#it means we have more power to call out politicians and corporations for their hypocrisy

[writingpracticetime]

Interactions with other villains

From the notes of Mitchell Newman:

Let me set the scene.

First, the Discreet Entrepreneur’s Network, or the DEN as it is appropriately titled, is a loosely organized guild of sorts for villains to meet and exchange illegal goods and services. It’s members are vicious, super-powered criminals of all stripes--master thieves, serial killers, unethical scientists, the whole spectrum. They’re dangerous, violent, and not at all kind to non-members, or even new members.

Second, we have Constructor. A famous hero and  goody two shoes who only ended up in prison for protesting a mass eviction. More to the point, an (admittedly, not self described) pacifist who at the time was famously bad at combat.

The DEN should have torn Constructor to pieces, and this whole problem should have ended there. Instead our goody two shoes swipes dozens of members and eventually breaks the whole network into pieces.

How?

---

You have always been bad at public speaking.

You don’t stammer.  But seeing lots of eyes on you makes you freeze and all of the words you planned slip away. It doesn’t help that at least half of the people in this room are murderers, but they would have the same effect if they were third graders.

You wish Sandy was here again. She was always good at coaching you through these things. The only reason you ever made it through interviews or press talks was because of her prep work.

"The pipeline," you try again.

The Organizer quirks an eyebrow at you. For a second he looks to his assistant, a pale woman whose eyes are fixed on, and then he motions at you. "Go on."

"the pipeline they're building," you try again. "Its damaging to the environment. The people don’t want it there. And it’s. Illegal."

The crowd actually bursts into laughter.  You’re too used to talking to politicians.

---

Afterwards, Bonfire nods sympathetically at your grimace on your way out.

“There’s a reason I’m not a member,” she tells you.

“Did you hear? Did I…?”

Did I do good? It’s the sort of approval you used to seek from Sandy. You stop yourself, because you already know the answer regardless. Not a single person in that room approached you to join your next operation.

“There’s still the two of us,” Bonfire shrugs. “Best not to work with too many, anyway. That’s how snitches worm their way in.”

“Yes but…”

“Wait!”

A reedy voice calls after you. You don’t recognize the stick figure man who darts after you, eyes darting.

“Wait, okay okay okay okay,” he says, quickly. “Constructor. I’m--Cyberscout. I, your pitch, I mean--”

You wait. You hear a flare of irritation at your shoulder.

“Okay, your pitch sucked,” Cyberscout says. “Didn’t you used to go on TV? Man. N-not to down you or anything, what I mean to say is, just… I can help you with that. Not with your speaking skills, but getting the word out other ways, and doing some information gathering for you. So I’ll sign on. Pay back the favor.”

“Favor?”

“Yeah, uh. You jailbroke me,” he says. “I don’t work for nothing, normally I’d ask for a favor or cash but… since you already did me a solid… just this once.”

You hold out your hand, and like that you make your second ally.

---

Your second venture into the DEN goes better. You practice with Bonfire and Cyber ahead of time, so your voice is stronger. When you enter the latest venue, you nod at the Organizer and the silent pale woman next to him, taking a deep breath and refusing to feel intimidated.

Again, you  describe what you’re opposing as wrong. Again, you talk about the people’s wishes. Again, you call it illegal, and again there is snickering, but instead of falling silent your voice booms.

“Are you going to pretend you all don’t care?” you ask, and you hear yourself echo from the back of the hall. “How many of you have been thrown into solitary Akonite cells for store robbery, for having? How many of you got beaten by guards? Now CEOs are lining their pockets with medications they got from experimenting on prisoners just like you have been, and they go completely free. This is illegal, against the public good, all of the things they say about your own actions--and yet the men doing this go free.”

Dead silence.

“If the hypocrisy doesn’t make you furious,” you say. “That’s because you have no fight left in you.”

---

When you leave the conference, you know Bonfire heard because she’s smirking.

“Better?”

“Better,” she agrees. “Still no takers?”

“They’re probably worried about losing face,” Cyberscout says. “I mean, I was. But after a talk like that, just wait. They’ll trickle in.”

And they do. Days after, a greying old woman approaches you. She seems hesitant to meet your eyes or speak at first but when she does his tone is cold, brusque, and to the point.

“You may have heard of me, you may not have,” she says. “But to the point, I know a few things about unethical experiments, how they are run...and how to help the subj--victims. If you are willing to look past my past indiscretions, I can be an asset.”

“I care more about what you’re willing to do now than anything you’ve done in the past,” you tell her.

She holds out her hand stiffly.

“Call me Asag,” she says. “Dr. Asag.”

---

At your third DEN meeting, the Organizer’s lips thin as he sees you. He once again exchanges whispers with his assistant before glowering at you. You brush him off, and stand to explain your next venture.

“One more thing,” you say. “Before anyone here thinks of joining, this is going to be a no-kill operation.”

“What?” booms a hulking figure in the back. “Are you fucking serious?”

“No interrupting,” the Organizer drones, but you speak up.

“Wait,” you say. “Let him talk.”

The man steps forward, and you have an instant flash of recognition. It would be impossible not to recognize him, actually. You don’t think you've met anyone else that big.

“You don’t know shit about what it’s really like out there!” the giant says. “You really expect anyone to go out and not defend themselves?”

“I didn’t say you can’t defend yourselves,” you explain. “I said you can’t kill anyone.”

“You can’t get shit done if you’re not willing to kill,” the man says, darkly.

“Really. And how has that worked for you? Wait--” you make a show of trying to remember him. “Oh wait, I know. It got you in prison. Where I broke you out, without killing anyone.”

There is actually some laughter. In your favor this time. It makes you grin.

“Hobbes, right?” you ask. “It’s possible to fight and neutralize someone without killing them, and it’s usually better that way because then the feds can’t justify using as much force against you.”

“Then I’d like to see you try to neutralize a real super,” Hobbes spits.

“Alright,” you say. “Come at me then, and I’ll show you.”

“Absolutely not!” the Organizer shouts. “There will be no fights during conventions!”’

You don’t even spare him a glance. “Outside, then”

The Organizer hisses at the entire crowd follows you both, eager to see blood. “This isn’t--the rules--”

After a fight that admittedly takes a lot more out of you than your previous efforts neutralizing low ranking heroes, Hobbes grumpily becomes your next ally.

---

More and more come to you. Some asking for monetary compensation, some asking for prison breaks in the future, and some who seem to be as drawn to your ideals as you are, deep down.

With each venture, the Organizer seems less and less happy to have you appear, until one day when you are about to come to another gathering you find yourself barred.

“You’ve broken enough rules,” the Organizer says, darkly. “You aren’t welcome in the DEN anymore.”

“What rules?” you ask.

There are a few, of course. Some minor things here and there, but nothing that got anyone else banned. He tells you, and you are about to object but someone else cuts in first.

“You’ve been cutting into his profits.”

It’s the pale assistant. Her voice is weak and thready, like she can barely speak up.

“What are you talking about?” the Organizer sneers. “I never--”

“He’s been working with some of those corporations you’ve been undercutting with your, um, stuff,” she says, her voice getting higher. “B-both sides. Always got to work both sides, he thinks. Get some villains to help, sell out the others.”

Other people inside are listening, murmuring. The gathering of villains are getting agitated--clearly, this is news to all of them, as well.

“Please,” the assistant says. “I have proof. I’m a--I read minds. I can tell you everything, just get me away safely and I’ll--”

He turns on her and attacks, hands around her throat. You don’t even have to think about it. You slam concrete into the Organizer’s face, and all hell breaks loose. Someone grapples you--and then Hobbes wrings them off you. Bonfire, always drifting at the edge of the event, darts in and jerks the coughing assistant out of the fray. And with that, your last venture at the DEN becomes an all out brawl.

You decide it’s still better than public speaking.

---

---

MN: So, real talk for a moment. How did you do it? Money? Threats? Brainwashing? I know there were a few mind control types in your group.

#4598: Hm?

MN: How does a hero go to a bunch of violent crooks and end up leading them?

#4598: The only way you can. With their consent.

#my writing #original writing #oops posted on the wrong blog #fixing that reeally quick #constructor

[newstfionline]

Friday, January 8, 2021

Spending the pandemic talking to yourself? If you live alone, you’re not alone (Washington Post) One bleak pandemic day in November, Aisha Tyler caught herself vacuuming the inside of her freezer. Then she scolded herself. Yes, out loud. Sometimes the Los Angeles-based actress will tell herself to “snap out of it.” On brighter days, she’ll congratulate herself on what a good job she’s doing and call for a celebration. Humans leave little unspoken, and this past year, as many of us have avoided social events and worked from home alone, we’ve been forced to talk out loud to the only person still around to listen: ourselves. Sure, it may take the form of bantering with our pets, scolding the politicians on TV or cajoling our malfunctioning printers, but that’s really just another way of hearing our own voice, helping us discern what exactly is going on inside that head of ours.      What’s going on here? Charles Fernyhough, a psychology professor at Durham University and author of “The Voices Within: The History and Science of How We Talk to Ourselves,” says research shows people talk out loud more when under stress or facing cognitive challenges. It was praying aloud that kept 44-year-old April Harris going during her 32 days in quarantine with a deep cough at the California Institution for Women in Chino, Calif.—not just self-encouragements like “I can do this” and “You got this, April,” but repeated declarations like “by His stripes, I am healed.” “I would pray for our country and for a cure to this virus,” she says in an email from the prison, where she has spent 24 years but had never previously talked out loud to herself. “Now I pray that I am covered by His blood, not wanting to endure that again. I pray for the women who are in isolation now.”

Here’s Why Car Thefts Are Soaring (Hint: Check Your Cup Holder) (NYT) After years of declines, car thefts appear to be surging in cities and suburbs all over the country. The spree, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, does not appear to be the work of sophisticated crime rings, the police say. Instead, this new wave of car thefts seems to stem from a combination of simple carelessness and the same technological advancement that once made stealing cars nearly impossible: the key fob. The broad adoption of keyless ignitions that began in the late 1990s ushered in a dark era for car thieves. New cars had engine immobilizers that only a microchip in the key fob could unlock, and vehicle thefts quickly plummeted. Technology, it seemed, had largely solved the problem of stolen vehicles. Until people started leaving their fobs sitting in their cup holders. Now, the police say forgotten fobs and keyless technology have contributed to soaring stolen car cases. In Hartford, the police have traced the surge to teenagers joyriding in from the suburbs. In Los Angeles, stolen cars reappear so frequently that the police believe thieves are using them like Ubers. And in New York City, a related but different problem has emerged as more drivers leave their cars running to make pit stops and deliveries during the pandemic, making their cars easy targets for thieves who can simply drive away, even without a fob.

Canadian compensation (CBC) Based on companies that trade on the TSX, in 2019 the average total compensation for the 100 best-paid CEOs of Canadian corporations was $10.8 million, while the average annual salary for a worker in Canada was $53,482 the same year. That means top CEO pay is about 202 times that of the average Canadian worker, which is actually down from the 227 observed the previous year. It also means that at 11:17 a.m. on Monday, the average CEO had already made the annual salary of a typical worker.

An unimaginable moment in America (AP) To see it unspool—to watch the jumbled images ricochet, live, across the world’s endless screens—was, as an American, a struggle to believe your eyes. But there it was, in the capital city of the United States in early January 2021: a real-time breaking and entering the likes of which the republic has never seen. The U.S. Capitol was overrun by violent supporters of Donald Trump, who exhorted them to march on the domed building as lawmakers inside carried out their constitutional duty by certifying his electoral defeat. The proceedings were quickly abandoned as the selfie-snapping mob smashed windows, marched through hallways and rummaged through lawmakers’ desks. Fourteen days before Joe Biden is set to be inaugurated on the very same site, elected officials sheltered in place in their own building. Agents barricaded themselves inside congressional chambers, guns drawn. The stars and stripes—soaring over public property—was lowered, then replaced as a blue Trump flag ascended. In one of the day’s most indelible images, a hoodie-clad trespasser sat in a chair overlooking the Senate floor—minutes after it had been vacated by Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence—waving his fist in front of a thick, ornate curtain designed to summon the trappings of democracy. The United States on Wednesday seemed at risk of becoming the very kind of country it has so often insisted it was helping: a fragile democracy.

World reacts to US mob (AP) Amid the global outrage at the storming of the U.S. Capitol building by angry supporters of President Donald Trump was a persistent strain of glee from those who have long resented the perceived American tendency to chastise other countries for less-than-perfect adherence to democratic ideals. In China, which has had constant friction with the Trump administration over trade, military and political issues, people were scathing in their criticism of Trump and his supporters, citing both his failure to control the coronavirus pandemic and the mob action in Washington. The Communist Youth League ran a photo montage of the violence at the Capitol on its Twitter-like Weibo microblog with the caption: “On the sixth, the U.S. Congress, a most beautiful site to behold.” That appeared to mock House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her June 2019 comments in praise of sometimes violent antigovernment protests in Hong Kong. Iran, another country that faces routine U.S. criticism over violations of human rights and democratic values, jumped on the insurrection as proof of American hypocrisy. The semiofficial Fars news agency called the United States a “fragmented democracy,” while Iran’s pro-government Twitter accounts gloated, circulating photos of the mobs with hashtags that included #DownfalloftheUS. “The beauty of democracy?” with a shrug emoji was the reaction tweeted by Bashir Ahmad, a personal assistant to the president of Nigeria, which has seen several coups since independence—including one led decades ago by President Muhammadu Buhari, who most recently entered the office via a vote. Venezuela, which is under U.S. sanctions, said the events in Washington show that the U.S. “is suffering what it has generated in other countries with its politics of aggression.” Several countries, both allies and antagonists of America, issued travel warnings to their citizens.

America the exceptional? (Foreign Policy) It’s not easy to say how much the storming of the Capitol will contribute to the decline in the reputation of the United States abroad. That’s because that decline has already been so steep: A Gallup poll of 29 countries in 2020 found that 20 already had approval ratings of U.S. leadership that are at new lows or that tie the previous record lows.

‘The power of life and death is in the tongue,’ Senate chaplain says (NYT) “We deplore the desecration of the United States Capitol building, the shedding of innocent blood, the loss of life, and the quagmire of dysfunction that threaten our democracy.” Those words, spoken by Barry C. Black, the Senate chaplain, resounded through the government chamber in the early hours of Thursday, as he declaratively closed a joint session of Congress marred by violence with a prayer. A Seventh-day Adventist minister and former Navy rear admiral known for his penchant for brightly colored bow ties, Mr. Black has been the Senate’s official clergyman for nearly two decades. His prayers in the chambers have long been laced with rebukes for the infighting of the lawmakers surrounding him, and his words have often served as a conscience check for those on both sides of the aisle. That was never more true than on Thursday morning, as he warned lawmakers that their words could have great consequences. “These tragedies have reminded us that words matter, and that the power of life and death is in the tongue,” he said. “We have been warned that eternal vigilance continues to be freedom’s price.” His prayer also urged new unity in the face of the deep divisions among lawmakers and within the country, driving home a need to “see in each other a common humanity.”

Twitter, Facebook muzzle Trump amid Capitol violence (AP) In an unprecedented step, Facebook and Twitter suspended President Donald Trump from posting to their platforms Wednesday following the storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Twitter locked Trump out of his account for 12 hours and said that future violations by Trump could result in a permanent suspension. The company required the removal of three of Trump’s tweets. Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, followed up in the evening, announcing that Trump wouldn’t be able to post for 24 hours following two violations of its policies. Facebook later said that Trump would be banned indefinitely.

Indian farmers take to their tractors (Quartz)  On the other side of the world, a protest of a different kind is taking place in Delhi, as farmers who oppose India’s newly passed agricultural laws plan to march into the city with 2,500 tractor trolleys today. It’s the latest action in nearly two months of demonstrations that have grabbed headlines globally for their scale, but also for their inventiveness—some of the tractors have previously doubled as screens for movie viewing as protesters dug in for the long haul. The latest round of talks between the government and farmers is scheduled for tomorrow. If the two sides can’t agree on a path forward, farmers’ union leaders say a tractor rally and nationwide protests will start on Jan. 26, when the country celebrates Republic Day.

With Mass Arrests, Beijing Exerts an Increasingly Heavy Hand in Hong Kong (NYT) They descended before dawn, 1,000 police officers fanning out across Hong Kong to the homes and offices of opposition lawmakers, activists and lawyers. They whisked many off in police cars, often without telling relatives or friends where they were being taken. Within a few hours on Wednesday, the Hong Kong police had arrested 53 people, searched 76 places and frozen $200,000 of assets in connection with an informal primary for the pro-democracy camp—all under the auspices of Beijing’s new national security law. In one swoop, the authorities rounded up not only some of the most aggressive critics of the Hong Kong government but also little-known figures who had campaigned on far less political issues, in one of the most forceful shows of power in the Chinese Communist Party’s continuing crackdown on the city. The message was clear: Beijing is in charge. The mass arrests signaled that the central Chinese government, which once wielded its power over Hong Kong with a degree of discretion, is increasingly determined to openly impose its will on the city. In the months since the law took effect, Beijing and the Beijing-backed Hong Kong leadership have moved quickly to stamp out even the smallest hint of opposition in the Chinese territory, where the streets once surged with huge anti-government protests. And they have shattered any pretense of democracy in Hong Kong’s political system.

Japan declares emergency for Tokyo area as cases spike (AP) Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and three nearby areas on Thursday as coronavirus cases continue to surge, hitting a daily record of 2,447 in the capital. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga issued the declaration at the government task force for the coronavirus. It lasts from Friday until Feb. 7, and centers around asking restaurants and bars to close at 8 p.m. and people to stay home and not mingle in crowds.

The next catastrophe has already been predicted (Les Echos via Worldcrunch) The epidemic surprised us, but it was predictable. In the risk report regularly published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for its annual Davos summit, infectious diseases were listed every year as one of the 10 biggest threats. The report’s description of a virus spreading uncontrolled around the world was exactly what played out in 2020. There were frequent discussions at Davos about this type of danger. For example, in 2016, after the damage caused by Ebola, the general director of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, sounded the alarm about the next pandemic. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, drew a parallel with the Spanish Flu, evoking the risk of an illness that killed 30 million people. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft-cum-health philanthropist, insisted on the necessity of training teams in public health management and logistics. If this health crisis is causing so much suffering, it’s because we refused to seriously prepare for it. We didn’t follow the advice of the philosopher and engineer Jean-Pierre Dupuy, who pushes us to think about catastrophe to prevent it from happening. The time has therefore come to think about the next global catastrophes—the less predictable ones.

#headlines #news

[emersonmanandnature]

January 16, 2020

Journeys End            

amongst the unknown architects intense revelations, a system of comparisons duty bound criticizing the slackers a shifting of reason as a book reveals the ingenuity of his presence seeking followers, a collaboration of hope without substance we live in a physical universe empty of parody leaving regulations to those that have brought an authority founded in a history of dissections and false witness, what is ones freedom of purpose, how do we see truth surrounded by phantom avengers, illusions encompassing our psyche with prickly guilt, a breakdown of conscious thoughts with terror intruding on a misrepresentation of self awareness, violence is an action of cowards relying on intimidation to create fear and an unwillingness to challenge your inner sight, seeing infinite possibilities, we ignore our stagnating future with compositions of meaningless words, we talk through ideas faltering, then evaporating, now full of futile bickering with no real purpose given to our needed future, what do we sacrifice by giving an expressive smile to one passing, beyond these ever shifting realities, surface facades changing as the scene radically decomposes to an aggressive, idolized fraud, no faith maintained, willing to do harm to anyone that interrupts the flow of money into

the ministries coffers, an outward hallelujah, another fabrication of our church’s meaning, a new appearance, a sparkling entrance with new artwork for the depositors of money in our baskets, god love the rich for their pennies, our god long crucified, abandoned, we suffered through the centuries as we were placated by promised salvation by religious zealots, the walls bend and break with our desirous obsession to be seen and heard, but never our inner being felt but left unattended for we are alone in our presence, does he see and feel our prayers of anguish seeking something more than just our physical presence, a possible resurrection, we exist with callous hearts unwilling to lift another’s weight when they falter and fall, doubt in our own revelation, visions of takers in this external wonderland of hustlers, phantoms, haunted minds, greed, fixations on external glory, keeping us from experiencing our life through a vision of freedom without retribution, allowing us to accept the lingering impressions of his motives, these ambiguities that accumulate as one discovers the incoherent ramblings of politicians accepting bribes as just another way to make a profit in his empty temple, formal arrangement of repetitive rituals that express power and acceptance of exterior guidance that gives the ok to steal from the innocent, wink, wink and destroy peoples lives for profit especially when we feel separated from our inner truth easily deposed of in backyard rubbish, his holy

closeness a mirage, a fixation, willing something into existence, a godlike personality yet illusive, formative representation in our minds segregated ideals, as we enter a church with a crucified man hanging over the altar his head sinking forward from the weight of constant physical evil perpetuated by the madness of material gain, when death always lurks from the sidelines of existence, patiently waiting for another golden calf to worship, a belief in another external prophet, a man or a woman? funny not many gods are a woman’s revelations, that should say something about the time Jesus roamed the middle east, what about a balance with the all male dominance of the heavenly trilogy, redundancy without fruition, silent nights our minds numb with meager words of equality for we have been forgotten in our earthly sinful natures our addiction to surrendering to something outside ourselves, blaming our brutality on some other human interference, an incoherent digressions deflecting truth, our answers lie inward in our inner resurrection of our intuitive battle with these architects of power and manipulation their hypocrisy of a pretentious intellectual superiority that lies outward amongst sanctimonious propagandists, reaping the benefits of our gullibility, these image makers with their suit pockets full of loot stolen from elderly worshipers, praise god the lord for we are his children and as such they must be taken advantage of and stripped of their money interest for in death you will rise to the heavens on a

broken down wagon full of false gold, god bless you on your journey to never, never land, and thanks for giving of course to our fabulous scam, our dissection of his truth, twisting his words to suit our own interpretations to fool the many, shadow people without a purpose, a loyal god rich with mansions, servants and all the good things in this false life we have been living, we know you were confused but it all gets better once you understand that you have no finances and your broken down body needs cash, we stole for your medical treatment, amen! we are hallow, beastly human beings, granted and we seek easy targets for our “praise the lord” deceptions and in our surface glitter, as if this life is not filled with a deep illness, an unstructured reality based upon a god that came and went and gave the preachers their entire script to impose on the people and the profits flowed and more and more men and women of avarice saw the potential for being rich off these innocent souls that could be easily duped just with a loud hallelujah! can I get another hallelujah! how does it feel to be devoted to an ethereal man? when around you the planet rots in poisoned waters, the atmosphere polluted with corporate profits and we wait and we wait for our death and then our meeting of our god who ignored the visciousness of our demented leaders who saw not human beings but cattle to herd and put in corrals to work all their lives in praise of you lord who was and is a tool of the

true masters of this planet that use your words to control the anger growing as money men gain record profits as our infrastructure breaks down and people suffer for their beliefs and never truly see their own vision but feel the affects of our true buddy satan not in hell but on this earthly fire pit of torturous thieves present but not amongst the poor or middle class for they are tanning themselves cruising the Mediterranean in their luxurious yachts bought on the backs of people of all nationalities and in every country in this prison of deception and gluttony, we fear evil walking amongst us with their obedient servants, controlling minds with simple deceptions, listen to the corrupt voices, listen to them manipulate our inner purpose demanding we focus on one thing only, our physical presence and how we look to others, without depth or a willingness to become our intuitive self, we hunger for someone with purpose, a woman or man straight forward with words of power, creating a revolution, a way of taking back our earth, our individuality, our intuitive insights, but most get fooled again and again by believing and listening to the sirens call from the corrupt corporate voices, as they manipulate our mind’s hunger for recognition, so they praise our dementia of accepting a life not lived for oneself but for others, that hold tightly in their greedy hands the money we desperately need to feed our children, can we have another hallelujah that’s it children raise your

hands to the lord and listen to his deathly silence as we sink further into the oblivion of fear and despair, have they wronged you by taking your hard earned money? is not money our savior, it has been our deviation from living his words now for centuries, the real power is to accumulate assets, this is our sacred mission, the controlling of others not with only words but now with investments, the power and purpose here is to accumulate possessions, forget about it, what is living a life, enhancing your mind, understanding our history and why we believe in a man-god who came to earth, where you ask? well from outer space? or from inside you and me trying to preach kindness and the healing love of his gifts to all humanity, our inner beliefs we have in common and give not to these hypocritical players, their voices repeating empty cliche’s as if they meant anything but more profits for the wealthy that has their hands in every bank account around our planet and all we do is cower and say yes sir, yes your majesty as oligarchs tear apart families, tricking them to respond with anger at the simplest of actions, caring for someone else, these angry people live in a deceptive heart believing that they must fight against those trying to change the world not by violence and corruption but a clear vision, just a simply act of kindness toward others, do we even care anymore what the prophets spoke centuries ago gathering people together not to lash out at differences but opening our minds and hearts to support other human beings needing help but

that is to much to ask nowadays as our worthless politician sign another bill to move more of our hard earned tax dollars to offshore accounts and we the people continue to fight amongst ourselves as if this is a way to victory, wake up! devotion, determination, our intentness is rather iffy because we have begun a new era of praising criminality and the oligarchs of hate and dark hearts exploit all human beings as long as these crooks can do what they want with us and steal our money and burden us with loans and high interest rates all in the name of god and country and our silence continues as if we see any kind of future on this planet, we are addicted to hating someone else and not our own lack of individuality and insight, we need to feel the power through what, the anxiety of a new era of corruption deliberately creating dramas to keep the people distracted from their greed, we live in fear afraid to say enough, in our silent bondage waiting for our savior to return and do the dirty work for us, it is our responsibility to get rid of the massive take over of this planet by the wealth, politicians, oligarchs, kings and queens, corporations, dictators praised by our president, fiends, psychopaths, butchers, evil…on and on…his word traveled through the minds of the prophets spreading outward for his revelations began to falter through man’s selfish nature seeking on earth the power he expressed in human form, a love for your neighbor an inner awareness that it is our

responsibility to change this planet for the people by the people, he sacrificed himself for our sinful nature, and even his miracles performed couldn’t stay the continuous violence of wars, poverty, slavery, dictatorships, lies, drugs, addicts of possessions as the centuries passed and each new generation lessened their beliefs and inner character and decided why not make a living as the churches do by taking money from ordinary people in the stock market, with lies to invest in your future through one of these false investment schemes, we become cattle to be branded with a party and left without a means of change never to move past the hypocrisy of our elected officials, these misshapen demons not speaking about solving the massive problems we face but instilling in us terror that allows them to impose their will on the herd by distracting us from what is real and what our lives intended, our path is now set and journeys end before they begin, nature’s beauty no longer a lasting significance for we have made our bets on the second coming of an inner vision from the words labeled, his words, and that he was coming for us for we are after all god’s chosen few and this earth is our play ground even when we are using violence against innocence and waging wars against other cultures for their oil and land we can always ask your forgiveness oh lord,we kneel before your cross, that had to hurt big time the way they tortured you, ouch! please god hear our whispered

prayers to invite others to do our criminal acts, don’t you feel our sincere anguish at making billions of dollars on oil and arms dealings, bless you all for your patience as we rape and murder the people of earth, praise the lord in our corruption of faith, we accept his forgiveness for we are the true lords of power and vision, soon their will be monuments made of our glory for all to piss on

#greed #lord of power #unstructured reality #act of kindeness #addicted to possessions #cjcorwinoriginal

[wristwatchjournal]

What We Can Learn From Watch Enthusiast Humor On Instagram

Instagram for watch enthusiasts, collectors, and lovers of horology can provide many things — including humor. For some watch lovers, Instagram is a place to share their latest acquisitions, or what they chose to wear on any particular day, with friends. For others, it is a place to judge what pieces tend to be popular with other collectors. For many, it is a place to gauge, with various levels of accuracy, what other timepiece enthusiasts and collectors feel about hot issues of the day. Satire and comedy is a time-honored approach to discussing challenging or deeply political issues — a practice that appears to be flourishing on wristwatch social media feeds. Let’s take a look at a sampling of what watch collector humor looks like on Instagram these days. First, a bit of a macro-conversation about consumer sentiment on social media, in general.

Watch brands are already keenly studying consumer sentiment on Instagram, though many are guilty of taking statements too personally. Brand managers are known to react harshly to what are, in reality, private conversations among groups of collectors. Stories of money being pulled from media, brands being pulled from retailers, and jobs summarily terminated, all stemming from the publication of sentiment or opinion are unfortunately all too common. This has compelled many of the most prolific critics of watch industry practices on social media to be protectively anonymous about their identities.

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While transparency in media is preferred, society tends to offer an exception to those standing up for ethical discussions when real and present dangers exist if their actual identity is made known. So is the power of large corporate-owned watch brands that — under threat of draconian bosses — seek to quash all “negativity” online, no matter its appropriateness. In this regard, watch enthusiast humorists have a special heroic status among the community, given their openness to discussing tough issues or calling someone out.

At its worst, Instagram watch collector humor is crude and mean-spirited. Much published watch humor focuses on attacking brands and product models whose designs and prices are not personally to the liking of the poster. This can have the effect of shaming people into purchasing “safe,” albeit unoriginal, watches and preventing more expressive and individualistic choices that help make the watch collecting hobby well-rounded for a global assortment of tastes and lifestyles.

At its best, Instagram watch collector humor is poignant and meaningfully activist in nature. The traditionally closed doors of watch brand boardrooms and the lack of open discussions about real-world consumer problems are exposed and even celebrated by the watch collector community on social media. Instagram appears to currently be the platform of choice for mostly anonymous satirists who poke fun at the watch world while, at the same time, slyly suggesting where improvements can be made. In my opinion, the real value of watch collector humor on Instagram is that it does the very necessary job of helping consumers to not only question propagandist content unwittingly presented to them but also to ask watch consumers to question their own collecting and purchasing behavior.

With watch brand managers already having made it clear they will not self-police when it comes to unsustainable business practices, only market forces (consumer behavior) will lead to system and policy change within the industry that produces the products so many people admire.

I’ve also come to the interesting conclusion that Instagram might be a very poor place for novices to learn about watch collecting and enthusiasm. During a recent speech and in some interviews, I made the statement that people just getting into timepieces might want to avoid looking at watches on Instagram for the first three to five years of their journey as a collector. Only after that might they be well-equipped enough with knowledge and experience to navigate the world of opinions and pictures on the popular Facebook-owned social media platform.

Why, exactly? At first, my recommendation against using Instagram for novices might seem counterintuitive. Isn’t Instagram valuable as a discovery engine, allowing fresh collectors to become exposed to the larger world of wristwatch brands and model choices? While Instagram may have been useful as a watch product discovery tool in the past, in more recent years, the changing content-display algorithms on Instagram have almost entirely eroded away at the platform’s ability to truly expose consumers to the larger variety of watches out there.

Studying the Instagram platform today reveals that users whom the platform deems to be interested in the topic of timepieces tend to be shown posts about the same watch brands, and the same watch models, over and over again. This leads consumers to believe there is a much smaller assortment of choices or that there is a much smaller assortment of watches that interest enthusiasts. A number of watch collectors I polled seem to be experiencing this, and it falls in line with Instagram’s own interests to show what it deems to be popular content to users so that they stay on the platform for as long as possible. Users perceive Instagram as automatically introducing them to content they might like but don’t know to search for. The reality is that Instagram — when browsed as a watch lover — tends to repeat a few key models from about five to six watch brands, as opposed to opening up the larger universe of timepiece appreciation and variety to the user.

The reality is that if you are in search of new watches to be interested in, Instagram appears to be a relatively poor choice today. Of course, I can advocate for the human-curated selection of watches on editorial publications such as aBlogtoWatch (and others), as well as simply browsing large multi-brand retail platforms online ranging from eBay to brand-authorized dealers, as a way to discover new brands and models.

It is probably for the better that only mature watch lovers (after they have purchased a number of watches over a three- to five-year period of time) participate in the watch collecting community on Instagram because much of the best humor and satire on the platform is very “inside baseball,” insofar that most novices would not get the joke. After looking at a cross-section of watch enthusiast comedy posts on social media, certain trends emerge that describe what is on the minds of watch enthusiasts and what they are frustrated about.

The social commentary (comedy or otherwise) about watch collecting on Instagram falls into three main categories. First is commentary about watch industry or brand practices. This involves product and brand marketing, sentiment about retail and buying watches, as well as the experience of owning and servicing watches. Much of this commentary is similar to how people might poke fun at politicians, local government, and dealing with government officials. Thus, there is a particular focus on pointing out unfairness, greed, hypocrisy, social scandals, ignorance and irony, and generally obnoxious behavior or pretentiousness. Anyone interested in political humor on the Internet (classy or crude) will find this entertaining.

The second area of discussion relates to commentary about particular watches — often about the five or six primary brands that Instagram tends to display in Instagram feeds. Sentiment ranges from poking fun at watch designs to their prices and functionality. A particular area of focus seems to be comparing watches to other memes, visual objects, or people. The community seems to have particular brands that appear to get undue negative commentary that at times seems unfair. This isn’t surprising, however, because in all enthusiast communities I’ve been exposed to, a few select brands or products always appear to be the preferred butt of jokes.

That said, when you see a timepiece you personally dislike visually, it can bring a guilty sense of glee to giggle at someone else publicly insulting it. The opposite can be true when a product or brand you personally enjoy seems to be unfairly harpooned. Seasoned collectors tend to have more confidence and such behavior probably doesn’t affect their sentiments much, but I do worry about newer watch enthusiasts being shamed away from taking interest in brands that the community appears at first glance to joke around about. What particularly bothers me about this practice isn’t that it is very funny and correct, at times, but rather that if you look at the watches that are insulted most, they are those with more modern, original designs. Contrast that with the watches that appear to be made fun of less, or others venerated…. which tend to be extremely conservative in their design. It would be a shame for fresh timepiece enthusiasts to dampen their appetite for more open-minded products simply because people they have never met choose those watches as easy targets for anonymous jokes on social media.

New watch lovers who participate on social media engage in the practice of posting a picture of a watch they recently purchased on social media and then requesting feedback on it, such as, “Hey guys, what do you think about my new watch?” This request for social validation might be appropriate among a close circle of friends, but when posing such a question on a large, open forum such as Instagram, really nasty comments can be lobbed in ways that I would characterize as irresponsible. This is one of the major reasons I recommend that novice watch lovers avoid platforms such as Instagram until they have more experience and confidence in their timepiece tastes and choices. Only then is a person in a better position to ignore or laugh off negative commentary about their watch from strangers.

The final and probably most endearing area of watch humor on Instagram are remarks on the behavior of being a watch lover and collector. This area of comedy is probably what helps bring watch collectors together the most because someone is publicly sharing the sentiment that many people feel privately. To realize that you aren’t the only one to feel a particular way about collecting or obsessing over timepieces helps not only to validate the experience of being a watch lover but also makes it less of a lonely pursuit. Indeed, one of the primary reasons most watch enthusiasts go online in the first place (aside from wishing to learn about new watches) is because they lack a strong social group in the real world within which to share their passion for watches.

The volume and veracity of watch enthusiast humor and satire on Instagram is a marked demonstration of how emotional this hobby is. It is also a good indicator of what collectors are currently concerned about. Finally, I will discuss a few trends I have seen in the watch industry and consumer humor on Instagram these days. First and foremost is product pricing and availability. These are two separate but albeit related concepts that go to the heart of the experience of buying a watch. A large number of popular watches are called out for being too expensive, and the experience of not being able to find or buy a watch you want is also mentioned quite frequently.

People also like to poke fun at overzealous watch retailers and sales personalities on social media. There are a number of would-be salespeople who disguise themselves as thought leaders or media personalities. The intelligence of the watch enthusiast community typically sees through manipulative practices and likes to poke fun at it. Similar areas of discussion occur as enthusiasts poke fun at poor watch brand marketing and communication that they see as akin to propaganda. In general, watch enthusiasts appear to reject market manipulation and being lied to — which seems to happen on quite a regular basis.

A major area of humor relates to pointing out how otherwise “innovative” brands tend to copy one another both in marketing communication and design. Copycats are called out and sometimes viciously lampooned with jokes, and there’s also general humor about designs that the community feels are unattractive, lazy, unoriginal, or generally uninspired are a common theme on Instagram.

This is a good opportunity to draw parallels between this observational study of social media watch enthusiast sentiment and data I recently collected in an aBlogtoWatch audience survey. First, I am going to make the assumption that the watch enthusiast on aBlogtoWatch is very similar (if not in many instances the same people) as those who frequent Instagram. What strengthens this supposition is that aBlogtoWatch audience members tend to be more mature and experienced watch lovers, and the ones who have the information and understanding necessary to make fun of topics related to watch collecting on Instagram are also experienced enthusiasts.

In the study on aBlogtoWatch, we found that around 80% of watch enthusiasts felt that the marketing, advertising, and communication they received from the watch industry did not have them (as a target audience) in mind and was generally ineffective as good marketing. When people who enjoy watches feel that the companies they are interested in are not speaking to them or are missing the mark when speaking to them, it tends to suggest a high probability of dissatisfaction by the consumer toward the companies that produce the products they want to like. Thus, I can suggest with some confidence that the generalized negative sentiment toward major parts of the watch industry by watch enthusiasts on social media may be an outcome of a generalized marketing and advertising failure by the watch industry toward the watch enthusiast audience. This would be yet another signal that the watch industry (if the negative sentiment concerns them) could improve timepiece collector sentiment by creating communication and marketing messages that actually have them in mind.

In terms of being a watch collector, the community likes to joke that timepiece enthusiasts are both obsessive and spend far too much time viewing watches online, and also how the experience of buying watches can be ruinously expensive (if unchecked). It is very likely that social media peer pressure can incite people to purchase products they cannot easily afford in order to be “part of the club.” This is also unfortunate and deleterious to the experience of a new watch collector because rather than be shamed for what they cannot afford, they should be encouraged to buy the best at the price level they can afford — another reason why Instagram is probably not a wise tool for those just getting into the watch collecting hobby.

Thank you to Jason Sarkoyan for assistance in selecting Instagram posts for this article. For seasoned collectors, the Instagram community can provide companionship, information, and good times. It can be worth sorting through much of the irrelevant stuff to discover the gold. Happy surfing, fellow online watch lovers — and be sure to “like” the best of Instagram watch humor.

The post What We Can Learn From Watch Enthusiast Humor On Instagram appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

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#watches #luxury watches #wrist watches

[secretcinema3]

Ten Thoughts Inspired By: Baby Face

1. Let’s not beat around the bush here. When we talk about pre-Code cinema, we’re talking about sex. An all-too brief few years when Hollywood wasn’t shy at exploiting the seamier sides of human nature, but with Depression-era frankness and tough-talking. What the moral guardians of the time found scurrilous we now find refreshingly honest. Take Alfred E. Green’s 1933 film Baby Face starring Barbara Stanwyck as working-class girl-on-the-make Lily Powers, probably the most celebrated pre-code film, its notoriety being one of the final straws which brought a more strictly observed Production Code into being. And you can see why. Lily’s (unmarried!) sexual exploits are blatantly up-front, her sordid upbringing brazenly inferred with barely a moral comuppance in sight (in the original pre-cut version).

2. For all it’s sexual frankness, though, you get the impression the Hays Code wasn’t only interested in censoring lewd and suggestive material. It was also about imposing wholesome American values, Christian values, at a time of deep social unrest, while also weeding out unwholesome un-American ones like socialism, or all out nihilism. For here we have a film initially set in the hellish squalor of Pennsylvanian steel mill country where lives are short and brutish, where a man, like Lily’s bootlegger father, will sell his own daughter to anyone who’s paying – even if she’s only fourteen. Here Baby Face is not only explicitly showing capitalism as exploitation but as a breeding ground for the individual kind too. One leads to the other. Taking advantage is contagious, especially when your betters do it too.

3. Life is exploitation, town cobbler Mr. Cragg tells Lily, in case we miss the point. So she should exploit herself, her sexual attractiveness, instead of letting others do it to her. Be a master, he tells her, not a slave, quoting Nietzsche, but also taking the entrepreneurial spirit of capitalism to its logical conclusion. You could call this proto-feminism too, of course. After all, Lily is taking her own destiny into her hands. So, after a bootleg-still explosion kills her father, she’s finally free to escape to the big city, determined to use her sexuality to get ahead, starting with a lowly freight-train guard and working up to a banking-heir playboy, with plenty of hapless saps in between. Sex is power, then, just as money is. Using both to get ahead is the American way. But sex trumps money in Baby Face. Lily works her way up the corporate ladder at Gotham Trust Bank by seducing a series of men (including a young John Wayne), exposing the class-division hypocrisy at the heart of the American Dream. Ruin millions in the corporate board-room and the worst that will happen to you is some fake tut-tutting from politicians. Use sex or intimidation to get out of the ghetto and you’re a slut or a hoodlum. ‘Some rob you with a six gun,’ Woody Guthrie famously sang, ‘some with a fountain pen.’ And some, he might have added, with a come-hither smile and laissez-faire sexuality.

4. The hoodlum had his own films in the early 30s too. Baby Face, along with the previous year’s Red Headed Woman, amount to a brief female counterpart to the gangster cycle that exploded onto screens after the success of Little Caesar (1931). From Public Enemy (1931), to Hawks’ notorious Scarface (1932), the gangster was the embodiment of immigrant drive, taking capitalism at face value. (‘The World Is Yours‘ the aspirational advertising sign tells Tony in the latter). In truth, the gangster was the epitome of capitalism – the impulse shorn of all niceties. Profit by any means. Lily too is selling something, turning a profit. (The film’s tagline made it plain: ‘She had it and made it pay’). These were exploitation pics, sure, lurid stories torn from tabloid headlines, made to titillate audiences, but they were more than that. Whisper the truth, hide it inside gangster or sexploitation pics, but as the Depression bit hard American capitalism was being revealed to those audiences as its essential self: fear and violence, manipulation and desire.

5. As the Studios suffered financially in the early 30s, they sought finance from West Coast banks, ending the independence of much of the sector. Part of the outrage Baby Face generated may well have been its expicit attack on the banking system. That Lily’s rise to success takes place in a bank is surely no random choice. The working class girl bringing it down, ruining all those respectable bankers. It’s a proletarian revenge story. Released from the mind-set of slavery the masses will overthrow the system by the sheer force of their human vitality alone. Lily’s street smarts are too much for these stuffed-shirt sharks of commerce. The film makes a point of showing us how good she is at her job too, even if she did sleep her way into it. Co-workers twice praise her efficiency and intelligence. What a good little worker she’d be if she hadn’t set up business on her own as a one-woman force of sexual liberation. The system likes to keep girls like Lily dumb to exploit them all the easier. But also because they’re afraid of them. Nothing like sexually active working-class girls to set the middle-classes aflutter with fake concern and moral opprobrium.

6. The film operates a visual short-hand of progress as Lily works her way up the social scale. Not just a witty floor-by-floor ascent (sleeping her way) to the top of the bank but also by showing, with almost comic abruptnness, how fashion becomes a weapon of the powerful, a uniform of dominance. The more flamboyant Lily’s dresses become, the more elaborate her hair, the more successful her campaign of sexual conquest has been. By the time bankers are shooting themselves over her, her dresses have collars like aerodynamic daggers and her hair is a platinum helmet, an art-deco sculpture, steely like her heart.

7. And then there’s the friendship between Lily and the poor black girl Chico (Theresa Harris). Harris is a lovely, easy presence in the film, a blissed-out orphan girl in her own world most of the time, always chewing gum, wandering in and out of scenes, humming and singing the film’s theme song to herself, the classic St Louis Blues (made famous by Bessie Smith in the 20s). ‘Saint Louis woman wid her diamon’ rings/Pulls dat man ‘roun’ by her apron strings./’Twant for powder an’ for store-bought hair,/De man ah love would not gone nowhere...’ Chico’s not the brightest bulb in the box but she’s a real black person, not a Negro characature. The film’s more enlightened attitude towards her is echoed in its choice of music. The blues informs the film’s stance, it’s sympathy for the oppressed. Chico’s just another downtrodden person like Lily. The parity of their plight, as class victims, as women, is made clear early on, even if Lily is seen as socially one small rung higher on the ladder. Once Lily reaches the world of high finance, though, Chico is left behind, relegated to being her maid, an acting fate Harris (and most black actresses of that time) had to endure during much of her career. (Even in the exploitation of her own sexuality the black woman couldn’t catch a break). So not exactly a breakthrough in race relations, then, but still, a refreshing change from Hollywood’s then usual attitude to its black characters.

8. ‘I’m a ball of fire…‘ Lily says early on. Nine years later Stanwyck would star in Howard Hawks’ Ball of Fire, co-written by Billy Wilder. Whether coincidence or in joke it’s not surprising the phrase attached itself to Stanwyck, an actress with much in common with Lily Powers in terms of class and gutsiness. This was Stanwyck’s breakthrough role and she’s terrific in it; sassy, world-weary, an authentic tough cookie, delivering hard-boiled comebacks and putdowns like a pro. While some of the other actors chew the scenery, she’s cool and natural. But just as importantly she manages to convey how Lily is really a good-hearted girl made hard by the Darwinian existence she finds herself in. She’s learned to be tough to survive. A guy puts his hand on her knee, she pours hot coffee on him. Another manhandles her and gets a beer bottle broken over his head. Up until now she’s all defence. Sex has been a curse to her, an affliction. But with a little help from Nietzsche she’s going on the attack. This helps to ease the film’s innevitable about-turn when she softens at the last minute. Stanwyck, if not the script, had prepared us for this rediscovery of Lily’s heart.

9. The year 1933 is an interesting one to be quoting Nietzsche’s Will to Power of course. While we tend to take ideas at face value context is rarely considered. So the same idea in the head of a megolomanic world leader and an oppressed girl in a capitalist slum may have different results. Ideas are quantum, seen from different angles, not looked at at all, they change shape. Those with power need no encouragement to exploit. The higher you go in society the more insect-like and abstract other people become, way down there in the gutter. Lily’s heartlessness, her lack of sentiment, get her out of that slum, get her jewels and money and nice apartments but she’s barely human by the end. The rich love to tell the poor how money wouldn’t make them happy. A Hollywood staple from then to now.

10. Characters like Lily Powers could be seen as forerunners of the femme fatales of the 1940s. This search for the origins of noir is endless, of course, but it’s not unreasonable to consider these girls on the make as one step away, early examples of women using their sexuality to entrap and manipulate men. Earlier German films like Pandora’s Box and The Blue Angel or Murnau’s Sunrise (1927) may have a greater claim as the women in these films are seen as agents of malign fate, sirens luring men to their doom. Baby Face and Red-Headed Woman are different in tone, pictures appealing to women, allowing them a vicarious thrill of social and sexual revenge. Their sexuality is seen not as a mysterious, supernatural threat but an equalising weapon of social justice. The femme fatales of the 1940s were much darker, inexplicable and cold-blooded. Still, Stanwyck would perfect both.

#10 thoughts inspired by #film #pre-code #Baby Face #barbara stanwyck #1930s

[americanbackyard]

Our Rise, Our Fall

One of the most focal things we have been shown in trumpland is his followers, his fans. There is a difference between supporters and fans in that a supporter can be shown reasons why not to support someone or something and there is a possibility that they might change their mind. A fan is much harder to convince that the object of their affection is not worthy of their time or emotions. Trump is one of a million to hold some kind of shine to people and become an icon in the culture of America. Or at least part of America. Not the good part...

A unique thing has happened in the case of trump's popularity in that we can now clearly see that many Americans do not pay attention to anything beyond tabloid type information, regardless of the nearly unlimited amount of real information available at no cost to them. We can now plainly see that there are many stubborn and selfish people out there who refuse to look into things for themselves and choose to join mobs of others who act and react the same way. These are the rabid fans. In the case of donald trump and what they believe him to be, they show us that their lives are not their own, even if they claim to want to be left alone by government and those who are not like them, ie; white christian republicans. The amount of hypocrisy is astounding with these people and there is no way to convince them of the ridiculousness of their ways. Yet they function in society somehow. Amazing how the human psyche works. This is the survival instinct that we see in homeless people who appear to have lost their minds yet still build a shelter of discarded objects and scrounge for food. Rabid fans build a shelter of twisted ideals and scrounge for justification of what really boils down to bigotry and stupidity.

For decades trump has been in the B-level news as if he were the only person with money, surrounded by women and golden objects and living in a towering palace and blah blah blah. Anyone who took a few minutes here and there over the years and actually read anything at all about the man could have seen that this is not the case. What we are able to see now about his history, regardless of seeing his taxes shows that he is a dime-a-dozen developer with no peers and no friends, a multiple bankruptcy failure, a man with dreams but only of himself, which he is unable to make come true due to his own lack of intellect or determination, a con man and a grifter, plus a racist. There is nothing at all to like about this man and nothing to worship as some do.

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions...” - 2 Timothy 4:3 (1)

Even those who call themselves Christians who are fans of trump obviously have not read or begun to comprehend the scripture on which their supposed faith is from. Besides the religious aspect of The Bible there are many practicle warnings to heed and advice to be taken. Rabid trump fans do not take advice nor do they heed warnings. If they did, they would not be rabid trump fans. As we have seen for decades this is nothing new though, as televangelists and now trump's “spiritual advisor”, herself a complete fraud, screw over their flocks every second of every sermon... Why are people so gullible? Why are they so desperate? Could it be the same thing that causes people to worship deities that promise a better “life” after death? Try living in the now for God's sake, so to speak.

For some reason, people are able to overlook things like racism, perversion, fraud, lies, and other acts of diminished ethics if what they see is a shiny extension of the worst part of themselves that makes them feel better about being shitty, for lack of better words. I'd imagine they were raised to be that way as they likely did not learn that as an adult, at work, or in college or church, although looking at the messages of some churches, like the Westboro Baptist Church, or various colleges like Liberty University, it is possible but people were attracted to those places for some reason in the first place, and look at some of the fine people they churn out. Also there are many people in history that are beloved but had things about them that would make a normal person cringe. Historical figures today that are relished, and I don't just mean with confederate statues, which is a fine example of praising the wrong people, but popular politicians, athletes, entertainers or religious figures that were racist, child molesters, rapists, or a variety of other things that if your neighbor were one, you would want to kick their ass halfway to New Zealand.

What it comes down to is that people need to look at the reality of other people around them and understand what is real and what it not and how their own lives and the lives of those around them are more important than the lives of who they are fans of, and how they all connect. It's called “getting fucking real”, something that many forget. “Celebrities are fascinating because they live in a parallel universe—one that looks and feels just like ours yet is light-years beyond our reach. Stars cry to Diane Sawyer about their problems—failed marriages, hardscrabble upbringings, bad career decisions—and we can relate. The paparazzi catch them in wet hair and a stained T-shirt, and we're thrilled. They're ordinary folks, just like us. And yet… Stars live in another world entirely, one that makes our lives seem woefully dull by comparison. ” (2) Again, get a fucking life... But they are unable. Why? And how can we help them to help themselves and not affect us all and the whole planet really by not making stupid decisions based on falsehoods and unreality and believing in people like donald trump, Mike Pence, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Paula White, Pat Robertson, Ronald Reagan, Adolf Hitler, etc. We cannot. BUT we outnumber them. SO why are we not coming out in droves to defeat the insanity which enables them to continue in their relentlessness path of destruction and jeopardizes all of humanity on a daily basis? Sounds intense but let's face it, the more folks let politics and religion rule their world the more the corporations and pontiffs will take advantage of them. History tells of this over and over and over again. It's nothing new folks...

We are beyond the two party system at this point. It is now a puppet show in front of us while we have become a mob of idiots versus a huge living room of couch potatoes. We let in the interlopers and the freaks and some of us gladly accept them based on their excuses or shiny false badges of honor while others of us say “whatever” and go about dong nothing to stop the inflow of assholes into the system that we trust to run things while we are running the rat race. There are herds of people who are fired up over things that they are told affect them when they absolutely do not, yet they fall for it hook line and stinker singly based upon the emotions and simplicities of their personalities that their new heroes have honed in on to get what they want from them. “...why do people repose blind faith in leaders or ideologies? How is it that otherwise sane and sensible people become moronically incapable of grasping reality? The culprit: our brain. Still evolving and still primitive, it readily sacrifices rational evidence-based conclusions in favor of primal ones. And so conformism trumps individual judgement.” (3) So is it because we are still primitive? Racists have their own ideas about who is primitive but let's face it, the worst degrees of thought in this country are coming from the rightwing white pseudo christians, who pretty much measure up, or down actually, in evolutionary thought when it comes to primal instincts.

Then there are those who won't vote, or get up and stand up.

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up, don't give up the fight! (4)

On the other hand many are prone to apathy and burnout, due in large part to the overexposure of the right's flock of sheep and the constant pressing of their presence by the wolves that lead them into their dens. “We use voting as a tool to transmit to others who we are,” explains Eyal Winter. An economist, he works at the University of Leicester in England and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. (5) So while the crazies identify with each other and go out and do what they can to make themselves known, others are simply distressed or depressed by it enough to give up and not take the same initiative to go make a difference and fight the powers that suck.

Let's face it though, which party is the one using the Electoral College to silence over three million voters and give trump the win? Which party is guilty of voter suppression in over a dozen cities, that we known of? Which party is guilty of vote tampering, voter intimidation, poll violations, and supports racism while arguing to abolish immigrants, even legal ones, and who holds children in cages, separates them from their parents forever, allows them to be raped, become sick, or die, and then traffics them out? It's all happening., and we let it.

When will it become unacceptable? When it becomes inconvenient? The easy way out of a major confrontation is to get out there and vote and let your voice be heard. The numbers will speak and cannot be overturned. Not yet at least. Unless we let it. We can easily see the wrongdoing of the right wingers in the discrimination of those who the right hates the most. The GOP is not christian by any means, nor or they civil servants, nor are they compassionate, ethical, scrupulous, professional, or on anyone's side besides their own. They are not the lesser of two evils, they are the evil. The lesser may be the only thing we have to curb them but we can work on that and turn it around. It all starts now, or it never starts, and the end is already here. Will those in the position to make positive change refuse to do so? Forget those who are fooled by it, this is about you, the ones who can make  the difference.

Perhaps both sides choose the path of least resistance. But who controls the controlling factors introducing us to our supposed paths?  That choice is ours alone. Common sense might dictate which side we take but in the end we should all be on the same side. And politics and religion are constantly used to keep us from doing that, so that they benefit and not us, even though we put them in charge, willingly, when we vote for them to “represent” us.

In the end what is it going to be? Are we all on our own? Is it survival of the fittest? Or of the most privileged? Will the meek inherit the Earth, or will the corporate enterprises destroy it? And will we let them? This is why it is imperative at this point to get things straight and not allow the absurd to flourish and to take command of the things that matter rather than allow the power mad to run amok. It's happening all over the world and has been for a very long time. Is it just human destiny then to drive itself into the ground? Perhaps. But if we are to get to the next level of a civil society then we have a lot of work to do.  We ourselves and our fellow humans need to make things work, and not just rely on some suit wearing zombies with a political label. A progressive party is not just a partisan party but one for all, to do what? PROGRESS. There is an entire side that does not get this yet but might learn from example. OUR example. And again, if they won't learn, it does'nt matter if we make our numbers count. They will survive and even thrive, even if they may never accept who helped them do it. That's okay though because that is what a civil society does. It sees a problem, diagnoses it, and urges those around them to try to figure out a solution together without doing further damage or taking the easy way out.

Maybe we are dealing with cognitive dissonance. Or maybe some people are just fucking stupid. I like  to think that nurture plays just as important a role as nature though, and that perhaps one can keep learning throughout life to see the big picture and utilize common sense, or at least common decency. Of course, that can only be taught. Or can it? Altruistic behavior is believed by some to be hereditary in many species, so hope is not be abandoned. As easily as hope may be offered up in the form of security and salvation in sensible terms, it can be sold too as something entirely different than what it actually is defined as, something redefined and repackaged by untruths and lust for power. Thus, the rabid trump fans. The ultra right wingers. The fanatical conservatives. The crazy republicans. Not all people on the right are evil, many just conveniently go along with their dimensions which they find themselves lazily confined in. We need to agree on a middle ground of decency and intelligence, of fairness and unity, and only voting and voicing will present that to those who cannot or will not see it. They won't change their minds and we can't change it for them, so we have to change ours and let them see what we can do together.

For once in my life I've got something to say I wanna say it now for now is today A love has been given so why not enjoy So let's all grab and let's all enjoy!

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided

Just take a look around you What do you see? Kids with feelings Like you and me Understand him, he'll understand you For you are him, and he is you

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided

I don't want to be rejected I don't want to be denied Then its not my misfortune That I've opened up your eyes

Freedom is given Speak how you feel I have no freedom How do you feel?

They can lie to my face But not to my heart If we all stand together It will just be the start

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided

If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided If the kids are united Then we'll never be divided (6)

(1) The Bible

(2) Psychology Today, Carlin Flora, July 1, 2004

(3) DAWN, Peter Hoodbhoy, August 8, 2015

(4) Bob Marley, Get Up Stand Up, 1973

(5) Science News For Students, Bethany Brookshire, November 7, 2016

(6) Sham 69, If The Kids Are United, 1978

[fapangel]

Thoughts on Antifa?

Antifa is just thetip of the iceberg.

I first got thisquestion in my inbox shortly after the first Antifa riot on the nightof Milo Yiannopoulos’s Berkeley speech, but I’ve been sitting on it for two reasons:one, to take time to formalize my thoughts better, and two, to avoida “rush to judgement.” You see, it’s not Antifa specifically wemust worry about, but rather how the left wing itself reacts to them.

In my multipleresponsesto my Friendly Local Antifa, I’ve been very clear that just becauseextremists exist (andthey will always exist -)doesn’t mean that they speak or act for any larger group. To claimthey do is a classic fascist tactic,as evidenced by Hitler’s exploitation of the Reichstagfire as a casus bellito round up his Communist political opponents. Lettingviolent radicals act without serious efforts to stymie or punishthem, or even praising and normalizing their motivations while weaklyimpugning their behavior, is also aclassic authoritarian tactic, something the left wing is quick tonote in the context of the Ku Klux Klan, but never apply to the likesof the Earth Liberation Front. That’s why I mention “IllinoisNazis” so much - the mere existence of some goose-steppingretards doesn’t even establish them as a threat in and of themselves,much less a movement with actual national political power.

Thisapplies to “Antifa” because what they really areis pro-Communist radicals.It’scurious that reporting on Antifa never, ever seems to mention it,even though tenseconds on Google turns up some damningimages pretty fast. These people have neverbeenshy about being Communist radicals, or advertising it to the world.Considered in a vacuum, then, they’re just Illinois Commies brawlingwith Illinois Nazis. As the Beatlesreminded us, just because they carry picturesof Chairman Mao doesn’t mean they’re gonna makeit with anyone, anyhow. SoI waited, and watched, to see if the larger wave of hysteria,obstructionism and outright violence would abate naturally as peoplewound down from the heightened passions of the election.

Theyhaven’t. On the 15thof April (two days ago,) yet another wave of mass protests werestaged across the country, with the theme being “Trump shouldrelease his tax returns.” The closest one to me was only twelvemiles distant, in Ann Arbor, MI. Home of the University of Michigan,the city’s small, wealthy, ultra-left and nestled in the middle of aconservative, rural area - and the protest’s highlight speakers(including a few Senators) delivered their speeches on theUniversity’s quad. (Thisis the exact kind of campus speaking event that Antifa used violenceand thuggery to silence at Berkeley when the speaker wasconservative.)Obama-appointed government officials have openly defied the lawfulorders of the sitting President, and been openly and loudly laudedfor it by the left wing. Members of our intelligence agencies havecommitted actual,unambiguous treason by leaking classified intelligence to acorporate media that writes every article with malice aforethought ina concerted and untiring effort to undermine the legitimacy of theoffice of the President of the United States. The left has proudlybragged of the multiplemunicipal governments - you know, cities - swearing to defyFederal law and law enforcement authorities, and some have evencalled for left-wing enclave California to secedefrom the Union. Theyhave scrambled to erect every possible barrier to the President’scabinet nominations, damn the consequences to effective governance,and the unfolding intelligence scandal is revealing how the power ofsecretive agencies was abused by Obama’s administration to undermineand slander his incoming successor. And of course, there’s thethuggery and violence on the street, waged by the likes of Antifa.

Theseare the tangible consequences ofthe left wing’s constant calls for “resistance” to the President- these are notjust words, but a national policy that’s been put into action. Thisisn’t justcute pins to show off to your lit club buddies how “woke” you are- it’s widespread, tangible popular support for the politicians,bureaucrats and businessmen working towards their ends. And thoughthey might call that end “resistance,” theyreally meanrevolution.

DanielGreenfield of Frontpage Magazine wrote a beautifullysuccinct summary that you should absolutelyread in full, but his mostcrucial paragraphs were these:

“There is no form of legal authority that the left acceptsas a permanent institution. It only utilizes forms of authorityselectively when it controls them. But when government officialsrefuse the orders of the duly elected government because theirallegiance is to an ideology whose agenda is in conflict with thePresident and Congress, that’s not activism, protest, politics orcivil disobedience; it’s treason.

After losing Congress, the left consolidated its authority inthe White House. After losing the White House, the left shifted itscenter of authority to Federal judges and unelected governmentofficials. Each defeat led the radicalized Democrats to relocate frommore democratic to less democratic institutions.

This isn’t just hypocrisy. That’s a common political sin.Hypocrites maneuver within the system. The left has no allegianceto the system. It accepts no laws other than those dictated by itsideology.

Democrats have become radicalized by the left. This doesn’tjust mean that they pursue all sorts of bad policies. It means thattheir first and foremost allegiance is to an ideology, not theConstitution, not our country or our system of government. All ofthose are only to be used as vehicles for their ideology.

That’s why compromise has become impossible.”

The ideological divide in the left wingis nothing new - it started in earnest in 1969, when thesocialist-communist bloc of the party first gained real tractionversus the “classic” New Deal progressive Democrats. The rift hasgrown steadily since then, culminating in the last election, when theNew Deal Democrats, the blue-collar union voters flipped the “bluewall” of the Rust Belt red for the first time since Reagan. Thedifference now is that the socialist-communist based branch ofthe party now control it, definitively. Their ideology andvalues are completely alien to the founding principles of America,the principles for which its laws were built to enshrine, nurture,and protect. This is why political compromise has grown more and moredifficult in America - the common ground between parties simplydoesn’t exist, and even if it did, socialist-communistideology has never been based on the concept of compromise orreconciliation.

Communist ideology is based onrevolution - in fact it’s a cornerstoneof the ideology. Revolution, by definition, is a complete andutter rejection of the legitimacy of the existing structure ofsociety. The left wing reveals their disdain for our society ineverything they say and do - their perennial crusade against everyaspect of capitalism, (“Big Whatever,” “Occupy Wall-Street,”)their endless trust in the sanctity and flawlessness of publicinstitutions versus “greedy” private enterprise and, above all,their unceasing devotion to righting the myriad “crimes” of“social injustice.” Hell, with “social injustice” it’s rightthere in the name. They reject, on every possible level, the mostbasic building blocks of Western society in general.

The true significance of Antifa is thewidespread popular support their thuggery has received from the leftwing - it indicates the final abandonment of any pretense todemocracy or fair dealing on their part. This is precisely why theirlanguage has taken on the tones of revolution and war as of late,dividing the populace into “us” versus “Nazis.” In oursecular society, Nazis are tantamount to demons; inhuman, beneathconsideration save through a rifle scope. The label’s a simple andeffective way to dehumanize people, and that’s the first step in theconditioning required to kill.

It’s already accelerating. After theBerkeley police made a point of confiscating weapons - and anythingusable as a weapon - from anyone converging on the park ahead of thelatest scuffle in Berkeley, Antifa took to reddit to argue foroutright arming themselves withfirearms. (Note how California’s ban on open carry, implementedby DemocraticGov. Jerry Brown in 2011 suddenly becomes Reagan’s fault.) Andother outlets are calling for leftists todegrade or destroy any government apparatus they do not control.

We have been down this roadbefore, more than once - the spate of anarchistbombings back in 1919, the radical left terrorist bombings by theWeathermanUnderground, and many others. But even at the height of anti-waractivism in the late 60s and early 70s, things were never thisbad. Much of it owes to new media - it’s atrophied theonce-ironfast stranglehold the corporate media had on politicaldiscourse in this nation, which has pushed the left wing to resort tomore brutish tactics to silence their opposition - doxxing, threats,intimidation and, of course, “de-platforming.” New media has alsoallowed the classic “grassroots” organizational tactics pioneeredby Chicago machine politics to go large-scale (moveon.org et al.) Theolder people, the wiser people, the experienced and the jaded - I’vetalked to them all, and they all agree that it has never been thisbad. The battle lines have been clearly drawn and the battles arebeing waged openly, vigorously and without apology.

Not every Democrat or liberal isa leftist - far, far from it, in fact. But I fear that the Democraticparty is far too gone for the sane people to reassert controlover it. As Greenfield points out, the left has retreated to“cultural urban and suburban enclaves where it has centralizedtremendous amounts of power while disregarding the interests andvalues of most of the country. If it considers them at all, it isconvinced that they will shortly disappear to be replaced bycompliant immigrants and college indoctrinated leftists who will forma permanent demographic majority for its agenda. But it couldn’twait that long because it is animated by the conviction thatenforcing its ideas is urgent and inevitable. And so it turned whathad been a hidden transition into an open break.” Thesepeople, long assured of their intrinsic superiority, are nowconfident in their eventual supremacy - and thus they are contestingthe legitimacy of the President of the United States, and indeed ourentire government, directly. We have been down this path before, too- it led to the Civil War.

That phrase - civil war- is the second reason I letthis post percolate for so long. I’m naturally antithetical tohysterical “sky is falling” arguments, as they’re invariably fullof shit and trying to sway people with fear and emotion, the facts beutterly damned. The current spate of gay,lesbian and transgender people buying guns for self-defenseagainst the imaginary hordes of Right-Wing Gestapo comes as nosurprise, because I’ve watched Conservatives panic-buying AR-15safter every shooting on the evening news for eight goddamn years. Andfor eight years I called them hooting morons becauseObama’s desire to “gitall yer gunz” far, far outstrippedhis ability to do so,legally and politically. Political vigilance against gun control isalways needed, yes, but people rushing to the stores and stockpiling(then-scarce) ammo in their basement were expecting a ban tomorrow,despite over a decade ofDemocrats losing ground on the national gun control debate, to saynothing of the Supreme Court rulings upholding - and incorporating -an individual right to keep and bear arms. Andthe ones I scorned and mocked the most were the ones insisting theymight need to use theirnew rifles in the not-so-distant future; that social unrest and evenviolence was just around the corner. I held these people to be theright-wing incarnation of the hysterical left-wing ninnies I soloathed and spared not my scorn, because being on myside of the fence didn’t make them any less an idiot.

Theday after the Berkeley riot, I decided it was about time I got off myass and purchased an AR-15.

For the first time in my life, Iam truly afraid for my country - and for my friends, my family, andmyself.

[crimethinc]

Preparing for Round Two: Coming to Blows with the Trump Regime

We’ve reached the first plateau of the Trump era. Round one is over and we’re still in the fight. With so much happening so fast, it can be hard to step back and get enough perspective to keep ahead of events. Let’s review the events of the past month and get a sense of where we are, so we can strategize for what comes next.

Phase One: Escalation in the Streets

The Trump era began with blockades and confrontational demonstrations in Washington, DC and around the country. Footage of white nationalist Richard Spencer being punched by a person in black bloc attire made antifascists popular even with television stars, though the shooting of a Seattle antifascist by a supporter of Milo Yiannopoulos ended the day on an ominous note. The Women’s March the next day saw some of the biggest crowds in protest history.

Here, at the outset, we encounter the fundamental tension between quality and quantity that has marked all resistance to Trump. On the one side, we see fierce and courageous rebels who are not numerous enough to avoid being isolated and repressed; on the other, we see truly massive numbers of people limited by their narrow tactical repertoire and naïve faith in existing institutions. Everyone invested in real social change should recognize how important it is for these two social bodies to cross-pollinate.

Even Portland, OR was uncontrollable on the night of the presidential election.

Washington, DC celebrated the inauguration in style.

Unfazed by this one-two punch, Trump presented a string of executive orders aimed at forcing through the Dakota Access Pipeline, stepping up deportations, and banning people from seven countries—essentially declaring war on the part of the US population that opposed his Presidency. This was a make-or-break moment, and people rose to it, shutting down airports around the country the weekend of January 28-29. These blockades were complemented by a taxi strike and demonstrations in several major cities.

“We will repel bullies. We will shelter freaks and outcasts; those who have no home. We will get past the lies. We will hunt monsters… And when we are lost amidst the hypocrisy and casual violence of certain individuals and institutions… we will… punch some people in the face when they seek to destroy the weak and the disenfranchised and the marginalized. And we will do it all with soul, with heart, and with joy.” -David K. Harbour

Three days later, courageous demonstrators shut down Milo’s speaking event at the University of California at Berkeley. Anarchists saw this as a victory for direct action, while liberals wrung their hands and Milo’s fans congratulated themselves that the “tolerant left” were falling into a trap, discrediting themselves. Trump himself took notice with a series of tweets about “professional anarchists” and “violence,” while the New York Times dedicated a front-page article to the spread of anarchist anti-fascism.

In this context of escalation, the stakes are double or nothing: either direct action tactics will spread to the population at large, enabling all the different demographics targeted by the government to defend themselves, or they will remain confined to a small minority that the authorities can use as an excuse to crack down on everyone. Standing aside “peacefully” in hopes of being left alone is no longer an option.

Phase Two: Fractures in the Halls of Power

After these first two tempestuous weeks, concluding with the Bodega strike of February 2, the pace and scale of street protests subsided a bit as the spotlight shifted to the halls of power—where real fractures within the ruling class were appearing. February has seen much of the corporate media turn decisively against the Trump administration, evidence of rebellion within the White House, turmoil on the National Security Council as Michael Flynn was forced to resign in disgrace and Trump’s first choice to replace him refused the job, and the definitive judicial defeat of the first version of the Muslim Ban.

Doubtless, much of this was galvanized by the grassroots resistance of the first two weeks. By showing that the US will be ungovernable under Trump, demonstrators made it impossible for bureaucrats and pundits to line up behind the President for the sake of preserving order.

These divisions now extend all the way into Trump’s party. Milo’s sordid demise on February 20-21 illustrates this adequately enough. The Republican Party that swept into power behind Trump was based on a tenuous alliance between traditional conservatives and a new generation of nationalistic racists like Milo. Milo sold himself to white nationalists and authoritarians on the basis of his status as a (barely) oppressed person willing to speak in favor of oppression; like so many others who have struck that Faustian deal, he learned the hard way that he was not the one calling the shots. While he is implicated in his own downfall, it was anarchists who forced the issue, compelling Trump and the Conservative Political Action Conference to embrace and then repudiate him.

Without spokespeople like Milo, the Republican Party will lose everything that gave it a modern edge. And although Milo and other stooges of Steve Bannon doubtless hope that their explicitly racist nationalism will be the successor to Trump’s populism, allegations of promoting pedophilia do not make a good point of departure for a new far-right party.

Crowds shut down Seatac on January 28 and 29 in response to Trump’s immigration ban.

Protestors declare war on Milo at UC Berkeley on February 1.

Phase Three: The Empire Strikes Back?

In short, a burst of grassroots resistance at the opening of Trump’s term has helped to discredit his Presidency and split his support base. This is the context in which Trump and his cronies are seeking to take his message back to the streets, starting with the rally in Florida and hoping to continue with events around the country on March 4. They desperately need to mobilize street-level support in order to rally Republican politicians to remain loyal to them and to build the grassroots momentum necessary to implement their fascistic agenda.

Although the resistance has made a good showing thus far, it is still entirely possible that Trump and his cronies will succeed in pulling off their plan. Escalating ICE raids around the country attest to the danger threatening millions. As this goes to press, Standing Rock is being evicted, showing that apparent victories under Obama were really just temporary compromises. The following months will be decisive in determining whether Trump can consolidate power behind a new form of fascism, or whether ungovernable social movements will make this impossible.

In this situation, there are three basic errors we should avoid.

We must not become immobilized watching the spectacle of resistance to Trump as it plays out in the courts and Washington, DC. The strength of the institutional pushback against Trump is a direct factor of grassroots mobilization and resistance. If Trump is removed from office by institutional means, he will only be replaced by a politician who will likely implement versions of the same agenda—just as Obama already escalated deportation and surveillance. Even if he fails to establish autocracy in the United States, Trump’s role will be to reestablish the legitimacy of the corporate media, moderate Republicans, Silicon Valley, and the Democratic Party—all the adversaries we were fighting before he made them seem ethical by comparison. For now, some Democrats and media outlets appear sympathetic to us, but their standard strategy in a situation like this is to use us as shock troops to obtain a little leverage over the authorities, then sell us out in return for a seat at the table.

We must not make the same error as Milo, mistaking media exposure for power. Notoriety can help us when it enables us to make contact with new people or to spread our ideas and tactics in meaningful ways. But if we receive too much media coverage, more quickly than we can translate it into added organizational strength on the ground, it will only position the authorities to go after us with everything they’ve got. Remember the lesson of the SHAC campaign, which seemed to be making tremendous headway against an animal testing corporation by building up a fearsome reputation—until the government took advantage of this reputation to stomp it out. There are no shortcuts to doing the work of grassroots organizing, certainly not through corporate media.

We probably won’t be able to avoid open conflict with Trump’s civilian supporters, but we should not let it distract us from taking on the government directly. If the Trump administration fails to fulfill its promises, many of those who currently support it may reconsider their position—the last thing we want to do is force them to entrench themselves in their current position. We have to find ways to take the offensive against the authorities while defending ourselves against rearguard attacks from freelance nationalists.

Above all, we need to pass on all the knowledge we have accumulated over the past two decades of anarchist activity to a new generation of demonstrators—and quick. We are but a small part of the huge social body that is prepared to enter into struggle now, but that struggle may never get off the ground unless we share what we know with others. Never before have so many people been open to anarchist ideas and tactics, but this window will not last long. Expanding our ranks is the only way to survive the waves of repression that wait ahead. Let’s go into round two with more numbers and more strength.

Further Reading

The Landing: Fascists without Fascism

Long Term Resistance: Fighting Trump and Liberal Cooption

Terminal Showdown

Take the Offensive

[mr-popo-little-green-blog]

White privilege?

Call me a cis male cuck, but I actually have an opinion. I'm not sure exactly where the line with actual privilege and just trying to piss someone off lies, but this all bothers me. Somebody saying that I'm white so that means I'm racist feels like a narrow minded attempt to get one up on me. I may get some backlash for this, but I'm actually not racist. And I do believe it is possible for a black person to be racist. Gasp! (Mind you, I do say black, not African American. Because I mean black people. Not the golden skinned Egyptians or the white skinned south Africans. I mean black people) People say black people can't be racist and women can't be sexist because to be racist or sexist you have to have power. Since women and blacks are oppressed, they can't be racist. If a black person sticks a gun in my face who has no idea who I am and hates me simply because I am white, that is racism! In that situation, they have power over me in the form of that gun or their fists. Power is subjective. It is not racist if I take the power and defend myself either. Now, I have to ask you a question; What do you want out of saying since I'm a white male that I am a racist and a sexist? Do you want control? Power? Are you trying to guilt me? Are you trying to generate superiority in your class, creed and like? If the answer to this is anything other than to point out that I have it a little easier since I'm white, then you are trying to become the oppressor. Do white people have it easier? Yes. Do men get paid more? Mostly. Do black people have a better chance of getting abused by police? Absolutely. Do women have a higher chance of being raped? You're darn tootin. However, me being white male does not instantly make me sexist or racist. I had nothing to do with the system being this way. It was set up like so LONG before I was on this earth. Now, if I am helping to perpetuate the system and keep blacks and women oppressed, then yes. Yes I am. If I am not actively helping to spread kindness and understanding to the fact that women and blacks have a harder time, then I am keeping the system in place. Nobody understands the system and it's hypocrisy quite the way that I do. I have spent my life fighting the system, and dispelling ignorance wherever I go. Oppression is a tricky thing. But if you are fighting me or any other average joe (or jo) and not trying to dismantle the system that has kept you oppressed, then you are part of the problem. The people in control want us dumb, docile and divided. If we divide ourselves with labels and unfair terms, you are no longer fighting the system. You are strengthening it. The more time we are fighting each other, the less time we are fighting them. And if we are not a corporate manager or owner, a banker or a politician, we are the same brand of shit to them. We are ants eating their shit and we are all victims. So let's quit bitching about who is at fault, try to love everybody equally, and take the fight to the courts, create better politicians and change the system from the inside out. Let's identify the problems, create better technology, and create a better system. Anything else we're doing is wasting time, energy and heartache.

[brinazzle]

2

During the twelve years he was mayor of New York City, from 2001 to 2013, Michael Bloomberg was an indefatigable “social engineer,” always striving to change people’s behavior for the better (at least in his mind). Whether he was banning public smoking or decreeing that all municipal vehicles go hybrid, his objective was always civic self-improvement. Near the end of his third and final term in 2012, he decided to attack the childhood obesity epidemic. He did so by banning sales of sugary soft drinks in quantities greater than sixteen ounces. We can debate the merits of Bloomberg’s idea and the inequities created by some of its loopholes. But we can all agree that reducing childhood obesity is a good thing. In one small way, Bloomberg was trying to alter the environment that tempts people to overconsume sugary drinks. His rationale was unassailable: if consumers—for example, moviegoers—aren’t offered a thirty-two-ounce soft drink for a few pennies more than the sixteen-ounce cup, they’ll buy the smaller version and consume less sugar. He wasn’t stopping people from drinking all the sugary beverage they wanted (they could still buy two sixteen-ounce cups). He was merely putting up a small obstacle to alter people’s behavior—like closing your door so people must knock before interrupting you. Personally, I didn’t have a dog in this race. (I am not here to judge. My mission is to help people become the person that they want to be, not tell them who that person is.) I watched Bloomberg’s plan unfold purely as an exercise in the richness of our resistance to change. I love New York. The good citizens didn’t disappoint. People quickly lodged the “nanny state” objection: where does this Bloomberg fellow come off telling me how to live my lifeLocal politicians objected because they hadn’t been consulted. They hated the mayor’s high-handed methods. The NAACP objected to the mayor’s hypocrisy in targeting soft drinks while cutting phys ed budgets in schools. So-called “mom and pop” store owners objected because the ban exempted convenience stores such as 7-Eleven, which could put the mom and-pops out of business. Jon Stewart mocked the mayor because the two-hundred-dollar ticket for illegally selling supersize soft drinks was double the fine for selling marijuana. And so on. In the end, after a barrage of lawsuits, a judge struck down the law for being “arbitrary and capricious.” My point: even when the individual and societal benefits of changing a specific behavior are indisputable, we are geniuses at inventing reasons to avoid change. It is much easier, and more fun, to attack the strategy of the person who’s trying to help than to try to solve the problem. That genius becomes more acute when it applies to us—when it’s our turn to change how we behave. We fall back on a set of beliefs that trigger denial, resistance, and ultimately self-delusion. They are more pernicious than excuses. An excuse is the handy explanation we offer when we disappoint other people. Not merely convenient, it is often made up on the spot. We don’t exercise because “it’s boring” or we’re “too busy.” We’re late for work because of “traffic” or “an emergency with the kids.” We hurt someone because we “didn’t have a choice.” These excuses, basically variations on “The dog ate my homework,” are so abused it’s a wonder anyone believes us (even when we’re telling the truth). But what should we call the rationalizations we privately harbor when we disappoint ourselves? Mere “excuse” is somehow inadequate to describe these inner beliefs that represent how we interpret our world. An excuse explains why we fell short of expectations after the fact. Our inner beliefs trigger failure before it happens. They sabotage lasting change by canceling its possibility. We employ these beliefs as articles of faith to justify our inaction and then wish away the result. I call them belief triggers. 





































1. If I understand, I will do. Everything that I am going to suggest in this book works. It doesn’t “kind of” work or “sort of” work. It works. My suggestions will help you understand how to close the gap between the “ideal you” and the “real you.” However, this does not mean that you will do it. People who read my writing sometimes tell me, “It’s common sense. I didn’t read anything here that I don’t already know.” It’s the default critique of most advice books (you may be thinking it right now). My thought is always: “True, but I’ll bet that you read plenty here that you don’t already do.” If you’ve ever been to a seminar or corporate retreat where all attendees agreed on what to do next—and a year later nothing has changed—you know that there’s a difference between understanding and doing. Just because people understand what to do doesn’t ensure that they will actually do it. This belief triggers confusion. It also pervades the fourteen belief triggers that follow. You may be familiar with them. You may think they don’t apply to you. This is a belief worth questioning, too. 













































2. I have willpower and won’t give in to temptation. We deify willpower and self-control, and mock its absence. People who achieve through remarkable willpower are “strong” and “heroic.” People who need help or structure are “weak.” This is crazy—because few of us can accurately gauge or predict our willpower. We not only overestimate it, we chronically underestimate the power of triggers in our environment to lead us astray. Our environment is a magnificent willpower-reduction machine. In The Odyssey, Homer’s classic work from circa 800 BC, the hero Odysseus faces many perils and tests on his return home from the Trojan War. At one point his ship must pass the Sirens whose haunting voices lure sailors to their death on the rocks near shore. Odysseus wants to hear the Sirens so he puts wax in his men’s ears and ties himself to the ship’s mast so he can safely hear the Sirens’ singing without going mad. He knew willpower alone wasn’t enough to overcome the Sirens’ temptation. Unlike Odysseus, few of us foresee the challenges we will face. As a result, the willpower we assume when we set a goal rarely measures up to the willpower we display in achieving that goal. Something always comes up to sink our boat. This belief triggers overconfidence. 












































3. Today is a special day. When we want to make an excuse for errant behavior, any day can be designated as a “special day.” We yield to impulse and short-term gratification because today is the Super Bowl, or my birthday, or our anniversary, or my day off, or National Cookie Day (December 4 if you don’t already know). Tomorrow is back to normal. We’ll be our usual disciplined self then. If we really want to change we have to make peace with the fact that we cannot self-exempt every time the calendar offers us a more attractive alternative to our usual day. Excusing our momentary lapses as an outlier event triggers a self indulgent inconsistency—which is fatal for change. Successful change doesn’t happen overnight. We’re playing a long game, not the short game of instant gratification that our special day provides. 
















































4. “At least I’m better than...” In a down moment after failure or loss, we tell ourselves, “At least I’m better than _________.” We award ourselves a free pass because we’re not the worst in the world. This is our excuse to take it easy, lowering the bar on our motivation and discipline. Other people have to change more than we do. We’ve triggered a false sense of immunity. 





















































5. I shouldn’t need help and structure. One of our most dysfunctional beliefs is our contempt for simplicity and structure. We believe that we are above needing structure to help us on seemingly simple tasks. For example, as Dr. Atul Gawande reported in The Checklist Manifesto, central line infections in intensive care units virtually disappear when doctors follow a simple five-point checklist involving rote procedures such as washing hands, cleaning the patient’s skin, and using a sterile dressing after inserting the line. For many years, despite the checklist’s proven success rate, doctors resisted it. After years of medical training, many doctors thought that the constant reminders, especially when delivered by subordinate nurses, were demeaning. The surgeons thought, “I shouldn’t need to use a checklist to remember simple instructions.” This is a natural response that combines three competing impulses: 1) our contempt for simplicity (only complexity is worthy of our attention); 2) our contempt for instruction and follow-up; and 3) our faith, however unfounded, that we can succeed all by ourselves. In combination these three trigger an unappealing exceptionalism in us. When we presume that we are better than people who need structure and guidance, we lack one of the most crucial ingredients for change: humility. 












































6. I won’t get tired and my enthusiasm will not fade. In the morning, when we plan to work long hours and finish our assignment we are not exhausted. We may feel fresh and full of energy. But after we work several hours we become tired and more vulnerable to throwing in the towel. When we plan to achieve our goals, we believe that our energy will not flag and that we will never lose our enthusiasm for the process of change. We seldom recognize that self-control is a limited resource. As we become tired our self-control begins to waver and may eventually disappear. The sheer effort of sticking with the plan triggers depletion. 



















































7. I have all the time in the world. Here are two opposing beliefs that we simultaneously hold in our minds and mash into one warped view of time: 1) we chronically underestimate the time it takes to get anything done; 2) we believe that time is open-ended and sufficiently spacious for us to get to all our self-improvement goals eventually. (Hah! I’ve been promising myself that this is the year I’ll read War and Peace—and have been promising for forty-three consecutive years.) This faith in time’s infinite patience triggers procrastination. We will start getting better tomorrow. There’s no urgency to do it today. 



















































8. I won’t get distracted and nothing unexpected will occur. When we make plans for the future, we seldom plan on distractions. We plan as if we are going to live in a perfect world and be left alone to focus on our work. Although this state of being left alone has never happened in the past, we plan as if this nirvana-like world will surely exist in the future. We get down to work without accommodating the fact that life always intrudes to alter our priorities and test our focus. Earning an undergraduate degree in mathematical economics taught me about the high probability of low-probability events. We don’t plan for low-probability events because, by definition, any one of them is unlikely to occur. Who plans on a flat tire, or accident, or stalled traffic because of an overturned semi on their way to work? And yet the odds of at least one of these events occurring are high. We are all victimized, more frequently than we like, by traffic jams and flat tires and accidents. This belief triggers unrealistic expectations. (Ironically, as I am typing this on a Sunday afternoon, I have just received an email from a client saying, “I have an emergency at work and need to get your considered opinion. Is there any way that we can talk now?” While the probability of her contacting me for an emergency talk on this particular Sunday afternoon was close to zero [she had never done this before], the probability of some distraction happening on Sunday afternoon is pretty high.) In my coaching, I usually work with executive clients for eighteen months. I warn each client that the process will take longer than they expect because there will be a crisis. I can’t name the crisis, but it will be legitimate and real—for example, an acquisition, a defection, a major product recall—and it may dramatically extend the time they need to achieve positive change. They cannot predict it, but they should expect it—and it will distract them and slow them down. 






































9. An epiphany will suddenly change my life. An epiphany implies that change can arise out of a sudden burst of insight and willpower. It happens, of course. An alcoholic hits rock bottom. A gambler goes broke. A nasty executive is threatened with dismissal. And for a while, each of them sees the light. But more often than not, an epiphany experience triggers magical thinking. I’m skeptical of any “instant conversion experience.” It might produce change in the short run, but nothing meaningful or lasting—because the process is based on impulse rather than strategy, hopes and prayers rather than structure. 



















































10. My change will be permanent and I will never have to worry again. The Great Western Disease is “I’ll be happy when...” This is our belief that happiness is a static and finite goal, within our grasp when we get that promotion, or buy that house, or find that mate, or whatever. It’s inculcated in us by the most popular story line in contemporary life: there is a person; the person spends money on a product or service; the person is eternally happy. This is called a TV commercial. The average American spends 140,000 hours watching TV commercials. Some brainwashing is inevitable. Is it any wonder that we so casually assume that any positive change we make will change us forever? It’s the same with behavioral change. We set a goal and mistakenly believe that in achieving that goal we will be happy—and that we will never regress. This belief triggers a false sense of permanence. If only this were true. My research involving more than 86,000 respondents around the world on changing leadership behavior, “Leadership Is a Contact Sport,” paints a different picture. If we don’t follow up, our positive change doesn’t last. It’s the difference between, say, getting in shape and staying in shape—hitting our physical conditioning goals and maintaining them. Even when we get there, we cannot stay there without commitment and discipline. We have to keep going to the gym—forever. Fairy tales end with “and they lived happily ever after.” That is why they are called fairy tales, not documentaries. 









































11. My elimination of old problems will not bring on new problems. Even if we appreciate that no change will provide a permanent solution to our problems, we forget that as we usher an old problem out the door a new problem usually enters. I see this all the time with my successful clients. They all agree that the euphoria of achieving their dream job of CEO vanishes by the second meeting with the board of directors. The old problem of becoming CEO has been replaced by the new problems of being CEO. This belief triggers a fundamental misunderstanding of our future challenges. Lottery winners are a notorious example here. Who hasn’t imagined the worry-free bliss that comes with sudden riches? And yet, research shows that only two years after winning the lottery, the winners are not that much happier than they were before they collected their checks. The big payday solves their old problems of debt and paying the mortgage and funding their children’s schooling. But new problems immediately appear. Relatives and friends and charities suddenly appear expecting a generous handout. The old problem of a cheap home in a neighborhood with old friends has been replaced with the new problem of an expensive home in a new neighborhood with no friends. 











































12. My efforts will be fairly rewarded. From childhood we are brought up to believe that life is supposed to be fair. Our noble efforts and good works will be rewarded. When we are not properly rewarded we feel cheated. Our dashed expectations trigger resentment. When I coach leaders, I insist that they pursue change because they believe in their hearts that it is the right thing to do. It will help them become a better leader, team member, family member—and by extension improve the lives of the people in their immediate orbit. It will help them live the values that they believe in. If they’re only pursuing change for an external reward (a promotion, more money), I won’t work with them because 1) there are no certainties that we’ll get what we want, 2) if the reward is the only motivator people revert to their old ways, and 3) all I’ve done is help a phony succeed. Getting better is its own reward. If we do that, we can never feel cheated. 
















































13. No one is paying attention to me. We believe that we can occasionally lapse back into bad behavior because people aren’t paying close attention. We are practically invisible, triggering a dangerous preference for isolation. Even worse, it’s only half true. While our slow and steady improvement may not be as obvious to others as it is to us, when we revert to our previous behavior, people always notice. 




















































14. If I change I am “inauthentic.” Many of us have a misguided belief that how we behave today not only defines us but represents our fixed and constant selves, the authentic us forever. If we change, we are somehow not being true to who we really are. This belief triggers stubbornness. We refuse to adapt our behavior to new situations because “it isn’t me.” For example, it is not uncommon for me to work with an executive who makes comments like, “I am no good at giving positive recognition. That’s just not me.” I then ask these people if they have an incurable genetic disease that is prohibiting them from giving people the recognition that they deserve. We can change not only our behavior but how we define ourselves. When we put ourselves in a box marked “That’s not me,” we ensure that we’ll never get out of it. 
















































15. I have the wisdom to assess my own behavior. We are notoriously inaccurate in assessing ourselves. Among the more than 80,000 professionals I’ve asked to rate their performance, 70 percent believe they are in the top 10 percent of their peer group, 82 percent believe that they are in the top fifth, and 98.5 percent place themselves in the top half. If we’re successful, we tend to credit ourselves for our victories and blame our situation or other people for our losses. This belief triggers an impaired sense of objectivity. It convinces us that while other people consistently overrate themselves, our own self-assessment is fair and accurate.   Overconfidence. Stubbornness. Magical thinking. Confusion. Resentment. Procrastination. That’s a lot of heavy baggage to carry on our journey of change. All these rationalizations, some profound, some silly, still don’t completely answer the larger question, Why don’t we become the person we want to be? Why do we plan to be a better person one day—and then abandon that plan within hours or days? There is an even larger reason that explains why we don’t make the changes we want to make—greater than the high quality of our excuses or our devotion to our belief triggers. It’s called the environment.

[emersonmanandnature]

August 22, 2020

United States Of Turmoil

The importance of being present, not in your interior being but a physical presence that is seen and heard. But what does this do for you as an individual person? Does being seen give you anymore authority than you have now?  

We seem to know the boundaries of our lives without stepping over the line. How did this willingness to be defeated in our world even before you have touched your inner consciousness with your personal foundation of your truth just beginning?

Constant conditioning in childhood forced you to accept becoming a part of a group. Never separate from the conformity of your societal peers. And this of course made it easier for the wealthy to begin the dismantling of the middle class and to influence dirty politicians through money contribution to do their biding in our so called freedom of choice in this new era of manipulating oligarchs.

Why haven’t people realized that the new mouthpieces for our two party system, which is a crime against democracy but that is the way the elites of avarice want it by limiting choices so they can keep a reign on all the politicians that do whatever they demand even though it crushes people lives and destroys the future freedom of ideas that can help society create a better life for all and not this vocabulary of controlling lies against other innocent human beings.

All candidates start off promising their constituents the moon but once in office they understand pretty quickly that if they want to stay in office they better toe the line and do what they are told or powers that be will buy an up and coming new politician willing to do all that is asked of him no matter how criminal it is.

What choices are we free to choose when we are given a narrow means of escaping the bombardment of lies curious truth.

In today’s society everything is made with a price tag on it so the minions will feel like they are the new hipsters, the new cool and the young will follow like vultures looking for a place to rob, but of course they will follow the laws that are made now by the elites of crime.

Why did you become a repeating voice mouthing what others say as your truth? Our society is built on conformity. Conformity of your mind and your physical presence. You are the workforce, the patsy that works without knowing why and for who. It is just something you were born too. And it is harder now than ever to walk away from the controlling force of greed ingrained in the constitution of the united states of corporations.

As we move further into the technology of manipulation and deceit we will become even more afraid to stand up and fight the powers of money and to survive our individuality keeps a consistent facade of acceptance, not willing to become any more than just a body that pays his taxes on time. We are afraid to rock the boat of power that controls our lives on all levels of our existence.

We endure our lives in anger and depression because we are unable to see our inner insights as our truths. We are controlled through our indoctrination into a supposedly free society only to find that the wealthy rigged the game and put the blame on the very people they took advantage of. The powers that be are con artists creating a visual picture of their status with extravagant parties and beautiful mansions as a means to control the populace wit envy. What have the offspring of these historic con men and women done in their life time that could match they're founding fathers? If anything the children of the rich have become even more arrogant and compulsive in destroying lives and killing this planet.

The hypocrisy of money is an illusion bought and sold to the people as a over priced reality show that cannot be cancelled.

The fact that we objectified ourselves by taking selfies creates a lessening of you being present. What purpose is taking an image of yourself when the external world is waiting to be discovered. What do you do of such monumental importance that you take your eye away from a beautiful scene and turn the camera to you as if you were a star just being noticed. We all want to be seen and heard and we all want praise of our living presence but to take pics of yourself is just plain egotistical. And that is exactly what is happening to mankind. Our egos have been exposed to the ease of producing ourselves for others to see. Social media becomes the vehicle to lose sight of your personal self and surroundings and to exploit yourself as if you were a god sent to earth to save mankind. Ego generated hypocrisy that will lead to the deteriorating knowledge of your inner self. You my friend are being exploited, distracted from your life by posting on social media as if that had anything to do with your real life, your real presence in your own unique skin. You have been snookered and conned into thinking that these presentations of yourself is actually you not an addiction to being physically scene not as who you are but who you want to escape to become.

You no longer write your own inner truth to this crumbling world of no values but hide behind disguises that shadow your lost intuition replaced now with an ego that thinks only of what’s in it for me.

Our democratic representatives are looking to do their normal bait and switch by telling the wonderful things they will do for us in office when in fact we know if we don’t get a new group of honest people who care about fairness in this monopoly greedfest of the few against the many we will never break through the animalistic personalities of these men and women of godly egos.

What is the democratic party? What do they stand for, if they can’t connect with the majority of people in their own country? Where is their truth of consciousness, where has our freedoms been since the American Revolutionary War, where else but in the hands of the new American wealthy that wanted to break from Great Britain so they could collect taxes directly from its citizens and exploit the inhuman treatment of slaves! We have always existed under the thumb of the greedy but now it is as plain as the tears flowing in the misery of our incompetent leaders who don’t even try and hide their allegiance to their rich patrons bribing them.  

The wealthy have always been in power infiltrating every level of our government including the congress, senate, judges, law enforcement, colleges, corporations… and then slowly, methodically strip the American people of their liberties and their hard earned income? It is outrageous and criminal what is being done in this facade of our government of the people for the people. Let us be truthful this is a country by the corporations for the corporations period. We see the fluff that comes out of tv news or should I say scripted news that gives us no info on the wars taking place around the globe promoted and funded by the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Turkey… and the Military Industrial Companies that are making billions off the killing of innocent men, women and children.

What would god say about this if god actually had a voice instead of being a religious puppet for the prophets of wealthy preachers.

The life we live today is a scam of corporate capitalism whereby the American people are still insulated from the horrors happening in other countries as we sip our covid19 juices not giving a shit about the dark death spreading around the world.

The wealthy have their own news organizations to distract us from the underlining cruelty of these merchants of terror, these egotistical indulgent, buffoons of greed.

We are not in a two party system of democracy we are lead by one party who’s loyalty is the corporations and the ultra-wealthy that suck up our tax dollars and make us, the American people pay their bills as they move their money off shore, paying no taxes that each of the American people must pay or be thrown in jail.

In a society governed by laws it should be obvious that any corporation or wealthy monopolies that don’t pay his/her fair share of taxes should be arrested and put in prison for fraud and money laundering. What kind of a democracy would allow this? Well, we have one and it isn’t a democracy it is an oligarchy. Where a few individuals control the population with intimidation and fear! By allowing the citizens of a country to become overwhelmed with the problems they continually face does one thing very well, it makes people frightened with anxiety so they won’t act to make changes. Instead they must put all their effort into working 2-3 jobs so their children can eat!

All Americans must know that we are losing our freedoms along with our income. Are the oligarchs trying to reduce america to a third world country where the people live in squalor? Is that the answer they demand, that the prosperous bankers foreclose on private properties in order to create an america that doesn’t have any family owned land anymore.

Intimidation of the talking heads spewing bullshit like I have never heard before. Sure there are some egos that used to spout off about the turmoil in the world but they were within the bounds of responsibility. Now there is no responsibility in news media and the radio jocks spewing there paid service to incite a certain group to feel and act a certain way is necessary in order to dupe these once responsible citizens into thinking that someone else, the minorities, the hispanics, the asian invasion, the poor, the elderly or anyone else besides the true culprit pitting the citizens of the US against each other in order to allow the paid politicians to keep passing bills that enhance their wealth on the backs of these very people believing the crack pot talking heads and it seems are looking to blame anyone else besides their own criminal behavior. Listen we are under attack by the politicians bought and sold by the Koch brothers and others that want everything in this universe and no one will have the nerve to take it from them.  

But there is more happening now in the syphoning of our precious natural resources and our tax dollars right into the hidden accounts of the 1%.  

This criminal activity must stop! We are the people that built this country and must step up and defend ourselves from these criminals that wear the style of celebrities as men and woman of stature. They are common criminals that have been allowed over centuries to accumulate wealth off the backs of workers and now are at a point where they feel embolden to exert even more pressure on our courts and representatives to take even more from the American people and societies worldwide. They are the living embodiment of evil, satan would have a hard time outdoing their violent nature with no sympathy for the killings they do world wide for profit, they must be stopped. We must as a community of people not be intimidated by their power because they have no power but physical power whereby we have the truth and our determination to stand up and confront these mercenaries of greed and put a stop to their destruction of this planet. We will not allow their one sided purpose of choosing money over human beings be our last rites. There are billions now spreading the truth of the destruction of this planet and protesting the grave gluttony of the elites sociopathic nature.

These men and women of egotistical facades are nothing but hollow beings of avarice. Money is their god and the people suffer for their greed.

They have joined forces with other worldwide robber barons, dictators, all with their particular vices for giving pain and suffering to anyone that stands in their way. For they are so unsure of their own being that they must prove themselves by killing innocent men, women and children.  

They are attempting to put a strangle hold on the world whereby they will control everything on this planet and we will be forced to serve them anything that stimulates their egos!

They have the politicians in Washington DC do their bidding for them as they stand behind the curtain pulling the strings on their bought puppets as they play the meek, silent game as this planet is sold off for profit. They have mercenaries all over the world fighting battles not for freedom but for their own selfish needs to take the land, to rape and exploit its minerals adding more wealth to their coffers as human beings perish in the dirt fighting to protect their land and heritage.

We have a united network of criminals doing the bidding of the 1% as they move over the globe taking what they want and leaving havoc and destruction in their wake and when filing their limited taxes they will write off the deliberate murdering of people as a business expense that won’t be paid by wealthy corporations, the very people that stole and murdered innocent human beings for profit.

#greed #criminals #politicians #egos #sociopathic nature #money #hypocrites #cjcorwinoriginal

[csrgood]

(Part 4) Surviving Climate Change: Can Democracy Save Us?

This article was originally published on Medium. To read the full 5-Part Series please click here. 

By Brad Zarnett

Democracy is Struggling

Liberal Democracy doesn't appear to be able to address climate change or the underlying economic system that’s causing it. Yes, when things are good Democracy works just fine and there’s plenty of time to explore different options but during an emergency, when time is short, and countries need to make hard decisions quickly, the system falters. 

Like an army during wartime, the window for discussion has closed. The time has come to execute the plan that will give us the best chance of keeping us within our carbon budget. Compromise which may work in normal times is a luxury that we can no longer afford. Just like on the battlefield - the time for debate is over.

A Perfect Storm of Inaction

The Democratic approach to addressing climate change has always been a juggling act. Politicians are torn between their own selfish desires to keep their jobs and doing what’s best for the country. This requires that the politician holds space for two policy ideas that are incompatible - support for a growing fossil fuel industry and promises to tackle climate change. 

Yet somehow on election night this absurd narrative is bought by enough citizens and the politician wins. Now it’s time to pay back the financial support from business interests in the form of regulatory changes or tax reductions - this is to ensure that funding continues to flow for the next election. Simultaneously, politicians must appear to be doing what’s best for the country in terms of climate change which has become a key issue for the majority of voters. 

  “These two ideas can only co-exist in a world where logic is suspended and unicorns run free.”

  The problem is that climate change is an all encompassing energy and systems challenge, and to address it effectively requires shrinking the fossil fuel sector. This is problematic for poll-watching politicians for two reasons. It interferes with their future election funding needs and it would also likely cause major disruptions in how we source and use energy, and that means job disruptions and inconvenience - not exactly a winner on voting day. 

The wiggle room for politicians is that because climate change is relatively slow moving, they can pretend that they’re doing something when in fact nothing of consequence is happening. In this way, system disruption is minimal, jobs are protected and politicians can have money spending “photo ops” to further the mirage that they’re making progressive climate investments for the future. This is how you win elections in the era of liberal democracy and climate change. 

To watch this dance in action, just watch my Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, explain how he plans to expand pipelines while continuing to make promises about tackling climate change. These two ideas can only co-exist in a world where logic is suspended and unicorns run free. 

The Battle Lines

If it’s not clear by now, (see Parts 1-3) corporations and the super rich control most of our liberal democracies and they've been interfering with progressive climate legislation for decades. The time for talk has passed and the battle lines are clear. On one hand we have a majority of people who are supported by science and who are deeply concerned about the future, and on the other hand we have the corporate elite and billionaires who are ignoring science and fighting for the status quo.

A Simple Ask

A successful citizen climate strategy must be simple, it must speak with one voice and it must have a clear message. The effort might seem like it’s directed at politicians but it’s actually the voting public that’s the primary audience - they need to be won over. If the public connects with the message then government will respond - if they don’t, then government will feel justified in ignoring the movement or using force to shut it down.

The Demands

Stop stonewalling on progressive climate legislation at the behest of the corporate elite and billionaires. We demand three things from our politicians:

Do your job! Use the power that we’ve granted you to prevent climate chaos. Lower emissions now - not by 2050 when runaway climate change will already be wreaking havoc on our society.

Provide a financial safety net for those who face the immediate impacts of progressive legislation and a climate breakdown. That would include protection and compensation for anyone in the fossil fuel sector who may lose their job or for those who may experience housing loss due to climate induced, floods, fires or hurricanes. 

Stop telling us that there’s no money. If there’s money for endless wars, trillion dollar bailouts for Wall St., and trillions more in the form of subsidies for fossil fuel companies, then there’s money to pay for the transition to a post carbon economy. 

Shake the System

1. Voting

I think we all want to believe that our vote makes a difference but I’m not so sure anymore. I think we can elect good people like AOC, Elizabeth May (Canadian Green Party Leader) and Jacinda Arden (Prime Minister of New Zealand) who can raise good ideas in parliament/congress and the media, and sometimes when given the chance, they can even legislate progessive policy. But without a massive shift in voter behaviour, these individuals are often just a lone voice or part of a tenuous coalition in a sea of corporate backed legislation. 

I don’t suggest that we give up on voting for candidates who will protect the climate, in fact, to the contrary, I think we need to fight harder than ever but I also think we also have to be realistic about the democratic process these days. I’m not hopeful that it will deliver the necessary political changes to protect our biosphere but I do think that it’s an important ingredient in the quest for change.

2. Civil Disobedience

Something changed when Greta Thunberg entered the world stage. She was able to call out the lies and hypocrisy of our leaders like only a child could. It felt good to have someone in the room telling the so called leaders, what we’ve been thinking for so long, but as Greta would admit, it hasn’t changed policy in a meaningful way. 

Global governments continue to subsidize the oil industry by trillions every year, and since the 2015 Paris agreement, 33 major global banks have collectively poured $1.9tn into fossil fuels, according to Rainforest Action’s report. Apparently corporate and political promises mean nothing.

Next came Extinction Rebellion. They tried to shock people to get their attention while also testing different ideas of how to interfere with the capitalist system. There was arguably some success but the demonstrations also caused many busy people to be inconvenienced and this was a serious misstep. As I stated earlier, the voting public is an essential ally that needs to be won over for any changes to occur. But none of it mattered to the government - their response was the same as with Greta - nothing. What did change however, was that the government pulled a new tool out of their toolbox by using the police to arrest demonstrators .

Real Time Civil Disobedience in Canada 

Justin Trudeau’s government, (that campaigned as champions of indiginous reconciliation) is currently in a heated dispute over the expansion route of the Trans Mountain Pipeline through Wet'suwet'en First Nation territory. (There are a lot of details to this story but I’m going to just try and hit the highlights -  if you’d like to read more about the dispute, please click here)

After the project was approved in 2019, the Wet’suwet’en First Nation put up a road blockade that stopped vehicles from entering the pipeline construction work site. What followed were a series of chess moves that continue to this day.

Next came an eviction notice by the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, telling the pipeline company that workers were “trespassing” on their unceded territory. This was followed by a Government issued court order calling for the removal of any Wet'suwet'en camps or obstructions blocking the road. 

Next British Columbia’s RCMP was mobilized and sent to the site, where they awaited further orders to use force. And with that action, in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en First nation, other indiginous groups across the country established rail blockades. This caused CN Rail to shut down its eastern network, which effectively stopped all cross-country freight trains. This has been going on for approximately 3 weeks and in that time the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police have also been mobilized, often within view of the blockades as a show of force, as they await Justin Trudeau’s order to move in.

The inevitable economy and jobs spin

The government claims that the blockades are hurting Canadians. There are disruptions to supply chains and now both CN and Via Rail have announced 450 and “nearly 1000” temporary layoffs. Nice timing for the narrative that will allow the government to say that it’s fighting for Canadian jobs. 

Trudeau gives the order.

Clearly the indiginous action got the attention of the government and that’s a good thing but  Trudueau is being attacked for being weak and for allowing the economy to be hijacked and finally 5 days ago the pressure reached a boiling point. At a press conference Justin Trudeau said that patience has run out and that “the barricades must come down.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZAXQlzzvcQ

So far it has been peaceful but his challenge isn’t going away. Some barricades have been voluntarily disbanded, others have been disbanded peacefully through arrests but some are still standing and others are still popping up. How far will this go? How much force will the government use? Only time will tell.

Negotiate at the barrel of a gun.

It’s important to note that during the standoff the government said that they want to solve this through dialogue, and there has been some, but the Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation said that they won’t negotiate at the barrel of a gun. And that brings up the question as to whether this is really a negotiation or is the Government just looking to strong arm the Wet'suwet'en First Nation into allowing the construction to continue. It’s not like the government will take no for an answer. So what kind of negotiation is it if the outcome is already predetermined?  

And incidentally, have you ever noticed that those with the power cling to the rule of law as a reason to force their might onto the less powerful? Laws don’t magically mean that something is right. After all, slavery was legal in the United States until 1865 and women weren’t allowed to vote in Canada until 1922 and not until 1940 in Quebec. 

Can Civil Disobedience Work for Climate Change?

Is civil disobedience that interferes with the capitalist system a viable way to drive change in climate policy? We’re watching a real time example unfold here in Canada. Here are some points to consider.

While this action may have some commonality with the climate movement regarding pipelines, it is first and foremost, an indiginous issue about control of their land and the government is very weary of using too much force. It is very difficult to draw conclusions as to how the government would respond if hundreds or even thousands of climate activists clogged our railway system with barricades.

There are some brilliant aspects to this approach that are worth noting.

It’s decentralized. There’s no need for a large organizational team. 

It’s quick and easy to set up a barricade and it can be done within hours 

It’s very difficult for the government to defend against it. 

It doesn’t provoke and alienate the public - at least not directly. Jane and Joe Public are allies that need to be won over, not inconvenienced while trying to pick up their kids at daycare.

There needs to be a support system for the protestors. Blockades can go on for months and even years. 

Protesters will need a supply line for food, water and a heat source in the winter

There needs to be a system in place to supplement the income of people who choose to be out there for months at a time sacrificing their chance to earn a living. 

Risks 

The disruption of business can be used by populist leaders to target the protestors as radicals who are destroying the economy. This would give the government cover to get overly aggressive while hiding behind the rule of law.

The Government can call a state of emergency and can arrest and hold people without charges - take away their civil rights.

The Government has access to the police and the army and they can shut down the blockades with force at any time they want. 

This style of battle will be fought in the media.

It will need good public speakers

It will need marketing professionals

It will need video and graphics specialists - a meme can be worth a thousand words

It will need social media specialists

Conclusion

Can Democracy, with all of its flaws, be used to address the climate crisis? Is civil disobedience the best chance we have? It seems like a wild card at best - no government wants to look weak or foolish.

In many ways it’s a game of chicken - who will blink first? How far will the government go in its use of force? How hard will the resistance fight? How many people have to be arrested or lives lost for the government to feel pressure and reverse its policy? 

The corporate elite and billionaires will never give up their power without a fight - and they fight dirty. The government has access to the police, the military and the corporate media who they can call on anytime to pitch their narrative and/or to shut down the demonstrations with force. It’s happening right now to our indiginous people - stay tuned because we're about to learn a valuable lesson about the viability of civil disobedience.

In the final part of this series (Part 5) I will look at what our choices are if government doesn’t respond. What other options do we have?

To read the full series, “Surviving Climate Change: Where Should We Place Our Hope? Business, Government or Ourselves.” Please click here for Part 1

source: https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/43768--Part-4-Surviving-Climate-Change-Can-Democracy-Save-Us-?tracking_source=rss

#CSR #corporate social responsibility #social good #philanthropy #employee engagement #workplace givi

[theliterateape]

The Artist’s Cross to Bear in an Increasingly Strident AntiArt Paradigm

by Don Hall

"Democratic nations will habitually prefer the useful to the beautiful, and they will require that the beautiful be useful." -- Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

For as long as I have been alive, American culture has been charged with obligations once considered the exclusive responsibility of American politics. Instead of our impotent and corrupt politicians dealing with the homeless, the jobless, the uninsured, the rot from within caused by greed and weakness, the unchecked stomping of the leviathan Corporations on our lives and environment, American culture has taken up the challenge of becoming a form of a deeply committed social worker.

The idea that artists must first deal with a social commitment apart from the quality of the work begins a slow system of rewarding organizations and individual artists that fit a specific social responsibility regardless of whether or not the art is any good. Those companies who refuse to fall in line with this system are inevitably relegated to the impoverished ghetto of the laizzes-fair capitalism because they don't have a cultural outreach program or a children's theater branch.

Currently, the artistic form most under fire is comedy. Oh...and movies. And theater, fashion design, television, museum art, and knitting. Yes. Knitting is under fire for not being appropriately woke in the wake of the Great Over Corrective Wokeness Patrol.

In a post entitled “A Letter on My Not-So-“Cozy” Doocot Sweater: aka My First and Last Kate Davies Project,” Helen Kim (@keinhelm4 on Instagram, who describes herself as an advocate for antiracism and an astrophysicist), wrote:

As more and more voices in the fiber community discussed their concerns about racism and lack of representation, I patiently waited for the designers I respected to do the same. Days went by, weeks, and yet I naively found myself wanting to give these makers the benefit of the doubt for withholding their views while they continued to advertise their products and snowy winters.

Davies then withdrew as a speaker from the Edinburgh Yarn Festival citing health reasons following a campaign led by Kim to have her disinvited. Kim, who was probably Davies’s most vocal critic, concluded a story entitled “Call Out” (which can be found at the top of her Instagram profile) with the following:

To those who worry about [Kate Davies’s] career and the impact her own reactions have caused her, perhaps you should consider that historically BIPOC have been the ones who have been wronged and oppressed. Ask yourselves: in what ways do you hold power? In what ways do you hold power over BIPOC? How have you been complicit in that structure of power? How do your actions, inactions, and privileges reflect systemic racism? How do you want to acknowledge the system and your complicity? […] KD actively SILENCED those who are different from her and tokenized them. That is called RACISM and DISCRIMINATION. As a white woman knitwear designer with over 75K followers and international renown, Kate Davies was NOT vulnerable. Rather, she was in a position of power.

SOURCE

There will always be artists whose primary fixation is a focus on inequity in the world. There will always be comedians who find fault in the power dynamics of politics and mock the wicked, the stupid, and the ludicrous. As much as the Wokesters really hated Chapelle’s and Burr’s Netflix specials these are comics who make a living pointing out our own hypocrisies and pretentions and make us laugh at ourselves. If you aren’t laughing, you’re the butt of the joke and may have lost your self reflective ability to see yourself as an object of mockery. 

Artists who are useful to activists and who are activists themselves are sometimes extraordinary (Samantha Bee) and other times tedious (Hannah Gadsby) and this ratio is no different from those who eschew wokeness as a badge of inclusion. It is ridiculous to demand that all artists follow the dogma of either conservative or progressive political thought because that demand shaves off the rough edges.

And yet that demand exists and is proliferated through the veil of self righteousness and the vilification of what was beautiful or ugly or hysterical or tragic throughout a history misunderstood or reviled by the NeoThought of the Identitarian Left and Right.

"The biggest favor we do for people is to release them. Society, culture, puts them in jail—and we let them out. The rule-makers, whoever they are, decided a box you're going to live in. We need to be reminded that you can step out of the box—and you can go right back in again if you want, too." — Billy Connolly ("Satiristas: Comedians, Contrarians, Raconteurs & Vulgarians" by Paul Provenza)

In this revision of art history, where do the works of Shakespeare land? Van Gogh? Bukowski? The Beatles? Given these are all white dudes, my guess is they don’t have sway anymore for a very small, very vocal segment of society. So? Art is subjective and the ‘cancelling’ of an artist doesn’t effect most people (see the raging popularity of Chapelle despite the critical mob pissing and moaning about him).

Sometimes a knitter is just a fucking knitter and isn’t out to participate in your narcissistic psychodrama. Sometimes your issues don’t mean a goddamned thing to them. If you’ve ever hung out with a garage band practicing in a cramped room with a single six-pack of PBR amongst them, they pretty much don’t give a fuck about your take on Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality. They’re making music.

At one point in history, the Roman Catholic Church banned any art that was not taken from the Bible and approved by the clergy. At one point in history, the Nazis burned any art that Hitler labeled degenerate art. Today in history, the Woketivists use social media to tar and feather artists who do not fall in line with their perversions of academic theory, sociological mumble jumbo, and moralizing.

It is not the job as artists to make the world a better place to live. Artists make art. Period. It is our duty to entertain and illuminate, to provide opportunities for the audiences we have to momentarily separate from the grind of daily existence and in that moment, give them food for thought. It is our job to create excellent artistic presentation, the quality of the experience being our number one priority.

Mel Brooks, known for his plethora of acclaimed comedy movies, said political correctness was becoming a stranglehold on comedians.

"It's not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks," he said.

"Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering in the king's ear, always telling the truth about human behaviour." SOURCE

Artists refuse to stay in the box. Artists do not work within the system. Artists seek stories that show the triumph or failure of the individual versus the conformity of the System. Artists do not sacrifice the integrity of their work in order to market it better or develop their audience. While everyone can create art, not everyone is an artist. An artist is not defined by his or her income. Artists do not solve problems, they reveal them and provide insight. Artists can make you laugh, cry and question your own place in the world. Artists do not accept the Standard Party Line.

And, if ideas and words are prohibited by the masses or the government, it is the artist’s right to express those things that have been banned. Or at least knit them.

#artist or service? #The Woke #artists create

[timclymer]

It's A Wonderful Life

Sadly, many pro-choice advocates tend to label their counterparts primitive believers. It would seem that, to such ‘progressive’ people, all practices who oppose abortion are but lower species, and their faithful are merely a primitive herd. However, they do not dare to take a look at the man in the mirror, which is proof of hypocrisy and primitivism. Who is displaying a lack of tolerance in this story? Do not they say that a lack of tolerance is typical of primitivism?

What is the definition of primitivism? Every person must decide for themselves, because every person has been privileged on occasion, sooner or later in life (and by this I do not mean being in the cradle as a child, because this is where we are at our most tolerant). We should really think about it: if faith fosters love, compassion and kindness towards the other in people, then those who call all of this primitive must be the most primitive of all. Love connects people, hatred tears them apart. Each person, as a free individual, is entitled to free opinion, and life should be the judge of who’s right and who’s not. But how are we expected to get an answer from life if we kill it to begin with?

I do not know much about victories, but there is on thing I am sure of: compassion is the greatest of victories of the human spirit. I am writing from my own experience because, as a youth, I was a skeptic blinded by myself, by raw lust, alcohol, drugs, cynism, arrogance … and one day I arrived at the very edge of life. I thought I should simply leave this world because I never became as famous as I expected. I cheated on women who sincerityly loved me due to raw lust, and then I felt His hand on my shoulder. Even if you think that your aimless straying is over, know that you’ve only started off on the right path. , and it will take you into the hearts of many. Be the voice of those in need, be the voice of love, be the voice of freedom, and you will turn yourself and others into better people through your versions. “

Since that day, I feel much happier and fulfilled, not because I think that I’m special or free of sin, but because I realized that I am just a sinner who really wants to better himself, and I can safely say that there is a higher holy force that makes us better. I do not know what He looks like, but I do know He exists, with all my heart and soul. I will not attempt to look for Him here or there, because He teaches me that whenever you’re doing good to others, He is within you. Ever since then, I have learned that faith accounts for a strong spirit, which is any person’s best ally in times of temptation, because weak-spirited people will be the first to fall. Who is falling?

Those who fail to show compassion for others;

Those who are ready to rebuff themselves for the sake of power and money (such people become slaves to greed);

Those who hate more than they love;

Those who want to rule over nature (A person can only feel all the enchantment of nature if they love it as they love themselves, and in synergy with nature – the sun and the wind – people will create energy that will take them into space, to shake brotherly hands with other creatures of God);

Those who want to clone stem cells to create human beings in laboratories, while at the same time there are millions of people dying of hunger (We know that a human being is only complete with emotions, which comes from the soul that can never be created by another human);

Those who hope that hunger will decimate humanity, because there is too much people in this world anyway (If that happens, the cloned man shall rule, and tears, laugh, sorrow, hope and faith will be gone, as well as humans with souls );

Those who attempt to cure the emptiness within with futile lust (To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another – Leibniz);

Those who are afraid of solitude (of the man in the mirror);

Those who consider the faithful to be primitive.

Many people like to play with statistics, but I say that those who are slaves to statistics are slowly losing the most important thing that makes them human – their emotions. Yes, life teachers us that the day we master our own emotions, we lose them forever. And, regardless of statistics, we have to listen to our hearts, which tell us that faith does not teach us anything bad. Is faith in compassion a bad kind of faith? Is helping those in need a bad kind of faith? Is faith in love a bad kind of faith? Is faith in the idea that every living being has the right to live a bad kind of faith? I will allow myself to quote a great comment by a forum member at a Croatian news portal: "Those who claim that there are ten thousand abortions a year due to a” bad social situation “, rape (or forced sex in marriage), or Medical indications during pregnancy, are fools. Most of these abortions are performed on the younger female population. These are mostly young girls who get pregnant, and then their mothers, who are around 40 and do not want to become grandmothers, drag them to the doctor to have an abortion. The worst thing is the fact that many of them have several abortions. The fact that it’s almost like going to the dentist is shameful.I am sickened by this society’s hypocrisy. long ago. Would any pro-choice coordinators dare to say – in public, and on that particular day – that it’s acceptable to have an abortion if tests show that the child will suffer from Down’s syndrome. reason, among ot hers! And it is legal. The test is performed during week 11 of the pregnancy, so that the pregnant woman may have an abortion in case of bad test results, as abortion is legal up to week 19. What is the difference between such a pregnant woman and the Nazis, who considered the ill to be degenerate and freaks that should be extinguished? ”

Why am I so touched by this unfortunate abortion story? Because I am an extramarital child of a poor mother with a rich soul. My late mother told me at her deathbed that my mother was a great dreamer, and that I must have inherited that trait from her. Grandma acknowledged that her young daughter was abandoned by her partner, who left her behind pregnant, with the promise that he would return for her as soon as he makes some money up north in the Big Apple, and he would take her to paradise, but she never heard from him again. Grandmother tried to talk her into having an abortion, because they were barely able to survive, even without a child, but at that point she joined her hands in prayer and, looking up, she said: “Thank God, she would not listen to me … your mother is a hero, she took up the toughest of jobs to be able to raise you … and when social services wanted to take you away and give you up for adoption to a wealthy couple from a big northern city, she said that it would happen only over her dead body! ”

My mother drew her indomitable strength from the Texas prairie. She always standing upright like a cactus, she withstood the winter, the wind, the drafts – to cut a long story short, the capricious winds of destiny never drove her to her knees (sadly, the man who left her pregnant and left off to New York was a weak-spirited coward, even though he was Texan). When I went to football games as a youth, I used to compare the football coach to my mother. I remember the words of the late coach, who was adored by the fans almost as if he was a saint. He himself was a fan of the working class, and he used to tell his players: “We always have to think and play from game to game, because this is the credo of the people of this city. we live in. People have to fight in order to survive. we can not let them down. What we feel when we take the field is not pressure … Pressure is when these people go home missing the money to feed their kids. ”

Yes, my mother was from a poor family, but her soul is noble, and that’s why I’m always proud to say that my mother is blue-blooded and nobility, because there is no greater nobility than love. I can proudly claim before the world that I have inherited my love of the earth, not just the golden Texas prairie, but our one only planet Earth, from my mother. SACRIFICE, modesty, humility, respect, hard work, faith … that’s the motto, not just of my humble family, but of most people across the proud Texas prairie. There is no government or money that could keep me from fighting for nature, and this is also why I fight against bankers, oil corporations, greedy dictators, political castes (by this, I do not mean political visionaries like myself, who fight to save nature) because, lest we forget, global warming is not a natural process, but a product of human greed. I remember my mother singing the old “Tennessee Waltz” to me when I was a kid. If you listen to the immortal Patti Page, you will know the kind of singing voice my mother had when she was young. I’ll never forget watching her sing and look through a small window into the distance, like a golden bird locked in a cage. But instead of her, her baby bird left the cage and flew off into the world in his early youth. What sacrifice it must be to voluntarily impersonate your youth and beauty into a small dark room for the sake of your child, I think while wistfully looking at a pale family photo. One Christmas Eve I asked her if she ever considered an abortion, and she looked into the distance and said in a tired voice: “I must admit that there were moments when I blamed all my troubles on God, but my faith was stronger .. My faith kept me from falling, and an angel who whispered to me that I should look for work as a cleaner in the maternity ward. Those newborn children have the strength to stand up and fight. Yes, son, there were troubled times. ahead, but I saw an ocean of craving in your big blue eyes that made it worth living for … ”

After listening to this story, I often thought how great it would have been if all the newborn children had mothers like that. I never turned out to be wealthy, or a great politician, but I wrote some poems, novels and plays that made it worth to live. After all, who gave us the right to decide whether to have an abortion or not ?! It’s not important what kind of country or family a child is born into, it may still become a great journalist, poet, actor, philosopher or humanist politician some day, someone who will make the world a better place to live. Or else, they might become the most important thing – a simple honored human being.

Yes, life is wonderful in deed, and when you think that there is no way out, just remember Frank Capra’s classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”. The younger generation should watch that movie in school, because the movie, with acting virtuoso James Stewart, teaches us that life is worth fighting for even when you think that there is no way out and, what’s most important, how to remain human. Yes, this movie proves the positive power art can have on the human soul, and this is why the world should pay more attention to art that enriches all the values ​​that make us human. Literature and motion pictures with noble messages deserve more attention from people, instead of slavery to raw profit.

It is common knowledge that every person has the freedom to choose between good and evil. When I read a true story about a homeless man in New York, who found a bag full of money and returned it to the owner, I was proud to be human, but when I read that the same man became homeless due to bankers’ greed , I am accused of being human. It is interesting to find out that the same story happened twice, in the USA and in Croatia. When journalists asked the Croatian homeless man in Split why he returned the money, he just shrugged and humbly replied: “Even though I lost everything, partly because of my own mistakes, and partly because of the bank’s usuries, all I want is to remain a faithful and honest man. ” Yes, this man is a hero of mine. Of course, I do not promote poverty. I want to be successful, but I do not want to lose my soul in the process. I always vote for capitalism with a human face and a human soul. Yes to success, but no to greed! This is my life’s motto, lest we forget that greed is a disease much more dangerous than the pest or cholera. The Croatian political caste is proof of greed being a dark bottomless pit. Imagine a small and beautiful country blessed by mother nature, with a thousand islands and a clear azure sea, fertile lowlands and paradise green valleys, yet with many thousands of people, both old and young, going through garbage bins because of the political caste’s greed. Now try to imagine how endless the politicians’ greed is: kind people who want to donate food to the poor must pay taxes to the state on any food or other goods they donate to the poor. Thus, the paradox is that it is easier to just throw away the food into garbage than to donate it to the poor. This political caste (the “reformed” communist party) is not satisfied by millions paid in bribery by “investors”, or by selling state-owned companies with brand names for peanuts, like insurance companies and banks, and other malversations. No, they simply must steal whatever little the paupers have left. Is not greed really an accursed disease? It does not simply destroy the body, no, it also destroys the human soul. It is a dark bottomless pit that can never be filled, and it feeds on human souls. This is what my noble mother taught me. She would never allow herself to be separated from the family brooch she inherited, displaying a smiling Christ figure. There are many people who look down on people like her, and they think that gold credit cards give them the right to consider them the betters of the poor faithful. Well, they’re wrong! The worst kind of poverty is the poverty of the spirit. Those who are working their way towards power and money, looking down on the faithful, should know that those who ridicule faith are those who call His name the loudest on their deathbed. I do not support fanaticism in anything, and certainly not in faith, because the Creator teachers us that tolerance and love for others is the best way towards faith. So, even when I criticize greedy people, I do not hate them. Instead, I am doing it from the depths of my soul, hoping for them to see the world through the eyes of the faithful someday.

History teachers us that even the greatest among unbelievers experienced a sincere conversion at the end of their lives (and I do not mean Pharisees). On his deathbed, Jean-Paul Sartre said to his best friend: “You know, Francois, I was a great skeptic all my life as far as faith is concerned … but there must be a higher deity that enriches the human soul with all those values ​​I was searching for like a castaway on the ocean of temptation … ”

Yes, and I would add: taking a step at a time on the path to true freedom is not easy, as the great Plato taught us. Weak-spirited people will choose their safety in the dark, while those who are blessed with faith search for light, becoming genuine messengers of freedom in their lifetime. Those who close the doors on a child at its conception should know that this is how they turn the light of life on themselves.

Walter William Safar

Source by Walter William Safar

from Home Solutions Forev https://homesolutionsforev.com/its-a-wonderful-life/ via Home Solutions on WordPress from Home Solutions FOREV https://homesolutionsforev.tumblr.com/post/184546720115 via Tim Clymer on Wordpress

#Home Solutions FOREV

[homesolutionsforev]

It's A Wonderful Life

Sadly, many pro-choice advocates tend to label their counterparts primitive believers. It would seem that, to such 'progressive' people, all practices who oppose abortion are but lower species, and their faithful are merely a primitive herd. However, they do not dare to take a look at the man in the mirror, which is proof of hypocrisy and primitivism. Who is displaying a lack of tolerance in this story? Do not they say that a lack of tolerance is typical of primitivism?

What is the definition of primitivism? Every person must decide for themselves, because every person has been privileged on occasion, sooner or later in life (and by this I do not mean being in the cradle as a child, because this is where we are at our most tolerant). We should really think about it: if faith fosters love, compassion and kindness towards the other in people, then those who call all of this primitive must be the most primitive of all. Love connects people, hatred tears them apart. Each person, as a free individual, is entitled to free opinion, and life should be the judge of who's right and who's not. But how are we expected to get an answer from life if we kill it to begin with?

I do not know much about victories, but there is on thing I am sure of: compassion is the greatest of victories of the human spirit. I am writing from my own experience because, as a youth, I was a skeptic blinded by myself, by raw lust, alcohol, drugs, cynism, arrogance … and one day I arrived at the very edge of life. I thought I should simply leave this world because I never became as famous as I expected. I cheated on women who sincerityly loved me due to raw lust, and then I felt His hand on my shoulder. Even if you think that your aimless straying is over, know that you've only started off on the right path. , and it will take you into the hearts of many. Be the voice of those in need, be the voice of love, be the voice of freedom, and you will turn yourself and others into better people through your versions. "

Since that day, I feel much happier and fulfilled, not because I think that I'm special or free of sin, but because I realized that I am just a sinner who really wants to better himself, and I can safely say that there is a higher holy force that makes us better. I do not know what He looks like, but I do know He exists, with all my heart and soul. I will not attempt to look for Him here or there, because He teaches me that whenever you're doing good to others, He is within you. Ever since then, I have learned that faith accounts for a strong spirit, which is any person's best ally in times of temptation, because weak-spirited people will be the first to fall. Who is falling?

Those who fail to show compassion for others;

Those who are ready to rebuff themselves for the sake of power and money (such people become slaves to greed);

Those who hate more than they love;

Those who want to rule over nature (A person can only feel all the enchantment of nature if they love it as they love themselves, and in synergy with nature – the sun and the wind – people will create energy that will take them into space, to shake brotherly hands with other creatures of God);

Those who want to clone stem cells to create human beings in laboratories, while at the same time there are millions of people dying of hunger (We know that a human being is only complete with emotions, which comes from the soul that can never be created by another human);

Those who hope that hunger will decimate humanity, because there is too much people in this world anyway (If that happens, the cloned man shall rule, and tears, laugh, sorrow, hope and faith will be gone, as well as humans with souls );

Those who attempt to cure the emptiness within with futile lust (To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another – Leibniz);

Those who are afraid of solitude (of the man in the mirror);

Those who consider the faithful to be primitive.

Many people like to play with statistics, but I say that those who are slaves to statistics are slowly losing the most important thing that makes them human – their emotions. Yes, life teachers us that the day we master our own emotions, we lose them forever. And, regardless of statistics, we have to listen to our hearts, which tell us that faith does not teach us anything bad. Is faith in compassion a bad kind of faith? Is helping those in need a bad kind of faith? Is faith in love a bad kind of faith? Is faith in the idea that every living being has the right to live a bad kind of faith? I will allow myself to quote a great comment by a forum member at a Croatian news portal: "Those who claim that there are ten thousand abortions a year due to a" bad social situation ", rape (or forced sex in marriage), or Medical indications during pregnancy, are fools. Most of these abortions are performed on the younger female population. These are mostly young girls who get pregnant, and then their mothers, who are around 40 and do not want to become grandmothers, drag them to the doctor to have an abortion. The worst thing is the fact that many of them have several abortions. The fact that it's almost like going to the dentist is shameful.I am sickened by this society's hypocrisy. long ago. Would any pro-choice coordinators dare to say – in public, and on that particular day – that it's acceptable to have an abortion if tests show that the child will suffer from Down's syndrome. reason, among ot hers! And it is legal. The test is performed during week 11 of the pregnancy, so that the pregnant woman may have an abortion in case of bad test results, as abortion is legal up to week 19. What is the difference between such a pregnant woman and the Nazis, who considered the ill to be degenerate and freaks that should be extinguished? "

Why am I so touched by this unfortunate abortion story? Because I am an extramarital child of a poor mother with a rich soul. My late mother told me at her deathbed that my mother was a great dreamer, and that I must have inherited that trait from her. Grandma acknowledged that her young daughter was abandoned by her partner, who left her behind pregnant, with the promise that he would return for her as soon as he makes some money up north in the Big Apple, and he would take her to paradise, but she never heard from him again. Grandmother tried to talk her into having an abortion, because they were barely able to survive, even without a child, but at that point she joined her hands in prayer and, looking up, she said: "Thank God, she would not listen to me … your mother is a hero, she took up the toughest of jobs to be able to raise you … and when social services wanted to take you away and give you up for adoption to a wealthy couple from a big northern city, she said that it would happen only over her dead body! "

My mother drew her indomitable strength from the Texas prairie. She always standing upright like a cactus, she withstood the winter, the wind, the drafts – to cut a long story short, the capricious winds of destiny never drove her to her knees (sadly, the man who left her pregnant and left off to New York was a weak-spirited coward, even though he was Texan). When I went to football games as a youth, I used to compare the football coach to my mother. I remember the words of the late coach, who was adored by the fans almost as if he was a saint. He himself was a fan of the working class, and he used to tell his players: "We always have to think and play from game to game, because this is the credo of the people of this city. we live in. People have to fight in order to survive. we can not let them down. What we feel when we take the field is not pressure … Pressure is when these people go home missing the money to feed their kids. "

Yes, my mother was from a poor family, but her soul is noble, and that's why I'm always proud to say that my mother is blue-blooded and nobility, because there is no greater nobility than love. I can proudly claim before the world that I have inherited my love of the earth, not just the golden Texas prairie, but our one only planet Earth, from my mother. SACRIFICE, modesty, humility, respect, hard work, faith … that's the motto, not just of my humble family, but of most people across the proud Texas prairie. There is no government or money that could keep me from fighting for nature, and this is also why I fight against bankers, oil corporations, greedy dictators, political castes (by this, I do not mean political visionaries like myself, who fight to save nature) because, lest we forget, global warming is not a natural process, but a product of human greed. I remember my mother singing the old "Tennessee Waltz" to me when I was a kid. If you listen to the immortal Patti Page, you will know the kind of singing voice my mother had when she was young. I'll never forget watching her sing and look through a small window into the distance, like a golden bird locked in a cage. But instead of her, her baby bird left the cage and flew off into the world in his early youth. What sacrifice it must be to voluntarily impersonate your youth and beauty into a small dark room for the sake of your child, I think while wistfully looking at a pale family photo. One Christmas Eve I asked her if she ever considered an abortion, and she looked into the distance and said in a tired voice: "I must admit that there were moments when I blamed all my troubles on God, but my faith was stronger .. My faith kept me from falling, and an angel who whispered to me that I should look for work as a cleaner in the maternity ward. Those newborn children have the strength to stand up and fight. Yes, son, there were troubled times. ahead, but I saw an ocean of craving in your big blue eyes that made it worth living for … "

After listening to this story, I often thought how great it would have been if all the newborn children had mothers like that. I never turned out to be wealthy, or a great politician, but I wrote some poems, novels and plays that made it worth to live. After all, who gave us the right to decide whether to have an abortion or not ?! It's not important what kind of country or family a child is born into, it may still become a great journalist, poet, actor, philosopher or humanist politician some day, someone who will make the world a better place to live. Or else, they might become the most important thing – a simple honored human being.

Yes, life is wonderful in deed, and when you think that there is no way out, just remember Frank Capra's classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life". The younger generation should watch that movie in school, because the movie, with acting virtuoso James Stewart, teaches us that life is worth fighting for even when you think that there is no way out and, what's most important, how to remain human. Yes, this movie proves the positive power art can have on the human soul, and this is why the world should pay more attention to art that enriches all the values ​​that make us human. Literature and motion pictures with noble messages deserve more attention from people, instead of slavery to raw profit.

It is common knowledge that every person has the freedom to choose between good and evil. When I read a true story about a homeless man in New York, who found a bag full of money and returned it to the owner, I was proud to be human, but when I read that the same man became homeless due to bankers' greed , I am accused of being human. It is interesting to find out that the same story happened twice, in the USA and in Croatia. When journalists asked the Croatian homeless man in Split why he returned the money, he just shrugged and humbly replied: "Even though I lost everything, partly because of my own mistakes, and partly because of the bank's usuries, all I want is to remain a faithful and honest man. " Yes, this man is a hero of mine. Of course, I do not promote poverty. I want to be successful, but I do not want to lose my soul in the process. I always vote for capitalism with a human face and a human soul. Yes to success, but no to greed! This is my life's motto, lest we forget that greed is a disease much more dangerous than the pest or cholera. The Croatian political caste is proof of greed being a dark bottomless pit. Imagine a small and beautiful country blessed by mother nature, with a thousand islands and a clear azure sea, fertile lowlands and paradise green valleys, yet with many thousands of people, both old and young, going through garbage bins because of the political caste's greed. Now try to imagine how endless the politicians' greed is: kind people who want to donate food to the poor must pay taxes to the state on any food or other goods they donate to the poor. Thus, the paradox is that it is easier to just throw away the food into garbage than to donate it to the poor. This political caste (the "reformed" communist party) is not satisfied by millions paid in bribery by "investors", or by selling state-owned companies with brand names for peanuts, like insurance companies and banks, and other malversations. No, they simply must steal whatever little the paupers have left. Is not greed really an accursed disease? It does not simply destroy the body, no, it also destroys the human soul. It is a dark bottomless pit that can never be filled, and it feeds on human souls. This is what my noble mother taught me. She would never allow herself to be separated from the family brooch she inherited, displaying a smiling Christ figure. There are many people who look down on people like her, and they think that gold credit cards give them the right to consider them the betters of the poor faithful. Well, they're wrong! The worst kind of poverty is the poverty of the spirit. Those who are working their way towards power and money, looking down on the faithful, should know that those who ridicule faith are those who call His name the loudest on their deathbed. I do not support fanaticism in anything, and certainly not in faith, because the Creator teachers us that tolerance and love for others is the best way towards faith. So, even when I criticize greedy people, I do not hate them. Instead, I am doing it from the depths of my soul, hoping for them to see the world through the eyes of the faithful someday.

History teachers us that even the greatest among unbelievers experienced a sincere conversion at the end of their lives (and I do not mean Pharisees). On his deathbed, Jean-Paul Sartre said to his best friend: "You know, Francois, I was a great skeptic all my life as far as faith is concerned … but there must be a higher deity that enriches the human soul with all those values ​​I was searching for like a castaway on the ocean of temptation … "

Yes, and I would add: taking a step at a time on the path to true freedom is not easy, as the great Plato taught us. Weak-spirited people will choose their safety in the dark, while those who are blessed with faith search for light, becoming genuine messengers of freedom in their lifetime. Those who close the doors on a child at its conception should know that this is how they turn the light of life on themselves.

Walter William Safar

Source by Walter William Safar

from Home Solutions Forev https://homesolutionsforev.com/its-a-wonderful-life/ via Home Solutions on WordPress

#Home Solutions Forev

[politicalfilth-blog]

Luckbox Mark Cuban Hates Bitcoin And Gold, The Two Best-Performing Assets

I was around for the 1990s tech bubble and the most shocking deal I remember from that time period was when Mark Cuban sold what was basically just a domain name, Broadcast.com, along with some recording equipment he had at home, for $5.7 billion to Yahoo in April of 1999!

At the time, I was moving my company, Stockhouse.com, which was the top financial website in many countries across the world then, towards a Nasdaq listing and we had just rented out the office across the street from the New York Stock Exchange for some extravagant sum, like $1 million/month.

We were preparing to raise $300 million, though, and become essentially an online version of CNBC in what was called “broadband” then. We even hired away one of CNBC’s top producers, who turned out to be the worst employee I’ve ever had and after three months, we ended up paying him out some obscene sum just so he’d leave.

Well, a year went by and the tech bubble burst so I ended up selling the company for peanuts. I looked back on Cuban’s deal and thought two things. Wow, his timing for the sale was perfect, getting out before the tech bubble popped.

And, secondly, he must have been the luckiest guy in the world or, more likely, had participated in some sort of collusion with some directors in Yahoo to manage to sell what was basically nothing for over $5 billion!

It was literally worse than most ICOs these days… it was simply a web address and some cheap recording equipment lying around Mark’s house! And, Yahoo never even did anything with it… at all. In fact, if you go to Broadcast.com today, it just forwards to Yahoo.com.

This was easily the most expensive domain name sale ever!

Since then, the bumbling Frankenstein look-alike has gone on to buy a basketball team with his fortune and be featured in a few reality shows where he seems to seek constant attention.

So, when he came out this week and made a fool of himself, I had to laugh.

“I hate gold. Gold is a religion,” said crony-capitalist Mark Cuban in a recent interview, adding that he views cryptocurrencies as simply “collectibles.”

Mark clearly knows nothing about money or investments if he thinks gold is just a “religion” and cryptocurrencies are just “collectibles.”

In fact, if he had invested his profits from the ludicrous sale of his domain name into gold and then bitcoin he’d be the wealthiest person on Earth. Let’s do the math.

He owned approximately ⅓ of Broadcast.com when it sold for $5.7 billion, netting him $1.8 billion in 1999. According to Forbes, as of January 2018, he is now worth $3.8 billion, meaning he has averaged a 4% annual increase.

If, in 1999, he had put his $1.8 billion into gold, which was trading at $290, and just kept it there until now at $1,350, he’d be worth over $6.5 billion. Or, more than double what he is currently worth.

And, if he had taken his gold holdings and put it into bitcoin in, say 2011, when we recommended bitcoin at $3, he’d have made a gain of over 230,000% and his $1.8 billion, which would have been over $5 billion by investing in gold, would then be worth $12 trillion, easily making him the wealthiest man in the world… well, except for the Rothschilds and the secret banking families.

Of course, he couldn’t have possibly purchased that much bitcoin at that price as it simply didn’t exist at the time.

But, if he had just picked up some gold and bitcoin along the way, he’d certainly be worth much, much more than he is today.

Thus, he really hates gold.

“Hate is not strong enough,” Cuban said, “Hate with extreme prejudice… hate with extreme prejudice is not enough, hate with double extreme prejudice with an ounce of hot sauce.”

No wonder he’s so angry. He wasted most of his wealth trying to be a reality TV star and purchasing a company of guys who chase each other around bouncing a ball and throwing it in a basket to lull the enslaved masses into a beer-infused stupor.

Simultaneously, though, Cuban endorses both the corrupted, top-down education system and the centrally planned, fiat dollar-based fractional reserve banking system that is responsible for at least one major financial crisis each decade and impoverishes everyone except the rich… like him.

Precious metals and cryptocurrencies happen to be the free market solutions to a collapsing dollar system, empowering people everywhere to survive and thrive, but Shark Cuban hates them.

The fiat system of debt is a house of cards supporting his favorite religion, the State. Now there’s something to hate.

Religion may have been first, but the State has become the most dangerous religion, robbing millions and killing countless in endless wars for oil and power.

The reason gold is preferred by people who care about freedom is because a gold standard handcuffs the State. It restricted politicians from overspending on rackets like “national defense” and it prevented government from rapidly building up the "public debt."

As Alan Greenspan put it, a gold standard checks the welfare state. That's probably why Cuban hates gold.

Actually, it makes perfect sense why this clown would love the State: he regularly uses it to protect his corporate patents.

Ironically though, it’s another case of “do as I say, not as I do,” because Mark also claims to despise the patent system.

As IP Watchdog detailed:

“Cuban has an outsized influence in this patent debate, and is walking both sides of the aisle. He has personally invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into the fight to stop what he characterizes as stupid patents, and he has invested millions into a business that only has those same stupid patents as the main asset.”

IP Watchdog goes on to describe how Cuban raised his “personal financial stake in a non-practicing entity” that also just so happened to be suing Google over a patent claim.

How convenient…

This kind of hypocrisy and doublespeak has become expected from the guy who announced in January that his sports team will begin accepting bitcoin payments “next season.”

Instead of worshipping at the altar of the State for so many years and telling his followers “the most patriotic thing” a person can do is “Pay your taxes. Lots of taxes,” Cuban should’ve read TDV (subscribe HERE), where we’ve helped thousands of people capitalize massively on gold and crypto.

But who needs to be a wise or savvy investor when you can just use the guns of your government god to impose your will on others?

Sorry Mark (not sorry), but the religion of the State is collapsing while assets like precious metals and cryptocurrencies are helping usher in this new era faster than your goons can regulate.

How ‘bout them Mavs though?

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About the Author

Anarcho-Capitalist.  Libertarian.  Freedom fighter against mankind’s two biggest enemies, the State and the Central Banks.  Jeff Berwick is the founder of The Dollar Vigilante and host of the popular video podcast, Anarchast.  Jeff is a prominent speaker at many of the world’s freedom, investment and cryptocurrency conferences including his own, Anarchapulco, as well as regularly in the media including CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business.  Jeff also posts exclusive content daily to the new blockchain based social media network, Steemit.

from The Dollar Vigilante https://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2018/04/11/luckbox-mark-cuban-hates-bitcoin-and-gold-the-two-best-performing-assets.html via The Dollar Vigilante

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