thought, or a sign of something much more sinister (one of the nastier side-effects of chemo is bleeding and/or bruising); and getting bloodstains out of various articles of clothing. I’ve decided that I’m worrying about almost-nothing, but I’ll bring it up with my mad-scientist oncologists the next time I see them (which is tomorrow), and, better news, blood comes out of lighter shades of clothing more readily than I originally feared.

I did slip out of the resort and amble about town for a few hours, and get a better look at how the wealthier residents of this great nation live, and, I have to say, of all the horrifying things they do (particularly to the country, but we’ll get to that shortly), the worst one is, possibly, a criminal lack of imagination. They hire attractive nannies to raise their children and drive SUVs the size of Delaware. In all honesty, I can’t completely fault them for the former - if I had half a chance, you can bet I’d hire a hot Brazilian nanny (the fact that I don’t have children is completely beside the point); but, that does seem to miss the entire point of children; don’t people have children for the interactive aspects of the experience? I realize I kind of have a soft spot for children and animals, so I’m not the target demographic for nannies, but it’s still another human behavior that I find puzzling. I find nothing confusing about SUVs, though; if the experimental serum goes wonderfully wrong and gives me superpowers, my first act as overlord will be to revoke all property and assets from people who drive one, and award it (the money) to their nannies (the nannies will also be exempt from prosecution if their former male employers die under suspicious circumstances)(I think this might give wealthy men some incentive to treat their staff with some measure of restraint and decency). And then have them drowned (the SUV owners, not the nannies). Of course, step two in that plan assumes the nannies (I apologize for over-using that word; I can’t think of a decent synonym) won’t take advantage of that prosecution-exemption, which would save me some time and effort. Efficiency and cost-saving measures are crucial to successful planetary repression.

Really, that SUV thing bothers me to no end; I could probably write an entire series of novels about how loathsome they are (”Harry Potter and the Horrendous Parking Job”). Buried in the sea of these substandard, super-sized monstrosities, however, there was an old Jaguar E-type, a Nissan 370Z (I think, based on my memory and some Google image searches), and a Shelby Cobra. I can’t speak for the guy driving the Jag or the Nissan owner (it was in a parking lot), but the owner of the Cobra was clearly enjoying themselves. I’m assuming that; it was parked, but had a pair of motorcycle goggles hanging from the rearview mirror and a prop zombie hand in the passengers’ seat, clear indicators of a man-child at play (I realize that may be an ugly stereotype, but I have a very hard time imagining any of the women or non-binary folk I know racing around in a vintage car with a severed arm in old-timey goggles)(clearly, I need to expand my social circle). And the only reason why I really remember those three vehicles is because they’re swallowed in a sea of gas-guzzling malignancies that serve to convey friendly, perky (and very competent and attentive, but I have a dark suspicion that wasn’t why they were hired) nannies and children and bored spouses from weekend house to weekday house to resorts. You lose all individuality as you shuttle from housing tract to beach, until you find yourself with a Congress populated by creatures that resemble poorly-made Ward Cleaver wax figures, and your lifestyle is actively consuming resources that could feed impoverished children. Or you can scream, “Fuck it all; I’ve earned this.” and get a Cobra replica kit (for less than 70K, if Google is to be believed)(which isn’t cheap, but it’s price-comparable to a Chevy Titanic), and a dismembered zombie hand. I’ll admit that one’s individuality is not necessarily expressed entirely through their car, but how you spend your disposable income can say a great deal about you (says the man with a new designer silk shirt)(hey, I never said I was morally pure, and flagrant hypocrisy is among the lesser of my sins).

If I had the type of money required for that sort of extravagant, conspicuous-consumer lifestyle - well, I’d blow it all on something frivolous, like healthcare and housing (the ideal house size - for me - is two bedrooms, because I’d have a room, my library gets the second room, and there isn’t any room to accommodate guests)(that’s the only plausible rationale for owning an SUV - to save on hotel costs and preserve fraying family relationships). I have excellent doctors and top-notch insurance, but if things go south with the super serum, I’ll rapidly be up shit-creek without a paddle, and there’s a distinct chance I’d burn through piles of money in weeks in a desperate attempt to stay a step ahead of the disease (laetrile is still a thing, right?). That’s all I got for Plan B. BUT, this rant is not about a desperate bid for survival, as played out in an increasingly stupid series of questionable medical gambles. That is the purpose of this whole blog. No, this specific column is about what I would do if I had more money than sense (which, even if I stay in my current tax bracket, is a distinct possibility if my rotting brain declines just a bit). First big-ticket item on my list would be a lair (I mean, in the James Bond villain sense of the word, not the grizzly bear sense), complete with some sort of doomsday device. You can buy both islands and abandoned nuclear bases (this is true, though I assume they’ve moved the nukes)(I hope they have) online, and I don’t think anyone’s naive enough to think nuclear technology or bioweapons aren’t available if you know a guy who knows a guy. Second item would be... well, I’d like to imagine it’d be a foreign lingerie model, but my sense of guilt about exploiting vulnerable people would probably prevent me (which is probably why I’ll never be rich, let alone a supervillain) from taking full advantage of that opportunity. Which made me realize; even with the vast resources of an industrialized country at their fingers, the closest we’ve gotten to Lex Luthor is Larry Ellison, who bought Hawaii (sort of; he owned 97% of Lanai just a few years ago). And then he just sort of stopped there. I am far closer to super-powers than any of these nitwits - follow me closely - based purely on the fact that I am being injected with an experimental substance on a regular basis, and exposed to extremely dangerous amounts of radiation on an almost-daily basis, and I’m still alive, which are all important steps to super-powers. No, instead of building an Iron Man suit, or training to become Batman, they pay lots of money to have stuff shoved up their rectum. That’s not some sort of vulgar innuendo, that’s a not-inaccurate description of colon cleansing, which supposedly wards off evil spirits (that’s also pretty much what it does, in terms of documented results). I realize it might seem exclusive, but having an awkward guru session with Gwyneth Paltrow is infinitely less impressive than securing your child’s admission to Harvard by turning Yale into a smoldering crater.

Speaking of latent superpowers and madness; tomorrow marks the next serum injection. I’m not looking forward to that one, I’ll admit. The most noticeable results of the last injection were making me feel like shit for several days afterward and some nasty nightmares (though it’s quite possible that those are entirely coincidental), but Research Coordinator also told me that the side-effects get worse with repeated injections. Which means either feeling much worse than previously-mentioned, and/or superpowers. Or both. Or, with my luck, some really twisted third option I haven’t thought of. I’ll try to keep everyone updated. Or I’ll conquer the west coast (or level Brentwood). Or I’ll die. Or be lobotomized. Or - you get the idea, I’m going to quit this line of thought before I panic and pull out of the trial.

WEIGHT: No clue; I haven’t weighed myself this week. CONCENTRATION: Bad. I’m easily distracted and have a tough time focusing on tasks. MEMORY: Bad, for me. I still remember things, and I still have impressive recall (or so it would seem from the outside), but I’m forgetting little details, which, for me, is really, really bad.  APPETITE: Good. ACTIVITY LEVEL: Excellent. I’ve gone to the gym a few times this week, and walked a lot. SLEEP QUALITY: Tough to tell; I am sleeping - sort of - but I wake up feeling much, much worse than I went to bed, so that’s hardly what you’d call effective. COORDINATION/DEXTERITY: The decline continues, but it’s still fairly small. PHYSICAL: I'm extremely lethargic, and I have an amazingly bad headache, which might explain my reduced concentration. The only good news about the headache is that it’s not completely debilitating, and I doubt it’s tumor/cancer-related - it’s where my sutures are/were, and a predicted early side-effect would be that radiation would slow/halt/reverse all healing processes in that area. SIDE EFFECTS: Oh, gods, where to begin? The only good news is, if this is bad as it gets, I think I can do this. Of course, I also know from experience that the minute I think I’ll be able to survive something, medically-speaking, I get a call from my doctors to inform me that things have taken a turn for the worse. So you can understand why I’m a little nervous about seeing the mad scientists tomorrow morning. 

[oldguardaudio]

Rush Limbaugh 🙈 FAKE NEWS Drags Me Into the Weeds on the Congressional Budget Office

Rush USA Flag at HoaxAndChange.com

rush-limbaugh @ Old Guard Audio

FAKE NEWS uncovered at HoakAndChange.com

Mar 14, 2017

  RUSH: Now, look at this. CNN has a banner up, or they had one up just moments ago. “Soon: First Briefing Since Health Care Price Tag Revealed.” Meaning: Sean Spicer’s about to go out there and get scalped. The first White House briefing ever since the price tag of the Ryan-Trump health care bill was announced. So, that’s how it’s all set up. Of course, the CBO has now killed this, they say, because they’ve exposed the fraud, they’ve exposed the waste, they’ve exposed… The CBO score exposed the death and the killing that will occur resulting from people losing health insurance.

I mean, this is all out there now. And now CNN is saying that Paul Ryan doesn’t care. He’s not backing off of this no matter what anybody says. He doesn’t care what the CBO says, doesn’t care what Trump says. He’s not backing off. Meaning Ryan is not going to react to any of the backlash against this at all. But I want to go back to this CNN health care little headline here, their banner. “Soon: First Briefing Since Health Care Price Tag Revealed.” Price tag? Look, even the CBO… Here I’m violating my own statement. I said I was not gonna get into the weeds on this but now I’m gonna do it ’cause CNN is dragging me there with their irresponsible, fake news.

Look, the CBO said, if you must know, that the Ryan-Trump repeal-and-replace plan would save over $337 billion in 10 years. That’s right. They say that this will reduce the deficit by $337 billion in 10 years and that it would bring down the cost of premiums at least 10%. If that’s the price tag… I think all of that, frankly, is BS, folks. I don’t think anybody can possibly know what this is gonna be in 10 years because they don’t dynamically score this! It’s meaningless what the CBO says, except in terms of making it livable or unlivable to members of Congress.

But it doesn’t have one thing to do with reality, because they don’t score it dynamically. In other words, they don’t calculate what the impact of the changes will be on the way people live. And the best example I can give you of what I mean by dynamic-versus-static scoring, is CBO can only use the numbers they are given by people who write the legislation. That’s all they can do. So if the bill has a tax cut in it and if writers of the bill say, “We’re gonna cut taxes a half a trillion dollars, $500 billion over 10 years,” the CBO then subtracts $500 billion from the federal Treasury in 10 years, because the tax cut, well, they’re taking money away.

But what happens when you cut taxes? You often end up with more revenue. When you cut taxes, you happen to spur economic growth. When you cut taxes, you generally have new jobs created, and you generally have, then, more taxpayers, which is how you have additional tax revenue. The CBO doesn’t do any of that. In the CBO’s world, a tax cut automatically means the government loses whatever that amount of money is. A tax increase, by the same token, the government automatically gains that kind of money.

Well, let’s look at it that way. Let’s say this piece of legislation has $500 billion of tax increases in it. Well, only if people pay it. What if the tax increases result from behavior, such as a mandate to have health insurance? What about the people that say, “Screw you! I am not doing that!” Well, we got a fine mechanism over there and the CBO counts what that money is. They have no idea what effect… Well, they do not calculate — they don’t even try to calculate — the impact of a tax increase. They just assume everybody’s gonna pay it.

They just assume in a tax cut, everybody’s gonna get it. They do not — even with gazoons and gazoons of years of experience, they never even attempt to — dynamically score it. It’s straight-up-and-down numbers, and 10 years out, how can anybody…? These guys at the National Weather Service couldn’t even forecast where a blizzard was gonna hit 24 hours out, and it was on the map! We saw the blizzard! And they even gave themselves outs. I looked at AccuWeather.

They had three different paths this thing could take. They knew to cover their bases. But the Drive-Bys, of course, had to report that it was gonna hit the most densely populated places, and it was gonna kill, and it was going to ruin, and it was going to destroy. So the airlines cancel 8,000 flights. Airports in New York are at a standstill ’cause nothing’s going on there, and the storm may give eight inches, not two feet. There was no reason to do any of this.

But here you have a government agency that can’t even forecast when the blizzard’s out there! It’s coming in from Canada, it’s in the Northern Plains, and it’s moving right in with the jet stream or whatever other meteorological factors. I believe forecasts are political. I believe, just like in hurricanes, the early forecasts always including major population centers. I think the reason for that is it gets everybody’s attention, and if you’re trying to sell the idea that global warming creates more hurricanes and death and destruction and all that…

So you track it five or six days out or 10. The original track, nobody’s gonna pay attention if it tracks turning out into the ocean and not hitting land. So nobody pays attention to those. But just like this thing, they had the forecast hitting New York, then it was gonna destroy Boston, and before that was gonna destroy Providence, was gonna destroy Newport. Sorry, Newpo’t. Then it was gonna go out and destroy Kennebunkport, and it was gonna leave death and destruction and disaster. And that was last night. And this morning, “Uhhhhhh, you know what?

“It’s still gonna hit but it’s gonna be out there in parts of New York where people live but we just don’t care about ’em as much.” So there is a blizzard, but 24 hours out they had no idea where it was going, and we have the CBO telling us that in 10 years the deficit’s gonna be reduced by $337 billion. Do you realize, folks, that over 10 years we’re talking dimes and quarters? It’s nothing to get excited about either way, either increase the budget or decrease.

Ten years?

There’s no way that they can possibly know what legislation that might be signed next year, today, next week, is gonna mean 10 years from now.

It might be so bad that it has to get replaced between now and then. This is all such smoke and mirrors. I’m convinced CBO serves the purpose of giving legislators an out or giving them an in if they want to support something, and it also serves to keep the public totally confused. And it’s complicating something here that need not be complicated. What we know is Obamacare is bad, that it’s in a spiral of implosion here, and that it needs to be done away with because it’s irresponsible. It’s destroying things, it’s not helping people, and it’s running the danger of ruining the health care system.

It’s got to be gotten rid of and that premise is now invisible. And it’s been replaced by, “Well, I don’t know, you can repeal certain parts of it, yeah, but the other parts, Mr. Limbaugh, we need to go reconciliation, and that we can do, but non-reconciliation we gonna need 60 votes and we don’t got 60 votes.” I’ve been hearing that — well, as long as I’ve been talking to senators. “Rush, the only thing you need to know about the Senate, young man, the only thing you need to know, you can’t do anything without 60 votes.”

It’s the biggest excuse I have continuously heard, ’cause nobody ever has 60 votes. No party ever has that. Well, the Democrats once did, but the Republicans don’t. That’s another built-in excuse for not doing anything. Motivations, I don’t know. Some people think the Republicans are more comfortable as the losing party not having to govern, not having to take leadership, not having the responsibility. Some people think that the Republicans, the Democrats, are no different when it comes to Washington. They want it as big and powerful as it can be. Some people think that the Republicans are so embarrassed and angry that Trump’s elected they’re gonna do what they can to undermine him regardless what the Democrats do.

I mean, there’s all kinds of theories that explain the motivation, the behavior behind people that are posing this. But when you get down to brass tacks, common sense, there’s no reason — if you couple it with campaign promises, everybody knows this bill is a disaster. It was designed to be a disaster. That’s the thing that we need to have people start admitting. This thing was designed to be in the same situation, the exact place it’s in.

It was presumed that a Democrat would be president today. It was presumed that a Democrat would be president when Obamacare, by design, imploded on itself and collapsed. And at that point the Democrat president was gonna say, “You know what? We really gave markets a shot. I mean, we’ve never had more free market opportunities in health care than in Obamacare, and look what happened. The free market botched it, because of selfishness and greed and the insurance companies, so we must go the government taking it over and single payer or put everybody on Medicare.”

That was the design. And we are at the stage of design where implosion was slated to happen. The thing that’s upset the works is that a Democrat’s not in the White House. We have a Republican in the White House who promised to repeal and replace it. We have Republicans in the House and the Senate who heard the promise and themselves made the promise when they would never, ever have to really act on it, but now there aren’t any excuses ’cause they have the House and the Senate but they don’t have 60 votes in the Senate. They still can’t do anything.

So we have to chip away here, chip away there, and do it straight up here, reconciliation over here, and I’m sorry, but I think it’s all smoke and mirrors. And it appears to me that there are enough Republicans that don’t really want this to happen. As I say, I’m not gonna get into the motivation, ’cause there’s probably all kinds of different valid explanations or excuses. And there are plenty conservative Republicans in the House who are out there saying they’re never gonna sign this, that this is nothing more than a new welfare program, that it is not fulfilling the campaign promise that people made. So it’s not all Republicans, don’t misunderstand.

But CNN with this banner talking about price: “CBO score at first press briefing after cost of health care is –” if I didn’t know any better, just watching the Drive-By Media, I would think that there are 20 million people that we’re talking about here, that all that matter are 20 million people, 20 million people that don’t have health care. That’s all we’re talking about because that’s the focus, 20 million people are gonna die, 20 million people are gonna get sick, 20 million people are gonna bankrupt, 20 million here, 20 million there, but it’s always the people that ostensibly do not have health insurance.

Well, now, wait. Obama said that that’s the great thing about Obamacare is it’s covered 20 million people who didn’t have it, so how does it still eventuate that 20 million people don’t have Obamacare after Obama sings the praises of having 20 million people that didn’t have it covered? Were there 40 million people that didn’t have insurance when Obama started this whole thing? You look at the cost, you look at the analysis, you look at CNN and the fake news, and you would think that all we’re talking about here is 20 million people.

Okay, 300 million people in the country. Are we gonna do or not do, stop the presses, go forward on 20 million people and the impact on 20 million? But even this is to miss the point. None of this has to be the case. This is the United States of America with one of the greatest growing, natural, free market economies out there. I don’t pretend to have detailed, specific answers to every objectionable question that I would be asked.

But I know principles, and I know economic rules, and I know human behavior mixed with economic rules and reactions, and I can tell you that there is no way 2,000-plus pages of legislation is the way to administer the health care system of this country. In fact, 2,000 pages is the greatest evidence we have why it’s all wrong. And how it’s gotten wrong is the attempt by some to legislate virtually every aspect of going to the doctor, sitting in the waiting room, getting a Band-Aid.

It’s absurd. And then the presumption of elected officials, many of whom have never ever been anywhere near the health care industry, insurance industry, presuming to be the ones with all the answers. That was my big rub with Obama. He was the supposed expert in fixing everything, and he’d never done anything.

Rush Limbaugh 🙈 FAKE NEWS Drags Me Into the Weeds on the Congressional Budget Office Rush Limbaugh 🙈 FAKE NEWS Drags Me Into the Weeds on the Congressional Budget Office Mar 14, 2017…

#CNN - FAKE NEWS